“And just how is raiding cargo ships gonna give that to you?” Mace asked.
Jasper smiled, “Through trade. The United Front and the Hoorka are still out there. With trade we can scrounge for the machine parts we need. I’ve got twelve million citizens who are willing to work their butts off should I have tasks for them to do. At the moment, that’s building farms because we don’t have the means to do much of anything else. Give me the right machines and we might even be able to build a new ship.”
Mace chuckled. “You’re already up to new ship construction when you can’t even build a refrigerator at the moment. I do like your ambition, though.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve got twelve million citizens who are extremely motivated. They would attack the Karthians if given the chance. Of course, at the moment we don’t have battlesuits or weapons for them.”
Mace said, “You know, I just had a thought. I wonder if I could get Favia to make you battlesuits. We would need something to trade like you said, but I bet she could turn out as many of these suits as you wanted. They wouldn’t have the paint coating on them, or the holo-projector, but we could apply that ourselves. Heck, from space they wouldn’t even be able to detect that you were all down on the surface. And as far as ships go, I like your pirate fleet idea. You would have to do everything in your power to protect this technology. If the Karthians got it we would definitely be history.”
Jasper replied, “I thought Favia had trouble with anything military?”
Mace shook his head. “She made the microwave stations. What her people won’t allow is building ships that could be used to attack them at a future date. I think we can get hand weapons, suits, possibly even small transport ships if needed. We just need to have something to trade.”
“Time to start up the pirate fleet then.”
Mace stood and began to pace. “If we’re gonna do this, we need to do it anonymously. If the Karthians believe this is being done by you, they will attack Hardy. My shuttle has a grappler. I say we make use of it. We scout out a suitable target, grab it, board it, and take it away. We can stuff the occupants in a shuttle or lifeboat and send them on their way.”
Jasper huffed, “Why even let them live? They’re supporting the regime that just wiped out several dozen planets. I say we space ‘em and move on. Don’t waste a good shuttle or lifeboat on any of those scum.”
Mace slowly shook his head. “We’re better than that. These are just pilots… glorified deliverymen. They aren’t the ones calling the shots.”
Jasper scowled. “You people and your civilized rules. Remember, it was aliens who killed billions of Humans already. Now they force us to fight for them. I can’t say I have a lot of empathy for any of them.”
Mace laughed. “What are you talking about? You have twelve million aliens who call you king. You have empathy for them, right?”
“Of course I do. They’re my people. They were just misguided when I first met them. Now they’re on the right path.”
Mace said, “The average Karthian citizen may be misguided too. You don’t want to give them a chance to come clean?”
Jasper stared for several seconds. “You always do this, take something that is clean and easy and add a layer of morality to it.”
He shook his head in disgust. “I suppose you’re right. We save our merciless furor for their leadership.”
Mace asked, “Have you done any scouting?”
Jasper nodded. “We’ve made about a dozen jumps into their space to observe. We did find one route that was frequently traveled, but not so much so that you couldn’t do a hit and run.”
Mace said, “I’ve got three days before I’m due back to pick people up. You have any interest in conducting a practice pirate run?”
Jasper stood with a grin. “You talking about right now?”
Mace nodded. “Pick a half dozen men and bring enough supplies to last us at least a few weeks. We can leave as soon as you’re ready.”
Jasper slapped his hands together. “Captain Duash, round up five of your best fighters and bring them here. Pick someone to bring food supplies for eight people to Mr. Hardy’s shuttle. And be snappy. Time’s a-wasting.”
The shuttle lifted out through the gravity wall. After a short climb to orbit, a portal was opened to Karthian space. A two hour transit along the previously scouted route detected a kilometer-long food transport coming into sensor range. With her signature hidden, the shuttle moved in close, clamping to the side of the transport. A hole was cut in the hull and Mace, Jasper, and four Targarians moved onto the ship, while the two remaining Targarians stayed on the shuttle.
Mace moved down a long hall. “They had to have seen the loss in pressure in that room. If a maintenance worker comes this way, wait for him to pass us and then take him from behind. I don’t expect to get much of a fight from any crew on here.”
Seconds later, two Karthian workers turned into the hallway carrying large tool bags. “This is the second breach this cycle. This bucket is due for the scrapyard. One of these days she’s just going to break in half.”
The other maintenance worker replied, “How long have you been on her?”
The first scowled. “Too long. Seven cycles. I have another three on my contract. I just hope she holds together that long.”
Two balled fists struck down the Karthian crewmen. The unconscious bodies were dragged into a nearby room and stripped of their comm gear. The metal door to the room was tacked to its frame with a plasma welder.
Five minutes later the crew quarters were raided and the sleeping crewmen subdued and locked away. A short walk had the newly proclaimed pirates standing on the bridge with the captain and two other crewmen laid out on the floor.
Mace said into his comm, “Bring the shuttle around front. Open a wormhole to Alpha Centauri and have the captain of the Organ Cave open a wormhole from here to there using the coordinates I’m sending. We’ll be bringing the transport through.”
Mace turned. “They have lifepods?”
Jasper nodded. “Two. Gonna be tight with ten crewmen, but they should be fine. There’s usually a boat coming through here a couple times a day.”
Mace said, “Make sure they have an emergency transponder on them that works. We may be thieves now, but we aren’t murderers.”
Jasper shook his head. “You and your morals. You do realize we are at war, right?”
“I do. And we would want the same treatment for our civilians. Check the pods. Put them on and let’s get home.”
Jasper said, “You know, they haven’t even seen us. They have no idea of what’s happening here. They will at some point, but right now… they don’t know jack. What would you say if I revealed myself as my multi-skulled monster-looking holo-image? Might leave the Karthians thinking some new pirate species is running around out here.”
Mace nodded. “I think that’s an excellent idea. If they end up with two or three sightings of that thing, they will flood this route with resources. We might even overtake a small warship or two. Anything that will add a distraction or divert resources away from their current plans.”
Jasper grinned. “Well, let’s get this ship back and roll back out here for another.”
The holo-projector surrounding Jasper Collins switched to that of the monster he had dreamed up when the projector had first been used. The Karthian captain and his crew looked on with terrified expressions. Jasper yelled out commands in a phony language before gesturing for them to get up and get moving. His Targarian soldiers brought the other crewmen to the lifepod deck, posing as skulled monsters, and forced them into the crowded pods.
The emergency beacons were flipped on, checked, and the lifepods launched out into the void. A wormhole opened in front and the shuttle and the newly-captured transport slipped through to Alpha Centauri. The crew of the Organ Cave was given orders to transfer the cargo to Hardy, strip the ship of all useful materials, and then dispose of the rest. The first pirate raid into Karthian space was quickly de
emed a success.
Chapter 8
*
Two additional raids were made to the Karthian trade route. A cargo transport loaded with plumbing parts, and an ore hauler carrying components for fertilizer, were soon dumping their loads on Hardy before the ships were stripped of all useful materials and otherwise dismantled. The makeup of the gatrellium-copper paint was given to the Targarian king and work was begun on turning his small number of warships into a stealth pirate fleet. The first raids were expected at the same time the Humans were to be moved to Molingrad.
After a hop back to Earth, Mace returned to the cave with his cadre of spies.
Johnny said, “The D.C. unit has been training non-stop on invading buildings. The Human commanders have shown themselves to be superior when it comes to making battlefield decisions and giving orders. The Karthians in charge have been relegated to staying in back and reporting progress to their superiors.
Mace asked, “Anyone still have Karthian commanders in charge of assaults?”
Jane said, “New York does. And they’re awful. Gonna get a lot of people needlessly killed. Our colonel thinks there may have to be some early friendly-fire incidents to resolve the issue.”
Jordan Crawford added, “I was just at Albany. They haven’t released command yet either, but their Karthian commanders are actually competent. They listen to the Humans they are fighting alongside.”
Mace looked around at the volunteers. “Who here got names of the cities their brigade would attack?”
Jane raised her hand first. “I have three. Each battalion is being assigned a target city. The ones mentioned were Tallifus, Mount Lada, and Bourne.”
Johnny said, “The D.C. brigade is sticking together and taking on the capital, a city named Sranece. I managed to get a detailed map of their systems. Was gonna try to get it to the brigade commander for further study. The Karthians are being tight with that type of information. I’m guessing the leak of one city name could give away the target, giving the Consortium a chance to ready a defense.”
Two additional spy trips were made, this time to different community centers. After a roundup, the volunteers were again returned to the cave.
“Mr. Hobbs, how are the Brits looking?” Mace asked.
“They’re as ready as can be expected, Mr. Hardy. Three of the four brigades I’ve visited have taken full control of their troops during the practice assaults. The one thing we’ve failed to obtain is a visual image of the average Consortium citizen.”
Mace looked around at the others. “Has anyone seen what we’ll be up against?”
No one responded.
Mace sighed. “We still have a few days. Johnny, interested in a trip out to Molingrad?”
Johnny replied, “Jane and I were thinking about that earlier. If we can get a good idea of the defenses we’ll be up against during the initial assault, maybe Jasper’s ships could come in and give a hand with clearing a path to the surface for our troops. The Karthian admiral overseeing D.C. made the statement that they think they’ll lose upwards of 25 percent of the assault transports before ever reaching the ground. I’d like to give our people at least a reasonable fighting chance.”
Mace nodded. “Good suggestion. Let’s get all the city information we have together, followed by any assault plans the Karthians have. We’ll take that to Jasper and try to figure out how to best protect our people on the way in. Once they’re on the ground we won’t be able to do much for them.”
The information was gathered. A short trip was made to the Alpha Centauri site where Jasper was given a new mission. With the data transferred, the shuttle was turned toward Molingrad.
Johnny said, “You know, we���ve never given this bird a name. I think she deserves one.”
“What’d you have in mind?”
Johnny shrugged. “Well, we could go the route of honoring sacrifice with maybe a Heeb or something. Or a tribute to the doc for his hard work at making it what it is… the Moskowitz.”
“How about something to honor us all? Maybe the Sapien.”
Johnny laughed. “Lame. Hey, how about the Royal Fortune? That’s what Black Bart liked to call most of his ships���since we’re in the pirate business now.”
Mace nodded. “I actually like that one. Enter it into her registry as the name. We’ll see what royal fortunes we can claim from the Karthians.”
Johnny grinned as he pretended to hold up a hook hand. “Arrrgg! Ye Royal Fortune has resurfaced and she’s already begun her plundering!”
Mace shook his head. “You really need to work on your pirate voice. That wouldn’t have scared a second-grader.”
Johnny sighed. “Never been a good impersonator. Jane’s told me that a thousand times. You know what I should do though? I should make a new image for my suit projector. It can be my space-pirate persona. Jasper has his monster, I’ll have a non-Human pirate.”
A micro-wormhole opened and the Royal Fortune moved through to the Molingrad system. Having opened a portal at a sufficient distance to be out of sensor range, the flight in took three hours. The newly named pirate vessel gently slowed to a stop within a million kilometers of her target. There stretched out before them, lay sixteen battlestations, surrounded by a hundred warships each.
Johnny said, “Performing a passive scan. We’ll have our data in just a sec. After that we can get out of here.”
Mace replied, “No. I think we should sit here for a bit��� take it all in. Look for vulnerabilities we can explore further.”
Johnny winced. “We’re in pretty close here. This shielding isn’t 100 percent. The right sensor tech might just pick us out of the noise. Besides, we can analyze all this from the safety of elsewhere. We don’t have to actually be looking at it.”
Mace held up a hand. “Just hang on. I’m thinking… what was it Stark used to destroy that first Karthian station?”
“Nukes. I think he had five small ones. Wasn’t much left. One probably would have done the trick.”
Mace nodded. “What if we placed a nuke on each of those stations? We could do that without ever being seen.”
“I’m listening… go on.”
“We slap a projector and gatrellium paint on a bomb, coupled with a small fusion reactor to power it. They would never know they were there. We could set them off all at once when the invasion started. Might even take out a sizable number of those ships parked around them.”
Johnny shook his head. “I’d say that was fighting dirty. I like it. Where do we get the nukes?”
“I think Jasper still has a few of the nuclear ships. Otherwise we’ll have to get in touch with Stark. I’m certain he has Earth’s former stockpiles rounded up.”
The observations went on for several hours with nothing new learned or decided. The Royal Fortune turned and slowly made her way back to quiet space. A jump was made to Alpha Centauri and the data dropped off before another making another jump back to Earth.
Mace walked into Jeff’s lab with Johnny in tow. “Doc, how things looking?”
“No change.”
Mace frowned. “I know I don’t have to say this, but just keep at it. We still need that weapon. And while I’m here I guess I’ll fill you in on the latest. We’re exploring an attack on the Molingrad system. The Consortium has sixteen battlestations in orbit around that planet. We’re thinking of using our tech to build a nuke that has a holo-projector and gatrellium paint. We’d sneak one on each of those battlestations and then detonate them as the fighting began.”
Jeff nodded. “I would think you would have a high probability of success with something like that. Assuming you can get onto each station unseen.”
“We have one major wrinkle at the moment,” Mace replied. “We don’t have any nukes. I’m hoping to make contact with Stark as I’m sure he’s got some of our old stockpile stuffed away somewhere.”
Jeff said, “Why not just use the reactors?”
“What do you mean?”
Jeff pulled a
n image of a standard reactor up above his arm pad. “Add a holo-projector as you mentioned, and set a small explosive to take out the containment system. You could even ignite the small hydrogen store that it comes with. Wouldn’t be quite as powerful as a nuclear explosion, but I bet a well placed device would take out a station. Even one as large as those Consortium units.”
Johnny slapped Mace on the shoulder. “I do like the doc, and I especially like this idea. We already have the parts. We just need to pull them together.”
A single standard reactor was pulled from the wreckage of the Rogers. The exterior casing was scarred from the fires that had ravaged the downed ship, but the internals remained functional.
Mace shook his head. “It’s too big. We wouldn’t be able to move it up or down hallways when we got it aboard one of those battlestations. This is where a small nuke would work wonders.”
Jeff looked over the device. “I think you’re right. Gnaga and I could work to cut half the size from this reactor, but it would remain unwieldy. You need a mini-reactor such as the one powering the wormhole generator on your shuttle.”
Johnny said, “The Royal Fortune.”
Jeff looked up. “What?”
“The Royal Fortune. We gave it a name. Since we’re pirates now, we named it after Black Bart Roberts’ pirate ships. Seemed fitting.”
Jeff nodded. “Very well, like the reactor on the Royal Fortune.”
Mace asked, “Do we have any of those or can we build some?”
Jeff frowned. “I would venture to say it would take us the better part of a year to build a new reactor from the ground up.”
Johnny said, “We are pirates. We could go steal some.”
Jane was standing nearby. “A lot of the smaller outbuildings surrounding those community centers have their own mini-reactors. We could get the sixteen we need from those.”
HADRON Havoc Page 7
