Shadow Core - The Legacy (29 page)

“Crud. The council is gonna chew my backside out for a week when they find out about this,” Drake said with concern in his voice.

Static, Nexus and Toby were keeping an eye on the situation in the tactical virtual environment. Toby and Nexus were standing either side of Static, each with a multitude of virtual displays swarming around them as he manned his console.

“What?” Nexus asked as she looked at Static.

“Hmm?” Static said, turning to face her.

“Did one of you just say something?” Nexus asked.

“No, why?” Toby asked.

“There it is again, what is that?” Nexus asked with a confused look as she cycled through all of the information displays around her, frantically searching for something.

Concerned, Static asked, “Nexus, are you OK?”

“There...” Nexus said as she found the information she had been looking for. The display before her showing a garbled data stream which was being received from the GAIA communications network. It was a simple voice message, broken up and distorted by interference.

Nexus placed both of her palms on top of the screen and began reconstructing the severely degraded message, the encoded raw data quickly moving across the display as she reconstituted the recognisable audio into a text message on Static's screen; leaving Toby and Static slack-jawed at the contents.

“Leave... system immediately... in danger. Fleet... priming... Fusion... planet crackers. Leave the system...” the message read as it repeated over and over again.

“Toby, the ship needs to leave, right now!” Static said in a near panic at the thought that the Union could actually be reckless enough to use such weapons in their own backyard.

“The Vortex drive is still recharging. We used too much energy when we phased the ship before. It will be at least another 10 minutes before it can leave. And that's only if we don't fire again,” Toby said.

“Dammit all! We save their outpost and they try to kill us for the effort. That's some gratitude! We need to buy some time, but how can we keep them from firing those missiles...” Static was saying and then he stopped in his tracks with a mischievous grin as an idea was born in his mind.

“I know that look. That's not a good look!” Toby said, seriously concerned at Static's expression.

“Do we have enough energy to perform a combat Jump?” Static asked Toby and smiled.

“Yes... Why?” Toby said.

“You'll see. Nex!” Static said and then reached out his hand, which Nexus grabbed without hesitation in order to receive the details of his plan directly into her mind.

Nexus smiled and laughed as she received the details. “You're insane, you know that right?”

“It has crossed my mind on occasion.” Static grinned, taking it as a compliment.

“OK... Jude I'm switching us to a private channel, I need your help with something,” Nexus said and then disappeared from the virtual environment.

“OK,” Jude replied and then started smiling as Nexus explained the plan.

Concerned, Drake asked, “Static, what the hell are you planning?”

“I'm planning to stop those idiots from doing something everyone in this system will regret later on, to buy us some time to recharge our engines and to get some answers while I'm at it. And all it will take is one tactical jump and a bit of thinking outside the box.” Static smiled.

“Really?” Toby asked. “All of that from one Jump? I just know I'm going to regret asking this but where, exactly, am I jumping the ship to?”

“Right here,” Static said as he highlighted the destination co-ordinates on the system map. Causing Toby to just stand there with his mouth wide open in an almost catatonic state, as Drake was laughing himself silly with such intensity that his sides were actually starting to hurt.

Still in shock, Toby said, “Dear lord! Nexus is right! You have lost your mind!!”

“Trust me!” Static said, not really putting Toby's mind at ease as Drake laughed uncontrollably.

Back in the bridge of the Zenith, Kade was wondering why it seemed like Drake was about to give himself a heart attack from laughing while her sister was also looking a little bit too happy for comfort.  

Kade's Core only allowed her to perform basic information exchange with the Zenith. So while she could hear Static and Toby talking, unlike Drake she could not actually see what was happening inside the virtual environment. Then again, from Drake's reaction maybe it was better this way.

It was clear to Kade that something was about to happen, something had changed which she was not aware of. Maybe it had something to do with why the fleet had stopped their approach and were now maintaining their relative position.

Drake had finally managed to regain control of himself and had not spoken out against whatever it was that Static was planning. He had seemingly embraced whatever crazy idea Static had dreamed up and was working away at his interface with a smile that Kade found more than a little disconcerting.

Zen was sitting down next to Kade, with her head resting against Kade's left shoulder. Her small body sleeping as her mind focused on helping out with the micro-management of the Zenith's systems.

Kade couldn't help but run her hand through Zen's purple hair, which felt just like the real thing. Smiling as she looked at her peaceful expression and accepted that there was more to being alive than she had ever considered. That it was not a privilege reserved exclusively for organic beings.

Meanwhile, back in the Regent...

The fleet was ready to launch its nuclear warheads and the tension was rising rapidly as the launch countdown approached zero.

The countdown was down to 10 seconds when the Zenith suddenly vanished from sensors, only to reappear directly in front of the Regent; scaring the living daylights out of the Regent's bridge crew and anyone else who just happened to be looking out of a window at the time.

The noses of the two ships were no more than 50 metres apart.

The Admiral knew that this was how the second fleet had been destroyed. The enemy had the ability to perform short range tactical jumps. A feat that the Union had tried to replicate countless times without success, not to mention some rather severe consequences.

The Regent's crew was staring down the barrel of the Zenith's main gun. Their fate all but certain now.

The Attack

The Admiral rose from his seat and stared at the display with a defiant look in his eyes. He had known from the beginning that this would be the likely outcome should the plan fail.   

He had seen the logs from the survivors of the Second Fleet Massacre and he knew how the Zenith had defeated an entire fleet. The Zenith would perform a short range tactical Burst to point blank range and then fire its main gun, ripping anything in its path to shreds and often taking out multiple ships with one shot. It was a truly deranged tactic against which there was no counter. It was impossible to avoid the blast and by the time the fleet could get a weapons lock another ship had already been lost. The process repeating over and over until there was nothing but ashes in the void. This was how the Second Fleet had been lost to just one enemy combatant and this was how the Admiral knew his life was about to end, with history repeating itself.

The Admiral raised his head defiantly, the countdown for launch still ticking away in the background. He knew the fleet was too close together for any ships to survive what was about to happen and there was no time to evacuate.

It seemed fitting somehow, that the First Forward Fleet was about to share in the fate of the Second Fleet, in the same area of space which had claimed it almost 100 years before. But this time the enemy was going down with them.

The countdown hit zero and the crew of the Regent readied itself for the end... but nothing happened. Not only had the nuclear warheads not launched, but ship systems throughout the fleet had begun inexplicably failing one after another.

The Admiral looked around the room as the lights flickered on and off and the crew struggled with unresponsive consoles.  

“What's happening? Have the warheads been launched?” The Admiral demanded to know.

“No Sir. The Fleet is in complete disarray. We're getting reports of wide spread malfunctions on every ship. All fire control systems appear to have been taken off-line somehow and... now we appear to have just lost our link to the other ships Sir,” Ashlyn reported.

“The enemy is hacking our systems? That's not supposed to be possible. And how can it be hitting every ship in the fleet simultaneously?” The Captain asked with a pensive expression as he calmly tried to understand the situation.   

“Sir! Engineering reports that all of the remote access points on the ship's network have been forcibly activated. The enemy is tapping directly into our control systems,” Ashlyn reported.

“One enemy ship can do all of this? How?” The Captain asked with a stunned expression.

Meanwhile, on board the Zenith...

Jude said enthusiastically, “Well I'll be damned, it actually worked!”

“Am I the only one that's in the dark here?” Kade asked as she looked at Drake's satisfied grin.

“I have just created the first ever, remote capital ship systems breaker! Hell yes!!” Jude shouted with her hands in the air. “Just don't tell the Union or I'll spend the rest of my life in jail.” She smiled.

“You did what?” Kade asked with an incredulous expression. “Is that even possible?”

“If you'd asked me that an hour ago I would have said no. But this Core is great! I can process information in my mind a hundred times faster than by using my engineering console on the Icarus. I managed to up-scale the operating principles of my system breakers to make use of the Zenith's advanced sensor arrays. In short, I gave the Zenith the ability to hack into an enemy ship's closed networks,” Jude said, positively beaming with pride.

“So...” Kade started to say as she chuckled. “This entire manoeuvre was designed around the assumed success of Jude's untested up-scaled design?” She laughed. “That's insane! No offence sis.”

“None taken, I agree,” Jude said.    

Drake said confidently, “Jude managed to hack into the Zenith with her breakers and that's no small feat I assure you. The principle was sound.”

“Still insane. Just what would we have done if it hadn't worked?” Kade asked.

“Same thing we would have done if we hadn't tried. Died a rather painful death,” Drake replied.

Shocked, Kade said, “What! What do you mean? Did I miss something?”

“I'm a bit lost as well, Nexus didn't really tell me why we were doing this,” Jude said.

“Oh! Yes... that, it... it's not important,” Drake said, having forgotten the sisters hadn't been aware of the impending nuclear strike.

“Sounds important!” Kade said.

“No... we just, huh... needed to... reduce the enemies offensive capabilities... yes, that's it!” Drake said, though Kade looked thoroughly unconvinced.  

Jude's custom designed system breaker technology had been used with the Zenith's advanced sensor arrays in order to give the ship the technological advantage which all military forces had been drooling over since computers were first invented: the ability to remotely disable enemy ships. But the breaker had merely opened the doors, it was Nexus who was walking through them and doing the real work.  

Nexus was steadily working her way through every ship in the fleet. Taking all offensive systems off-line and keeping them that way.

The effective hacking range was limited, but the fleet's tight formation ensured that every enemy was in range. The only real issue was the sheer number of ships, as this was taking Nexus to her limit. She could keep the fleet from taking direct offensive action but there were just too many ships to deal with in order to keep them all permanently subdued.  

“Nuclear warheads disabled!” Nexus said, not having been paying attention to the conversation. This causing Kade and Jude to go almost completely pale at the revelation of what they had just avoided.  

Kade said calmly, “Tell me I didn't just hear that.”

“OK. You didn't just hear that,” Drake replied without shifting his focus from his console.

“Not funny Drake! They were gonna nuke us?” Kade asked in shock at the revelation.

“Fusion or fission?” Jude asked.

“What difference does it bloody make?”

“About 10 million credits per warhead... but that's not what you meant is it?” Jude smiled.

“Not really, no,” Kade said.

“Apparently, they were planet crackers,” Drake said without a hint of distress in his voice.

“Wow... those things aren't cheap. They're like a billion a pop. They seriously don't like us,” Jude said.

“I thought they were illegal. How did we even know they were carrying them, let alone that they were gonna fire them at us?” Kade asked.

“They're not technically illegal, though it's a bit of a grey area. The Union does not ban their production; they ban their use within allied territories. As to how we found out about it, we received a warning and acted on it,” Drake said.

“A warning? From whom? You have spies in the fleet?” Kade asked.

“No... at least not that I'm aware of. We don't know who issued the warning yet. We'll look into it later, once the Union's no longer trying to kill us.”

“OK, better question: why jump in front of the fleet? If we had the ability to perform tactical jumps all along why not just leave?” Kade asked.

“Tactical jumps, much like the phase out, use up a considerable amount of the ship's energy reserves and replenishing the reserves takes time. We only had enough energy for one jump and that wouldn't have gained us enough distance. So in short, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” Drake grinned mischievously.

Jude said excitedly, “That phase out was surreal! How did we do that anyway?” She had never heard of any ship with such an ability before.

“That's a bit harder to explain, it's a... hmm. I suppose the best way to describe it would be that it's a 'side-effect' of our Vortex drive. You are free to look up the specifications for the thing later on,” Drake said, making Jude positively giddy with anticipation.