Assault on Ambrose Station: A Seth Donovan Novel (37 page)

“Weapons release detected!” called Fel, monitoring the sensors himself.

“What’s the status of the Spider?”

“No reduction in acceleration, however I’m detecting instabilities in the ship’s inertial field. The Calliope is firing again!”

This time, the barrage seemed endless. Maxine almost missed the countdown to fire, she was so caught up in the raging battle.

“Full sensor sweep! Paint that battery with every sensor we’ve got!” she called.

“Deploying full suite!”

“Crege!”

Without answering, Crege hit the controls, hands working like he was juggling small, unseen balls instead of the flight controls.

“Stabilised! Rotation arrested!”

The torrent of hardlight from the Calliope eclipsed the corvette for a brief moment, as the fire tracked across the ship’s projected path. Suddenly, the Astral Spider detonated in a brilliant explosion.

“No!” she wailed.

“Beamer tracking! Solution valid! Firing!”

Max thumped her console in rage, screaming obscenities. She could barely hear herself over the howl of the beamer.

“Direct hit.” reported Fel, his voice cracking, “Starboard battery destroyed, along with secondary explosions along the starboard hull.”

“Bring us around, Crege! I want that bastard’s head!”

“Main propulsion online, running on hydrogen mix. Scoops offline.” reported the Garz’a.

Crege swung the ship around using the manoeuvring thrusters and kicked in the ion drives for added acceleration, pushing the crew into their seats once more.

“Let me know the moment the beamer is charged!” Max said through clenched teeth.

“I’m not detecting any lifepods, Captain,” said Fel, his voice heavy with grief.

“They didn’t have a chance to get to one. It was too sudden.”

“That’s strange…” muttered Fel.

“What?”

“I’m not detecting any energy readings from the explosion. Nor am I detecting any debris.”

Before they could say anything more, the Astral Spider suddenly reappeared – whole and operational. It scooted around the larger ship and unleashed a vibrant array of lasers to rake the damaged hull torn open by the Dreaming. A string of explosions rippled through the already weakened hull.

“She’s back! It was a hologram!” shouted Fel in excitement.

“That cunning bastard! What’s the charge on the beamer?” called Max, thinking fast.

“Sixty seven percent.”

“Take another shot at that rent. We’ve got her on the back foot now!”

“Beamer tracking!”

Another shriek drowned out all noise from the ship, shorter than previous shots.

“She’s gone!” said Fel in surprise.

“What?”

“The Calliope – it’s gone!”

“It blew up?”

Max stared at her console, trying to make sense of the sensor feed. Sure enough, there was no ship. The orange light of the beamer was passing through empty space.

“What in the galaxy?”

“Fel’negr,” said the Votus, “scan for Fiddich radiation.”

Fel switched modes on his console, reading the data.

“I’m detecting significant Heat in the area.”

“How significant?” asked Max.

“Consistent with a shift by a ship of the Calliope’s displacement.”

“It jumped…”

Everyone was silent in the compartment. For a moment, they all just sat and stared at their screens. Maxine broke the silence.

“Get Garner on the horn. We need to talk.”

59.

Max sat oppose Garner at the briefing room table. The atmosphere in the Astral Spider had a different quality to it than the last time she was on board, she noted. A strong scent of polycrete chemicals mingled with smoke and melted metals.

“I’m sorry if we gave you a fright back there,” he said, “We would only have one chance to cloak, and needed a distraction in case you missed your shot.”

“I’ll admit, my heart was in my mouth when I saw you blow up.”

“Somehow, you don’t strike me as the kind of woman who would quietly suffer.”

“Ha, have you been talking to Donny?” she said, her smile reaching her eyes.

“Not since we left Ambrose Station. How is the Dreaming holding up?”

“She’s seen worse. I’m more worried about the Spider.”

“She’s taken a lot of damage. I can still cloak, as the nanite sheath covering the hull can rebuild. I’m more worried about the internal damage. Main propulsion has suffered a hit and I don’t think it can be fixed without a dry dock. I’m running on puff right now.”

“Captain Puff…”

“Now, now, Maxine. I suffered this damage in your defence.”

She smiled warmly, again.

“Want to tell me what we just witnessed?” he said, all trace of humour gone from his features.

“We found out what the Ghantri were looking for in the Destroyer ruins.” She flicked him the data and recordings they had gathered about the Jump Drive.

Garner was silent a few moments, quietly contemplating the discovery.

“What does Melafenaseance think?” he said.

“Most of those summaries were written by him. Do you really think the Jaani could have reverse engineered these drives in so short a time?”

“Given what we’ve seen, we have to assume they have. They did have unfettered access to these ruins for two decades.”

“We have to let the Protectorate know.”

“I’m not sure they would believe me,” said Garner, “I’m not sure they wouldn’t just arrest me when I return. I did disobey a direct order to return to Eridani.”

“What about Mel? Surely they would take his word along with all the evidence we’ve gathered?”

“They might.”

“Might?”

“You have to understand the current political clime surrounding the Gossamer System. The Protectorate is too cautious when it comes to the Ghantri. The last time it jumped to action, the cost was too high. They may just close the Jump Gate anyway, since they’ll think there is no longer a need to keep it open. Our best bet is to get Melafenaseance back to Eridani and confront the Protectorate Command there.”

“We’ll have to leave now then,” said Max, “or we’ll miss the deadline.”

“My navigator has expressed as much to me. There is another problem, however.”

“There always is.”

“Naga Team.”

“What about them?”

“We’re not going to be able to get back to them and get to the Jump Gate in time on puff drives. I doubt the Protectorate will hold the gate open that long. Even for us.”

“But we can…”

“There’s still over forty Ghantri warships patrolling that region…”

“I’m not leaving my boy. I’m not leaving anyone behind.”

“If they go through that portable Jump Gate…”

“They could end up absolutely anywhere, held by Benedict Jenner’s goons. No. If you can’t get there, you make for the Jump Gate now and I’ll pick up the team.”

“I can’t authorise…”

“You don’t have to, Garner. I’m Captain of my own ship. We’re not in Protectorate space here – your government has no control over how I run my operation.”

“Maxine…”

“End of story.” She leaned back and crossed her arms.

Garner was quiet for a few moments, frowning across the table at her.

“Is everyone from your ship so difficult to get along with?”

“We’re team players, Garner. You just have to play by our rules.”

“So I see. All right, Maxine. Have it your way. What’s your plan for getting past those Ghantri?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“You’d better, you only have a few more days before Naga needs to be picked up.”

“I’m open to suggestions.”

“I’ll have my command team working on something tactical, but I make no guarantees.”

“What about your cloak system?”

“What about it?”

“Can it be moved?”

He rubbed his chin in thought.

“It’s possible. The Protectorate would probably have me shot, but it’s possible.”

“How long will it take?”

“Surprisingly little time. The cloak module is only half of the stealth capabilities of the Astral Spider, however. You won’t be able to mask your drive signature or any gravity or electromagnetic emissions. You’ll have optical, ladar and radar stealth only. You could close all your emissions ports, but it will get awfully hot inside your boat before long.”

“I’ll take it. I know how to run a ship dark. It’s just like tracking pirates for bounty hunting jobs.”

“I don’t like this, Maxine. It’s too risky.”

“This whole trip into Gossamer System has been too risky. If we’re going to get out, with everyone we brought in, we’re going to need to take more risks. The stakes are too high. We need to get this information back to Eridani, and you need to get out of this system before they shut down the Jump Gate.”

He sighed. “I agree with you, I only wish the dice I’m throwing weren’t loaded.”

“Welcome to the frontier, Garner.”

He chuckled lightly.

“You’re going to need Melafenaseance if you’re going to use the cloak module. It is based off a Votus design, after all.”

“Won’t you need him to warn the Protectorate about the Ghantri?”

“I’m hoping you’ll bring him back. At this stage, I have to prioritise what is best for my crew and my ship. To give you the best chance of finishing the mission, you will need the Votus. Keep him. Getting him out of the system simply to warn the Protectorate about the Ghantri won’t keep that Gate open longer. They’ll play it safe and shut it down anyway. The strife in the Eridani System is their main focus now.”

“At least we know what happened to the Ghantri fleet, now.”

“Small difference it makes. We still don’t know
where
they are. We will need more information about these drives, their range and limitations, before we can begin to speculate.”

“If you get back to Eridani, you should look into any historical information from the Destroyer War.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

“Great minds think alike.”

He smiled at her, but she could see the weariness in his features.

“Thanks for coming to our aid, Garner. I appreciate it, I really do.”

“We wouldn’t be much of a Protectorate if we didn’t do any protecting would we?”

“You’re a good man, Garner. I’ll make sure any other Captains I know hear about what you did for us.”

“I’ll escort you back to your ship. Send Melafenaseance back so we can start removing the cloak module.”

“I’ll send Cuts and the Argen over as well to help with repairs. Ours are mostly hull damage.”

“What about your propulsion?”

“Cuts can fix it when we’re underway, he says it’s a simple fix and we have the resources.”

“If only the rest of our problems were so easy.”

60.

A good squad leader knew when to push the advantage, and when to fall back. We had the Ghantri on the back foot, but I knew it would not last. I called for everyone to fall back to the cart, noting with relief as the turntable rotated. I had Kekkin, Renthal and Geko continue firing on the hangars, while Gunther and I lifted Masters and carried him back to the carriage. Artemis and Tac were already there, and Harris and Carro were not far behind us.

“They’re making a push!” called Renthal, pausing to fire a trio of grenades from an under-barrel mount.

“Everyone in! We are Oscar Mike!” I ordered.

“Move, move, move!” echoed Kekkin, shoving Geko into the carriage. I dragged the Auto Mortar out onto the platform, setting Rhondel’s reactor beside it. In a few moments it would recharge and begin firing again, providing much needed cover for our retreat.

When everyone was on board, I activated the engine and the carriage rose gently on the mag rail. While bullets began to pepper the armoured sides of the carriage, we sped off down the concourse and into a dark tunnel, lit every few hundred metres by pulsing orange light.

“Warriors! Full gear check!” ordered Kekkin, “Grenade counts, clip counts and wound counts. Armour status, life support, weapon condition!”

The team started to go through their gear, stockpiling their munitions and clips. Renthal reported his left shoulder plate had been cracked by an enemy grenade blast, while Gunther had to remove both his right thigh section and lower back plate. The worse damaged was Geko – aside from several cracked armour plates his helmet had shattered under a torrent of Ghantri fire. He was lucky one had not penetrated and killed him.

We handed out segments of Rhondel’s armour that we had salvaged and gave the helmet to Geko.

Artemis moved over to me. She had blood running down the side of her face from a cut on her scalp. Her hair had matted together around the wound, but she barely registered the pain.

“Are you okay?” I asked when she had settled down.

“Nothing a bit of shampoo and synth skin can’t fix. Have you heard any news about your ship?”

“Yeah. Ormund told me the fighting was brutal. The Dreaming is okay, a few more holes in it but still space worthy. The Astral Spider has lost main propulsion, though, and can’t come pick us up anymore.”

“How we going to get home?” asked Geko, concern on his face.

“The Dreaming will pick us up.”

“How? There’s still a small fleet of warships…” started Gunther.

“Captain Garner has transferred the cloak module over to the Dreaming. She won’t have full stealth capabilities, but it will be enough to sneak past and pick us up.”

I scanned the faces of everyone, noting their concern. I had to admit, I was only saying what they needed to hear. I had my doubts about the plan as well. There was still a lot of ships close enough to the station to make even the Astral Spider move carefully. I just had to hope that Maxine had a plan. I
knew
she had a plan.

“Let’s just stay focused on our next objective.” I said, “One foot in front of the other, soldiers.”

“What’s next?” asked Kekkin.

“Ormund has this tube we’re riding going close to the habitat entrance. Next stop will be a level one atmospheric facility.”

I projected a holo image onto the carriage’s floor for them to see.

“The facility is big, so there will be plenty of cover for us to snoop around in. These large stacks feed atmo into the air dirtside, but we’ve got to be careful. They work on a rotational shift, one after the other, and while they’re active the static charge in the air is enough to create thunder storms sometimes. Short lived, but violent.”

“How long until we reach it?” asked Geko.

“Not long, I can already feel local gravity reaching normal. We should be there in around twenty minutes.”

“I am detecting abnormalities in the mag rail stability.” reported Tac.

“Slow us down.”

“We cannot. We have no control over speed, remember? We can only attach to the mag rail and hope it takes us where we need it to.”

Oh yeah,
I thought,
gotta remember the details.

“Okay, can we shut it down? Can we access the lev drive?”

Geko pointed to a panel he had cut in the bottom of the carriage. “I can open that and see what the problem is?”

“Do it.”

Geko went to work, loosening the hatch and carefully lifting it free. After a few moments, he pulled himself back up from the hatch.

“It’s not the drive, it’s the track.” he said, wiping his hands on his armour.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“I don’t know, the drive keeps loosing it’s grip on the rail.”

“Shut it down. At these speeds, if we suddenly lose traction we’ll be smashed against the bulkheads of the tunnel.”

Ormund,
I texted over the battlenet,
problem with the mag rails. How far are we from the atmo plant?

You’re about 70kms out. What’s the issue?

The lev drive keeps losing its grip on the rail. Have to stop to check it out.

Keep me posted.

As the carriage slowed to a halt, we could feel a noticeable wobble. When it dropped the several centimetres to the rail, we could hear a wet scraping sound. I climbed out and checked the rail ahead of us. Tac landed loudly beside me. I ran my finger over the rail and held it up for him to see.

“Vegetation…” he mused.

“Is it just me, or is it really humid in here?”

“There is indeed an increase in moisture content in the air. I am also detecting increased levels of microbial activity.”

He suddenly had my attention.

“What sort of microbials?”

“Standard mixture of radio-bacteria. I believe they are forming microbial mats along this tunnel.”

“Radio-bacteria?” I asked, “Are they dangerous?”

“Hardly. They are genetically engineered organisms used in terraforming and habitat atmospheric generation when photosynthesis cannot drive the chemical reactions required to create oxygen. They use radiation instead. I must admit, though, that I find their presence here disturbing.”

“Why so?”

“It means the radiation shielding of the station is failing, or at least greatly degraded.”

I quickly checked my suit’s radiation sensor readings. They were high, but we were not in any danger of suffering harm.

“Long term exposure to this region will cause significant risk of cancer and other harmful conditions associated with radiation sickness. If the effect is noticeable this far into the station sub-structure…”

“The surface will be feeling it even more. I got a feeling this slime will get thicker the further in we go. Looks like we’re going by foot from here on.”

I could hear several groans from the troops, which Kekkin quickly squashed with a few helmet whacks.

“Everybody out!” I called, “I want a serviceable stretcher built for Masters in five minutes. Geko and Gunther, start scavenging. Use the carriage if you have to, we won’t need it anymore.”

People started offloading equipment from the carriage, dividing it up between everyone. Artemis went to shoulder a duffle bag of equipment, but I took it off her. She glared at me.

“I can share the load!”

“No, I want you to go on ahead while we get ready. We all have exo-rigs, so we can catch up, but I want someone scouting ahead for us.”

She reluctantly gave up her bag, turning to face the tunnel ahead.

“Don’t engage anything, just report in and lay low until we can reinforce you.”

She flipped me a mock salute, a grin on half her face. “Don’t take too long. A girl can get lonely out here.”

“I won’t.”

She left at a steady pace, her long legs making a decent stride. I turned back to the squad, and ordered a ten-minute rest period before we got going. I used the time to check over Masters and Rego.

Masters was still unconscious, and would be for some time, but Rego was clearly in pain. He had reached the limit allowed for painkillers, and giving him any more would risk damaging his kidneys. I contacted Ormund again and asked him to question Zoe regarding the risk. After a few minutes of deliberation, she gave the go ahead to give him another dose. We needed him functional for a short time more to get out of the sub-structure.

When Rego was more comfortable, we started to head out. Geko and Gunther carried Masters, while Renthal assisted Rego, and we were able to move at a decent pace. Sure enough, the fecundity of the tunnel increased in short order. It wasn’t long before the entire tunnel was coated in algae and the air took on an earthy, loamy scent.

After the first hour, Art reported in, reporting the increase in vegetation but otherwise no sign of the Ghantri were seen. After a few more hours, we stopped for a five-minute rest and ate. We were making good ground, but even the exo-rigs could only support our stamina so much. Artemis, ever the competitive type, started leaving us messages in the algae, scratched into the bulkheads. She started to put the time she reached each segment and goaded us to gain ground. We did, but the fact that she had no exo-suit to support her was not lost on us.

Finally, after a gruelling six-hour hike, we reached the atmospheric plant. Artemis was resting on a giant valve, her armour stripped off and her gear on the ground beside it. Like us, she was covered in blue-green sludge from the vegetation, and her skin was slick with sweat.

“What took you so long?” she tried to say in a sly tone. We could tell she was almost out of breathe, though.

“You must have only just gotten here. You’re still panting.” I said, smiling.

“I’m just thinking about a whole squad of sweating, fit men following me.”

“Liar.”

She threw her head back and laughed.

“Twenty minutes rest!” I called. “I want a volunteer to scout out through to the atmospheric facility ahead.”

“I’ll go.” said Art as she hopped down off the valve.

“Nope, you’re on mandatory rest and re-hydration.”

“I’ll do it,” said Harris, “I didn’t carry much gear before. I’m still fresh.”

“Fresh is not the word I would use, Harry.” joked Artemis.

“Thanks, Harris.” I pointed at Artemis, “And you! Less talking, more resting. That’s an order.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” she flipped me another mock salute, but she propped herself up against a bulkhead and took a swig from a canteen.

The tunnel continued around a bend and I knew it looped around after several hundred kilometres to re-join the rest of the mag rail system. The entrance to the atmospheric facility was a large round portal, a rolling hatch that disappeared into the bulkhead. It was partially open, the hatch clearly malfunctioning. From our position, we could see the verdant algae had overgrown the portal and spilled out into the tunnel. Harris slipped through the entrance, scraping slime off the threshold as he did.

After a quarter of an hour, Harris reported in.

It’s incredible! The compartment is completely overgrown. There is an atmosphere in here so rich…

Any sign of enemy activity?
I broke in.

Negative. Although if there was, I would find it hard to see, there’s just so much plant life here I’ve never seen anything like it.

Okay, rest up and we’ll make our way to you. Can you see a way through to the habitat?

I think so – there’s a stairwell that threads up beside one of the stacks.

Hold tight.

“On your feet, troops. We are Oscar Mike!” I said, gently nudging a snoring Geko with my boot.

“You heard
naga-zak
!” shouted Kekkin. “We are on the move! Up! Up!”

He started laying his boot into any stragglers and within moments, we were making our way through the entrance.

Harris was right. The first sight of the chamber made me catch my breath. It was an enormous, cavernous area – close to four kilometres in diameter. The upper reaches were lost in a grey cloud of moisture. Two giant funnels rose up from a central machine, feeding the fruits of its labour into the atmosphere of the habitat above. I could not make out the tell-tale hum of machinery, though, and it was clear the giant machine was non-functional. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, atmosphere-generating vegetation was everywhere, covering almost every surface in vines, moulds, algae and basic plant life. There was so much moisture in here that the chamber was generating clouds that rained down a steady, fine rain in tiny droplets.

It had been many years since I had been on a planet, much less an environment so absent the hand of man, that I was utterly at a loss for words. My fellow soldiers shared my wonder as they entered behind me.

“Reminds me of home.” muttered Carro beside me. I turned to look at the Argen and found him wistfully starring at the facility. He took a step forward and almost fell, sinking in sludgy water up to his upper thigh.

“Watch your footing people. Hold up.”