“I understand, thank you, Lieutenant Commander,” Callum said, standing perfectly straight. Alice saw it then, the remnants of youth in his face. He was tall, but like a teenager could be tall; lanky and not fully grown into his frame. He hid it well.
“You won’t be floating free for long, we’re putting you into the Special Operations recruiting pool, so someone is going to snap you up,” Lieutenant Commander Terran looked to Alice. “Command is taking your leash off as well, First Lieutenant Valent. This comes from Captain Coran and Haven Intelligence. I would have put you and your team on a few more missions today, but my superiors recognized that more than one of your squad members was slowing you down enough to present a danger. They believe - and I agree - that you handled yourself well today, so it’s only appropriate for you to be raised to the rank of First Lieutenant before continuing your career as master of the Clever Dream and leader of your own team.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant Commander,” Alice said.
Terran cleared his throat before going on. “Remove whoever you like from your squad and replace them with good people from the recruiting pool for Special Operations. Do not try to recruit people above and outside of your reach again, please. Putting an official request to recruit Lieutenant Garrison wasn’t appropriate. He’s currently in enhanced training for a higher rank and will be taking on bigger responsibilities soon.”
“I apologize,” Alice said. “I was informed that my position comes with the right to make any reasonable request of Command with regards to personnel or equipment.”
“Lieutenant; be careful that you don’t over reach. Remember the qualifier in the rights you are given; that you have the ‘right to make any reasonable request.’ You don’t want to reach over anyone’s head, understand?”
“Yes, Sir,” Alice replied. With structure came politics, and she realized then that she didn’t take that into account when she requested that Garrison stay with the Clever Dream. Her request must have gone over Lieutenant Commander Terran’s head, something she’d be more careful of later.
“I caution you to doubt yourself less in your after action comments. It is true, you made a few very minor missteps, but I can see you are aware of them and will improve quickly. Once you get to know your team and develop a shorthand with them, you’ll find fewer reasons to look over your shoulder to make sure they are still backing you up, which is something you do, though I don’t think you realize how often. Overall, your performance showed moments of brilliance. I don’t envy you for your name, having to live up to the expectations that come with being a Valent, but I’m beginning to see that you may just do that and more. I did not expect to only have two squads left at this point, but that’s what SOCU is down to on the Eagle. I’ll be putting new teams together and offering a more suitable pool of people for you both to recruit from while I put new teams together. Until then, I’ve been asked to loan you out to Admiral McPatrick, who has a mission for you. Good luck,”
The hologram faded and Callum leaned over the table so he was nose to nose with Alice. “You’re dropping people from your squad. I want to replace one of them,” he glanced at Gabe. “Sorry, mate, you don’t have a ship.”
“No worries,” Gabe said with a shrug. “I get the feeling I might be waiting a while.”
“So, what about it? You’re going where the action is, and you heard the Lieutenant Commander, I’m brimming with potential.”
Alice pretended to ponder for a minute. “Any technical skills?”
“I’m not just a shooter, but a top grade hacker. Need to break into an Order system? I know their sloppy software from the first line to the last.”
“He actually does,” Gabe reinforced. “I forgot about that.”
“Any medical skills?”
“Anyone can train to be a med-tech,” Callum said. “I’ll learn in my spare time and take the Qualifiers between missions. Need me to take a personality test? I’m a lovely guy, people get on with me famously. I have friends everywhere.”
“That’s all right, I’ll give you a spot on my team, but you’ll have to pass muster with my Second to make it official,” Alice said.
“Yes!” Callum said, leaning back and pumping his arm. “You’re going straight into the action, I know it.”
“Why do I get the feeling that we’re both going with her?” Gabe asked no one in particular.
Twenty-Four
The Gold Prizes: Theft and Sabotage
* * *
The supply depot loomed over the raid squads. Jake led the charge with Remmy, watching his tactical display to make sure he didn’t lose anyone and that their efforts to stay cloaked and hidden were successful. The supply containers they passed were each two or four metres high, and they were stacked up to fifteen up, twenty deep in all directions.
Bots with grabbers dropped off several, and Jake marked it as a sign that another destroyer or larger ship just dropped off empty containers then picked more. The size of the operation was larger than he expected. He kicked himself for not doing the math or checking his crewmembers’ work before planning the mission. The reality of the depot was much larger, much busier than he visualized. The Revenge could have gained valuable intelligence just by setting a few cloaked satellites out in orbit to watch how many ships were reloading and what direction their wormholes pointed in. A day or two would have told them a lot about how their enemy was moving with almost no risk.
Instead, they were on the ground, behind enemy lines, desperately trying to stay hidden as they went for the gold prizes: theft and sabotage. It was the daring he was becoming known for, but that kind of daring always took you much closer to disaster than prudence and forward thinking. He brought his thoughts back to the moment.
The hard packed ground rushed by underfoot. He slowed his pace so Liara, Finn and four soldiers who were sinking back in the rear could catch up. The end of one of the delivery rails was ahead. It looked like a steel lighthouse, a light at the top blinking blue, green and yellow as containers were loaded onto flat beds from elsewhere in the yard then shuttled to the centre of the complex for loading. He looked at the schematic. “I got it,” Remmy said. He was an expert in cracking and hacking himself, not at Liara’s level, but knowledgeable enough to do a quick assessment of the node they were about to make an attempt on.
“How does it look?” Jake asked. He opened Liara and Finn’s audio streams.
“I’m looking for a latch, a key into this thing,” Remmy said. “Gimmie a sec, Captain. We might have a problem.”
“I know, my lungs are on fire,” Finn said breathlessly. He was on a private channel to Liara. “Just a few more metres and we’ll be right beside Remmy.”
“Oh, God, I can’t believe I’m this out of shape,” she said. “I always thought I was…” she gasped to catch her breath, “…in good condition for someone who sat at a computer all day.”
“You are!” Finn replied. “But we’re running with people who train all the time. They have nothing…” Huff, huff, huff, he breathed for a moment before continuing. “…else to do with their time but run, climb, shoot, do exercises and spar when they're between missions.”
“Spar?” Liara asked.
“Practice fighting,” Finn replied.
“Right, I knew that. I think my brain’s oxygen deprived.” They caught up to Remmy, who shook his head.
“You two are going to have to train with the Captain if he sees you two lagging behind again,” Remmy told them privately, unaware that their Captain could hear them.
“Oh, don’t even joke about that,” Finn replied. “Let me take a look.”
“Training with Captain is hard?” Liara asked, struggling to catch her breath.
“Look at him,” Remmy laughed. “Imagine trying to keep up with that specimen and our wiry little Wing Commander? I can barely do it.” He opened a channel to Jake then. “We have a problem, Captain. Finn is confirming right now, but they put a security plate in place over the hub controls. I don’t d
etect much current going to it either, so I suspect it’s on standby.”
“So, if we crack it, we’ll set off alarms,” Jake said, looking up at the drones passing overhead. Each one had a small energy blaster and a cutter on board, which wasn’t much if you were fighting just one, but there were a dozen drones he could see. Every one of them had heavy duty grabbers, too. If they decided to use them in concert with their energy weapons, he imagined things would go badly for whoever was near the hub control panels in a hurry. “We could shield whoever is standing next to it for a couple minutes. If they could activate the hub controls…”
“Well, that’s another problem,” Finn said, still catching his breath.
“Right, if whoever is on watch in the control center has half a brain, they’ll turn this hub off right away.” Jake finished for him.
“Exactly,” Finn replied.
“You all right, Chief?” Jake asked as he watched a drone pick up an empty container and drop it onto a flatbed train car.
“We’re fine, thank you Captain. I mean, I’m fine,” he replied cutting his microphone off.
“Stay focused, I’m looking at this from another angle,” Jake said to everyone. “Hold here a minute.”
He walked away from the hub, let his passive scanning systems take in all the information they could and examined the large train cars in front of him. They had side sensors, which wouldn’t be a problem for their stealth systems, but could come in handy if they needed the car to stop before going into the hub center. They were probably made to stop the car if something fell in front of or collided with it. The tracks and wheels were old fashioned, but the two were interlocked, meaning that the cars could travel down and up steeply. As a drone dropped an empty container onto the flatbed car, he watched as it magnetically locked onto the one below. There was a good chance that the train car travelled straight down or up once it got inside the main building, which made sense, since the schematics showed most of the bulk supplies in the top and beneath the narrower middle of the structure.
The control room was above the entry point for the cargo trains, and it was thickly armoured against orbital bombardment on the outside. “We’re going to have to take a train inside,” Jake said. “We’ll reassess once we get close enough to find out what kind of defences are there.”
The light above them flashed green, and the train cars left for the main building, accelerating quickly. “Get ready to take the next one,” Remmy said.
“We’ll have to pick a surface and stick to it once we’re in those containers,” Jake said. “Otherwise we might get dumped out once we’re inside.”
“So you filled in the blanks?” Remmy asked. “I was wondering why the rails weren’t on the schematic.”
“They look like they were built late. Maybe the drones were supposed to pick up these containers originally.”
“We only have the one-point-oh schematics,” Jake said.
“Makes sense,” Remmy replied.
“How are you two feeling?” Jake asked on a direct channel to Liara and Finn. “I know this is a little out of your element.”
“Great!” Liara said. “It’s good to get away from my console for a change, Captain.”
“Pretty good, Sir. I love these missions, seeing new places.”
“Glad to hear it. Stay focused on the tasks in front of you, and you’ll do well,” he replied, silently deciding that they’d be scheduled for an early morning run with him and the rest of the group starting the day after tomorrow. He changed his communicator system back to addressing everyone. A pair of train cars were coming.
They stopped almost instantly. “Be ready for that,” he warned everyone. I’m going to force this train into an emergency stop when we get where we’re going. It’ll be abrupt, and I don’t want to see anyone flying overhead. We’ll hold until there are a couple containers aboard.”
They watched as two drones dropped containers onto the flatbed with a thunderous clang. “Mount up, don’t touch the sensors along the side of the car.”
“You heard him, get aboard!” Remmy reinforced.
All twenty-eight of them were on the lead train car and inside the containers in less than a minute, most of them using the augmented strength in their suits to leap up. Finn and Liara rode on two soldier’s backs instead of risking a bad jump. I’m going to have to start arranging suit training for people, too. Jake thought. He wanted his entire crew in shape and top notch. If they could all handle themselves in a militarized way, each of their survivability would be much higher, and that was something he definitely wanted for them.
The car accelerated with a jerk, and Jake stepped out of the container then moved to the front of the car. His tactical display populated as they sped towards the large central building, and he watched it for biological life signs as well as any stationary weaponry. There was plenty of the latter. Guns pointed up at the sky, waiting to find invaders in the atmosphere. A few larger planetary weapons were made to fire into orbit, there were three of them on his side, meaning there were at least between five and nine more. If they couldn’t get control of the station’s systems, then they would never get picked up unless they were far, far away from the station.
Finally, as they passed under the overhead lip of the main station building, his tactical system picked up four life signs. All of them were human. One was in the cafeteria while the other three wren in the control room. Two were reclining, one was pacing slowly in front of the main window. The doors leading into the middle of the station opened ahead of the flatbed car, and Jake got ready, affixing one foot to the floor of the flatbed and one hand to the container behind him. He raised his free leg, preparing to bring it down against the front facing collision sensor of the train. “I’m going to stop us soon.”
“Everyone brace!” Remmy announced.
Once they were through the large doors, Jake could see where the tracks diverged. The one they were on led down under the station at a ninety-degree angle. There was a lift on the inside, with a large ladder nearby. The car slowed to a stop at the edge of the dark hole in the middle of the station floor. “Off! Get off, now!” he said, not moving yet. He watched his tactical display as everyone but Finn and two other soldiers scrambled to get off the train car. Gears clicked into place and the car started to tilt down. He didn’t want to hit the collision sensor if he didn’t have to. “Jump, Finn!” he said. The rear of the train was raising slowly, he might have enough time to throw the lollygaggers off himself. He ran back towards one soldier who was stuck on the edge of the train, looking left and right. Finn finally jumped along with the other soldier on his side.
The last one was in front of Jake, and at the last minute, he noticed his Captain running towards him. “Get off the train!” he shouted, Jake would have tackled him if he took another second, but the soldier; Terrance Cuna was his name, dropped off at last. Jake leapt clear as the train finished raising into a nearly completely vertical position and started rolling into the dark entrance to the supply storage below.
“Sorry, Sir,” Cuna said.
“You made it, don’t worry, get focused,” Jake said, pounding his shoulder. He was satisfied that his first plan worked without having to trigger an emergency stop for the train car. It would have drawn attention, even if one of the station minders thought it was a minor blockage or something else on the rails. The longer they could go without drawing any attention at all, the better their chances of success were.
“Cuna,” Remmy said on a private channel Jake could only hear because he was monitoring everything Remmy said. “When a superior officer tells you to jump and they’re yelling, don’t stop to ask how high or where, just find the nearest safe spot to jump to, and do it.”
“Aye, Sir. Sorry, Sir,” Cuna replied.
Jake highlighted the ladder leading up into the habitable section of the station and both squads started heading in its direction. “There’s no sign of security inside,” Jake said to Remmy.
“I know.
What do you think?”
“They have something waiting for us. I would rather have seen soldiers at this point.”
“We didn’t pick up support stations or tunnels leading to other buildings on the planet,” Remmy said. “So the chances of there being barracks nearby, or a fighter base are slim.”
Jake rushed up the ladder so he could reach the top and stick to the wall beside it. Just like in the schematics, the service hatch was big enough for them to crawl through in their armour, and it was an airlock. The doors had active control panels and were thin enough for them to blow through if they couldn’t hack them. “When everyone’s up and in position, hack in and see what kind of system access you can get from this panel,” he ordered before climbing from the wall to the roof beside the hatch, and clinging upside down.
“I’ve just gotta say,” Remmy said. “You definitely think in three dimensions.”
“I’ve been sneaking around spaceships and stations for a long time,” Jake said as he took a much closer look at the readouts from his passive scanners. The detail got better as he got closer to whatever he was looking at, so he quietly crawled in the direction of the control room. There was half a metre of armour between him and the rearmost area of that space. They would have to use the hatch that would take them into the hallway between that and the cafeteria. He placed his hand against the heavy plating and watched as the minute vibrations in the metal from someone yelling between the two spaces inside allowed his passive scanner to map out finer details in the room. “Damn,” he breathed as he noticed something familiar.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11 Page 14
