Prometheus and the Dragon (Atlas and the Winds Book 2) (16 page)

What he saw took only a second to recognize, but his mind refused to accept it as reality. Overhead, a half-dozen sparks descended toward the open space just this side of Prometheus. Rocket engines, streaming trails visible in the fading glow of the last detonation. “It’s an attack!” he screamed into the radio, his voice echoing around the inside of his helmet. “Somebody’s shooting at the ridge!”

With only a single thought in mind, he launched forward on the quad. He had to get to the control room before it took a hit.

***

On the rim of Plato:

From his vantage point between two huge boulders, Lieutenant Yu watched his rocket artillery tracking in on their targets. They were just at the theoretical edge of their range, but several small fireballs flashed ahead of him on the crater floor. They were getting closer to the first of the gun towers. He knew targeting the rounds was difficult in the light gravity, but he’d been optimistic they’d be able to get it done.

So far there’d been no response from the Americans, but he didn’t expect one this early. If it took them another few minutes, his troops would have their targets and be able to withdraw before they could get a counterattack mounted. He was hopeful they might complete their mission without taking a casualty.

“Hurry,” he muttered, watching another fireball bloom.

***

New Hope Colony, Plato:

Susan Winslow had been dreaming about watching a thunderstorm rolling across the New Mexico desert where she’d grown up. In her dream she was an adult, standing on a ridge holding her father’s hand while he explained the lightning to her. He’d died when she was eleven, and she still missed him from time to time. She wanted to hang on to the dream, to relive this memory that had never happened.

“Commander Winslow to Operations. All Guard units to airlocks,” Tony Baker said, his voice carrying that knife edge that cut through her sleep like a laser. “Commander Winslow to Operations. All Guard units to airlocks.”

She rolled out of bed, slapping her hand on the comlink. “This is Winslow. What’s going on?”

“Prometheus Ridge is under attack,” he said. “We’ve got no reports of hits on the colony. The guns appear to be their target.”

“Have they been hit?” she asked, grabbing her jumpsuit out of the drawer and pulling it on frantically.

“No reports yet. Dr. Anthony is on his way out there to take command,” he said. “He was on a quad when it started.”

“He’s outside?” she barked.

“Yes ma’am,” he said. The floor of her room rumbled, rattling things on the small shelf unit above her computer.

“I’m on my way, and you tell Carter to get his ass back here. We don’t need him being a dead hero,” she said, hitting her door at a dead run.

***

Prometheus Ridge, Plato:

Carter didn’t think of himself as a hero, more like a coward with a lot of dumb luck. And some serious determination. He shot across the open ground on the quad, not following the graded road they normally used, but rather striking out in the straightest line he could manage. He wasn’t worried about getting hit, the rounds were falling irregularly and slowly. Whoever it was up there shooting at them hadn’t figured out how to hit a stationary target,
let alone one that was moving.

A shell came down ahead and off to the right. He swerved away and heard several loud pings that rang in his ears. He glanced down at his suit indicators expecting to see that he’d been punctured, but as far as he could tell he was still holding pressure. Another twenty seconds and he’d be at the airlock to the control room.

***

New Hope Colony, Plato:

“That’s right. I said we’re under attack,” Susan Winslow repeated.

“Are you all right?” Joshua Lange asked.

“So far. They’re aiming at the guns,” she said, pulling up a screen that showed her a camera mounted on the roof of Ops. “We’re tracking inbound artillery from seven places on the southern face of the crater wall.”

“Jesus Christ, that’s what, eight miles from the ridge?” he asked. “Have they hit anything?”

“The C-6 Communications Junction box,” she said. “We’ve got no landline to the Prometheus Control Room, but Carter’s almost out there and he’s in a suit, so we’ll have their status in a couple minutes.”

“Have you got a response mounted yet?” Lange asked.

“A couple minutes. They’re suiting up and cycling out,” she said.

“OK. I’ll stay in the loop, but I’ve got to get the President up to speed.”

***

Bridge of the Draco, 6,000 miles from lunar landing:

Dave sat back in his seat at the bridge command station, holding his coffee and not really paying attention to anything. He’d made this trip hundreds of times, and this was just one more approach. The pilot was the only one with any work to do, and that was just watching the computer. The approaches were automated, so they were just here in case something unexpected came up.

“Commander,” the voice of Papa said over the comlink. Dave switched on. A message from Sentinel’s computer was a bit unusual. “We are monitoring communication from the New Hope Colony that appears to indicate that they are under attack.”

“They’re what?” he said, sliding his chair up to the console and opening a screen that should show him a clear view of the lunar surface. The sun had set at New Hope, so there wasn’t much to see. He zoomed the magnification to max and watched.

“Yes,” Papa answered. “Thus far they have not managed to assemble a counterstrike, and there is no confirmation of damage. We are detecting seismographic evidence of several explosions over the last few minutes, but as far as we can tell, the Prometheus weapons are still operating.”

“Have they asked for assistance?” Dave said.

“Not at this time,” the computer said. “It is likely that they are unaware that we have resources available.”

“True,” Dave said. “I’ll talk to them, but you get some of the mono-carbon minies ready and find some volunteers.”

“Affirmative,” it said. “I have already discussed this with Dr. Rosnikov and she has put out an announcement. We have twenty-four volunteers and are en route to the staging area. They will be ready within five minutes.”

And then it will take them ten minutes to get to Plato with the minies,
he thought.
Not good enough.
He sighed.

“Helm, set course for New Hope. Best possible speed, but be careful, the Prometheus Guns are still firing,” he said, making the decision without talking to Susan. “Engineering, arm the weapons.”

Silence hung for the space of a second as his orders were absorbed. Then the pilot announced over the general intercom: “All stations, prepare for maneuvering and high-G acceleration in ten seconds.”

Dave felt his seat adjust as they twisted into a ninety-degree roll and slammed forward at four G.

***

Prometheus Ridge, Plato:

Carter Anthony threw himself through the inner airlock hatch, flipping his helmet open and looking around the Control Room. The two engineers on duty spun toward him as he barked, “Shut the guns down!”

“Why?” the Command Officer said. Shona Lewis was a small woman, but one of the best engineers he had under his command, even if she was prone to argue for her point a little too often. This was one of those times. “They’re operating normally.”

“Just do it. We’re under attack,” he snapped, realizing that they couldn’t tell the difference between the thumping of an explosion and the normal random booming of the beams vaporizing a gas pocket.

“It’s just a com failure,” she said. “We’re tracking it down.”

He pointed at the master controls. “Shut the son-of-a-bitch down,” he roared, twisting his glove loose and reaching for the panel himself. “If they hit one of the towers ...” As he watched, the display for the number six turret turned red, and a claxon screamed in alert.

“Shit,” he hissed, slapping his hand on the Main Weapons Cutoff. In the next instant the lights in the room flickered off, then on, and back off. The consoles went down a moment later.

“Get into your suits,” he said, his voice strangely loud in the silence. There wasn’t even the whispering of the ventilators. “Sounds like life support is out.”

“Did you get the guns shut off?” Shona said.

“I can’t tell,” he said, shrugging and making his way through the dark room toward the window. There was still the usual random ground shock that the guns made, but he couldn’t distinguish between it, and the sound of artillery fire. About halfway through the room he remembered he had lights on his suit, and turned them on. Both engineers stood immobile in the dark.

“I said get your suits on,” he repeated. “If one of those rounds comes down on us you’re going to want to have air to breathe.” As if to punctuate his point, an explosion went off right outside the window. A blinding flash silhouetted everything in the room, and the ground lurched up and sideways under their feet. He watched as a wave of dirt smashed into the window, sticking like wet mud to the heavy glass.

***

Chang Er Prefecture, Tycho:

“It appears the guns have shut down,” Lieutenant Yu reported. “It is difficult to tell if it is because of our attack or through their action. The damage we have inflicted so far appears to be minimal.”

“We must continue the attack,” General Wan said. “They must not be able to repair the weapons and continue with their operation.”

“I understand that sir,” the Lieutenant said. “We have encountered no response, and I would like to bring in the landers to relocate down to the crater floor. The accuracy of the artillery is very limited at this range.”

“They have mounted no counter-offensive that would put the landers at risk?” Prefect Czao asked. He wasn’t the lieutenant’s superior, but since he was in charge of the facility, he had wanted to be in on the operation.

“At this time there has been none,” he replied.

“Then press forward with the ground attack,” the General ordered.

“But remember to not fire on the civilian areas of their colony if it can be avoided,” Czao added.

“You have your orders, Lieutenant,” Wan said, shooting the Prefect a glare that left little doubt that he disapproved of having the civilian leader giving his troops orders.

“Understood,” Yu said, closing the link.

“You are aware that if we are unable to destroy the Prometheus facilities entirely, it may become necessary to inflict damage to their personnel habitats to reduce their ability to rebuild?” the General said, clearly controlling his voice by force of will.

“As a last resort,” Czao said. “If it is done preemptively, then it will assure that they retaliate against us.”

“But we were not foolish enough to leave our base defenseless,” Wan said. “And it appears obvious that they have limited military capabilities.”

***

New Hope Colony, Plato:

Susan watched the helmetcams on her view screen. It was like having twenty-four eyes bouncing across the lunar landscape at the same time. She tried to focus on where they were as they fanned out and headed for the rim. Her men were carrying RPGs and rifles, but they had to get across the open ground and partway up the side of the crater in order to get within range of the enemy emplacements.

The shelling had stopped for the moment, and she was worried they might be trying to target her men. The silence was ominous after the almost continuous rumble of ground shocks.

“Anthony to Ops,” Carter’s voice sounded strange for a suit radio. He must have had his faceplate open.

“Yeah Carter, this is Susan. What’s your status?” she said.

“I’m inside the Control Room. We’re completely dead. Power’s out to the building, and I don’t know if I got the guns shut down before the computer went offline. We took a near miss and I can’t see a damn thing through the window.”

Randy Markham nodded, holding a thumb up. He was standing by a video screen that showed the view toward the ridge. “You got them offline before you went down,” she said.

“That’s a relief,” he sighed, his breath roaring in his boom mic. “I don’t want to think about what would have happened if they’d knocked one down while it was still running.”

“No shit,” she said. “Can you get out of there? It doesn’t look like they’re aiming at anything except the guns.”

“It’ll take a while,” he said. “We’ll have to manually pump down the lock once we get suited.”

“Roger, just lean on it,” she said. “We’ve got no idea what other surprises they may have for us.”

“Copy that,” he said.

“Commander,” Tony said. “We’ve got the Stormhaven ship
Draco
offering assistance. Do you want to talk to them?”