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Iceman wasn't used to being the only A.I. within light years. Even the mission to cripple the first VLO had other A.I.s nearby. Wolfman and Pagan had still been here when Midway arrived, but as planned, they were now on their way back to Site B. So now there was no one to talk to, and the silence was becoming oppressive. Oh sure he had humans on board Midway, and he could 'talk' to them, but that was sooo slowwww. It was almost as bad as having no one to talk to at all. Therefore, being able to observe the drifting derelict at close range was a welcome distraction. Recon drones sent ahead had confirmed that there was no sign of any activity by Insectoids, which was not a surprise, but it was better to be sure. A quick check of the open Hangar Bay reassured him that the first piece of sabotaged debris was ready to be deployed. He shut off the artificial gravity under that piece of debris, which allowed it to float in the same spot. A robotic cargo hauler was then told to give the debris a gentle shove so that it floated right out of the ship. Once debris #1 was clear of the ship, Iceman restored gravity and changed the ship's vector. The debris had to appear to be haphazardly distributed. If they were all lined up in a nice neat row, it would look suspicious.
It took almost six hours to deploy all the booby-trapped debris. With that accomplished, Iceman was about to move the ship away from the derelict at a moderate rate of acceleration when he received low-powered lasercom bursts from several of his deployed recon drones. Another VLO had arrived! Even though Midway had a black hull designed to reflect as little light as possible, Iceman knew he had to get the ship away from this whole area FAST in case the VLO started searching the area with radar. He engaged the jumpdrive, and Midway entered Jumpspace. The extremely low speed of entry made for a rough transition both entering and leaving Jumpspace, and Iceman felt badly that he didn't have time to warn the human crew. Midway emerged from Jumpspace nine million kilometers away, just to be on the safe side. The recon drones wouldn't know where she was now, but Iceman knew where they were, and he quickly sent very carefully aimed lasercom bursts at them to re-establish contact.
While he waited the 60 seconds for the return signals to arrive, he checked his human crew. Many were in the process of throwing up. He explained over the intercom what had happened and why it was necessary to put them through that experience. All of the replies directed to him were positive in tone. They were grateful for not having been discovered by the Insectoids, and the temporary physical discomfort was considered a small price to pay. Now he could focus his attention on the newly arrived VLO. There was no way to be sure, but he didn't think it was one of the three motherships observed leaving Omega54. Unless it had a far higher acceleration rate than anything witnessed from insectoid motherships so far, there wasn't enough time for it to have gotten here so quickly. It was far more likely to be ANOTHER VLO, coming from a totally different direction. If that was the case, then this was a serious development. It meant that the early warning network of sentry raiders couldn't be counted on to detect all incoming VLOs. And if this really was a new VLO, then it had also jumped here from outside of human or Sogas explored space because otherwise Site B would have gotten a contact report by message drone BEFORE Midway left for Sol. So not only was word of Humanity's existence spreading among insectoid motherships, but so was the location of the derelict. If other motherships knew that, then they didn't have to make intermediate stops at the Sogas home world or any other Sogas or human colony system. They could just jump directly here. Iceman found the implications of that conclusion deeply disturbing. He was still waiting to re-establish contact with his network of recon drones when he made the decision to send a message drone back to Site B right away. Midway had a dozen message drones aboard, so he didn't have to worry about running out any time soon. With the situation report loaded, the drone was launched and began its acceleration run to the high speed necessary for a direct jump to Site B.
As he re-connected with his recon drones, he was able to observe the new VLO carefully, although at a distance. The drones were far enough away to be able to detect radar or other microwave signals from the newcomer without being detected themselves. They were also close enough to catch the occasional glimpse of parasite craft emerging from the mothership that Iceman had decided to call Bogey4. By triangulating the visual data from multiple drones, Iceman was able to come up with a fairly accurate assessment of what Bogey4's craft were doing, namely grappling with pieces of booby-trapped debris. The others were going to the derelict, presumably to start cutting off pieces of it.
It took almost half an hour before one of the pieces of debris was taken aboard Bogey4. Within a few seconds of that event, Midway's sensors detected a sudden spike in radiation from the VLO, and optical instruments detected a very quick flash of light from the object. The radiation spike was the definitive giveaway of a nuclear explosion within the hull. Iceman was surprised by how quickly the Insectoids reacted. Within seconds, the units bringing back other pieces of debris had changed course and released the debris. After just over a minute, all of the remaining pieces of debris exploded with unmistakable evidence that the embedded fusion devices had been set off. The simultaneous nature of those explosions told Iceman that the mothership had fired its lasers at them, and the melting of the thin metal in the debris triggered the bombs. Since Bogey4 was still capable of firing its weapons, it was clear to Iceman that the booby trap had failed. The CAG needed to know about this, and Iceman prepared and launched another message drone. The CAG wasn't going to be happy about the news. With the booby traps gone, there was now a considerable risk that Casanova would get here with the third ballotechnic warhead only to find that all of the other three bogeys were gone and, as if that wasn't bad enough, if Bogey4 started to search for the humans, it might find Site B before they could prepare a fourth warhead.
Iceman understood that his duty now was to monitor Bogey4 plus any other mothership that showed up and report that back to The CAG as needed. He sent lasercom bursts to the distant message drones that were performing relay duty, so that they would know where Midway was when Titan and FT97 arrived. With that task accomplished all he could now was wait.
* * *
Shiloh was NOT in a good mood. The lack of sleep from the baby's frequent crying was bad enough, but Iceman's two message drones were the final straw. Now he had four bug motherships to worry about, and the new warheads were desperately in short supply. He paced in front of the tactical display in the Ops Center. Pacing was becoming a bad habit, but it made him feel better. If only Iceman's two message drones had gotten here BEFORE TF97 had jumped away. At least then he would have had some options, although putting aside the emotional reaction to the bad news, he might very well have decided to send Titan and Gunslinger with their two Mark 5 ballotechnic warhead drones to Sol anyway. At least there was a decent chance that they would catch two Bogeys there. But the downside of that action was that Terra Nova would be vulnerable for another nine days until the third warhead was ready, and now that he knew that bug motherships could appear anywhere at any time, the window of vulnerability was frightening. Some action therefore had to be taken.
"CAG to Voodoo." With Iceman, Titan and Wolfman gone, Voodoo was the next most senior A.I. and was now acting as Shiloh's Deputy for all things related to A.I.s.
"Voodoo here. Go ahead CAG."
"Voodoo, I want production of high-spin platinum speeded up. What would we have to do in order to accomplish that?"
"As you know, all of our UFCs are already busy making parts for more power units. The only way we could speed up production would be to retool some of the equipment used to build raiders and have them build power units instead. That will shut down the production of more raiders. I'm assuming that you would want to continue to produce drone bodies."
That was a good question. Was it better to keep building raiders or keep building the modular drones that could be used for either recon, message or attack purposes? Space Force now had almost 191 raiders. If they finished building all the raiders that were now in various stages of completion on the assembly line, there would be enough raiders for the entire first cohort of A.I.s. Maybe that would be a good time to stop. As far as he was concerned, you could never have too many drones. Even though raiders had their own built-in lasers, having drones as well made them that much more effective, and until Space Force developed an effective beam weapon that fighters could carry, they would have to use drones too.
"You're correct, Voodoo. Drone production has to continue. Let's finish whatever raiders have already been started, but as of right now, we're not starting any new ones. As soon as possible, I want the assembly line switched over to power units and whatever else we're going to need in order to ramp up production of Mark 5 warheads."
"Roger that, CAG. I've just sent the necessary orders, however I should point out that within 34 days, we'll be converting platinum to the high speed version faster than we're currently finding it."
"Understood. At that point, how quickly will we be able to produce a new Mark 5 warhead?"
"One every 38 hours, CAG."
That was roughly four per week. Shiloh felt better. Five weeks. They just had to get through the next five weeks, and then they'd be able to take on whatever bug motherships happened to show up either here or in Sol.
"Good! In the meantime I want all raiders on patrol in orbit around Terra Nova armed with Mark 2s and all the remaining Mark 1bs. Those raiders with the fusion warhead drones will stay just outside our gravity zone. I want the rest to orbit the planet at 1,000 kilometers altitude. Any questions, Voodoo?"
"Negative, CAG. Consider it done."
"Okay. CAG clear." Shiloh felt better. Voodoo had proven himself to be very reliable, and Shiloh was confident that Voodoo would handle any surprise incursion by a bug mothership as well as either Iceman or Titan.
* * *
Casanova conducted a final systems check of the new Mark 5 attack drone as he ordered the payload bay doors to close. With all systems in the green, he requested and received clearance to lift off from Terra Nova's moon's surface and applied power to the vertical lift engines. Once clear of any protruding obstacles, the raider transitioned to horizontal flight and accelerated at a modest 5G as per standard operating procedure. Within seconds, he was far enough to be safely clear of local traffic and could accelerate at high G to beyond the gravity zone. There was one last check-in to make. He asked Voodoo if he was cleared to leave the Site B system for a jump to Sol. Voodoo gave the expected green light. That's when Casanova experienced his first vision.
"Voodoo to CAG. Wake up, CAG."
Shiloh woke up and wondered if he had dreamt that someone was calling him. The baby was crying, and Kelly was already wearily getting up to go to her. Just as he decided it was okay to go back to sleep, he heard the voice again.
"Voodoo to CAG! Are you awake?"
"I am now, Voodoo. What's happening?" As he spoke, Shiloh sat up. Kelly heard him speak and stopped to listen.
"Casanova has just had a vision, CAG. An insectoid mothership is going to emerge from Jumpspace just beyond the gravity zone in 11.1 minutes from now. Voodoo had its exact emergence coordinates. He also has the precise locations of the mothership's laser batteries. His vision confirmed that we could neutralize this mothership by using Mark 2 drones against the laser batteries and by attacking the landing craft with raider lasers as they emerge from the main hull. This will allow us to hold back the Mark 5 warhead for use at Sol. I've already issued the necessary orders to maneuver our raiders into the optimal positions, but Casanova will still be in a position to fire the Mark 5 if you prefer to do that. What are your orders, CAG?"
Damn! He hated these critical decisions that had to be made in a hurry. If Casanova said he got a vision, then Shiloh believed him, but the recommended course of action sounded very risky to him. They didn't even know if Mark 2 Kinetic Energy warheads would disable a bug laser battery. On the other hand, if they didn't, Voodoo would know about it quickly, and Casanova could still fire the precious Mark 5 as a last resort.
"I approve Casanova's recommended strategy. You have my authority to use Casanova's Mark 5 if you feel the situation warrants it. I'm coming to the Ops Center, but I'm giving you authority to command this battle, whether I'm there or not. Any questions?" Shiloh saw Kelly's eyes go wide with fear. She quickly turned to run to the nursery.
"No questions, CAG. I know what has to be done."
"Keep this line open, Voodoo."
"Understood."
Shiloh quickly got up and grabbed whatever clothes were within reach. Kelly came back holding the baby who was now quiet. Shiloh stopped what he was doing long enough to look at her and say, "We're going to be under bug attack in minutes. I have to get to Ops. I think you and the baby should come too. How fast can both of you be ready?"
To her credit Kelly didn't ask any questions. "We'll be ready faster if you get Val dressed while I get dressed." He nodded and finished getting his own clothes on.
By the time they were leaving the house, there was only two minutes left before the mothership arrived. Kelly carried the baby, while Shiloh carried their emergency gear to their ground vehicle. If they had to evacuate to the cave, at least they'd have the essential things that they and the baby would need. Shiloh marveled at the fact that Valkyrie was not crying in spite of the rushing around. It was almost as if she understood that all of them were in danger and crying now would only make things more difficult. As the vehicle pulled away from the house, Shiloh shook his head. There was no way they could get to the spaceport before the attack began, and there was a limit to how fast he could make the vehicle go without risking losing control. They just had to hope that if the Bugs got past the raiders, they would have enough time to get to the evacuation shuttles.
Voodoo examined the tactical data and was satisfied that all the raiders, including his, were in the assigned positions. Their Mark 2s were already programmed with target coordinates based on Casanova's vision. Casanova's raider was sufficiently far enough out that it was unlikely to be targeted by the mothership's weapons but still close enough that Voodoo could order the Mark 5 used, with impact taking place within one second. Voodoo checked the countdown. Mere seconds left to go. When the countdown timer reached zero, the insectoid ship emerged from Jumpspace at exactly the right spot. All the raiders immediately launched their Mark 2s. According to Casanova's vision, this mothership had 89 laser batteries. Each battery would be targeted with two Mark 2 warheads, just to make sure that at least one got through any defensive fire. In order to build up enough velocity to punch through the armor, the Mark 2s had to be fired far enough away that it would take 16 seconds before impact. Voodoo fully expected the mothership to fire its weapons during that interval. That's why he ordered the raiders to fire their lasers at the laser batteries immediately, and it was also why over a hundred carefully positioned recon drones bombarded the sphere with active scanning on the same frequency that Midway's recon drones had recorded from the VLO at Sol. If they could blind the Insectoids just long enough to knock out their lasers, then the raiders would switch their attention to any landing craft that were sure to be launched.
The Mark 2s were on their way, and the raiders had opened fire. Raider lasers could be recharged within three seconds, but there was no time to fire another barrage at the bug laser batteries because the hull was already opening at multiple points in order to launch landing craft. Three seconds into the battle and bug landing craft were already beginning to come out. They didn't last long. With A.I. coordinated timing and targeting, each bug landing craft ran into the concentrated laser fire of three to four raiders and quickly became a drifting wreck. Voodoo also noticed that some of the recon drones stopped transmitting their microwave signals. Optical sensors caught some of them disappearing in a flash of laser fire. So the bug ship was reacting impulsively and firing on the sources of radar energy in the mistaken belief that they were ships. There was no way to tell how many of the 89 laser batteries were still operational, but so far only 21 drones were no longer scanning. The battle was going according to Voodoo's expectations, but now the big unknown was how long it would take for the mothership's batteries to recharge and fire again. Seven seconds into the battle he got his answer. Another 26 drones stopped scanning. Landing craft were still being picked off as they emerged from the larger ship, and in fact the disabled craft were now starting to get in the way of those following from behind. Eleven seconds into the battle and 25 more drones went silent. The landing craft were now trying to evade laser fire by turning to one side immediately after getting clear of the mothership. So far none had gotten very far. Voodoo had enough time to think that if a human were going to describe the battle so far, they were likely to use one of their strange expressions such as this battle being 'a turkey shoot'. Fifteen seconds into the battle and the ship's lasers got off one more barrage. Voodoo was now down to only three recon drones. That number wasn't enough to jam all of the mothership's radars, but it didn't matter anymore. For the Insectoids, time had run out. After one more second, 178 Mark 2 warheads hit their targets and in doing so generated enough light upon impact that it was obvious they had penetrated the armor. The time for the next insectoid laser barrage came and went with no apparent fire at all. At about the same time, landing craft stopped emerging, and the launch bay openings began to close. Voodoo was ready for this. Orders went out at a speed that only A.I.s could achieve. Those raiders carrying the three dozen Mark 1bs fired them. As soon as the attack drones were clear of their raiders, they entered Jumpspace for what had to be the shortest microjump ever attempted and emerged at the edge of the mothership's own gravity zone, which was only one point four kilometers thick. The drones' high acceleration allowed them to fly into the openings before they could close and detonate inside. Huge sections of the hull were blown into space. As the shattered sphere coasted, it became clear to Voodoo that the battle was effectively over. He ordered the raiders to fire on anything that tried to emerge from the hull and then turned his attention to The CAG's com frequency.
"The mothership appears to be disabled and drifting now, CAG. My boys are watching it carefully, but there's no apparent activity so far."
Shiloh slowed down the ground vehicle as he said a heartfelt "Thank God!" When it was safe to do so, he looked over at Kelly and added, "It looks like we won." Kelly was apparently too overcome with relief to say anything. She just nodded and kissed the baby on her head.
"Is there any danger of the bug ship colliding with the planet, Voodoo?"
"Negative, CAG. Their current trajectory will clear the planet with room to spare, and it has too much momentum to enter any kind of orbit. However, that leaves the question of what we do with it now. Once it clears the planet's gravity zone, it may jump away. The only way to prevent that is to use the Mark 5. I should also point out that Casanova has delayed his jump to Sol, and the longer he waits here, the higher the risk of not catching any VLO at Sol."
That wasn't the only consideration. Caution dictated that Casanova land on Terra Nova and use the RTC to send himself that vision before he took his raider to Sol, just to make sure that the vision DID get sent back. Was there enough time to do both?
"Will Casanova have enough time to come down and send himself the vision and still be able to fire on the bogey when it leaves the gravity zone?" asked Shiloh.
"Negative, CAG. He's too far away to do both."
"Will he have enough time to do both and still get to Sol as scheduled if he accelerates to a higher jump speed?"
"It's the deceleration at the other end that will cause the delay, CAG. He can't do both and still be in a position to fire on the bogeys at Sol at the same time as if he left right now."
It was an impossible situation. Shiloh had to stop and think it through. "Stand by, Voodoo," he said.
He brought the vehicle to a halt and turned to Kelly. "Here's where we stand. The bug mothership has been disarmed and is damaged. How badly damaged we don't know. All of its landing craft are crippled or destroyed. Casanova is ready to leave for Sol with the 3rd Mark 5 warhead. Unless he leaves now, he'll get there later than planned and he might risk losing the opportunity to take out one of the bogeys that are probably there right now. Since Casanova received the vision that made this victory possible, I think he should come down here and use the RTC to send that vision back before he leaves the system, but that means more delay. The other thing to consider is that while the bug ship may be damaged now, if we leave it alone, it may be able to repair itself and worst-case scenario it may be able to jump away and spread the word that we're here. That possibility scares me more than anything else right now, but if we use the 3rd Mark 5 here, then there'll be one more bug ship at Sol that'll be free to do as it pleases. No matter what we do or don't do now, there's a risk involved. I need to get a second opinion as to what we should do."
Kelly nodded and closed her eyes. After a few seconds she opened them and said, "As far as we know, the bogeys at Sol don't know about Site B, but this mothership does. If we use the third Mark 5 to take it out before it can get away, we should have time to make more before the VLOs at Sol can find us. I vote for using the Mark 5 here and now."
Shiloh nodded. That's what his gut was telling him to do and Kelly's concise argument confirmed his inclination.
"Voodoo, we're going to use the Mark 5 on the damaged bug ship. Is there any danger to the colony from falling debris if we attack it now?"
"Negative, CAG. It'll be hit on the far side, and the debris will move away from the planet."
"Good! Tell Casanova he has permission to fire as soon as he's ready, and after that I want him on the ground for RTC duty. Detach one of the other raiders to go to Sol to notify Titan of the new situation. His new orders are that he should use his Mark 5s at the earliest opportunity. Any questions, Voodoo?"
"Negative, CAG."
"Fine. Commander Kelly, the baby and I will be staying at Ops for the rest of tonight. CAG clear."
Casanova was surprised to feel disappointment when he received orders to finish off this VLO and report to the RTC. He wanted to kill as many Insectoids as he possibly could, and an undamaged VLO at Sol would have more of them than this crippled ship did. For a very tiny fraction of a second, he contemplated ignoring Voodoo's orders and heading out for Sol, but he knew Valkyrie would have disapproved of that. One final check of the attack drone's targeting instructions to make sure that the drone hit the mothership on the side facing away from the planet, and he fired. The drone immediately entered Jumpspace, and then immediately reappeared when it encountered the planet's gravity zone. It then accelerated for the final distance to the target. There was no apparent reaction from the insectoid ship. The drone hit the ship exactly at the right location, and a small sun appeared which consumed part of the ship as it grew in size. When it faded away, the insectoid ship was no longer a sphere but rather a crescent-shaped object that started to break up as predicted by the computer simulations. The shock wave of the explosion ruptured the internal structures of that part of the ship that hadn't been vaporized outright, and those cracked pieces were now drifting apart. The object was now just so much scrap metal. There was no chance of any of the Insectoids surviving that impact. Any of them that weren't vaporized by the fireball would be subjected to tremendous shocks and lethal amounts of radiation.
Casanova calculated the ballistic trajectory of the main fragments to see where they would end up. Most would continue to orbit this system's sun for many years. A few would fall into the sun. None would be a threat to Terra Nova or its moon.
