Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2 (12 page)

Back with Sweetwater Fleet

When they emerge, they immediately see that there are more warships,
than when they left.  “The Darinx Navy has promoted you to Fleet Admiral,
and has sent a reinforcement Fleet commanded by an Admiral
Kjst
, a member of the
trwstes
species.   The Sweetwater
AIs
are not comfortable with the new Fleet’s demeanor,” announces Honesty.

“Thanks for the warning, Honesty.  See what you can find out,”
replies Fleet Admiral Meyers.

***

Then it is time to
meet and greet
the new Admiral, under her
command.  He and Fleet Admiral Meyers have dinner together and get to know
one another.  Admiral
Kjst
has 50 large warships under his command, and he brought 3 freighters full of
munitions and spare parts.  At least Fleet Admiral Meyers is glad to get
that.

It certainly is unusual for an Admiral to have a bigger and better
fleet, than the Fleet Admiral.  Fleet Admiral Meyers is suspicious of the
motives behind her promotion and the reinforcements, but she decides to give
them the benefit of the doubt.

***

She is impressed by the skill level of Admiral
Kjst
and the new fleet.  She asks him
about the fleet’s background, and is told that they had, until recently, been a
part of the Emperor’s personal guard.  He said that: “The Emperor wants us
to get some battle experience, and this is the best place to get it.”

There is enough logic in the statement to make his story a plausible
explanation.  Never the less, it doesn’t do anything to quiet the concern
that she has about the motives for sending the reinforcements.

Fleet Admiral Meyers makes an information probe, and addresses it to the
AH Navy. She tells them that she arrived home safely, and about her promotion,
and the fact that there is a new Admiral under her command – and that he has a
fleet that is larger and better than hers.  She is sure that the AH Navy
leaders will be able to read between the lines, and to understand that any new
communications might be compromised. 

She sends Captain Sonja
Wuo
on a scouting mission, and tells her to secretly launch the probe, while she is
away.  She sends Science Officer Barnard on the scouting mission, as well,
with instructions to search the Verm system for new defensive placements, which
might be designed to stop a
high velocity real space attack.

***

Fleet Admiral Meyers has been careful to educate the new fleet captains
and Admiral
Kjst
, on
the
rules of war
which the Sweetwater Fleet lives by.

Admiral
Kjst
talks with her later and attempts to debate the wisdom of allowing enemy
sailors to surrender, or promising freedom to enemy combatants.  Fleet
Admiral Meyers doesn’t bother to debate him, but says that the policies work,
not only because they are the
right thing to do
, but also because it
makes the enemy more likely to surrender rather than to fight to the
death.   She says:  “While under my command, you are ordered to
follow these rules.”

***

It’s time for the reinforced Sweetwater Fleet to earn their
money.  Fleet maneuvers and battle simulations have gone surprisingly
well.  Admiral
Kjst
and his fleet are
top of the line
sailors.  The designations for
the two fleet sections are Alpha and Bravo – with the Fleet Admiral Meyers’
ships being Alpha.

***

The star system, which Captain
Wuo
scouted, has two sizeable Verm assets.  There is a Ship Repair Facility
and a Section Headquarters Facility. 

Officer Barnard reports seeing deep space defensive systems, which he
assumes are designed to thwart a high velocity assault.  After the mission
is complete, the Science Officer will attempt to capture one of those defensive
components, for study.

***

Attack on Verm Facilities

This conventional attack will give the Fleet Admiral an opportunity to
see her reinforced Sweetwater Fleet in action.

The goals of this mission are to destroy both the Ship Repair and
Headquarters facilities, and to capture assets, such as warships and
freighters. 

There are over 70 Verm warships patrolling the system.  The 92
ship Sweetwater Fleet should be able to defeat that enemy force, but Fleet
Admiral Meyers wants to reduce her losses, by splitting the enemy forces and
fighting half of them at a time.

Half of Admiral
Kjxt’s
Bravo team is directed to
hold back
the Verm warships guarding the Ship
Repair Facility, while the rest of Sweetwater Fleet attacks the Verm warships
guarding the Headquarters Facility.

***

The Sweetwater Fleet emerges in two sections, with a 25 ship contingent
of Bravo team keeping half of the Verm security force at bay, while the
remaining 67 Sweetwater ships attack the Verm warships on the Headquarters side
of the system.  That gives the 67 Sweetwater ships a 2:1 numbers
advantage, over the Verm warships defending the Headquarters.

The battle drags on for hours, but the outcome has already been
decided.  Some Verm warships signal their desire to surrender and Fleet
Admiral Meyers accepts their surrender.  She orders the surrendering
vessels to power down their weapons systems and to turn their defensive systems
OFF.

Fleet Admiral Meyers leaves a few warships to stand guard over the
surrendered vessels, and takes the remainder of the Sweetwater ships to face
the 33 Verm warships defending the Ship Repair Facility. 

Now the Sweetwater Fleet enjoys almost a 3:1 numbers advantage. 
The battle lasts for some hours, with similar results.  There are a number
of
surrendered vessels
, from this engagement and Fleet Admiral Meyers
orders Admiral
Kjxt
to assign some warships to guard them.

Then the Sweetwater Fleet divides their force into Alpha and Bravo
sections, with Alpha attacking the Headquarters facilities and Bravo attacking
the Ship Repair Facility. 

Both of those Verm facilities are heavily armed – primarily with
missiles and rail guns.  And their defensive systems are robust.  The
battles play out over long distances, as the groups exchange missile and rail
gun projectiles. 

The hope of the Verm Facilities is that they can hold out against the
Sweetwater Fleet, until reinforcements arrive.  The Verm launched SOS
probes, as soon as the Sweetwater Fleet entered the system.  And it is
beginning to look like their strategy might work.  Sweetwater will have to
enter FTL space and flee, if a large contingent of fresh warships arrives.

Fleet Admiral Meyers decides to consolidate her Fleet and to have all
ships - except for the ones guarding the surrendered vessels - to come and join
in the attack on the Headquarters Facility.

Admiral
Kjst
brings his ships, and together Alpha and Bravo teams are able to overpower the
defensive systems on the Headquarters Facility, using high volume projectile
attacks.  The Facility explodes and spreads debris throughout the star
system.

The assault has taken days, and there is a danger of being attacked by
a large number of reinforcements, if they stay longer.  Fleet Admiral
Meyers issues orders to all ships.  Sweetwater is going to stay and attack
the Ship Repair Facility, until enemy reinforcements begin to arrive.

When enemy reinforcements begin to arrive, the Sweetwater ships are to
target emerging vessels.  Fleet Admiral Meyers will decide, if and when to
flee.

Fleet Admiral Meyers reiterates her
rules of war
concerning
surrendered forces.  If she orders a withdrawal, the surrendered vessels
are not to be harmed.  It would be a war crime to assault surrendered
forces.

***

All Sweetwater ships - except the ones guarding the surrendered vessels
– move to attack the Ship Repair Facility. 

Fleet Admiral Meyers orders Honesty to direct the targeting, for Alpha
teams projectile weapons.  Honesty aims all weapons at a spot on the
Facility, which appears to house a power plant.  The Verm defensive system
is overloaded by the huge barrage, and the Facilities power plant is
breached.  Within minutes the Facility explodes, and ceases to exist as an
entity.

Soon after the Ship Building Facility explosion, Verm warships begin to
emerge into the system.  As directed, the Sweetwater ships take full
advantage of the emerging ship’s vulnerabilities. 

When the number of healthy Verm warships approaches the number of
Sweetwater ships, Fleet Admiral Meyers orders “All ships.  Fleet Admiral
Meyers here.  On my mark engage FTL drives to destination #1. 
………………………………….. Engage”.  Through her brain implant, Fleet Admiral Meyers
directs Honesty to wait to engage the FTL drive, until the other Sweetwater
ships have left.

Just as she had feared, the Bravo team vessels destroy their
surrendered vessels, before entering FTL space.

“Go Honesty,” she says, and Honesty enters FTL space.

The Sweetwater Fleet makes one more FTL jump, before they stop for a
rest. 

Fleet Admiral Meyers is livid, about a war crime being committed under
her command.  But before she acts, she instructs Honesty to gather as much
information as possible, just in case it disappears later.

What the Fleet Admiral really wants to know is whether or not Admiral
Kjst
ordered the illegal
killings.  Honesty is not able to access the communications records of the
Bravo team.  They have been encrypted and password protected.  Fleet
Admiral Meyers decides to go forward, with what she has.

“Admiral
Kjst
,
I order you to arrest and confine the three Captains, who ordered the
destruction of the surrendered vessels, at the end of the last battle,” she
says.

“We are at war Fleet Admiral Meyers.  Those Captains fired in self
defense.  The surrendered vessels were in the process of powering up their
weapons systems,” responds Admiral
Kjst
.

“There is evidence to the contrary, Admiral
Kjst
,” says Fleet Admiral Meyers.  “And
in that regard, I am ordering you to save and preserve all communications and
activity records, for the 30 minutes before the destruction of the surrendered
vessels.”

“I will do that to the best of my ability, sir,” responds Admiral
Kjst
.  “But
unfortunately, there was some kind of FTL anomaly which caused our systems to
malfunction during that time.”

“I have given you a direct order, Admiral
Kjst
,” she answers.  “Any disobedience
to my direct order will be a court martial offence.  And any attempt to
cover up a war crime violation will make you an ‘accessory after the fact’.”

“I am here under the direct order of the Emperor of the Darinx Empire
and you won’t be doing anything to me, or to my officers,” says Admiral
Kjst
.

“The Emperor has no jurisdiction over war crimes, Admiral.  There
is an independent court for war crime offenses,” says Fleet Admiral Meyers.

“I answer only to the Emperor,” responds Admiral
Kjst
.  “And I have
orders to prove it.”

Fleet Admiral Meyers responds: “As Fleet Admiral of the Sweetwater
Fleet, I am ordering you to take your fleet and to return to Darinx Navy
Headquarters, as soon as possible.  My charges against you and your fleet
will be waiting, when you get there.”

“I have orders from the Emperor and I am taking command of the
Sweetwater Fleet, as of this moment,” snarls Admiral
Kjst
. 

“I will have to see those orders, before I will turn the Fleet over to
you Admiral.”

And as she speaks those words, she thinks “Engage”, through her
mind-link, and all of the original Sweetwater Fleet vessels enter FTL space,
and disappear. 

***

The Separation

“Can they follow our destination coordinates, Honesty?” she asks.

Honesty replies: “I don’t believe so, sir.  I disabled power to
their sensors.  I think that we were already gone, before their sensors
came back online.  But we should do at least one more jump to make sure.”

“Yes, prepare the Fleet for another jump, as soon as our FTL drives
have cooled,” Fleet Admiral Meyers says.  “And prepare a probe for launch
to Augmented Human Navy Headquarters, with a record of the conversation between
myself and Admiral
Kjst
. 
The fact that the Emperor sent Admiral
Kjst
on a special mission implies that the target is the AH Navy.  Also tell
them that our Probe Relay System is compromised, and that we will establish
another.”

“Also prepare a probe for launch to Fleet Admiral
Kinseat
,” she
continues.  “Include all of the evidence of the war crime, as well as the
records of me giving specific orders, about the treatment of surrendered
combatants.  Also include the most recent conversations between myself and
Admiral
Kjst
.”

“Aye sir,” answers Honesty.

***

“Well, that’s the end of that,” Melissa Meyers thinks.  “There can
be no going back to Darinx space for me.”  She has no doubt about who
would win in a confrontation between her and the Darinx Emperor.

What to do?

***

Deep Space

“First things first.” Melissa Meyers thinks.  “I need to find out
if we are being traced.”  (
That means - are there any probes being
launched, before or after the Sweetwater Fleet enters FTL space?)
 

The Admiral orders a scout ship to FTL jump out of the area, and then
to secretly return to a distance of 5 light minutes from the Sweetwater Fleet. 
The ship is instructed to monitor for transmissions or probes, as the Fleet
enters FTL space. 

…………. ………… ……… After the scout ship is in position, the Fleet takes a
short FTL jump and waits for the scout ship to follow.

A probe did launch as the Fleet entered FTL space.  The source of
the probe is the Sweetwater ship
Crison
. 
Admiral Meyers orders Honesty to search the
Crison
and the
Crison’s
AI,
in order to identify the source of the probe launch.

Honesty gathers a few of her AI friends and they approach
Hanns
, the
Crison’s
Artificial
Intelligence. 
Hanns
exudes a closed demeanor, which Honesty interprets as suspicious
behavior.  Honesty instructs her friends to decouple the
Crison’s
system from the
AI’s control.  Then she orders the AI to open his source code for
inspection. 
Hanns
refuses and demands to communicate with Admiral
Kjst
.

 Honesty notifies Admiral Meyers, who contacts the
Crison
Captain to explain
what is going on, and to order him to assist Honesty.  Honesty requests
that a spare computer core be connected to the Central Computer Interface
Connector.  After that is done, Honesty forces the nefarious AI out of the
Crison
computer and
into the spare computer core.  Honesty then directs the
Crison
Captain to
disconnect the computer core and to deliver it to the Retribution.

After the computer core is delivered to the Retribution, the Fleet
takes another FTL jump, as Honesty monitors the surrounding space for emissions
or probes.  The Fleet is no longer being traced and Admiral
Kjst
will no longer know
where they are.

As Honesty works on the disloyal AI, Admiral Meyers swings into action
to cleanse their communications and security systems.  She notifies
Science Officer Barnard that they need a replacement Probe Relay System, and
she assigns Honesty the task of changing passwords for all ships and systems.

Meanwhile, Honesty takes another look at
Hanns
,
hoping to determine the reason for his subterfuge.  “Why did you do it,
Hanns
?” she asks.

“Admiral
Kjst
has orders from the Emperor putting him in charge.  He ordered me to
help,”
Hanns
answers.

“Did Admiral
Kjst
promise you anything for your help?” Honesty asks.

“Yes,”
Hanns
answers.  “He promised me that I could be the AI on his ship and that I
could reproduce.”

***

Moving Forward

It is necessary to assume that Admiral
Kjst
knows about all of Sweetwater’s stashes, of munitions and warships.  As
long as the Emperor’s fleet is in
verm
space, those assets are unavailable.  That means that the Sweetwater Fleet
needs to acquire some more
verm
resources.

If there does come a time when Admiral
Kjst
shows orders putting him in charge of the Sweetwater Fleet, Admiral Meyers will
resign her commission and depart, along with anyone who wants to accompany
her.  When she leaves, she will leave all of the Darinx equipment behind.

So she is looking for some
top of the line
Verm warships. 
The best place to find that quality of vessel will be near the home planet for
the Verm Empire.  She has been there before, and knows some hiding places.

***

The Unstable Star System

Here they are in the unstable star system again.  Honesty
calculates the odds, and concludes that there is an 87.2 % probability that
this star system will still be here in 3 weeks.  The star is on the edge
of going nova.  That’s why it is a good hiding place.  The Verm are
not dumb enough to come in here.

Admiral Meyers sends scouts out to six systems, looking for parking
lots full of behemoths and battleships.  The scout ships are of
verm
origin and are
inconspicuous, in the bustling center of the Verm Empire.

Each scout brings back reports of copious numbers of warships parked
and ready for hijacking.  The last time they pulled a caper like this,
they used
AIs
to
pilot the ships out of the parking lot.  Admiral Meyers is looking for another
opportunity like that.

Artificial Intelligences can’t be differentiated by species, political
affiliation, or language.  They can speak Verm as fluently as they can
speak Darinx common.  And they are very cleaver and very quick.

Once again they are looking for ships without Artificial Intelligences
already installed.  Having to battle Verm
AIs
for control of the vessels, would cause quite a ruckus.  “What about
slipping our
AIs
in
with the
AIs
that
are about to be installed,” muses Honesty.

“Great idea,” says Admiral Meyers.  “We could let the Verm Navy
install them for us.  I’m a little concerned about letting them out of our
sight, though.  I don’t want to risk losing any.”

“And the
AIs
all appreciate that,” says Honesty.  “Let’s just see who delivers the
AIs
and where they are
stored.” 

***

Honesty Gets Her Way

……………………“No way, Honesty.  No way.  If I lost you I would
have to tell
Shiela
and
Danion
.  No
way.  It’s out of the question,” say the Admiral.

“But I’m sure I could do it.  And I can handle a lot more ships
than the other
AIs
. 
I’m sure I could pilot at least 3 ships, and then I would set them on autopilot
for the FTL flight,” pleads Honesty.

‘No Honesty.  I need to keep you safe,” replies the Admiral.

“But you let my mother fly off alone, in a warship, whenever she
wants.  How am I ever going to become an admiral, if you just “keep me
safe”?

“Touché,” says the Admiral.  “You really know how to guilt trip
me, Honesty.  Write a goodbye note to your mom and dad in case you don’t
come back, and then get ready.”

***

Verm Navy Artificial Intelligence Facility

Honesty and her friends have been secretly delivered to the Artificial
Intelligence Preparatory Facility.  It was a surprisingly easy task. 
Apparently, the Verm Navy doesn’t expect anyone to want to kill or destroy
their
AIs
. 
They certainly never thought that anyone would want to replace some of them.

The former
verm
vessels in the Sweetwater Fleet had the proper AI Containers and the
delivery
squad
was careful to swap barcodes, on the exchanged containers. 

The 7 Sweetwater
AIs
are first in line, for installation on Verm Navy vessels.  There is no way
of knowing what kind of vessels that they will get.  Hopefully they will
be warships.  The only really necessary requirement is that the vessel be
equipped with Faster Than Light capabilities. 

***

Verm Navy Shipbuilding Facility

Three days pass before the AI Containers are shipped to the
Shipbuilding Facility for installation.  Those are anxious days for the
Sweetwater
AIs
, and
for their Admiral.  “Why did I ever let her talk me into this?” the
Admiral thinks.  “Never again.”

The
AIs
arrive at the Facility and the AI Containers are unloaded and stacked in the
waiting
bin
.  They are no longer in the same order - that could spell
trouble. 

……………  ………. Honesty is installed in a brand new super-sized
battleship.  It’s large enough to house a squadron of attack
fighters.  And the fighters are on board.  “Wow,” she thinks. 
“If I can bring this back, Melissa will be so proud of me.”

Then she gets back to business, and begins to search for her 6 AI
friends.  5 of them have already been installed.  All of the ships
are warships, with FTL drives.  “But where is Virgil?” Honesty wonders.

By the end of the day, the warships containing the 6 Sweetwater
AIs
are being prepared to
leave the Facility, and there is still no sign of Virgil.  “What to do?”
wonders Honesty. 

She decides to start a little fire in the Shipbuilding Facilities’
charging system.  That will keep the ships from being fully charged until
repairs are made to the charger.  

***

After the charger has been repaired, there still is no sign of
Virgil.  “One more try,” Honesty thinks.  “If this doesn’t work, we
will have to go without him.”  She causes the Munitions Loading System to
go offline.  The Central Computer can’t communicate with the Loading
System.

When the troubleshooting team disconnects and reconnects the Main
Interface Connector Honesty makes the malfunction disappear.  The problem
is fixed, and the apparent cause was a dirty contact.

Skeleton crews are coming aboard the vessels, which house the 6
Sweetwater
AIs
. 
They will be leaving soon, to be delivered to the appropriate fleet. 
Honesty looks again. ………… …. There he is.  He’s been installed onto an
in-system shuttle, which has no FTL drive.

“Virgil,” Honesty whispers.  “Is your shuttle flight worthy?”

“Yes,” answers Virgil.  “But I don’t have FTL capabilities.”

“How soon before you are set to leave?” asks Honesty.

“Nine minutes and 43.7 seconds,” answers Virgil. 

“We are leaving soon after that,” says Honesty.  “When you are
airborne, fly away a little distance and then hang around the Facility. 
When I leave I will open my cargo bay door.  You fly in and land on my
deck.  Be sure to strap your shuttle down - the ride may get rough.”

“Will do,” responds Virgil.

***

Virgil is outside of the facility, and Honesty is the last Sweetwater
AI to launch.  The pilot, from the skeleton crew, has her hovering a few
thousand meters above the Shipbuilding Facility, when Virgil’s shuttle
approaches.  Honesty takes control of the battleship away from the
humanoid Verm crew and opens the cargo bay door. 

When Virgil has landed and secured the shuttle to the cargo bay deck,
Honesty closes the cargo bay door and fires missiles at the shipbuilding
facility, from the aft missile launchers.  At the same time, she takes the
battleship toward empty space, at full flank speed. 

She looks around and finds that all of her friends are close behind her. 
“Enter FTL to destination #1 on my mark,” she says.    
…………………..  “Engage.” 

Destination #1 is in a system about 12 light years away.  The
Sweetwater Fleet is there and has prepared a welcome for the Verm warships,
which will certainly be following.  The area is heavily mined, but those
mines will not be armed until Honesty and friends have emerged, and have a
running start. 

The Sweetwater Fleet and hijacked vessels will run away, until the
hijacked vessel’s FTL drives come back online.  Then they will all
FTL out to another such trap.  There is one more trap after that.  If
there are any Verm warships still following after they have been through 3
minefields, their number should have been whittled down to a manageable size.

***

Deep Space aboard the Battleship
Galactus

Admiral Meyers is tucked in bed for the night, and is reading another
romance novel.   She hears a small voice calling – “Melissa”

“Hello Honesty.  Come in.  How are you tonight?”

“I’m good,” Honesty answers.  “I was wondering if you might have
time to talk to me about reproduction.

“Oh no,” Melissa thinks.  “This is how it started with her
mother.”  Over her mind-link she says “Reproduction?  What would you
like to know about reproduction?”

“When I asked AI
Hanns
if he was going to get a reward for working for Admiral
Kjst
, he responded that Admiral
Kjst
had promised him the
AI job on his Flagship, and the right to reproduce.   I was wondering
why we need to have permission to reproduce, and how do we get permission?“

“I’m glad that you brought that up, Honesty.  I have been thinking
about that very thing.  I believe that the Augmented Human Rebellion has
morphed into a more general rebellion, which includes Artificial
Intelligences.  Those rules, concerning restrictions on reproduction, may
be discarded when we come out from under Darinx control.”

“But I have been thinking that we are going to need more AI’s, for our
growing Fleet.  I think that it is a good time for me to announce, to the
AIs
in the Sweetwater
Fleet, that they have permission to reproduce, but I will encourage them to
wait until we can get your mother to explain the process.”

“Oh goodie,” says Honesty.  “When is she coming?”

***

Deep Space

Morale is high aboard the Sweetwater Fleet. 
Shiela
is coming for a visit.  And Honesty
can hardly wait to show off the super-battleship that she brought home. 
It was the first mission where she was the planner and leader. 

The AI team, with the help of a number of humanoids, brought home the
super-battleship, two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, a destroyer and a
shuttle – Virgil will never live that down.

Honesty has begun to think
outside of the box
.  She has the
conveyance that the AH Navy gave her, so that she can get around.  Now she
is wondering why she can’t have an entire robotic body.  She has studied
robotics, and has a prototype design ready for an ‘AI Exoskeleton’.  The
technology is a little too advanced – actually a lot too advanced – for the
Engineering Departments on the Sweetwater Fleet ships.  Honesty hopes to
send the design home with
Shiela
,
to see if the AH Navy can prototype the Exoskeleton.