Neptune's Massif Page 16

  "With respect Commander, that doesn't make any sense; all they would need to do is relearn how to program the AI with the sleep-teaching machines," Corvis replied.

  "It would make sense if you no longer trusted the AI that controlled the teaching equipment. Also, the AI would refuse to provide the knowledge if it knew the knowledge would be used in a way counter to the dictates of the Council, or that would harm the Talosian People," Egran replied. "Remember that Herecin wanted to take control for themselves. That would be considered a treasonous act by the AI, which is why they had been trying to deactivate so many of them."

  "So, could Houses Herecin and Bjorin have modified a Heavy Cruiser to remove the AI as well as the Council override programming?" Ian asked.

  "They could, but the ship in question would be greatly disabled in the process. The AI of a ship is far more than just an interface. Almost every single system in the ship is linked to the AI in some way. Most of these intimate connections are even unconscious on the part of the AI. The computers used to control and regulate the intermix for the power units is actually part of the AI. Maintaining the proper atmosphere is monitored and controlled by the AI. To completely remove the AI from a Heavy Cruiser would render said ship unusable until something could be put in place to pick up the slack that humans simply can't do. Making a hyperspace jump of any length is not even possible without an AI assisted helm and navigation control. Humans can't react fast enough. Even if we could, we would over-compensate because of the very fine course adjustments required of FTL travel. One millionth of a degree error is missing your target destination by hundreds of billions of miles. Not to mention you'd probably hit something before you ever arrived.

  "I suppose you could build hundreds of smaller 'smart' computers capable of performing these tasks, but we are talking a lot of extra work," Cindy replied. "Fighting the ship would be even worse."

  Corvis nodded agreement. "The easiest way to disable just about any ship is to take out or disable the AI units."

  "Wait a minute, ARC ships don't have AI on them," Serena said.

  "That is not entirely accurate, Commander," Star replied. "ARC ships do not have the personality programming required of an interface unit. However they do have a system that is, by definition, artificially intelligent."

  "Okay, we're getting off on a tangent here," Ian said. "We'll have to assume that Herecin was able to get at least two ships functional and plan accordingly. From what we are seeing here, the rebels have control of the systems defenses..."

  Ian and the group worked out how to assault and retake the system while trying to minimize civilian casualties, which would be almost impossible when the fighting moved to the cities. They worked through lunch and were just about to stop when Star informed them that the ARC fleet had just reported in. They would be arriving in Centauri space around noon the next day.

  Cayroll Bay Emergency Shelter

  Gerymain Provence

  Planet New Talos

  New Talos System, Carnius Sector

  Admiral Goya looked out at the storm swept sea and the darkening skies of a massive blizzard. It seemed as though even the planet disapproved of the rebellion of its children. He snorted at his own musings. As if the planet was capable of caring one way or another, no matter what the Benesians said. He turned his hoverchair as his aide entered the room.

  "How are you doing, Admiral?" Brekka asked.

  "I'm still here, Brekka. I don't know what's worse, not being able to walk on my own, or feeling the leg as if it were still attached to me!" He shook his head. "Still no word huh?"

  She shook her head. "It's been almost two weeks. If they were going to come, shouldn't they have been here by now?"

  "Maybe, maybe not. Ian will have to make sure his own sector is protected before he can come and rescue us. We also have no idea what's going on in the galaxy around us. There might have been a major Imperial push in an attempt to take advantage of our weakness and Ian had to help with that. We simply have no way of knowing. I do know and firmly believe that Ian and his people will get here as soon as they can. Who knows, his Raptor teams might already be here gathering intelligence for an assault," Goya replied.

  The young Captain nodded as she knelt to check his bandages. "You're bleeding again, have you been scratching it? You know Holjoes told you not to scratch..."

  Goya nodded. "Yes, yes, but he didn't tell me how badly the damn thing would fucking itch!"

  Just then Brekka's communicator beeped. She activated it. "Brekka here." She grinned as she listened to something only she could hear.

  "Excellent, we'll be right down." She stood. "We just received a message from the Damocles; they have arrived and are escorting a medical shuttle to our location. They've asked for permission to land!"

  "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's not keep our guests waiting!" Goya replied, grinning.

  They made it down to the frigid ship hanger just in time for the big bay doors to open. Brekka had insisted that Goya remain inside while the ships arrive and landed, even though they all had arctic clothing. He growled at her, but didn't actually protest that much; it was really cold out there.

  Five minutes later, Goya was happily returning the salute the armored Major Williams was giving him. "It's good to see you're still with us, Admiral. We brought a doctor and one of those flying hospitals they made." She paused. "Admiral Williams sends his greetings as well, Sir, but can we speak in private?"

  "Certainly Major, I'm sure there is a lot you have to tell me," Goya replied and motioned for Brekka to take them back to his quarters.

  "With respect, Admiral. I had the medical shuttle in mind," Cindy said stopping the Admiral. "Doc Johnson wants to see you right away about that leg; we can talk in there."

  Cindy escorted the pair out to the medical shuttle and up the ramp into the triage area.

  "Ah, Admiral! I know we didn't get a chance to meet when you were at Phoenix Base, but I'm Doctor Andrea Johnson. Ian asked me specifically to see you as soon as I could, because, and I quote, 'it's hard to kick ass when you only have one foot!' I think he was just worried about you, Sir." She finished.

  Goya chuckled. "I could see Ian saying that, too. I'm all yours Doctor."

  Andrea nodded. "I assume this young lady is your aide, so I need to ask before we begin, do you want her in there with you?"

  "If it wouldn't be a problem, I think you'd have a hard time keeping her out of the room anyway!" Goya replied as Andrea pushed the hoverchair deeper into the shuttle.

  Andrea got them into one of the treatment rooms, and with Cindy's help got him onto a diagnostic table.

  "Now that we're in here, what did you need to tell me, Major?" Goya asked.

  "Well, the first thing I need to tell you is that the fleet is still a week out. We were sent ahead to do a recon of the situation, as well as to escort this shuttle to you. As soon as I have finished talking to you, my team and I will be departing to begin our primary mission. I am also to leave you a special comm unit that the rebels will not be able to detect," Cindy said.

  Goya nodded. "I figured that he would send you folks in first, but you said 'the fleet'. Just how many ships is Ian bringing?" Goya asked.

  Cindy grinned. "Sir, ARC released some of your forces into Admiral William's command for this purpose. The fleet I mentioned is two heavy cruisers, two battle cruisers, eight light cruisers, and a division of Marines in their support ships. He is also bringing the Tiamat commanded by Terran Commodore Belirus. He told me to tell you that while most of the pilots are still new, the carrier has a full complement on board."

  "How under the suns did he pull that off? I remember him telling me that he thought it would take a year to get the pilots for the fighters that monster carries!" Goya replied.

  "I know he borrowed a few from other places, but for the most part, the fighters and pilots she has will be remaining with her. Recruiting has really stepped up since they got that area at the space port set-up," Cindy said. "Anyway, w
e are going to have to leave you here for now, Sir. Once the fleet arrives, you'll all be evacuated to either the Star Dancer or the Tiamat."

  "You have a few options for this leg, too, Admiral. We can install a cybernetic leg which you will need to learn how to use, but will get you out of here the fastest. While it gets you back on your feet in the shortest amount of time, it will make regrowing the leg a longer process, later. We can fit you with a prosthetic leg that will require you to learn how to walk on it. That'll take a couple of weeks, but has the advantage of not messing with the regrowth process at all. Finally, we can begin the regrowth process now, which will also take the longest time. It will also restrict you to this shuttle," Andrea said outlining Goya's choices. "That medic did a pretty good job in the amputation, although I can see you've been having some trouble with aftercare."

  "Set me up with a cybernetic leg, Doctor. I know it'll take longer to fix later on, but with any luck at all, I'll actually have the time. If we get discovered here, I'll need to be able to run if I need to," Goya replied.

  Andrea nodded. "That would be the one I would have recommended for you in this situation. I'll get it set up and we can do it later today; the sooner we get it done the better. The longer you sit in that chair, the less your brain will remember how to walk."

  "Will you be seeing to Councilor Noren?" Goya asked.

  Andrea smiled. "She's in the next room. That's why we can't help you until later today, I'll be taking care of her right after we finish here."

  "Well, on that hopeful note, I will depart. With your leave Admiral?" Cindy asked.

  "Be safe, Major," Goya replied.

  Assault Command Center

  TDF Star Dancer

  System Entry Vector

  New Talos System, Carnius Sector

  Ian was not happy with the reports from the Raptors. It was clear that the rebels were in control of the planet, if you could call it that. They had used criminals for most of their 'soldiers' and now those criminals were running rampant over the population. The new rebel council had made a public announcement that, until the traitors of the old ruling Council and the remnants of High Command were surrendered to 'authorities', the house to house searches would continue.

  Cindy reported that the 'searches' were little more than an excuse for armed men to enter private homes and beat, brutalize, rape, and steal anything they wanted. The civilian population was thoroughly cowed because any attempt at resisting was met by killing the person objecting. Civilians had no weapons to fight back with, and the emergency replicators were not programmed to create weapons of any type other than knives used for cooking.

  Unsearched or resistant communities had their power shut off and were denied all public services, including water and sewer. Of course, each home had small emergency power units, but they were only designed to last a month and provided only the basic power needed to run the replicator and the small back-up systems a house used.

  Major Corvis could not confirm what class of ships there were, but he did pick-up several transmissions to and from what had to be ships. The transmissions were encoded and too short for the AI to try to decode, being burst transmissions. They did investigate one of the transmissions points and found an Ailette class corvette with both of its fighters still mounted under the stubby wings. He placed the small ship as an orbital patrol unit. He also reported that several of the emergency cryo units that were the lifeboats for heavy cruisers were still in orbit around the planet.

  Ian thought it odd that no one had either retrieved them or allowed them to re-enter the atmosphere, thus freeing the occupants from stasis. The units had to have been ordered to remain in orbit to await retrieval. All of the beacons for the AI of the former cruisers were accounted for, however; they had successfully made it to the planet's surface, but none of them had as yet been retrieved. Their retrieval beacons were still active.

  All of the planet's larger population centers had their shields activated. Which meant that no craft could enter or leave without clearance from the control center of each city. The orbital fortresses of the planet were also under the control of the rebels. Those defensive satellites carried the same base fire power of a heavy cruiser, without the fighters. They would be a problem for any ship unlucky enough to get into range of their weapons.

  The moon bases were also under rebel control. One of the moons held a missile base and the prison where the rebels had gotten some of their 'soldiers'. The missile base was part of the primary system defense network and had a virtually limitless supply of missiles it could launch.

  The other moon base held a combat craft training academy and base. Counting the trainer craft that could be armed there were over two hundred Hornet fighters stationed there. Not counting what the fighter assembly plant also on the moon might have had ready.

  New Talos' second moon was not the only military base in the system, nor was it the largest. That honor went to the primary fleet command base on the third planet. In addition to hosting the nominal offices and assorted support structure for the New Talos High Command, the Antares Base complex had a huge starport hosting eight squadrons of fighters, four squadrons of Centurion fighter/bomber variants, as well as being the home port for several corvettes and small frigates. It was entirely possible that the corvette that Corvis had located had been based out of Antares.

  "Queen o' Hearts, this is Knight Six, I think we go' somethin' ya all might wanta take a look see at," a man with a Louisiana accent was heard over the din on the bridge.

  "Who's the Cajun?" Ian asked Jenny, quietly.

  She glanced at her pad. "ECM - slash - spy variant Condor. The crew named her 'Swamp Witch'. Commanded by Senior Lieutenant Louis Leblanc. His squadron is on an outer system recon."

  Ian nodded his understanding; he simply hadn't recognized the voice.

  "This is Queen of Hearts, what ya got Knight Six?" Chloe asked from her place at the planning holotank.

  "We wuz sent o're here to look over a minin' station, I got a heavy cruiser IFF is callin' 'Summer's Eve'. Once that gets ya smiling, the rest of the data will definitely sober ya up after a night at Mardi Gras. Sending data download now." Leblanc replied. Chloe pushed some of the stuff in the tank aside to view the incoming data stream. She quickly had the data replace the rest of the plot in the tank.

  The Argyris Mining Consortium had a huge mining and processing facility set up in the upper atmosphere of the seventh planet; a very large gas giant of a size between that of Saturn and Jupiter. The facility extracted hydrogen and other compounds from the planet and had been the primary supply facility for the Talosian military fleets.

  Currently, the station was barely recognizable because there were large freighters docked at every loading port except for the largest one at the top of the station. That loading port was connected to the bottom of what looked like a modified heavy cruiser. The data from the Swamp Witch showed the odd framework built around the cruiser to be hundreds of missile launchers. The framework blocked the fighter launch bays, but not the landing bays.

  "What the Sam Hell is that?" one of the people around the tank asked.

  "That," Ian said, "is a problem." He keyed up his comm. "Knight Six, this is Queen's Bishop. Can you tell if that bitch still has her fighters on board?"

  "Ina couple o' minutes, we'll be able to tell ya what the captain had fer dinnah last nigh'," the man answered.

  Chloe nodded and looked up at Ian. "They're dropping sensors on the hulls of the station and the ships. We should get a full reading on them very soon, Admiral."

  Ian nodded. "That big bastard is in the perfect position to fire missile after missile at a rate twice that of normal without ever having to worry about running out of replicator materiel. Since the landing bays are still open, they can even launch hypermissiles. That could be a very big problem."

  "We can't just destroy her while she's attached to the station, the whole thing would go up," Chloe replied nodding.

  "We'll have to get Mar
ines on her and the station and take it out the hard way. But, it has the fire power to blow just about anything out of space as soon as it detects it. Even if we got through the barrage of missiles that bitch can fire, there are no open docking ports on the station, so we would have to go through either the cruiser or one of the freighters," Ian said thinking out loud.

  "Sir, I hate to even think this, but I think we gonna have to blow the whole thing. Even as high up as we are, the radiation from the planet is charging our armor extremely fast. We gonna have to be gone shortly, or risk exposure or power overload," Leblanc said. "From what we be seeing of the folk in the station, they is probably a prayin' for us to do exactly that."

  The data feed now in the holotank was straight out of hell. The 'marines' were having a party. The station personnel were providing the entertainment in very horrific ways.

  "Oh my god," Jenny replied. "Ian we have to stop them."

  "We will Jen, but this isn't an isolated event. These assholes are doing this to everyone in the system. We are here to put an end to all of it," Ian replied. "Our problem is how to do it with the least amount of civilian casualties as possible. These assholes are using a very nasty tactic. Placing a military target in a civilian facility thinking we won't destroy a civilian target."

  "So, what's the answer then?" Jenny asked.

  "When they'd do it on Earth, my old government would send a couple of troops of Special Air Service, or SAS, to pay them a visit. The Israelis would use Moussed or the Americans would use Delta Force or Navy SEALs. We need a couple of Raptor teams at least, that's a big facility." Chloe replied.

  Ian nodded. "I'd bet my left arm that the whole thing would be destroyed the minute that Commander over there figured out what was going on."

  "We got that hyperspace inhibitor in the ship, but as I said befo'- we stick around much longer and we're gonna be Condor gumbo," Leblanc replied.