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  However, before all of them had been able to review the vid, their consoles all began to light up.

  “Sir! I have a positive lock in the enemy. Oh my god,” the officer spoke the last almost quietly enough to not be overheard.

  Tomiakin was quickly behind the man running the sensor station. “What? Tell me what you’ve found.”

  The man pointed to his screen as he described what the computer already told him. “Sir, the computer has tagged over twenty-three hundred individual signals. Fifteen of which are large enough to be cruiser class. Four of them are even larger!"

  “Give me a tactical in the tank!” Tomiakin ordered. The large display changed to a tactical view of surrounding space with New Talos at the center. As Tomiakin watched, the icons for the moon bases and the orbital stations were displayed as yellow instead of the green indicating friendly forces.

  “Why are the moon bases and the stations in yellow?” Tomiakin asked.

  “Because we seem to have lost contact with them Sir," one of the techs replied. "I'm trying to get more information on them."

  “Oh, this is not happening.” Tomiakin said mostly to himself. “Okay, we still have planetary defenses and the fighter squadrons. We have targets, so let's start blowing them up! Full attack. Alert General Haus of the possibility he will be attacked and to activate the city defenses. Do we have a status on the Antares squadrons?"

  "They are still on the ground, Sir, the Adonis is still over the base," was the reply.

  "It's going to be hell, but we need those fighters. Order Antares base to attack and destroy the Adonis, have two fighter squadrons remain to assist while the rest get to New Talos as fast as they can. If we have any ships in the area that are not engaged with something else, have them assist the base with the destruction of the Adonis," Tomiakin ordered.

  “Orders sent, those fighters should be in range of the planet in twenty minutes. Two corvettes are moving to assist Antares,” the operations officer replied as he turned to walk away.

  "Where are you going?" Tomiakin asked impatiently.

  The officer put a hand on his stomach. "Bad lunch, Sir. I need to use the head. I have my earbud in, I'll still be able to work."

  Tomiakin nodded. It was poor timing, but he had to admit, if it was going to happen, this would be the time. "Hurry back, I'm going to need you now more than ever."

  The officer nodded and turned away. "I'll do my best, Sir."

  “Good! It’s time we showed Ian Williams his place,” Tomiakin said confidently.

  Combat Theater 'Astra'

  Star Dancer Command Center

  New Talos System, Carnius Sector

  “Admiral we have activity at Antares Base, their weapons systems just went hot, and they appear to be readying to launch fighters,” Chloe reported.

  “Well, it took them long enough. Inform the wings that chances are good they'll be getting more playmates from the base. Relay the tracking information to weapons control. Ready the ground forces. Queen’s Bishop to King’s Knight Four – check.” Ian ordered.

  Jenny nodded and began issuing orders, “Navigation, set coarse one-four-seven. Speed; point four. Put us in high orbit, rig for non-nuclear orbital bombardment. Weapons officer, keep the flies off our back.”

  “Joker Three to Queen’s Bishop. Shuffle in progress.” Cindy’s voice issued over the speakers.

  “Copy that Joker Three. You’re running behind. Queen’s Bishop to King’s Knight four – check.” Ian told her.

  “Understood. White King’s Rook will be in contact. Will-call for Queen’s Knight. Joker Three out.”

  Ian got Chloe’s attention. “Queen’s Knight to stand-by.” She nodded and turned away. Ian walked to the replicator near the rear of the cavernous operations center to get a cup of coffee for himself and Jenny. Damocles should be in route to Admiral Goya’s position. Once she gets there and has secured the area, she'll call for the two shuttles and two escorting shadow fighters, Queen’s Knight, to extract the High Council and High Command survivors.

  An excited ensign from the operations group came running up to him. “Admiral! Joker Two reports capturing the newly appointed ‘President’ aboard the station! They also report about a hundred civilians present. There were four civilian casualties during the capture of the station. They have left the Marine detachment and are heading for their next target.”

  “Excellent! Now if we can just find their command center, we should be able to stop this,” Ian said as he returned to his place by the holotank. He handed the cup of coffee to Jenny and asked Chloe the status on the other three Raptor teams assigned to the fortresses.

  “Joker One is finishing up and estimates they’ll be heading out in about twenty minutes. Joker Four is having problems though. The enemy soldiers are in combat suits and using the civilians as human shields. The onboard computer system has been tampered with to the point that what Sonya has gotten control of is little more than an information source. They’ve lost one team member and two Marines. No count on the number of civilians lost but Major Raist knows of at least five dead,” she reported.

  “Any way we can shift some help to them?” Ian asked as he looked up at the tactical display to evaluate the positions of his forces.

  The operations officer began, “We could shift a platoon of Marines over to them...”

  “Sir!" A young male lieutenant yelled. Both Ian and Chloe looked to the portion of the display the man had pointed to. The icon for the orbital station that Joker Four had been assaulting was fading in the expanding circle denoting an explosion. “Confirmed. 30 kiloton detonation. It must have been the station’s reactor.”

  “Damn.” Ian said softly, his voice tight and strained. “Operations, warn the other Raptor teams.” He brought up the list of objectives for the assorted elements of this operation.

  Raptor Cornelius, Joker Four, was to have disabled the city defenses and gather what intel they could at Elysium. A battalion of Marines were to land and assault the garrison that was in control there. Once again Ian thanked whatever deity that was watching over his shoulder that the Marines had been sent back with the cruisers.

  However, now those Marines would most likely be shot down while attempting to land. Something had to be done about that. Raptor Damocles had only been assigned the rescue of Admiral Goya’s group because it was determined that they wouldn’t be able to shift over fast enough. Well, they would have to do something about that.

  “Joker Three, this is Queen’s Bishop.”

  “Joker Three.” Cindy answered.

  “Joker Four is gone. We need you to take their assignments. Think you can pull it off?” Ian asked.

  After a few minutes pause, Cindy replied, “Affirmative. Launch Queen’s Knight. Please make the appointment with the Queen in seven moves.”

  “Queen’s Bishop out,” Ian replied.

  Ian looked up and in a loud voice he said, “Launch Queen’s Knight.” He then switched over to a comm channel Goya’s people would be monitoring.

  “Williams to Goya, priority immediate.”

  A few seconds went by and Ian was about to repeat the hail when it was finally answered and an image of Admiral Goya was projected into the tank.

  “Goya here, How’s the weather out there Ian?” Goya asked.

  “Nasty storms all over the place. How quickly can you pack?" Ian asked.

  Goya nodded. “We already have. I take it our flight is about to land?”

  “Yes Sir. Damocles will be there very soon, and your ride will arrive shortly after that. We’re not showing any enemy elements in your area, but that could change quickly. We need everyone off the ground in twenty minutes.”

  “Understood. We’ll be ready.”

  “Admiral,” someone in operations called, “we’re showing a shuttle taking off from Talos City space port. It looks to be heading for Admiral Goya’s position.”

  “That was quick. Tag it and inform Joker Four and Queen’s Knight.” Ian turned back to
Goya.

  “We heard. We’ll be ready. Goya out.”

  Chloe was waiting for Ian. “The Adonis is under heavy attack by Antares base, two squadrons of fighters as well as the surface to space weapons are being used on them. Two Corvettes seem to be joining the fun as well. So far, the Adonis hasn't taken any damage, she's launching her fighters and is about to fire on the base. Analysis of the attack indicates a diversionary tactic in order to keep the Adonis attention away from the rest of the fighters from the base. One full squadron has already slipped past them and is on its way here. There are only about sixty enemy fighters and Centurions remaining, not counting however many Antares is going to launch," she reported.

  Ian nodded. "White King to Kings Rook two, Black King to Queen's Rook one - Check," Ian smiled. "Remind them Adonis has chosen to remain Actively Neutral." The two 'Kings' were the two Talosian Cruisers. King's Rook was Antares Base, and Queen's Rook was New Talos. Which meant that one of the Talosian cruisers would assist the Adonis in keeping Antares base out of the fight. The other cruiser would proceed to planetary orbit of New Talos and free the cities it had been assigned to assault.

  “If all the enemy forces are former prisoners, why don't they try to run or escape? They have to know they've lost by now,” Chloe said.

  "It wouldn't do them any good. They are all tagged with transponders. No matter where they go, they will be found. It's a hell of an incentive to want to keep fighting," Ian replied. "I suppose we could have used the transponders to help locate them as well, but how can we be sure that all of the enemy troops are convicts? Either way, they're going to put up one hell of a fight."

  “I believe you’re right, Commander. But the only thing we can do is to try to kill or recapture them. I'll pass that little tidbit of information to the Marine commanders so they can be prepared. I don’t think these enemy ‘marines’ are going to want to surrender easily,” Chloe suggested.

  Ian nodded and looked back into the holotank.

  Combat Theater 'Astra'

  Raptor Damocles

  House Boden Lunar Facilities

  New Talos System, Carnius Sector

  “Joker Three, this is Dealer. You have an inbound shuttle from Talos City, vector two-one-nine, angels one-zero, speed point zero-one-four.”

  “Copy Dealer, we are changing to heading two-one-nine and going quiet. Time to intercept four-five seconds. Mark!” Cindy switched to her intercom. “Full stealth! Master safety off. Sasha we have a shuttle full of bad guys trying to beat us to our prize. Acquire target forward, angels one-zero, head on. Intercept in three-zero seconds. Weapons free, clear to engage.”

  “Target acquired, this will be easy; they aren’t even trying to hide.”

  “Sasha wait!” Cindy called. “Lissa, scan for cloaked craft or anything that could be a cloaked craft.”

  Very shortly Lissa said, “Sasha, look down.”

  Moving through the valley below the Damocles, was a ‘wind wake’ that would normally be caused by an aircraft moving at high speed too close to the ground. “Computer says the profile suggests a Centurion. Transferring target lock to weapons system.”

  “Hard lock for missiles. Firing!” Sasha reported. “First target hard lock for guns, firing!” Moments later two explosions echoed through the valley triggering an avalanche on a nearby mountain slope.

  “Dealer, this is Joker Three. Splash two hostiles, continuing mission," Cindy reported

  “Good work Joker Three, Queen’s Knight is arriving at the palace," Cindy heard Chloe reply.

  “Joker Three is in route, ETA zero-three.” Cindy reported as she switched the weapons safety back to stand-by. Over the intercom she said, “Ladies and gentleman, we will be landing in three minutes. I’ve switched on the fasten seatbelts sign so please take your seats and extinguish all smoking materials.”

  “Well, we rescued the High Councilors, what’s next?” Jerry asked.

  “We are to proceed as fast as possible to Elysium to disable the city’s defenses so the Marines can land,” Cindy answered.

  “I thought that was Cornelius’s mission,” Sasha asked.

  “It was.” Cindy said, sadly. “Get geared up for urban assault. We’ll be down in fifteen.”

  As Lissa flew the Raptor toward Elysium, Cindy gave the rest of her team a quick briefing on the mission objective, which was the defense control center located next to the main security building.

  “We can breach the city shield here,” She pointed to a spot on the holographic map showing an underground, intra-city maglev train. “We will insert here at this automated maintenance and switching station. Lissa will instruct the computer to stop the train for an emergency repair, which a drone will carry out. Since the system is automated the trains themselves haven’t been stopped during martial law. They simply closed the stations so no one can use them. However, we can’t just get on the train since they are monitored with video surveillance and we would be noticed leaving the station. So, we are going to anchor ourselves to the back of the train and ride it to the mid-city station, just two blocks from our main objective. I want everyone to triple check that anchoring, if you come free during transit even this armor won’t be able to protect you very much. That train travels at roughly five hundred miles an hour through a sealed tube in a near-vacuum.

  “Once we arrive at our destination, we will enter the underground utility tunnels and proceed to our target. There are automatic low powered lasers near our exit for rodent control. Those lasers are controlled by the defense control computer, so Lissa won’t be able to shut them off. The control computer itself is isolated from the rest of the planetary network and has no external means of access; which is why we have to go in and shut it down. Since the defenses have been activated, expect to find civilians running the system, but enemy guards running them. The civilians are not to be considered targets. We capture the control center, lower the defenses, and then hold it until team Elysium relieves us. Any questions?”

  “Yes Major, two,” Sasha said. “First, do we assume the civilians are friendly, and second, how will be able to tell the enemy from team Elysium members?"

  “Don’t trust anyone. However we need to give the civilians the benefit of the doubt. As for the team Elysium members, they will be wearing Sol Sector armor. It’s similar to ours in design, but doesn’t have the extra electronics pack we have below our primary. You should be able to tell them apart easily. Anything else?”

  “Yeah, why don’t we just use our jump packs and fly down the tunnel? No offense, but I really don’t like the sound of falling off the train," Jerry said.

  “Two reasons. The first is that the tunnel has a shield in it too, one which only opens to allow the trains to get through. The second is our packs can only move us at two hundred miles an hour. The next train will hit us doing relatively three hundred miles an hour before we could reach the next station. Now we need to finish getting ready; we’re getting close.”

  The sun was setting behind the coastal mountains as Cindy and her team walked out of the Damocles. As they approached the door to the underground facility, it slid open.

  “Major, the train will be here in two minutes. I’ve told the computer that there is a potential fault in the rear magnetic stabilizer. It has reported the failure to the main control computer, so it can slow the next train. You’ll have about six minutes to get hooked on for the ride,” Lissa reported.

  “Good work, Lissa. Please inform command once we depart the station,” Cindy replied. “Let’s move it, people, we have a train to catch.”

  Combat Theater 'Astra'

  Star Dancer Command Center

  New Talos System, Carnius Sector

  Ian glanced up at his office balcony overlooking the command deck. Ian saw the surviving Council members and their assistants were watching his every move. Chloe had detailed a young ensign to give the Talosian leaders a full briefing on the operation and what remained to be done. The Council expressed their concern that the conv
icts set free by the rebels would begin the wholesale killing of the populace.

  Ian had to assure them that they were doing everything in their power to make sure that didn't happen. Once the fighting was under better control, and as he could spare the troops, they would be rounding up all the convicts using the implanted transponders. They even had a backup plan in place if they had somehow found a way to hide or silence the implant. None of the monsters now loose on New Talos would remain free for long.

  “Sir, the Raptor teams have disabled the defenses for the major cities. The Marines are moving in. There has been heavy resistance, but the new armor is reducing our casualties. Elysium is now under our control, and they are working out to the outer areas and residential communities. The central areas and main computer systems are back under control. However, we are recapturing prisoners at a rate faster than we can transport them back to prison. A lot of them have simply lain down their arms and surrendered,” Chloe reported.

  “Maybe we should shorten the trip?” Someone asked quietly. Ian looked around, but couldn’t identify the source of the comment. He could understand the sentiment, considering the horrors all of them had witnessed, but this was dangerous ground and he thought he should say something.

  “Okay folks, listen up. We are soldiers. Our purpose is to protect those that have given themselves into our care. We are not members of the judiciary or constabulary branch. We are military. Once those enemies we are fighting lay down their weapons they, too, become our responsibility, just as any other member of society. It is not for us to judge them, nor is it our duty to execute them for what they have done. If we began doing that, then we become no better than they are. I know what you have seen angers you. I know that the evidence we’ve gathered of the things they’ve done while in control of this planet are atrocious. But if we let that anger gain control of us and we take it upon ourselves break the trust of those who have surrendered, how can our own people trust that we won’t do the same thing to them? How can you trust the rest of us not to do the same thing to you?" he paused and looked at them.