Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2 (3 page)

Outside the
Queson
System 

 The next target for the Sweetwater Fleet is the Shipbuilding Facility
in the
Queson
system.  This is really going to make the Verm angry.  This system is
close to the
verm
species home planet.  If they can pull this caper
off
- and survive
- they will really make a name for themselves – in both Empires.

Admiral Meyers thinks it prudent to park the Fleet in a safe place, while
the scouts reconnoiter the
Queson
system.  They can expect that the Verm Navy has notified everyone to be on
high alert, because of the destruction at the
Trwx
Supply Depot.  She selects a nearby star system for a hiding place. 
The star is about to go nova. 
Shiela
gives the Admiral a 98.7% percent probability that star will be stable, for the
next month.  Never the less, the Admiral orders all ships to be instantly
ready to flee into FTL space.

She sends 6 scout ships this time, in order to get a feel for the
security precautions surrounding the system.  The scouts collect data for
a week and then return to the Fleet.  They report that the space outside
of the system is being monitored by a series of motion sensor type probes, but
that no defensive infrastructure was detected.  That’s good news. 
The motion sensor probes are probably linked to the defensive forces inside the
Queson
system, and
the scouts have mapped the sensors’ areas of coverage, so that the Sweetwater
Fleet can avoid detection.

 Next, the Admiral sends some scout vessels to reconnoiter the
inside of the system.  These scout ships return with enough information to
provide a good overview of the defensive systems protecting the Ship Building
Facility.

Those defensive systems are formidable.  There is a large space
station at the primary 3
^rd
planet and two more normal sized stations
near the Shipbuilding Facility.  The Shipbuilding Facility is huge - it
looks big enough to be a small moon.  Besides the heavily armed space
stations, there are at least 30 Verm warships patrolling the system.  This
is going to be a tough nut to crack.

Admiral Meyers decides that she needs some
outside of the box
thinking for this project, so she begins to hold brainstorming sessions with
the officers on all ships.  “If you have ideas, pass them all up to me,”
she orders.

***
 

The Compton Command Conference Room

Admiral Meyers sits in the Command Conference Room with
Shiela
, Tactical Officer
Inchurito
, and Chief
Scientist Barnard, and listens, as
Shiela
reads the ideas out loud.  On prior occasions, Admiral Meyers has seen
this brainstorming process produce good results.  An idea, or combination
of ideas, will just suddenly
click
and everything falls into place.

One of the ideas is to capture a new vessel, as it goes on its shakedown
cruise, and then to make a big bomb out of it, by loading it with missiles - or
better yet – by rigging the FTL drive to breach, after the ship returns to the
Facility.  “That has some promise,” thinks the Admiral.

“Let’s stop and think about that idea,” she says aloud.  “What can
we do to cause an FTL breach, on one of the new vessels?  Any ideas?”

The Science Officer responds: “There are all kinds of safeguards on a
warship, to keep that from happening.  There are automatic shutdown
mechanisms all along the process.”

Shiela
suggests: “You could blow up a bomb, next to it.”

“That would work,” says the Admiral.  “That is how FTL breaches
happen in a battle.  A missile blows up next to the FTL drive and triggers
the FTL breach.  So all we need to do is to put a bomb next to a
live
FTL drive, or we could shoot a missile into one.  How could that happen?”

“The original idea was for the ship to be hijacked in space; and then to rig
it as a bomb; and to return it to the Shipbuilding Facility, where it would
explode,” comments the Tactical Officer.  “I think that is a good
suggestion.”

“I can imagine us hijacking a vessel, and rigging a bomb next to the FTL
drive, but how could we get the ship back to the Shipbuilding Facility?” asks
the Admiral.

“You replace the AI, with one of your own,” says
Shiela
.

“That would work,” comments the Admiral.  “But we don’t have a spare
AI, and even if we did I wouldn’t ask him or her to do a suicide mission.”

Shiela
comments: “We could control the ship remotely from the edge of the system with
a
projector
.  That AI that I told you about invented 2 kinds of
projectors
. 
One for
AIs
to
communicate with distant
AIs
,
and another type for augmented humans to communicate through their
mind-links.  His worked all of the way from the edge of the system to a
planet close to the star.”

“Wow,” replies the Admiral.  “I have got to meet that AI.  Do
we know how to make a
projector
,
Shiela
?”

“No, but I could brainstorm with the other
AIs
,
tonight,” she responds.

“Do that,” orders the Admiral.  “That kind of invention will come in
handy.  But for this project, I believe the old acronym KIS applies – ‘
K
eep
I
t
S
imple’.  Does anyone have a lo-tech solution?”

“We could purge the Verm AI, and attach an auto-pilot computer,” says the
Science Officer.  ”That would get the ship close to the Facility, and then
we could have the computer send a distress message, saying that communications
and steering are out.  The Facility would be familiar with that kind of
problem – that’s why they call them
shakedown
cruises.  They would
probably send a tug to pull the ship home.”

“And we could have the bomb rigged to explode, when the ship reaches the
Shipbuilding Facility’s coordinates,” says the Tactical Officer.

“Done,” says the Admiral.

***

 A team has been assigned to plan and build the equipment necessary
to auto-pilot the captured vessel, and to blow up the bomb.

Now, the problem that needs a solution is ‘how to copy the destination
coordinates of the shakedown vessel?’  Admiral Meyers has guessed that the
Facility probably always uses the same destination for ‘FTL shakedown hops’,
because they are not expecting an attack.

“Any ideas?” the Admiral asks.  

“We can’t get a probe in close enough to record the coordinates without
being detected,” comments the Science Officer.  “But we could tag one of
the supply ships, which bring materials to the Shipbuilding Facility. 
They get freighter deliveries a few times a week.  Those supply ships
emerge at the edge of the system, and wait for clearance to approach the
Facility.”

“We could place a number of small sensing modules in the emergence zone,
and wait for a freighter to emerge close to a module.   The modules
can be steered to the freighter by a compressed gas propulsion system – the
kind used for small hobby type models.  They could attach to the freighter
by the use of magnets – we could put magnets on every side.”  

“The tag will be dormant until it nears the Shipbuilding
Facility.   If we are lucky the supply ship will be there when the
Facility launches a test flight.  The sensing module will record the
destination coordinates, and will transmit them to us.   If a test
flight doesn’t happen, we can tag more supply ships until we get a good
result.”

“Done,” says the Admiral.

***

It takes five weeks, but the effort to copy the destination coordinates
for a shakedown cruise has been successful.  Three different freighters
were tagged with a sensor module, before they got lucky.

The Sweetwater Fleet has been in the
Queson
neighborhood for more than two months now, and there is no reason to believe
that they have been detected - but it is better not to push your luck. 
Admiral Meyers orders all scout ship to return to the Fleet and everyone waits,
while the various teams get their acts together.

***

Shiela
announces that they have “done it”.  The Sweetwater Fleet’s
AIs
have invented a
projector
,
which will enable
AIs
and augmented humans to communicate at long distances.  An invention like
that will be handy to have, in the Sweetwater Fleet’s tool box.

***

The
Hijack and Bomb
project is ready to roll.  A scout ship
is dispatched to make one last check, on the
Queson
System Shipbuilding Facility - surprises are not good during a military operation.

***

Everything looks normal inside the system.  

The Hijacking team is dispatched to the location of the destination
coordinates, which the Shipbuilding Facility routinely uses for test jumps.

About half of the Sweetwater Fleet is involved in the hijack portion of
the operation.  The goal is to take control of the
verm
vessel, without allowing the ship to
launch probes calling for help.  Hopefully, there won’t be any weapons
systems activated for the test run.  If there is a battle for control of
the vessel, the entire mission may be scrubbed.

***

Shakedown Destination

The Verm shakedown vessel arrives two days later, and it is immediately
stormed by Sweetwater assault teams, aboard shuttles.  The Verm crew
launches 2 emergency probes, but both are destroyed before they make it to FTL
space.

The first assault team to get inside enters through the forward port
airlock - the hatchway isn’t even locked.  The assault team just hits the
OPEN button, and the hatch opens.  They wait for the pressure, inside the
airlock to equalize, and then rush onto the Command Bridge and take
control.  The remainder of the Verm crew is rounded up and is transferred
to a Darinx vessel, while the Bomb Installation Team and Autopilot Installation
Team begin their work.

The Bomb Installation is fairly straight forward.  You just place
the bomb next to the FTL drive, and set the timer to
active
.  The
bomb has been programmed to automatically explode 5 minutes after reaching the
Shipbuilding Facility coordinates. 

The Autopilot Installation is more problematic, because the Verm
Artificial Intelligence refuses to surrender control of the main
computer.  Several Darinx
AIs
battle the Verm AI for over 30 minutes, before the Verm AI is purged – i.e.
killed.  After that, the Auxiliary Autopilot Unit is connected to the Verm
ship’s Primary Computer Port.  The program to send the captured ship back
to the Shipbuilding Facility will be started remotely, after the Sweetwater
personnel and Verm Navy POWs have departed.

***

There isn’t any way for the different parts of the Sweetwater Fleet to
communicate while the mission is under way, because they are over 3 light years
apart, and the Fleet is running low on FTL messenger probes.  The Hijack
and Bomb team completes its job, and launches the modified Verm vessel back to
the Shipbuilding Facility coordinates. 

The ship has been programmed: to emerge at the usual spot; to make its
way toward the Shipbuilding Facility; to go dormant; and then to request
assistance. 

As predicted, the Shipbuilding Facility sends a tug to retrieve the
dead
in the water
ship.

***

The modified Verm ship is now docked at the Shipbuilding Facility. 
Admiral Meyers, and the portion of the Sweetwater Fleet that is with her, watch
anxiously as the 5 minute fuse ticks its way to zero.

BOOM
–
(Actually there is no sound in the vacuum of space, but
there are certainly bright lights.)

The bomb explodes and that explosion is quickly followed by an FTL drive
breach.  The front part of the Shipbuilding Facility is blown away by the
blast and the connecting sections are engulfed in flames.  The huge
Facility is lurching to and fro, as fuel sources and munitions explode. 
That sequence of events continues, until the Shipbuilding Facility is reduced
to a smoldering shell.

There is cheering and applause, aboard the Sweetwater vessels, as the
Darinx sailors celebrate another successful mission.

***

Now the various teams of the Sweetwater Fleet follow their withdrawal
plans.  All teams rendezvous at the hideout in the unstable star
system.  Then everyone waits for the FTL drives to cool, before making the
long jump to a safer place. 

And there is a pleasant surprise.  The Hijack Team has captured a
brand-spanking-new Verm Navy battleship.  The ship showed up while the
Hijack Team was still deployed.  It seemed like a good idea to get some
more boarding party practice.  The commander of the Hijack Team promised
the Verm crew that they will be well treated, and will be safely delivered to a
neutral planet, if they would pilot the captured vessel to the Sweetwater Fleet
rendezvous.

As the Sweetwater Fleet disappears into FTL space, Admiral Meyers
launches a probe to the
Queson
system announcing that the Darinx Navy Sweetwater Fleet is responsible for the
carnage that they have just suffered.  “We might as well walk around with
a target on our backs,” she thinks.

***

Admiral Meyers is ecstatic about the outcome of the missions thus far -
two successful conclusions without the loss of a ship, or even a
crewmember.  She knows that it won’t always be this easy.  Loosing
ships and crewmembers is an expected part of war.  She is dreading those
eventual losses.  She has the self-confidence to handle the rest of the
‘admiral duties’, but she isn’t sure how she will deal with grief, or loss of
life, or failure.