Sif watched the problems building at his end and called Altor.
“Two, this is One. Our crawler is stuck in the gate. It cannot move forward, and the breach is not big enough for us to get through. Both guard towers are operative. We need assistance.”
Altor looked over his position and saw that his troops had flowed into the compound behind their crawler and were already near the trench in front of them.
“Roger, One. As soon as we reach the trench, I will send Crawler 2 to help you.”
“Two, this is One. Make it quick!”
While waiting for Crawler 2, Sif deployed his two heavy weapons teams to his left and right to take out the two guard towers. That would save some time and also provide Crawler 2 protection as it traveled to his location. Each heavy weapons team was armed with high power rifles with explosive-tipped rounds and two short-range missiles. In just a few minutes, one missile launched and exploded dead center on the northern tower. The missile from the second team fired at the southern tower and missed. Their positions revealed, both teams began receiving laser and rifle fire from the southern tower and from the trenches. They could not fire a second missile through the fusillade of counter fire, even in their armor.
“Two, this is One, where is your crawler?”
“On the way. We just took control of the trench in front of us and are working at clearing the side trenches.”
Sif nodded. That was the best he could expect. He was tapping one hand on the side of his armor in frustration as Crawler 2 appeared on the northern side. The wrong side as far as hitting the enemy right away was concerned, especially the southern tower. As it cleared the building, it pivoted left on its treads and opened fire with its laser at the troops in the forward trenches. It was positioning itself to fire on the southern tower. When the shot was clear, it fired on the tower and ended the life contained within it. That done, it pivoted again to the left and backed toward the inner gate and the other stalled crawler. It continued to fire its laser at the entrenched troops.
Unknown to either Sif or Altor, some enterprising designer had integrated a turned down lip in the rear of the ram. It was effectively a wide hook. As Crawler 2 slowly moved backward, the ram struck the inner gate, and the hooked portion of the ram caught itself in the gate mesh. The soldier controller could see what was happening through cameras on the crawler and started the vehicle forward. As it moved, it tore away the inner gate and the outer gate that had been tangled with Crawler 1. Cheers arose from the tree line as the opening for the west group was laid open for attack. Crawler 2 continued forward to attack the west door but came to a grinding halt as the right tread exploded from an enemy missile or rocket. It was down for movement, but the laser still tracked left and right firing into the entrenched opposition troops.
Crawler 1 still had its ram pointed at the big cargo doors after extracting itself from the gates. It accelerated toward the large doors in front of it, passing Crawler 2. Thanks to its great weight, it went barreling through the doors and into the interior of the building, door fragments and splinters flying, then stopped, its mission done. At least for now.
Sif spun off a few of his soldiers to jump into the trenches left and right to meet Altor’s forces in the middle. Sif signaled the rest of his forces to enter the warehouse and kill anyone they met. He wanted to either capture Larona for the Resistance, or he would be fine killing her. It was in his Arkon Red breeding.
Having sent a portion of his force to clear out the trenches, Altor and his main force entered the warehouse from the east. It was a small door, but it worked fine for his purposes.
“One, this is Two. We have entered the building from the east and are meeting light resistance.”
“Roger, Two, we are doing the same from our direction. Any sign of Larona?”
“Not yet, but we are clearing every room and office in the building.” Altor was not like Sif. He wanted to be a good warrior, but he did not have the lust for blood that the Arkon did. He wanted to capture Larona and give her to the Resistance leadership. He hoped he found her before Sif did.
He found her huddled in the corner of an office, sobbing. He knelt in front of her and said. “I will not kill you. But you must come with me or others will.”
The frightened woman nodded and slowly stood; Altor held her steady as she rose. He took her to the east entrance and appointed guards to hold her there. He did not want to let Sif see her right now.
“One, this is Two. We have Larona, and the fight is over. I will have her escorted to LZ 2, and the next shuttle will take her to the Resistance leaders. She is their problem now.”
Sif knew why Altor was keeping the woman away from him, but it didn’t bother him. He could now focus on helping Altor prepare for the fight he would lead on Krona. The young soldier did well.
As planned and on day two of the countdown, Sif and Altor were overseeing the loading of their assault force on the two, armed cargo ships in orbit. They started well before sunrise and were midway through the transfer evolution as the sun came over the horizon. In addition to the troops and equipment they used to storm Larona’s compound, the six low altitude shuttles returned with the remainder of the force, which now numbered three hundred. Twice what they used to attack Larona. There were also more crawlers. Added to their mix were a number of mobile, crewed laser cannons with their power supplies. In short, they gathered as many potent weapons as they could find or make for this final assault.
Everyone had first-class armored suits, many with stealth capability, but not all. Unlike the attack on Larona, there would be some armed shuttles, four to be exact, two from each cargo ship. Both the armed cargo ships and the gunboats had to remain in orbit, although the gunboats, it was just learned, could make quick runs into the atmosphere, just not as low as an armed shuttle.
When the sun was straight up, everything and everybody was aboard the ships as they began their acceleration to Krona. It was estimated that the assault force would be in position near Krona late in the day (day one) before the battle at Asteroid 3 was even started. The assault force would hold in space near Krona in stealth until the signal to attack came from either Tiana or Captain Nick. If no signal came, it would be up to the assault force commander (Altor) to either attack or retreat and fight another day.
Chapter 27
As the local clock aboard Argos ticked one second past midnight, day zero, Founders Day officially started. All the preparations we made were complete. The plasma and laser cannons were installed on Asteroid 3 and were demonstrated to work with the remote-control system placed into Dreng with a backup on Argos. I agreed that Tiana would make the call since she was in overall command. Tiana had her forces stacked up about a thousand miles behind Asteroid 3 in stealth mode and ready to attack. Those of us in Argos held a position just outside Tiana’s force in a position to observe… and also wait.
Tiana reasoned that when Gurko showed up, he would also hide behind Asteroid 3. A perfect place to wait for the Resistance force to show. It was believed that Gurko’s plan would be to jump out from behind the asteroid and fall on the unsuspecting Resistance forces as they arrived. If that was his plan, he would find himself between the armed asteroid and her waiting forces a thousand miles back. I had no objection.
The intelligence planted on Tye said the Resistance would be conducting training about midday today. None of us knew, therefore, exactly when Gurko and his forces would show up to set his trap. It would certainly be before midday, but exactly when could not be forecast.
Hours went by with nothing happening. By the time six hours had passed, I started to worry. I was beginning to think our expectations of Gurko’s plan was a mistake. In my view, he should have been here by now. I contacted Tiana over secure laser communications.
“Tiana, something is wrong. He should be here by now.”
“I agree. Then again, he might be here and just not in the pla
ce we expected.”
“True. If so, we have to figure out where he is. I’d like to take the Argos out and look for signs.”
“Agreed. Argos is the best ship to do it. Be careful.”
“Indeed, we will. Argos out.”
I didn’t want to make a search plan without taking advantage of the universe’s biggest brain. Thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you?
“Wizzy,” I called, and his avatar appeared floating in the bridge for the three of us to see.
“Your plan’s not working, is it? Need some help from the amazing Wizzy, I take it.”
I didn’t want to get into a kindergarten argument, so I simply put on the charm.
“You are correct, oh wizard of all things. Our primitive brains have reached an impasse, and we come to you for help.”
“Ah, well said. How can I help?”
“Tiana and I have the feeling that Gurko is here, just not where we expected. I would like to circle the area a thousand miles out using Asteroid 3 as the center. Can your sensors help in locating a force in stealth within that circle?”
“Oh, you really do need my help. The direct answer to your question is, hell no!”
“So, we can’t do anything to find Gurko?”
“I didn’t say that. I just told you your infantile plan won’t work. Passive sensors won’t work on any level of stealth. Active sensors would likely work but give away our position. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“No, of course not.”
“So how can we use active sensors and not give away Argos’ position?
There he goes testing me again, the little shithead. But I gave it some thought. Then…
“We could use stealth drones?”
“Hooray, there is hope for you still. The only problem is we only have five capable of being launched at present. I’m making more, but they won’t be ready for a while. I suggest we launch four at 45-degree increments from each other. That will give is one hundred eighty-degree coverage in front of us. They can zigzag, and periodically give out an active pulse that should reflect from any ships out there even in stealth, especially if I program the pulses to be the same as traditional Arkon stealth frequencies. If we get nothing from that, then we can shift to random frequencies.”
“You said we have five drones. But you only plan to send out four. What’s the fifth one for?”
“To look behind us, dum-dum,”
“Oh, yeah, of course. I knew that.”
Before I could say “FIRE,” the drones left Argos on their paths of discovery. Wizzy also told me that if they didn’t find anything within two thousand miles, they would reverse course and search some more in entirely random patterns. So, we waited. I don’t mean we sat in one place and waited, we set up our own random search pattern using passive sensors just in case some unsuspecting ship made some transmissions that they didn’t plan on. That happens on old ships that aren’t maintained well. Electronic leaks happen more than is believed in older ships. Maybe we would get lucky.
We didn’t get lucky. But my intuition or something told me the ships were out there. I just hoped Wizzy’s plan worked. Notice I didn’t say “worked better than my plan”. However, my disappointment ramped up when Wizzy told us that nothing was detected out to two thousand miles and back. The drones entered their random searches. And we waited some more. I was about to fall asleep in my command chair when Wizzy shocked me into awareness.
“We have a hit, Nicky. A palpable hit!”
“Where?” I asked as my foggy brain cleared.
“Off to the left of the original search pattern and up. Not at our same level, in other words.”
“All stop,” I called out to Amini. “Come left… how many degrees, Wizzy?
“Ninety.”
“Coming left ninety degrees,” Amini called out.
“What’s the up angle, Wizzy?”
“Forty degrees.”
“Using thrusters to come nose up forty degrees, Nick.” Amini was amazing. This crew was amazing.
“Hold it there. You’re pointed right at them.”
“Range?” I asked.
“Fifteen hundred miles.”
“Amini, can you create a space coordinate for that and send it to Tiana?”
“I can create the coordinate easy, Nick. But I can’t send it until we maneuver enough to get the asteroid out of the direct laser path.”
“Wizzy, recall the drones that are out of the target area. Leave the two closest to the target deployed, but stop them from transmitting for a while. We don’t want to make it plain we have discovered them. When the first drone gets close enough to us to send it a laser message with the enemy coordinates, do so. Then send it to Tiana in Dreng.”
“Drones coming home, Nicky. Like homing pigeons, aren’t they? Transmitters off. Will handle the communications to Dreng. Good thinking, by the way.”
I didn’t answer. It was unlikely that Gurko and his forces had anything like our drones, but I didn’t want to scare them into moving and then have to do the whole search thing again. Then something else hit me. This didn’t seem much like Gurko. He was a general and was probably most comfortable with something simple. No, this was clever. And so far, we had only met one clever opponent, the frigate commander. In fact, he did the same thing in our last fight. He sat off at a distance and at a relatively higher level and did nothing while he watched. Then he demonstrated the ability of the frigate to open a small hole in his stealth system that would allow his weapon to fire. My heart sank. We were facing a more capable opponent than we planned for or even imagined. I had to let Tiana know.
“Wizzy, add to that message to Tiana that I don’t believe Gurko is in command. Tell her I believe it is the clever frigate commander.”
“Oh, more good thinking. And I believe you are right. Sending now. Drone away to Dreng.”
We on Argos knew where the enemy was, and by now, Tiana knew as well. What next? If my father was here, he would know what to do. But he wasn’t, and I had to come up with something. Something to make the frigate commander reveal himself or his force so Tiana could attack. What would make a stealth force drop its stealth system and reveal itself? The only answer I could think of was they had to drop stealth to shoot. That meant they had to have a credible target OR be excited enough to shoot at something… that was shooting at them. That’s it!
“Amini, take us up and to the right of the target area. Within weapons range, or what we think is weapons range.”
“What are you going to do?” Amini asked as she began to maneuver the ship.
“Start a fight.”
It was time to launch the Falcon. Amini and Doc could fly and fight the Argos. I explained to them what I wanted to do, and they agreed, sort of. We had to make the opposing force visible, and the only way to do that was to make them drop their stealth cover and shoot back. What better way to do that than attack them? At least, that’s what I thought.
“What are you idiots doing?” That was Wizzy, of course, being his kind and empathetic self.
“What does it look like?” I answered, pissed at the interruption.
“Well, it looks like a big mistake.”
“You have a better idea to get these clowns to drop their stealth?”
“Here I am, the most amazing intellect in the galaxy, and you don’t even ask. Of course I do, you banana-eating anthropoid.”
“Then let’s hear it!”
“Um, on second thought, maybe I spoke too soon. If only cargo ships had AIs!”
That hit me, or should I say hit my tiny brain?
“Wizzy, do you think any of these cargo ships might have come directly from and were used by the Arkon?”
“That is possible. Why?”
“If they did, and if they were under Arkon control, might they have an AI?�
�
“Interesting. It is possible. However, it’s unlikely.”
“Could you scan them to see?”
“I think so. I just have to know where to direct my energy. And since we know that…”
“Then do it! Enough talking.”
“Keep your shirt on. Oh, I got that one right, didn’t I?”
“Wizzy! The AIs.”
“Alright, no need to get testy. We need to get closer. Say, five hundred miles before the ship’s power will work for me.”
Amini accelerated until we passed the five-hundred-mile point and slowed.
“Thank you, Amini. Now let me see. No, not that one. Not that one either. Wait. I’m getting a faint signal from one of the cargo ships. Oh, there is one, pathetic as it is. Almost not worth calling an AI. How did you know?”
“I didn’t. It was a guess. But if they were Arkon property during the war, the odds are that a few of them had AIs to be used in military convoys or operations.”
“I’m impressed. Not bad for a meat sack, although this one shouldn’t be allowed to be connected to the system. What do you want to do with it?”
My thoughts were outpacing my planning. What could we do with one cargo ship AI that might affect the rest?
“What if this AI were to send a message to its own and other ship captains that they were about to be attacked and that they should drop stealth to return fire on the enemy?”
“Ha! Do you think those captains are that stupid?”
“They might buy it coming from a relatively advanced system. On Earth, people frequently tend to believe anything if it came from a computer.”
“I’m glad you said a ‘relatively’ advanced system. OK, I’ll give it a try. However, remember, I can’t get to the warship AIs. They are shielded.”
Crucible: Records of the Argos Page 26
