Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.9 (Patreon)

7.9

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May 28, 44 years post Fires of Ibis

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“Isn’t this... bad?” Dunham asked, his voice confused. “Why are you supporting this? I thought that you had a different plan that was meant to go slower?”

It was a few days before Branch’s plan was scheduled to be put into action. Flatwell had arranged for most of the RLF’s leadership to be present, which meant that most of their AC Pilots were present, as well as the heads of the various groups handling resource gathering, manufacturing, food production, medical treatment, all that stuff.

Pretty much every single person in this room, except for Freddie, had Stage Five C6 Augmentations. That meant that they were all in on the secret of Coral Minds.

Truth be told, I didn’t talk to them very much. I was usually doing other things. Seria did, though, and I remembered all the things she’d rambled to me about whenever she actually met someone new.

Flatwell had called the meeting to make sure that they were all on the same page. Most of them were. Dunham, however, had never paid the most attention, simply trusting Flatwell to know what he was doing and letting the man handle things the way that he wanted to. That did leave Dunham out of the loop, on occasion.

“The short version is that it’s an excellent setup for us.” I stated. “You see, while Branch’s intentions will throw some of the plans into disarray, it will also make them enemy number one for the PCA. They will spare no effort and no expense to destroy Raven in the aftermath of this.”

“And that is a good thing, because it will distract them from us.” Flatwell agreed. “However, it will also introduce new complications, mostly in the form of whatever entities arrive while the PCA is unable to keep outsiders away from Rubicon.”

“I have gone through all the data that Flatwell has access to.” I stated. “I believe that the most likely course of events is that there will be two to three megacorporation arrivals, a large number of small group arrivals, and several special interest group arrivals.”

I took control of the screen, turning it on before projecting a series of data points. “I suspect that the megacorporation arrivals will include Arquebus Corporation and Balam Industries. It’s not particularly well known among the public spheres yet, but both of these groups have been working hard to acquire some of the local corps that are still active on Rubicon. Arquebus has been maneuvering to take over Schneider, while Balam has been making overtures towards Dafeng.” The screen shifted as I made a few neat little graphics for all of them. “I suspect that both megacorps intended to acquire their targets, and then use that connection to slip their assets into Rubicon when the PCA ended up being tied up on the political sphere. However, with Branch’s plan, that’s going to change.”

“From what I’ve observed, Branch will be targeting a Closure Satellite in order to release the information to the greater Galactic Community.” Flatwell interjected. “To do this, they’re going to have to seize control of the Satellite, which is impossible for only four people, or they’re going to have to disable it, which is a much more reasonable requirement.”

“With a Closure Satellite inoperational, there will be an entire cone of entry to Rubicon that can’t be interdicted. Everybody who is interested in what can be acquired on Rubicon, which will be everyone after the revelation of Coral’s continued existence, will be running directly for it. The PCA will undoubtedly attempt to repair the satellite quickly, but that will leave a significant window available. They’ll be dangerous, no doubt, but the RLF has spent years fortifying positions and building zones into self-sustaining strongholds. You are well prepared to survive it.”

“The only thing we really need at the moment is more time.” Flatwell stated. “Between Branch and any exocorporations, the PCA will not be able to focus on us. We only need to last long enough to prepare for our final effort, and once that’s done...” He waved his hand, splaying his fingers. “That should be it.”

“A free Rubicon...” Dolmayan’s eyes closed, briefly. “No longer beset by vultures.”

“Don’t let yourselves become complacent, however.” I reminded them. “It’s unfortunate, but things won’t be that easy at the end of it. We’ll need to make sure we’re prepared for anything.”

We were still multiple years out from being ready to do what we were trying to do. The PCA was a problem for everyone who lived on Rubicon, but the thing is, they do, in fact, do a pretty good job of keeping people out. Considering the value of Coral among the Galactic Community, if they just upped and vanished one day, there’d be a very large amount of people descending onto this planet very quickly. 

It wasn’t so simple as just destroying the PCA. That, ironically, would be the easiest part of the process: I knew exactly where the mainframe was and I would have a much easier time getting to it than anyone else. Blowing it up would take out the Enforcement System, and leave the PCA completely decapitated and without leadership.

However, doing that would also disable the Closure Satellites, and that wasn’t going to end well. Could I take them over? Yes. Was I in a position to keep them running? Short term, sure. After battle damage from the inevitable attempts at getting to Rubicon? No. Not at all.

The only ways I could do that would require me to do things I wasn’t willing to do. I needed the RLF, and the growing horde of engineers, technicians, mechanics, and more, in order to handle a space fleet problem.

I just didn’t have the range to go beyond Rubicon. Not without concentrating more Coral than I was comfortable with.

“For the next few days, we’re simply going to be on yellow alert.” Flatwell stated. “One Branch has acted, we’ll move into complete defensive operations unless there happens to be a target of particular interest. We’re to weather this storm until we have our chance.”

“‘Abide in Rubicon’, huh?” Dunham shrugged. “Can do.”

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June 1, 44 years post Fires of Ibis

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Branch’s plan began today. I had been preparing for it, since I wanted to see how the whole thing ended up playing out. 

In this case, when I said ‘see it’, I meant that quite literally.

The first step was setting up all the cameras I would need in order to view it. That meant some fairly large units, but that was mostly a matter of time, getting Antigens to haul up a bunch of specialty cameras to the tops of a number of Grids. After that, I just had to sync them all up in order to create what amounted to a Large Array. Parsing all the data into something actually useful was, by this point, second nature.

Branch’s plan had been a bold one, but it was well thought out. Raven’s efforts had appropriated enormous amounts of data from the PCA, including authorization codes. This formed the basis for the first stage, wherein they hijacked a PCA transport returning to orbit in order to avoid being shot out of the sky.

I could see it now, actually. My various little eyes spied its ascent, calm and steady, with no hint that something was unusual. 

I was also streaming it directly to Flatwell’s office, where he, Dolmayan, and a few others were watching. Several monitors were set up, some from different cameras with the ‘best’ view, one from a ‘combined’ view that was in truth more image generation from the parsed data than an actual view. Also present was a holographic projector, wherein the scene was projected in full three-dimensional space, showing the action with the most actual detail- again, mostly generated from the parsed data than anything else.

The operation began in full once they were up there, past the smaller laser pinpoint bombardment satellites and therefore also past most of the defences.

All three pilots of Branch split up. King went on a diversionary manoeuvre, attacking the PCA orbital dockyards. There, he would be responsible for sidetracking the entirety of the closest fleet that could actually respond to the invasion. Chartreuse’s target was the Closure Satellite itself, which she would need to disable so that the PCA would not be able to do anything to prevent Raven’s own goal.

It was, after all, Raven who had the most important task of all three of them: raiding LOC Station 31.

That station was a key component of the Closure Network. It was one of the stations that managed the coordination of the satellites, allowing them to work much more efficiently than they otherwise would. More than that, however, it was also the station that handled the PCA’s interstellar communications.

Raven had to take control of it for long enough to get their broadcast going. Since the station was entirely automated, that wasn’t an impossible task, but breaching the security there was only possible because of how much information that Raven had already stolen.

I split the monitors and holotable in three once they all went off in their own directions. Ironically, despite the importance, Raven’s feed was the least interesting of the three to actually see, as there really wasn’t much that was actually stopping them. Once Raven went over the station and landed on top of it, I couldn’t even see them anymore.

I’m sure that the digital side of things would have been spectacularly interesting... but I didn’t have access to that.

King and Chartreuse held far more attention, which was of course by design.

Both of them burned towards their targets, building speed more and more with every passing second. Up there in orbit, an AC could accelerate to truly tremendous velocities, unchained by air friction as they were. It was a fully three dimensional environment, demanding alternative modes of operation compared to the ground-bound battles. It was plainly evident that King and Chartreuse held the experience for it, playing the game of momentum and inertia just as well as they did with gravity’s chains.

The Closure Satellite was the first to react. Chartreuse had revealed herself far too close for the Mass Driver to track her AC, but that was hardly the only weapon that the Closure was equipped with. Its long ‘arm’ had a trio of laser weapons, all meant for destroying ships rather than ACs, but they could potentially be relevant if Chartreuse became predictable. There were other, smaller lasers, as well as missile launchers for taking care of smaller threats, more often used against space debris than an AC, though.

Against Chartreuse? It didn’t matter.

She closed the distance, and once she was on its surface she made her way across it, systematically obliterating its defenses. The megastructure itself was too resilient to break to an AC’s guns, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t hit the power feeds, the sensors, the ammunition production and loaders...

A single AC, and a gun that wasn’t designed to defend against it. A tale decades old, with the same ending every time.

The Closure Satellite fell silent in minutes.

As for King, he ran straight into the still slumbering fleet in the dockyards. Five Warships fell before the rest were roused, drones and mechs shortly swarming out into space.

King danced around them, using the dockyard and the husks of dead Warships as cover. He shifted seamlessly between bouts of incredible violence and extended dogfights, whacking away at the swarm that chased after him before an opening presented itself and he could go after another Warship.

The sixth fell, its bridge perforated with Linear Rifle rounds. The seventh met a similar fate, a laser cannon array venting it into space. Then the eighth, then the ninth, then the tenth, wiped out one after the other.

It wouldn’t be long before the PCA’s reinforcements came. 

Branch, however, didn’t need to face them.

LOC Station 31 shifted, antennas realigning as transmitters began to energize. Tachyon pulse emitters engaged, and after forty five years I was able to once again enjoy that curious little sensation that came from the superluminal particles surging through the extradimensionality.

Every receiver on the planet was already overwhelmed. The rest of the galaxy would know very shortly.

That was it for Branch, too. Raven, King, and Chartreuse quickly left, retreating from the battlefield by accelerating towards the planet. It didn’t take very long before all three of them hit the atmosphere, the fires of re-entry beginning to burn around them, drones and mechs unable to follow them so quickly.

I checked the Enforcement System’s mainframe.

Temperature spike. Twenty five degrees and rising.

“Well.” Flatwell leaned back. “That’s that, then.”

“Yeah.” I said. “There’s no going back now. We’ve got a few years, and we have to win it.”

“Then we had best make them count.”