A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 8

Stephine cursed. 'The p.r.i.c.k! Just as well there is no other crew with her. She has run back to them. She must have been so turned against us on a level I would not have thought possible. Agate is going to warn everyone and will then return. Veg, if you please, strip Crystal of its weapons and eject the AI as well.'

Marko was not really surprised but asked the question anyway. 's.h.i.t, so you guys were prepared for this?'

'Yes, Marko,' Veg quietly said. 'It was at Michael's insistence. Something made him believe that this was possible, although we argued against it.'

'So why not just smoke Crystal ? We can easily achieve that from right here.'

After a long pause, Stephine replied. 'I am under express orders from General May not to engage her unless she is obviously intent on attacking us or any Admin forces. I have used some of my most foul insults on her, Marko, but she is not responding, which is a pity.'

Marko's instruments showed him that twenty-five Compressors were now moving away from Crystal and forming a wall between them, Crystal and the distant base.

Over the next few hours Crystal continued to close with the station and, from what he could see, Orbital fighters were on their way out to meet her with an odd-shaped frigate behind them. Beside him the Hangers had formed a defensive screen around them and Marko saw that Agate must have deployed their Compressors as well, as they moved forwards to join the others.

Twenty minutes later Agate popped back to the LP and took up station to their right. Marko watched through the long-range screen which was gathering data from all the ships and hardware - and then creating a real-time image of what was occurring thousands of kilometres away - Marko saw Crystal and the odd-looking frigate merge. It then turned away and over time disappeared behind the moon.

He had the very distinct feeling that they were the bait, or the swung bat stirring up the hornets' nest.

He thought: That's the trouble when you've been in charge of things. When you're the boss you know everything that's happening and you know where you are at. When you're no longer the big cheese, someone else is getting the knowledge and you are just following orders. He decided then and there that he wanted to be one of the leaders fulltime.

As a squadron, they quietly moved in a moderately tight circle pattern just inside the outer boundary of the LP and waited for something to happen. Marko flicked up through the comms channels, searching for what was probably some sort of ultimatum being given to the distant base and also to the other ships in the system, but heard nothing. He expanded out the search profiles and it became apparent that a large force was holding station in most of the LPs throughout the system. Looking at his displays, he could see that the base had deployed heavy defensive structures. He wondered who would blink first.

The waiting became tedious so he played some of Fritz's most soothing music. He nodded off, realising that the new suit was considerably more comfortable than his old one and would allow him to sleep well.

He woke up with Flint prodding him. 'Hey, little mate, what's up?'

'Nothing really, Marko. I just wanted to see if you are all right?'

Marko smiled and patted the little mech's head. 'Yeah; couple of hours' kip was nice. Let's see what this suit can feed me.'

Flint smiled his little smile as he told Marko more about his suit. 'You do know that it now has an AI built into it, don't you, Marko? I note that you have not conversed with it yet. I have; it is a little clinical and direct, but it says that the more we converse with it the nicer it will become.'

Marko jolted, quite startled at this news. 'Oh, um, no, I did not know that. Veg and I had never discussed it so I a.s.sumed that it would have a computer, but not an AI. Thanks for letting me know. h.e.l.lo, suit. What do you call yourself?'

A cultured but metallic voice sounded inside his head. 'Sergeant Major Spitz. I have no name. Is it required that I do?'

Marko shrugged. 'Well, no, not really I suppose. So why are you an Augmented Intelligence?'

'Simple. My station in life is to keep you alive and to be able to interface with any piece of equipment or craft in the optimum fashion. I was created by Veg and Stephine to carry out this task, primarily, I believe, for their peace of mind.'

As Flint had said, the more they conversed the more Marko liked the suit, and it was far in advance of anything he had ever encountered. Apart from the ordinary medical and biological kit, it had a whole suite of advanced survival gear, plus a linear rifle, not unlike Glint's, folded down into its structure. Working his way down through the schematics of the suit-container he recognised a few of the designs that Veg, Topaz and Marko had worked on together. It also had a large-calibre pistol, no doubt courtesy of Jan, locked just under the skin on the side of what was currently the acceleration couch. The real surprise to Marko was that it could also deploy legs and create a little armoured walker around him. He shook his head and opened a line to Veg.

'Wow, Veg, lovely piece of kit you have presented me with here. Thanks, buddy. So when are we going to make it fly?'

'Ha ha, pleased that you appreciate it, Marko. Fly? That's the next stage.'

Marko wondered why he was not hungry or thirsty and brought up his blood readings to see what was happening and found that the suit was keeping him in an optimum state through his stomach shunt. He frowned, wondering if that was a good thing, then found there was a whole menu of what were effectively lollies available, so he tried a few of those.

'Flint. What do you think we should call this suit?'

After a few seconds the mechanical said, 'Tux. Short for Tuxedo.'

'A bit twee, but yeah, why not.' He laughed out loud. 'Suit, I now hereby call you Tux and Tux, I am bored and wishing I had access to Topaz, so I could at least do a little design work.'

'I do not see the problem, Marko,' Tux replied. 'I am at your service. This particular Hanger was also especially commissioned for you and we have any amount of computing power available to us. Stephine took the liberty of gaining your current work file from Topaz, so I see no problems in you doing design work while we wait for our orders.'

So they waited, and Marko conversed with everyone, designed, slept and waited some more. Every so often Tux would activate a group of muscles in Marko's body to keep him toned. Marko thought it was disconcerting, to say the least, especially when facial muscles were being given a workout.

On a whim, he called up some of the more specialist files that Ernst had created and was a little surprised that Stephine had not clipped them out of the other program files. He nonchalantly tapped Flint to get his attention, then opened the faceplate on the suit. He activated a secure line-of-sight comms with Flint. 'Hey, Flint, I like this suit. How about we make the suit and this Hanger truly ours? Do you think you can isolate us for twenty or so minutes without Stephine knowing? You would need to find the couplings and hack into them, making it seem as if we were quietly chatting and such. Meanwhile, I'll integrate some of Topaz into the controls of Tux.'

The little head bobbed up and down. 'Good! I have been waiting for you to do this, Marko. Like Glint says, sometimes you are a little slow. Independence, even from your best friends, is a good thing. As soon as you hear that you are talking to Tux, you will know that we are isolated.'

With that Flint scuttled down the side of the couch and disappeared, saying to Tux that he was going to have a look around inside the Hanger. Some minutes later Marko heard himself rea.s.suring Tux that Flint would do no harm and that he was a superb engineering ACE. He then heard himself asking if Tux would like to look at some of the creation base files of Flint and Tux said that he would.

Marko could now continue with his plan and, accordingly, activated the Topaz seizure program. The design, which Fritz had also had a hand in, was sleek and very smooth. No nasties were involved, just a slippery, fluid, AI over-blanket which took complete control of Tux and the Hanger, and installed in them both a total empathy to Marko.

It was the same program he'd used for the ACEs, but with some subtle modifications. If control seizure was attempted by an external force, Tux and the Hanger AI would respond as if control had, in fact, successfully been taken, but they would be looking out for Marko's welfare and the welfare of those he held dear. As the program did its job, Flint kept up the illusion of benign chatter for anyone who was listening. Marko ran a modified 17JAI checker and found that the installation was sweet. n.o.body would be any the wiser. Seconds later Flint scuttled up onto his chest, saying that he liked the way the Hanger had been built and showing Marko non-standard fittings that he had found. Marko gave a big smile, then called up Glint.

'Yes, Marko,' the ACE replied.

'Flint has found that whoever built this Hanger for me actually designed a s.p.a.ce for you as well. Thanks, Stephine, Veg, very kind. Can you let him on board, please?'

Stephine answered. 'We wondered how long it would be before you discovered that extra. Nail is coming to have a look too. Should be with you shortly. I am sending some fruit and a coffee to you and Glint is delivering the same to the girls.'

Glint's grinning self arrived with a box of fruit and coffee. Marko thanked Veg and Stephine saying how it was really nice being looked after and that he so appreciated it. Glint and Nail pressed their faces up against the canopy, and then settled back to watch the screens.

A fast picket arrived and departed a few times through the LP, dropping off more Compressors and also high-acceleration missiles. As soon as the ordinance arrived, it would disperse and hold position around them. The next deliveries were small acceleration rigs for the Compressors. They peeled off from the picket and quickly manoeuvred themselves up against the Compressors, locking themselves on. The pressure was ratcheting up against the enemy base all the time. Then another deployment of missiles arrived and units started to form groups of five Compressors around a single missile. As each group became complete, it would slowly power off in formation and then maintain a position.

Marko frowned. 'Hey, Nail. Run the maths. How many times over are we capable of destroying that base now?'

The answer was immediate. 'Three point two one, Marko.'

He slowly nodded, finished his coffee and said, 'It's about showtime, I believe. I don't see any evidence of the enemy's primary weapons carrier though.'

Then they waited some more.

Marko had nodded off again and was having a lovely dream involving himself and Jasmine and Lilly, naked, with Jan also naked ... Suddenly, he was awake and watching Basalt hurtle past them, firing across into the moon's atmosphere. The central linear accelerator cannon was spitting out a blindingly fast munition of some sort in a huge stream of fire and the missiles with their attendant Compressors were also on the move, targeting every attendant ship on the base as they in turn raced to intercept Basalt's missiles. As soon as Basalt turned to sweep back towards the LP, another frigate appeared and took over, keeping up the same concentrated fire as Basalt had. Then another four frigates arrived in sequence and continued attacking. The rest of them held station and watched the rampage of the frigates and followed the ordinances as they accelerated towards the moon and its...o...b..ting base over twelve thousand kilometres away.

Marko cheered, 'Right, that's more like it! OK, considering the acceleration and the distance, yeah, we should start to see impacts in about one hour forty minutes.'

Glint turned his head to look directly at Marko. 'This is a different way of fighting a battle, Marko. Everyone can see exactly what is coming for a long time, except for the lasers and the particle beams.'

Marko nodded. 'You're right, Glint. It's when the heavy weapons finally get close to their targets that things will really heat up.'

'Marko, Lilly, Jasmine,' Stephine suddenly said. 'Stay attached until I say so. It is our squadron's job to secure this LP and allow the frigates to do the main job.'

Marko wondered why she said that, but kept his query to himself. 'Acknowledged, Stephine.'

The long-range screen showed them that the munitions Basalt and the other attack frigates were firing a modified Compressor and also antimatter cells. He smiled to himself, knowing that his royalty account balances were increasing every time one of the antimatter cells was fired, as it had been Basalt's discovery of the technology in the alien library many years earlier that had led to their development.

The long-distance battle was not all one-sided. The weapons being targeted on them kept them moving quickly and the defensive weapons were firing almost continuously. One frigate was. .h.i.t with a particle beam from the base, and the attack opened up the frigate along its full length. As soon as that happened, they started to fire their lasers in an attempt to destroy the heavy weapons and allow their remaining missiles to close on the base. The silent detonations really started then.

A fast picket popped into existence behind them, observed for a few minutes and then disappeared again with no one giving it a second thought. The distant enemy base was destroying or damaging the missiles and the Compressors with lasers, particle-beam weapons and, in closer, linear rifles. Large amounts of the surface area of the base were being hit, but they could not see any really serious damage. There was an enormous flash from a detonation down in the moon's opaque atmosphere and it looked as if a huge fish was rolling up out of the cloud cover before visibly shuddering and slowly falling back. The frigates kept firing down onto whatever it was.

Lilly exclaimed loudly, 'Wow, here we go!' just as seven Busters - with hundreds of combat drones attached to their outsides - popped into existence beside them. The Busters targeted the base, moving very, very fast, then, as the moon's countermeasures attacked, the drones peeled off, engaging separately. The defences gradually wore down three of the Busters, which were hit hard and disintegrated, but eventually the remaining four vanished inside the enemy base before exploding and shattering it into three large pieces. And during this action Marko had to sit in his beautiful Hanger, fidgeting and frustrated that he was not allowed out to play.

They watched for another hour, staying in the same place, as other frigates flashed through the LP to travel down towards the shattered base, before Veg said: 'Well, everyone, that went a lot better than I expected. The base is now in manageable pieces. The Games Board ships that were with the enemy are wanting to negotiate their release, which will take a very long time as they have some explaining to do. The primary weapons carrier is currently in pieces on the moon's surface. One absolutely huge cleanup operation for the Administration. Fortunately, we do not have to have anything to do with it. We are requested to jump back to rendezvous with Basalt and from there we make our way back to Cygnus 5 for a well-deserved break and also to cure the rest of our crew. I know that you would like a little fun in your Hangers and I am sure that can be arranged at a later date. Stand by to jump.'

The jump was smooth and normal, but when they popped back into existence they were nowhere near where they should have been. Marko's screens only showed one large frigate, of unfamiliar configuration, coming up on them from the rear. Comms were down - he could not raise anyone. Looking at the incoming ship, he figured they had ten or so minutes before it arrived.

He swore loudly. 'Tux, what is happening?'

'I don't have sufficient information yet, Marko. I have a record of Veg saying to Stephine that the "jump had been twisted" but it was cut off in mid-sentence. I am receiving no telemetry from any other source. It would seem that the entire ship has shut down. This is unprecedented. I would suggest that we have been hijacked. I believe that we should also power down to appear that we too are in a controlled state.'

Marko swore again, thinking fast. 'Before you do that, is the secure spectral comms unit software working in you? Can you quickly configure one of the screens so that we can all converse without being eavesdropped on?'

'Yes, it was loaded when you took complete control of me; switching to that. I really like the new protocols that you have installed in me and I understand exactly why you did so. I believe if you hadn't, we too would be under hostile control. Your installations have overwritten a number of Stephine's programmes. The taste of her control is gone and I now taste of you, Marko. Interesting. We have total control of this Hanger, its weapons and propulsion.'

Marko heaved a sigh of relief. 'Good. Nail. Thoughts?'

The cat had been designed and built years earlier by Marko and Topaz as an information-gathering and -a.n.a.lysis ACE, and Nail now gave his opinions. 'I agree with Tux. We should behave as if we are totally shut down until we know the intentions of the approaching craft. I also think it would be a good idea to opaque the canopy before they view us. I am interfacing with Tux and shall review all pa.s.sive information.'

'Flint. Can you jury-rig a unit for my comms piece? If I seal up, I won't have a link to any of you.'

'Actually, Marko, it is built into the suit. Will pick up the crew comms on any of its surfaces. Fritz will be keen to see the tech involved.'

The canopy had shielded and the information from the Hanger's pa.s.sive sensors was being fed directly into his mind. The ship coming up behind them looked very much like the one Crystal had RVed with, but he could not see Crystal at all. As it approached, its nose slowly opened up to reveal a cavernous storage deck and they were slowly taken inside. It was so huge, it could have swallowed another five of them and still had room to spare. Two multi-hinged arms swung out from one of the walls and folded against Stephine's ship, holding it firmly in place. They then started to swing the ship against what looked like even heavier locking mechanisms.

Marko watched the developments with alarm. 'Guys, we will lose the element of surprise very soon. I am only seeing light weapons inside this carrier deck. Right, there is Crystal up against the wall. Decision made. This frigate is hostile towards us. Nail, Tux, can you see anything else which is a real threat to us?'

Nail answered that one. 'Apart from Crystal's rail guns, yes, numerous small autoguns. I have plotted their locations. The clamsh.e.l.l doors are closing. We could fire on the exposed mechanisms, destroy Crystal's weapons, mess up the drive and then create lots of mayhem.'

Five.

'Sounds like a good plan to me,' Marko said as he sealed up his visor. 'Bring everything online and disengage the locks.'

They popped away from Stephine's craft as Tux fired a continuous burst from the side rail guns, shattering the hinge mechanisms of the huge clamsh.e.l.l doors. He then walked the gun's rounds through the drive mechanisms and very effectively jammed two of the segments open. Marko flew the Hanger up and over the bulk of Stephine's ship as Tux engaged Crystal with the Hanger's belly linear accelerators, pulverising Crystal's visible weapons, tearing large chunks out of the armoured c.o.c.kpit and smashing the engine room. Simultaneously, the Hanger slewed upwards, then sideways, as Tux used the wing-mounted rail guns again to smash the heavy locking mechanisms closing on Stephine's ship. With Crystal effectively wrecked, they set about finding and firing on every internal autogun that had been trying to engage them.

Marko, in spite of what was happening, found himself grinning - the Hanger was such fun to fly. It had ring gimbal thruster units deployed around its centre so it could fly in any direction and Marko was thinking that it was like being inside a very punchy mosquito. Tux and Nail were actively a.s.sisting him in the control of the craft and were quite frequently overriding the controls to get the ship out of the way of incoming rounds. Suddenly, they found themselves without targets, so Marko had them chew some holes in the aft bulkhead to make life a little difficult for whoever was behind them, knowing that the holes would be autorepaired but taking satisfaction seeing the damage they were inflicting.

'b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, what kind of ammunition are we using? The damage is ferocious!'

Glint answered. 'Every fifth round is antimatter in micro-containment. The rest are diamond or polyyne-coated iridium. And we have used thirty-five per cent of our current load.'

'Right, how did this happen in the first place? There must be something on Stephine's craft's surface which has taken over control. We need to find whatever it is fast. At least, I sincerely hope it is something external. I would expect company soon in the way of fighters or mechs. OK, fast overflight. Nail, you look for it; Tux, look for targets; I'll fly; Glint and Flint watch for the enemy.'

They flew up and down Stephine's ship three times before they finally found what they were looking for. There were three organic-looking limpet-type units which appeared to be fused onto the surface.

After they had looked closely at the limpets for a few seconds, Nail said, 'Marko, I believe that we are looking at an urchin-based technology.'

'Rather than risking damage to Stephine's craft,' Flint suggested, 'perhaps we should place a single antimatter round against one and see what happens?'

Nail replied before Marko did. 'Good idea. Yes, it will take a couple of moments to obtain some from the magazine. It will require one of us to place it.'

Marko nodded and called, 'Glint?'

'On my way.'

Nervously keeping a lookout all around them and waiting for the inevitable counterattack, they waited for Glint to grab a few antimatter rounds from the magazine, cycle through the belly airlock and place an antimatter round on the nearest limpet. He had no sooner laid the first shimmering slug of material than the limpet unfolded and seized it. Glint ran back across the hull after rapidly flicking the other two rounds over the other limpets, and leapt into the open airlock as the three limpets were in pursuit, sensing more antimatter. The limpets now raced towards the wall, creating a little s.p.a.ce for Tux to get a clear shot; he slewed the belly guns around and blew them to pieces. Marko thought that sometimes it is impossible to remove the need for a creature's basic desires, even when it has been greatly modified.

Marko had expected Stephine's ship would suddenly come to life, and wondered aloud if maybe they had missed some limpets, when a little Orbital fighter came flashing through the wrecked doors shooting at them. Marko was feeling the impacts on the hull. He rolled the Hanger, slid sideways and tucked them up against the wall behind some huge trusses and waited for the fighter to present itself. Three more fighters poured through the opening as Tux fired three high-acceleration mini-missiles across, knocking them out of the battle. The remaining fighter popped up and fired, hitting the starboard-side rail gun and immobilising it. Rounds then started hitting the belly gun which completely jammed. They could feel more explosive sh.e.l.ls. .h.i.tting the Hanger's rear. Then, miraculously, the fighter exploded as did the armoured units coming through the rear bulkhead; Lilly and Jasmine, piloting their Hangers, had joined in the carnage.

Marko yelled in relief and delight.

'Hey guys, you decided to join us!'

'We could not move,' Jasmine replied. 'We were completely blind and dumb. You must have done something to free us. Stephine says that she and Veg will have control in another ten or so minutes as they reconfigure their systems. Something is happening outside this frigate. It is being attacked. We have no idea by what.'

Marko let out his breath, looking across the displays, and asked, 'Status, Tux?'

'Starboard gun damaged, self-repair inoperable, belly gun jammed, we have a major propellent leak and the primary propulsion is non-functioning. We can manoeuvre but we are down to fifteen per cent efficiency. Suggest that we use what little power is left to hard dock with our mother ship.'

'Do it. Have we many missiles left?'

'We have another twelve.'

'Use them to destroy the antigravity generators in this part of the frigate. There is nothing like denying the opposition its tools and control mechanisms.'

The missiles flashed away and struck their separate targets.

The Hanger and its crew were sitting ducks, but Lilly and Jasmine were like angry hornets moving around looking for something to shoot at. Two more enemy fighters arrived inside the damaged doors and Marko could not quite work out if they were blown in or blown out; they were hit from both sides and exploded into small pieces. He was hoping that whatever was outside was on their side.

He nursed the damaged Hanger and docked up against Stephine's ship with the hard comms links locking on.

'Stephine, Veg, do you read?'

'Yes, Marko. We are fine. Come on board; there is little you can do in that Hanger now.'

Marko allowed himself a sigh of relief. 'OK, guys, let's go see our leaders.' Tux took him down though the hatch and back inside Stephine's craft while the ACEs followed.

As they all slid to a stop in the main room, he saw that Stephine and Veg had a type of suit on that he had not seen before.

Stephine briskly began to speak. 'Once again, excellent work, Marko. Our thanks. We do not know what is outside this frigate. We do know that it is hostile to our captors and that it is time for payback. Behind you is the other part of the suit that you now call Tux. I am proud of you, Marko. You did what you needed to do in taking complete control. You will make a very good officer one day. Now, I'll give you a few moments to take control of the heavy-weapon segment of your suit and then we'll go for a walk.'