Out of the Dark

by David Weber

  “But these creatures obviously have similar sorts of sensor capabilities. Not as advanced as ours, perhaps,” Thikair would have been happier if she hadn’t added the qualifier, “but sufficiently advanced for them to understand the sorts of precautions needed to defeat or at least minimize our normal advantage in sensor reach. As a consequence, we’re severely handicapped in dealing with the smaller, pure infantry forces whose attacks are beginning to significantly outnumber those of forces with heavy weapons.

  “The good news is that although their infantry-portable weapons are far more powerful than we ever anticipated, they’re far less dangerous than their heavy armored vehicles or artillery. This means, among other things, that they can engage only smaller forces of our own warriors with any real prospect of success.”

  “I believe that’s substantially accurate,” Thairys said after a moment. “One of the implications, however, is that in order to deter attacks by these infantry forces, we would still find ourselves obliged to operate using larger forces of our own. But we have a strictly limited supply of personnel, so the larger our individual forces become, the fewer we can deploy at any given moment. In order to deter attack, we would be forced to severely reduce the coverage of the entire planet which we can hope to maintain.”

  “I take your point, Thairys,” Thikair said, and bared all his upper canines in a wintry smile. “I must confess that a planet with any sort of technology begins to look significantly larger when one begins to consider the need to actually picket its entire surface out of the resources of a single colonization fleet!”

  He’d considered saying something a bit stronger, but that was as close as he cared to come to even suggesting that he might have bitten off more than his fleet could chew.

  “Very well,” he continued after a moment, “I believe the time has come to shift our approach. In respect to that consideration, however, Ground Base Commander Shairez, could you tell us the state of these creatures’ ‘Internet’?”

  “Of course, Fleet Commander,” Shairez said, although she was perfectly well aware that he’d already read her report. That she was delivering it not for his ears but for those of his staff and senior officers.

  “The humans’ cyber net is not only more extensive than we had assumed before we actually invaded it, but considerably more robust. I realize you were already aware of those facts before we attacked the planet, but I believe we’ve all been somewhat surprised by the implications of that fact for human coordination and dissemination of information. I confess that my own staff was slow to grasp them, although in their defense I must point out that they’ve been dealing with an extraordinary information overload.

  “The general distribution of the imagery of the destruction of so much of Ground Base Two’s infrastructure and personnel has had particularly grave implications. I believe many of the humans have interpreted that . . . unfortunate episode as an indication that we have not, in fact, fully secured our control of their planet. Even Shongairi in that position might consider that they weren’t in honor bound to submit at this stage. Certainly prisoner interrogation indicates a great many humans appear to have interpreted it in that fashion.

  “Perhaps worse, however, the humans continue to distribute information about our deployments and force movements, and also about the strengths and weaknesses of our combat equipment. We’ve discovered some evidence—strong evidence, actually—to suggest that the human ‘Robinson’ was directly responsible for what happened to Brigade Commander Harshair’s forces because he was able to use the humans’ intact communications to alert an ‘American’ force to Harshair’s approach.”

  Tactful of her not to mention that the “American force” in question was only one of their battalions, not even a full regiment, Thikair thought sourly behind his expressionless ears. Dainthar only knows what would have happened if Harshair had run his muzzle into something they called a brigade! On the other hand, I don’t suppose it could have been a lot worse, given that less than eight percent of his personnel—and only a single twelve of personnel transports and cargo vehicles—survived the experience as it was.

  “Other information is also being passed,” Shairez continued. “Some of it is of little consequence to our operations but still useful to the humans in terms of guiding them to sources of shelter, food, that sort of thing. Some of the messages being passed may actually be of benefit to us. Messages of that sort would include exaggerated reports of our strength, speculation as to capabilities and ‘super weapons’ we may simply have chosen so far not to employ, and speculation that all which has so far befallen their planet is actually the result of collusion with us on the part of their governments or some cabal of their own kind.” Her ears shrugged briefly up and down in an expression of mingled bafflement and amusement. “There’s something almost Shongair about some of the rumors and speculation, although I can’t quite imagine any of our people entertaining such bizarre speculations about our leaders.

  “There is very little evidence of any ability, or even any organized effort, on the part of nation-state governments to reassert control via the Internet, however. Calls for such an effort have been posted repeatedly, but without evoking any response. Or, at least, any response which the majority of humans appear to consider genuine rather than the work of what humans call ‘crackpots’—the term would appear normally to be reserved for the weak-minded and/or charlatans, Fleet Commander—or something emanating from us. Apparently humans have had experience in the past with outsiders exerting control through a theoretically legitimate government. Indeed, they have several terms for that sort of arrangement and the humans who support it. ‘Puppet government,’ ‘façade democracy,’ ‘collaborators,’ ‘quislings,’ ‘capitalist running dogs,’ ‘fellow travelers’ . . . the list is a long one, and it would appear humans do not feel duty or honor bound, when such arrangements are resorted to, in submitting to the local government’s authority.”

  Ears went to half-cock all around the table in bafflement as Thikair’s officers tried to wrap their minds around such a bizarre psychology. It was obvious from their body language that they’d been no more successful at it than he had, the fleet commander reflected dryly.

  “And the security aspects of the current situation, Ground Base Commander?” he inquired aloud.

  “To this point, Fleet Commander, my staff and I aren’t particularly concerned over the security of our own systems. While the humans’ computer technology is in many ways surprisingly advanced and innovative, it’s far from the equal of our own. They do show an amazing degree of . . . ‘ingenuity’ is probably the best word for it. Their efforts to penetrate our security measures have become increasingly sophisticated much more rapidly than we initially projected, but that may not be as surprising as it seems, in light of their general rate of technological advancement. Efforts to break into our systems are also increasing in number and frequency, as well. I have no fear that those efforts will succeed in the immediate future, yet I must concede that if they are allowed to continue, the odds that they will ultimately succeed become significantly higher.”

  She hadn’t mentioned that so far as she and her analysts could tell virtually all of the attempts to penetrate the fleet’s computer nets had been what humans called “freelance,” Thikair reflected. Assuming the local government entities had possessed greater cybernetic resources than individual citizens, that suggested a degree of widely distributed capability and self-motivation he really preferred not to consider too closely.

  “So far,” he said out loud, speaking to all of them now, “we’ve allowed these creatures’ navigational and communications satellites to remain functional. Now that we have our entire fleet in orbit around the planet, the human navigational satellites have lost their immediate postlanding utility for us. I see no reason to permit them to continue to use that capability, and I suspect that denying it to these small parties of infantry of theirs may make their lives more difficult in the future, as well.

&
nbsp; “By the same token, we left their communications satellites intact for the same reason we left their Internet in operation—so that they could communicate news of their defeat to one another and submit, and so that we would have a sophisticated communications interface when they had the decency to do so. Obviously, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the negative consequences of leaving the ‘Internet’ intact outweigh any positive ones, particularly in light of what Ground Base Commander Shairez has just reported. I believe she’s correct about the fashion in which ‘Robinson’ has so impeded our efforts, and I would not be astonished to discover that other humans continue to utilize this capability to coordinate their small combat groups. I realize our cyber techs are searching for indications of precisely that, but it’s become painfully evident that these creatures are far more capable of communicating through indirection than we are. Ground Base Commander Shairez tells me they actually have a term for the practice—they call it ‘double meaning.’”

  He raised one ear and half bared a canine in grim humor at the baffled expressions of some of his officers. He’d had to spend some time thinking about the term himself before he realized how applicable it appeared to be to human “psychology”—assuming such a neat and tidy term had any particular relationship to whatever it was which really served humans in the place of logic and reason.

  “In light of those considerations,” he continued, “beginning today, I want their ‘GPS’ destroyed and their communications disrupted. Take out their satellites and seek out and destroy as many of their ground-based communications systems as possible. We’ll still be able to establish direct contact with anyone with whom we choose to communicate; I will no longer allow them to communicate with one another in order to coordinate their actions against us. At such time as they recognize reality and submit, we may restore that communication.”

  “If I may point out, Sir,” Shairez said respectfully, “there will be serious secondary consequences to your proposed actions.” Thikair looked at her, and her ears moved in an expression of profound respect. “There’s already been massive disruption of the humans’ societies, especially in the more technically advanced nation-states, Sir. I would estimate for example that no more than thirty percent of their remaining power generation stations are operational. There’s been a massive exodus of population from their urban centers, as well. Even some of those who had begun to filter back into their surviving cities have fled once more, following our kinetic strikes on cities where our forces have met resistance. Transportation systems are breaking down, especially as fuel distribution is interrupted. That means urban populations are unable to feed themselves, which is further accelerating the rate at which their cities are emptying.”

  “Your point, Ground Base Commander?” Ground Force Commander Thairys prompted when she paused.

  “My point, Ground Force Commander,” she replied, “is that they’ve been relying heavily on their communications to coordinate such central services as have continued to function at all. Cutting off those communications as the Fleet Commander proposes can only accelerate the disintegration of those societies. The death rate among the humans will soar as that occurs. Of more immediate concern, however, is that as their society disintegrates, the possibility of our being able to locate some central authority with both the sanity and the capability to submit will decrease still further.”

  “As always, your points are well taken, Ground Base Commander,” Thikair said after a moment. “Nonetheless, I think we have no choice but to proceed as I’ve already indicated. To be perfectly honest, I will shed no tears if the fatality rate among these creatures rises to a level which finally compels them to recognize reality and submit. And encouraging the disintegration of their more advanced nation-states strikes me as rather more of a plus than a minus at this time. We’ve been trying for almost two of their weeks to get them to submit and end the destruction. They’ve either steadfastly refused, or else they lack the ability. In either case, we’ve gone far enough to meet them in that respect.

  “At the same time, these more advanced nation-states are the ones most likely to continue to provide significant opposition. As you yourself pointed out, our troops are already reporting encounters with improvised weaponry, and the more technically advanced societies are those most capable of producing effective improvised weaponry. Moreover, I suspect our standard techniques for neutralizing conquered populations will ultimately prove more effective against the less advanced humans, whose capabilities are closer to those of the species we’ve already conquered.”

  He looked at Shairez. The ground base commander met his eyes levelly but respectfully, then bent her head and flattened her ears in recognition of his authority.

  “In light of what I’ve just said, Thairys,” Thikair resumed, turning back to the ground force commander, “I want you to revise your deployment stance. For the immediate future, I want to concentrate on these creatures’ more heavily developed and advanced societies. That’s where we’re encountering the most significant threats, so let’s start by establishing fully secured enclaves from which we can operate in greater strength as we spread out to consolidate. And if we can push along the disintegration of organized resistance in the process, so much the better.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Thairys acknowledged. “That may take some time, however. In particular, we have infantry forces deployed for the purpose of hunting down and destroying known groups of human attackers. They’re operating in widely separated locations, and pulling them out to combine elsewhere is going to stretch our troop lift capacity, especially given the transport losses we’ve already suffered.”

  “Would those forces be necessary to meet the objectives I just described?”

  “No, Sir. Some additional infantry will be needed, but we can land the additional troops directly from space. And, in addition, we need more actual combat experience against these roving attack groups. We need to refine our tactics, and as Ground Base Commander Shairez has just pointed out, even our most experienced combat veterans have never faced this level of threat in the past. I’d really prefer to keep at least some of our own infantry out in the hinterland, where we can continue to blood more junior officers in a lower threat level environment. And honor, as well as prudence, dictates that we allow our warriors to seek out and destroy the enemies who have killed their comrades when they ought to have submitted.”

  “As long as you’re capable of carrying out the concentrations I’ve just directed, I have no objection,” Thikair told him.

  And as long as we’re able to somehow get a tourniquet on this steady flow of casualties, the fleet commander added to himself.

  . XX .

  “Well, that’s unpleasant news.” Dave Dvorak grimaced. “On the other hand, I wondered how much longer they’d wait before they got around to taking it out.”

  Alec Wilson had just poked his head into the kitchen to inform them that their link to the Internet was down. Given the fact that they knew the relay tower into which they’d tapped was still functional, that suggested the Shongairi had finally decided to knock the net itself out from under humanity, probably starting with the telecommunications satellites which had somehow survived so far.

  “Yeah.” Rob Wilson shook his head as Alec withdrew his head to rejoin Jessica in the effort to make certain the problem wasn’t at their end. “Assuming the net’s really down, that is, and it’s not just at our end. Not exactly the smartest thing they could’ve done, though.”

  “I never thought it was very smart of them to leave it up in the first place,” Veronica Wilson said, pouring herself another cup of coffee.

  She and her husband were coffee drinkers; Dvorak and Sharon weren’t, and coffee wasn’t something they were likely to be seeing a lot more of anytime soon. That was why she and Wilson had agreed to ration themselves to only two cups each at breakfast. He was already working on tapering off, however, and he shook his head with a virtuous expressio
n when she waved the pot in his direction.

  “Sure, Mr. Slim Jim,” she told him, shaking her head, then looked back at Dvorak, sitting at the head of the breakfast table. “Letting us talk to each other—letting Robinson put up that video of what happened to their shuttles in Virginia, for instance—always struck me as pretty stupid,” she said.

  “It had its upsides from our perspective,” Wilson agreed. “The biggest one was Robinson, though. What he posted proved we could take down their shuttles, that their hardware was vulnerable. Without that, I think a lot of people would’ve been a lot more hesitant about pulling the trigger when they saw them coming. But what they should’ve done—hell, what they may’ve been doing for all we know!—was use the net to spread disinformation. Think about it, Ronnie. Done right, they could’ve sucked us into one mousetrap after another. And that doesn’t even consider the propaganda possibilities! You think a steady diet of real or CGI footage of our side getting the shit blown out of it wouldn’t’ve gone a long way to undoing the consequences of what Robinson and those fighter jocks pulled off?”