Chapter 165

  The ships were all in position, and the go order was given. The Slipstream fighters on the edge of the system fired a flash event from their drives to simulate nine capital ships entering the system. Generally, ships entering a busy system would go unnoticed, but we made as big an entry as possible. The subspace disruption would reach their sensors at the speed of light. We waited for their response.

  Forty-six minutes later, the system defense fleet started to respond to the potential incursion. They formed a wall between the inhabited planet and the direction of the disturbance. It made sense they did not go out and meet the threat. The slipstream fighters started to destroy the system’s automated gas and asteroid mining. The hope was they would draw out the defense fleet from the planet.

  Their sensors were not strong enough to see what ships were attacking. Julian, the ship’s AI, gave me my first bad news of the operation. He had not been able to penetrate the computer systems of the station. There was advanced Brotherhood technology preventing his attempts. In the last fifteen years, they had advanced as well, but I was surprised to find this remote system with some of the Brotherhood’s more advanced software.

  We were getting real-time sensor data from the destruction the fighters were doing. I sent a communication for them to conserve half of their fuel and ordinance. The defense ships were not moving. The communications officer turned and informed me they were sending automated haulers to investigate. We quickly identified them in the system. Seven hours to range. The marines were sitting in their suits inside the shuttles, waiting.

  I gave the order to the planetary assault. These were the operatives from Leopard I with four of the Marines from the Fateweaver and were tasked with creating a distraction by capturing political prisoners and calling themselves part of an organization opposing the government, seeking reform and change to the corrupt political system. They were all wearing Badger suits that we had cosmetically altered to appear as Mercury Industries Battle Line Suits. A generic powered armor that was available from the core worlds.

  The operatives took control of the capital building as deliberations were happening. They quickly seized the political chamber with one hundred and one elected officials. However, elected officials were a loose term since only 15% of the population actually voted. The thing with political officials is they are open to gambling or risking the lives of soldiers and their citizens. But they were ready to do just about anything when it came to preserving their own lives.

  Our request was to free four hundred and seven prisoners from the group we were impersonating. All these prisoners just happened to be in the same facility as the Wren boys, Ezra and Emil. Things started to happen slowly, but we noticed the requested prisoners were being gathered and shipped to the surface from the depths of the mine. Ten thousand soldiers and heavy equipment of the planetary army were also being deployed to the capital and the prison.

  Our op’s shuttle was under stealth in a courtyard fifty yards from the capital building. It was their means of escape, and should be out of the line of fire of the army. We listened in on the communication between the political branch and the army. It appeared they were going to meet our demands, which was surprising. Not surprising was the secret transmissions to the actual Revolutionary Group we were impersonating. Apparently, they were all political pawns of the ruling party! They were helpless to give the offices any information or call off the coup.

  The plan was working as the army, and a number of the guards at the prison began transporting the requested political prisoners in APC to the capital. They were probably thinking we were idiots as once the exchange was made, they could just capture us again. Sensors informed me the fleet at the station was breaking off and screening the planet. That was smart on their part as that was the only thing that made sense, escaping on a spaceship.

  The outer system was taking a pounding during this time, and the New Seattle system started taking casualties. Two system corvettes were destroyed by my fighters. I could not let them get in visual range, so all 34 men and women on those ships had been killed. Check that, one escape pod, with five individuals, was floating free of the wreckage. I ordered the escape pod collected as the Navy would not get to it after we finished with them. The Leopard I made a course change to intercept.

  So far, everything was working to some measure. I turned over command to Francis on the bridge and went to the shuttle bay to join the Marines in assaulting the space station. We had two shuttles with twelve Marines, each stationed and ready to assault the prison itself to free the Wren boys. We just wanted to make sure as many defense and military personnel were gone. I was in my Badger armor in the co-pilot seat and brought up the feeds from all the events going on at once.

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  The first hiccup came from a general of the planetary forces. He had decided a missile strike to kill the hostages and rebels was acceptable. We had intercepted a communication of his intentions with another general. They planned to install themselves as dictators. I directed the information to be released publicly. The domino effect was surprising. The army started fighting itself in two different provinces outside the city. My little revelation had started a civil war within the army.

  The Fateweaver was lined up to deploy the two shuttles headed to the station to free the Squirrel in the detention cells and get the Fateweaver cleared. I ordered the assault on the prison, and twenty-two Marines in Badger armor and four in Gorilla suits launched their attack. The entire planet was quickly falling into anarchy. They quickly breached the defenses and were inside the complex. That rescue looked on track and would no longer be my concern after I launched for the station with my Marines. I had twenty Marines in Badger suits and two in Gorilla suits. The Gorilla suits would be guarding our egress from the station.

  I ordered the shuttles launched, and we entered space under stealth. I still watched the mad scramble, and two ships in orbit opened with attacks on the revolting generals. The attack had pushed focus completely off the prison. Ground missiles were launched at the capital by desperate generals, but air defenses took them down, and the barrage continued and intensified. It was quickly turning into a major clusterfuck. The Navy appeared to be on the side of the politicians and was bombing the army positions from space. The ship wall was being recalled to the planet even though the Slipstream fighters were still sweeping the outer system.

  The major dysfunction was not my concern. I sent Celeste a comm to let her know we were coming. My two shuttles came around a moon dotted with habitation domes and low-g manufacturing. We ignored everything and docked in two shuttle bays being refurbished. The station sensors finally picked us up as we exited and made our way to the Void Phoneix. Surprised staff and civilians moved away quickly as our thundering suits sprinted, denting the floors and causing panic and havoc.

  Six Marines split off to the holding cells while I raced the internal docking station where the Void Phoenix was located. We didn’t bother with the security door. The computer firewalls were too strong, so we destroyed the door with heavy fire and burst through in our suits.

  The Void Phoenix was in clamped cradles, and small explosive devices were scattered over the subspace emitters. If she ripped out of here, they would ensure the ship could not enter subspace. Celeste’s voice came over the comms. She asked, resignedly, what I needed her to do. My Marines were already swarming the ship and popping off the devices. We had frequency jammers set at max. I told Celeste to hold tight but to cycle her power core and all her generators. The two Squirrel engineers should be freed soon and would be brought here.

  I moved to the manual clamp release. This was an ingenious system, as you could not hack the clamps to release on their own. My HUD quickly fed me the directions as I began the release process. The sounds of contact started coming over comms. A fight was breaking out in the holding cells. I was informed that destroyers were preparing to dock with the station to send Marines to assist, ETA was 52 minutes. That should not matter as I planned to be gone long before then.

  One of the mines detonated, throwing the Marine away and destroying the emitter. The Marines suit said he had a concussion but was otherwise fine. In fourteen minutes, the Void Phoenix was free. Her hidden weapons, now powered, blasted the doors containing the bay. The rescue of the Squirrel was behind schedule. I commed Celeste and told her we would take them out on the shuttles. She was to get away now. She acknowledged and did a hard acceleration on leaving the station. Only anti-missile laser cannons fired at her as she darted away. Nothing capable of penetrating her hull.

  I pulled my Marines to me to retreat when Francis came over comms. Twelve Armageddon bots had been released on the station and were headed toward our position. That did not make any sense. We would have been able to scan for them. Francis explained they had been stored in crates with dense fluids matching their composition, so they appeared just as a block of raw materials. My heart quickened as that meant a few things for us. One, the Brotherhood had a presence on the station, as only they would have had the pull to place the Armageddon bots here. And second, they were aware of how our sensors worked by mapping densities.

  I ordered a retreat toward our shuttles, but we would have to deal with the dangerous bots to escape the station. As we raced back, things were also going sideways on the planet. The Navy was bombing the prison, and the army had five thousand men assaulting the capital building. At least Celeste was away. Francis informed me she was making an attack run of the destroyer bombing the prison. Well, fuck, things were going to shit fast.

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