A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (20 page)

The station reached out with its point defense array, each layer killing more of the missiles. Two warheads made it within repulsor range. The first detonated with minor damage to the station, knocking out its primary long-range comm array and a few point defense turrets. The second, however, managed to trigger secondary explosions near a point defense battery. The resultant explosion tore a gash in the station’s armor, expanding gases adding to the conflagration.

“That’s the window, give
Port Royal
the go.” Athena said.
Port Royal
would lead the attack on this station now.

Athena glanced back at the 3D tactical display.
Thunderer
was still working hard to keep the Chinese battlecruiser at arm’s length, while simultaneously taking on her escorts and the wounded cruiser that remained. While she was taking a beating, it was working.

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“I’m in.” Shay said as the hatch rolled aside. Mae was covering it in an instant, while Sommer covered the passageway. Unarmored security had been the first to respond and Sommer had no trouble keeping them at bay with carefully selected bursts of fire and the odd grenade. Now though, their armored troops had made it to here. They were harder to suppress and Scott had just moved over to assist. Now she stepped back inside and hefted the ruined blast door. She maneuvered it back into rough position, leaving just enough space for Sommer to fire through it. As she held it in place with a single armored hand, she reached out with her other and grabbed at the piping and wiring running across the overhead. She pulled several section off the bulkhead and used it to catch the tops of the broken dogs, effectively lashing the door in place. While it would barely stop an unarmored man, it would slow down any who tried to go through. Above the door she quickly rigged a proximity charge. She nodded to Sommer and he lobbed a final grenade down the passageway before moving to the open turret hatch with Scott. As they entered they found that the other two Agema had already eliminated the gun crew. Shay was again at work hacking into the system. Luckily, his previous hack left him a starting point. He started by reclosing the hatch.

“I’ll try and initiate a lock-down first.” Shay said quietly.

“Good. I’m sending Sommer in as well.” Scott gestured to her sergeant. He nodded and plugged into the console as Shay had done. With two of them, they would make faster progress.

“Meeting resistance.” Shay said almost immediately, grimacing inside his armor as his own cyber-defenses were assaulted.

“Turret control established.” Sommer said. While Shay had drawn the initial counter-attack, Sommer had slipped in and given local control to them for the turret. While the gun crew normally served as a back-up, Sommer had switched the gun to gunnery training mode, meaning that all of the external controls were removed. That didn’t remove the safeties, but there was no time for that.

“Targets…” Mae said absentmindedly to herself as she too plugged in and took control of the turret directly. The turret slewed in place, acquiring a target. Mae fired off the last nine rounds in the big triple-barreled gun’s ‘clip’ in rapid succession before having to wait for the autoloader process to commence. A second later she was ready and loosed another clip of twenty-four rounds.

“Hit on a corvette, looks like she might be breaking up.” Mae reported.

“Safety overrides?” Scott inquired from her position near the hatches. The troopers outside were setting charges even now. Clearly they didn’t plan to take the ten minutes or so to re-hack into their own system.

“Breaking them down now.” Mae responded. “Got them.”

The big turret trained downward, going below its nominal lowest safe depression. Mae then slewed around and took aim at the mid-ventral turret, a virtual carbon copy of their own. She fired six rounds into the turret, immediately turning it into a twisted wreck of hull, gun barrels, and expensive electronics. She slewed again, taking aim at a cluster of shotgun point defense this time and fired a single round before all of the lights to the compartment shut-down simultaneously and the computer systems needed to fire the gun died as well. Scott looked around briefly, then checked the cameras again. Sure enough, the Chinese were about to blow the hatch.

“Incoming.” Scott warned.

“I’m done here, sir.” Shay said.

“Chances are they won’t even notice.” Sommer confirmed.

“No time to wait around and do it better.” Scott said flatly. “Mae, get us a way out.”

Mae’s response coincided with the center-left hatch blowing inward and four grenades accompanying it into the compartment. All four Agema were in good cover behind consoles so the grenades were of no effect. Two armored Chinese marines entered next and were cut down by efficient bursts from Shay. He received enough return fire to keep him in cover. The next marine to charge in took a burst from Scott, nearly 90 degrees off Shay’s position. Sommer, in turn, used the suppressive fire on Scott to fire four grenades back through the broken hatch. The fire slackened temporarily, allowing Mae to bound up to the top of the turret compartment. Once there, she placed a series of charges on the maintenance access hatch and dropped back behind a series of consoles before detonating them. A heavy piece of the surrounding steel frame and the hatch itself dropped to the deck.

“Shay, swarm.” Scott called over the comm.

“Wilco.” He responded.

A moment later, six rotor-drones leapt into the air and sped towards the hatch in a wild formation. Each exited into the outer compartment at a different angle and velocity. Each drone sought an armored target and dove in. They bobbed and weaved around the armored figures, trying to get near a vital component. Their charges were too small to make it through the armor, but they could severely damage the visor or the back of a joint. Additionally, the rifles each marine carried were somewhat susceptible to damage from a smaller charge. Scott didn’t actually expect any damage to result from the little kamikazes, but that wasn’t their primary purpose. The Chinese marines simply couldn’t ignore them.

The Agema took advantage of their enemies’ occupied state to repeat Mae’s previous maneuverer and leap up into the overhead. One at a time they slipped up into the turret sleeve. As the drones were destroyed, the volume of fire returned. Scott nodded to Mae and she detonated the final set of charges. A rush of outgoing air followed as the compartment began to vent to space. Mae went first, entering the new hole and exiting to space. Each of them followed in turn. As Scott moved to the hole, the marines entered the compartment below, no doubt noticing the lack of return fire. She angled her arm downward and emptied her launcher into the compartment. She saw that at least four marines were caught in the open by the grenades and killed. Even a suit breach could mean death in the vacuum of space. With that, she slipped up through the hole and onto the hull of the battlecruiser.

“Scratch one battlestation!” Johnson called out excitedly as the gunboats finished their last gun run on the wounded station. Secondary explosions rippled through her hull as the damage began to cascade. Finally, she broke apart. As a testament to the strength and durability of the station, her fusion cores didn’t breach containment. The station’s three largest pieces slowly broke apart, propelled by a series of smaller explosions.

“One to go.” Athena reminded them.

“Sir, internal comm for you. It’s Captain Kim.” Daniels reported.

“Put her through.” Athena said. “Captain Kim, what can I do for you? I’m sure you are aware we are a bit busy up here.”

“Yes sir, Admiral, sir. I’ll get straight to the point.” Kim took an audible breath and let it out. “I request permission to board the battlestation with my RASAT.”

“How do you propose to get aboard?” Athena said. She could almost hear the surprise in the young captain over the comm.

“Uh, sir. The gunboats should be able to FTL in close and release shuttles. We will likely lose a few on the way in, but less than what you’re losing in the fleet right now. We’re going to need as much ordnance as we can get to fight in the next system.”

Athena checked the holo-display and did a quick mental calculation. They had at least ten minutes before they would be in a position to make a run at the last station.

“Send me your plan, Captain, I’ll review it. I have a couple minutes before I need to commit to the attack again.”

“Thank you sir. The plan is in your priority inbox sir.” Captain Kim sounded surprised and relieved that Athena was actually giving her plan consideration.

Athena didn’t need the whole ten minutes. After five she commed Captain Kim again.

“Alright, I’ll give you a go, but I’m going to make a couple changes to your plan. You’re taking both Armadillos, no gunboats.” Athena said, thinking quickly. She outlines the other, mostly minor, changes she had made to the Captain’s plan. It had been good, but a ship-handler could see some easy places to refine her insertion. Athena couldn’t fault her for that, she did admirably for someone with little to no formal training in warship combat.

“No gunboats sir?” Kim sounded a little doubtful.

“Trust me Captain, the gunboats may be nimble, but the Armadillos were built to charge the guns. They’ll deliver you to your target.” Athena soothed.

“Yes sir. I trust you sir.” Kim responded.

“Very well. Prepare your people. Get ready to shuttle everyone over to the Armadillos. We’ll assemble the fleet in outer system before we make our run on them.” Athena told her.

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Scott dropped behind a point-defense turret, seeing that each of her teammates were in similar cover. They had been fighting a running gun battle across the upper hull of the battlecruiser for the better part of an hour now. They had initially moved to the same entry hole they had entered through. The hole was somewhat bigger now, the explosion of the rigged shuttle having ripped a larger hole. Unfortunately the blast had also mangled hatches inside. The resulting decompression had been sealed off by the Chinese DC parties. There was no way in there.

Now they were most of the way to Sword’s intended position. As they approached the maintenance hatch, Scott could see that it was open. She tensed immediately and approached the hatch carefully. Behind her, Shay and Mae dropped the last two Chinese marines who were still on the outer hull. More would undoubtedly be sent out, but for now they were alone. Scott threw a sensor probe down into the hole.

“Sword, this is Arrow Actual.” Scott broadcast.

“Arrow Actual, this is Sword Actual. Back door’s open and the grill’s hot. Come on down.” Came the reply.

“Should I bring the beer?” Scott asked.

“Not today Arrow, we’re cooking with fire, better bring the whiskey.” Sword had correctly completed the code check. Scott dropped down into the hole, flashing a message to her team to do the same. Once again, artificial gravity grabbed her as she moved inside, forcing her to flex her legs on landing. Her suit sensors detected the armored form before she did. She got the immediate feeling that this one was friendly, her suit ensuring she wouldn’t shoot a fellow Agema.

“LT, good to see you.” Sergeant Willis, commander of Sword, said to her. The rest of her team dropped in beside her. Wordlessly the maintenance hatch closed above them and locked.

“Status?” Scott inquired.

“Well, sir. We have to thank you.” Willis began as they walked the short distance into the main compartment. “It worked perfectly. When you started blasting their own ships and hull with that big gun, they sent almost all of their security your way. We didn’t even see an armored security marine until about four minutes ago. They seem to be short a lot of crew.”

“Well that would be good.” Scott said as she processed the data of Sword’s time aboard the Chinese battlecruiser as Sword and Arrow connected their small data networks.

“Another wave incoming, sir.” Corporal Anthony Cole, another Sword team member, reported. “Getting at least four armored marines and another squad of standard security in hard suits.”

“On my way.” Willis responded.

“Mae, Sommer?” Scott inquired.

“I’m good on ammo, sir.” Sommer replied.

“All set here.” Mae intoned.

“Thank you sir.” Willis said as they headed towards the firefight. “Lance Corporal Stone is on the hack.”

Scott motioned to Shay to follow and approached the armored figure standing in front of the console that dominated the space.

“How are things progressing, Lance Corporal?” Scott asked as they came up beside her.

“Slowly sir.” Lance Corporal Amy Stone replied, her tone clearly frustrated.

“Need a hand?” Shay inquired, already unpacking his kit.

“Hell yes.” She said.

“I’ll give you a hand as well.” Scott said, stepping up closer to the console.

“That should speed things up considerably sir.” Stone replied gratefully.

The three plugged in and worked quickly to establish a digital safe haven, connecting their combined processing power together. Someone was monitoring their effort and attempting to counter. They had been doing a good job with just Stone working at their defenses, but with two more human-computer assailants to concern themselves with, the Agema suddenly made progress, breaking through the firewalls established around them and giving them access to the local sensors that were handled by this sub-station. Stone and Shay ceased their offensive efforts and Scott turned to the sensors they now controlled. She overrode the safety protocols, cranking up the power in each, seeking the most destructive inputs. She also generated several active sensor pulses, directing them on the single remaining battlestation in a hope of blinding some of their more sensitive sensor arrays. Each of the local sensors burnt out in turn. She could feel the strain of their opponents against Shay and Stone, so she accelerated her efforts. As she coaxed the last sensor into failure, she turned back to their attackers, adding the weight of her mind and her AI to the attack. The enemy attack faltered and then fell back behind a new, stronger firewall.