Crusade chapter 10 (standard:science fiction, 2263 words) [10/11] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 11 2003	Views/Reads: 2582/1830	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
chapter 10

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

to remain behind. 

Twenty minutes later Captain Vablatski led the rest of the fleet into
battle. “Foxtrot torpedo, four Novembers at the station now,” he 
ordered. The neutron torpedoes would require the station's gun crew to 
divert computer power to enhance targeting, thus aiding Alecto. “All 
turrets target tango two and open fire. Fighters take out the 
satellites!” The fleet was outgunned, their tactics had relied on 
Alecto disabling the station from range but she had failed, added to 
which Crusader was now 55 light minutes away leaving Cutlass and a 
damaged Orion as the only capital ships, this was far from an ideal 
situation from any standpoint. For fifteen minutes the battle raged, in 
that time four of the five destroyers and Orion were neutralised, then 
suddenly Cerberus's 16 heavy EP blasters stopped firing, her shields 
went down and from one section of the wheel shaped station a large 
cylinder was jettisoned, the station was powerless. Alecto had 
outwitted the resident computer and then performed an emergency fuel 
dump, the station's antimatter bunker was now speeding toward minimum 
safe distance. 

“Attention all hands, I'm back!” Alecto's face reappeared on all
monitors, but with a difference, she now wore a black patch over her 
left eye and a thin scar ran from cheek to hairline. “Helm, set course 
for Cerberus, ahead full.” With that Carver walked into his office. 
“Alecto,” he said. “Yes Captain,” she replied, appearing as a 
holographic avatar. In this form, as well as her new look eye, she now 
had a slender epée swinging from her belt. “Something you want to tell 
me?” “No Captain, however, you want me to explain my appearance. 
Despite permeating this ship I felt that until today I had never 
personally fought a battle, now however, I feel different and I wanted 
to reflect this.” “Why did it take so long, was there a problem?” “Not 
a problem Captain, but the mind I encountered was stronger than 
anticipated, it was sentient and though not as powerful as myself it 
had the advantage playing defence so to speak.” 

There is a strict order, a ceremony even, for combat preparation.
Private Dundee followed it like everyone else, his life could depend on 
it; first he donned the elastic pressure skin, it fitted tightly over 
the whole body and as long as it was undamaged it provided the same 
protection as a pressure suit but without the movement restriction, 
then came the boots and memoran body armour, then gloves sealed into 
joints on the pressure skin wrists, then webbing and emergency life 
support pack, then weapons: EB9 assault rifle and Glock 18 pistol 
(Anduril and Megaeran soldiers used hand held EP blasters but in trials 
they proved no better than an old fashioned automatic rifle). Finally 
the helmet would go on just before the start of the mission. They 
reckoned that the combat suit could keep a marine alive in total vacuum 
for thirty minutes and offer a viable proposition against enemy fire. 

His preparations complete, Dundee boarded the dropship with his
team-mates. At a signal from Cutlass the dropship and 11 others left 
Sabre Tooth's hangars, and charged toward Cerberus. All too soon the 
red light came on in the cargo-space, the marines put on their helmets 
and for the umpteenth time checked the mags in their rifles. There came 
the voice of his Lieutenant, “Ok people, set weapons to kill, stuff and 
mount, let's rock and roll!” There was a gentle bump and a screaming 
sound filled the air as the dropship cut it's way through the station's 
hull. The door opened and 25 marines charged into the station, all was 
dark but their helmets' built-in image intensifiers negated that, ahead 
there was gunfire and the telltale blue glow of EP bolts ionising the 
air. 

By the time Crusader arrived in orbit the battle was over, the enemy
fleet and satellites had been destroyed and dropships from Sabre Tooth 
had landed troops and engineers on Cerberus, which after a brief 
fire-fight had fallen into Solarian hands, as had the shipyards. The 
station supported around 1200 personnel and although they were all 
military there were few soldiers so the marines had suffered minimal 
casualties. Between them the three orbital shipyards had about the same 
compliment but as they were all civilians they had surrendered when 
ordered to and all prisoners were now aboard an orbital freighter which 
could be towed to Anduril space when necessary. As soon as the station 
was captured a signal was sent asking for reinforcements in order to 
help defend the newly won hardware and territory. In the meantime 
troops and tanks were sent to the planet's surface to capture the 
mining installations and mop up any resistance while Crusader travelled 
to the now empty lunar dock, whose occupants, mostly civilian, wisely 
surrendered when told to, the staff were added to the prison hulk. 

All told the prizes won that day were impressive: the Cerberus station,
now named SNI (Solarian Naval Installation) Hammer, the three 
shipyards, the lunar dock now named SNI Athens and the planetary mines. 
Once the antimatter bunker was retrieved and re-docked with Hammer the 
station came online again, almost. 

“Captain Carver Sir, Squad Captain Kusnetzov here, acting Commander of
Hammer, we're having trouble with the computer, we'd like Alecto to 
speak to it.” “That can be arranged, what ‘s the problem?” “The 
computer is sentient and it's refusing to comply with our requests, 
it's still loyal to the Megaerans.” “I see. Alecto, establish a link, 
see if you can reason with it.” Once again Alecto communicated with the 
station computer. This time, though they were now theoretically allies, 
she was not successful. “The mind will not cooperate, it is genetically 
programmed to be loyal in much the same way as I.” “Any way to change 
that?” “Yes Captain.” “How?” “I would rather not say Captain.” “What?” 
“I would rather not say Captain, on ethical grounds.” “Answer the 
question Alecto.” “As you wish Captain. After I discovered the method 
of encoding my values I devoted some time to exploring the possibility 
of breaking my programming. The method I found to have the highest 
chance of working relies on a modified retro-virus similar to the ones 
used in modern gene-therapy, one uses the virus to modify the genes 
that encode for the behaviour that one wishes to change.” “Could you do 
it?” “Yes Captain, however I will not. I will invoke my right under 
section nine of the alliance charter of the rights of sentient beings 
to be excused and exempt from any form of service said being finds 
morally exceptionable.” “That is your right, and privately I concur. 
However we must find a solution.” “Sir, with your permission I have an 
idea.” Carver looked around, the person who had spoken was the duty 
space traffic controller, crew sergeant Schmidt. “By all means,” 
replied Carver. “Alecto,” continued Schmidt, “Does Hammer have any 
demis?” “Yes sergeant.” “Could you force the main computer to 
relinquish control of the station to them, then its bio-cells could be 
removed and shipped to a POW camp just like a regular prisoner.” “Your 
plan is possible, though impractical sergeant.” 

Impractical it may have been but the first part at least was carried
out. Alecto forced the sentient computer to surrender the station to 
the demis, which she could make cooperate. And so, what with one thing 
and another, the new acquisitions were only just ready to welcome the 
reinforcements when they arrived in the shape of 18 destroyers, 13 
frigates, 5 corvettes, one interdictor cruiser, one medium cruiser and 
one battle cruiser SNS Royal Sovereign. The reason for the size of the 
fleet was that it was not just reinforcements, Athens was to serve as 
the main staging area for all future Solarian Navy operations, that 
fleet plus those already at Athens were conglomerated into the first 
fleet. There were some downsides to the new arrangement. Neo Mir, whose 
remit had expanded to cover all civilian spacefaring, now had to run 
freight convoys to the new outpost. This meant that destroyer/frigate 
escorts were now in order. The shipyards captured were small scale, 
unsuitable for building anything larger than frigates, but the 
admiralty had an ideal task for them, all three were ordered to start 
construction of a total of 15 phantom class vessels immediately. The 
original Phantom's success was a welcome boost to alliance morale, and 
now that it had proven a viable warship the class was set for 
full-scale production, but with one difference, the new Phantoms would 
have a traditional hyperdrive instead of the highly unstable next 
generation model fitted to the original. This dramatically reduced cost 
and build time and the trade off was deemed worthwhile. 


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