Jethro 8 Snippet 1

 Okay, a little late, but here we go:

Chapter1

 

Sigma Sector

 

WarrantOfficer 1 John Draco tightened his hands into fists and then slowly relaxedthem. It was the only movement he allowed for. He was trapped in a coffin goingwho knows how fast as it crossed the void.

Histeam had used boosters to boost up to speed on course for the objective. Therewas a concern about the thermal flare so they had to cut the boost phase welloutside of long range sensors and then take the rest of the ride in stealth.Once the boosters flame out they are jettisoned. Travel the rest of the courseon ballistic.

They’dspent a long 3 days in space getting to their target. He’d slept some, suckedon the tube of suit food, and ran the plan through his mind over and over. Itwas a cruiser, a new design but they had the detailed blueprints and specs onfile. So far no surprises.

Thebiggest thing was not to spook the target. If they got even a whisper of anaval vessel in the star system they would have jumped into hyperspace and ranfor it. Hence his team’s present occupation and mission. He was prayerful thatthe enemy wouldn’t get wise. He’d hate to bounce off their shields or see themjump away. It was a long damn walk home.

Someof the team had a whisker laser party going up until the last 18 hour stretch.He’d cut them off with a curt order. He didn’t want to chance the lasers beingspotted. Besides, the griping about the suit chow and lack of bathroomprivileges had gotten old anyway.

Forthe past 6 hours he’d watched the target grow larger and larger on his HUD. Hewas pointed directly at it head down, so everything was fed into his HUD. Datascrolled, but the main things he picked out because his AI Angie highlightedthem for him. The ship class and fingerprint were a match. The interior map wasoverlaid over the hull. Objectives were highlighted.

Oneminute before burn the AI transmitted that in a whisker laser burst to eachsuit. He then braced himself as the AI handled the final maneuvers.

Theship didn’t see them coming. She didn’t have her sensors on high alert sincesupposedly nothing was in the star system to object to its presence.

Thesquad of suits endured a hard braking burn just as they came up on finalacquisition, the flare of IR making it suddenly obvious something was up. Theypassed through the layers of defensive protection in rapid order though, and hefelt a sense of relief as the inertial dampeners eased up. A lot of their powerhad just been sucked up by that maneuver, but it was worth it. No other suitcame close to being able to do what they did. It was why they had the suits.

Theteam reoriented to feet down and made a hard land onto the hull. Those withclaws dug in, two bounced off the hull, one heavy suit dented it. Harpoonshelped to get the wayward suits back on track and on the hull.

Radarand lidar on the ship opened up, searching the heavens for the sudden flares ofthermal energy. It was too late however. Draco unshouldered his rifle andchecked the safety by muscle memory, barely aware of the action. The suitsmoved and silently took out cameras as they moved to the designated airlocks.The warrant boarded the ship at the lock and then cycled anxiously through it.

Thiswas the time when he most worried about something going wrong. It was a chokepoint, totally in the control of the crew.

>>*<<

Theskeleton crew on graveyard watch heard the odd sounds of bangs through thehull. A few looked up and around in confusion and growing alarm. They began toquestion what was going on. Some however just shrugged it off.

>>*<<

Eachsuit went through an airlock. Some doubled up, some had their own airlock. Theyall had their objectives and knew the mission, the floor plan of the ship wasuploaded in their computers and their AI would keep track of their position andthe position of the others. Once on board, they ejected their flight packs,pulled out their weapons, split up into pairs, and began the process to takethe ship intact.

Theyhad no robots with them. Their flight packs had been on the ragged edge ofperforming the mission without the additional mass. They would make do withoutthem.

Eachboarder had stunners and blunderbuss with rubber bullets and shredder hollowpoint rounds. They could select the round as needed from 2 magazines. The wholepoint of the limited weapon mix was to limit the damage to the ship and crew.Rounds that could pass through flesh into the thin interior bulkheads could dopotentially disastrous things. That was strenuously avoided as much aspossible.

Eachboarder had a selection of stun grenades and micro cameras in their kit. Theyhad a very narrow window to get in and get as much done as possible before theywere detected. That was their golden time, precious beyond measure.

Atevery major computer terminal a device was plugged in to hack the network. TheAI linked through the remote WIFI link and got to work while also managing thehost’s suit, the tactical updates, and secondary weapons. They quickly set uptheir own network to coordinate the movement of the Cadre team and direct resourcesagainst opposition forces.

TheAI had their own objectives. They dedicated less than 30% of their processingpower and attention to their principles for the initial boarding action. Someof their mission objectives were critically time sensitive if they were goingto survive. They were in the golden hour of a boarding action. Every minutethat passed without the enemy becoming aware was a precious thing beyond value.

Likeany predator it was critical to take the prey and minimize any opposition toprotect yourself and certain objectives. Once the prey was aware they wouldinvariably thrash and panic. They had to prevent the worst of that.

Thesquad’s AI hacked into the ship’s computer and communication network within asecond. Multiple Cadre AI quickly overwhelmed the ship’s AI. “Their AI isgetting better,” Angie observed as the Horathian AI was cornered behind aseries of firewalls around its core and then went down.

“Didyou secure the priority target?” her host demanded.

“Negative.”The AI paused and noted activity in the primary and backup navigational suite.The suite power went offline abruptly and with a sense of defiance and finalityto it. “And it doesn’t look like we will. There was a secondary AI embedded inthe navigational suite. It just triggered a self-destruct.”

“Damn.”

“Agreed.”

“Switchup. Secondary objective is command and navigational personnel. Tertiary ishelmsman and engineering teams.” Klaxons went off and lights flared but it wasa life support alarm. The AI were following the script and locking the shipdown and evacuating the air in select compartments. That would prevent crew whowere not suited up from using those paths.

Withinseconds the crew were chopped up into isolated pockets of resistance. Some weretrapped in their barracks without weapons wondering what the hell was going on.The pounded on airlocks only to find a vacuum on the other side.

TheCadre were fully suited however, so a little vacuum wouldn’t bother them.

“Agreed.Hopefully they don’t have their own self-destruct packages in their implants.”

“Nodoubt they do.”

“Well,either way we still have a ship to capture.”

>>*<<