Chapter 168 - Haui's Moon Inflitration (1)

“How the hell is the main force going to get out of the spaceport? No way we can smuggle ninety people in the same way as us.” Riker frowned as the squad stared at the enforcer patrol vessels.

“That’s not for us to worry. We’re getting off-track – focus on your assigned objective.” Tyson clapped his hands, reminding the squad.

Ceres double-checked the location of every critical component. The entrance to the prison was simple: a single large airlock capable of allowing a cargo droneship, about thirty meters wide.

The perimeter of the airlock was defended by twelve anti-starship energy turret emplacements, each powered by their own independent circuit that ran into the prison. Ceres suspected that most likely it would be impossible to just blow up a single reactor and take all of them down in one shot.

He retrieved a datasheet on the energy turret’s capabilities: The Barelia G-S Turret.He recalled his first heavy exosuit that he repaired. Wasn’t it the Barelia Defender or something?

“The turret doesn’t seem to pack too much of a punch individually. It would be much scarier if it had kinetic rounds – that could do some real damage.” Riker commented.

Energy turrets basically had a 100% hit rate, the particles accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light, making it impossible to dodge but easier to mitigate. Kinetic turrets on the other hand were much slower and easier to avoid, but the impact per round had a much more devastating effect on the hull of the starship and were harder to deflect.

“Don’t forget the handheld missile launchers as well.” Ceres pointed out at a recent image of guards patrolling the perimeter with ground-to-space launchers.

“Shit, looks like we basically have to burn the whole place down if we want the main force to arrive safely. That’s about 150 missiles being launched every ten seconds if every guard had one.” Riker grimaced, his right hand still fiddling with the hilt of the sword.

Ceres too was running multiple scenarios in his head. Taking on a hundred and fifty guards would be too insane, even if the main force was here to help.

How could he and Riker make the landing for the main force easier?

“I doubt all of the guards will be concentrated at the main airlock. Looking at the hydroponics surveillance so far, there’s already close to thirty guards working here, and half of them aren’t armed heavily – maybe a pistol at most.” Xander shared his screen with Ceres and Riker.

“The observation post has about twenty-five guards here, it’s a guarantee that when I reach, none of them will be able to make it to the main entrance.” Tyson remarked, as though it was a fact.

“Solar arrays seem to be fairly empty – ten guards or so?” Pris chimed in.

“Radiators has three.” Josef stated.

“That’s still eighty-two guards! How the hell are we going to avoid all of them?” Riker complained. “Can’t we just use the Corym to blow them straight up just before the main force arrives?”

“We don’t have any weapons on this ship, remember?” Amelia rolled her eyes.

“Not all of them will be out guarding the turrets. These guards still have to take care of the prisoners inside, remember?” Xander patted Riker’s shoulder. “Also, half of them are probably medics, adminstrative clerks or simple wardens, not hardcore ex-Legion soldiers.”

“We have no choice but to pull this off. It’s life or death for the rebellion.” Tyson stated clearly. “If we fail this mission there may be no hope of ever coming back. We won’t be able to buy enough time.”

Ceres nodded. With the Five Families enacting the unification procedure, it was only a matter of time before the rebellion gets driven underground too far into obscurity. They needed a big breakthrough right now to stall the procedure as long as they could.

This would be the opening salvo in the declaration of open resistance.

The squad spent the entire day planning non-stop. Each member planned for their own objectives, ensuring the highest success rate.

On top of that, Ceres and Pris had another role – to make equipment or items that can further assist the rest. Already there was a long list of explosives, special equipment and certain modifications to the exosuits.

While the rest of the squad went to sleep, Ceres continued working alone in the engineering department. Now that he was alone, his mind started drifting, thinking back to what had happened so far.

It’s been a wild ride so far if he were to believe everything others have told him – losing the competition, partially causing a mass riot unlike which anyone had ever seen before on Athen, injected with some weird black goo making him a sort of supersoldier and now he’s fighting back against the Five Families.

“Hah, what would Erik say about that?” Ceres smiled sadly to himself, continuing to work. If anything, Erik was his first friend who died, and it was partly his fault.

That was one of the main driving reasons for Ceres now. His apathy and selfishness during the competition caused all of this.

Sure, he knew there were other forces at play, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that if only he had been more aware of what was happening around him, then maybe…

“Can’t sleep?”

Ceres was startled, turning around to see Pris yawning in the doorway to the engineering department. Calming himself down, he tried to act normally. “The usual insomnia – nothing’s changed since space. What about you? Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Well I couldn’t stand the idea of my secondary exosuit repairer working harder than I was. I have to lead by example, don’t I? Else how would I become a great exosuit repairer and prove myself?” Pris smirked, joining Ceres on a separate workbench and starting to swipe through the long queue of requested equipment.

Ceres smiled weakly, before the two of them worked with an awkward silence between the two of them. Only the low humming of the ships’ engines that was next door permeate the room, with the occasional clanging of tools and drill bits.

“Ehm… can I ask why you want to be a great exosuit repairer?” Ceres tried to find something to break the awkward silence between the two of them. He realized that he never really talked with Pris about anything other than work.

“It’s the only way I can prove to the galaxy that I exist.” Pris said with confidence. “Only by being amazing can I tell myself that I am worth something.”

“That’s pretty hard to achieve… There are loads of better exosuit repairers out there. To be a great one is going to be hard.” Ceres pointed out.

“Don’t praise yourself that blatantly, it makes you look arrogant.”

“That’s funny, coming from you.” Ceres rolled his eyes.

“At least I have the record to back myself up, unlike a newcomer here who barely joined the rebellion for a month.” Pris snorted in response.

Ceres couldn’t really disagree. Over the last week, Pris had been keeping up on speed with him, sometimes even teaching things he never knew.

She had plenty of experience in the rebellion, having repaired more than a thousand exosuits in a single year coupled with having done at least twelve customized exosuits.

Ceres could only boast about having undergone intense training under the Dynasty of Hawthorn in the Thorn Chamber – but that was more than six years ago. Pris had been doing this for four years now, and she was only twenty this year.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you join the rebellion?” Ceres asked quietly.

Pris froze up a little, before staring at Ceres in silence for a while. Instead of replying, she focused back on her work, no longer continuing the conversation.

Ceres could already see her emotions in turmoil, a swirling mix of colours, but the one that dominated it the most was grief. “I’m sorry for asking, forget that I asked.”

“No, it’s okay. Just give me some time.” Pris replied weakly, obviously not wanting to continue the conversation.

Ceres sighed to himself, looking back at what he was working on. It was a modified device, designed to send a directional electromagnetic pulse and disable anything.

“Stupid idiot, you literally can see emotions but yet you do this kind of shit. Fuck me,” Ceres thought to himself.

Theoretically, he could try to lessen the emotions that Pris was currently feeling through his ability, but that went far beyond his current morals. “I shouldn’t toy with other people’s emotions at all.”

Ceres applied the finishing touches onto the electromagnetic pulse device. It looked like an oval shaped deployment charge, with sticky flaps that allowed it to be adhered to any surface. “Got to make more of this to disable as many things as I can.”

He was well aware that his job was to neutralize the prison’s defences against starships, to ensure the safe landing of the main force.

This didn’t mean that he should blow up every single turret. He needed to simply disable them for a short time. If everything went according to plan, the main force will then be able to take control of the turrets and use it to fend off any enforcer corvettes trying to defend.

After he saw the swarm of enforcer corvettes defending the spaceport of Athen, he had no doubts that they could easily move over to stop the prison break. They had to break in extremely fast and entrench themselves before the enforcers came.

“Are we mass producing this?” Pris asked.

“Hmm, we can probably only make a few. I’ll try to make as many as I can, but we don’t have enough of the required components.” The device had a limited range, but theoretically could be reused if it was re-charged. Ceres adjusted the strength and range of the pulse to match the design of the Barelia G-S Turret.

A device that disables everything nearby would not be good for Ceres and Riker as well, unless they were a good distance away. Ceres began to ponder other options for disabling the defences.

He conjured up a hologram of the turret, noting its requirements down. “Power budget and heat dissipation seems to be the two largest factors restraining the fire rate of the turrets.”

If the radiators and solar array was taken out, that would leave only the internal backup power supplies that powered it and prevent the turrets from dissipating heat properly. “Perhaps I can try to target where their liquid coolant is as well and block the flow.”

Ceres pulled up a few images of the prison defences, tracing the pipes seen through the deep scans by the stealth drones. He marked out a few locations to hit. He tried to trace out the power supply, but each turret had more than four redundant power supply systems, making it harder to take out.

“Looks like I can only damage the coolant system.” The coolant system had far less redundancies than the power systems.

With the electromagnetic pulse device complete, he now began to consider the loadout that he and Riker needed. They were facing a potential of fifty guards, but they had the advantage of surprise and stealth.

“How would I leverage that to gain an advantage...” Ceres pondered. The scans only showed a few guards on the surface, while the scans were not precise enough to spot the guards within the prison itself due to the structural protection and insulation.

If Ceres could get close enough to the prison, his H.T. mode would be able to view the prison guards much much more clearly. “Pris, how close do you think the Corym can get to the prison?”

“Huh? I don’t think very close, maybe 400 kilometers orbit around the prison? Not until Tyson hijacks the observation post at least. Maybe ask Amelia?”

Ceres frowned. There was no way his H.T. mode was going to work at such a large distance. This meant that he could only figure out the location and patrol pattern of the guards when he was there on the ground or before approach.

He took another look at the potential loadout of the guards. “Mostly energy rifles, so we’ll need a lot of energy shield modules.”

Ceres began compiling a list of equipment for his loadouts. As he was going through the list, he realized that the main limiting factor for spaceborne exosuits were their thruster system.

If the exosuit was not using lasers, the reaction force from firing particles or kinetic bullet would cause the exosuit to fly backwards or spin, unless the gas from the bullet directly counteract the loss of momentum.

“How does the asteroid handle the reaction force from it’s 12 turrets? The asteroid would be shifted gradually overtime.” Ceres asked Pris.

“Hmm… you’re right. I don’t see anyway around that unless the asteroid has thrusters, but it doesn’t seem to have any...” Pris pondered, realizing a missing component.

“Is it possible for the asteroid to have a hidden thruster meant for orbit keeping or counteracting turret fire?”

“Possible, but our scans haven’t shown anything like that as well.”

This was a huge problem. If the asteroid could suddenly shift its orbit, this meant that the main force might be delayed in how fast they could rendevous with the prison asteroid.

Ceres quickly headed to Tyson and Amelia in the captain’s seat, who were discussing the recent data they collected. The Corym had been sniffing the continuous encoded and modulated video streams of the nanosatellites that surrounded the prison asteroid.

Thousands of screens were opened, showing the frequency shifts in the transmissions and a A.I chugging along and cracking the key used for the satellites. They had already collected twelve million samples over the last two days and were planning to collect more – cracking it would be just a matter of computational power.

“There’s a missing system we didn’t manage to scan?” Tyson was surprised when Ceres told them.

“Yes, I think there are supposed to be thrusters or at least engines on the other side to counteract the firing force of the turrets. Otherwise the asteroid would be unable to maintain its own orbit over time.”

“Shit, how did I miss that?” Amelia smacked herself on the forehead. “We need to do another drone pass, but we won’t be getting a close approach until two days later. I don’t want to do another burn if possible.”

Their current orbit was an eliptical orbit, intersecting with the prison’s orbit twice but only having a close approach thirty orbits later.

“For now, let’s just assume there’s thrusters opposite the turrets to counteract the force. Most likely there are reaction wheels embedded near the centre of mass for the asteroid too. We have to take care to not damage them when taking control of them.” Ceres pointed out.

“Good job spotting the disrepancy out. With the addition of thrusters, this means one more system we need to take control off...” Tyson sighed. “We might need to change the inflitration plan slightly.”

Amelia nodded: “If they fire the thrusters and begin to erratically move the prison, it would make it hard for me to remain in stealth and in position to support. The main force’s starships would take longer to rendevous as well, which would increase our exposure time.”

“I’ll like to suggest that I go down with Tyson to the observation post.” Ceres volunteered. “The plan currently is observation post, followed by the other subsystems. Once Tyson and I clear the observation post, I can head off to the thrusters and plant a few devices to temporarily prevent the asteroid from moving too much.”

Tyson contemplated the new change, thinking out loud. “You’ve never done an espionage mission before though. I would appreciate the extra help, but there’s a chance you’ll be an extra burden too. Although, you did take down a Keeper and an enforcer squad without revealing yourself...”

“He seems smart enough, and always good to have another tech guy on your mission. Makes it easier.” Amelia supported the new mission change.

Tyson agreed. “Okay then, the new plan is you follow me, then you head to the thrusters and subsequently the prison defences.”

Ceres nodded, heading back to the lounge where the rest of the squad members were studying the data. “I’m coming with you.” Riker declared, despite Ceres telling him about the change in plans.

“You’re probably the second last person Tyson would ever bring on such a mission – you’re too flashy.” Ceres shook his head.

“I can be discreet if I wanted to!” Riker complained.

Shai’li let out a loud laugh upon hearing that, wagging her finger at Riker. “You? Discreet? Don’t make me laugh!”

Before she could continue, Xander elbowed her in the arm. “Hey, you know the last person is you though, right?”

Ceres left the bickering squad back down to the engineering department, informing Pris about the change in plans.

“So how are you going to disable the thrusters?”

“I got the electromagnetic pulse devices, but I don’t know how many thrusters there are. I assume there would be one for each turret, so I’ll need about twelve of them. If there are more of them, I’ll just have to physically damage them with remote explosives.”

Pris nodded her head in agreement, the two of them continuing to work around the clock to manage the loadout for the squads.

***

[Ready when you are, Amelia.] Tyson spoke into his helmet, watching a tiny dot slowly grow larger in the distance while the backdrop of Athen slowly rotated around.

Ceres breathed heavily as the two of them looked out the window of the airlock as the Corym drifted towards the prison, acting like a natural asteroid. The gravity systems, engines and even sensors had been turned off a day prior, rendering the starship to be very cold.

All the squad members were in their exosuits now, the inbuilt heaters regulating their body temperature.

[Remember Tyson, there won’t be any support from us once the two of you drop. I won’t be burning back or changing orbit.] Amelia spoke through the communication channels.

[I understand.] The Corym was going to be swinging by rather than entering a stable orbit. If the engines fired up it would be an instant giveaway to the observation post.

[The time the Corym comes around anywhere close would be about every six orbits later.]

[Got it, ten hour intervals or so. Will check-in then. You ready, ‘Dumpling’?]

Ceres nodded, checking his exosuit. He had an extra comparment of nutri-paste attached, meant to last the next ten days. It was only seven days left till the main force arrived, but Ceres had to set up plenty of devices and traps across the prison to support the main force.

[Airlock depressurizing in ten.]

Ceres took a deep breath, before closing his helmet. The heads up display lit up with a trajectory plan, highlighting the approaching asteroid through the walls of the ship.

The air was pumped out of the airlock with a huge sucking sound until there was no more sound to be heard, just the breathing that echoed against his helmet. The airlock door slid open, with Tyson and Ceres thrusting forward out beyond the ship.

[Short-range communications mode from now on. Don’t want the prison guards listening in on us.]

Ceres switched his communications module transmitter strength, ensuring that it dissipated after a certain distance. He glanced towards the Corym which was seemingly drifting away slightly from him. Looking forward, he could see the asteroid rushing towards him, the small tiny dot slowly expanding to become a sizable oblong shape.

[Distance to Target, 300 kilometers. Engaging reverse thrusters now. Deploy radar absorbent shield.]

The two of them turned and fired their thrusters in the opposite direction, slowing down their approach velocity, before turning around again, wielding a black diamond shield to protect them against radar pings and visual recognition.

[Approach velocity – 50 meter/s]

The headsup display lit up with a myriad of targets - a few dozen nano satellites orbited the asteroid. Tyson lifted his right arm, firing with mechanical precision at the satellites a singluar hacking drone.

Ceres could however see that the drones were going to barely miss the nano satellites. [Tyson, you’re not going to hit them.]

A grin appeared on Tyson’s face under his helmet. [That’s the plan.]

The hacking drones fired forwards with additional velocity, their trajectory approaching much faster towards the nano satellites at the speed of a bullet. The moment they got within range of the nano satellites, a few seconds passed before the IFF signal on Ceres’s headsup display became green for each of the satellites.

Ceres was awed. Tyson had wirelessly hacked the nano satellites by using his drones as a router swinging past. The key had been cracked over the last four days, enabling Tyson to send a simple command to ‘rectify’ the satellite.

The hacking drones had served its purpose now, shooting off indefinitely into a new orbit where it would burn up in the atmosphere five hundred years later, or crash into a starship’s deflector shield.

[And we’re now complete ghosts. In terms of cameras anyway.]

The two exosuits approached, slowly watching the asteroid grow larger and larger. Instead of slamming right into the asteroid, their trajectory was bringing them along the edge instead.

Ceres watched as the ground of the asteroid got closer and closer, like a starship skimming the earth or a diver drifting through a coral reef. In synchronization they fired their reverse thrusters together in a short hard burst, completely cancelling their velocity relative to the asteroid and leaving them hovering over the surface.

The gravity of the asteroid began to suck them in, slowly bringing them down to the surface. Ceres landed with a thud into a crater on his two feet, the fluffy dust that coated every asteroid swirling around his legs.

Instead of standing around, he quickly let loose a burst of gas, causing his body to go prone as he scanned the rims of the crater, making sure no one was watching.

[‘Dumpling’, you good?] Tyson’s voice crackled over the channel, from another crater.

[All good here.]

[Great, let’s enjoy our stay here at Haui’s Moon, shall we?]