by Damon Alan
How tedious. “Report,” Bannick said.
“We’re under attack, sir. FTL missiles dropped out of highspace three minutes ago and struck every orbital battery we have.”
That got Bannick’s attention. Theoretically, that wasn’t possible. “Every one? How can someone be attacking us? How did you not see them coming?”
“No inclusion spheres have been detected. No gravity waves out of the ordinary or that can’t be explained by known traffic.”
“Then they must have snuck in under protection of that known traffic,” Bannick bellowed.
In the bedroom Palia stirred, then sat upright. She lifted the sheet to shield her breasts from the unexpected visitor. “Lord Komi?” she said, hesitantly. “Bannick?”
“Find the attackers,” Bannick ordered the officers. “Get the tactical reports onto the screens here in my office. Is this why the city lights are out?”
“Yes sir,” the officer said. “EMP from near space is very destructive to ground electrical networks.”
“My father is going to have heads for this. You can bet it won’t be mine, Commodore.”
“And it shouldn’t, sir,” the man replied. “We failed you.”
That was the absolute truth. “So you have. A matter for later. Your fate will rest on how well you either deliver our counterstrike to the enemy, or you find their home base so we can end this threat.”
“As you say, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
The man saluted and turned abruptly. He marched out into the hall, where a guardsman stood in silence, his expression hidden by his helmet.
“Close,” Bannick said.
Palia rushed to him as the door swept shut. She looked out over the darkened city, a gasp of shock escaping her lips.
“I know,” Bannick said. “I’m assuming our enemy doesn’t know our location since we’re still here.” He wondered if he should order the outside lights of the building dimmed to lessen how much he stood out.
No. The people below needed to see the center of Komi power untouched.
“Who would do this?” Palia asked.
Bannick snorted. “I’ll give you one guess, and I bet you get it right.”
“The people that attacked the enforcement squadron several weeks ago?”
“You win,” Bannick replied. “It’s not just your body I love.”
“What are you going to do?”
“What can I do?” he barked back in misdirected anger. “I’m naked, standing with my family unsanctioned mistress, while my father is given everything he needs to take me out of the line of succession.”
Her eyes stared at the floor.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You don’t deserve that.”
“You’re stressed,” she replied. “If I can help you push it aside, your thoughts will be cleared. I live to serve.”
“You live to be my mate, and I yours,” Bannick said, his tone still dark. “If I wanted a sex slave, I could have a thousand.” He gently touched her arm. “I want an equal, something denied to my family.”
The screens in the room popped to life. A dozen different situation reports stared him down.
Their conversation disrupted, Bannick moved to the display of the globe. The view was top down from the south pole, and the orbits of the defense stations were laid out. The next display showed the same thing from the north polar view.
The lines depicting coverage points and locations no longer moved. The history lines were slowly disappearing behind circled red x symbols, the orbital data slowly disappearing as no new data arrived.
“They took out every single orbital defense station at the same time,” Bannick said. “That’s not only good coordination, that’s good knowledge. We change the orbits with regularity.”
“A spy?” Palia asked.
“Perhaps. Or a new thought occurs to me. Maybe a good fleet captain snuck in here with either a strange new drive technology or a sophisticated cloaking device and attacked us. Sarah Dayson.” Whatever Dayson meant saying she was an Oasian, she still clearly cares about Mindari. So here she was, making his life complicated.
The chime on his desk sounded.
“Bannick Komi,” he said, opening the line.
“Ops Intelligence, Lord Komi. Sir, we have very sketchy data at this time. We’re getting reports of numerous targets across the solar system being hit.”
“How do you know this?” he asked. “Entanglers?”
“The attacks were timed so that distress calls would arrive at our defense command networks within minutes of each other, sir. Nothing remains of the targets, but they all had time to bark a warning. Small fighters, blinking in and out of sensor detection conducted most of the attacks, but some FTL missiles were used.”
“Sarah Dayson.”
“Sir?”
“Find her. Either destroy her or capture her, but that is the only thing that will stop these attacks. Has she made any demands?”
“Who, Lord Komi?”
He screamed at the caller. “Sarah Dayson, you idiot.”
The stammering on the line made it clear the man talking to him hadn’t read the intel briefings on the attack last month. Probably not lack of clearance. Lack of attention to duty, more likely.
“You’re relieved. Put your superior on,” Bannick ordered.
“This is Admiral Jessikt,” a new voice said. “I apologize, Lord Komi.”
“Apology accepted. Make sure the man you relieved is cleaning toilets for the rest of his career. Or executed. You decide which.”
“As you wish, sir.”
“Now, do you know who Sarah Dayson is, Admiral?”
“The Alliance captain responsible for the attack last month, sir. I agree with your assessment. It has to be her. Maybe she never left the system?”
“And we didn’t see her fusion engines?” Bannick rolled his eyes at Palia. “Really Admiral? No, she has a way of coming and going without an inclusion sphere. It’s the only explanation.”
“As you say, sir,” the man replied.
From the emotional emptiness of the man’s voice, he clearly thought Bannick insane. But his genetics were carefully selected as a Komi, ensuring his IQ to be equal to all but one in a hundred thousand. He knew how to put data together into an answer with far fewer data points than most.
“It’s her. Bring in the Palidragon. It’s time for that behemoth to earn it’s keep. Put it in high orbit and kill anything that tries to assert a will on Mindari that isn’t Komi.”
“It will take at least an hour, Lord Komi.”
“Then you should get started now, so as to ensure the dreadnought isn’t late to the party,” Bannick responded.
“As you command,” the admiral answered.
“Disconnect,” Bannick ordered his AI. The line went dead.
He closed his eyes and leaned his naked self back against the desk. Palia’s hands gripped his shoulders. “How can I help you?” she whispered to him.
“Just observe these next hours. If you see anything I might have missed, speak up,” Bannick said.
Palia would certainly be helpful. Even without his level of genetic engineering, she was brilliant. Valuable in so many ways.
Chapter 23 - Consequences
29 Jand 15332
“How many have we lost?” Sarah asked Emille over her comm.
“One tank, two dozen of your soldiers on the ground,” Emille answered. “I’m watching through the eyes of Sindir as he observes it all from Lieutenant Hamden’s shuttle.”
She sucked in her breath. She’d not expected to lose that many, and certainly not a tank. She hated that she hoped it wasn’t Hamden. “How many in space?”
“I can’t reach Koro’al, on Major Dobornik’s shuttle. They might be gone. “I have transferred eleven other ships back to Oasis.”
“Not twelve?”
“I only have contact with eleven. I don’t know where the twelfth is,” Emille answered. Her voice sounded humbled, as if she was j
ust now realizing the risks and price of war on this scale.
“Eleven is a victory, if we can get the people on the ground. What do you see?”
“The remaining tank has smashed the last building in the way of prisoner housing,” Emille reported. “My father’s adepts are engaging large numbers of men from the other side of the island. There appears to be a substantial number responding to the fight. Fire is coming down from the sky, and at least one of your Faroo bombs detonated nearby,” she continued. “The noise is beyond belief. Your ships in the sky are shredding the enemy on the ground.”
More than one nuke? She’d authorized Hamden to change the plan as needed, if he was ad libbing with nukes… crap. That wasn’t good. Not that she would show that now. “Fine. Tell Edolhirr’s people not to stray far from the transport. When it’s time to go, they don’t want to be left. Particularly considering the effects they’ll experience when Dr. Jannis’s drug wears off.”
“Done,” Emille said.
She’d been a fool to hope it would unfold without consequence. Still, the losses pissed her off.
Heinrich stared at her from the XO position.
“What?” Sarah demanded.
“Just wondering, sir, now that the ships we want are away, if we shouldn’t drop in on the shipyard and see if we can rescue Dobornik or the missing boarding pod,” Heinrich said. “Maybe turn the rest of the Alliance ships into a scrap pile.”
“That wasn’t the plan,” Sarah replied. “We can’t just change this up on our whims.”
“We let a lieutenant leading the ground forces change the plan at will, but we are somehow prevented from doing the same?” Heinrich said.
Sarah glared at her XO. Heinrich might have a point, but she could deliver it more diplomatically.
The XO raised a hand signaling she had no desire to incur Sarah’s angry response. “Okay, okay. It’s not my call. I hope we don’t wind up fighting any of those ships in the drydock sometime in the future, though.”
“Give me a minute to think about it,” Sarah replied, irritated. The potential of extra nukes being used had shaken her. If Hamden’s raid was using them, things weren’t going as planned, and probably deviating in a negative way.
Heinrich said nothing else. She planted the bug, and was smart enough to know that.
“Galaxies. You’re a smug jackass,” Sarah said, to which Heinrich smiled. “Emille, prepare to move the ship. We’re going after Dobornik. Mister Algiss, maximum acceleration, match our speed to the shipyard.”
Heinrich grinned as she keyed her comms. “Get to your gravcouches now. Set condition one, battlestations. Combat is imminent. Set condition one throughout the ship.”
“Mister Seto, order the Yascurra back to Oasis. Have them coordinate directly with Emille.”
A moment later the light carrier disappeared from the tactical screen.
Emille’s voice popped into the bridge comm. “Ready when you need me,” she said.
Sarah stared at Algiss, who shrugged. The Stennis was accelerating at barely over three Gs. “It’s all he’s got, Admiral. Once we have the engines up to specs again, I can double this.”
“How long?” she asked, making every effort to keep her tone level.
“Eight and a half minutes, sir.”
“Very well, Mister Algiss.” She looked over at Heinrich. “You do know which one of us is in charge, right?”
Heinrich smiled. “You, sir. I just have good ideas that you like.”
“Sometimes I wonder about you,” Sarah said. “One day you’re cold and efficient, the next day you’re more like Commander Gilbert used to be.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Heinrich asked.
“No, I guess not. But it’s disconcerting when you make me think of him.”
Heinrich nodded, no smile.
She understood. Inez was a great XO, but Sarah had fallen in love with Gilbert. It would always be hard not to think of him in the adjacent gravcouch.
Which, she knew, wasn’t the professional thinking of a fleet commander. But he’d been a special case at a special time.
The bridge grew quiet other than the sounds of normal ops as the seconds counted down.
“Matched,” Algiss said.
She checked the status boards. All green. All weapons systems ready to go. Damage control in place. It felt strangely natural to be moving the Stennis into harm’s way again, although this wasn’t the Hive they were fighting.
“Move us to the location you dropped Dobornik,” Sarah ordered Emille.
The Stennis shifted into harm’s way.
Chapter 24 - Exodus
29 Jand 15332
He’d recovered enough to function again. Hamden stared at the situation readout in the troop section of one-three-eight.
“Should be friendlies just on the other side of this,” Ensign Koldriss, the commander of one-three-eight said. The tank jarred as it smashed through a wall.
“I hope there weren’t people leaning against that,” the driver said, concerned.
“That’s why we poke the gun through first,” the gunner snarked back at him. “It makes even idiots run away.”
It surprised him how normal that all sounded. Like his own crew.
Hundreds of people dressed in white jumpsuits stared at the tank as it came to rest on yet another concrete surface.
“Open the front,” Hamden ordered the driver. He grabbed a combat rifle off the wall, and considered using the power suit that resided there as well. No, just the rifle.
The door opened and he clumsily staggered out onto the ground.
A man approached him.
“Lieutenant Hamden, Seventh Fleet, here to recover prisoners,” Hamden said. “We need to get your people moving to the main courtyard and onto the freighter parked there.”
The man grinned. “Captain Hanada Kuo. I’m at your disposal, Lieutenant. You look like hell.”
“We’ve taken losses, sir. But we’re here for you.”
Kuo nodded. “Is Sarah Dayson running this mess?”
“Admiral Dayson? How did you know? She’s in charge, sir. Are you the ranking commander here?” Hamden asked.
“She’s the only ranking officer from the battlegroup that wasn’t confirmed dead at Hamor or held here. And she’s insane enough to try this, so it smelled like a Dayson plan. I’m the ranking officer here, let’s get this moving,” Kuo said. He turned around to face the crowd. “If you’re my crew, from the Hyaku-hari, a dozen of you line up here,” he said sweeping his finger over an area. “Everyone else get through this rubble to the courtyard. The sooner you get on the freighter there, the more likely you’re going to be rescued today.”
People burst into motion, with a few dozen lining up by the captain.
Hamden wasn’t feeling the best, so he let Kuo do his thing without interrupting.
“Okay, you’re my people, I said a dozen, but two is what I should have expected.” Hanada put his hand between two people. “If you’re to the right of my hand, head to the freighter. To the left, we have work. I already know you have the courage of ten others, and I need you to prove it now. Get to the other cell blocks and get our people to the ship waiting for us. I will make sure there is room for the twelve of you,” Kuo ordered.
“Sir?” Hamden said, getting Kuo’s attention.
“Lieutenant? If you have different plans, let me know, you’re still in charge. But you’re hurt and I thought—”
“It’s not that sir. It’s just that there are six combat rifles in the tank, counting this one,” Hamden said “and a well armed power suit. I think your volunteers might like to have some of those in their hands.”
Kuo grinned. “I like you, young man.” He turned to his people. “Who can run a power suit?” Two raised their hands. “You. Eddins. I know you. Get in that suit and go.”
In the last courtyard the shuttle opened fire again, reminding Hamden of their precarious situation. “Hurry, sir. You and I need to get into the tank.”
<
br /> “Who can shoot, speak up,” Kuo bellowed.
Enough raised their hands to pass out the six rifles.
“The power suit has a radio, it’s tuned to our clear comm frequency. We will give you a location for pickup in a few minutes,” Hamden told the operator. “For now I need you to keep this approach to the cell blocks clear of enemy forces.”
The guy saluted. Both officers saluted him back, then climbed into the tank.
They sat in the dim red light of the troop holding area, quiet for a few minutes as the tank traveled to the next cell block to open it. The shuttle stayed nearby, raining death down from above to prevent the last tank from being lost. Hamden hated the calculus of that. They had two transport shuttles for the tanks. But now only one tank. Therefore the shuttle he arrived on was expendable in order to protect one-three-eight.
The face of the pilot echoed in his mind. She was brave.
“Thanks,” Captain Kuo said to him. “You’re wounded, how’d that happen?”
“We brought two tanks. Mine is the one burning on the other side of the rubble you were just next to,” Hamden answered. “I’m the only survivor.”
“Sorry,” Kuo replied.
“How many prisoners are here?” Hamden asked.
“Fourteen thousand, six hundred, forty-eight,” Kuo replied. “At last count.”
“Who are you exactly?”
“Captain of the Hyaku-hari. Heavy carrier, eighth fleet.”
“Got it,” Hamden said. “Glad to find a command officer here, to be honest. Your people will respond better to you than me. They don’t know me.”
“They will, son. They will,” Kuo said, gripping Hamden’s shoulder. “What’s our next step?”
“Freeing the other blocks. Then we’re out of here.”
“Let’s get that done then,” Kuo said. “I’m all yours, tell me what to do.”
Hamden smiled. “You can start by bracing yourself, sir.”
The tank slammed into the next building that had to come down.
Chapter 25 - Homeward
30 Jand 15332
Sarah stared at the main screen. She hoped the path she’d taken from Heinrich’s idea was the right one.
