First Deployment (Corporate Marines Book 3) Page 17

  Two looked over at Six. “You have an idea. I think it’s the same one I’m thinking of. Say it.”

  Six nodded. “Well, some of the readings that we get from their tech are sort of similar to the Kah-Choo Empire’s. They also are a multi-system political entity and appear to be warrior-based. This could have been carried out by them.”

  Four was shaking his head no. “Come on, Six. The rat-men? Do you think they have the industrial base to build that and fund it?”

  One, Three, and Seven were nodding in agreement. Everyone else was considering it.

  I remembered the history lessons and the alien briefings I had gone through. “They could have done it. They do have three star systems and have done things that appeared reckless before.”

  Six considered me before answering. “No, Eight. They have colonists in two systems. They don’t actually have three fully developed star systems.”

  I understood what Six was saying. But that wasn’t correct. “The last intel on the Kah-Choo Empire is that they will hire mercenaries out for the right price. They are based on some sort of warrior honour system, and the leaders don’t care unless a clan or family does really well or screws up badly. More than that, though. They have two planets that are life-bearing in their home system, and another four that they have been able to at least partially terraform. They also colonize by moving something like fifty thousand of their ‘people’ at a time. They could have all the raw material that they need stockpiled because they’ve had colonies since before we were even aware of them. They may be the first race that could actually disprove the theory that we can’t fight intergalactic wars.”

  Four and Six were both looking at me thoughtfully and then their eyes went glassy. They were querying the net through their implants.

  Two stood up. “AI analysis indicates that the drive and the handling of the ship that was tracked has a passing resemblance to Kah-Choo ships. Also, some of their tactics seem similar. It is possible that the enemy, whoever they are, knew about this outpost and raided it. They left themselves enough time to land after they deployed an EMP that took out all the local electronics so that they could loot the stockpiled resources that were here before the rocks hit. The amount of material stored here was almost at the max. Another ship is due in another month or so to drop off new test models and also pick up the material that was stockpiled.” Two stopped and looked at the rest of us.

  Four turned his eyes up to the ceiling. “So they destroyed one of the Corporation’s outposts worth billions of dollars and then looted even more billions’ worth of rare resources. They also got to use the outpost and area as a testing ground for weapons. Great. Do we have any hope that the weapon systems failed or had problems?”

  Two shook her head no. “This was a grand test. I guarantee you that they had problems and ran into issues. But that really becomes irrelevant, as they destroyed a Corporate outpost, ruined most of the satellites in the system, and on top of it all, walked off with billions of dollars’ worth of raw resources that can be poured into their economy or into building more starships. A few minor glitches wouldn’t mean shit to anyone with what they won.”

  I waved my hand. “Look, I understand that this was all destroyed. It can be rebuilt. So they have a deployable missile system—now we know about it. They can drop a rock. Well, anyone can, right? They did a bunch of physical damage and stole stuff. This can all be fixed, right? The Corporation will identify the enemy at some point and we strike back, right? Am I missing something?”

  For once One spoke up, but he sounded like he always did whenever he talked to me—angry. “Wow, good for you, Eight. Yup, the enemy destroyed an outpost and stole billions of dollars’ worth of rare material. Just more ammo for the isolationists to use back Earthside, trying to push their views about how we should be acting—defensive. You should think before you talk, you—”

  The sound of Two’s hand slamming down on the table startled everyone and One froze. I looked at her and the glare she was giving One was glacial.

  She spoke slowly and clearly, and her tone was the same as her expression. Cold. “Enough, One. You’ve been riding Eight since he got here. That ends now. We have to work as a team.”

  One’s face went crimson and he opened his mouth to say something but Two carried on. “Shut your mouth, One. You’ve overlooked the much more important elements of this attack as well. The impact on humanity and every other alien species out here is much larger.”

  Two’s voice went more conversational. “Jane? Please run sim Warfare Alpha 9, 10 and have 11 ready to go after.”

  Jane’s voice came over the speakers. “Affirmative, Two.” She sounded older and much more gravelly than the teenager I was used to listening to.

  The lights dimmed and then we were looking at a planet slowly revolving. It was obviously Earth from a far distance. A rock came into view, heading for the planet. As it moved past us the view changed and I could see that there were rockets on the back. Someone was dropping a large asteroid on Earth. I recognized the image and knew what was going to happen—I’d seen the movies.

  Two started talking while the rock headed for Earth and we followed along in the wake, far enough back that we could see the impact that the rock would have as it entered the atmosphere and hit the planet.

  “Everyone knows this game and what happens. We get to review it anyway. One rock hits the planet, and look at the overall impact.”

  Our view stopped changing out in a higher orbit. The rock accelerated and struck in South America. The entire region seemed to be destroyed when the super-heated stone impacted and smashed into the centre. Earthquakes were triggered, minor tsunamis washed over the land and there was a huge cloud of ash and dirt blown into the atmosphere. It looked like a mushroom cloud, but our biggest nukes couldn’t equal that.

  I remembered this from class. The environmental impact would take years to recover from—if it didn’t push the planet past the point of recovery.

  The image reset and we were back in space watching. Suddenly almost a dozen rocks went by us. Again, our view followed and then we froze at a higher point. This was worse, much worse. South and Central America were hit by four of the rocks while the rest slammed into the oceans on either side. One last one came tumbling by us and hit in the Antarctic.

  The damage was exponentially larger. Tsunamis raced around the globe and from space, both South and Central America looked like they were devastated. Our view shifted around the world. Spots were identified where volcanoes that had been dormant were suddenly active and spewing magma like it was Earth’s blood. We shifted to over Antarctica and I watched as almost a quarter of the continent’s ice broke away.

  The image froze and numbers appeared in the air. It was a comparison between the two impacts. The first impact caused eighty million deaths, direct and indirect. The second impact caused upwards of two billion direct and indirect deaths. Recovery time for the first impact was almost two years. For the second impact, I was shocked: eighty-plus years, and there was a highlighted section that stated Earth would likely still be useable by humans after.

  The image shifted again. The same number of rocks were inbound again.

  Two started speaking while the rocks moved closer to Earth. I knew what was coming so I paid attention to Two instead of viewing the mega-death that was coming.

  “If you want to destroy a planet and render it uninhabitable, it’s easy enough to do: Hit it with enough big rocks. Job done. But the previous attack sim shows how to begin to truly wipe out all life on the planet. What if you want to take and hold a useable piece of land and establish an outpost, then a base, and finally terraform the world for your own use?”

  The rocks hit a point high in the atmosphere. This was where our view would freeze. Every time the scenario had been run, it had been accelerated. This time it looked like it was running at normal speed. Then the rocks exploded. One mi
nute, three rocks were heading for South America, then next there were dozens. The rocks had been coming more in waves. Whatever targeting was going on, they were separated into regions. North America had eight, Europe seven, and a dozen more headed for points around the world. From this perspective it wasn’t possible to see what was going on with them as they were too far away. But then the speed changed again. Dozens of smaller rocks were striking all over South America.

  This time there were only a few volcanoes erupting and the damage was not as bad in one region, but the entire continent still looked devastated.

  The view zoomed in and moved over the continent and then we zoomed over North America, then Europe, and then we panned out.

  The data stream came up again. The number of direct and indirect deaths topped out at almost four billion. That was almost half the human race. But while I thought it would be easier to rebuild from that, more information kept scrolling up. I couldn’t believe it. According to the sim and Jane, the damage to human infrastructure would be devastating.

  Our view pulled out suddenly. There were a dozen alien landers coming in, heading for South America. I recognized the ships. They were the same type that had come before. Everyone recognized those ships.

  We started accelerating along. The robots landed and started clearing areas of debris, then setting up huge structures labelled atmospheric terraformers. By the time that they were built, eleven of the landers had left and were returning with reinforcements. The few counterattacks that humanity had been able to mount in the intervening months had taken out one of the landers.

  The robots simply stripped the destroyed lander down and used it as parts and metal for the robotic factories that they were building.

  The view accelerated and the landers had only come a few more times before they stopped. We pulled out farther into space and the atmosphere changed. Then everything froze.

  The lights came up and the projectors shut down. Two was sitting at the head of the table staring at where the image had been projected. “Within twenty-five years at the max, given the criteria that we set up, the last humans would be gasping their last breath and dying. It would take another hundred years before the atmosphere would allow the aliens to live there without assistance. Our colonies and outposts would be dead in a few years at the most. None of them are truly self-sufficient.”

  Everyone was silent at the table. Two looked around at us, catching the eye of everyone there one by one. “So this small modification is a game-changer. They can devastate us and destroy the militaries and infrastructure, then invade and have a useful planet in only a few decades.”

  She continued quietly. “This is what the Corporation has been afraid of. A race that doesn’t care but just wants to win. Now there is a race out there that has seen this, has tested the technology, and can plan for a first strike that would remove us from the picture. We have to get this to Corporate so they can start planning and see if there is any way to counter this. I have talked to the captain. We are continuing with our normal patrol route. There is another outpost ahead that we will check in at. Then we are at a small base doing research and mining. There is a courier boat in-system that is reserved for high-priority work. This is high-priority work. We drop our information off, make sure the boat is on its way, and then carry on. We will also work up any more information that we can and give estimates and, well, guesses as to what is going on out here. Right now it looks like the Kah-Choo are getting ready to expand—and we’re their target.”

  We all stared at Two. I was in shock. I wasn’t sure about the rest of the section but I thought they were feeling the same. We were out here to save and guard humanity from whatever was out there. Now we had just been shown that humanity could be wiped out, and soon. How long could we carry on in the section before spare parts ran out and we just became highly trained soldiers? Or until the ship systems died? Hell, if we ran out of fuel. . . . I stopped and gave my head a shake. Every starship had the ability to fabricate most of its own parts, even if it took a while. We could do this. Maybe. But then where do you go and stage out of? Do you fight a generational guerrilla war against a race that has wiped out your home planet and taken your solar system?

  Two stood up, signalling that the debrief was over.

  Everyone else stood up and slowly started to shuffle around.

  Two stopped in the doorway and turned to look at us. “So we have bad news. We are going to move forward and operate as per normal. That means I want armour being worked on and all systems will be at 100 percent. I’ll be working with Jane on new sim training in some different scenarios. We all need to make sure that we are at full efficiency across the board. That means no shirking off the visits to the nut doctor. We get back on schedule and carry on, as we always do.”

  It was a crappy motivational speech, but we all started moving a bit faster anyway. Acting like things were normal would help. I wasn’t looking forward to the AI nut doctor again, though. But I would get through that.

  I headed for the gym. Back on schedule for me was an hour of weight training before I ran some tactical sims.

  The Shrink Again

  My appointment with the nut doctor was slated for two days after the debrief where we’d discovered and discussed the new threat.

  I followed my schedule religiously and was worried about being too rigid. Clinging to a schedule was something that no one else around here did. I mean, we had timings and those were followed, but I was there and working hard for each and every scheduled moment. I had to take a deep breath.

  Talking to Steven had initially terrified me, but this time when I adjusted my bed and dimmed the lights I found I was looking forward to it.

  I sat down and relaxed, watching my breathing. I had ten minutes before we were to start so I was going to focus on relaxation techniques. Two days of walking around thinking about the death of humanity had been stressful. And not just for me; I could see everyone was more on edge.

  Breathe in, hold it, slowly breathe out while flexing the muscles, starting at the outside and working in. I kept doing this, focusing on pushing the stress out.

  “Ahem, Eight, how are you doing?”

  I started and leapt up, smashing my head against the ceiling cabinets before tripping and falling into the wall with my shoulder first.

  It was still dark in my room and Steven was sitting in his comfortable chair on my screen with a sympathetic look on his face.

  I stood up, rubbing my head while blinking. I must have put myself to sleep.

  “Sorry to have woken you, Eight, but when I got here I saw that you were sleeping peacefully for the first time in a while so I let you have a nap. How do you feel?”

  I grunted and then sat back down and flexed my shoulder while still rubbing my head. “I feel sore.”

  Steven smiled at me. “So we’ve lost half our appointment, but I think I know what some of your concerns are. After all, I have been talking to the rest of the section and crew and everyone is concerned.”

  I just looked at him. “Concerned? That’s it? We could be facing the death of humanity, and people are concerned?”

  Steven nodded. “You have to understand that you already addressed that, Eight. We could be facing the elimination of humanity. But we are not today, and may not be later. Even later, whatever the enemy’s plans are, those could change or be thwarted by humanity or another race, accidentally or intentionally. Yes?”

  I had to nod. I hadn’t thought about that, but I could see how that would make sense. Things always go wrong in war, no matter how carefully things are planned.

  “I guess I see your point. So if that is too far in the future, I shouldn’t worry about it as much now but focus on what’s really important: trying to make sure that it doesn’t happen.”

  He grimaced. “Not quite. You may never be able to stop that event. Don’t set yourself up for survivor’s gui
lt.”

  I got his point.

  “Can I ask you a question, Steven?”

  “Go ahead, Eight.”

  I was hesitant about this because I never knew what was being reported, really. Heck, talking to a computer, nothing is ‘off the books’. I took the plunge anyway. “Okay, what can you tell me about One? He seems to not like me. In fact, I would go with he’s angry at me, or maybe even he hates me.”

  Steven nodded. “I do have the same confidentiality with him that I do with everyone else on board the ship. Let us say that he and the previous Eight were friends. His friend is dead. Anyone would feel upset about that. But given how the system works, you showed up and are now the ‘replacement’ Eight. If you were called Twelve, well, it wouldn’t be such a thing. As it is, you are a reminder constantly that his friend is dead and you are ‘replacing him.’”

  I stared at Steven. “Ummm, isn’t that kind of working against the confidentiality thing?”

  Steven shook his head no. “Anyone who watches can see this, Eight. None of what I said was disclosed by One or anyone else. This is just part of the grieving process.”

  I sat back and relaxed. “I don’t have much more to go over, Steven. I mean, the end of humanity was sort of sitting on my mind for a while, but that was it.”

  Steven grinned at me. “That is excellent, Eight! However, while you don’t have any questions, I have just tons of questions for you. Do you mind if we go over some points?’

  I groaned inwardly and tried not to let my dread show on my face. I plastered a smile on and said, “Well, okay. After all, I have almost half an hour left.”