Warrior Chronicles 2: Warrior's Blood (13 page)

The M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mine dated its development back to World War Two on Earth. It was originally developed as a trench mine. A layer of C4 explosive, when detonated, propelled a matrix of seven hundred 3.2mm steel balls at an optimal velocity of twelve-hundred meters per second. That velocity was achieved at about fifty meters. When Cort triggered the mines, he was just over forty meters from his target. He was gripping one mine in each hand. The last two segments of all his fingers were blown off in the detonations. The plastic casings of the mines severed his thumbs as well. The twin shockwaves were directed forward, but still shattered the bones in his palms and broke both of Cort’s wrists. Without the FALCON’s carbon nanotubes, he would have lost both forearms below the elbows. But if Cort’s hands were mutilated by the explosions, the powered armor he aimed the Claymores at was nearly vaporized. There were only small, bloody pieces of the armor left in the corridor. It was much more damage than the mines should have done.

Cort was in too much pain to question Lady Luck. It was incredible. Both arms burned as if they had been cast into a furnace. He staggered forward, trying to take off his combat helmet, but only succeeding in covering the visor with blood and pieces of his own ruined flesh. He saw Sköll’s head just inside the door. The wolf’s body was gone, mixed with what was left of the invader. He fell to his knees and crawled on his elbows to where Kay sat staring at him. Her eyes were cold and distant. One hand still held her sidearm, its slide locked open, the magazine spent. The other was over a massive hole in her swollen abdomen. Cort felt someone pull his helmet off. He heard voices. There was so much blood. It was all around him, under and around Kay, all over Sköll’s head. It was everywhere. He reached up to Kay’s neck to feel for a pulse.
Where is my hand? Why isn’t Angela here?
He wondered why the light was fading.

“Mr. President,” the aide interrupted his leader’s supper, “you are needed in the control center, sir.”

“What is it?” Beards asked.

“It appears that Addison is in orbit above us, sir.”

“What? Addison? How?” President Beards had been informed a week before that his people had lost contact with the assault staging facility at Mars’ northern pole. Given the harsh polar environment there, it wasn’t terribly surprising. They were due to hear from the Oxia Palus assault team at any time. Beards had expected that to be the news his aide was bringing him.

“We don’t know, sir. But a large ship appeared in orbit fifteen minutes ago.”

Beards was walking out of the dining room with the aide and said, “That means he launched months ago, doesn’t it?”

“It would seem so.”

“Well, at least no one can say our new attack on Mars was unprovoked now.” Beards was in politician mode now. “Spin it as ‘We detected the launch and immediately dispatched a security team to protect our scientific interests on Mars.”

As they arrived in the government control center, Beards saw several cabinet members already seated. “What do we have?”

Pan said, “We don’t know, sir. A ship appeared between us and the Moon and immediately slipped in a medium earth orbit.”

A general said, “Sir, it can only be Addison. I will have a military satellite in position to take the ship out in three minutes.”

“We don’t know it is Addison, Mr. President. We haven’t even seen a visual of the craft yet. It would be unwise to attack it without identifying it first.”

President Beards asked, “Is there any chance that it is from another alliance?”

“No sir,” the general answered. “We monitor them closely. There have been no Earth-sourced launches since the last three from the Addison facility. Other than our own, that is.”

“We have to consider that is a craft of other origin, sir,” Pan argued.

“Mr. President, we have two minutes to decide. My satellite’s orbit is converging with that of the Martian ship. They will have less than ten seconds to react.”

“NO. You have two minutes until the first attack window. We can wait longer!” Pan said.

“If we don’t attack now, we might not get another chance, sir.”

Beards was lost in thought.
If we attack, we might be throwing away any chance at peace with Addison. If we don’t, we might be condemning our entire nation to his wrath. What if it isn’t him? Can I take that chance?

“I’m sorry, Doctor Pan. We cannot take the chance. General, fire everything you have the moment the ship is in within range. Gods help us all if I am wrong.”

Pan said, “Mr. President, I prot….”

“Noted, Dr. Pan. My decision stands.”

Pan said, “I can no longer serve you Mr. President. I resign, effectively immediately.” Without waiting for a response, Pan left the room.

“Good riddance.”

“That was uncalled for General. Keep your opinion of Doctor Pan to yourself,” Beards said.

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry sir. Launching weapons now.”

Earth Orbit

“The planet is much more advanced than we expected sir,” First Arjoul said to the Captain. “We are picking up a full range of electromagnetic and photomagnetic transmissions. There is also a multitude of artificial satellites.”

“This complicates things. The planet was in queue to be seeded. Notify Director Speral immediately” Captain Wilzch commanded,

“Yes, sir,” the communications officer said. A moment later he added, “Message sent, sir.”

“WEAPONS INBOUND!”

“What? Activate beacons!
Evasiv…” The command was not completed.

1200 Light Years From Earth

“Sir, it’s Pagztay. We have received two communications from Scout Vessel 17.”

Speral rose from her bed. “What is it Pagztay? You don’t wake me for messages from scout vessels.”

“It’s system 432, sir. The accelerated examination. The first message indicated a much greater evolution than was expected, including artificial satellites.”

Interesting. Artificial satellites could disallow seeding.
“And the second, Pagztay?”

“Less than a fraction later, sir. A distress signal. They were under attack. We have received signals from thirteen personal beacons since the distress signal. They have all since discontinued. We cannot link the ship or personnel back to our location.”

“Opinion?”
If we cannot link the ship back, it is destroyed. The beacons being activated support this. But they are gone too. Definitely an attack. Last time the personal beacons remained active. But the rescue ship didn’t recover them. Technical constraints, I believe.

“I am of two minds, sir. One, we were attacked fractions after transitioning into system 432. Two, It would be very unusual for a scout vessel to be attacked so quickly. In past similar situations, we’ve either had time to evade the attackers or we have been able to establish communications. And remember, it’s the second time we’ve lost a ship in orbit around the third planet of system 432,” Pagztay said.

Speral closed her eyes and began reading the report on the previously lost scouting expedition. When she reopened them, she said, “The previous loss was two expeditions ago and it was determined to be due a natural impact. The extensive effect on the planet’s atmosphere made beacon recovery impractical. The collision was probably a comet or asteroid.”

“But sir, two losses around the same planet. It certainly warrants a more thorough investigation.”

“Yes it does, Pagztay. It definitely does.” Speral closed her eyes again. A moment later she opened them and said, “I have authorized a three ship patrol to divert to the system and investigate. Please keep me informed.”

“Yes, sir.” Pagztay broke the connection.

Earth

“Mr. President, three ships have appeared in orbit above North America. They have begun neutralizing satellites.”

Beards had been waiting for his aide to bring him this news. Debris from the first ship had been analyzed and the leader of the Atlantic Alliance knew he had ordered an attack on visitors from outside the solar system. Combined with complete silence from Mars, he knew his presidency would be lucky to survive its elected term. Reelection was out of the question. His administration was in damage control mode and failing. All while he was supposed to be running a government.

Beards activated his comm and said, “Thank you, Newl. I will be ready soon.” After he closed the line, he began to dress.
I ran on a promise of scientific promise. But I’ve started two wars. What do I do now?

1200 Light Years From Earth

Speral watched the signal from system 432. The scout ships were destroying the third planet’s artificial satellites systematically. Upon arrival in the system, they confirmed that the expedition ship had been intentionally attacked. Protocol dictated that all threats to the scout force be destroyed immediately upon entering orbit. Then they would assess the situation before deciding on their next step. Once a scout force was dispatched, the leader of the force had complete control and was not required to seek additional input from Speral or the Commune before acting. It was acceptable for Speral to observe over the beacon system, but she could not interfere, or even offer an opinion unless asked by the force commander.

Commander Glydnal was a good choice for this type of mission. While he was brutal in his defense of his ships, he was also methodical. He would not do more than was necessary to ensure the third planet of system 432 was not a threat to his people, but he would do that, even if it meant sterilizing the planet.

Earth Orbit

Glydnal had never seen so many artificial satellites around a single planet. There were literally thousands of them. Clearly the civilization which had deployed them was inconsiderate of their system. Otherwise, they would recycle the debris. At the very least, it should be linked and contained. His own people now captured and recycled all orbital debris. When they were at the same stage of development as 432-3, they disassembled their debris in orbit and restructured it to form orbital platforms. But 432-3 was clearly developing faster than his own homeworld had. He had only seen such rapid development on planets that had military governments. For some reason, sentient species that had the desire to destroy seemed to evolve faster than those who did not.

“Parvess,” Glydnal said, “are you still receiving signals from the surface?”

“Yes, sir. Although we cannot decode them. They are not directed at us though. They seem to be being bouncing off the upper atmosphere to other areas of the planet. My guess is that they are coordinating their defensive strategy.”

Glydnal asked, “Do you think they are planning to attack us?”

“Just a moment, sir.” First Parvess closed his eyes and read. Once he opened them he said, “Sir, we have interpreted their signals. A few more moments, sir.”

Glydnal watched the surface for several fractions. Parvess opened his eyes again and said, “The northern area I am highlighting on the display appears to have separate leadership from this area and this area.”

Parvess waved a hand to divide the planet into three regions. “This region is the group that destroyed our expedition ship. It appears that we are destroying artificial satellites belonging to all three governments.”

“Can you differentiate which regions own which satellites?”

Parvess closed his eyes for a moment then said, “Only visually sir. They have different markings.”

Glydnal thought for a moment before saying, “Very well. Divide the ships. Order them to destroy only the satellites belonging to the region which attacked us. Hopefully, the other two regions will recognize our actions as not being directed toward them.”

“Yes, Commander.” Parvess closed his eyes and issued the orders.