Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle (36 page)

“Point defence free, aye. Autoloaders operational. Targeting under computer control!” Max said from the helm.
Hobbs
wasn’t a warship. Its defensive armourment was controlled from his station.

“Bring up the drive. Go to evasive as soon as we have power! Communications: get me Captain Penleigh. I think we might need to bug out. Tell him yourself if I’m busy. Tell him why.”

“Aye, sir,” Noel said and hunched over his panel.

“Everyone,” Leon said trying for calm. “Let’s work the problem calmly. That ship is some kind of raider, but we out mass it a hundred to one. We’ll be fine.” In the background he heard Noel reporting to Penleigh. He was about to take over, when
Hobbs
lurched and rolled crazily amid warning sirens and alarms. “Report!”

Heather’s fingers raced over her controls, revising and refining her scan. “Some kind of stealthed missile or... no! They fired early and let the missiles come in on inertia ahead of them. They had to have fired hours ago, sir. I’m still tracking the others—the second wave.”

Leon shook his head in disbelief. Second wave? That sounded—

The second wave of missiles came in fast and deployed. They were, every one of them, designed to hash sensors and spoof point defence. They did their job of sucking
Hobbs’
point defence missiles toward them and away from the third wave. The third wave performed its task admirably. They struck the ship more or less unopposed, and a new sun was born in orbit of Kushiel. It lasted mere seconds. When it died, the remains of
Hobbs
fell out of orbit burning and still breaking into smaller chunks. Explosions amid the debris shattered the ship into smaller and smaller pieces. Of its crew, only briefly glowing molecules remained.

* * *

Alpha site, Landing, Kushiel

Gina stared up at the meteor shower grimly. Eric had just told her about the action in orbit, but the second brief sunrise over the city had been a big clue that something was wrong. The burning chunks of
Hobbs
were still entering atmosphere when Eric ran up to her and explained. He had run off again now, leaving her to watch the show. None of the debris would strike anywhere close. That was a mercy, but all it would do was prolong their deaths. They had two shuttles and could reach orbit, but without
Hobbs
they couldn’t leave the system. She tried to imagine the General sending another ship to check on them when they failed to report via drone, and realised he would do that, but it would be months too late. They would be out of food and canned air long before that. They had enough food for a month, maybe two if they rationed it. They had been relying upon supplies from
Hobbs
for most things.

Gina used viper comm for privacy and contacted Eric. “We need to start rationing.”

“Forget rationing. Let’s survive the day before worrying about that.”

“But—”

“Think about it, Gina. A raider ship comes to a dead colony world and blows away a prize like
Hobbs
without hesitation. What do you think they’re after?”

Put that way it was obvious. Raider ships, unlike run of the mill pirates, jacked colonies out in the Border Zone when they could get away with it. For one to come here meant it wanted something on the planet more than it wanted to jack a ship. She remembered the bank and blown vault they had seen in Haverington.

“You’re right. We need to get the civs in a hole. Somewhere out of sight. We can’t take them back to camp.”

“Agreed,” Eric said. “With any luck these bastards will ignore us while they do whatever they came to do. I hope to god whatever they’re after isn’t here in Landing.”

There was that, but Gina was thinking ahead to other problems. Problems like air, and food, and clean water. Problems such as how the hell would they escape Kushiel? They needed a way to get aboard the raider ship and take it for themselves. But first things first. She needed to get Liz and her people undercover.

“Where are you right now, Liz?” Gina said heading for the shaft. “You up top?”

“No, I’m at the bottom of the stairwell. We’re just about to break into the clear.”

“Good. I’m coming down. I need you to keep everyone there with you. No exceptions.”

“Whatever for?” Liz said, sounding puzzled.

“I’ll explain when I get there. While you wait, start thinking about a way to make yourselves more comfortable down there.”

“What’s wrong? Has something happened?”

“You might say,” Gina agreed as she reached the crane and ordered the driver to lower her down in the bucket. “I’m coming down now. Meet me.”

“All right, but we’re so close to breaking through.”

“Don’t stop the work. You might need to stay down there a while and you’ll need the space.”

“But... what the hell has happened?”

“I’m nearly down. I’ll fill you in.”

Liz was waiting for her when the bucket stopped at the level where the work was ongoing. They had dug out a hundred and thirty feet or more of rubble and Gina could see what Liz meant about breaking through. There wasn’t much stopping them advancing to the next landing. Liz offered a hand to help steady her, but she didn’t need the help. She bent her knees and then straightened explosively, bouncing out of the bucket as if her legs had turned into springs. Liz applauded.

“Nice landing,” Liz said. “What’s the urgency?”

Gina explained. Liz stopped smiling and her face turned grim. She looked back toward her people still working unaware that anything was wrong, and then back to Gina.

“We can’t stay down here—”

“You have to!”

“Hear me out,” Liz said in a placating voice. “We can’t stay down here without supplies from the camp. Eighteen hours from now, our suits will run out of power and air.”

Shit. She had just been thinking about supplies, but she hadn’t thought about power for the suits. Food, water, air, and power; those four things above all were needed. She had to make a run to the camp.

“I’ll tell Eric,” Gina said. “We’ll get you what you need. You have eighteen hours to burrow down to somewhere you can call home for a few days. Can you tap into the emergency lighting down here for power?”

Liz nodded. “Bring me a water purifier and a way to recharge the suits, and we can last a few weeks, but how do we get home?”

“I’m working on it,” Gina said grimly. She left Liz to her work and contacted Eric to tell him what she’d said. “... Liz says she can hold out weeks with those supplies.”

“Already on it,” Eric said. I’m loading up now with most of that stuff. Didn’t think about the purifier. I’ll add it.”

“You need help?”

“Yes, but don’t come here. We can’t afford to lose us both if the raiders decide to blow away the camp. We’ll do this in shifts. I’ll let you know when to make your run.”

“Okay, Eric, be careful.”

“Careful is my middle name,” Eric said.

She snorted. “Sure it is.”

Gina climbed atop the rubble that had already filled the bucket and contacted the crane driver to hoist her up. She wanted to get back to her shuttle so that she would be ready to fly the moment Eric called. The bucket lifted clear of the shaft, and she jumped out before the crane driver could stop his lift. She raised a hand to him in thanks and pushed herself into a run.

Her APC was waiting.

When she reached the shuttle, she parked the APC in the shadow of a wrecked building. She wasn’t planning for failure, but should she be shot down, Eric could still use her APC and all it contained. She ran her pe-flight checks and waited for Eric’s call with her eyes nailed to her sensors looking for trouble. She was still looking when Eric called her.

“I’m lifting now,” Eric said. “Make your run.”

“On my way. Any sign of the bad guys?”

“Not yet. We might have to go looking for them. I’ll have to think about that. We can’t leave Liz and her people unprotected.”

Gina scowled. She knew he would order her to stay with the engineers, she just knew it, but he was right too. There were only two of them. She lifted off and flew the shuttle to the base camp, but didn’t see Eric on the way. He was flying cagey, using a different route and not one direct to alpha site. She reminded herself to do the same on the way back. She kept her altitude down, dodging terrain and using it to stay out of sight, though if the raiders remained in orbit and took their time, they could easily track her. She hoped they were too impatient for that. It was all she could do.

Hours later she landed at the base and powered down the shuttle, her eyes never straying far from the shuttle’s sensors. She grabbed her rifle before debarking. It was the first time she had thought to need it here. Better safe than dead, she muttered under her breath as she hurried toward dome three. Number three contained all their supplies and the power plant. Eric had left the anti-grav palette loader in the entrance rather than park it properly. Signs of his hurried use of it were obvious. Crates and boxes had been stacked haphazardly where he had burrowed into the stacks for a particular item. One or two had toppled and broken open. Gina shook her head at the mess, but she would be making things worse in short order she had no doubt.

She grabbed the control handle and guided the loader toward the back of the stacks. She knew where everything was. Her database had a full inventory. She parked the loader and put her rifle aside on one of the crates. Her first priority was power packs and filters for the suits. The suit PLSS used a rechargeable power pack, but they had to be removed for charging. That meant every person would need a spare. They couldn’t remove their suits to recharge them over night.

She hurried along the stacks and found the crates she needed. There were a dozen power packs to a crate. She needed three. They were heavy and unwieldy, but she managed to drag them out one at a time and muscle them back to the loader. Vipers were strong, but the crates were too bulky to get a good grip. She managed and added cartons of filters before guiding the loader back to the shuttle to unload. She soon fell into a rhythm of loading and unloading. Power, and filters, water filtration and purifiers all went into the shuttle. Next she grabbed a couple of the portable generators. She knew Liz had some on site, but didn’t doubt more would be welcome. Her eyes fell upon a big crate marked
Autochef 1off—Handle with care—Fragile! This way up!
and decided to get it next. She unloaded and headed back to the dome.

She struggled and cursed trying to get one corner of the crate onto the loader so she could slide the autochef on. It was really heavy and every time she pushed the crate the loader slid away. She glared at the thing and realised she needed to wedge the loader against something. She chose some of the crates to block it in and was finally able to get the huge crate balanced on the loader. She brought the anti-grav up to full and walking backwards, she guided the loader out of the dome.

The explosion at her back threw her forward, slamming her chest into the loader’s guide handle and blasting the air from her lungs. The force was so great that she folded over the handle and slammed face first into the crate. She didn’t feel the pain, or hear the loss of air pressure in the suit as her visor shattered. She didn’t know that the raider had made a lucky shot and hit her suit’s power pack in the PLSS on her back. The violent detonation and resultant damage had sent her instantly into hibernation and the little death.

Automatic shutdown cycle complete.

Activate beacon... done.

Beacon transmitting.

>_ Diagnostics: Critical spinal injury, communications failure, TacNet offline, lung capacity compromised, critical blood loss. Unit unfit for duty.

>_ IMS: Repairs in progress. Attempting lung inflation... failed. Repairs in progress.

>_ Diagnostics: Environmental health warning... atmosphere toxic, temperature -32°, lung capacity degraded. Warning... high risk of unit termination. Recommend immediate hospitalisation.

>_ IMS: Repairs in progress.

>_ Diagnostics: Main power failure. Warning... high risk of unit termination. Recommend immediate hospitalisation.

>_ IMS: Resource warning. Unable to repair main power. Lung inflation complete. Lung capacity 63%. Emergency reactivation advised. Hospitalisation at earliest opportunity advised.

>_ Diagnostics: Main power failure. Warning... unit termination imminent.

Emergency reactivation approved.

Initialise reboot sequence...

Activate combat mode... done.

>_ IMS: Resource warning, unable to repair main power. Hospitalisation advised. Warning IMS failure.