Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2 (7 page)

Near a Shipbuilding Facility

A shipbuilding facility is an obvious place to look for warships.  The
Verm Navy has probably tightened up on security at all shipbuilding facilities,
since the Sweetwater Fleet destroyed the one in the
Queson
system, but it’s worth checking. 
Where else can you get a brand new warship for free?

Scouts have been sent close to the system in order to check for deep
space warning networks.  Some motion sensor type devices have been located
and mapped.  Then the scouts move in closer, to search the system for
defensive networks.

There are more warships patrolling this system.  The scout ship’s AI
counts 35.  And there is an array of sensors - probably to detect probes.

Since probes are not an option for recording destination coordinates,
Admiral Meyers directs her team to tag supply ships, as they wait at the edge
of the system for clearance to enter.  That worked for them in the attack
on the
Queson
system
Shipbuilding Facility.

Sensing modules are scattered around the emergence area, used by
transports.  After that it is a matter of waiting, until one of those
transport ships emerges close enough to a sensing module so that the module can
attach to the ship.  The cargo transport vessel then gives the sensing
module a free ride to the Shipbuilding Facility.  ……………..   …………
And that method works again – after a few tries.

The sensing module reports that the next 3 FTL test flights are each to
different coordinates – and the scout ship reports that each test vehicle is
accompanied by 2 Verm warships. 

So the Shipbuilding Facility is changing the destination for each FTL
test flight now, and is sending warship escorts.  “Well,” the Admiral
thinks, “give them credit for that, and give Fleet Admiral
Duncons
credit too. 
These changes require 2 warships for each test flight.”

What to do? 

“We could follow the ships to the same destination coordinates,” thinks
the Admiral.  “But we will have to battle 2 Verm warships.  We could
win the battle, but we might lose some ships in the process.  Then the
captured
verm
ships
won’t be free anymore.”

Then she has an idea.  “
Shiela
,”
she says.

“Here, Sir.”

“Are we able to change the destination coordinates in the test vessel?”
asks the Admiral. 

“Give me some time to speak with the other
AIs
,”
Shiela
responds.  “And it might be good if you spoke with Chief Scientist
Barnard.”

“Good plan.  Comm me when you know more,” Admiral Meyers says.

***

“The Sweetwater
AIs
have concluded that only the
AIs
,
on the Verm vessels, can change the destination coordinates,” reports
Shiela
.

“And Science Officer Barnard doesn’t know of any way to electrically or
mechanically override the
AIs
,”
agrees the Admiral.  “But who gives the AI the destination coordinates?”

 “It will be sent over a secure comm link.  Probably from the
Shipbuilding Facility,” answers
Shiela
.

“And the same coordinates will probably be sent to the escort ships at
the same time,” muses the Admiral.  “How long before the launch will the
destination coordinates be sent?”

“Probably some minutes in advance.  There is no reason to wait until
the last minute,” replies
Shiela
.

“That is where we can take them,” say the Admiral.  “If we know the
destination coordinates before they launch, we can be at the destination
waiting for them to arrive.  We can destroy the warships, as they emerge,
and capture the test vessel.”

“Now,” she continues.  “Just tell me how to get those destination
coordinates in advance.”

***

Sweetwater Fleet begins looking for some way to ease drop on the traffic,
over the secure comm. 

Science Officer Barnard determines that the secure comm link is a laser system,
but it is not focused – meaning that it projects a wide beam of light, which
would be useful for general announcements.  He deduces that by observing
the spread of the beam– if the beam was
focused
he would only be able to
see a fine line, at the laser’s frequency.

That means that any receiver in back of the test vessel, or warships
could view the coded signal. 

Officer Bernard takes a warship to a location that is still outside of
the system, but where he can see the laser light transmission, from the
Shipbuilding Facility to the test vessel.  Using their highest power
telescope, Officer Bernard is able to copy the secure comm signal.  He
notifies the Admiral, and she relocates the Fleet close to the Chief
Scientist’s position. 

While Officer Bernard is refining his reception techniques, and the
decryption specialist is learning to crack the code on the Verm secure comm
system, Admiral Meyers is planning the hijack attempt.  There will need to
be lots of plans and contingency plans.

***

Everything is set.  And now the Admiral is getting greedy. 
Sometimes the Shipbuilding Facility will launch 2 or 3 test vessels, within an
hour.  The Admiral is thinking that they might be able to capture more
than one vessel.  And she is getting picky.  She wants big
battleships instead of cruisers or destroyers.

They wait 3 more weeks, until everything is
just right
. 
There should be 2 launches within a 1 hour span, and one of the ships is a
battleship – a twin brother for Retribution.  The other vessel is a heavy
cruiser. 

“Good enough,” says the Admiral, and all systems are GO for the hijack
operation.

***

Ensign
Seagrams
,
the crypto expert, has the transmissions decoded within a minute of reception, and
forwards the destination coordinates to the first hijack team.  That team
launches for the emergence location, about 5 minutes before the test vessel
launches.  That should be enough of a head start, but it is cutting it
close.

They do better on the second attempt.  The Sweetwater team launches
almost 12 minutes ahead of the
verm
test ship.

Now it’s time to
get out of Dodge
.  Things are going to get
very tense in this system when they discover that 2 ships have been hijacked,
and 4 Verm warships have been destroyed.  The Sweetwater Fleet launches
for the rendezvous location and waits for the hijack teams to arrive.

And they do arrive, with a brand new battleship and heavy cruiser. 
There was more difficulty in these captures.  The test ships’
AIs
were mounting a
weapons assault against the AH Navy hijack teams.  That resistance ceased
at the direction of the
verm
test pilots, who decided that is was suicide to resist.  The Verm crews on
the shakedown vessels surrendered, after being promised that they would be
delivered safely to a neutral planet in the Frontier Sector.

 Admiral Meyers assigns a couple of the surplus Artificial
Intelligences, to the captured vessels. 
Shiela
has been mentoring the Darinx
AIs
,
and they are prepared for duty on captured Verm warships.

The Sweetwater Fleet enters FTL space, headed for a safe deep space
location.

***

Deep Space

The raid on the Shipbuilding Facility was successful, but took a lot of
time.  Still it was time well spent, in Admiral Meyers’ estimation. 

New technologies and tactics were developed, which will facilitate future
raids on shipbuilding and repair facilities.  For now, the Admiral expects
that security around other shipbuilding installations will be beefed up, and
that the risk outweighs the benefits for another such raid – maybe later.

In the mean time, she has all Darinx crews and
AIs
studying for positions aboard captured
Verm warships.  The Sweetwater Fleet must transition to
verm
vessels, or find a
source for Darinx munitions.

“Where can I get a bunch of Verm warships without paying for them?” the
Admiral wonders.  Once again, she turns to her tried and true
brainstorming techniques.  And she learned in her recent Emperor’s Palace
attack that enlisted personnel also have good ideas.  She puts the question
out for all crews and
AIs
. 
Then she waits. 

The responses trickle in, and then they pour in.  All of the
enlisted personnel remember that Seaman 1
^st
Class
Kaa-Gref
was given a
battlefield promotion to Tactical Officer, as a reward for his idea about
attacking the Emperor’s Palace.

***

“And the winner is Gunnery Sergeant
Portuato
,
aboard the light cruiser Reel,” announces the Admiral, “for her idea of
hijacking a bunch of Verm warships, from the parking lot at a regional Verm
Navy headquarters.  Sergeant
Portuato
is hereby promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, and will begin training for the
position of Weapons Officer.”   

***

Outside of the 12
^th
Verm Navy Headquarters
System

A group of 6 scouts is sent to reconnoiter deep space around the star
system
Guiars
, where
the 12
^th
Verm Navy Headquarters is located.  As expected, the
system is crawling with Verm warships and defensive networks.  Long range
spying identifies several places where numbers of vessels are stored in
parking
lot
fashion. 

There are some necessary criteria that a ship must meet in order to be
considered
hijack ready
.  The ship must have a functional FTL
drive, a full load of fuel rods, and it must be accessible.  Also, the
ship must not have an Artificial Intelligence, because Verm
AIs
have been programmed
to resist and to announce the hijack, if an unauthorized humanoid takes
control. 

It takes three weeks of long distance reconnoitering to get a feel for
the conditions of the vessels parked at the 4 different parking lots.  One
is for vehicles
awaiting maintenance
– those vessels fail to qualify for
hijacking.  Another is for vessels which have
completed repairs
–
those vessels would qualify.  The 3
^rd
parking lot is for
special
purpose
types of vehicles – those vessels would qualify, but are not as
desirable as general purpose warships.  The 4
^th
parking lot is
loaded with various sizes of
general purpose warships
.  It looks
like a candy store to the Admiral.  Naturally, it is the least accessible
of the parking lots.

The Admiral instructs Science Officer Barnard to study the Verm vessels,
in order to determine the status of their Artificial Intelligences.  If
there are ships without
AIs
,
they would immediately become preferred targets.

Officer Bernard reports that there are 15 Verm warships parked in the
repairs
completed
section of the Repair Depot, which do not have
AIs
.  He reached that
conclusion by monitoring each vessel for a routine
comm sync
signal.  Vessels which don’t make a
comm sync
check probably don’t
have
AIs
.

Admiral Myers says:  “That’s good enough.  Focus our energies
on those 15 vessels and prepare to hijack them, as long as they are FTL capable
and have fuel rods.

The 15 vessels meet all requirements for
hijack ready
status.  The next thing to do is to figure out how to get them out of the
Verm parking lot and into FTL space, without anyone recording their destination
coordinates.  Admiral Meyers impresses herself by having a good idea,
about how to accomplish that task.

They use the technologies developed by Officer Barnard, for the
Shipbuilding Facility heist.  Officer Barnard and the Chief Cryptologist –
Ensign
Seagrams
–
tap into the
broad beam secure comm system
and crack the encryption
code.  After a week of study, the pair is confident that they can send a
fake order to the Repair Depot, informing them that new
AIs
will be installed aboard the 15
vessels.  And that the ships will then take a FTL test flight, as a fleet.

***

With that done, the hijack team takes 15
AIs
(borrowed from the Darinx Sweetwater Fleet ships) into the Repair Depot parking
lot, aboard one of their captured
verm
shuttles.  The shuttle is expected and there are no verbal communications
with the Repair Depot.

The phony
Artificial Intelligence installation team
doesn’t try to
enter the Verm vessels – because they don’t have the access codes. 
Instead, they use the Computer Uplink Port near the bow of each vessel, and
transfer the Sweetwater
AIs
,
from portable computer cores into the ships’ computers.  The whole job
takes about 40 minutes.

The shuttle departs with the phony technicians.  After the Darinx
AIs
are ready for flight,
one of the 15 hijack vessels signals that they are
ready
by flashing its
lights.

Officer Barnard and Ensign
Seagrams
send a fake message to the Repair Depot informing them that the 15 vessels will
depart for the FTL test flight in 5 minutes.  The Repair Depot
acknowledges receipt of the message.

“That is a problem!” thinks the Admiral.  “Get them out right now!”
she orders. 

All 15 ships move out of the Repair Depot parking lot at an unusually
high speed, but there is no response from the Repair Depot crew.   As
soon as they are out of the proximity of the Repair Depot, the 15 ships launch
into FTL space.