Operation seraphim, p.15
Operation Seraphim, page 15
“How are you doing?” Stathis asked Hakala, who was sitting nearby, reviewing drone footage.
“Everything looks familiar, but it doesn’t,” Hakala said. “It is disturbing.”
“But how are you doing?” Stathis asked. There was pain in her voice, and that twisted his insides.
“I don’t know,” Hakala said, and Stathis nodded. He could understand that.
“If there is anything I can do, I’m here for you,” Stathis said. The words sounded so inadequate. She was here, in her home, amidst destruction. It wasn’t like the USA, which Stathis hadn’t recognized—well, maybe the church at Quantico, but he hadn’t gone anywhere else that was even remotely familiar. Here, though, Hakala had grown up on this homestar.
“Thank you,” she said and fell silent, concentrating on the footage.
Stathis wanted to ask about her family, but perhaps now was not the time. Looking at Hakala, he began to realize how little he knew about her past. Why had she left Bifrost to become an HKT of all things? Where were her mother and father? Did she have any brothers or sisters?
Of course, now that he wanted to know, it wasn’t the time to ask. Besides, if he did ask, she would think he was more interested in assessing her mental state and the mission than concerned about her, maybe.
“Do you know anything about Hakala’s past?” Stathis asked Shrek.
“We do not have Republic records,” Shrek said.
“Can’t you ask Gleipner?”
“That is not an appropriate query, unless you think it may impact her ability to perform the mission.”
“Dammit, no,” Stathis said. What he meant was yes, but he wasn’t going to question Hakala’s mental state. She was an HKT. He couldn’t question her without good reason. Hopefully, Gleipner would let Shrek know if there was a problem. She was super focused on the mission, and he didn’t dare detract from that.
This might be another reason lovers shouldn’t go into combat together. They would be focused on each other more than the mission. Damn. Hakala was doing better than he was.
Sitting down in a spot near some stacked tables, Stathis lay down. He could at least pretend to sleep. He didn’t miss the way everyone’s helmets followed him whenever he moved. Lying back like he was pretending to sleep, he brought up the view from several drones.
The vanhat patrol had moved on. Apparently, they hadn’t noticed the drone, which was fine with Stathis.
Other drones glided through subway stations. In some places, there were bodies and signs of battle, but not much.
“Based on the signs of battle and bodies, what theories do you have?” Stathis asked Shrek.
“Hard to say,” Shrek said. “Obviously, the homestar was in Shorr space when the inkeris collapsed, but the question becomes how widespread the collapse was. Did the inkeri collapse in a certain area, or was it more widespread? Did multiple inkeris fail at close to the same time, or did all of them collapse? There is damage to the power systems, like what happened to the Eagle when we did an emergency drop from Shorr space, but here, the damage does not appear that severe in most areas. We have just mapped a very minuscule part of the homestar. This is going to take time.”
“No theories?”
“We suspect that all the inkeris did not fail at the same time, so there were pockets that were protected, but how widespread were those pockets? We don’t know. Some inkeris may have failed as the homestar was departing Shorr space.”
“So, there is a good chance there are survivors,” Stathis said.
“As many chances as there are that there are survivors on Zhukov, or Tau Ceti Gold.”
Stathis winced. There probably weren’t any survivors on those worlds.
“They were both nuked to oblivion,” Stathis said.
“Because everyone believed the vanhat infection was that bad, and if there were survivors, they wouldn’t last long.”
“The Republic isn’t the SOG; they are Vikings. They don’t do that cringy civilian stuff. Do they?”
“That remains to be seen. Bifrost is not really a military hub. There was likely a military presence, but not a strong one. Bifrost relied on the ability to flee rather than fight.”
“So, these are the yellow-bellied civilians?”
“Insufficient data. Hakala came from here. She is a warrior.”
Stathis hated waiting. He wanted information, but apparently, he wasn’t going to get that quickly enough.
* * * * *
Chapter 28: Powerless
Enzell, Advisor
Enzell hated being powerless, hated not having a team to order around, hated not having the authority to destroy anyone inferior. This was a bad situation; annoying, to say the least. Why gain power if you couldn’t destroy the people below you? He was destined for greatness, but now he was being forced to kowtow to a mere ship’s captain. Being a mere specialist aboard the Musashi was boring, and at this point, he felt completely useless. Furthermore, he was now under the very watchful eye of a fully sentient AI, and that was dangerous. Did petty citizens feel this way? Always afraid of being discovered and persecuted?
Feng had screwed him over. If Feng had killed him, it would have been a mercy, but this? This was worse than hell. This was a punishment in so many ways. He had to pretend to care, had to pretend to be a team player, enthusiastic about being aboard the Musashi. Galivanting off into a dangerous, unpleasant galaxy, aboard an oversized starship built to bludgeon enemies with advanced weapons, was beneath him.
This was a ship designed to appease the most basic levels of human instinct.
In so many ways, he was surrounded by violent barbarians. The officers of the Musashi were carrying swords now, of all things. Like they expected the Musashi to get close enough to an enemy that they could whack them with their pretty blades. Foolish.
Enzell had never cared for the Japanese. They were inferior to Russians, though they made good servants. How an admiral of Japanese descent had ever managed to command a super dreadnought and assemble such a large crew of fellow Japanese was an oversight of the Central Committee. He would have loved to see the decision and discussions that went into it, but all his classified documents and records were lost to him.
He had fallen so far, but his mother had risen to the top, and Enzell knew he was better than those around him. He was virtually immortal. He would eventually take control of this fleet, and when he returned, he would put down that snake Feng and restore the glory of the Governance. By the time the fleet returned, he was sure the people would be glad to revolt against the pretenders and throw them down.
He might be immortal, but he didn’t have an unlimited amount of time, and so far, he had no plan to deal with the officers and AI. That was perhaps the most annoying. He had no authority or time to gain authority. It would be impossible to bind subordinates to his will without the AI noticing.
Staring at the displays in his office, he considered what it would take to recreate the virus he had unleashed upon the Collective and vanhat. There was a lot of information locked up in his head.
Could there be another option? Could he take control of the AI now managing the Musashi? An interesting thought.
Enzell smiled. The AI controlled the ship, and if he controlled the AI…
The problem was how, and Enzell didn’t have a plan for that.
Yet.
* * * * *
Chapter 29: Discovery
Major Zale Stathis, USMC
The next day, Stathis cycled through the drone footage and realized just how much space there was to explore. The drones had finally found a way into Vanaheim Cylinder, which had a lot of forests and agricultural areas. The cylinder was still spinning, but it was incredibly foggy, and while it was day cycle, it was nearly impossible to see the other side of the cylinder, leaving the forests draped in mists.
The team had relocated to a maintenance tunnel in Vanaheim Cylinder. There were numerous subways leading out in all directions. Vanaheim Cylinder was a spiderweb of underground tram tunnels a few meters beneath the surface. According to Hakala, this was wild land, but city spaces were full of basements and such.
This was a patrol in force. Stathis didn’t want to leave anyone behind where they could be discovered, but he didn’t want to stay stationary, either. Right now, they were spread out in a thicket down in a valley. A good hiding place with plenty of places to escape to.
“What are we doing here?” Stathis asked. Again. He knew the answer. It was a rhetorical question, but Hakala didn’t seem to notice that.
“All the cylinders seem to be in lockdown,” Hakala said. “No radio communications, nothing. If there is an Aesir network operational, we don’t have coordinates or access to a node.”
“Is this normal?” Stathis asked Hakala. The mist and trees were cool, but very creepy, too. Visibility in the mists wasn’t more than twenty meters, at best. It would be easy to imagine werewolves hunting them.
“No,” Hakala said, “it is not. Something is wrong. I have never seen mist in Vanaheim. Usually, it is beautiful forests and rows upon rows of crops. There are a couple of cities connected by underground subways, but usually you can see across the fields and forests. I suspect the humidifiers are damaged.”
“Intentionally, or unintentionally?” Stathis asked.
“Crops won’t grow without sunlight, and the forests will die off if this is constant.”
“Not cool. I was hoping it was like Zugla, with scheduled misting and such.”
“Not here.”
“Why would they do this?” Stathis asked.
“It could be intentional, for several reasons,” Shrek said. “One reason is, it allows unobserved movement. Survivors can avoid detection from op-cyl.” Which Stathis recalled meant the opposite cylinder. “Another reason is, it could destroy crops that will be needed for the vanhat or that the humans need to survive.”
“Any other reasons?”
“Coincidence. It might not be intentional, or it might be an unintentional side effect of something else.”
“Like what?”
“There are about forty-eight possibilities and rising, as I dedicate resources to extrapolating,” Shrek said. “I do not think this is a good use of my resources.”
“Yeah,” Stathis said. “Let’s concentrate on relevant stuff. How can we find survivors in a haunted forest?”
“If the survivors don’t want to be found, and the vanhat can’t find them, our chances are much lower. The vanhat will have greater numbers and more operational experience in Bifrost. They have a better idea of where people can hide.”
“If you were a survivor,” Stathis asked Hakala, “where would you hide?”
“No single place,” Hakala said. “I would stay mobile, constantly watching the vanhat and trying to stay ahead of them.”
“Peachy,” Stathis said. “Moving targets.”
“Civilians might be different,” Hakala said. “They may have children and wounded to care for. Constant moving will be difficult. Furthermore, if there are large numbers, that will add to the complexity. They will probably try to hide, wind up discovered, and then get besieged by vanhat.”
“Which the vanhat will know. A nomadic group of survivors living in an asteroid colony? That doesn’t sound practical.”
“A colony the size of Bifrost? With over seven thousand kilometers of livable space? Depending on the number of survivors, it is very possible in the short term. If you walked thirty kilometers a day, it would take you over two hundred and thirty-three days to walk most of the distance.”
“That’s a lot of walking.”
“And a lot of places to hide.”
“Maybe if we find out where the vanhat are coming from, or going?” Hakala said. “We can use their activity to find any survivors.”
The signal went out, and everyone froze. Vanhat detected. Stathis waited for the firing to start. Shrek showed him a view of some froggers marching along a forest trail. They didn’t seem very alert, and checking the maps, he saw that they weren’t coming toward the Legionnaires.
They were going somewhere.
“Should be interesting,” Stathis said and turned to McCarthy. “Can you task some drones to follow the vanhat?”
“Wilco, sir,” McCarthy said.
“I’m picking something up on shortwave,” Zhao said. “A weak signal, but not natural. I can pick out voices. Triangulation says it is coming from somewhere in this cylinder. There is a town not far away.”
“So, there are survivors,” Stathis said.
“Unless it is some automated robot communication,” Zhao said.
“You said words?”
“Yes, sir. Numbers and names.”
“What names?” Hakala asked.
“David, Matti, Otto, and Berrta are some,” Zhao said.
“That is the Republic phonetic alphabet,” Stathis said, looking at Hakala. “They are talking in code. Maybe coordinates? Any pattern?”
“No, sir,” Zhao said. “The signal is weak, and I wasn’t able to get all of it. We continue to listen. As I get more, I will let you know. If I had to guess, it bled over from a more localized signal, amplified briefly for some reason.”
“Thank you,” Stathis said. “See if you can figure out how, why, and where.”
“Wilco, sir,” Zhao said.
“Should we move camp to Vanaheim?” Stathis asked the team.
“Not without more information, sir,” McCarthy said. “It would be a bad idea to move into an area the vanhat are about to search.”
“Fine. Then let’s find out what the vanhat are up to. Maybe that will give us a clue.”
“Wilco,” McCarthy said.
Stathis leaned back. A firefight would be good about now—no, it wouldn’t. Is this what the gunny hated and feared? The boredom that would end with bad news and a firefight where he might lose someone?
How was it that the gunny always seemed to have all the answers? Stathis had once thought the gunny had the answers because of his recent experience. He was starting to doubt that. What experience had prepared him for being thrown into a future where the United States was gone and made him a prisoner of an oppressive regime?
“It would be nice to have more drones,” McCarthy muttered.
“Welcome to combat,” Stathis said. “Where the only thing you will get more of is people trying to kill you.”
“Hurrah,” McCarthy said.
“Maybe we could send a recon team into the town?” Stathis asked, looking at Hakala. “Look around. Maybe they will pick up something the drones aren’t?”
“And maybe they will attract attention from the vanhat,” Hakala said. “I counsel we move cautiously and deliberately. This is not the time for bold actions.”
Stathis liked it when Hakala was right—or was that because she was thinking what he was thinking? Was that a bad thing, or a good one? Probably a bad thing. Multiple viewpoints helped explore options better, but Stathis didn’t like being alone.
“Okay,” Stathis said. “For now, we will concentrate on using drones, but let’s not get complacent. We need to monitor our perimeter and make sure the vanhat don’t stumble on us. Our survival is priority number one. Finding the survivors is number two.”
“Zen,” Hakala said, and Stathis knew McCarthy heard, though he was probably on another link, talking with his drone operators.
Most of the troopers were stretched out, sleeping, if they weren’t watching the perimeter or doing drone operations.
Stathis felt it was the calm before the storm.
It was times like these that things went badly very quickly. Time was not on their side.
* * * * *
Chapter 30: Astral Realms
Kapten Sif — VRAEC, Nakija Musta Toiminnot
Sif knew that physical realm proximity didn’t matter in the astral realms. Distance and time had a different meaning on the spirit planes.
She had been trying to find Eldrin since their first meeting, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack in the dark. How Eldrin had found her was one of those questions to be asked later, but right now, she needed to know what the vanhat were up to, whether they had discovered Stathis and his team, and if they were aware of the Seraphim Fleet.
Lying in the cockpit of the Tera, she waited for authorization from Admiral Winters, but she knew that would not be coming soon. Waiting was difficult, but she could use that time.
Too many questions, and no easy way to find answers, other than listening to emotions, which was another problem. Any vanhat vessel entering orbit around the gas giant quickly fell silent, like some phenomenon blanking out the vanhat.
Reports from Stathis and his team warned everyone that the vanhat were most certainly still there, and occasional ship movements told everyone the ships arriving to surround Bifrost were still active, but aside from that, Sif’s psychic abilities were failing her.
Some trait or ability of the Jotun—or was it something caused by the gas giant? She was even having a hard time confirming Stathis was there, so it had to be something. A vanhat inkeri?
It broke her heart, as she recognized most of the ships surrounding the Bifrost. Most of them were Republic, though there were a few that were SOG. It was a struggle not to remember the captains and crews of some of the ships. Brave Vanir warriors who were likely dead now—or hopefully they were dead. Not all the fleet, for sure, but there were enough. Several Busse, or as the Governance called them, destroyers, and a pair of Snekkes, or heavy cruisers, and even a Drekkar, a battleship. Maybe a fifth of the overall fleet. A very sizeable force, and with Bifrost, more than enough to take on the Musashi and escort. There was also a trio of SOG battleships and five heavy cruisers from the Azure Dragon District fleet.
Physically, she knew where they were, but the astral realms did not correspond with the physical realms, and the methods of navigation were very different. She couldn’t take her astral body and fly out of the ship toward the Bifrost. She would quickly become lost among the stars, and this far away, the gas giant was barely visible to the naked eye. The astral eyes saw so much more, and the gas giant would be drowned out in the other lights, sounds, and smells that would assault her.
