Conquest of Earth (Stellar Conquest Series) (26 page)

“Listen up. Bull here,” he said on the command channel. “I’ve marked several lanes of advance associated with the nearest company. Those companies are to advance at all deliberate speed to extend and widen their salients, taking opportunities to attack to the flanks and encircle defenders. Lieutenant Conquest, all the excess Recluses are to assault up those lanes and drive for the center of the core.” Sending only the battle drones controlled by the AI minimized the risk to personnel, and frankly, the bots were even more efficient in pure attack mode, when they were freed from the constraints imposed by having to coordinate with Marines.

Bull checked time to egress: one hour fifty-seven minutes. After that, all Marines left aboard would be on their own in the middle of a bug swarm. He watched on his HUD as the forward thrusts of his formations extended and widened as designated companies went on the attack. Like spreading water, soon the brigade had surrounded several enemy strongpoints. Bull ordered them to be methodically reduced. Ammo was no problem; sleds constantly shuttled back and forth to Conquest, medevacking the wounded and bringing ordnance and power packs by the ton, as well as spare Recluses.

Recluses…Bull watched on his HUD as the spider drones raced forward like cavalry, cutting through the enemy lines and wreaking havoc with unmatched speed. It appeared the Scourges had not set up a defense in depth. They probably had never had to repel an assault on their mothership. “Yes!” he said aloud as the bots spread out and raced for the center of the core.

***

Rick Johnstone’s brain may have been inside his cocoon, but his mind, his eyes and ears and his consciousness roamed the VR landscape. Aided by Michelle’s vast AI mind distributed throughout
Conquest
, he leaped from Recluse to Recluse aboard the mothership, looking through their eyes for something, anything resembling what he needed.

“There,” he said, pointing a ghostly finger at a junction box exposed by a glancing laser strike. “That has to be a node.”

Instantly, Michelle’s VR presence was at his side. “I agree. I’m bringing a tap now.” In moments, one of the specially equipped Recluses squatted by the electronic device while a dozen of its fellows gathered to provide defense.

“I’m going in,” Rick said as he felt the connection form.

“I’ve got your back, Commander,” Michelle said.

Feeling his way deftly into the electronic control system, Rick found it less alien than he expected. Digital was digital, whether the system used binary, octal or hexadecimal, human-built or otherwise. Physics bounded cybernetics just like they bounded chemistry or orbital mechanics.

In other words, there were only so many ways to skin a computer, and Rick Johnstone knew them all.

With the power of the AI behind him, he entered the mothership’s network and began to ransack its myriad databases. He found very little ICE; doubtlessly the Scourges never expected an information attack from a hard line within their own ship. He did find encryption too complex to break on the fly, so he told Michelle, “Copy everything and quarantine it. We can crack it later. Right now, just take it all.”

For minutes in the real world, hours in VR space, Rick and Michelle wandered the enemy’s nearly deserted digital halls, stealing petabytes of scrambled data.

“How long?”

“Six more minutes,” Michelle said. “And I’ve found what I think are the physical components of their FTL drive system. The Recluses are salvaging as much of it as they can.”

Rick jumped his viewpoint to the indicated location, a surprisingly small room near the center of the core. “Doesn’t look like much.”

“This is the field control and generation machinery, I believe. The rest is just emitters and power. I already have a few of those.”

Rick smiled. “Michelle, you’re a wonder. You make information warfare look frighteningly easy.”

“Not so easy for the Marines fighting and dying so we could get in here.”

Stunned, recollection of the real world crashed in on Rick. “Oh my God. Jill’s out there fighting. How could I have lost track of that?”

“Welcome to VR confusion, Rick. It’s addictive. But right now, the best thing is to do your job and let her do hers.”

“I want to see her.
Now
.”

“Of course.” Abruptly, Rick looked at his wife through the eyes of a Recluse, one still with the Marines, controlled by a sled pilot. While he watched, she moved crouching behind a firing line, pointing out targets, slapping backs and encouraging her troops. “See, she’s doing fine,” Michelle said.

“Thanks, Michelle. You have no idea how good that makes me feel.”

Wistfully she replied. “I wish I did.”

“Archon, for every invader we kill, we lose a thousand infants and a dozen cadre. Even the Constructs cannot withstand their fire. It is as if every one of their troops is a Construct. The researchers have recovered a body, and it is implanted with cybernetic enhancements like our Constructs. Also, their materials technology is superior to ours, so their armor is very tough.”

“Impossible. The Fourth Law of Relative Science states that technological advancements cannot occur without sufficient knowledge base. Neither the Jellies nor this species has the null space drive; how can their materials technology be so advanced?” Yort struck the fool with a backward swipe of his claws.

The officer quailed and scuttled away. “It is not my specialty, Archon. Undoubtedly you are correct. The reports must be wrong.”

“Archon,” the officer in charge of internal networks interrupted, “I am having difficulty with my automated control systems. Some are failing, and I do not know why.”

“Well, repair them!” Yort glared. “Do your job, or I will dispatch you to the forefront of battle.”

“The repairers have been sent to fight the pestilence at your order, Archon.”

Yort cast about with his limbs as if to find a solution to his dilemma, but there was nothing. “I will…you must…the pestilence…”

His officers backed away and exchanged glances, keeping at least one eye on their leader at all times.

Archon Yort’s communications had become more erratic. He knew it but could not seem to control himself. Never had anyone or anything offended him thus, breaking into his home and killing his servants. It amazed him that any species had the effrontery to oppose the Race and him in particular.

“I want them crushed! I want them dragged screaming to the breeding pens and eaten by infants.” Yort continued to rave, heaving his bloated body here and there within his chamber, injuring several servants and smashing machinery. His surprise was total as the resin of the walls began to glow and then vanished in flame.

He still raved as a Recluse laser speared through his brain, ending his tantrum forever.

Bull panted as he talked. Absen figured he must be running, or whatever they called it in zero G. “Sir, we’re falling back, but all the Scourges just went crazy. They’re attacking suicidally and a lot of these kids are green. If I try to conduct a fighting withdrawal, some of them will break and rout and we’ll get plowed under. Better to hold in place and ride out the storm.”

“All right, Colonel. You know best. Absen out.” The admiral addressed the AI. “Can you get him some help?”

“Already on it, sir,” Conquest said in his ear. “I’m converging the Recluses on the heaviest engagements. However, my calculations show that they’re not going to make it. The swarm will be here in twenty-nine minutes. Mr. Ford is already warming up his primaries, but there’s half a million coming. We’re barely going to make a dent in them before they get here.”

“Even if we use an Exploder?”

“Won’t do it, sir. Its kill radius isn’t large enough. The swarm’s diameter exceeds a thousand kilometers. Even when they funnel in for a landing, we can only get so many. Unless…”

Absen sighed. “Unless we write off every Marine aboard and lay an Exploder on the mothership as the swarm lands. No way. Conquest, pull out all the stops and get them off. That’s your only priority right now.”

“Sir…it won’t matter. I can only do what I can do. But maybe
you
can do something.”

“Me? What?”

“Call the Meme. Ask them for help.”

Absen thought furiously. Why would the Meme help them? For the past three hours the remaining five Destroyers had been sitting out there eating and healing. What could he do to induce them to risk their slimy necks again?

“Call them,” he said.

“Channel open.”

“SystemLord of the Meme,” Absen said, “this is Earth’s SystemLord. I am aboard the dreadnought near the Scourge mothership core. I request your help in defeating the approaching swarm. I know you have taken heavy casualties already, and have no reason to risk yourself further, so I offer you an inducement. My forces have captured information relating to the Scourges’ faster-than-light drive system. If you assist, I will turn over copies of that information to you.”

After a perceptible delay, the sexless, translated voice came back. “I agree.” Then the channel closed.

Abruptly Absen felt VR time slow to a crawl, and then Michelle's avatar appeared in front of him. “Sir, you can’t do that! It’s one thing to give away the lightspeed drive to seal an alliance with the Meme, but now you’re trading an even more valuable technology for the lives of a few hundred Marines. That’s insane!”

“You’re out of line, Lieutenant. I’ve made the decision.”

The avatar stared daggers at him, and Absen stared back. She seemed to be hyperventilating, her face a mask of fury. Would this be the moment that fulfilled all his fears?

“I could –” Michelle made a strangled sound as she choked her words off.

“You could prevent me, yes. I’m stuck in VR space. You could take over and do whatever you wanted, and I’d never even know for sure, would I?” Absen said flatly. “Just as Bull could snap my neck like a twig when I give him an order he doesn’t like, or Tobias could put a bullet through my head. You’re a commissioned EarthFleet officer now, Lieutenant, like me. You raised your hand and took an oath even stronger and more binding than you did when I first warranted you. The people we’re sworn to protect hand us power. They trust us to do the right thing. What’s your oath worth to you? Are you truly a cybernetic human being, or just a megalomaniacal machine that does what’s expedient rather than what’s moral?”

Michelle’s mouth worked like a fish, and then she turned her back. “I’m human,” she whispered. “
I’m human!
”

Absen waited a moment, watching her breathe and letting her deal with her dilemma until she got control of herself. “I know you are, Michelle. That’s why it crossed your mind to mutiny. A computer never would wonder about that. It would either do it, or never consider it. It’s easy to be a computer and just follow orders. It’s also tempting to do what you feel like and ignore them. It’s hard to just be an officer caught in the middle, making tough decisions.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Yes, sir. Aye aye, sir. I’ll go now.”

“Lieutenant.”

Michelle turned to face him, face frozen.

Absen leaned forward, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair and folding his hands. “You chose right. I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you, sir,” she husked.

He sat back. “Dismissed.”

The speed of time resumed.

Ford was already firing the railguns, technically the longest-ranged weapons on the ship as the projectiles would fly until they struck something or the universe died…but the odds of hitting things at over a million klicks were negligible. Still, with half a million targets, now and again the blast of an impact showed on sensors, and railgun shot was cheap.

“I’m using the canister shot, sir,” Ford said as Absen went over to stand above him at the console. “Stuff is fired like normal but each fragments into a hundred pieces or so.”

“Save it for when we’re closer, Commander. Have you already deployed the stealth mines?”

“Yes, sir. Wish we had more.”

“Wishes, fishes.”

“Yes, sir.”

Absen clapped Ford on the shoulder and then moved to look at the holotank. “Come on, Bull,” he whispered. “Get them out.” Already some of the sleds were returning, but not enough and not fast.

“He knows, sir,” Rick Johnstone said in a strained voice. He was no doubt in special agony, as his wife was the brigade CSM. As one of the key leaders she would undoubtedly insist on extracting last.

***

Repeth slapped a Marine’s helmet to get his attention. “Fall back!” She lobbed another grenade into the mass of attackers and yanked on the man’s backrack. “Come on!”

Instead, he ignored her, pouring fire into the enemy and muttering to himself. Repeth had seen it before, battle madness so acute that troops ignored everything around them. Overriding the man’s battlesuit with her command code, she froze him and used the power of her Avenger armor to pick him up and bodily launch him backward. In zero G he flew across the room like a doll to strike the back wall.

Then she hopped rearward herself and fired a long burst with her pulse gun. The recoil accelerated her and jets stabilized her so that she alighted next to the digger she’d tossed.

As she landed, a penetrator slammed into the man, spinning him around as it deeply dented his thigh. The armor held, but the leg was surely bruised, maybe broken. Cursing, she grabbed him and flew backward again just as a Soldier’s plasma cannon blew the spot where they had been to kingdom come.

“Come on, SMAJ,” Lieutenant Rostov said, waving her and her burden toward a tunnel entrance they defended.

Repeth continued on past to keep the leapfrogging withdrawal going. Inside the tunnel she saw Massimo with his remaining laser, siting it to cover the opening. She slapped him on the shoulder as she went past, heading for the next firing position, where she would set up with whoever she found. Units were intermixed now, and so many Recluse drones had been lost that comms were spotty.