Chapter 27 - The Swarm Comes to Visit

I turned to Barbara to suggest that we start walking when Veronica's voice cried out. "Oh god! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We missed it! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Timothy!" I bellowed. "Report!"

"We have a Sa'arm ship inbound. It came in from directly to spinward and just appeared from behind the sun. It's only about seven light minutes away right now. We didn't see it because of the sun."

"Fuck!" Yvette cried. "Anyone know how much time we have?"

Louis must have heard the interchange. "Depends on the size, but their raiders can cover that in about twenty minutes."

I heard the gasp from Bonnie, one of Tyson's concubines. "But it can take that long just to get into battle armor."

"Terrence, take over!" I cried. "Tyson, Linus get to the lasers and get them powered up. Fred, Xavier, Brad let's get armored up. First ones ready take the guns."

I turned to dash down the corridor as a series of confirmations rang out. Janice took off after me as Terrence called out. "Damn! I guess no time for formalities. Robin, stay with Diana, she can take you to the school, it's probably the best protection we can offer. Barbara, I guess we have to trust you. Come with me, I have to stop at the command post and you'll be able to see more from there."

I could hear a chorus of affirmations as I dashed past the crossing. Yvette called out. "Brad won't be there in time. He was sleeping and is just waking up. Fred's confirmed that he's on his way."

I did not even nod as I passed by and reached the door to the laser pod. As always the door seemed to open painfully slowly, but as soon as possible Janice and I stepped inside and told the AI to open the door to laser one. As we went inside I called out to Meiko and Tina who were fortunately just finishing their maintenance check on my armor.

"Its not a drill this time girls," I called out as I tossed the flechette guns aside and started to strip down. "We've got incoming and just enough time to get the armor on and the laser up."

I heard the gasp from Tina, but Meiko was already dashing forward with the pants to the armor as Janice grabbed the helmet and started the power up sequence. The pants took a moment to struggle into, but a moment later I was sitting down as Tina and Meiko fought the boots into my feet.

Just then Tamara's voice came over the speaker. "I've taken over tracking. Damn! No wonder Veronica missed it."

"What?" I asked as I struggled into the body part of the underarmor. It was an armored vest with padded sleeves to protect the arms once the plating was added, and never went on smoothly. I had managed to get my left arm most of the way through when Tamara spoke again.

"It's a raider. Or at least a ship sized for raiding rather than one of their hive spheres. The thing has almost no emissions and must have appeared in-system almost directly on the opposite side of the sun from us," she said. "Right now no planet is in that section of its orbit, so the only scanners we have covering that area are near Ishtar and the sun blocked their scans. We literally couldn't see it until it came out from behind the sun."

"Damn!" Louis said. "Permission to have the AI create additional sensor and scanning resources to prevent this in the future." He called out.

"Granted," I said with a grunt as my struggles finally got the vest around my head. Tina and Janice pulled my hands through the ballistic cloth and I stood up, checking to make sure the armor vest was not binding.

Ulla then called out. "No response from the navy. I've sent out a fold-space and a ping."

Yvette called. "Listen for a response. Meanwhile if any of you aren't fighting get to the multi-use room or the school, they have the best protection."

Reggie responded. "We're already on it. I've got the concubines pairing up and each taking a child for now."

Just then Linus burst in and looked over at me. "Good. Fred's going to be on laser two with Tyson serving as his support. Xavier's armor was just redlighted. The air exchanger failed!"

"Damn!" I cried as Meiko and Janice started attaching the armor to the undersuit. This process pretty much requires that the person wearing the armor sit still while a number of plates and armor forms are attached to each other and the armor itself. Done properly the process can take up to one hour, but my concubines were cutting every corner possible to get the armor on.

Linus was frantically calling up the tracking data and powering up the laser. As he did the girls finally got the lower armor sealed up and hurried me over to the stand that held the actual body armor and activated the mechanism to drop it over my head. "Got tracking!" Linus called out. "Looks like we've got a couple extra minutes."

"The Sa'arm slowed down to fire on the remnants of the supply depot that was still in orbit around Rogers," Tamara reported.

"Rogers?" I asked as the body armor slid into place and I could hear the seals between the body and leg portions connect.

There was a giggle. "Well, we wanted to name the other planets around Ishtar. Tiffany found reference to some horrible movie with main characters Rogers and Clarke, so the first planet is Clarke, the second Rogers and we are Ishtar."

Tyson's laughter joined in. "I thought Ishtar was a goddess. Why not use other goddess names?"

"The fast moving moon is Inanna, and the slower one Astarte, does that work?" Tiffany replied. "Oh, I've got comm. No verbal response from the navy, but I have confirmation that the ping Ulla sent arrived at the Naval base at Borneo."

"Not that they could help anyways," I said as I struggled with the arms of the armor. The left was moving smoothly, but the right kept catching in the shoulder. After three attempts it was clear that I would not be able to lift that arm over my head.

"Shit!" Tina cried. "A spur broke loose and its got the shoulder hydraulics gummed up. We can free it."

"How long?" I asked as I signaled Meiko to put my helmet on.

"Ten minutes," Janice said.

"We've got four before the Sa'arm hit the atmosphere," Linus said.

"Fred?" I called out.

"I need six more minutes for the armor," he said.

"No time, check the seals. If they are good, I'm going up," I said.

Meiko activated the seal test and a moment later the armor showed all green with the exception of the jammed right shoulder. I sprinted into the laser bay followed by Janice who scrambled up the ladder as I climbed into the seat. She started connecting the cables that provided the visual and diagnostic signals between the laser and the armor. I did a quick systems test and got my hands in position.

"One minute out!" Linus said. "Janice get out of there, I'm about to seal him up."

"Come back lover," Janice whispered and then scrambled back down the ladder and out of the bay. The laser chimed indicating full readiness.

"All clear!" Linus cried. "Raising laser!"

The whole unit gave a shudder and started a rapid ascent to the surface. The ceiling seemed to bubble upwards and then burst apart as a greenish-yellow haze enveloped me. "Damn! Visibility by eye is zero. I'm going to have to use instruments." I said.

Linus tried to sound calm, but the stress was clearly evident in his voice, as all other vocal traffic seemed to halt. "I can guide. It's coming in from the north. Turn to zero, zero, five and raise the aim to seventy. You should have him lined up."

I used the footpads to swing the guns around as I watched my display. The heads-up display in my helmet started showing a linear depiction of the Sa'arm ship and I lined it up, taking a shot but missing the rapidly approaching vessel. "Shit!" I cried.

"What?" Linus said as I used the controls to calibrate the aiming sight to lead the ship by two units.

"Lasers might be lightspeed, but reactions aren't. Fred, compensate your aim by two," I said as I lined up a second shot. I pulled the trigger and listened to a loud crunch as the barrels rotated. As they did a red light appeared on my display.

"A hit!" Linus cried.

"I've only got one more shot!" I said. "The device that rotates the barrels just snapped in the air out here." I was frantically trying to line up a shot with rapidly degrading targeting and finally pressed the trigger a third time. As I did the right foot pedal snapped off, causing me to slam forward against the console.

"Another hit!" Linus called as I gave a grunt of surprise. "James are you okay?"

"No," I said as I activated the controls to descend the laser. The effect was immediate, and not much unlike one of the old carnival parachute drop rides. The laser immediately dropped the forty feet or so back to rest and the ceiling closed above me. As soon as the laser stopped dropping, the air was filled with a shower of water.

I took a moment to catch my breath as Fred called out. "Going up."

"Make your shots count, but make them fast. I had no targeting at the end, and my right foot pedal snapped because of the acid," I gasped.

Tyson seemed almost emotionless in his calm. "I've got his back. Fred, the Sa'arm is coming from the north, but getting close rapidly. Turn to zero, three, zero, and watch for him at about fifty degrees."

The rain of water had stopped and I righted myself in the chair and started to unhook the wires so I might climb down. As I did the right arm of my armor snapped and fell to the floor with a loud clang.

"James?" Linus called out. "What was that?"

I looked at the offending piece of armor for a moment. "Well, I think my armor just died. The right arm just fell off. Better get a grav sled and run it back to the armory for repair or replacement."

"A hit!" Tyson called out. "High and right. Let's get another!"

Fred was boisterous. "James you weren't kidding about the targeting, but there!"

"That's three, want to try for..." Tyson started.

He never finished his thought as the Sa'arm ship suddenly exploded, sending the acidic clouds billowing away in a blast of fury.

"Shit!" Fred cried. I could hear a shriek of abused metal and the pod shook with a thud.

"You okay man?" Tyson called.

"The blast knocked me back in my seat and tore all the connections out," Fred replied. "The dead man's switch brought me down."