Rise of the Altered Moon: Altered Moon Series: Book One (The Altered Moon Series 1) (27 page)

“Copy that, S.O.” Cat set up the missile selection pattern of three thermofusion missiles with one cryofusion missile in the rear left firing tube.

“G, bring us under their belly and coax as much speed out of the DME as you can. We’re going to wait until the last minute and switch to the ISE and go to full moon burn straight at them. Cat, when we power up, you let loose on those cannons and keep pouring it on. Copy?”

“Aye, sir,” both women answered. Gina maneuvered the ship below the MT&T security ship and throttled the Dark Matter Engine to its maximum thrust.

Boss poked the comms panel. “Katy, action stations! Hang on down there!”

“Aye, sir, we’re good to go!” she answered from engineering.

The MSS
Vigilant
opened fire on the courier ship and Boss gave the word to power up and engage the security ship. The
Altered Moon
appeared out of the shadows of space already closing in on the
Vigilant
. The thrust of the
Moon
’s thirteen engines shot the ship through space like a bullet from a gun. Cat opened fire the second they powered up and peppered the belly of the security ship as Gina strafed in as they passed by.

The Predator class Merilee security ship
Vigilant
powered on and off temporarily as the sneak attack short-circuited most of the lower decks and ventral shielding. The moment passed as the crew of the
Vigilant
quickly rerouted to auxiliary systems and restored power. The few critical moments allowed the
Altered Moon
to come about, open fire along the dorsal ridge of the ship and let loose a heater missile at the last second to impact just ahead of the engine ports. Gina had to pull the
Moon
up into a sharp steep climb to avoid the blast of the missile’s impact.

The
Vigilant
was wounded, but being wounded brings on desperation and desperation can make you just plain vicious. MT&T was no stranger to armed conflicts and its officers weren’t known to back off from a fight. The MT&T commander brought his heavily armed stealth security ship around to train his guns on the
Altered Moon
. The
Vigilant
opened fire with its forward plasma batteries and launched four missiles, its commander clearly not backing down from this fight.

Boss countered the attack by using counter measures and a spin maneuver, while Cat targeted the missiles and opened fire. The counter measures drew the missiles in as Cat fired the particle cannons. The result was a massive fireball that obscured everything between the two ships.

“Quick now, go dark! Engage the DMITS! Z minus ten thousand meters and pitch down ninety degrees!” Boss ordered. “Cat get ready on that freezer.”

“Roger, Boss, standing by,” she answered.

The
Vigilant
cruised through the dissipating fireball and immediately slowed; its commander and crew obviously wondered what happened to their enemy opponent. MT&T security wasn’t used to other craft having stealth and attack capabilities equal to their own. Boss had just tipped the
Altered Moon’
s hand to MT&T security as to what kind ship she really was.

“Cat, when we power up I want you to plant that missile right where the starboard wing and fuselage meet the engine housing,” Boss said. “When we spin about I want you to hit that same spot with cannon fire and stand by on both forward tubes. Got it?”

“Aye, sir, understood.”

“G, as soon as that freezer’s away, you spin us about and head for the Predator’s aft, and then veer away after we launch the two heaters,” Boss said. “We go at twenty-five thousand meters. Set?”

“Aye, sir,” they both acknowledged.

The
Vigilant
continued to advance as its commander was no doubt having the area scanned heavily. The distance closed to forty-five thousand meters, forty thousand, thirty-five, and then thirty thousand meters.

“Stand by…” Boss said, “and…
now
!” Boss powered up the ship as Cat locked on and fired the cryofusion missile. Gina spun the ship about and engaged the ISEs. Cat fired the cannons and launched the two thermofusion missiles as soon as they came to bear on the
Vigilant
. Gina rolled the ship and veered away from the MT&T security ship.

The cryogenic missile hit the
Vigilant
dead-on before they could react to the reappearance of the
Moon
. Cryogenic fusion worked by creating a molecular link with any matter within its shockwave radius to the void of space; this turned it into a molecular heat sink that immediately transferred all heat out into space. The cryogenic effect froze everything solid, which disrupted power systems and made metal alloys turn brittle.

The area around the impact point shimmered from the escaping heat then turned frosty white as the cryogenics took effect. The particle cannon fire blasted the brittle hull plating from the inner frame members. The thermofusion missiles flew through the hole made by the cannon fire and detonated inside the fuselage, ripping the framing from the engine assembly. The ruptured fuel conduits fired off like a line of small bombs that culminated in an explosion, blowing the
Vigilant
into a million pieces.

Boss sat back in his suspensor chair. “Take that, bitch!”

“Yeah, baby!” said Gina.

“Whoohoo!” yelled out Cat.

Boss poked the engineering icon on the comms panel. “How you doing, Katy?”

“That was some ride, Boss, but we’re good,” she answered.

“Let’s go pick up the captain before they send more,” he said.

“Copy that!” Gina agreed. She brought the ship around to rendezvous with the security ship, so they could swap the MT&T officers for their own crewmates and exit the system.

*~*~*

Chapter Thirty

A bunch of hugs, a few kisses, and some short recounts from both groups was all the crew of the
Altered Moon
took time for. Additional MT&T security forces were most certainly on the way after the sudden cutoff in communications from the
Vigilant
. CJ, Cat, and Cal placed the sedated security officers back in their ship and set it adrift just outside the Surian star system. There was no doubt that they would be found and soon.

CJ had GABI jump the
Altered Moon
to a graveyard of derelict ships just outside the Shongri star system. He and some former mates used to come there to sharpen flight skills by playing starship hide-and-seek among the abandoned vessels. Some cargo haulers were big enough to fly a ship around the inside of them. That’s what CJ had in mind: to hide out inside one of the bigger ships and go over the information they’d gleaned from the MT&T mainframe.

“About two kilometers straight in, you’ll find an old UAT booster tank with the end blown off,” CJ told Gina. “It’s big enough for us to fly right up inside it with room to turn around. Park us so we’re facing out and go dark.”

“Understood, Captain.” Gina flew carefully through the three-dimensional obstacle course and found the ancient fuel tank right where CJ said it would be. Flying into it would be no problem at all when five
Altered Moons
could fly in side by side. She slowed down as she piloted the ship to the far end of the massive booster tank, where she spun the ship around to face the way they came in and brought them to a full stop. “We’re in position, Captain.”

“Very good, G, thank you. GABI, take over thruster control and maintain relative position.”

“The ship is at station keeping, Captain. All exterior lights are off.”

CJ sat back in the captain’s chair and looked tentatively around. He half expected a ship to attack or a life support malfunction or some other damn thing to happen, but the bridge was quiet. The crew watched him look around with veiled amusement, as they wondered what it was that he was doing.

“Well, we live to tell the tale. I could use a cup of coffee and some rack time, but I don’t think I could sleep without at least looking through what we got,” CJ said. He poked the 1MC icon and said, “All hands stand down from action stations…crew meeting in the mess in ten minutes.” He poked the icon again to close the channel.

CJ and the crew soberly realized just how long the pact between MT&T and the Kang had been in place as they studied the stolen security data during the meeting. The data also included some information they didn’t expect to find. Tactical analysis outlined offensive and defensive capabilities of the Kang ships. Four areas marked in red showed sensitive areas of the ship that could be targeted for maximum effect.

The information that was the toughest to stay objective about was the staged steps of allowed abductions of MT&T personnel and passengers. Coordinates and ship positions, crew compliments and passenger manifests, timelines and loss estimates, it was all there. Even how many people were going to be processed for food and how many were allotted for slavery were detailed. The damning evidence was there too, the sheer size of the payoffs to MT&T by the Kang was staggering. The amounts of the payoffs, when they were made and the names of the recipients were listed there. Everything they needed to expose MT&T as traitors to Humanity was in this file.

“Now, what do we do with it?” CJ asked the group. “Ideas?”

“What about just sending it to a guard outpost, letting it go up the chain of command?” suggested Cal.

“Not direct enough. We need something to catch them with their pants down,” Boss said. “Galactic media would be the same too, I think. Maybe an investigation might start, but that would just give MT&T time to cover up and claim it’s a hoax.”

“Why not just take it to the Emperor?” asked Cat.

“You’d have to go through the Board of Regents and there’s more than a little MT&T influence flowing through there, I’ll bet,” said Katy. “Get the wrong one and the data will disappear and us along with it. We need a way to get it out to the people so there’s no chance they can cover it up.”

“Isn’t there any edgy media company that’s hungry enough to run this?” Cal asked.

“Not that’s big enough, and Marlacuer Imperial Streamcasting is the only one with system-to-system access,” Boss said.

“System to system!” CJ said loudly. “That’s it! The navigation beacons…they stream the anomaly updates constantly from system to system for the nav computers, and they’re picked up by traffic control, commercial and private pilots, media agencies, everyone…it’s a public address system. All we need to do is tap into it somehow.”

“There’s no way to hack that signal, Captain,” Gina said. “It’s buried so deep it would take ten years just to break the access codes.”

“For us, yes. Not so for GABI,” CJ said. “GABI?”

“Yes, Captain?” she responded through the comms unit.

“Could you hack the navigation beacon’s signal?” CJ asked.

“Yes, Captain. However, a direct physical linkup would be required to do so.”

“Hmm, that means we have to get inside a beacon hub,” CJ reasoned. “Katy, can we rig up a comms panel to streamcast in a continuous loop?”

“Sure, you bet.”

“Okay, here’s what we do,” CJ said. “We get to a nav beacon hub, we cross over in thruster suits, GABI hacks the signal, we tie in the comms panel to streamcast in a loop and then scram before anyone shows up. Issues?”

“Yes.” Cal held up his hand. “The nav hubs are all in major Marlacuer systems.”

“And they’re protected by perimeter alert sensors,” added Gina, “which are monitored and responded to.”

“How long before response arrives?” CJ asked.

“Within an hour, for sure,” Gina said.

“GABI, how long to hack the signal?” CJ asked.

“Impossible to say, Captain,” she answered. “The duration depends upon the amount of security layers that need to be bypassed. The closest estimate would be thirty minutes.”

“So we jump to a system with a nav hub, we use the DME to approach unseen, we penetrate the perimeter, cross over in EV suits, break into the hub, hack the nav signal, get back to the ship, and jump out,” CJ said.

“And if the Imperial Star Guard gets there before we’re done?” Cal asked.

“Then we’ll be the ones caught with our pants down,” CJ half joked.

“Captain, I think whoever goes should take
Moonshadow
over and go EV from there,” Boss said.

“Reasoning?” CJ asked.

“If things go south, then the
Moon
could draw off the attack while the EV team completes the job and they’d have a way to escape when they’re done,” Boss explained.

“That’s a tough split on the teams, Boss,” CJ said. “GABI is the only one capable of plotting an inner system jump and she’s the only one who can hack the signal. Using the shuttle is a good idea, though. We can always try to hold off any forces that show up to give the team the time they need to streamcast the signal. We use the Moonshine and the DME to break away, pick you guys up, and then GABI can jump us all away.”

CJ looked around at the faces of the crew. All of them seemed to be working the plan out in their heads and trying to find the weak points present in all plans. The key was to recognize them before they unraveled the plan at the very worst moment. The few minutes that passed showed that the plan held up to the crew’s scrutiny.

“Actually, it seems doable,” said Boss with a shrug. “GABI and I could handle it, Captain.”

“That’s commendable, Boss, but Katy and GABI are the best team for this job,” CJ countered. “I want you to pilot
Moonshadow
, keep her close and ready to run when they’re back on board. If we’re engaged, we’ll try to break away. Be ready to pull a ‘Boss nine.’ Once you’re in, we jump away. Good?”

Cal raised his hand again. “Sorry Cap, but how’s the S.O. gonna pilot the shuttle in a suspensor chair?”

“No need to apologize, Cal. I’d be surprised if someone didn’t bring it up. Nelson’s team of miracle workers rigged up a full body suspensor frame.”

“That’s right” Boss beamed happily. “It only lasts about ten to twelve hours between charges, but that ought to be enough time to get done what we need to.”

CJ nodded his head. “Okay, Katy, get moving on that comms panel and study up and be ready to dismantle the nav hub. Boss, GABI, find us a good target, one that might give us a longer window. Cat, you and Cal check the missile batteries, the particle cannon relays, and the fuel plates. Make sure everything is locked, stocked, and ready to rock. Gina, you and I are going to go over every inch of the MT&T Predators and the Kang warships, analyze their weak spots, and come up a with some attack strategies. Is everyone clear on what they need to do?”

The crew responded with affirmatives and they broke their meeting to accomplish the primary steps of their plan: to hack into the nav beacon and streamcast the stolen data to everyone in the galaxy who was listening.

Katy hardwired a copy of the stolen data file to a comms panel that could be installed to any internal data port. After studying the schematics of the nav beacon, she found the quickest way to where they needed to jack in and let CJ know.

Boss and GABI poured over the star charts to establish the positions of the nav beacons and picked the best ones that fit in with the plan. Out of the five that were close, one offered the best time window, Halicos. The Halicos star system was almost back full circle to where Trigger and the others tried to take control of the
Altered Moon
. The better time window, however, meant being farther from the Imperial guard.

Cat and Cal checked and double-checked the missile batteries and made sure all the fish were loaded and secured in the clips that fed the autoloader magazine. Cal used his cyber eye to scan for any small detail that could become a large problem later, just when they didn’t need it. Cat checked over the new crystal amplifiers the Keect’na installed in the
Moon
’s cannon relays. The cannon system drew charged hydrogen from the ISE and compressed it into a focused stream through a series of power amplifiers; then it was released through the cannon ports on the front of the ship.

The Keect’na amplifiers increased the power even more by refining the stream through precisely designed crystal lenses that made the beams ten times more powerful. The two of them replaced all the fuel plates regardless of how much was left on the former ones. Power flow was of critical importance during any risky maneuver, battle being the riskiest of all of them. By the time Cat and Cal were finished, the
Altered Moon
was ready to whoop some ass.

CJ and Gina studied the designs of both the MT&T security ships and the Kang warships. They talked about where the weak points were and how to get a position lock on them. Several strategies came out of their planning efforts: optimal angles to attack from, which attack would be the most effective for certain areas, which attacks to link together, how to evade their defense batteries, and the best ways to finish them off. MT&T was easy now that they could scan for their fuel signature and Boss had already exposed a weak spot where the wing and engine assemblies came together. An attack on the Kang was a different matter completely.

The Kang were violent and warlike by nature and their ships were designed to withstand an incredible amount of damage and still maneuver and return fire. The only way to destroy the vessel was from the inside out, with an explosion massive enough to affect the entire ship or a barrage of fire from one or more cruiser class warships. The
Altered Moon
attacking a Kang warship would be the proverbial fly that buzzed around the giant’s head. It might be able to land a sting or two, but would probably get swatted in the end.

“We’ll just have to keep clear of them,” CJ told Gina nonchalantly. “We’ve got GABI—we can jump away at any time if it gets hot.”

“Maybe, Captain, but don’t forget the Kang can inner system jump too,” she said. “And all they need is one shot.”

“Yes, of course, you’re right, Gina. Battle has no room for hubris.”

“The Kang ships aren’t as quick as the
Moon
, but their top end speed is greater,” Gina pointed out. “They’ll catch us in the long run, but I’ll fly circles around those snake-headed bastards if they do,” she finished with a determined point of her finger.

“Hmm, maybe hubris makes its own room,” CJ said as he smiled at Gina’s statement. Gina looked sheepishly over at CJ and they both laughed out loud at their courageous pre-battle convictions.

The day’s work shift ended with all the preliminary tasks of the mission completed to the best of the crew’s abilities. The end-of-day debriefing gave the crew a chance to go over the details one more time to see if they had missed even the smallest thing that would disrupt the flow of their plan. A delay at any step would increase the danger of being caught tenfold. CJ called an end to the meeting when they couldn’t think of anything else to cover and the crew went to catch what rest they could, if any, before the next day’s mission.

CJ called out, “GABI, you up?” when he and Katy got back to his quarters.