by S. H. Jucha
Lucia’s response to the pilots was pointed. She said, “If you wish to second-guess the assault commander, I suggest you grab a Loopah weapon and join us in the attack. Then, and only then, will you have a right to question his judgment.” Her response to the queries was widely shared among the fleet, and the few pilots who had voiced complaints were happy that their names weren’t mentioned.
When Alex and Tatia heard, they’d shared a good laugh and were reminded of the similar personalities of Lucia and their beloved Svetlana.
Jess positioned SADEs and shadows aboard cargo shuttle one, and he and the assault team occupied shuttle two.
At the appointed hour, the four craft hovered below the moon’s horizon out of sight of the dome.
Juliette, who was aboard shuttle two, monitored the movements of moon and star from fleet telemetry. She waited for the optimum alignment. When it was achieved, she sent,
Franz Cohen sent his fighter swiftly and silently across the moon’s surface, weaving through rocky terrain. His ship broke into the open in sight of the dome. He immediately positioned his traveler in line with the dome and Pimbor’s star, which was at his back. As the SADEs predicted, his fighter was lost in the star’s brilliance.
The fighter’s controller contained an intricate program, which the SADEs had designed for Franz.
Franz trained his fighter’s telemetry on the left-side power supply, locked his beam weapon on the target, and initiated the SADEs’ program. He made a silent request to the stars, hoping that the SADEs’ calculations were sufficient to the task.
The traveler accelerated, streaking toward the dome. The controller executed a one hundred eighty degree turn on the vertical axis, flipping the fighter over. The aft end of the fighter was the first portion of the ship to pass close to the ring. As the traveler receded from its target and neared the end of its engagement envelope, the beam fired.
Instantly, the ring’s power supply was vaporized, creating a cascading power failure through each section.
Franz’s fighter flew away from the moon, as the ring dissolved in a massive detonation.
“If I hadn’t seen it for myself in real time, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Mickey said, in a rush, to the others on the Freedom’s bridge. “The ring’s explosion was extraordinary, but the dome only glowed and returned to its normal state.
“Starting my attack run, Captain,” Sharon replied. She was envious of the implants the veterans had received. Rumors were rampant that Earthers might get them. If that was true, she wanted to be first in line.
Sharon’s flight was similar to Franz’s. She flew her traveler over a low range of mountains and swept across a flat plain pockmarked by asteroid impacts and rocky debris.
At the target launch tube, Sharon pointed her fighter bow down over the tube. She lowered her ship until its nose was only meters above the tube’s rim. Then she initiated the SADEs’ program.
The controller launched the ship rearward. As with Franz’s app, the controller didn’t discharge the beam until the limit of the engagement window was reached.
The beam of energy burned through the shuttle. When the heat reached the fuel tanks, the vessel erupted in gouts of flame, fanned by the ship’s oxygen tanks.
Sharon’s controller slewed her fleeing traveler to starboard to ensure it wasn’t in the path of the debris that shot out of the launch tube.
“All clear, Captain,” Sharon said triumphantly over the comm, which the SADEs relayed to Jess.
Jess paused to remove the pilots’ link from his implant’s comm. Then he accessed the link for the shuttle teams.
Aboard shuttle two were Jess, Lucia, Sam, Tacnock, Homsaff, Juliette, and the Dischnya warriors.
Sam had asked Jess why the other Omnian security veterans weren’t included in the attack.
“There’s no more room in here for your dead, Sam,” Jess had replied.
It wasn’t until Sam noticed Jess was lightly patting his chest over his heart that he understood.
Shuttle one touched down on the moon’s surface. The SADEs dropped the rear hatch and initiated the programs of eight shadows.
Jess had hoped for twelve shadows, but eight was the number that engineering could produce of the newest versions within the time allowed.
These new shadows had features the latest Pim rides didn’t. They were lighter, yet stronger. They carried greater energy supplies to power their lasers, and their legs had adaptive tips for the various surfaces they would encounter.
When the shadows were initiated, they hurried off the shuttle’s rear ramp onto the moon and oriented themselves.
Eight shadows traversed the few meters to the tube’s rim. Their bodies were camouflaged to blend with the surface rock and dust. At the tube’s rim, their leg tips rotated to deploy suction cups, and they eased over the edge to walk the wall. Vacuum had already cooled the tube and the shuttle debris at the bottom.
The shadows spotted the blast door ledge, and they made their way down the wall toward it. When they reached their target, four clustered on either side to wait.
Juliette dropped the ramp of shuttle two and set up the hoist. Jess was the first to slide down the line. When his feet touched the blast door ledge, he signaled Tacnock, who dropped down quickly.
The pair readied their launchers, and Tacnock touched the entry panel. The blast door slid aside and revealed an empty tunnel between them and the tunnel’s airlock.
Jess signaled Sam and Lucia, who rode the line. He stood by to ensure that they reached the ledge safely.
Homsaff came down next, and Sam remained at the ledge to secure the queen.
When Juliette slid along the line, she halted above the ledge and directed the team members to clear the way. Then she linked to the shadows and initiated the next phase of their programming.
The shadows maintained a network link to coordinate their movements. One by one, they made their way across the tube wall to the blast door ledge. Reaching the flat surface, their leg tips rotated to stick pads, and they moved along the short tunnel to the airlock.
Small heads with sensors turned to regard the assault commander. This had been part of the shadows’ programming that Jess contributed while testing his implant. When he linked to the shadows, he could identify them by their assigned numbers. In addition, each shadow was programmed to key on Jess’s implant commands and his hand signs.
Homsaff connected to her squad leaders, Simlan, Hessan, and Fenero, and she requested Hessan’s squad descend first.
Jess selected his link to the shadow network.
The assault team readied their launchers and joined the six shadows against available wall space. Then Jess touched a panel, and the hatch slid aside. The airlock was empty.
Tacnock closed the tube-side hatch. Then the two of them stood on either side of the dome-side hatch and checked their
launcher breeches again.
Jess looked across the airlock at his friend, who flashed his teeth in readiness. Jess grinned in reply and tapped the hatch panel.
Immediately, slugs flew into the airlock and banged off the far hatch. The shadows returned fire. Their lasers twitched and shot lethal beams of energy at the available targets.
Initially, the reds had aimed too high, but the slugs quickly descended onto the shadows. However, with the shadows’ narrow profiles, many of the slugs didn’t find their marks.
Jess and Tacnock stayed wedged against their respective corners. There were too many slugs careening off hard surfaces to risk moving.
When both shadows sustained damage, one struck in the head, and the other’s laser destroyed, Jess was required to close the hatch.
Tacnock accessed the far panel. The airlock vented, and the tube-side hatch rolled aside.
Sam recovered the shadow with the damaged sensors and deposited it in the tunnel. Shadow two, with the destroyed laser head, followed, as directed.
Lucia surveyed the damaged shadows, and the slew of spent slugs on the airlock floor.
Jess sent in reply.
Jess signaled shadows three and four forward, and Tacnock closed the hatch.
Jess nodded, and he signaled the shadows.
Tips rotated to suction cups, and the shadows climbed the walls to position their bodies above the hatch. Only their heads and laser weapons would extend into the opening.
Tacnock and Jess pressed into their corners, and Jess operated the hatch.
Slugs flew again and ricocheted off the far hatch.
Jess saw a spent slug bang the wall only centimeters from his faceplate, and he squeezed his body tighter into the corner. He wondered if he appeared as wide-eyed as Tacnock, who was wedged into his corner.
A glance at the shadows overhead revealed to Jess that both shadows were operational. Their lasers rapidly spit fire.
When the volley of slugs slowed, Jess closed the hatch.
They cycled the airlock, and Jess added shadows five and six to his small assault group.
This time, Jess added a twist to Tacnock’s concept. He positioned the four shadows to the left and right sides of the hatch. He hoped to buy a small window of time for the shadows before the slugs found them.
When the hatch slid aside, the four shadows targeted and fired. The rate of slugs smacking into the far hatch was significantly slower than the last time. The exchange lasted less than a minute.
Suddenly, it was quiet.
Jess opened his faceplate, automatically shutting his air off. He eyed the shadows. Their small heads twitched, as they searched for targets.
Tacnock had opened his faceplate too. He eased out of his corner, peeked around the hatch opening, and swiftly tucked back. “Nothing moving,” he said.
Jess imitated Tacnock’s action. He saw a pile of insectoid bodies. They had fallen atop one another in awkward positions.
Faceplates were closed, and Jess and Tacnock rotated the hatches.
Then Lucia, Sam, and Homsaff stepped inside. They had to sweep the slugs aside with their boots to prevent slipping on them.
Sam eyed the shadows’ positions.
With the little time the veterans had to master their implant apps, they’d yet to become proficient at recording, storing, and sharing imagery. It was enough for them to concentrate on their comms apps.
Jess sent.
When the telltales signaled air pressure in the short tunnel, Jess opened the dome-side hatch. He signaled the six functioning shadows forward.
“Black space,” Lucia muttered, when she stepped through the far hatch. “Jess, you said a pile of dead. That’s a mound.” She shared the image with the assault team.
The insectoid bodies choked the tunnel passageway, leaving little room to get through.
“I think the remaining reds had to retreat,” Tacnock surmised. “There was no space left for them to wield their slug throwers.”
“We need to make an opening,” Jess said.
“Wait, Captain,” Homsaff cautioned. “I’d expect an ambush. Let my warriors clear the way.”
Jess tipped his helmet, and Homsaff signaled Hessan’s squad forward.
“One moment, Hessan,” Tacnock said. “Not the center. Make the opening on the far-right side.”
Homsaff nodded approvingly of the idea.
The warriors were careful not to expose themselves, as they dragged the carcasses away from the right side of the tunnel to the left side to create a hole.
When a one-meter opening separated the space between the stack of bodies and the tunnel wall, Jess stared at the opening.
Homsaff regarded Lucia, who signaled patience.
Jess turned toward the waiting shadows and signed for several minutes.
“Sam, I need you to relay what you see,” Jess said. “The shadows will draw fire. Then you stick your head around that corner.” He’d pointed to the opening the Dischnya warriors had made.
Sam slung his launcher. Then he crouched near the base of the dead insectoids and close to the hole.
Then Jess signaled the shadows.
In unison, the six shadows climbed the mound of bodies, tipped their laser heads over the top, and fired blindly.
Sam stuck his head around the opening, scanned the tunnel from side to side and from near to far.
The shadows fired only as long as they’d been directed. Then, per their orders, they scrambled down the pile to observe Jess.
Sam shared his short vid with the team, and Jess requested a quick tutorial on how to scan the imagery slowly. Instead, Sam slowed the vid’s replay and sent that to Jess and Tacnock.
“A barrier,” Tacnock snarled.
Ten meters farther down the tunnel, the insectoids had pulled the transport cars off the tracks and laid them across the tunnel. The heads of reds and their weapons showed through various openings around and over the cars.
Jess regarded the shadows, whose small heads were tilted toward him. Sensors waited attentively for a comm signal or a hand sign. He’d hoped the shadows would make all the difference in the fight. But, as he’d feared, the Colony had anticipated their actions. The number of reds and the car barrier were evidence of that. The thought occurred to him that the Colony might have discovered the ring’s destruction at Norsitchia. He considered the possibility that it was some reading on the connecting gate’s console.
When Jess’s head snapped up, the Omnians grinned or chuckled.
“Jess, your link to the team is open,” Lucia reminded him. “What is this about the far console?”
“We’ve been anticipated,” Jess said. “The Colony knew we’d take out the ring and infiltrate through a launch tube. They wouldn’t have
had time to prepare this reception if they’d waited until after we attacked.”
“That was your thought, Jess?” Lucia asked. “You believe the far console registered the Norsitchian dome’s reaction to the wealth of energy it absorbed from the detonation, and the Colony knew how to read it?”
“That was my thought,” Jess acknowledged, although he wasn’t happy to admit it had leaked out.
“Do you think they prepared this defense in every tunnel, Captain?” Hessan asked slyly.
“Oh, that’s a thought,” Sam remarked.
“If I was being thorough like we know the Colony likes to be, I would,” Tacnock added.
“Bet on it,” Jess said, his tone relayed his disgust. “The Colony would be prepared to defend all three tunnels, but to what extent?”
“We might overcome this barrier to face another,” Homsaff commented.
“And the Colony can pull reserves from the other tunnels,” Lucia added.
Jess returned to staring at the shadows. He couldn’t afford to expend them foolishly. They were valuable assets that needed to be used efficiently. He gazed toward the airlock, and the team followed his line of sight to stare wonderingly at the dinged airlock face.
Then Jess grinned broadly, and, around him, there were smiles and displays of sharp teeth.
“Sam, bring me shadow two,” Jess said.
Sam didn’t hesitate. He ran to cycle through the airlock. Then he signaled the shadow to follow him.
27: Spotter
“Sorry, Hessan, but we need to put the reds back,” Jess said, pointing to the gap in the mound of bodies. In reply to Hessan’s furrowed brow, Jess explained his idea.
Lucia was transmitting conversations and relaying her visuals to Juliette, who was sharing them with the other assault squads.
When Juliette discovered that Jess hadn’t made it any farther than the pile of dead, she’d brought only Simlan’s squad down the tube and left Fenero’s squad aboard the shuttle.
By the time Sam rejoined the team, Hessan’s squad had artfully rebuilt the pile. They’d left a small hole though a pair of pincers. This would be the spotter’s site for the damaged shadow. It would provide the targeting information for the other six shadows.
