Crucible: Records of the Argos

by Michael J. Farlow

  “Holy shit!” I couldn’t help myself. How had intelligence missed that?

  “I said you wouldn’t like it.”

  “We have to get this information to Tiana. She won’t like it either. Wizzy, send a stealth drone to Dreng with the information we have. Tell Tiana that we will follow this group when it moves. Tell her that as they get into range for her, we’ll have the armed cargo ships drop their stealth so she can see where the threat is. After that, we may have to fire on them to get the others to drop stealth. That will mean giving away our presence and position. Got all that?”

  “Got it, transcribing it, and launching now. Drone away.”

  Chapter 29

  As the Argos watched in silence, the enemy group moved out slowly. I had a feeling the sharp frigate commander guessed the Resistance might try an assault on the Krona facility on the heels of the fight at Asteroid 3. Assuming they knew what Founders Day was, the enemy would expect an attempt at a clean sweep. And they would be right.

  “Wizzy. Given what you know, can you project a simulated image of the enemy force and display it on the forward screen?”

  “Sure. Easy peasy.”

  Instantly, an image appeared on the screen. I was surprised at how clear and detailed the simulation was.

  “Wizzy, why couldn’t you have done this for the start of the fight at Asteroid 3?”

  “Two reasons. First, I didn’t know exactly how many armed cargo ships there were, and I had no emissions leaks from either the destroyer or the frigate to positively identify them.”

  “Uh huh. What was the second reason?”

  “You didn’t ask, dum-dum.”

  I slapped my forehead for the umpteenth time in frustration. When would I learn how to communicate with this oversized brain? I put this off as a lesson learned.

  “Can you transmit this image to the Dreng?”

  “I can, but that would give away the fact that we are here. And we don’t yet have a laser line of sight nor a ready drone to make a secure transmission.”

  He was right. Maybe we primitives were as dumb as he thought.

  As we watched the simulated movement of the enemy, I was struck that the course they had taken was headed in the general direction of the assault force. It had to be an accident because the Resistance ships were stationary, stealth on, and in radio silence. This could be a good thing. If they maintained this course and got closer to the Resistance formation, Wizzy could do his magic with the Arkon AI and cause the enemy cargo ships to drop their stealth. That could be a cue for the Resistance to open fire or at least deploy their assets as required by what they saw.

  Watching the simulated enemy formation, I had another idea.

  “Wizzy, do your sensors have a good enough fix on the frigate to shoot at it?”

  “Interesting question. Hmm, let’s see. If I tweak that and resolve this… yup, I can do that with a seventy-five percent chance of a hit. I think.”

  “Only seventy-five percent?”

  “Maybe eighty percent, but that’s tops with one shot.”

  My father once said that dealing with smart engineers was a pain. As good as they were, they often got too tied up in calculations and assumptions that tended to limit the possibilities of what they could do. Wizzy was a super smart engineer and had to be focused sometimes.

  “And if we fired say, two bursts, one after the other?”

  “Oh, that’s different. We could hit the frigate. No problem. Can’t promise where we would hit her, though.”

  That was good enough for me. If the frigate was hit, it would have to drop stealth to fire back. Such was the disadvantage of old Arkon technology.

  “Very well. On the count of three, drop the stealth of the armed cargo ships and fire two bursts at the frigate. One… two… three!”

  It worked. Not only did the two, armed cargo ships become visible, the frigate dropped her stealth in preparation to fire on her opponent. What we didn’t count on was the stupidity of the cruiser captain who also dropped his ship’s stealth in the excitement of the moment. The whole force was visible.

  Tiana did not like the message from Argos. A cruiser? Why hadn’t anyone known about this? Questions rushed through her head as she tried to decide what to do. Unfortunately, when she had finished racking her brain, she was back to the same decision she made when establishing her current formation. She would let her captains know what they were facing, but there was nothing more she could do. Meanwhile, she waited.

  It didn’t take long for her to be jolted into focus when an enemy force suddenly came into view in front and just to the right of her hidden assault ships and escorts. The distance was about two thousand miles, but it was closing. She called her ships to move out and turn right twenty degrees to put the enemy off her nose and to bring all her firepower in her front guard ships to bear. She dropped stealth and commenced firing. In addition, she commanded her two, three-ship gunboat formations (GB3 and GB4) to move forward quickly and attack the enemy flanks.

  Her first surprise was to see the enemy frigate in the lead drop out of the formation and tumble slightly as she began drifting in space. Argos must have done that, she thought. But she shifted attention to the three remaining enemy ships, especially the cruiser in the center that had begun to fire on her formation. She had seen such ships a long time ago when the Arkon attacked her home of Azel. She had forgotten how big they were compared to anything the Resistance had. But she shook off that frightening picture and returned to command of her own forces. All her ships in the V formation were now returning fire on the enemy. She could see the two gunboat formations were attacking the armed cargo ships on either side of the cruiser. Brave souls, those gunboat crews. She could also see hits being scored on the cruiser but couldn’t tell if they were from her ships, from the Argos, or both.

  As she watched, she was stunned to see four small craft emerge from the cruiser and head swiftly for her formation. To get to her ships, these small craft, whatever they were, had to pass close to the gunboats. That was a mistake. GB3 and GB4 both scored hits on the small craft, destroying two. But the other two continued to rush at her formation. Her ships fired on them, but they outmaneuvered her gunners and continued to bore in.

  The cruiser was scoring hits on her ships. First to go was the middle ship in the left part of her V. It didn’t explode but ceased all action and spun out of formation. One down. Then out of the corner of her vision, she was aware of a bright flash and an explosion where 03 had been keeping station. Had been because she was gone. That was a blow to Tiana since 03 had been her steady right hand through almost all her fights. It sent a lightening-like bolt through her heart, but she didn’t have time to mourn.

  There were some tactics at work on the part of the cruiser. With her two ships gone from the formation, the two small craft were able to pass through her V and head straight for the troopships. That was the enemy plan all along. She doubted that the light firepower of these two intruders was great enough to do much damage, but if they were loaded with explosives, they could do considerable damage to the vital two troopships. And, she believed, that was their intent.

  Almost at once, however, she was again indebted to the gunboats and to her protection forces around the troopships. Both gunboats in the forward, lower position to the troopships accelerated and pitched up from underneath the intruders. It only took a few shots from the gunboats to destroy what would have been a catastrophic end to the mission.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Tiana returned her attention to the fight in front of her. The cruiser was continuing to advance, but she noticed the two, enemy armed cargo ships were out of the fight and spinning off into space. Sadly, she saw that three of her valued and courageous gunboats were gone with no trace.

  She could also see that hits were being scored on the aft part of the cruiser, which could only mean that Argos was in action and attacking
the cruiser’s engines. To confirm her suspicions, Argos came into view close behind the cruiser and continued to fire. She called a ceasefire from her ships so as not to hit the Argos just as the cruiser fire ceased, and she lost power. She was just a drifting hulk at this point, out of the fight. She posted the three remaining gunboats to keep watch over the drifting cruiser in case she came back to life and needed more of her attention. Now she could advance the troopships and launch the assault.

  Wait a minute, she thought. Where did the frigate go? It wasn’t drifting in space anywhere she could see.

  With the opposing force knocked out, we watched from Argos as the troopships moved into position above Krona. Tiana realigned her defensive ships to encircle the high-value units for the next phase in the assault. I was pleased with what I saw but was interrupted by Amini.

  “Nick, I have Tiana on the line.”

  “Put it on speaker so we can all hear.”

  “Captain Nick, what happened to the frigate?”

  I wasn’t sure what she was talking about until I took a close look at the forward viewscreen. I couldn’t find a trace of the ship we last saw rotating out into space.

  “Wizzy, where is the frigate?”

  The AI avatar appeared floating in air, lab coat fluttering.

  “Hmm. Good question. I do have an ion stream moving away from the fight, but it is too faint now to say where it went.”

  “An ion stream? That means it was under power and not dead?”

  “That would be correct, Nicky.”

  I was embarrassed with what I had to say to Tiana. I summoned up my courage and clamped down on my ego.

  “We just checked here, and we don’t know. There is a fading ion stream that suggests the frigate was playing dead. When nobody was watching, we conclude it got underway and left. We don’t know where. We’ll keep an eye out for it while you conduct your next operation.”

  “Thank you, Captain Nick. I couldn’t ask for more, Dreng out.”

  Chapter 30

  Moons are not just round balls pockmarked by meteor hits. When they were formed, most moons we know of were active volcanically. In the millions or billions of years since they were formed, they cooled, but the impact of the volcanic activity remains visible. There are valleys and ridges, large humps or mountains, and all sorts of details we don’t usually see unless we have a good telescope. I had one of those growing up. I was fascinated with space and the stars and spent hours at night, when I could, devouring the endless possibilities space offered.

  Earth’s moon was a great thing to look over, and I had to read about things before I could understand what I was seeing. For example, there is a valley sort of thing on our moon called Vallis Alpes. It runs about one hundred miles in an east-northeast direction. By appearance, it’s a long valley. The real name, I guess, is a rille or a graben to the geologists out there. Grabens were formed when a long section of the moon’s crust sank down between two fault lines. That was a long time ago. There are lots of rilles or grabens on moons. If you’re looking to hide something, look no further. The ridges on either side of the grabens make them hard to see into. Therefore, they make great locations for moon bases, as my father learned when he was just discovering space flight and our moon.

  Anyway, Resistance intelligence did a magnificent job of confirming Gurko’s and Berzalius’ moon base in one of these grabens. I like to call them valleys, though. When the Arkon were at their peak in the area, they established a headquarters, supply, and communications facility in one of Krona’s valleys. They built a long warehouse-like structure on the valley floor then covered it with dust and debris from construction and material from other moon locations. It had large doors at each end that moved on horizontal tracks and opened and sealed shut in the middle. They were used to receive shuttles into cargo and reception bays that could pressurize after the doors closed. Nobody on Tye was ever aware of the facility.

  After the war, the facility went unused until Gurko and his troops took it over for their boss. They added updated defensive capabilities at both ends and on the edges of the overlooking ridges. I think they were prepared for the odd discovery but nothing like what was going to happen to them today. Plus, they hadn’t expected that Larona would live through the assault on her compound. When she did, she gave a rough drawing of the compound and, most interesting of all, mentioned that there was an Arkon Blue in residence named Berzalius whose brother Sheev (in another star system) had supplied the newer ships, including the elusive frigate and its captain. Even so, the moon base would not be easy to crack, especially because of the Resistance leadership’s demand to take Gurko alive. That ruled out an overhead bombardment. Politics in action, again.

  Unlike Larona’s compound, there was no dense foliage on the moon to hide in while the crawlers did their work. Instead of armed towers, there were hardened weapons positions on the ridges. There was no fence or gate, but the nearness of the valley ridge walls acted as a fence from the sides, and the armed bunkers at each end substituted for the gate, trenches, and rear fence. It would be different from Larona’s compound attack, but the experience gained there promised to help the assault here. The one thing the assault force would have here that they didn’t have on Tye was airpower—not a lot, but some. We loaned Argos’ Shuttle 2 to the Resistance, and they came up with two of their own. That made three, armed craft for close air/space support.

  None of us aboard Argos were part of the assault planning, unless you count Sif, who hadn’t been on board for many weeks. Nonetheless, Sif explained the plan well enough for us to follow. The way I looked at the assault, this would be his and Altor’s operation — the two people with the greatest experience with the troops and with each other. It also made sense since I had to keep involved in the space fight, using Argos (and Falcon if necessary) to best advantage. I was not out of touch, however. I listened and watched the assault via implant and video from Sif’s combat suit — and through Wizzy. I didn’t plan to get involved unless Sif needed help, or something went very wrong. What were the chances of that?

  I think any soldier would say that clearing buildings and rooms is both tedious and dangerous. And this was a big facility. In most cases, there were at least three levels of the long building. All had the odd assortments of big and small rooms, storage spaces, equipment rooms, living quarters, eating facilities, medical spaces, etc. They all had to be cleared. Many, if not most, had residents — armed residents. Things were going well with Sif and Altor as I watched. I was feeling confident that this would all be over soon. Then it happened.

  I heard the crash first and saw the results second. My heart raced. What I saw was a partial image of a pile of rubble and a large beam where Sif had been standing. When the dust started to settle, I could see the feet of a combat suit slowly moving in the mess, but no more.

  “Sif. What happened?” No response. “Sif, what’s going on?”

  “A section of wall collapsed, Captain Nick, and I am pinned under it and a fallen beam.”

  “Can you get out?”

  “I have tried, and several of the troops have tried to move the beam, but they cannot. There is something else, though.”

  “What?” I asked, not believing things could get worse.

  “The fallen wall was the next to the last one surrounding the facility command center. That’s where we believe the leaders are. It has exposed what I believe are explosives wired into an unknown system. Altor has found similar devices at his end. All progress has stopped.”

  “Wizzy. What do you make of the explosives?” I asked, keeping Sif on the line.

  “Heh, heh, you aren’t going to like this.”

  “I already don’t like it! Just tell me what we are facing.”

  “Based on my quick review of Arkon records, those are parts of a self-destruct system. Such a system is…”

  “I know what a self-destruct system is, W
izzy.” I almost asked what we could do when the obvious hit me.

  “I suppose Arkon self-destruct systems are controlled by an AI. Correct?”

  “Not always, but I estimate with ninety percent certainty that this one is. I think.”

  “Can you access the AI from here?”

  “Alas, no. This AI, like the last few we encountered in the warships, is shielded.”

  “Can we get to it manually?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Can we tap into the facility wiring and turn it off manually?”

  There was no response.

  “Wizzy!”

  “Oh, all right. You are correct, as much as I hate to admit it. Why didn’t I think of that? I hate my life.”

  “Wizzy, pull it together. If I go down there, can I use my combat suit to gain access to the system, and can you then turn it off?”

  “Um, yes. Maybe. I’m pretty sure.”

  “Is it yes or no?”

  “Yes.” He said it like a small child just found stealing cookies. Sometimes having a super brain available was not what would be expected.

  “Ok. Sif did you hear all that?”

  “Yes, Captain Nick. I still cannot move and need help to get up.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  I put on a combat suit, grabbed a laser rifle, and headed for a shuttle. As I was running, I turned over command to Amini and explained what I was going to do.

  The flight to the surface was short, and I landed at the end of the compound that was Sif’s responsibility. His troops quickly led me to his location. My first concern was his safety.

  “You ok, Sif? Anything broken? Any injuries?” I could have discovered that by linking my suit to his, but I was worried and in a hurry to see how he was.

  “I am fine, Captain Nick. Just can’t move.”

  As I looked over Sif’s situation, it was clear that the fallen beam was the main thing keeping him pinned down. I tried lifting it with the amplified power of my suit. It moved, but not enough. I even tried levering it up with a smaller beam. Still no luck. Even in the air-cooled suit, I was sweating. It didn’t help that I was also worried that the self-destruct might go off at any time.