Riss Series 4: The Riss Accession (32 page)

"Yes, that should help take the pressure
off the initial task forces and allow them to establish a defensive position, making
it easier to bring in the rest of the force. Thank you, Leader Reese."

For the last month, all operations were moved
to Fools Hope,
which I hoped
wasn't
a comment on our expectations. Meetings lasted all day, every day. First there were
reports
of the current deliveries
of missiles and components from either Freeland or Dong. Then we sat through a
status update of each ship in each task force. Then the task force commanders
reviewed their training exercise results and discussed their upcoming schedules.
Then at the end of the day, we reviewed the plan for the upcoming invasion.

The
Mnemosyne
and the
Minerva
would enter first
with the objective of striking at the second line of
Medusas
to create a diversion away from the Wave exit. Sixty
minutes after our entry—thirty minutes after our diversion—a
specially configured task force would enter launching Dusters and Dummies. Next,
two
JPU task forces which were
configured with two heavies each. Behind them would be two task forces with
four Riss certified cruisers that would attack the front
Medusas
. Then wave after wave of task forces until the fleet was
totally in Red space. The last group would be the final
four
Riss cruisers. No one complained since two
Riss cruisers were the first to enter Red, and the need for the other four
would
probably be greater when we approached the
inhabitable planets and their platforms. In the end, the invasion date was
moved up one week.

* * *

The day before the invasion, I had the
Riss-humans and their staff to the
Mnemosyne
for dinner.
After dinner
, I
stood for attention.

"We can't be certain what will happen
tomorrow except people will die—friends, comrades, and people we never
knew but who will fight side by side with us and may be the reason we survive.
I know no one in the universe I'd rather trust at my side than those seated
here. Not just comrades, but friends. The Riss have a simple philosophy: each
has a position for the good of the Riss. She does that position to the best of
her ability and trusts her fellow Riss will do the same. Each of you has a
position for the wellbeing of the ship. I know each of you will do your best,
and that is our best guarantee of success." I stopped for the clapping and
shouting of agreement. "Formally, I like to name the position of leaders
in the event I, or another, cannot continue. Captain Pavao, Damaass, Zhang, Sheva,
and Alena." I paused, looking around the room at each individual. "I
want to see you all back here for dinner in a few days."

* * *

Damaass and I took our position at the head
of the growing queue for the entrance to the Wave.

"Good morning,
dybbuk
. I actually feel a bit sorry for the Aliens with you
leading. They don't know you're in their minds. Any advice?"

"No. You're good at mind games. That’s
the reason I chose you. If we haven't been located by Wave exit plus thirty
minutes, activate all systems. That will allow us to find each other, and we'll
coordinate a skip-attack. Otherwise, make a disturbance and execute your
skip-attack. The other will try to wait as close to the thirty minutes as
possible." I winked at the smiling, grizzly face looking back at me.
"See you at the party."

"It's a date." He cut the
connection.

at full power. Execute vector on your board.>

< Engines one, three, five, and seven
going to full power on designated vector.>

I sat back in the captain's chair, oddly at
peace
.

family
. No matter happens, you found
way
to stars.>

steep
cost.>

animals.>

will die happy.>

* * *

We exited the Wave with minimum power and
immediately cut back to one engine at quarter speed. The VTM showed they had
added two additional
Medusas
, one in
the front and another one in the rear. The three front
Medusas
launched twelve cruisers each within minutes of our entry.
The two in the rear didn't.

Watching the VTM, I could see they had changed
their original search pattern and were using their fighters to help. Finding us
would still require luck, as the area was vast, but less luck than before. I
felt serene with my sisters around me, but I wondered how Iglis, Byer, and Seng
felt watching their monitors' feeds from the VTM as the cruisers and fighters
looked much closer that they were. In reality, they were hundreds of thousands
of kilometers apart. Their pattern looked random at first.

pattern
.>

and its fighters move alternatively up or down a quarter light-second.>

They had deduced we had determined their
search pattern last time and were
therefore
able to avoid detection. So this time, they had added an element of apparent
randomness. But it wasn't truly random and could be deduced. A clever addition
against an average radar operator, not against a Riss operator.

<
r-Asdis,
send Helm necessary adjustments.>

I gave a satisfied
snort
several seconds later as
the Alien
cruiser and his ten fighters
on a
vector with us moved
up
a
quarter light-second, and we moved down a half light-second. Twenty seconds
later, they passed a full light-second over us.

For twenty-five
minutes
,
we successfully avoided the cruisers and their fighters as they swept
back and forth searching the area. We were entering into the two rear Medusas'
search area. At the thirty minute mark, I had to act. The task force was due in
another thirty minutes, and the distraction needed time to draw the Aliens as
far away from the Wave as possible.

Medusa
on our
portside
. Send to Helm's board.>

Light flashed red, klaxons blared through the
ship, and an emergency override message scrolled across all SIDs.

"Damaass, Fire two Dusters at your
current position and drop two Dummies; fire a Duster at the
Medusa
on your starboard and
skip-attack, one second skip away; and then go idle. Continue at your
discretion," I said.

Damaass repeated my instructions and cut the
connection.

detonation.>

kilometers from the starboard side of the portside Medusa.>

kilometer from starboard side of portside
Medusa
.>

Medusa
.>

A second later, the Bridge went a ghostly
haze
for two seconds, and the ship shuddered
twice. In the blink of an eye, the Bridge went dim as
power
was reduced to the minimum to
keep
the
critical
systems online. The radar and VTM showed multiple explosions from
twenty-four hits on the two
Medusas
.
The thirty-six cruisers from the three up-front
Medusas
were immediately drawn to the rear.

Medusa
.>

Only seven cruisers emerged from the Medusa
we had attacked. They swooped down on the Dummy. I hoped they would think they
had destroyed the attacking ship. Fifteen minutes later, the cruisers from the
front reached the
original
Dummies
we had released and blew them into space dust.

Ten minutes later, the first task force
entered
Red
. Dusters were
exploding everywhere. Immediately, all the Alien cruisers began racing towards
the Wave exit. It was impossible to tell exactly what was happening because of
the Dusters, but within the clouds explosions lit up every few seconds. Several
minutes later, the
skip
-attacks
against the
front
Medusas
began. Two Riss-certified
cruisers made runs against each
Medusa
.

Destroying the three
Medusas
cost
the
task force three Riss-certified cruisers, major damage to four, and minor to
the remaining five.

starboard our
Medusa
, followed by one
Dummy on my command.>

time
to twenty kilometers from our
Medusa
.>

broadside
of Demons on skip.>

Within seconds of releasing the Dummy, the
Medusa
fired all of its starboard
missiles.

We faded in and out,
two
shudders, and we skipped again.

Sensors indicated that both the
rear
Medusas
were
open
to
space
in many areas,
which didn't matter to
robots
, but it indicated a
major
loss of functionality. The
monitor
showed we had sustained only minor laser
damage. Six wounded, no deaths. I took a deep breath, relieved and trying not
to think of the space rubble that had once been Riss-certified cruisers. This
wasn’t the time.

planets.>

six.>

We had
expended
our skip capability for at least eight hours and would wait for the
fleet to clean up the area.

* * *

The fighting went on for another six hours,
but interestingly the ships at the inhabitable planets made no attempt to
assist, although they were clearly repositioning their available cruisers. I
made contact with Damaass. Like the
Mnemosyne
,
the
Minerva
had sustained little
damage.

The monitor split, and Wattson and Zhu
appeared.

"Leader Reese, what is your
condition?"

"The
Mnemosyne
and the
Minerva
are
fully operational. How did the invasion
force do?"

"From my initial reports, your diversion
gave us a few extra minutes to get established, and planning for the worst case
helped. We did better than we had a right to expect. We lost ninety-three cruisers,
and another twenty-one are not operational. That leaves two hundred six, not
counting the Riss cruisers," Wattson said, ignoring the killed and
wounded. It hurt less to talk in terms of ships.

"The
Mnemosyne
and the
Minerva
are about eight hours
ahead. From what I can see, everything is the same except Red-planets five and three
are missing their
Medusas
. I suspect
they were sent to strengthen security at the Wave exit."

"That is good news. See what you can determine
about Red-planet
four
. We’ll
take care of Red-planet five's platforms on the way to you. Shouldn't be too
bad
with no
Medusa
."

* * *

We stopped two light-seconds from the
platforms orbiting Red-planet
four
.
It was a swarm of activity. In addition to the two
Medusas
, I counted twenty-five of the Aliens' Light cruisers. I had
no proof,
but
I thought it safe
to assume the
Medusas
carried twelve
each. There seemed to be a lot of shuttle activity to and from the fifty-story
platform and the planet. The other four platforms appeared to be abandoned.

Damaass’ smiling face appeared.

"What do you think,
dybbuk
?"

"It looks like the ceasefire at
Freeland," I said, thinking back to the invasion of Freeland
and
the ceasefire the clans had called to surrender.
But their real intent had been to prepare for an all-out suicide attack.

"It does, doesn't it? They are cleaning
up as we watch. Are you going to try and negotiate a treaty?" He laughed, holding
up a wine glass in salute.