Solbidyum Wars 3: Pirates of Goo'waddle Canals (14 page)

The plan was simple.  Our patrol ship would land in the far corner of the plate supply yard, where metal plate construction materials were stored.  A large portion of the yard was empty, either awaiting the delivery of more plates or simply remaining unused at the moment.  The space was large enough and far enough away from the main portion of the yard to land unobserved.  Our patrol ship would set down while cloaked.  Fortunately this section of the yard was not lighted.  We would wait several minutes while scanning the vicinity to make sure that no one was around and that our landing had gone undetected.  Once our position was secure, the ship would drop its RMFF for a few seconds — just long enough for us to disembark and move clear of the RMFF zone.  The ship would then cloak again and remain in position until our return. 

In addition to the vid cameras, each trooper would be fitted with an individual cloaking device would remain cloaked for the duration of the operation.  We would assemble at the same location outside the RMFF zone, at which time the ship would uncloak.  We would all quickly load; the ship would cloak again; and we would be on our way back to the
NEW ORLEANS
. 

The trick would be to time the periods of uncloaking so that we would not be detected by the four Markazian fighters circling the area.  A distraction was needed; and it was decided that Kerabac would take the freighter, one of the Nibarian operatives and two of my other crewmembers, and fly in to an area near the shipyard but out of range of our muster point.  We anticipated that all the fighters would respond to inspect the freighter and warn K
erabac to back away.  Kerabac would pretend to be a trader.  Having a Nibarian onboard and a miscellaneous combination of other races for crewmembers would bolster his image as a freelance trader.  He would, of course, leave, but by then we would have landed, uncloaked and disembarked, and restored the ship’s cloak as we started to execute the recon mission. 

Boarding and leaving would not be so easy, but we would cross that bridge when we came to it.  There was no danger for Kerabac and his team, because they would have their RMFF engaged.  Even if the fighters decided to open fire on him, they would be safe.

So, with this plan in place, we flew down to a level below that of the Markazian fighters.  I was glad that the GW propulsion system made no sound; there was nothing to alert anyone to our presence.  Once we were in place, one of the troopers trained in the use of the DSC system sent a message to Kerabac, and he moved the freighter toward the shipyard at a low altitude.

At first, there wasn’t any response from the Markazian fighters; but suddenly, two of them broke off in the direction of the freighter.  The other two moved to position themselves between freighter and the shipyard, while the first two made contact with Kerabac.  In that moment our patrol
ship uncloaked and we quickly disembarked.  For a matter of about fifteen seconds the ship was visible, and then it was gone from sight again.  In the dark, even if anyone had caught momentary sight of it, they would have been rubbing their eyes, thinking it was their imagination or the fatigue of the night shift that made them think they saw a ship for an instance. 

Immediately, we all moved in different directions to check out the area and buildings as assigned to each group.  Even though the cloaking devices were enhanced with noise dampeners, the team was careful to move as silently and stealthily as possible across the compound.

I headed to the hangar where Orcpipin indicated he had seen the Mirage Fighter.  Once I entered the main part of the shipyard complex, I began to encounter more and more people.  The closer I got to the hangar where the Mirage Fighter was stored, the more armed guards and troopers I saw at various posts and tower platforms.  When I finally reached the hangar, I noted two armed guards posted outside the closed door.  This was going to be tricky.

If I opened the personnel door to enter, it would be obvious that someone was there.  The large hangar bay door was also closed, so I could not enter that way.  I was afraid I was going to need to disable the guards to gain entrance, when suddenly one of them received a message on their wrist com.

“It was just a trader that wandered off course, nothing to panic about.  He’s heading out of the area now.”

“Does that mean we can open the hangar doors again? We have a surface transport carrying materials that needs access as soon as possible,” one of the guards said into his com link.

“Yeah, it’s safe.  The area is clear.”

I looked about and noted a small surface transport with a flat bed and some containers on it staged near the hangar bay door.  A driver sat in the cab, looking rather bored.  I moved quickly and hopped up onto the back of the truck just as the large hangar doors began to open.  The driver immediately started to move forward and I lost my balance and nearly fell off the truck.  I quickly allowed myself to collapse onto the bed of the transport, saving myself from falling off the back.  Then, as the transport passed into the hangar and slowed down, I jumped off.  I could see the
Mirage Fighter parked deeper inside the hangar. Eight armed guards were posted at different locations, but none of them seemed terribly alert.

I needed to get closer to the fighter’s exterior to record better images on my vid cam, and then find a way into the ship itself.  With all the people moving about the ship’s perimeter, I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish that.

Once again, luck was with me.  A chime sounded.  At first I wasn’t sure what was going on, but then I noticed everyone moving away from the ship and to the side of the hangar, where they began picking up containers and finding seats on boxes and crates.  Apparently, we had arrived just as they were taking a meal break.  I wasted no time in getting aboard the ship, carefully passing one remaining guard as quietly as I could.  Once inside, I headed to the engine compartment.  It was empty — they had removed the engine. 

I next went to the control room.  It was obvious they were in a stage of dissembling the control console to identify the various functions related to the engine and the absent cloaking device.  Once I was finished collecting sufficient images, I quickly headed out of the ship, once more slipping quietly
past the guard.  I looked about the hangar and noted an area in the back where I had seen a number of technicians gathered earlier.  With them out of the way, it was possible to see the missing GW engine modules in various stages of disassembly.

I moved to that area past another guard and walked about the engine, looking at every detail and making sure the images were all being recorded.  I was about to leave when I noticed a vid pad lying on the table.  I could see that someone had been constructing a schematic of the engine.  I was hoping that this was the only vid pad on which this data existed.  I picked it up and slid it inside of my cloaked area.  I managed to quietly slip it inside my shirt before working my way to the door. 

I knew I needed to get out before the meal break was over or they might close the hangar door again.  I was sure that once the meal break was over and the vid pad was discovered to be missing, a full scale security breach alarm and search would begin.  I was hoping it would be assumed that an employee had either misplaced it or that a dishonest employee had stolen it; either way, I doubted anyone would realize that someone had infiltrated the area and taken it. 

I quickly headed back to the muster point where the patrol ship was staged and cloaked.  I arrived and waited quietly, checking my watch every few seconds, when suddenly, someone bumped into me.  I felt a hand grasp my arm and knew it was one of my own security team.  I had warned everyone not to speak once we were outside our ship; so we just stood quietly at the ready, waiting to run toward the ship as it dropped its shields.  At one point, I felt him jar a bit and I assumed that someone had also bumped into him. 

A few more minutes passed before the patrol ship appeared before us.  By now, all of the team was holding hands and I led the group quickly into the ship.  Once aboard, the last man in the line triggered a signal button that closed the door, at which time our pilot cloaked the ship and activated the RMFF.

Before departing, we all uncloaked in the hold; a quick headcount confirmed that we all had returned safely.  I moved to the bridge where our pilot and weapons officer were monitoring the positions of the circling Markazian fighters.  Slowly we lifted off, moving up to a level just below the circling fighters.  As soon as the nearest one passed, our pilot hastily moved to a higher elevation and then set a course to our rendezvous point with the
NEW ORLEANS
.

Once we were safely aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
, my team assembled with Commodore Stonbersa in a large conference room adjacent to the hangar to display and uploaded the images captured by each helmet camera.  We discussed the findings with Cantolla and A’Lappe, who also attended, along with the ship’s engineers, in an effort to quickly and thoroughly assess the information.  When the images of the ship and engine were finally displayed, a sad look came over A’Lappe’s face.

“Well, I think this answers the question of the type of action you will need to take,” he began.  “I don’t think you have any choice but to destroy the ship and its components.  There is no way you would be able to successfully remove the ship in its current condition.  From what I can see, they have already gleaned a good bit of data, though not enough to construct one of our GW engines.”

“I brought back this little gift for you,” I said as I handed him the vid pad.

A’Lappe took the pad and began scrolling through the images and data.  “If this is all they have acquired so far, we arrived here just in time.  But let me ask you, where did you get this?”

“I picked it up from a table where they were tearing apart the engine.”

“You do realize that, as soon as they look at their security vids of the hangar, to identify the thief, they will see the vid pad suddenly lift from the table and disappear into thin air?”

I felt sick.  A’Lappe was right.  It would only be natural for them to check their security recordings; and when they did, the disappearance of the vid pad would be evidence of us having been there.  They would be on high alert.  The only good thing was that we had no further need to return to the ground, since it was clear that we could not recover the ship.  On the other hand, I didn’t like the idea of killing all the civilians that worked at the yard just to prevent the reverse-engineering of the Mirage Fighter and its engine.

“You’re right, A’Lappe, I didn’t think of that.  OK, well, what’s done is done.  Here is what we’re going to do.  We are not waiting until tomorrow to attack.  We’re going to head back to the shipyard now with the
NEW ORLEANS
.  Commodore, is there a way we can set the hangar building on fire from the NEW OLEANS without instantly destroying it?”

“If we ramp the laser power down enough, I think we can; but if we’re going to fire through the RMFF, it’s going to be difficult to calibrate a weak-enough beam.  A’Lappe, what do you think?”

A’Lappe blinked his eyes in his usual hypnotic fashion.  “I think I can do it.  What are you planning, Tibby?”

“I don’t want to wipe out lives indiscriminately.  If we set the building on fire, the people inside will flee, then we can destroy it once they’ve evacuated.  In fact, I would like to set all the buildings on fire and then destroyed.  I imagine all proprietary information would be required to stay inside the buildings; so if any other vid pads or computers containing data exist inside the complex, they’ll be destroyed with the structures.”

“Tibby, you are the strangest warrior I have even known, but I’m glad to know you,” Commander Wabussie said.

Minutes later, we were once again in position over the shipyard.  By now I was on the bridge with Commodore Stonbersa, Captain Kerabac — who had docked the freighter inside the
NEW ORLEANS
before we returned from the surface — Commander Wabussie, Lieutenant Commander Sokaia, Kalana, Marranalis and, of course, A’Lappe.

A’Lappe made adjustments to the laser weapon systems and entered precise coordinates for each target in the shipyard complex.  “Whenever you’re ready, Tibby.”

“Go ahead and do it.”

A’Lappe pushed a button on the weapons console and almost instantly, fires broke out at discrete locations on all the buildings.  The four fighters circling the base honed in on our location by triangulating our shots and began to open fire on us with everything they had.  Light and energy beams played across the RMFF shield as we sat safely inside, watching the shipyard going up in flames.  We magnified the images and saw hundreds of people fleeing the complex, trying to retreat from the burning buildings as far away as possible.  When we no longer saw any people coming out of the structures, I told A’Lappe to up the power.  I wanted the buildings totally destroyed – especially the hangar and the
Mirage Fighter inside.

A’Lappe boosted the power level to the lasers and, when he discharged the weapons on their targets the second time, each building literally exploded in white bursts of energy.  Once again, the Markazian fighters opened fire and the RMFF shields absorbed their energy.

“Set course for the rendezvous point with Captain Felenna.  Great job, everyone.  One challenge down and one to go.”

“I’m getting readings of a number of fighters mobilizing in our direction,” said A’Lappe.  “They seem to be coming from the military bases here on Gaimse.  I also detect five corvettes and two frigates.”