Chapter 019:

Modern nanomachine weaponry is roughly divided into two main categories: the nanoplagues and the disassemblers.

Nanoplagues are the most common type of nanoweapons. It is the successor to the biological plagues of old, though with nanomachines replacing the biological pathogens. Rather than attempting to dismantle victims entirely through unrestricted reproduction (like the dissemblers do) they multiply in the target organism like normal bacterias or viruses, using the body’s own biological material to produce toxins harmful to it..

They are also much easier to customize than biological viruses (with competent designers capable of achieving almost any compilation of symptoms) while much more resistant to medical nanomachines used to counter life-threatening infections.

Like in the case of many other weapons, the first nanoplague was created by the transhumans during the War of Purity. Before the Commonwealth’s scientists understood what they were facing and devised a way of countering it, the Solar Plague killed three billion and one hundred twenty four million inhabitants of the Solar System.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 2, page 567

***

EGS Echo, Command Deck

14:03 30.06.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

Lena was finally let into the Big Secret three hours before the execution of Captain Keller’s plan. She felt a serious urge to throw him out of the airlock when he informed her that the reason for the delay in informing her of details was due to wanting to surprise her.

The only reason she didn’t do that was because the plan sounded surprisingly sensible. And actually could work. Of course, sensible in this meant ‘completely crazy but it lowkey makes sense’, but she had somewhat gotten used to sanity being in scarce supply aboard the Echo.

The first element of the plan was a silent alarm. The crew members of the Echo and the Texian recruits ran to the designated positions twenty minutes before the Hyperspace entry. The second one was a detonation of explosives placed around the Echo’s primary communication array, scheduled to happen during the entry. The third one was a jamming signal that shut-down all outgoing communication, once again the very second during the ship found itself in the Hyperspace.

Of course, the first obstacle showed itself rather quickly. The last group of tourists from the Hercules were late due to their shuttle being ‘damaged’. Through the usage of a number of arguments, more or less sensible, they wormed their way into the bridge.

The Captain expected that. He told her that the reason why Hao Yunqi made sure that the crew of the Hercules could still visit the Echo was to sneak in an assault team that will eliminate him and seize the bridge, decapitating the ship’s command structure. With the strike team holding the bridge (and the remaining ships of the fleet targeting the Echo), the ship was bound to fall.

Unfortunately for the Rear Admiral, the plan had one fatal flaw. Keller knew about it beforehand and had prepared countermeasures. The infiltration team was composed of eight marines doing their best to pretend to be simple crew members (to her surprise Lena had to admit that if she didn’t know what to look for, she wouldn’t notice them being someone else).

Marines were deadly combatants, especially as they were facing only three people - Captain Keller, Commander Drathari and Lieutenant Commander Mendez. But it doesn’t matter how good you are - if everything goes to hell seconds before you execute your well-thought plan, you will be startled.

The Captain suddenly grabbed the hand of the marine standing next to him and pulled it back, forcing the infiltrator’s upper body to face him. The marine had a split second to notice that Keller had a pistol in his other arm before three bullets went through the middle of his chest.

At the very same second Lieutenant Commander Mendez crushed the throat of one of the marines with a vertical hit of the edge of her left hand, while using the other hand to pull the pistol out and blow off the head of another marine.

One more marine tried to jump at Mendez, not wasting time to draw his gun. He managed to push her gun away, but noticed that in a wonderful feat of ambidexterity she used her left hand to pull a knife. She interrupted his attack by slitting his throat faster than he could react.

Within five seconds, all the marines present on the command platform were dead. Lena barely had time to pull her pistol out of the holster before. In the next two seconds Mendez finished the two incapacitated enemies (the one with the crushed throat and the one with his throat slit) with two bullets to the head, as both of them were still struggling and tried to stand up or draw their weapons.

Mendez immediately proceeded to jump over the edge of the platform. As a firefight erupted in the lower section of the bridge, Lena suddenly felt someone’s arm at her throat and a pistol barrel on her back.

“DROP YOUR WEAPON OR SHE…” The marine that sneaked behind her shouted. She opened her mouth to speak her own opinion on the subject but he acted faster. Two rounds hit her chest, then the third one hit her right between the eyes.

Now that was pretty damn rude.

She reuploaded her consciousness to the spare body that she had placed in the bridge beforehand. It was little more than a primitive humanoid robot, and her senses suffered a lot. But her eyesight was good enough to notice her own body lying on the floor, the Captain hiding behind his seat and the marine that tried to take her hostage firing at him from behind the cover.

Since the marine happened to have his back towards her new body, she immediately emptied the clip of her pistol into his back. As he slumped to the ground, the firefight in the background died out.

“Clear!” She heard Mendez's voice.

“Wonderful.” Captain holstered his gun and clapped in his hands. “Very nice. Lena, take the tactical officer seat. Eva, communications on standby.”

Someone trying to take a Virtual hostage’s gotta be the funniest thing that happened in my life. We had to really surprise those guys.

She took the seat, and quickly glanced through the data.

“Everything according to the plan.” She announced after a few seconds. The voice of her spare body sounded even more robotic than Innocent. “They raised shields and are trying to hail us. I presume that they think that our communication array got damaged in the explosion.”

“Wonderful, wonderful.” Captain looked deliriously happy. Was it the recent threat to his life that made him act like that? “Power up the Godhammer. Particle shields on standby. Then hail the Hercules.”

***

EGS Hercules, Command Deck

14:07 30.06.2610 STT

Rear Admiral Hao Yunqi

Rear Admiral Hao Yunqi was surprised. It was a natural human reaction to something unforeseen happening, especially out of nowhere. Right before he was supposed to order his ships to target the Echo, a powerful explosion tore apart the heavy cruiser’s communication array. The ship remained silent.

It made little sense.

Had his patrons snuck a spy aboard the Echo? Their contact on Texia claimed they didn’t, but he wasn’t going to trust him - everything seemed to have indicated that Keller thoroughly butchered the Seekers’ cell in the Protectorate, and he refused to trust those that were spared.

But why blow the ship up? Was Keller plotting something that had to be stopped in such a manner? Some third-party, maybe? But who? Discord?

The faces on the main screen were looking at him in silence, waiting for his decision. The Captains of all the cruisers of his little task force were there. All of them from the Explorer’s Guild, rather than being borrowed from local navies. All of them… enlightened.

Why can't we reach the strike team? They have transmitters, they should be able to…

“Admiral, we are being hailed by the Echo.” His communication officer interrupted his internal discussion. The message had no sense, unless Keller or the infiltrator team redirected the messages through backup transmitters.

Another face joined the ones on the screen. Keller. Yunqi disliked that man ever since his arrival to the subsector. Keller was crazy, didn’t understand how the hierarchy worked, and kept demanding things he had no right to receive. His absolute lack of discipline was the cherry on top of this cake of incompetence.

“Hello there!” Captain Keller waved towards the camera, looking annoyingly cheerful… despite the dead bodies splattered around the floor in his background.

“Captain Keller.” The rear admiral did his best to look concerned and neutral. “What happ…” The Captain didn’t let him finish his sentence.

“I’m here to inform you about two things.” Captain grinned and leaned towards the camera. “We just eliminated every single one of your infiltrators. Everyone aboard my cruiser that wasn’t part of its crew got a bullet or two. Your plan to have my ship disappear mysteriously in Hyperspace didn’t work.”

“You madman!” the rear admiral bellowed. He had a masquerade to uphold. “You murdered the Guild’s personnel! Surrender immediately, or we will open fire on your ship!”

“Oh, just shut up, you stupid yakuza cosplayer.” The Captain interrupted him. “I possess evidence that you are working for an organization exiled from the Confederation for numerous crimes against Mankind and violations of both the Icarus Accord and the Founding Charter. If your forces surrender immediately, I’ll offer you a fair trial instead of a summary execution. Decide now.”

Rear Admiral Yunqi laughed. Captain Severus of the Hastati and Captain Arthval of the Agreement joined him. Captain Lebedev of the Progress and Captain Faust of the Nietzsche merely smirked.

“Someone lost his touch with reality.” Captain Lebedev was the first to speak. “You wish to fight against our entire task force at a distance this close? We are less than five kilometers apart from each other. With the amount of damage you received during the Pristine Jewel incident, you will at best damage one of our ships before the rest will annihilate you.”

The distance was beyond close. Most space battles were waged at a distance of at least five hundred thousand kilometers. Five kilometers? No chances of missing the target, no option for evading maneuvers. Armor could at best merely slow down a MAW round, and none of the ships were even facing each other with their armored prows. However, the shields should give them a precious few seconds. Its deployment took at least ten seconds - and the Echo was yet to do so. The first salvo would have obliterated the cruiser, giving it no time to answer.

“Yes. I guess I should offer some arguments to support my statement.” Captain Keller looked unfazed by reality and the basic laws of physics governing ship battles. The Rear Admiral started suspecting that he truly was insane. “I planned to use the Nietzsche, but now that I think about it, your positioning, life philosophy and firepower make you the best target. Thank you for volunteering, Captain Lebedev.”

One second later Captain Sergey Lebedev disappeared from the screen. The small dot marked ‘Progress’ vanished from the tactical display.

What on…

The shockwave hit Hercules. It wasn’t strong enough to damage anything, even on the hull’s surface. But the ship trembled slightly. This could mean only one thing. One terrifyingly impossible thing.

Captain Keller continued, with a wry smile on his face.

“Yes. I have just destroyed the Progress. Too bad, such a nice ship.” The Rear Admiral looked sideways, seeking confirmation… or a much more welcome denial. The terrified face of the Hercules’ tactical officer told him everything he had to know. “I faked the damage reports. Thanks to one of my teams disabling the summoning array in time, we suffered no damage during the Pristine Jewel incident. I command the full firepower of the Echo in its prime condition. Especially as the recent explosion was fake too.”

How?! I had all damage reports checked five times!

“One more thing.” Captain Keller continued. “Do you remember our first meeting? Right after I arrived in the subsector. I was giving you a report about the Echo’s capabilities?” The Rear Admiral nodded, trying to ignore the cold sweat. “I made a slight mistake. That plasma cannon in the middle of my upper deck’s main artillery towers? That’s actually a Void Cannon. I call it the Godhammer. Cute name, isn’t it?”

No. No way. There are only five or six of those within Human Space!

“Well, I just used it to annihilate the Progress.” Captain Keller continued his lecture. His smile was a mockery directed at them. Rear Admiral Yunqi’s hatred for that man kept growing with every second. “I love voidtechs. The Godhammer has an absolute shit range of fire that makes it almost unusable in regular artillery exchanges. But at such a close distance? Neither armor nor your particle shields can even slow it down. And it melts an entire ship in milliseconds.”

“What do you want?” The Rear Admiral knew that it was the moment to fold. At least a bit. A Void Cannon wasn’t something they could fight against. On such an idiotically short distance that voidtech could one-shot a dreadnought. And, according to the data he just received on his personal computer from the tactical officer, it truly was a Void Cannon.

“I’ve run a bit of a simulation before the battle.” The Captain said, for the first moment in a while without a mocking smile. He was serious, for a change. “With the Progress out of the picture, I will fire the Void Cannon twice before you destroy the Echo. This means that if you open fire, exactly half of you are going to die. Without counting the destroyers, as they do not matter.”

The destroyers’ role on the battlefield was to reinforce missile defense and act as scouts. Even if they all lined themselves between the Echo and the Hercules, it wouldn’t be enough to defend against a Void Cannon.

Let’s hope that it will take the captains a while to notice that they just changed from useful help to people who saw too much. Then again, it doesn’t seem that Keller contacted them.

“Get to the point.” The Captain nodded, and for the first time in their common history, he did what Yunqi ordered him to do.

“Very well. I can destroy half of you. You can destroy me. While I can’t wait to see you destroyed, dying in the process doesn’t benefit me. I think that this is the correct time… for some diplomacy.”

Perfect. Looks like there is still a way to turn it around.

“I see. So you are interested in finding a diplomatic solution.” Rear Admiral Hao Yunqi repositioned himself on his seat.

Time was all he required to turn this around. It would not be easy, though. He had to be sneaky and shrewd about it. That was the first and last time Keller outsmarted him.

He started sending orders through his comm-implants. In the meantime, he had to keep Captain Keller occupied.

“Let’s just say that I’m emotionally invested in leaving this place alive. And with my crew and ship intact.” Keller answered. “I’ll, of course, alert the authorities as to your betrayal as soon as I leave the subsector. However, this should provide you with enough time to vanish mysteriously. Not a poor deal, huh?”

“That surely sounds like you, Keller.” The Rear Admiral laughed. “Ever so upright. Always seeing the world in black and white, refusing to see the everpresent gray color. Fanaticism defines you as much as madness does.”

“Seeing a mix of black and white spots where you see a uniform gray color is not a symptom of being a fanatic. It lets me see all the little details with great clarity.” The Captain replied, not losing his serenity for even a second. “Besides, a singularitarian cultist arguing about morality? That’s rich.”

“I prefer the term ‘Seeker of Truth’.” Keller’s face froze for a split second.

“How lovely.” The Captain’s voice was slow. And much, much colder than earlier. “So? Was it worth selling your humanity?”

“Humanity!” The Rear Admiral chuckled. “All I did was to take a step away from this everlasting mess which is the Long War. Almost three hundred years since Semann euthanized the Solar Commonwealth. Almost three hundred years of human cattle butchering each other over ideological differences that were outdated when the second millenium ended. You think I care about such a worthless thing as ‘Humanity’? Fools like you, Keller, live lived built on pathetic lies such 'democracy' or 'religion'. I, instead, looked for Truth. And found it.”

A report from the tactical officer showed up on his implant. Things were progressing just fine. Just one more minute and everything would be over.

“Yes. I believe that another lesson is in order.” Captain Keller looked to the side and nodded to someone. Then he looked at Rear-Admiral Hao once again. “Kaboom!”

All seven missiles disappeared from the sensors at once. The calculated trajectory of the projectiles that destroyed them led to the missile defense batteries of the Echo.

How?!

“The plan was excellent. I admit that.” The Captain smiled at him. “You ejected missiles from the launch silos without activating their engines. They were supposed to fly on their own, undetectable until activation. Then, an instant detonation. Enough to knock the Godhammer out. It would work on most ship captains out there. But not on me.”

Ok, I need to figure out another plan. Fast.

“I’m giving you one last opportunity.” Keller continued. “Surrender immediately, and you’ll get a fair trial. Otherwise, I’m going to exercise the legal result of you being a part of the Truthseekers.”

Rear Admiral Hao was about to answer… but then he noticed something.

“You no longer want to negotiate.” Hao observed. The Captain’s smile widened. “You were trying to buy time.”

“Yes. Just like you. The difference is that my plan will work.” Keller’s smile continued to unnerve the rear admiral.

What confidence. What is he plotting?

Keller had just one ship. Powerful and well-equipped, but there is a limit to what quality can achieve. What could be the source of his confidence? Another exotech? Or was this simply a bluff?

“You are bluffing.” The Rear Admiral decided. There was a limit to how many exotechs of this grade a single ship could display. “My answer is ‘go fuck yourself’.”

The Captain grinned. The grin soon turned to laughter. The Rear Admiral could feel his experience as a Guild's officer screaming to him that something was wrong. Very wrong.

“That’s what I hoped to hear!” Keller finally answered. “I never planned to let you live either way. Now, since it’s already too late for you to do a thing, let’s play a bit of a quiz. What is it: much smaller than a missile and requires almost zero energy to move around the Hyperspace?”

“I don’t have time to play your little gam…” The Rear Admiral’s rebuke was cut short.

“Multiple hull breaches throughout the starboard!” The tactical officer shouted, interrupting Hao. “We… we’re being boarded!” Judging from the reactions of Rear Admiral’s three remaining cruiser captains, the Hercules wasn’t the only ship to be attacked.

“Really? That’s your plan?” Once again during this talk, Hao was suddenly overtaken by an intense relief. “Even without the Progress, we have two marine battalions from the Hercules and the Hastati, and two companies from the Agreement and the Nietzsche. One thousand four hundred professional killers, plus close to three thousand crew members. And you have like what? A company of marines, a few hundred crewmates and a thousand or so fresh recruits?”

Figuring out what to do with the Godhammer once the boarding was repulsed was another thing altogether. On the other hand, if he captured a Void Cannon and handed it to the Corporation… he could only dream of the type of influence and wealth this would give him. It was the type of exotech that had every Seeker salivate.

“I was always a fan of quality.” Keller said. “As I discovered, the quantity might be a type of quality, but it becomes meaningless when faced with an overwhelming quality. That’s why I attached a single very special person to every boarding party. Someone to even the odds.”

“A single person? To even the odds?” Hao Yunqi swiped his forehead. “Are you insane?”

“Not as far as I am aware.” Keller chuckled. “But if you knew the person who is responsible for mental health aboard my ship, you would start having doubts about the entire ‘mental state’ part of my character file too.”

It was unnerving, to say the least. Keller was outnumbered, outgunned and cornered - all that he achieved was a temporary reprieve from having its ship blown up. Yet he was acting like he was having the time of his life.

“You know what, let’s even the odds a bit.” Keller laughed. “I’ll tell you who I send, but without saying to which ship so that you have something to think about. One person now, the others… when it will become really important. Have you guys ever heard of Princess Róża Dunecki?”

Hao could hear himself taking a deep breath in. Captain Severus instead went pale.

No way. No fucking way.

“No, even I can’t get the Redhanded Princess herself to join my crew.” Keller shrugged, while the Rear Admiral and his captains sighed with badly hidden relief. “What an asset would the Victor of Route 67 be? I was there, you know? I got to see fifteen thousand Enhanced together with one hundred thousand regular infantry stopping, pushing back and finally massacring three million triffid warriors. Killing almost all of the aliens while losing merely three hundred people.”

“What are you even talking abo…” The Rear Admiral hadn’t woken up that day to listen to Keller’s memoirs.

“My standing in the Res Publica Christiana wasn’t enough to have Princess Dunecki join my crew.” Keller continued. “But she was generous enough to bless me with the services of Colonel Anna Nowak. Her second-in-command. Favourite sparring-partner. Co-author of her personal combat doctrine. And the treasurer of Princess Dunecki’s very own embroidery club. The Colonel happened to accompany Princess Róża during the Route 67 Massacre. When the triffids sent the Alphas against them, they actually went into a contest over which one kills more. Can you believe that Nowak scored only twenty percent fewer kills than Princess Róża?”

The chat remained silent for a few seconds.

“I’ll call you back in a while.” Keller smiled at the camera for the last time. “You know, if you manage to repel the boarding attempt, I surrender to you willingly. How about this?” He laughed, and terminated the connection.

***

The first person to notice the incoming attack was a crew member of the Hastati who was passing by one of the outer airlocks of the cruiser. He stopped after hearing some noises coming from outside. He was about to investigate when a sudden detonation tore the entire airlock into shreds. The crew member died in the explosion, making him the battle’s first casualty.

Unlike the much tamer boarding action on the Pristine Jewel, there was no place for subtlety here.

The attack was overwhelming, brutal, and destructive. It had to be. The internal corridors were designed in a way to deter or at least slow down the attackers - there were chokepoints, even an armored ‘citadel’ with the main reactor, computer mainframe, bridge, life support and other crucial systems. Not armored enough to deter a MAW round or a Void Cannon, but enough to force the attackers into well-defended killzones.

Unlike the outer armor layer, the citadel had only a few entrances, each of them easy to protect. If they gave the defenders time to reinforce those chokepoints, it would change the boarding into a siege. Slicing their way through the armor could take days. Even if the attackers located one of the holes through which cables and pipes went, clearing their way through such a weak spot would take many hours.

Unlike the combat-ready attackers, the defenders required precious minutes to reach armories, equip their weapons and armors and reach their designated positions.

There were, of course, combat-ready marines on standby. After all, Hao Yunqi ordered his ships to be on combat alert. When the boarding was announced, those who were stationed in the citadel rushed towards the chokepoints. Those that were in the outlying sections of the attacked ships sought to slow down the attackers in the labyrinth of corridors and halls.