Adapt and Overcome (The Maxwell Saga) (13 page)

Steve
swallowed hard. He now officially bore sole and full responsibility for the results of his plan. He’d get the credit for it if it worked… and the blame if it failed.

“Outpost One-One to Rolla Six, thank you, Sir.
I’ll do my best. Stand by.” He took a deep breath. “Break. Outpost One-One to Orbcon, did you copy that? Over.”

“
Orbcon to Outpost One-One, copied, Sir. Awaiting your orders. Over.”

“Outpost One-One to
Orbcon. You are to refrain from any action unless and until I authorize it. Do not communicate with anybody, I say again,
anybody
about the presence of Task Force Maxwell or our intentions unless and until I authorize you to do so. Record all activity around the pirate ship and
Mauritania.
Form armed boarding parties of service personnel or Transit Police from the Elevator Terminal, including medical and evacuation teams. Have them standing by aboard whatever small craft are available, but do not launch them until I order you to do so. Once we’ve disabled the pirate ship, they’ll assist with neutralizing her crew and the pirates aboard
Mauritania
, under the tactical command of myself or Captain Shelby. Acknowledge. Over.”

Orbcon
rapidly read back his orders.

“Outpost One-One to
Orbcon, very good. Stand by. Break. Brooks, did you get all that?”

“Got it, Steve. What next?”

“Brooks, Warrant Officer
Labuschagne, please have your people replace their exercise gear with live ammo and equipment from the ready reserve aboard each shuttle, and activate and load your shuttle’s plasma cannon with a full twenty-round cartridge. Set your weapons console to accept a firing plan for the cannon from this shuttle. We’re about to commence a storm climb. Conform to my movements. Acknowledge. Over.”

Brooks and
Labuschagne read back his orders briskly. Steve acknowledged their responses, tapped at his console, then turned to Sergeant Higgs.

“Pilot, I’ve transmitted the enemy bearing, altitude and range to your console. Take us up at full blast, transition from reaction thrusters to
gravitic drive as soon as the atmosphere’s thin enough to permit it, then level off just below the pirates’ orbital level and close on them. Adjust your course and speed as required so that we get there as fast as possible, arriving ten to fifteen clicks below and directly astern of them at a relative closing speed of four to five hundred kph. Got it?”

“Aye
aye, Sir! Passengers, brace for storm climb!”

She gave everyone a brief moment to grab hold of something to steady themselves,
then pulled back on the sidestick. The shuttle nosed upward into a vertical climb, the roar of its reaction thrusters redoubling into a scream of raw power.

Steve checked the electronic warfare systems. The pre-exercise program he’d instructed them to follow would serve well enough to get them close to the pirates. It was functioning as intended, and the tight-beam dish he’d aimed at
Mauritania
was showing a green light. He patched the tight-beam conversations into a single circuit so that Brooks could participate.

“
Mauritania,
this is Senior Lieutenant Maxwell of the Lancastrian Commonwealth Fleet, calling on tight-beam. I’m commanding Task Force Maxwell, and my callsign is Outpost One-One. The pirates can’t intercept this transmission. Put your senior officer on this circuit. Over.”

A pause, then, “Outpost One-One, this is Captain Packer, Commanding Officer of
Mauritania
. Go ahead. Over.” His voice was much stronger and more resolute than the one that had first responded from the liner.

“Outpost One-One to Captain Packer.
I’m on my way to orbit with three assault shuttles full of Marines and Rolla NCO’s. We’re going to neutralize that pirate ship, then send a boarding party over to you. Can you restrict the pirate boarders to your docking bay and engineering spaces, and seal them off from the passenger and crew areas? If possible, evacuate all your engineering personnel before they board, and transfer control of all engineering systems to the bridge – lock them out of the master engineering console altogether. If the pirates are stuck in your engineering spaces, our assault team can come in behind them and deal with them without endangering your passengers. Over.”

“Packer to Outpost One-One
, that’s great news! We’ll do it.” The relief in his voice was almost palpable. “Our docking bay is located abaft our engineering spaces, so that’ll work just fine. Do your Marines need help with the layout of the ship? Over.”

“Take it, Brooks, over,” Steve replied briefly.

Brooks’ voice crackled over the circuit. “Captain Packer, this is Captain Brooks Shelby, Marine Corps, callsign Outpost Six. If you can send us a schematic of your docking bay and engineering spaces, that would help tremendously. Also, I presume you have security vidcams covering those areas. Please keep track of the pirates from your bridge, and let me know where they are when I board you, so I can direct my Marines accordingly. You’re a Commonwealth ship, so I presume you use standard suit radio frequencies? Over.”

“Captain Packer to Outpost Six.
Yes, we do. I suggest Channel 147 for communication. It’s high enough on the spectrum that the pirates aren’t likely to be using or monitoring it. Over.”

“Outpost Six to Packer, agreed. Maintain radio silence on all frequencies until I tell you otherwise. Meanwhile, I’ll train my own tight-beam on your ship so I can talk to you directly, rather than through Lieutenant Maxwell’s shuttle. As soon as my circuit is active, please send your schematic. We’ll be with you in ten to fifteen minutes. Don’t be alarmed if we hammer the two pirate small craft on our way in. I don’t want to leave them an avenue for escape.
Over.”

“Packer to Outpost Six, understood. Please try to minimize damage to this vessel, as best you can. Evacuation of our engineering spaces has begun. We’ll seal them off as soon as everyone’s out. I’m standing by for your tight-beam.
Over.”

“Outpost Six to Packer, thank you, Sir. Break. Steve, what now?
Over.”

“Outpost One-One to Outpost Six and Captain Packer.
Do not, I say again,
do not
communicate anything over a non-tight-beam radio frequency about this. I don’t want the pirates overhearing anything. Also, I don’t know what might happen when we hit the pirate vessel. I’ll try to avoid her reactor compartment, but if her fusion reactor lets go, the blast will render the radio spectrum unusable for a while. If that happens, all shuttles are to dock with
Mauritania
to deal with the pirates aboard her. All stations, monitor this circuit and stand by for further orders.”

As he bent to his console once more,
Abha said quietly, “Sir, would you like to have a few words with our Marines and Rolla personnel?”

“Good idea, thanks.” He smiled at her, seeing the answering warmth in her eyes,
then twisted around to look at the load compartment. As he did so the scream of the reaction thrusters died away, to be replaced by the high-pitched whine of the gravitic drive unit. The shuttle’s acceleration ratcheted upward, its inertial compensator keeping those aboard from being squashed flat against the bulkheads. He knew they’d be up to their target within minutes, now that the planet’s thick atmosphere no longer held back the shuttle.

The Marines and NCO’s were holding beam rifles in their hands, stocks planted firmly on the deck. The training projectors had been removed from their muzzles, and he knew they were now fully charged with live beam generation and power packs. Gunnery Sergeant Bradshaw, the senior NCO aboard, caught his eye, grinned savagely, and held one thumb up. “We heard what you said, Sir. We’re ready!”

“Good. We’re going to board that pirate ship after we’ve shot her up, while the other two shuttles head for
Mauritania
to take care of the pirate boarding parties. You’ll have a nest of pirates to smoke out, but I think many of the survivors are going to be too busy trying to stay alive to worry about fighting you. Lieutenant Sashna will lead the assault as soon as we dock. Their hull’s going to have a lot of holes open to space, so don’t expect to find much internal atmosphere. In fact, to save time, don’t bother using their airlock at all – just blast it open with your beam rifles. First order of business is to secure their engineering spaces, so I can shut down their power if it’s not already off, and make sure they can’t switch it on again. After that we’ll wait for reinforcements from the Terminal, then sweep forward to check the rest of the ship and arrest the survivors. When we’ve secured the ship, I’ll send at least some of you over to
Mauritania
as soon as possible to assist Captain Shelby. Any questions?”

Bradshaw replied, “I like your plan, Sir. It’s short, sweet and simple.
D’you want prisoners?”

“Only if you can take them without risk to yourselves.
Remember, there are only sixteen of us, and probably a lot more of them. If they try to argue, or other factors make it too dangerous to give them a chance, don’t bother!” Hard chuckles from the Marines.

“Aye aye, Sir.
Just one concern, Sir. I heard what you said about what might happen if the pirate’s reactor lets go. What’ll that do to us if we’re coming in beneath her, Sir?”

Steve grinned. “Don’t worry, Gunnery Sergeant. I’ll stay ten to fifteen clicks below her, far enough away that our armor will protect us from the radiation. I don’t want to glow in the dark any more than you do!”
More laughter.

“That’s a relief, Sir – although you might look quite good, er, glowing in the dark, I mean, Sir!” That brought the biggest laugh of all. Even Steve had to join in.

“Gunny, you’re a menace! Anyway, one more point. Lieutenant, I want two Marines assigned to me, please. You’ll be busy fighting any surviving pirates, but I’ll have to move independently to secure vital equipment. I’m not in armor, although I’ll take a bead carbine from the shuttle before I board. I’ll need those two to keep me alive, if necessary, and keep pirates off my back while I’m doing my job.”

“Aye aye, Sir.
Gunnery Sergeant, assign two of the roughest, toughest, nastiest people you’ve got to escort the Senior Lieutenant. If they let anything happen to him, they’d better pray the pirates get to them before I do!”

“Aye aye, Ma’am!”

“Thanks,” Steve acknowledged. “All personnel, seal helmets if you haven’t already done so, and activate the team radio channel.”

He reached for his plasglass-visored helmet, pulled it over his head and locked it onto the spacesuit’s hard mounting ring around his neck. It sealed automatically, and he heard a faint hiss of air as the suit pressurized around him. Reflected in the mirror above him, he could see the visorless battle helmets of the armored Marines and Rolla NCO’s, row upon row of sensors giving them far better vision and hearing through the helmets’ neural interface than they’d have had with their eyes and ears alone.

As Abha and Gunnery Sergeant Bradshaw began to issue orders to their squads over the team channel, Steve turned back to his console. The OrbCon radar traffic display showed the two dots of the pirates’ small craft as they approached
Mauritania
, their echoes merging with the larger one of the liner. Hopefully Captain Packer would have had enough time to get his engineering staff out of their work spaces, and seal all access routes from the docking bay to the passenger areas of the ship, before they docked. It would take the pirate boarders a while to realize they’d been locked out. By the time they did, he’d be pounding hell out of their mother ship.

Sergeant Higgs adjusted her controls as they approached the orbital altitude of their targets. Their upward rush diminished as she added forward motion to their vector. They began to close swiftly on the pirate ship, which had slowed to match its orbital velocity with
Mauritania
. Without having to be told, she checked their relative motion, and cut back the drive.

Steve silently blessed Higgs’ competence and expertise as he broke the seal on a locker at his side, opened it and withdrew a cartridge of deuterium-tritium pellets. He released his harness and stood up, bracing himself against the seat. Opening the loading mechanism of the plasma cannon, he inserted the cartridge into the magazine and locked it in place, then pressed the activation button. The cannon whined gently as it went through a brief, automated self-test routine, then a light appeared on his console, showing that it was in ‘Ready’ status.

He sat down and tapped commands into the weapons console, removing the software lock on the weapon and issuing target instructions. Above him the barbette whined gently, rising from the hull, turning and settling onto the bearing of the pirate ship, the cannon elevating to track it. At present it was doing so by the vessel’s drive signature, following it passively, not using active radar to target it. That would come only in the last seconds before firing, so as not to give away their presence too soon.

He pulled up a schematic of a typical tramp cargo vessel, selecting points to target along its length. He paid particular attention to its engineering, control and crew compartments beneath the spine, but tried to avoid the reactor and docking bay. He gave the artificial intelligence targeting system a priority override instruction to automatically engage anything that looked like a laser cannon turret, giving them precedence over his aiming points. If the turrets were mounted in the holds, as the pirate had announced, they’d have to protrude from the sides or bottom of the hull. That should put all of them in line-of-sight of at least one shuttle as they came in below the ship.

Satisfied, he divided the fire plan into three equal concentrations of fire running from bow to stern, then transmitted one to each of the other two shuttles. Even if one shuttle were knocked out by the enemy’s weapons, he reckoned the other two could put out enough firepower to get the job done. He checked to ensure that each shuttle’s fire control system had acknowledged receipt of the fire plan over the tight-beam circuit, then locked them in and set them to automatic. The console blinked acknowledgment of his programming. It awaited only radar verification of the target’s range and relative motion to begin the firing sequence.

He glanced at the plot display. They were fast closing in on their target, and decelerating
so as not to zoom past too fast to fire accurately. He felt as if a thin, hot wire was threading itself through his stomach as he looked at the range figures. Their stealth systems were very good, but they only made the shuttles
harder
to detect – not impossible. The closer they got, the greater the likelihood that a pirate sensor would spot them. If only they could get within range first… He forced his thoughts back to the tactical situation, and toggled the tight-beam circuit.

“Outpost One-One to Outpost Six and Captain Packer, we’re about three minutes from showtime. Captain Packer, what’s happening aboard
Mauritania
? Over.”

“Packer to Outpost One-One.
The pirates have just docked, and they’re coming through our airlock. About half are wearing spacesuits, the rest any old thing. They’re a scruffy lot. They appear to be carrying only light projectile weapons. I’ve evacuated our docking bay and engineering spaces, disabled our gravitic drive under master override from the bridge, and locked down the airtight doors in the collision bulkheads leading to the passenger and crew compartments. The pirates’ weapons won’t be able to shoot through them, and they won’t be able to move the ship. Over.”

“Outpost One-One to Packer, well done!
Break. Brooks, take care of yourself. I’ll see you when the shooting stops. Over.”

“Brooks to Steve.
Thanks, buddy, and keep your head down. Remember you’re not wearing armor. Over.”

Steve took a deep breath and activated all four tight-beam links.
“Outpost One-One to all stations on circuit. Stand by for action. Outpost One-One out.”