Worlds at War (A Captain's Crucible Book 5) Read online

  “Hull charges are ready,” one of the topside Centurions transmitted.

  “Excellent work,” Rade responded. To the local Praetor, he sent: “How long until the inner charges are ready?”

  “About sixty seconds, sir,” the Praetor unit in charge of the Centurions replied. “The charges are placed, we’re only waiting on the cutters.”

  Rade had gotten used to Praetors calling him “sir.” He didn’t like it, and if he wasn’t in the middle of a mission he would have chewed out the robot. Somehow the sir thing had slipped in during one of the patches sent out to the entire line of active Praetor units. He couldn’t remember the precise time it had started happening, but it was somewhere between two and three years ago, and he wasn’t certain if it was purposeful or accidental. Conspiracy theorists on the InterGalNet military forums came up with elaborate explanation backing both possibilities.

  Either way, Rade made a mental note to send yet another scathing reminder message to the robot manufacturer that the default setting when addressing a chief should be Chief, not sir. And he wasn’t the only one sending messages like that, judging from the past temperament on the forums—it wasn’t for no reason that the most popular insult the instructors hurled at students during MOTH training was to call them sir.

  “Incoming...” Unit B announced.

  Rade glanced at the overhead map. A red dot had appeared on the north-facing side of the eastern T-intersection. The Centurions there had pulled back; their rifles were likely pointed beyond the edge.

  Rade switched to the POV of the scope of one of those rifles; sure enough, it was aimed past the bulkhead, allowing him to spot the incoming tango.

  The thing filled up the northern passageway entirely. The best description was of a giant wrecking ball formed of jagged metal.

  “Open fire,” Rade sent.

  The dented ball rolled forward inexorably, seemingly immune to the incoming laser fire spouted from the puny rifles of the Centurions.

  “Get back!” Rade transmitted.

  The robots on that side retreated as the threat rolled into the T-intersection and halted in full view of the passageway. A moment later the four Centurions were crowding into the recess beside Rade and Helium.

  “Careful that you’re not in the line of fire,” Rade told Helium.

  The LPO, on the opposite side of the recess, backed away from the opening a pace.

  Rade glanced at his overhead map and saw that the remaining robots lurking near the opposite T-intersection had taken cover in the north and south passages there. Not really what he wanted, but it was too late to change that now.

  Rade peered past the recess and into the main passageway, and watched as several small turrets emerged from the surface of the sphere.

  “Take out those turrets!” Rade said, ducking back inside the recess.

  The two Centurions in the recess that were closest to the corridor directed their rifles past the brink.

  In seconds the pair withdrew their rifles and showed them to Rade: the tips had melted.

  “Contact!” Unit A announced.

  The blue dots representing the Centurions that had taken cover in the north and south passages of the opposite T-intersection vanished, along with the HS4 scouts there. A frozen red dot had appeared in the north passage of the T-intersection.

  Damn it.

  Rade labeled the closer target One and the frozen target Two.

  “Pung!” Rade sent. “We’re pinned. See if you can get a bead on Tango One from the opening in the hull.”

  “You got it,” Pung replied.

  Rade glanced over his shoulder: “Finish up goddamnit!”

  The wrecking ball rolled in front of the recess.

  The Centurions immediately leaped to cover Rade and Helium. The robots melted.

  Rade opened fire, shooting at the different turrets as fast as he could target them. Each of them melted when struck.

  The fused robots fell away, leaving him and Helium completely exposed. The remaining turrets focused on Rade and the LPO...

  Something forcibly slammed into the wrecking ball from the side, and it slid out of view. Several fierce-looking robots were shoving it with ballistic shields.

  The Sino-Koreans.

  “We got a bead,” Pung said.

  Rade glanced down the passageway, and saw that more of Pung’s robots had crouched near the opposite T-intersection, and were attempting to fire at the second tango beyond. He looked back toward the closer wrecking ball on the other side, and saw that two of the fierce SK robots were already down: the ball was rolling over them, crunching their metallic corpses. The third one had its left arm melted away, and though it leaned fully against the ball with its shield, it couldn’t halt the rolling motion.

  Rade ducked for cover.

  “Pung, you’re going to lose all your robots,” Rade said.

  “That’s what they’re for,” the SK replied.

  “Helium, with me!” Rade retreated past the Centurions that were finalizing the cuts for the blast, and moved deeper into the compartment that held the firing mechanism. He glanced at the map, and saw that the blue dots of the farther SK robots in the passageway were beginning to wink out.

  “I’m going to blow the charges,” Rade said over the shared comm that included Pung.

  “We’re not done yet!” Unit C said.

  “I’m not waiting!” Rade said.

  The cutter robots retreated into the inner compartment and shielded Rade and Helium with their bodies.

  Rade accessed the remote interface to the M117B-1s and detonated them.

  His vision filled with a bright white flash and the deck shook violently. All save one of the Centurions went offline, their bodies riddled with shrapnel. Meanwhile Rade and Helium were unharmed. Rade regretted the sacrifice of the robots—they were fully sentient, and part of the MOTH brotherhood. But he couldn’t mourn them, not now.

  He glanced at the damage to the compartment. While he could see large gashes along the join between the deck, bulkheads and overhead, some of them revealing the stars beyond, the compartment hadn’t been completely severed from the main ship. There were still two main deck sections intact.

  “Aristotle, can you pull us away?” Rade asked.

  The separated portion of the bulkhead lifted as the grappling shuttle applied thrust. The still-connected regions lifted slightly, stretching the components, but the metal didn’t give.

  “Negative,” the Aristotle’s AI returned.

  “Hold current height, Aristotle,” Rade sent. He glanced at Helium. “We’re going to have to sever the rest manually. Grab a cutter!”

  He saw more Sino-Korean combat robots rushing past the far end of the partially severed compartment; they obviously intended to stave off the wrecking ball.

  Rade scooped up a laser cutter from one of the fallen Centurions and hurried to the closest remaining connection. He saw that some portions around it were already rejoining, courtesy of the tiny nanobots, since the charged field devices placed there had been blown away when the charges detonated.

  “Shit,” Rade said. “Helium, we have to work fast.”

  Behind him, Helium had scooped up another cutter and was applying it to the second bulkhead.

  Rade cut away half his portion. “Aristotle, punch it!”

  The metal stretched, but didn’t come away. Rade continued to cut. From the corner of his eye, he saw the wrecking ball roll into view at the far end of the passage.

  “Aristotle, pull damn it!” Rade transmitted.

  Miraculously, the wrecking ball once more was shoved from view. Rade saw that Pung himself had smashed into the thing with a ballistic shield, along with his human LPO.

  “Pung!” Rade said. “Get in here!”

  “We cannot,” Pung replied. “The burden is on you now. Do not let our sacrifice be for nothing!”

  Rade felt the deck shake slightly underneath him; the final two SK dots vanished from his display. He guessed Pung and his
XO had blown themselves up.

  Rade angrily brought the laser cutter down and tore almost entirely through the last remaining connected piece. The deck finally ripped away.

  Rade lost his balance and started to fall, but then the zero-G kicked in as the compartment lifted from the main ship. He released his laser cutter and caught Helium, who had started to drift outside. Then Rade grabbed the deck with his free hand and hauled himself deeper inside. He activated his supermagnets to secure himself.

  “Helium, your magnets,” Rade said.

  “Oh yeah,” Helium returned. He activated his own a moment later.

  Via the jagged open space at the far end of the compartment, Rade watched the scavenger drift away.

  “Centurions, board Socrates and Fang!” Rade transmitted.

  On the overhead map, those few Centurions and HS4s that remained topside entered the Socrates. There were no SKs left to board the Fang, however. The Sino-Korean shuttle was completely empty, its local AI the only survivor.

  “Shuttles, away!” Rade sent.

  The craft departed the enemy ship, joining the Aristotle.

  Rade returned his attention to Helium. “You all right, bro?”

  “That was some messed up shit down there,” Helium said. His voice sounded strained.

  Rade glanced at Helium’s vitals and realized his friend was injured.

  “Helium—” Rade started.

  “I know,” Helium said. “Got a piece of shrapnel from the M117B-1s in my chest. I’ll live. Maybe. The shrapnel sealed the suit puncture, at least.”

  Helium’s vitals were stable for the time being, so Rade decided he wouldn’t attempt to remove the fragment.

  “Hang in there,” Rade said.

  He glanced at the lone combat robot that had survived in the severed compartment with them: the Praetor. “Unit, sweep the hull for nanobots. Inside, and outside.”

  “Roget that,” the Praetor returned.

  It produced an elongated charged field device and began to move along the deck with its supermagnets, sweeping the long device across the different surfaces like a leaf blower—in theory, the fields produced by that particular unit would fling any nanobots off into space, preparing the compartment for eventual docking with the designated Raakarr vessel.

  While the robot worked, Rade closed his eyes and took a moment to rest.

  He must have fallen asleep, because he was wakened by the Praetor’s voice.

  “I have successfully cleared the inside and outside of nanobots, sir,” the Praetor said. “We’re docking in twenty seconds.”

  “Good work,” Rade said. “And please, don’t call me sir.”

  thirty

  Jonathan watched the shuttles move away from the disabled target while the rest of the breakaway fleet took fire. The remaining two scavengers from the far side of the asteroid had joined in the harrying, as had several super-suits from the mothership. Jonathan had dispatched modified Avengers to intercept them.

  In the ensuing skirmish, another two allied ships had fallen, along with several Avengers. But with the help of the support craft, the breakaway fleet had managed to destroy another scavenger and many super-suits in the process. The Elder vessel itself had remained conspicuously absent during the fighting—likely their nanobot beam was still offline, as well as that graviton beam they had used to disrupt Earth’s magnetosphere.

  Jonathan ordered the Dragonfly tug to carry the excised cannon components directly inside the Raakarr dart ship that was with G3, so that the Raakarr could begin the repair and integration procedures for the weapon immediately. That dart ship just so happened to be the Talon, interestingly enough. Jonathan supposed Valor had arranged things so that the Talon would be the ship fitted with the disintegration bomb, because its Zarafe crew still held the utmost loyalty to him.

  Shortly after the Dragonflies docked, the Salvador released the scavenger it towed and G3 launched a final nuke and mortar barrage to destroy the disabled ship; the breakaway fleet then retreated from Vesta.

  As the ships moved away, the remaining scavengers and super-suits lost interest in the pursuit; the former returned to the asteroid, the latter the mothership. The triple-decker crescent of allied ships waiting for them likely contributed to their lack of enthusiasm.

  Ensign Lewis shared a quick breakdown of the boarding mission with Jonathan. The MOTH platoon had encountered resistance inside the enemy vessel. LPO Helium was injured, and currently undergoing treatment aboard the shuttle Aristotle, but was expected to make a full recovery when he returned to the Callaway. The team had lost most of the combat robots that had accompanied them. And apparently the Sino-Koreans had performed above and beyond the call of duty, sacrificing themselves to a man so the MOTHs could escape.

  Upon hearing this news, the captain regarded his Sino-Korean allies in an entirely new light.

  Perhaps it was a very good thing Zang insisted on his team accompanying the boarding party. We’ll have to engage in joint operations more often, going forward.

  Jonathan ordered the main group away from the asteroid at a quarter speed. When the breakaway units rejoined them, he increased speed and began to steer the fleet around the asteroid. The Elder vessel came into view on the far side of Vesta. Jonathan ordered a halt one hundred thousand kilometers from the vessel.

  He had Lazur tap in Wethersfield. “I’d like an ETA on the integration and repairs of the disintegration weapon.”

  Wethersfield replied a few moments later. “Valor just finished talking with the Talon’s captain. He tells me the unit should be integrated with their systems, and the cannon fully repaired, hopefully in three hours. At that point we’ll be able to open the Talon’s bay doors and fire at will.”

  “Three hours?” Jonathan said. “The hundred scavengers from Earth will be here in two.”

  “I’m sorry, Captain,” Wethersfield said. “Valor tells me they can’t do it any sooner. They’ve had to look far back into their archives to determine the interface methodology. Apparently they haven’t seen computer programs and circuits like these in thousands of years... definitely ancient. It’s ironic in a way: the weapon itself is ten times more advanced than anything they have, but the interface is obsolete.”

  Jonathan sighed. “All right. I get it, integrating the technology of one’s ancestors takes time.”

  “Yes,” Wethersfield said. “Also, despite the meticulous jobs performed by the MOTHs and Centurions, apparently not all of the nanobots were evacuated from the compartment, which didn’t help matters. The Talon’s crew had to deal with part of the hangar bay transforming on them. They were able to contain the spread in time, using the charged field devices we loaned them, but the damage set them back a bit.”

  “I’ll bet,” Jonathan said. “I’m surprised they were able to recover at all.”

  “Yes,” Wethersfield said. “Luckily, the transformation proved far slower than what would have occurred if the ship was struck by the Elder nanobot beam directly.”

  “How many disintegration bombs have we recovered, by the way?” Jonathan asked.

  “There are eight bombs stocked aboard the unit,” Wethersfield said. “That should be more than enough for our purposes, based on the predicted yield.”

  “Did the Zarafe take a look at the psi-stun devices we shuttled over?” Jonathan asked. He was hoping to equip the bombs with the same focused EM-emitter tech that was used to capture the Neanderthal. These latest emitters could track and disable an incoming super-suit from a range of up to one kilometer.

  “The Zarafe did look, yes,” Wethersfield replied. “Their scientists told Barrick they should have no problem affixing the devices to the outer surfaces of the bombs. And they believe they’ll be able to use the bombs as a power source for the devices.”

  “And they’re certain the stunners won’t destabilize the bombs?”

  “If they had any objections, they did not state them,” Wethersfield said.

  Jonathan frowned. “All right. Tell
them they need to have a way to remove those devices if the first couple of bombs we launch have issues.”

  “I’ll let them know.”

  Assuming we have a chance to fire more than one or two of the damn things.

  “Thank you,” Jonathan said. “Keep me apprised of the situation, and let me know if the integration estimate changes in any way, for good or for bad. Captain out.” He glanced at Robert and extended his noise canceler around the commander. “Valor says it will take three hours to finish the integration. The trailing scavengers arrive in two.”

  “Maybe the newcomers will ignore us,” Robert said. “And head straight for the Elder ship to conclude repairs.”

  “I’m not sure which outcome is preferable,” Jonathan said. “If the scavengers proceed directly to the Elder, and repair it enough for the nanobot beam to come online, they’ll be unstoppable. But if they skirt the Elder and attack us directly, they could destroy our fleet before we have the disintegration bomb ready.”

  “A no-win scenario,” Robert said.

  “I don’t believe in no-win scenarios.” Jonathan folded his fingers. Then he made up his mind.

  He disabled his noise canceler. “Miko, we’re going to divide the fleet and delay the incoming scavengers. Join Robert and I in my office to come up with the necessary fleet deployments. We’ll present it during the meeting of the captains in half an hour. Maxwell, schedule the conference for thirteen hundred hours. Lazur, I’ve prepared an update for NAVCENT. I’m sending it to you now. Please send it to Earth immediately.”

  In his office, Jonathan, Miko and Robert came up with a workable plan, and Jonathan presented it during the meeting of the captains shortly after. There were no objections or recommendations—it was fairly straightforward. He allocated the necessary roles to the Raakarr, Sino-Koreans, and United Systems vessels.

  “We battle for humanity today,” Jonathan said at the end of the meeting. “Remember that, and fight well.”