The Inception: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 1 (11 page)

Danion, the Nemesis’ AI, responds with “aye sir”. Then they are out of
the cargo bay and bound for the Emperor’s palace.

The trip takes less than 10 minutes and the Nemesis makes an ‘impact
landing’, which is sudden, but is softened by the fertile ground of the
garden. In less than 30 seconds after impact, Lieutenant Bartons and her
squad are out the hatchway, and are assaulting the palace. Security
Guards for the Emperor are quickly dispatched, as the assassination squad heads
for the exterior staircase, which leads to the upstairs bedroom where the
Emperor is currently located.

In the meantime, Lieutenant Kanes has a squad of soldiers form a
perimeter around the area, while Danion repositions the Nemesis for a rapid
extraction. Lt. Kanes sends another squad inside the palace, to control
all entrances and exits on the ground floor.

Lt. Bartons’ squad reaches the locked bedroom door and blows it open with
a demolition charge. The squad rushes in, to find that the Emperor has
fled - presumably, via an emergency elevator.

Lt. Bartons notifies Lt. Kanes that the Emperor has escaped, and asks for
instructions. Often, if the assassination attempt doesn’t go according to
plan, the mission is aborted. In this cast, Lt. Kanes orders a search.

Lt. Bartons orders 4 soldiers to search the entire floor, and takes the
remaining 5 soldiers with her, down the elevator shaft. They jump/climb
down the shaft, in seconds and arrive at the empty elevator ‘car’. There
is an access hole in the top of the car, but it is too small for
augmented humans in battle armor to fit through, so they tear the top off, with
their hands, using the ‘power assist’ from their body armor.

They are out of the elevator car in seconds, and are standing in a
hallway, which leads in two directions. Lt. Barton splits the force, with
half going in each direction.

Lt. Bartons activates her enhanced hearing, and picks up voices behind
the doors at the end of the hallway. She throws a compression grenade
against the doorway, as she is running, towards it. The compression
grenade explodes, with pressure rather than shrapnel. The doors are ajar,
from the explosion, and Lt. Bartons opens them fully, by hurtling her body
against them.

She and her soldiers arrive just in time to see a secret door slide into
place. All three soldiers open fire, with lasers, and projectiles.
The door shatters from the assault, and the soldiers rush into the hidden
room.

There stand the Emperor, and his family. Lt Bartons has to make a
decision. The simplest thing to do would be to kill them all.
Leaving an heir to the throne alive could enable the Empire to continue.

Lt. Bartons makes her decision, and orders her soldiers to take the wife
and children upstairs, to the ground floor. After they are gone, Lt.
Bartons quietly and succinctly kills the Emperor. She then severs his
head, in order to be absolutely certain that he is dead.

Next, she follows the other soldiers, and heads for the ground floor. As
she is running, she notifies Lt. Kanes that the Emperor is dead, and that she
is bringing his family. She communicates with the rest of her squad, in
the upstairs bedroom, and orders them to return to the Nemesis.

A lot of time has elapsed, between the landing, and the time Lt. Bartons
arrives at the Nemesis. Ground and air units have surrounded the area,
and are assaulting their position.

Everyone loads into the Nemesis. Lt. Kanes calls Captain Guilles,
and tells her that they are ready for extraction. Captain Guilles has
kept current with events on the ground, and has a plan in place. The next
step in the plan is to unleash barrages of conventional explosives, all around
the Nemesis.

“Fire,” she says, and the missiles are launched. Next, she
needs to neutralize the air forces and anti-aircraft missiles, which are
arrayed against the Nemesis. For this part of the mission, one of the starships
is going to dip low, into the atmosphere, and will use the ship’s AI to target
everything that is in the air, other than the Nemesis.

There is some danger inherent, in this tactic - the starship could be
damaged, or destroyed. But in this business everything is risky.
“Freedom! Dive,” she says. And then to the Nemesis, “Danion, help
is on the way. Launch in 52 seconds from my mark… …….now! And don’t
shoot the Freedom by accident.”

“Aye sir,” replies Danion. “I’ll be careful.”

Then everyone holds their breath, until the Nemesis is airborne, and up
through the atmosphere. There is some threat from Zarnx Space Defense
forces, but most of their starships are in the Rison System. The Reliance
‘has their backs’, and is holding the local space defensive systems at
bay.

After the Nemesis docks in the Liberty, and after the Freedom returns
from its dive-strafing adventure, the three warships head for deep
space. When they are past the inner planets, they engage their FTL
drives and head for home – actually they don’t have a home - they head for the
Integrity.

The ships are programmed to emerge well outside of the Rison System,
because there may be a battle going on, and they don’t want to emerge in the
middle of it.

***

The Rison System

Admiral Nemo contacts Admiral Nardan and alerts him, about the impending
attack. Captain Nemo explains that he has privileged information, and
expects that the Zarnx fleet will arrive, momentarily. He explains that
the purpose, of the ‘practice exercises’ was to get the Rison Fleet in
position, for battle.

The Rison Admiral is not happy at being left out of the loop, but
understands the need for secrecy. He is also 100% sure that there are
Zarnx spies in the Rison Navy and government. His question is: “What next?”

Admiral Nemo suggests that he order his fleet to Battle Stations, and
then to direct all ships to immediately begin firing, when the emergence of
vessels is first detected. A significant number of enemy ships can be
damaged or destroyed, as they are emerging. It will be ‘a piece of cake’,
for the first part of the battle.

And right on cue, as soon as the Rison Navy is ready to fire, the Zarnx
Fleet begins to emerge. They are met by a massive barrage of weapons
fire, from the Rison Navy, targeting the emerging enemy ships. It is
carnage for the ships that have emerged close to the Rison Fleet. Fully
1/3
^rd
of the Zarnx Fleet has been destroyed or disabled, while
emerging.

That doesn’t mean that the Rison Navy is going to win this battle.
They are still outnumbered and out-gunned, by a 2 to 1 margin. Admiral
Nemo calls for an immediate frontal assault, before the Zarnx Fleet can get
organized. Admiral Nardan agrees and orders the assault – with his
warship leading the charge.

Admiral Nemo is on a separate mission. As always, he believes in
‘severing the head of the beast’. He is searching for the Zarnx admirals’
vessels. Darius, the Integrity AI, has been monitoring communications and
has identified the ships, which probably house admirals. As could be
expected, they are near the back of the Fleet.

The fastest and safest way to the rear of the Zarnx Fleet is via
FTL. There are risks to that strategy. For one, it is easy to
destroy a vessel while it’s emerging – the Admiral will emerge well behind the
enemy lines, in order to diminish that risk. The second risk is that the
FTL drive will be offline, until it has cooled off – therefore, there will be
no quick exits.

“Engage,” says the Admiral, and the Integrity disappears, only to
reappear in back of the enemy lines. He gives Darius a little time to
adjust to the new orientation, and then asks: “Do you have them, Darius?”

“Aye sir,” Darius replies, as the front view-screen refreshes.
“Here they are, marked in blue. The one in ‘flashing blue’ marks the ship
that I believe houses the Fleet Admiral.”

“Take us in, Helm - full flank speed straight at the flashing blue
light. I want to pass the vessel on our port side at a distance of 0.5
klicks. … Engage. … Tactical get ready. Hold your fire until they begin
to fire at us - then hit them with everything. Keep firing, and focus
your weapons fire on the comm section. That typically is not as well
protected as the Command Deck and Engine Room. And the admiral will be
worthless if he can’t communicate.”

“Aye sir,” answers Tactical.

“Darius, back Tactical up - while he concentrates on the Fleet Admiral -
and take out any other shooters.”

“Aye sir.”

The Zarnx are not paying attention to what is behind them, allowing the
Integrity to get surprisingly close, before being detected. Once
detected, the Integrity begins drawing a lot of fire. Still, Integrity is
dishing out more firepower than it’s receiving.

The Augmented Human Tactical Officer, with the computerized AI backing
him up, pours out lethal doses of missiles and rail gun projectiles, while
approaching, and then follows up, with laser and plasma canon fire as the
distance closes.

Now they are in close and taking fire from a lot of ships.
Integrities’ shields are holding, because the enemy weapons fire is unfocused,
resulting in the heat energy being spread around the hull. In a flash,
Integrity is by the target vessel, and is coming around for another pass.
It feels like they are fighter pilots - only with a massive fighter.

“How did we do Darius?” asks Admiral Nemo.

“Looks good to me, sir. There is smoke coming from a hull breach at
the comm section, and there are no communications coming from the vessel.”

“Excellent,” says Admiral Nemo. “Let’s go back out and find another
admiral. That was so easy we could do it all day.”

And they do. Over and over, they pick out vessels, which are
getting and giving a lot of communications. They then attack those
vessels, targeting the comm sections, which are lightly protected.

Before long the Zarnx Fleet becomes disorganized, lacking any clear
strategy. The enemy fleet is far from being defeated,
however. The Zarnx ships still outnumber the Rison Fleet, by a sizeable
factor. They have being diminished but not defeated.

***

The three Augmented Human Navy light cruisers emerge, outside of the
Rison system, and find themselves in the middle of a battle. The Freedom,
and Reliance emerge undamaged, but the Liberty takes fire to the Engineering
section, and is ‘dead in the water’. Freedom and Reliance gather around
Liberty and lay down heavy weapons fire, as the battle flows and morphs around
them.

Captain Guilles, on the Liberty, calls the Integrity for
assistance: “Integrity. Liberty here. Taking fire.
Engineering section offline.”

“Nemo here,” comes the instant reply. “We are on the way,” and then
to Darius, with the comm still open, “Darius, is the FTL drive online?”

“Aye sir.”

“Take us to the Liberty,” orders the Admiral.

“On our way,” replies Darius.

Now, this is a very questionable decision on the Admiral’s part.
Perhaps his better judgment has been clouded by love. Emerging in the
middle of a battle is exactly what got Liberty into trouble, in the first place
– and the Integrity is a much larger target. Never the less, there is no hesitation
on the Admiral’s part.

Fortunately for the Admiral, the three AH Navy light cruisers have laid
down such a withering weapons assault that the enemy vessels are much too busy
trying to get out of the area, to target the emerging heavy cruiser. At
any rate, Admiral Nemo can expect to get a lecture and a ‘talking to’ from
Captain Guilles, concerning risk-taking, when they have more time. And
she can expect one, in return, for going off to battle when she could have the
baby, at any moment.

But right now, the AH Navy is up to their necks in enemy ships. The
4 ships arrange themselves in a spherical formation, in order to cover all
angles, and just slug it out. Admiral Nemo puts the AIs in charge of
energy weapons, and the AH Tactical Officers in charge of projectiles.

Being in the middle of the enemy fleet is not part of the Admiral’s plan,
but the explosion of weaponry, from inside the Zarnx Fleet, is causing a
break-down in discipline. The enemy fleet is spreading out, and ships are
beginning to run. With no guidance, from the Zarnx admirals, it is ‘every
ship for itself’.

And soon – relatively speaking – the battle moves on past the AH Navy
vessels, as the Rison Fleet is chasing after the fleeing Zarnx ships. The
Zarnx ships begin to disappear into FTL space, as the surviving ships conclude
that it is better to run, than to die.

***

The Rison Ship Repair Facility

The Rison Ship Repair Facility is a very busy place, these days.
Almost every Rison Navy vessel had taken significant damage in the recent
battle. The Repair Facility is working to get the least damaged vessels
into top fighting condition, in case there is another attack.

Never the less, they are giving their highest priority to the AH Navy
vessels. The Integrity, Freedom, and Reliance are almost fully repaired,
but the Liberty has another three weeks of repair time.

The Rison government is gleeful, about the outcome of the recent
hostilities. The Zarnx Fleet has been reduced in size, so that it is
about equal to the Rison Fleet. The Zarnx Emperor is dead, and his family
is in Rison custody.

Lt. Susan Bartons was concerned that she had made a wrong decision by not
killing the Zarnx Emperor’s family, at the same time that she assassinated the
Emperor. But the Rison government appreciated her compassionate
response. They would not have wanted innocent blood on their hands.
The family will be well cared for and will someday be given freedom, and the
power to choose their own destinies. In the near term, they will be
secluded, away from public access.

The Rison System no longer needs protection services, and has severed
their agreement with the Augmented Human Navy. To show their
appreciation, the AH Navy repairs are free; the AH Navy will be given first
choice from the ‘spoils of war’; and they will be given two months of severance
pay.