THE KOSTROMA SAGA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 10 – NORTH AGAINST SOUTH

 

06:39 (Universal Time)

Friday, January 14, 2316

MSS KOSTROMA, in low Mars orbit

The first impression of Ling Wa about the KOSTROMA was how huge it was. The second was to think that it was ugly. Things changed however once he set foot on the Promenade Deck after his ship, the TCNS VAGABOND, had docked with the KOSTROMA in orbit around Mars. The jumble of the external structures were now replaced by functional but artistic architecture, enhanced by an abundance of trees, bushes and flowers planted along the promenade. Along with the neon façades, Ling could think that he was now in a commercial arcade on a Spacer moon. A tall brunette in her late twenties with grey eyes greeted her once he was out of the entrance airlock, with a beefy man carrying a stun pistol watching him from a few feet away. The brunette met him with a polite tone of voice, extending her right hand, which he shook.

‘’Welcome on the KOSTROMA, Captain Wa. I am Tina Forster, captain and owner of this ship. You wouldn’t be related with Grand Admiral Wa, by chance? You do look like him.’’

‘’I am effectively his eldest son, Captain Forster. It seems that the events of the last few days kind of made my original mission redundant. I am not going to carry back our wounded men and women to Earth if it means for them to be arrested by the ISF…or worse.’’

‘’Quite true, Captain Wa. Do you know if your father managed to escape the ISF? Those thugs have not bragged yet about catching or killing him.’’

‘’To be frank, I do not know what happened to my father. However, he is an experienced, crafty man and he had lots of friends and contacts around Shanghai. I am thus keeping my hopes up. Captain Forster, my original mission may now be pointless, but I still have a reason to have met with you. The day before I left for Mars, my father invited me to his house, where he told me something in utter confidence, to pass urgently to you and the Spacers League. This letter describes what he told me. It may

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shock you, but please remember that Marshal Khan of the ISF had this idea, and that most of the Federal Council, including Grand Administrator Li, opposed it immediately.’’ Already worried, Tina took the letter and opened it, extracting a single sheet of old-fashioned paper and unfolding it before reading it. Her face paled as she read on and she looked back with utter horror at Ling when she was finished.

‘’How could anyone even think of such a monstrosity?’’

‘’My father’s opinion was that Marshal Khan is a certified psychopath. I believe that this would tend to prove, Captain Forster. My father wanted you to see this, so that you could alert all the Spacers to this danger and be prepared to prevent or counter it.’’

‘’And your father proved to be a decent man by doing this, Captain Wa. In the name of the Spacers League, I thank you and your father from the bottom of our hearts. Be assured that our leaders will be informed of this right away.’’

‘’Then I feel better already, Captain Forster. That leaves me with a dilemma, though: what do I and my ship do, now that we can’t return to Earth without risking immediate arrest? After the bloody coup that the ISF committed, they have proved that they could do about anything.’’

‘’Do you know if any TCN ship was able to escape Earth after the start of the coup, Captain Wa?’’

‘’Unfortunately, none could. Those which tried to leave for deep space were destroyed without hesitation by the ISF orbital fortresses in orbit around Earth.’’

‘’What can you tell us about those fortresses, Captain? We know that there are 26 of them and that they are eight-faceted cubes measuring 900 meters from end to end, but that is about all.’’

‘’My father once discussed with me about them and their original purpose, which was to prevent attacks by pirates against shipping in Earth orbit. They were built nearly a century ago but have been constantly refitted and updated by the ISF. Their mobility is extremely limited, having only small gravity sails which allow them at most to change orbit if need be, and then rather slowly. They are however very heavily armored, since their designers didn’t have to worry about their mass, which is about two million tons. They are armed solely with high power lasers, to avoid errand missiles. Those lasers are however extremely powerful, in the gigawatt class, and can range far, due to their orbital position. They can also be fired through the atmosphere at low-flying craft or ships if need be, but with less efficiency due to atmospheric dissipation of the beams.

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The fortresses also house a few small assault craft, to help patrol Earth’s orbits. That is about all that I know myself, Captain Forster.’’

‘’That is already plenty, Captain Wa. About you and your ship, you are welcomed to go land at the Ares City Spaceport. The TCN personnel there have returned to their posts at your local headquarters, after having pledged an alliance with us against the ISF. Your wounded personnel have already been transferred to the surface, to the main Ares City hospital. Could I have your word of honor that you and your ship will not commit any hostile act against the Spacers League, Captain Wa?’’

‘’Captain Forster, you have my solemn word on that.’’ replied Ming Wa. It was then his turn to extend his right hand to share a handshake with Tina.

11:22 (Universal Time)

Bridge of the MSS KOSTROMA

Low Mars orbit

Alerted by Patricia O’Neil, Tina stepped on the bridge and went immediately to the communications officer’s station. Patricia didn’t wait for a request from her before handing her a message printout.

‘’It arrived three minutes ago from Callisto Prime by tight directional beam, Tina. It seems that your message about that ISF plan to use chemical weapons has really kicked a hornet’s nest there.’’

‘’I was hoping so.’’ replied Tina before reading the short message. ‘’Well, we are recalled urgently to Callisto Prime, where I am to discuss our next move with the League’s leaders. Wow! It seems that I am now considered the master tactician of the Spacers League, if I can believe this message.’’

‘’And you aren’t?’’ said Patricia, smiling, earning for herself a slap at the back of her head with the paper sheet in Tina’s hand. Tina then looked at Dana Durning and Frida Skarsgard.

‘’The big cheeses want us back around Callisto ASAP. Let’s see if we can break a few speed records, girls.’’

‘’Could we stop at Vesta on the way to do some shopping?’’ asked with a grin Ingrid Holtz from her sensors station. Tina answered her by pulling out her tongue at her.

14:06 (Universal Time)

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Wednesday, February 2, 2315

Government complex, Callisto Prime

Callisto, Jupiter System

Janet Robeson gave Tina an amused look when the latter entered the conference room where the leaders of the Spacers League were discussing the war.

‘’Did you go out and push your ship to get this fast here, Captain Forster? A nineteen day trip from Mars to Callisto sounds like a record to me.’’

‘’Naah, I didn’t even push my KOSTROMA to its true limits. The one time I did that, during the fight for Mars, my crew ended up picking from the deck half of the fruits from our trees, fruits which fell off under the excess felt gravity. Since many of them were not ripe yet, we had to throw away most of it, which was a true shame. So, I limited myself to an eight G constant acceleration/deceleration from start to end this time.’’

‘’Eight Gs constant from Mars to Callisto?’’ exclaimed Jacobus Stein. ‘’And how much Gs did you pull during that fight around Mars?’’

‘’Oh, just eleven Gs, applied during a bit over an hour.’’

Juan Perez, the governor of Saturn, wiggled his hand while making a face.

‘’Your big ship, doing eleven Gs? Decidedly, it will never cease to amaze me.’’

‘’Well, enough gloating about the performances of the KOSTROMA, ladies and gentlemen.’’ said Janet Robeson, becoming serious. ‘’We have a war to fight. Please, take a seat, Captain Forster.’’

Tina did so, choosing an empty seat beside the one occupied by Gustav Shomberg, who had most probably been called in for his expertise in ship design and his knowledge of Terran ships. The engineer shook hands energetically with Tina, a happy smile on his face.

‘’You certainly made me proud of my work, Tina.’’

‘’And you have every right to be, Gustav.’’ said Tina before switching her attention to the others around the table. Most of the Spacers League leaders were present, except for Governor Watts, who was on Mars, defending his planet. Shinjo Suzuki, whose asteroid of Ceres had been retaken by Spacers forces a few days ago, was also present. Janet Robeson then took on her to put her up to date with their discussions to date.

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‘’To put you up to speed with what we have decided already, Captain Forster, know that we have taken a near unanimous decision to help the countries of the Northern Hemisphere which are presently resisting the ISF on Earth. We have however not decided yet how to do it. The main problem is those big ISF orbital fortresses blocking the approaches to Earth.’’

Seeing Tina frown at the words ‘near unanimous decision’, Shinjo Suzuki took on him to explain.

‘’I was the one to object, Captain Forster. My view is that, since Zembelo and Khan have painted themselves in a corner and have caused by their coup to dry out their last sources of minerals and chemicals from space, there is no sense in fighting them actively. We just need them to run out of resources for the war and implode.’’ Tina eyed him with evident skepticism, if not with contempt. Suzuki was a powerful, very rich man who had made his money at the head of the Ceres Consortium by becoming the biggest food producer in the Outer System. He was also a convinced pacifist and an advocate of ecology, but many thought that he had pushed his convictions well past the limits of reality. That other Spacers had to fight, and lose people, to free Ceres while Suzuki still advocated nothing more than passive resistance had riled many.

‘’Mister Suzuki, you are right to say that the new regime on Earth has cut its own throat by alienating their last providers of space resources and that they will eventually collapse economically. However, that could take months, maybe years, before it finally happens. During those months, the ISF will be free to arrest, beat, torture and execute thousands, if not tens of thousands of innocent people who have little means to defend themselves from ISF aggression and excesses. We saw that exact pattern on Mars during their short occupation and I am not ready to simply sit around and do nothing while more innocents suffer. Peace at all cost is a notion that has been amply discredited in Humanity’s history, sir, especially when those calling for peace are not the ones paying for it.’’

A flash of anger came to Suzuki’s face at the last sentence from Tina, but a dark look from Karl Langemann, head of the Vesta Consortium, cut off his reply.

‘’She stated the simple truth, whether you like it or not, Shinjo. Horace Zembelo and Reyat Khan make a fine pair of power-hungry psychopaths and they shouldn’t be allowed to crush those countries resisting them on Earth. If you want to withdraw from our alliance, it is your prerogative, but then don’t expect our men and women to defend

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you further. The members of your board of directors may have something to say about that anyway.’’

Seeing all the others around the table staring without sympathy at him, Suzuki swallowed his pride and nodded once his head.

‘’Very well, let’s see what can be suggested to help take down the ISF.’’

‘’Good!’’ said Janet Robeson, acting as chairman of the meeting. ‘’Ideally, we would like to send weapons and ships to the Northern Alliance on Earth, to help them resist the ISF and to prevent Khan from using his lethal chemical gas weapon on us or on other Terrans. However, the problem is the obstacle created by the ISF orbital fortresses. Each one of these fortresses is better protected and armed than even our most powerful ship, the KOSTROMA. They also mutually protect each other in orbit by their laser crossfire, so they can’t be outflanked. Whether we like it or not, we will have to take them out, one way or the other. The question is how? Any suggestions?’’ Even Tina was silent at first, having studied that problem at length during her trip from Mars and having come blank. Gustav Shomberg then spoke, on seeing that no one else would.

‘’Those fortresses are armed solely with high power lasers and have no missile armament, except for those carried by their attack craft. We thus must concentrate on making our ships able to withstand heavy laser fire long enough to close in and fire heavy missiles at those fortresses.’’

‘’And how does one protect against such laser fire?’’ asked Juan Perez, from Saturn. ‘’It would take such a thick shield that it would slow down our ships to a crawl.’’

‘’So?’’ replied Shomberg, warming up. ‘’Those fortresses are themselves nearly static. We don’t need to be able to dance around them, just to be able to get close enough to them to destroy them.’’

‘’And to destroy them with what?’’ asked Nadia Suslov, of the Sverdlovsk Group. ‘’Normal missiles will barely scratch a dent on their armor and laser fire would take minutes to burn through.’’

‘’Well, I agree that we would need to devise new weapons as well as new shields to deal with those fortresses.’’ recognized Shomberg. Karl Langemann suddenly seemed to have an inspiration and looked at Tina.

‘’Captain Forster, could you show me the general specifications of your ship? I think that I have an idea.’’

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Surprised, Tina did however take out her electronic notepad and opened the file on her ship stored in it before passing it to the geologist and industrialist. The whole group watched in silence as Langemann studied the file with utter concentration and made a few calculations. The geologist finally looked up from the notepad, smiling.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen, I think that I found a solution to our dilemma: let’s throw rocks at those fortresses!’’

16:09 (Universal Time)

Saturday, February 19, 2316

Vesta Consortium’s light shuttle

Asteroid V-6398, 35,000 kilometers from Vesta

Main Asteroid Belt

‘’There it is, Captain Forster: Asteroid V-6398 in all its splendor!’’

‘’What a poetic name for it!’’ said Tina in a sarcastic tone, smiling while eyeing the two kilometer-long, potato-shaped asteroid. Karl Langemann, sitting beside her in the cockpit of the light shuttle, laughed briefly at that.

‘’I have to agree that those naming the asteroids in the Belt didn’t show much poetic sense when doing their job. This piece of rock is however going to be the centerpiece of our Operation Stonehenge. It measures approximately 2,900 meters long by 2,300 meters wide and its original mass was around twelve billion tons. It has however been extensively mined during the years and is now little more than a hollow rock shell. In view of its size and empty core state, I devised a plan to turn it into a giant space dry dock, able to repair or build the biggest ship in pressurized conditions and also to be able to move by itself if need be. The project was nearly completed when this damn war erupted.’’

‘’It can move by itself? How fast?’’

‘’It can sustain prolonged accelerations of up to 0.3 on gravity sails. Not too shabby for a mass of approximately four billion tons.’’

Tina’s eyes widened at those numbers.

‘’But, then, the installed electrical power on your asteroid must be mind-boggling.’’

Langemann then had a mysterious smile.

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‘’Correct! Enough as well to power some pretty awesome laser batteries. The concept imagined by Gustav Shomberg, of using the fusion startup laser banks of your ship and reroute them to laser firing turrets, was a true stroke of genius. When I had my initial idea of using this asteroid to attack the ISF orbital fortresses, I also decided to apply Shomberg’s concept to it and thus give a strong armament to my asteroid. In truth, it is now more like a slow giant carrier than just a space dry dock. We are now going to enter it.’’

Tina returned her attention to the asteroid, which now filled the view from the Armorglass surfaces of the cockpit. One extremity of the asteroid was actually one big hole with a diameter of over one kilometer. The inside of the asteroid had clearly been extensively worked over and fitted with a dense matrix of steel lattices to preserve its structural cohesion. Tina noticed the thousands of individual gravity sail plates fixed to the lattices, plus the various prefabricated modules hooked to the side walls inside the asteroid. She didn’t miss as well the thousands of workers in spacesuits and the robots engaged in feverish work inside, particularly around a massive structure forming four successive rings, with docking clamps attached to the inside of the rings. There was also a lot of drilling being done through the crust of the asteroid. Langemann pointed with his right index at the rings and their docking clamps.

‘’This will be the main docking frame, meant to solidly mate with whatever ship is being repaired, refitted or built. It is big enough to accommodate your KOSTROMA.’’

‘’And that drilling work?’’

‘’Tunnels to link the laser banks inside with firing optics outside and to connect the control center with a multitude of surface sensors, all well protected, of course. This will be a fully functioning ship of Space, once completed in a couple of weeks. Only the main access doors to the dock, at the rear, will be left out: it would take too much time to complete them and, as you know, time is of the essence.’’

‘’Talking of that, how is the situation on Earth?’’

Langemann’ mood then turned distinctly, to one of grimness.

‘’Not very good, unfortunately. The ISF, with its massive numeric superiority and near monopoly on weapons, has overtaken most of Western Europe and is presently busy ‘purging’ Europe of anyone ready or able to resist its rule. According to news bulletins from the Northern Alliance, thousands of people are arrested, killed or simply disappear each week in Europe. In truth, Zembelo and Khan have produced what is possibly the most criminal regime in Humanity’s history. Please do me one favor when

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you will be fighting those ISF thugs again: don’t show them any pity! They are nothing more than vermin only worth exterminating.’’

‘’I will keep that in mind, Mister Langemann.’’ replied Tina in a somber tone. ‘’What about the main armament of your asteroid?’’

‘’It is being produced right now. While it consists of huge pieces and is very powerful in terms of hitting power, it represents only very simple technology. It will be ready well before the asteroid itself.’’

‘’Then, that leaves only the question of the name for this asteroid.’’ said quietly Tina, attracting a confused look from Langemann.

‘’A name? But, it already has one, Captain Forster.’’

Tina gave him a no-nonsense look.

‘’Come on, sir! We are going to accomplish possibly one of the most epic raids in the history of Humanity with a thing called simply ‘V-6398’? Where is your sense of the grandiose?’’

‘’Uh, maybe you’re right about that.’’ said the geologist in a meek voice.

09:11 (Vancouver Time)

Tuesday, March 28, 2316

Secret resistance forces command center, Kelowna British-Columbia, Canada

Earth

‘’Madam Governor, the news from Seattle have been confirmed. Mayor

Cummings is dead, killed by the ISF. They are now looting the city and rounding up people.’’

This report from one of her aides, coming on top of all the other bad news of the past weeks, brought tears of frustration and despair to Claudia d’Arcy, legitimate governor of North America.

‘’Those damn barbarians! May Zembelo and Khan roast in hell for their crimes! How are the defensive preparations progressing around Vancouver?’’

‘’We are as ready there as we could ever be, Madam Governor. However, our stocks of weapons and ammunition are grossly insufficient to repel any assault in strength by the ISF. We do have plenty of volunteers, though.’’

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‘’Weapons! It all turns around getting enough weapons. These goons from the ISF are not so brave when they meet an equally armed foe. They certainly got their butts kicked in Texas.’’

‘’But this is not Texas, Madam Governor. Unfortunately, the…’’ Another aide suddenly rushed in the room, all excited.

‘’MADAM GOVERNOR! WE JUST RECEIVED A MESSAGE FROM THE SPACERS LEAGUE: A SPACERS FLEET IS NEARING EARTH!’’

‘’Thank God, at last!’’ could only say the long-suffering governor.

14:55 (Universal Time)

ISF Orbital Fortress 08

In polar orbit around Earth

‘’Sir, our long range radar has detected a single large object approaching Earth.’’

‘’What is it exactly?’’ asked the ISF major in charge of the orbital fortress. His sensors officer frowned while looking at his displays.

‘’According to its spectroscopic signature, it is a big piece of rock, sir. The problem is that it is decelerating towards us.’’

‘’A rock? Decelerating? You’re not making much sense, Captain Omongo.’’

‘’I know, sir, but that’s what our sensors say. It is now within 5,400 kilometers and has just altered slightly its trajectory. It will now pass between us and Earth.’’

‘’I don’t like this one bit. The Spacers have been too quiet for too long now. Sound battle stations and send a warning message to the other fortresses and to ISF GHQ on Earth.’’

‘’Aye, sir!’’

A few minutes later, the commander of the fortress got another report, this time from his optical telescopes.

‘’Sir, visual observation shows the approaching object to be an asteroid.’’

‘’But it can’t be an asteroid if it altered course! How big is it?’’

‘’It is approximately three kilometers in diameter, sir. Its mass must be at least a couple of billion tons.’’

‘’Damn, I wouldn’t want to collide with that, armor or no armor. Can you see anything else?’’

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‘’Uh, no sir, not at this distance.’’

‘’Very well. Hail it!’’

Omongo gave his commander a funny look, then shrugged and started calling the newcomer on the space distress frequency. After repeating his message six times without an answer, the commander of the fortress ran out of patience.

‘’Alright! Whoever that is, he asked for it. LASER BATTERIES, TARGET THAT ASTEROID AND FIRE AT WILL!’’

Fifteen seconds later, the first one gigawatt laser beam stabbed the dark space with its blue ray. Within thirty seconds of firing, the fortress got two reactions from the asteroid.

‘’Sir, the asteroid has started to slowly rotate around its main axis. That thing is actually a ship.’’

‘’They are trying to prevent our beams from burning through their hull.’’ commented the commander, now getting nervous. ‘’We…’’

‘’MULTIPLE LASER BEAMS FROM THE ASTEROID!’’ shouted another operator on the command bridge. ‘’WE ARE BEING HIT!’’

‘’Ah! Good luck to them to burn through our hull.’’

‘’SIR, DAMAGE REPORTS FROM DECKS 23 AND 45! THOSE BEAMS HAVE HOLED OUR HULL.’’

‘’Uh?!’’ Could only say the incredulous ISF officer. He then got his second shock of the encounter.

‘’Sir, something on the surface of that asteroid has just rocketed off and is speeding towards us.’’

‘’Is it a missile?’’

‘’I don’t know, sir, but it is big: about one hundred meters in diameter. The spectroscopes read its surface as being rock, but it is powered by a fusion rocket. At its present acceleration rate, it will hit us at a relative velocity of 2.6 kilometers per second.’’ The commander of the fortress then became really worried.

‘’CONTINUE FIRING LASERS! TARGET THAT INCOMING THING! ALERT THE COMMAND: A CONVERTED ASTEROID IS ATTACKING US WITH LASERS AND MISSILES.’’

The major then followed with increasing dread the course of the missile, which seemed to laugh off the fortress’ laser beams. On the other hand, the laser beams from the asteroid were proving incredibly powerful and were burning through after only a couple seconds of firing, causing more and more damage inside the orbital fortress. One of the

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main fusion generators of the fortress was hit and taken off line by a penetrating laser beam after one minute of combat. Then, Captain Omongo managed to capture a good view of the incoming missile forty seconds before impact. The commander felt his heart sink as he eyed the big piece of rock coming at him, over one hundred meters wide and with jagged edges. It had to have a mass of well over a million tons.

‘’Good God!’’ could he simply say then. The asteroid had gone down to a lower orbit when the piece of rock, actually more massive than the fortress at 2.4 million tons but much more compact and denser, impacted squarely the octagonal cube of steel and ceramic armor at 2.58 kilometers per second. The kinetic energy of the impact, equivalent to that of a large nuclear weapon, made the rock smash clean through the hull of the fortress. The initial shock was enough to kill the whole crew instantly by projecting its men and women against internal partition walls, where they smashed their heads and bones on the steel bulkheads and the machinery of the fortress. The rock broke on impact but only to have its pieces fly inside the hull of the fortress, causing mayhem and destruction. The rock didn’t have an explosive warhead but didn’t need one to utterly destroy the giant orbital fortress through simple kinetic energy transfer. What was not destroyed by the colossal impact was roasted out by the hot molten rock lava created as the small asteroid was nearly vaporized in the process. In less than a second, Orbital Fortress 08 was turned into a deformed, gutted and burned out steel hulk rotating out of control in orbit.

The 25 other orbital fortresses watched the drama through the telemetry from the doomed fortress before its destruction, then saw the blinding flash of the collision through their optical sensors. The orbital fortresses commanders who at first had shown utter confidence that the intruder would be destroyed then became close to panic, as the converted asteroid continued downward on its polar orbit, heading towards the fortresses in equatorial orbit around Earth. Three of the equatorial fortresses were engaged on that first pass with propelled asteroids, with similar results to the first fortress. One of the three fortresses, hit squarely in its center of mass, saw the asteroid hitting it go clean from one side to the other, blasting an exit hole over 600 meters in diameter. All that time, the mother asteroid kept going, always presenting its thickest side to the orbital fortresses it was flying under and firing its own lasers while shrugging off the ISF laser fire. With now four fortresses utterly destroyed, the mother asteroid kept on its southward course, targeting next the fortress in southern polar orbit. When

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that one got destroyed as well, some of the fortresses’ commanders started asking permission from the ISF Grand Headquarters to evacuate their stations. When that permission was frostily refused by a furious Marshal Reyat Khan himself, a few commanders, seeing the futility of trying to fight the mother asteroid and its terrifying projectiles, decided to ignore Khan’s orders and told their crews to evacuate their fortresses. When Khan was informed that some fortresses’ crews were abandoning their posts, he flew into a rage and ordered the other fortresses to fire on the craft evacuating the crews and destroy them. That order, given as three more fortresses of the equatorial rings got smashed, was the last straw for most of the surviving commanders, who gave the order to abandon their stations. One fanatical commander who insisted that his crew stay and fight on saw his men mutiny on him and was eventually killed in a shootout between members of his bridge crew.

All the while, the mother asteroid went on along its carrousel of orbital destruction, smashing fortress after fortress, whether manned or evacuated. According to directives discussed on Callisto Prime and approved by all but Shinjo Suzuki, any ISF craft trying to flee the fortresses and passing within range of the mother asteroid’s lasers was destroyed mercilessly. Even Tina Forster, with her humanist side, had agreed that no ISF member would be spared, in view of their record of war crimes. After seven hours of methodical destruction and three completed orbits by the mother asteroid, all of the original 26 orbital fortresses were reduced to twisted, lifeless hulks. Its main job now completed, the mother asteroid sent a coded message by tight beam towards the fleet of Spacer ships which had been trailing it from a safe distance, telling it that the way to Earth was open. A total of 63 transport ships loaded with weapons, ammunition, troops and attack craft and escorted by four giant cargo ships transformed into battleships then headed towards their surface objectives. The mother asteroid was however not finished yet with the ISF.

22:17 (Universal Time)

Bridge of the MSS KOSTROMA

Internal dock of Battle Station MJOLNIR

Earth polar orbit

‘’Docking clamps are retracted. We are free to pull out, Tina.’’

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‘’Then pull us out gently on gravity sail, Frida.’’

Frida Skarsgard, strapped in her pilot’s seat and wearing her spacesuit, like the other crewmembers of the KOSTROMA, carefully worked her controls, making the nearly three million tons mass of their ship back out slowly from the docking cradle. It took a good four minutes of cautious maneuvering for the giant cargo ship to emerge fully from

the battle station MJOLNIR2, earlier known as Asteroid V-6398. Once the KOSTROMA was out and floating freely in orbit over the Earth, the twelve fighter craft which had also been carried by the battle station flew out to escort it. Tina, strapped to her command chair, waited for the fighters to be deployed before giving her next order.

‘’Frida, move us to the vertical of Adana.’’

‘’Aye, Captain!’’

Followed by the twelve fighter craft, the KOSTROMA took up speed on gravity sail, heading towards Turkey and the base sheltering the ISF Grand Headquarters, situated near Adana. Apart from housing the ISF GHQ, the base contained the central arsenal of the ISF, along with the facilities and barracks for a full field division. All that had decided Tina and the members of the Spacers League leadership to make the base one of their priority targets in this operation.

As Tina had expected, no ship or fighter craft rose to challenge her ship in orbit. By alienating the TCN, the ISF had lost most of its space and air cover, having nearly solely assault shuttles and craft as flying machines. The few fighter craft it had had been assigned to the orbital fortresses and were thus now destroyed. However, Tina knew that the main ISF ground bases had defensive turrets, including a few laser batteries of relatively low power made to deal with small craft or vehicles. She could not allow herself to be complacent now, for the sake of her crew. Once at the vertical of Adana, situated on the Mediterranean coast of Eastern Turkey, Tina took a good twenty minutes to visually inspect the ISF base from orbit, using the bow telescope of the KOSTROMA. She also checked for any electronic signal coming from the base, finding out that the ISF had a rather powerful long range surveillance radar active in Adana, along with three fire control radars probably linked to the six laser turrets visible from above. The base also possessed a dozen launchers for light missiles. Dana Durning hovered beside Tina as

 

2 Mjolnir: Name of the magical war hammer of the Nordic god of thunder, Thor.

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the latter was looking at a magnified view of the core building of the base, seen through infra-red sensors.

‘’How do you plan to proceed, Tina?’’

‘’I am not sure yet, Dana. Those laser turrets and light missile launchers will have to be taken out first, but sending our fighters after them could cost us quite a few craft. We could ask MJOLNIR to bombard the base from orbit with a propelled asteroid, but the impact would cause a serious local earthquake that could kill many innocent civilians in the region.’’

‘’How about using our own ship’s lasers? The sky above the base is presently free of clouds. Even though some of the beams’ power will be dissipated while burning through the atmosphere, enough power should be left to take out those defenses.’’

‘’You’re right. Let’s do so! Apart from the laser turrets and missile launchers, we will also take out the radars and the ground defense bunkers. Then, we will come down on top of the base, as we discussed yesterday.’’

Dana hesitated, unsure that she agreed completely with that part of the plan.

‘’Are you sure that you want to do that, Tina? It would be tantamount to using a thermonuclear weapon on that base.’’

Tina looked up from the viewing table, a pained expression on her face.

‘’Dana, I do not like it more than you do, but destroying the ISF Grand Headquarters will be essential if we really want to free the Earth from these murderous goons. Too many innocents have already suffered or died at the hands of the ISF. Zembelo and Khan were on their part more than ready to exterminate us with chemical weapons. If we let them more time, they will eventually succeed in sending a few men with lethal gas canisters. Then, tens of thousands could pay the price for our hesitations today.’’

Dana thought for a moment, then nodded her head.

‘’Very well, Tina. I will go plot our fire plan right away.’’

‘’Thank you, Dana.’’

Half an hour later, Dana announced that her fire plan was ready and the targets locked in. Tina nodded, still standing in front of the display table showing the base through the bow telescope.

‘’Then commence firing!’’

‘’Aye, Captain!’’

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The visual effect of firing their laser batteries through the Earth’s atmosphere was a lot more spectacular than when fired in space, especially at night. The deadly beams of light brutally heated up the air along their paths, creating halos around them at the same time that an ear-busting crack similar to thunder was heard for tens of kilometers around. While a good part of the power of the beams was effectively wasted creating all that thunder and lightning effect, more than enough of it was left to hit hard the surface of the planet. The missile launchers were the easiest to take out, their missiles exploding when touched off by laser beams. The radars’ electronic arrays proved nearly as vulnerable, but the laser turrets and ground defense bunkers took more time, the beams having to burn through thick slabs of concrete. In all, fourteen minutes were necessary for Dana Durning to conduct her fire plan and declare her targets destroyed. Tina, her face impassive, acknowledged Dana’s statement and went to sit in her command chair, buckling her harness before giving her next orders.

‘’To all the crew, strap yourselves in your seats and brace for incoming turbulences. Frida, take us down on gravity sails. Engineering, be ready to fire up the main fusion drive.’’

In the underground command bunker built under the main headquarters building of the base, Marshal Reyat Khan was pestering his subalterns to act, even though there was in reality very little they could do now but wait and hope. There were no fighter craft to call in and no air defense batteries left to activate. Then, a sensors operator who was using a radar picture received from an antenna situated over fifty kilometers from the base spoke up.

‘’SIR, A BIG SHIP IS COMING DOWN FROM ORBIT, STRAIGHT ON TOP OF US.’’

‘’GIVE ME A VISUAL OF THAT SHIP, NOW!’’

The operator, playing with his connections, took a few seconds to switch his display to an external infra-red camera and point it upward, zooming to maximum magnification. Khan felt his blood chill in his veins when he recognized the massive shape coming down from orbit in the night sky, easily visible even at its altitude of 86 kilometers thanks to its lighted navigation lights.

‘’The KOSTROMA? But, it is supposed to be a non-atmospheric capable cargo ship. And why come down like this?’’

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One of his aides, who had a better technical education than that of the graying marshal, proposed cautiously an answer.

‘’Sir, if it does not go through the atmosphere at speeds above a couple of hundreds of kilometers per hour, then any ship could enter a dense atmosphere in a vertical descent, with their speed relative to the ground at near zero.’’

‘’But why come down at all? They could have continued to fire their big lasers from orbit.’’

‘’That, I don’t know, sir.’’ said meekly the aid. ‘’However, it may be a good idea for you to leave the base at once, before the enemy fires again.’’ Khan gave him a dark look but quickly had to recognize that his aide’s counsel was judicious. There was anyway very little he could do here anymore.

‘’Very well, Captain. Have my runabout ready for immediate departure from the underground garage. I will be ready in a couple minutes.’’ Then walking quickly to the small office he used in the bunker, one much less luxurious than his main office on the top floor of the headquarters building, Khan gathered quickly in a briefcase his most sensitive files and data cubes, plus a large sum in cash money and diamonds kept in a small safe. The head of the dreaded ISF was soon running towards the underground garage via a tunnel connecting it with the command bunker.

On the bridge of the KOSTROMA, Patricia O’Neil frowned as she watched her sensors, then looked at Tina.

‘’A small craft, an air car or runabout, just flew out of an underground garage under the headquarters building, Tina.’’

Tina snapped her head towards the sensors display, then gave a firm order.

‘’SHOOT IT DOWN AT ONCE! NO CRAFT OR VEHICLE IS TO BE ALLOWED TO ESCAPE THIS BASE. GO TO WEAPONS FREE MODE!’’

‘’Aye, Captain!’’

After only six more seconds, Patricia reported again.

‘’Craft destroyed, Captain.’’

‘’Good! Soon, these thugs are going to pay for their crimes.’’ said Tina, not realizing that they had just made one of the worst thugs pay.

The people living around the base and in the surrounding towns and villages of the region, awakened by the noise and light from the laser beams, soon started

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gathering outside their homes or on their balconies, peering up at the huge object now visible in the night sky, descending silently at the vertical towards the ISF base and with multitudes of red, blue and green lights switched on around its hull. The KOSTROMA was now visible from dozens of kilometers around and made for an astounding sight for the local inhabitants, many of them having never seen a spaceship before in their life. Few realized the true size of the ship until it came to a hover above the ISF base at an altitude of 2,000 meters. The four exhaust nozzles of the main fusion drive of the KOSTROMA suddenly roared to life in titanic blasts, projecting long, blinding plumes of hot plasma which expanded on hitting the ground. The whole base area and its immediate surroundings were then awash in thermonuclear plasma within fractions of a second, with the air around also quickly heated to temperatures of thousands of degrees centigrade. Under the sustained plasma exhausts of the KOSTROMA, everything at the surface of the base melted first, then started evaporating as well. The underground bunkers and facilities were not spared either, with hot plasma filling them first via their ventilation outtakes, then with hot lava pouring in from the surface. After two minutes of ignition, the KOSTROMA’s main engine throttled down to idle and the big cargo ship rose in the air on gravity sail power, climbing quickly to high altitude. The stunned and shaken inhabitants of the region, or at least the ones far enough from the ISF base to have survived, were then left to gape at the huge cauldron of red-hot magma left where the base had been. The first pictures of the magma cauldron were sent to various news agencies within minutes of the departure of the KOSTROMA, the ship itself having already been filmed in action by amateur cameramen and photographers. The impact of those images was immediate on the World’s public…and on the morale inside the ISF.

13:39 (Shanghai Time)

Wednesday, Marsh 29, 2316

Federal government complex

Shanghai, China

The military liaison officer from the ISF hesitated before approaching the office of Grand Administrator Horace Zembelo: the latter didn’t like bad news and he had already received plenty of those in the past hours. Arming himself with courage, the major presented his identification pass to the two ISF soldiers guarding the door of the office, who then let him go inside the antechamber used by Zembelo’s secretary, a fine looking

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African young woman. Normally suave and all smiles, the poor secretary was visibly on edge, probably from being screamed at repeatedly by Zembelo, who had a well-deserved reputation as a horrible boss. The liaison officer thought to himself that the poor girl really deserved better. She still forced a smile on her face when she received the major.

‘’What can I do for your, Major Mavutu?’’

‘’Unfortunately, I am here to bring bad news…important bad news, Miss Zuma.’’ The secretary’s face twitched on hearing the words ‘bad news’ but she didn’t say a word about that.

‘’Er, I will see if the Grand Administrator can receive you now, Major.’’

‘’Thank you, Miss Zuma.’’

Going to stand in a corner and wait patiently, Henry Mavutu was finally admitted after four minutes, to find Horace Zembelo staring at him with a dark look.

‘’What is it now, Major?’’

‘’Grand Administrator, I am sorry to have to bring you more bad news, but the KOSTROMA just attacked and completely destroyed the ISF main training base and regional headquarters near Capetown. It happened twenty minutes ago.’’ Zembelo flared up with rage, but managed to keep his voice to a decent level.

‘’How was it destroyed, Major?’’

‘’The same way as the ISF GHQ in Adana, sir. The whole population of Capetown saw the destruction of the base. The KOSTROMA then made a small detour and melted down as well your private residence before climbing back into orbit.’’ That little detail touched off Zembelo like a hot wire put to the priming hole of an old black powder cannon. That so-called private residence outside of Capetown had been in reality like a European Renaissance castle and had cost tens of millions of credits to build and furnish, with the lot paid with the help of the public funds skimmed off by Zembelo during his tenure as governor of Africa.

‘’WHAT? MY CAPETOWN RESIDENCE, DESTROYED? AND WHAT WAS THE REACTIONS OF OUR DEFENSE FORCES TO THAT ATTACK?’’ Jumping over the fact that Zembelo had just shown more care about his residence than about the close to 34,000 men and women vaporized in Capetown, Mavutu answered with an impassive face.

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‘’A squadron of assault shuttles based in Capetown took off to intercept the KOSTROMA but was totally destroyed within seconds by laser fire, sir. The same thing happened to the ground defenses of the training base.’’

‘’THAT’S COMPLETELY UNSATISFACTORY! I WANT THE REGIONAL ISF COMMANDER TO BE SACKED FOR INCOMPETENCE. AS FOR THAT DAMN KOSTROMA, I EXPECT OUR REACTIONS TO BE BETTER NEXT TIME THAT IT COMES DOWN FROM ORBIT.’’

‘’Yes, Grand Administrator!’’ could only say Mavutu before saluting Zembelo and turning around to leave. He found Miss Zuma standing in a corner of the antechamber, apparently trying to overcome the stresses of her day by walking around, thoughtful. Mavutu then took a decision and approached her, giving her a sympathetic smile.

‘’Miss Zuma, I am sorry to have indirectly caused you more stress. Would you accept to have supper with me tonight, once you are free from your work.’’

‘’Uh, the Grand Administrator may keep me quite late tonight, Major, the way things are going.’’

Mavutu took out one of his calling cards and gave it to the secretary.

‘’I don’t mind waiting, Miss Zuma. Call me when you are free. We could also talk a bit at the same time.’’

‘’Talk? About what, Major?’’ asked the secretary, becoming a bit suspicious. Mavutu then lowered his voice to a near whisper.

‘’About what the near future will bring us, miss. Things may soon become quite hot here, if you see what I mean.’’

The secretary, who was no empty-headed doll, nodded once and answered also in a whisper, while taking the calling card.

‘’I will be happy to accept your invitation once free, Major.’’

‘’Thank you, Miss Zuma.’’ replied Mavutu, smiling warmly, before leaving her to return to his own office.

22:50 (Seattle Time)

Apartment building in Seattle

Pacific Coast of North America

‘’KEVIN, DAMMIT, GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS!’’

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‘’But, Mom,’’ protested the eight year-old boy to his mother, who was huddling in a far corner of the darkened family lounge with her two other children, ‘’they can’t see me with our apartment left in the dark.’’

‘’But if they see you, they could shoot at you. Come back here, NOW! You saw what happened to those who did not obey their curfew orders.’’

‘’They won’t see me, Mom, I tell…’’

A blinding ray of blue light outside suddenly lit up the whole apartment at the same time as an incredibly loud cracking noise shook the windows, making the small boy and his family jump from fright and surprise. A second blue lightning bolt followed the first after three seconds, followed by a third one. To her mother’s utter frustration and fear, the little boy stuck his head again above the window sill, then shouted excitedly.

‘’MOM! MOM! COME SEE THAT! THE SOLDIERS’ TRUCKS ARE NOW BURNING.’’

At first, the mother didn’t know if she should scream at her boy or go see. The dancing lights of flames coming from street level finally decided her to go to the window, where her first move was to forcibly pull down her son and wiggle an index at him.

‘’Kevin, I should spank you for this! Next time, you better listen to me at once. This is not a game.’’

Only then did the mother dare look cautiously through the window, towards the ISF check point where two civilian cars had been stopped earlier and their occupants summarily executed for having broken the eight o’clock curfew. To her astonishment, the three armored vehicles of the ISF checkpoint were now burning, twisted wrecks and many of the soldiers lay still on the pavement or were obviously wounded. A fourth blue bolt of light then nearly blinded the mother when it hit a group of soldiers that was dragging a wounded away from one of the burning vehicles. The handful of soldiers left alive then apparently panicked and ran away, leaving their dead and wounded comrades in the middle of the street.

Sending her son join his two siblings with words that left no place for discussion, the woman prayed that her husband, a city policeman who had gone underground at the start of the ISF invasion of Seattle, was still alive and safe. As she looked again at the burning ISF vehicles, wondering what had hit them, she was shocked to see two dark silhouettes come out from one of the apartment buildings lining the avenue and run to the wrecks. Now fearing the worst for the two foolhardy men, the mother watched them

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start to collect and sling the troopers’ abandoned weapons and ammunition. Another man, then two more, this time a teenage boy and a girl, soon joined in the looting. Two ISF soldiers who lay wounded on the pavement were mercilessly finished off with repeated blows from the bats and steel bars carried by the looters. Then, nearly as quickly as they had appeared, the looters dispersed and disappeared, each one of them now carrying at least one weapon. That pleased the mother, until she thought about the reaction of other ISF soldiers when they would find their men dead and disarmed. At the least, they were going to search methodically the whole neighborhood to find back those weapons. They could also possibly take hostages as a reprisal measure, something they were said to often do. Her fears materialized ten minutes later, when four big armored carriers came rolling to the destroyed checkpoint and started disgorging dozens of ISF soldiers. Before they could form up or disperse, though, a concentration of four large blue beams coming down from the sky struck the ISF force with a thunderous crackling noise. This time, they were continuous beams, instead of short bolts, and danced around the street, vaporizing both vehicles and soldiers. This time, there were no weapons or ammunition left intact to be looted, while a good fifty meters of the avenue was turned into a puddle of red-hot lava. As she was staring wide-eyed at that scene, the woman’s wrist videophone buzzed. She gasped when she saw that the caller’s number was that of her husband and hurried to activate her phone.

‘’Bill, is that you? The screen is dark.’’

‘’It’s me, honey.’’ answered a voice she knew well, making her sob with joy.

‘’Thank God you’re alive! Where are you?’’

‘’Sorry, can’t say that on the phone, honey. I am safe and with some friends. How are things with you and the kids? Did soldiers come to look for me?’’

‘’Not yet, Bill. However, a total of seven ISF vehicles have been destroyed by blue rays from the sky just under our windows, plus many soldiers killed. What is going on?’’

‘’That,’’ answered her husband in a triumphant tone, ‘’is laser fire from Spacer ships in orbit above Seattle. From what I have heard from the underground up to now, ISF vehicles and installations around Seattle are being systematically chased down and destroyed from orbit by the Spacers. If it continues at the present rhythm, the ISF may well be forced to abandon Seattle within days.’’

‘’Bill, some local people looted the weapons of the dead soldiers. Couldn’t that attract retaliations?’’

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‘’It could, honey, but that is something we were hoping to be able to do. We need more weapons if we are to stand a chance against the ISF. Until further notice, do not go out of the apartment and do not let the kids out as well, even during daylight: things may get very tense for the coming days. No school, no work, honey, and please ration whatever food you have left. What you have now will have to do for the next few days.’’

‘’I…I understand, Bill. Please be careful on your side.’’

‘’I will, honey. I will now have to shut down my phone and move to a new location, before the ISF can trace my call. Tell the kids that I love them.’’

‘’We love you too, Bill.’’ said the woman just before the line was cut. Now alone again with her kids in the dark apartment, she started sobbing, living through the worst time of her life yet.

18:16 (Shanghai Time) / 02:16 (Seattle Time)

Federal government complex, Shanghai

China

‘’So, where are we going for supper, Major Mavutu?’’

Henry Mavutu, still in uniform, smiled while admiring Winnie Zuma, who had finally been able to leave her job for the night.

‘’Well, first, maybe we should go to your place, so that you can change for the occasion.’’

‘’But, isn’t my business dress fashionable enough?’’

Henry made a show of kissing her hand in front of the others passing through the main lobby of the government building, speaking to Winnie in a whisper.

‘’Trust me and let’s go to your place.’’

Having heard a succession of bad news come in during the day and understanding that what he had in mind had to stay secret from others, Winnie played the game and followed him to a runabout parked in one of the spots reserved for officials in front of the building. Once inside, she was about to ask him what was going on when he made a gesture for her to keep silent. Mavutu then bent down and worked briefly with some wires under the instrument panel. When he straightened up, he smiled at Winnie and spoke in a normal tone.

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‘’We can now speak freely, miss: I have disconnected the microphone hidden in the instrument panel.’’

Winnie looked at him with alarm.

‘’Your runabout was bugged? By whom?’’

‘’By the ISF Counter-Intelligence Branch. It is not that I was considered a security risk, but these guys are truly paranoid: they suspect everybody.’’

‘’Including me?’’

‘’Including you, my dear. Why do you think that their branch swallows such a huge budget? They have paid snitches and electronic bugs everywhere. Their problem is that they can’t believe that some other people are smarter than them.’’

‘’Some people like you, Major?’’

‘’Yes! And please, call me simply Henry. What I am going to tell you will probably shock you, but it is the simple reality, Winnie. The days of the ISF and of Horace Zembelo are counted. The Spacers have firmly seized control of space and of Earth’s orbit and are actually busy destroying the bases and installations of the ISF one by one. They even have started harassing with laser fire our troops occupying cities in the Northern Hemisphere. Allied with their stranglehold on Earth’s imports from space, that means that they have for all intents and purposes won the war today, with the destruction of our orbital fortresses. It is now only a question of days and weeks before they chase down and destroy what’s left of the ISF and of Zembelo’s regime.’’ The young secretary paled at those words and put one hand on her heart.

‘’But, us…’’

‘’We will also be chased down…if we stay with Zembelo and the ISF. Please don’t think that I am simply an opportunist ready to jump ship at the first storm, Winnie. When I joined the ISF twelve years ago, I believed in its stated goals to uphold order and oppose those who would exploit the people. I was then young and naïve, but have since seen the true nature of the ISF: a corrupt entity pursuing power for itself. The coup against Grand Administrator Li finished opening my eyes to that. Leaving then would however have probably meant my death on suspicions of disloyalty, so I played the game and stayed on. In a sense, I was happy to work on Zembelo’s staff, as I was thus able to avoid having to commit atrocities myself as part of our field troops.’’

‘’And what if you would have been selected for a combat unit? Would you have obeyed orders to kill unarmed civilians?’’ asked Winnie while staring at him. Henry lowered his head, answering in a soft voice.

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‘’I don’t know if I would have had the courage to refuse such orders, Winnie. You know what can happen to those who question orders, do you?’’ Winnie’s expression softened and she patted gently his shoulder.

‘’At least you answered me honestly, Henry. If you wanted to know about me, I can tell you that my present job is just that, a job that gives me a way to pay my bills and live in fair comfort. I am no Zembelo fan, far from it.’’

‘’And he never tried to abuse his position with you?’’

Henry realized at once that he had asked a wrong question when she turned her head away and hesitated.

‘’I’m sorry for having asked that, Winnie. I shouldn’t have. Please excuse me.’’

‘’No need to, Henry.’’ she said in a bitter tone. ‘’Zembelo has imposed himself on many successive secretaries already. I am only the latest of what he considers his personal trophies. Unfortunately, getting him angry can have far worse consequences than just losing my job. So, what were you planning to do tonight, Henry?’’ Mavutu eyed her for a moment in silence, then decided that he could trust her and took hold of her left hand.

‘’What I had in mind is to go to your place, to let you pack a suitcase, then to go ask for political asylum to the Spacers.’’

‘’You, an ISF major? What makes you think that the Spacers won’t kill you on sight?’’

‘’Normally they probably would, but I have a few aces up my sleeve. Trust me, Winnie.’’

13:27 (Universal Time) / 21:27 (Shanghai Time)

Hangar Deck, MSS KOSTROMA

Low Earth orbit

‘’What do we have here exactly, Bill?’’ asked Tina to her head of security the moment she entered the small craft hangar. Bill Morrison showed her a display screen which gave them a view of one of the craft airlocks. A green runabout bearing ISF markings sat in the airlock, which was now pressurized, with men in spacesuits apparently inspecting it carefully inside and out.

‘’One of our patrolling escort fighters intercepted that runabout as it was climbing to low Earth orbit while emitting messages on the distress frequency. Supposedly, we

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have a pair of defectors asking for political asylum. One of them is an ISF officer, the other a government secretary. My men are presently making sure that no lethal chemical agent or other nefarious item is aboard before letting it inside the hangar proper.’’

‘’An excellent precaution, Bill.’’ said Tina approvingly. ‘’An ISF officer and a secretary, you said? That sounds nearly like a loving couple on the run.’’ Morrison strangled a laugh at that and nodded his head.

‘’A few would think so, I suppose, Tina. However, that ISF officer better give us some very good reasons to treat him gently.’’

‘’Same for me here, Bill. Well, we will soon see.’’

After nine more minutes, the runabout was declared safe and was moved to the hangar. With four armed men backing him, Bill Morrison signaled to the pilot, a tall African man, to open his access hatch, which he did. Pistol in hand, Morrison shouted an order to the two occupants.

‘’ALRIGHT, COME OUT NOW WITH YOUR HANDS HIGH!’’ The man and woman, both Africans, cautiously came out, some fear visible on the face of the woman. They were immediately searched in detail, with Tina taking care of searching the woman.

‘’No weapons on them, Bill.’’ announced one of the security men, Lars Niström. ‘’They however have pieces of luggage inside the runabout.’’

‘’Then search those while I talk with those two, Lars.’’ replied Morrison before eyeing the African man.

‘’Who are you and why do you want to defect from the ISF?’’

‘’I am Major Henry Mavutu and I was up to now member of the military liaison team attached to the office of Grand Administrator Horace Zembelo, in Shanghai. My friend, Winnie Zuma, was Zembelo’s executive secretary. We want to defect because we disapproved of the recent policies and conduct of the ISF and of Zembelo.’’

‘’You realized that the same day the fortunes of the ISF abruptly changed? How convenient!’’

Mavutu frowned, realizing full well how flimsy his pretext could appear to be.

‘’Look, mister, I never did field combat duty with the ISF. I am a computer specialist by formation and have no taste for all that killing. However, in the ISF, you

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either follow orders and shut up or you get in trouble. I defected today because your successes gave me an opening to flee.’’

‘’And you, Miss Zuma?’’ asked Tina, who had up to now stayed in the background during the questioning. ‘’Why are you defecting?’’

‘’Because my job as executive secretary of Horace Zembelo was becoming more unbearable by the day and because Major Mavutu offered me an occasion to leave with him. For me, my job was just that, a job. Well-paying jobs are not common in Africa these days. However, Zembelo amply proved to me to be an abusive employer. The problem for me was that you don’t just quit on Horace Zembelo.’’

‘’I see!’’ said Tina, impassive. Somehow, she was tempted to believe Winnie Zuma’s story. More importantly, she must have had access to many classified documents that could interest he a lot.

‘’Did Zembelo let you see classified documents, miss?’’

‘’Of course! I was his executive secretary and handled all of his documents.’’

‘’Excellent! Would you be ready to discuss those documents with us?’’

‘’If you wish so, yes.’’

‘’Then, did you see anything about the production of a lethal chemical agent, Miss Zuma?’’

That made Mavutu’s head snap in surprise.

‘’You know about that? I was going to tell you about it…on a few conditions.’’ Tina stepped forward to get closer to Mavutu, while leaving her security men able to cover him with their weapons. She then spoke in a cold, hard voice.

‘’What conditions, Major? And what do you know about them?’’

‘’Uh, who are you, if I may ask?’’ said the African man, not wanting to give up his information to just anyone.

‘’My name is Tina Forster, captain and owner of the KOSTROMA. So, am I important enough for you now?’’

She was surprised to see a smile then appear on Mavutu’s face.

‘’Captain Forster, you have no idea how often Horace Zembelo or Marshal Khan cursed your name in terms quite pungent.’’

‘’Really?’’ said Tina, smiling in turn. ‘’I am flattered. So, what do you know about that lethal chemical agent?’’

‘’First, Captain Forster, I would like to negotiate what I and Winnie would get out of providing you such information.’’

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‘’How about this, Major: you give me enough to satisfy me and I promise to have you two dropped safely in any location of your choice on Earth, and to forget about you afterwards. You would however have to wait in cells while I verify your information.’’ Mavutu exchanged a look with Winnie, who nodded her head.

‘’That sounds reasonable, Henry.’’

‘’I think so too.’’ replied Mavutu before facing back Tina. ‘’That lethal agent is a 300 years old formula recently rediscovered by the ISF. It is extremely toxic and can act by breathing its vapors or by skin contact with droplets. It then kills within a minute by disrupting the messages sent via the nerves around the body. I don’t know its chemical formula but the ISF researchers said that the only counter-measure is an immediate injection of atropine. It is presently under production in a plant hidden inside an old mine complex near Lagos, in Nigeria. That plant is heavily guarded, though. I could pinpoint that location for you on a map.’’

‘’We will certainly do that later, mister. When was the ISF planning to use it?’’

‘’As soon as enough stocks would have been produced to be able to send infiltrators all around the Solar System. The latest estimates for that were about ten days from now. Over sixty tons of it has already been produced.’’

‘’Sixty tons!’’ exclaimed Tina, horrified. ‘’And how much of it is needed to kill a man?’’

‘’A simple droplet on the floor of a small room would create enough lethal vapor to kill everyone in that room, Captain Forster. One man with a thermos bottle full of that agent could kill everyone in a large ship or space habitat by pouring the content in the ventilation system.’’

Tina exchanged a worried look with Bill Morrison.

‘’If that’s true, then we will have to move fast.’’

‘’It is true, Captain.’’ assured Mavutu. ‘’That plan to use this chemical agent was part of the reasons for me to defect: I refuse to have any part in it.’’

‘’Very well, Mister Mavutu.’’ said gravely Tina, dropping ostensibly the ‘Major’ when addressing him. ‘’You show us the location of that secret plant and, if your info proves accurate, you and your friend will be free to go. What do you say to that?’’

‘’That it sounds like a fair deal, Captain.’’

Tina nodded her head, then took out her electronic notepad and opened on it a map of Africa, zooming it to the area of Lagos and showing it to Mavutu.

‘’Show me the location of that plant, mister.’’

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Mavutu obliged, using a pen to pinpoint a precise location on the map.

‘’It’s here, about twenty kilometers to the North-East of Lagos, on the eastern slopes of that hill. There is a small landing pad near the cave entrance of the plant.’’ Marking electronically that point, Tina pocketed back her notepad and glanced at Bill Morrison.

‘’Alright, Bill, you can lead them to cells. They will be treated politely and will eat standard ship food from the cafeteria while we check this info out. Let them have access to their luggage, so that they can change if they want to.’’

‘’Understood, Tina. Alright you two: follow me and no funny moves, or you will regret it.’’

Winnie Zuma gave a last anxious look at Tina as she was led away with her companion. Somehow, that look convinced Tina that she and Mavutu had said the truth.

14:46 (Universal Time)

Bridge of the MSS KOSTROMA

‘’From all our overhead imagery and sensors pictures, I would say that this is indeed an underground installation of importance, Tina.’’ said Patricia O’Neil, bent like Tina over a large electronic display table showing a detailed view from above of the old mine complex near Lagos. ‘’According to archival data, this mine complex ran dry of ore over sixty years ago, yet it is evidently in activity. Even more, security around it is very tight, something an old mine would not warrant. I can count the equivalent of a full ISF battalion guarding that hill and its accesses. The thermal signatures of the air ventilation shafts of the mine show that it is occupied and active, yet no ore cart or other mining equipment is visible, apart from that pile of rusting equipment half covered with vegetation on this side of the mine. If it is not a secret government plant or installation, then I don’t know what it is.’’

‘’Hum, with that kind of security around it, it would be near impossible to send a ground reconnaissance team there without risking heavy casualties. On the other hand, if we can believe that Mavutu, we don’t have much time left. It has to be destroyed, and quickly.’’

Bill Morrison, who had been asked by Tina to attend the meeting due to his security expertise, then spoke up.

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‘’But how? A ground assault, even with laser supporting fire from our ship, would be costly in men. Those ISF troopers would have a big advantage, defending from inside old mine tunnels. Our heavy lasers might be able to burn through that hill, but we would never be sure if we really destroyed what we wanted to hit. That leaves our ship heavy missiles but, again, there would be no way for us to know if they did the job right. Don’t forget that, once alerted, it would need only one ISF scientist to escape with the formula and samples of that chemical agent to perpetuate that nightmare. If we destroy that plant, then it must be destroyed completely and suddenly, so that none of the key personnel of that plant can escape.’’

‘’How about sealing all the exits of that mine complex with missile strikes and letting those bastards inside rot to hell.’’ suggested Patricia, making Tina think for a moment before shaking her head.

‘’A nice idea, if we were sure we knew where all the exits are. If they extensively modified that mine for their purpose, these bastards could as well have dug extra exit tunnels. With the jungle surrounding that hill, such exits would be very hard to find from up here. Right now, I can think of only one weapon which could do the work here. However, it is a weapon I do not want to use so close to a major city like Lagos. I am talking about one of the rock missiles of our battle station, MJOLNIR.’’ Patricia opened her mouth in shock while staring at Tina.

‘’But, such a strike would have the equivalent destructive power of a multi-megaton thermonuclear device, Tina. Millions would die in and around Lagos.’’

‘’I know, Patricia, and that is why I do not wish to use that weapon unless we absolutely have to. God, I never wanted to have to take these kind of decisions anyway.’’

‘’What about a repeat of what we did with the KOSTROMA over Adana and the Capetown base?’’ suggested Morrison, again making Tina shake her head.

‘’Remember that it took us a good hour to descend from orbit on both occasions. With radars operational in Lagos airport, the ISF would know we are coming down well before we could be in position, thus giving them time to evacuate their key personnel and, maybe, their stocks of chemical agent as well.’’

‘’Damn, you’re right about that!’’

‘’As much as I hate to say this, I must pass the buck to someone higher than me on this, my friends. I am not ready to be responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent civilians. Patricia, have our physicists calculate the effects of a rock missile

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strike from the MJOLNIR on that mine complex and its surrounding region. In the meantime, I will be preparing a message for the leaders of the Spacers League, to which I will attach our physicists’ findings. Let those politicians take these kinds of decisions: they are paid to do that, not me or anyone else on this ship.’’

‘’I certainly wouldn’t want to have that on my conscience, Tina.’’ agreed Patricia O’Neil.

19:18 (Universal Time)

Captain’s day cabin, Bridge Level

MSS KOSTROMA

Tina had taken to the habit of having a few short naps daily in her day cabin since Operation Stonehenge had started. With the multitudes of sudden decisions to take and tasks to complete, she had not had a true night of sleep in days and needed those naps to be able to keep on. In that she was no different from many past admirals and generals in human history who had to deal with the stress and exhaustion of war. This time, she was shaken awake by Patricia O’Neil, instead of being awakened by her alarm clock.

‘’Tina…Tina…wake up!’’

‘’Uh?’’ said groggily Tina before rubbing her eyes and looking at her clock. She had been able to sleep for thirty-five minutes this time.

‘’What is it, Patricia?’’

‘’A response from the Spacers League Council came back about the strike on that mine near Lagos: the word is that a rock missile strike has been authorized. The MJOLNIR is now moving onto a new orbit to effect that strike.’’ Waking up fully at those words, Tina swung her legs out of her bed and sat on its edge to put on her boots.

‘’When will the MJOLNIR be in position?’’

‘’In about twenty minutes.’’

‘’Very well. I will grab a coffee and then join you guys on the bridge.’’

With her boots now on, Tina got up and went to her mirror, combing back her hair into something approaching presentable before leaving her day cabin. She went first next door to the bridge crew lounge, a small room where snack food and beverages

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were available 24 hours a day, and poured herself a cup of coffee. She put a safety lid on her cup before walking out of the lounge and on the bridge: spilling hot coffee on an electronic display panel would not do. She joined Patricia O’Neil, Dana Durning, Frida Skarsgard and Bill Morrison around the same display table still showing the mining complex near Lagos. This time, though, the view had been zoomed out to show the region up to fifty kilometers around the mine, which included Lagos and its port.

‘’Remind me again of the expected effects of the strike, Dana.’’ Dana consulted a printout taken out of one pocket and put a small red circle on top of the mine location, speaking in as neutral a voice as she could.

‘’Even with cutting its terminal speed by limiting the burn time of its fusion drive, our rock missile’s impact will be nothing short of cataclysmic. This first red circle shows the expected 1,500 meter-diameter of the crater which will be formed by the impact. That crater will be at least 200-meter-deep and, if the strike is accurate, will ensure that no part of the mine complex could possibly survive. The kinetic energy of the impact will be equivalent to close to sixteen megatons of explosive power, enough to utterly destroy everything around in a radius of at least ten kilometers. By utterly destroyed, I mean vaporized or incinerated instantly to cinder, then blasted away by the shockwave from the impact. Very severe damage to structures will result from both blast and thermal radiation in a much wider area, accompanied by an earthquake of at least eight in magnitude on the Richter Scale. I am sorry to say this, Tina, but Lagos will be wiped out completely.’’

‘’How…how many people are there in the Lagos area?’’

It was Dana’s turn to hesitate before answering in a weak voice.

‘’The last census put the population of Metropolitan Lagos at 26 million people. It is actually the fifth most populated city on Earth.’’

Tina closed her eyes and cringed on hearing that number, while she clenched her fists as well on top of the display table.

‘’Twenty-six million people… So, that’s the price to safeguard our own people from that chemical agent threat.’’

Bill Morrison put one hand on top of her right hand.

‘’I am sure that our leaders didn’t take that decision lightly, Tina, but this is war, war against an enemy with no scruples.’’

‘’It still doesn’t make it right, Bill. Necessary? Yes! Right? No!’’

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Despite her feelings, Tina stayed on the bridge until the time of the strike, then watched on as MJOLNIR fired away a two million tons rock missile straight down towards the Lagos area. As captain of the KOSTROMA, Tina could not ask her crewmembers to watch this while herself retreating back to her cabin. She felt increasingly sick to her stomach as the one hundred meter-diameter rock, pushed by its fusion drive to a terminal velocity of more than four kilometers per second, burned through the atmosphere in an awesome column of blinding light and fire. Being hypersonic, the missile could not be heard in advance of its impact by the inhabitants of the Lagos area, who only had the visual spectacle of its fiery dive as a clue of what was to come. Very few people realized what was going to happen to them before the rock impacted its intended target, utterly vaporizing it all, hill, mine and chemical agent stocks alike. A huge fireball many kilometers in diameter then rose in the sky, as thermal radiation and supersonic blast wave destroyed everything around, followed by an earthquake which completed the destruction. The fireball, followed many minutes later by the mighty roar of the blast, was visible for hundreds of kilometers around Lagos, with tens of millions of spectators to the drama.

Nobody spoke on the bridge for long minutes, all eyes being on the displays showing the rising fireball and the zone around its base. Tina knew that she would never be the same person after this. She may not have done the strike herself, but she had suggested it, then let someone else take the decision. Technically, she had done things by the book, referring to those with the proper authority to decide. Being technically right was however little balm on her conscience.

‘’Bill, you may now let go free our two defectors. Let them have their runabout but paint over the ISF markings first and give it a civilian registry number.’’ Morrison, struck as hard as her, nodded his head and left the bridge at a tired step. Frida Skarsgard looked at Tina’s face, pale and drawn, and spoke softly.

‘’What are our orders now, Captain?’’

‘’The curfew imposed by the ISF will soon take effect in Western Europe. Let’s move to the vertical of Paris to be ready to harass the ISF patrols and convoys there with our laser batteries. This war is not over yet, by a long shot.’’

While Tina never accepted that fact afterwards, the strike on the Lagos area dealt a death blow to ISF morale and triggered a wave of desertions, especially among

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the ISF support personnel still inside the ISF bases dispersed around the Earth. Facing numerous resistance forces which were being armed by Spacers deliveries of weapons, and with its field forces under murderous harassing laser fire coming from orbit, the ISF started losing ground over the territories it had invaded. Its past excesses however ensured that the ISF troopers who tried to surrender got no mercy from their vengeful Terran compatriots. When the remnants of the field forces retreated to their original garrisons and bases, it was only to face destruction at the hands of the KOSTROMA or one of the other four Spacer battleships. Horace Zembelo, who fled Shanghai to go find refuge in one of his residences in Africa, was killed a week later by a dispirited bodyguard who had lost his family in the Lagos strike. His few remaining supporters, including the surviving ISF generals, then got the message and started disappearing with their ill-gained fortunes, using their money to adopt new identities for themselves, while abandoning without a second thought their subalterns to their fate. Most however were going to be hunted down, found and executed within a year. By the end of April of the year 2316, the Spacers and their Terran allies could claim victory at long last.