Interregnum (Children of Steel Book 2) Read online

  Being that it was still mostly a company town, I didn't have too many problems tapping into the local fight scene. A couple of nights after we left the resort I went down to the local fight bar and fought a few times. I brought Cassandra with me and Banner and Terease both came along as well. Banner just to make sure there weren't any problems and Terease mostly out of curiosity.

  It was still fun, Cassandra still enjoyed watching me kick butt, and of course the extra money didn't hurt either. But I was surprised to realize that I hadn't fought on the bar scene since we'd left Hobson. True we had been busy, and I didn't think I'd have found a place on Earth or the Moon, but it didn't seem to hold as much interest for me as it once did.

  16

  "Now hear this! Attention to orders!"

  We all sat down and turned to the screen on the ship's com in the ready room, the Astra had just entered jump-space after a five day run out of the Iverly system.

  "At ease everyone," Captain King's image appeared on the screen as he talked. "Recent intelligence that we gathered has identified a small hidden base leftover from the war. As best as we can determine, this base is deserted. However, the group we found this information on has ties to piracy, and Corporate has no idea if the information about this base was passed on or not, and has no desire to allow this base to fall into the hands of any pirate organization.

  "So we have been given the task to destroy it." The captain paused a moment. "Now normally we would just drop an orbital bombardment on it, and leave it at that. However, there are concerns that there might be innocents, or intelligence data worth recovering. So if it can be done without exposing our people to grave danger, we will investigate first. If not, we will simply destroy it.

  "Once we have completed that, we will be making maximum speed to Hobson's Choice, where we will return to our normal duties.

  "That is all."

  The screen clicked off and we all looked at the chief.

  "Okay, the plan is actually fairly simple." Chief Shandour began, calling up a schematic of the system on the wall screen. "We break out here," He pointed to a location on the edge of the system, "the base is there," He indicated one of the moons of a large gas giant.

  "As you can see, the base will be on the far side of the gas giant when we break out. We don't know if they have any sensors in place or not, we'll be pretty far out, so odds are good they won't see us even if they do - the captain is planning a low energy breakout."

  "How long is it going to take us to get there?" Dave asked, "That's quite a distance and we're hauling three cargo pods."

  "The pods are empty, and will be jettisoned after we breakout. The Astra will then engage in a series of maneuvers. The first will be to put us on this course," a line for a least fuel gravity-braking course appeared. "At which time we will launch two shuttles. The Astra will then maneuver to this course," a second line appeared on the display, it was a much longer approach, one that would take two extra days to get there.

  "The second course is more cautious, one that allows us more time to scan our target and be sure of it. The plan behind this is to lure all attention to focus on the Astra. If any sign of a threat appears, the shuttles will attack and destroy the base. If no attacks are made, or no sign of life is apparent, the shuttles will land and do a quick exploration, then set charges and join up with the Astra when it passes nearby."

  "How long a shuttle mission is that?" Jerry asked. "Looks to be six days."

  Chief Shandour nodded, "Yes. It's going to be a bit rough on those onboard. Especially as one shuttle will be carrying a small team to investigate the base, as well as to rig charges."

  "How small a team are we talking about?"

  "Six, including the shuttle crew."

  "That's a bit tight for six days."

  "So bring your girlfriend," Chief Shandour joked and everyone laughed.

  "What happens if the Astra has to run?" I asked looking at the courses on the display.

  "The shuttle carrying the destruction charges will make an attack run as it passes by. The other shuttle will be free to abort on whatever course they feel best."

  "Yeah, but doesn't leave you with a lot of options," I complained. "Starve to death, or what? Suicide?"

  "Well there is this," Chief Shandour pointed to a new course that appeared on the display. "This is the ballistic course of the containers after we jettison them. Each contains extra fuel and rations, you'll get picked up in six weeks. Less of course if the attack run is successful, as the captain does not intend to jump out of the system until he knows if the attack was successful or not."

  "I would like to volunteer for the shuttle making the attack run," Jerry said standing up.

  "Don't bother, you were already assigned to it," Chief Shandour laughed.

  "Who gets the other one?" I asked.

  Chief Shandour paused a moment and started rubbing his chin, "Well let's see, who ever we put on that shuttle really needs to be pretty friendly, and we do have this one pilot whose mated to an intelligence analyst."

  Everyone laughed and I sighed.

  "Oh great!" Dave grumbled, "I get a week of having to listen to those two!"

  "I seemed to recall that you've been spending time with an intelligence analyst yourself there Dave," Shandour grinned.

  "Umm," Dave's ears splayed and his tail curled down. "Maybe."

  "So Mist will be going along...."

  I almost laughed as Dave's tail went back up. I had no idea he'd been seeing Mist, I'd tease him about that later.

  "Who are the remaining two?" I asked.

  "Kyle and Wendy," the chief said, naming two ferrets from the crew. I knew who Kyle was as he worked down in Engineering with Terease. Wendy was his wife.

  "So, how long until we get there?" Jerry asked.

  "One week."

  "One week!?" Jerry said surprised and we all looked equally shocked I was sure.

  "That's why this is important, and why the Astra was launched with no real cargo. This is right in our own backyard." Chief Shandour said.

  "What kind of hardware are we going to be slinging?" Janice, Jerry's WSO asked.

  "Two one hundred kiloton bombs."

  "That much?" She asked surprised.

  "Well, no one knows how well this base is protected, and everyone wanted to be sure."

  "Those aren't part of our usual armament, I take it they're in the cargo hold?" Dave asked.

  Chief Shandour nodded. "The techs should be bringing them up shortly. You and Janice can help set them up and put them on Jerry's shuttle."

  "What's my shuttle going to be carrying?" I asked.

  "Four LGRT missiles, and a pair of cluster bombs filled with audio sensors to drop on the surface of the moon. The installation is underground, so that will probably be the only intelligence that you'll be able to get before you go down inside."

  I nodded.

  "Any other questions?"

  There were none.

  "Okay, get to work everyone!"

  I spent the rest of the day going over the plan, checking the course we were given to fly, what the fuel requirements would be, and then what it would take to make a rendezvous with one of those empty pods if we were forced to abort. Once I had a good idea what that would involve, I went and found Jerry to go over it all with him, and see if his numbers and ideas agreed with mine.

  By the time we got done with that, the bombs had been assembled and we went to look at them. Both of them had penetrating tips, so they'd go in a good forty to fifty feet before they exploded. Deeper if they didn't hit any hardened defenses.

  "How hard is it to remove the warheads?" I asked.

  "Pretty easy, take us about twenty minutes for each one," Dave said.

  "And how heavy are they?"

  "Two hundred pounds."

  "Ugh, I guess I can carry that, but it won't be fun."

  "We stowed some gear in Jerry's shuttle to make it a bit easier. Don't worry," Dave laughed.

  "Well let's
go find a place to sit, then I'll go over the plan with you. You can check my math."

  "Sure."

  "Oh, and Dave?"

  Dave looked at me, "Yeah?"

  "Mist? Really? I mean all this time, and I had no idea you liked cats!"

  "Well um..." Dave's ears flattened in embarrassment.

  "It's because you can't have me, isn't it Dave?" I sighed and gave him a sad look. "I had no idea my being taken would hurt you so...."

  Dave growled and threw his stylus at me. "Oh grow up...."

  I laughed, "Well she does like calmer older men..." and I ducked again as he picked up a dash one and threw that at me as well.

  Breakout was uneventful, there was no traffic nearby, in fact there was no traffic observed anywhere in the six hours that the Astra maneuvered to prepare for our launch.

  When the Astra finally kicked us out both Jerry and I made our initial burns, made sure our courses were locked in, and then I locked my controls, set the proximity alarms to ignore Jerry's shuttle, and settled in for a long wait.

  Stretching, I racked my helmet, unbuckled, and made my way back to the small cargo hold.

  Cassandra met me and gave me a hug, "Well, six days all to ourselves, whatever will we do?" She purred.

  I laughed and looked around. Dave was already entangled with Mist, though giving them a second look I got the impression that Mist was the aggressor in this particular encounter.

  "I wouldn’t say exactly all to ourselves."

  "I can ignore them if you can," Cassandra laughed. "Besides, Kyle brought some cloth to rig a couple of partitions for when we want a little privacy."

  I shook my head; the cargo hold of an assault shuttle was pretty small. You could pack twenty troops in it, and the operative word there was 'pack.' Of course, in freefall everything did seem larger, because you could utilize all of the space involved.

  "Poor Jerry, him and Janice all alone over there," I sighed and shook my head.

  "You kidding?" Dave laughed, "Janice worships him. She spends more time in his room than in her own."

  "Damn, how come I never got a female WSO?" I chuckled shaking my head.

  "Well it's not like you need one now, is it?" Cassandra said still purring.

  "True, true. Well, might as well get settled in, it's a long flight."

  Six days later, I was sitting in the cockpit, with Dave, eyeing our target off in the distance. Twice during the trip I'd had to come up and make minor correction burns, the second one being yesterday as we skimmed fairly close to the gas giant now below. The trip actually wasn't that bad, yes there had been a few slightly embarrassing moments, but those were mainly for Dave and Mist, the rest of us being mated or married.

  Kyle had brought a projector, a screen, and several new movies with him, so we'd spent more than a few hours watching movies, or playing cards. We'd also slept a lot, something one didn't usually get a chance to do much of working on the Astra.

  But now we were nearing our target, we were two hours out and so far, there hadn't been a peep out of anyone.

  "Targeting locked," Dave told me.

  I checked the targeting display; it had taken him a good twenty minutes to locate the base without using any active radar. If it wasn't for the intel we had that gave it's location on the moon, we probably would never have found it.

  I looked around outside. Jerry was about a hundred yards away. I could see him sitting in his cockpit as well. We had a com laser setup going.

  I keyed the transmit button on my throttle, "We're ready to launch one of the microphone rigs," I took a second look at the threat panel, still quiet. "What do you think?"

  "I think that place is dead. We're close enough that if this wakes them up it won't matter anyways, so might as well see what we got."

  I nodded to myself, "I agree. Fire when ready Dave."

  "Missile away," Dave said and we watched as it launched off the rail. It was actually pretty slow, being in space and going after a static target with no air, it couldn't go much faster than us, or the small devices it was going to drop would be destroyed by the impact.

  "Time to impact?"

  "Forty-eight minutes," Dave said.

  "Okay, call it off when it's five minutes out."

  "Roger."

  I spent the next forty-three minutes checking instruments, then looking outside, then checking instruments again over and over. We were getting close enough that if something happened, it was going to happen quickly, and we needed to be ready for it. I was sweating when Dave called it out.

  "Five minutes! Turn on the listening gear!"

  "Roger!" Cassandra called from the down in the hold.

  "Four." Dave called, then slowly,

  "Three."

  "Two."

  "One."

  "Impact!"

  I waited a couple of minutes, and opened the com to Jerry so he could hear the conversation.

  "Anything?" I asked.

  "Some background noise, still sorting it out." Cassandra said.

  "What kind?"

  "Nothing organic so far," Mist said.

  "Sounds like blowers, basic HVAC." Cassandra added a minute later.

  "Why would they leave the air conditioning on?" Dave asked.

  "Temperature inversions can lead to problems with humidity and other things that damage equipment," Cassandra supplied. "If they put up a few solar panels, it's not like it costs them any resources to run it either. It's pretty standard operating procedures for most bases."

  "Jerry, you're the boss, it's your call." I said.

  "We're landing. Janice located one of the entrances. Sending the coordinates now."

  "Roger that."

  "Talk to you again on the ground," Jerry said and turned off the laser unit.

  A moment later, he lit his engines and I lit mine and followed him in. Under power we got there in ten minutes, all the time neither Cassandra nor Mist reported any new sounds. When we came around to land, I could see the mark on the surface for the entryway, looking at the map on the display I was able to locate where the hanger doors were supposed to be.

  Once you knew where they were, at this distance they were pretty obvious. I landed next to Jerry and shut down.

  "Everyone suit up," I said and went down in the back to grab my gear. I had brought my combat gear for this, and I made sure everyone had on basic armor, and checked their weapons before opening the back.

  Jerry was already outside when we got out there.

  "Still no signs of life," I said on the suit com, then went over to the access hatch and slowly checked it over.

  "No signs of traps, stand back please."

  I grabbed the locking wheel and spun it then took a step back myself. As soon as the hatch dogs unlocked the hatch popped up and a gust of air came out.

  It stopped before I could start counting. "Airlock, I'll go first, Mist, you're second. Once we sound the all clear I want Kyle, Cassandra, Wendy, Dave, Janice and Jerry."

  "Why do I have to be last?" Jerry asked curious.

  "Because you probably have the sharpest senses and quickest reflexes after me, so if someone comes up behind us, you'll see them first."

  "I knew there was a reason they put you in charge of ground ops," Jerry laughed. "Lead on."

  I grinned to myself; I wondered if Jerry ever worried about anything? I pulled the hatch open and using a mirror, scoped it out, then dropped a light stick down and checked again. There was a ladder on the side and it went down about thirty feet. I jumped down, bending my knees, and putting hand on either side of the wall to slow my descent. When I got to ten feet from the bottom I entered the gravity field for the gravity plates, and I pushed against the walls slowing myself slightly as I landed.

  "Gravity the last ten feet," I warned and stood closer to the door, rifle at the ready as Mist came down next.

  It took her a minute to come down the ladder, once she was behind me I spun the wheel on the door and undogged it. It was made to swing inwards and wa
s only being held closed by air pressure now.

  "Listen up, when I push this open move in quickly as I'm going to let it slam behind me."

  "Why not close the hatch up top?" Mist asked.

  "Because if we have to retreat quickly, we don't want that in the way. Ready?"

  She nodded.

  I hit the door hard and pushed, my rifle held high. As soon as I got it started, the air rushed around it, making quite a bit of noise against our helmets. I got in quickly and Mist slipped by in front of me, then I let the door slam, stopping the air from escaping.

  I put my helmet against hers and turned my mike off, "Wait here."

  She nodded.

  "And don't shoot me when I come back."

  I checked the readouts on the left arm of my suit as I made my way slowly down the corridor. I was wearing my full combat gear, and that included a small device that sampled the air and told me if it was safe to breath or not. Other than there being a higher than normal level of methane, everything said it was fine, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, all in normal levels.

  So I popped my faceplate open a bit to take a sniff, one of the things I didn't like about the airtight skin suit was that you couldn't use your sense of smell, and you could often smell someone long before you saw them. One sniff and I'd know pretty quickly if the place was abandoned or not.

  The stench was almost over powering! I was taken by surprise and gagged, slamming my faceplate closed and hitting the 'purge' bar on my helmet, which quickly blasted the worst of it out of my helmet, but that odor was one I knew.

  "You okay, Raj?" I heard Cassandra query me over the com link.

  "I'm okay," I said and activated the flashlight on the end of my rifle and turned it to its highest setting.

  "What was that noise?"

  "Don't crack your helmets when you get in here, the stink is pretty bad," I warned.