Free The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #4, Retribution by Andrew Beery Page B

redirected their fire to a single point on the weapons platform's shields. The shields glowed and for a few brief moments they were brighter than the systems K-type main sequence star. When the barrage finally stopped the shields on the massive weapons platform were unfazed.
    The coordinated attack was a strategy the Syndicate ships had used against the Yorktown, earlier. It had failed then, too, but for a different reason. If the GCP had not developed protocols for interlocking shields which allowed the Mador and TaPol to essentially cover the Yorktown with their shields, the outcome would have been very different. As it was, neither attack succeeded.
    Having been attacked, certain constraints were lifted by the WhimP y’ s ethical subroutines. In response, 101 powered up a single collimated anti-proton beam. It took the systems, which had been in a powered down cold state, exactly 6.2 milliseconds to power up. WhimPy 101 used the time to contemplate several thousand permutations based on the actions he was about to take. He choose one that offered the highest degree of success while minimizing casualties.
    A blistering white beam lashed out from the weapo n’ s platform. It played across the shields of each of the Syndicate ships. In each case the shield array on the ship in question immediately overloaded and critical power conduits to various weapo n’ s systems were surgically cut. The ships were now essentially defenseless and with very limited offensive capability.
    Captain Moss waved smoke out of his face as he looked around the shattered remains of his bridge. Various control panels that had been functioning just moments before where now dead, smoldering, and in some cases even on fire. Fire suppression teams were even now being dispatched all over the ship. The power of that new opponent was beyond imagination. Why had not the Coalition used it before? If the GCP had more of these weapon systems then the Chairman was in for a rough tim e … no matter how many ships he brought into the battle.
    He nodded to the communications officer to open a channel to the other ships and at the same time signaled his older brother on the plane t’ s surface. The fleet, such as it was, would be forced to retreat. When the image of his brother appeared on the holographic projector in front of him, he bowed. This would not be a pleasant conversation.
    ***
    The fully automated Modos Internal Auditor probe Bottom Line slowly backed away from the scene of the battle. The IA Bottom Line was an easy craft to miss. Although Syndicate stealth technology was nowhere near as sophisticated as that used by the GCP, it was still remarkably effective. Metamaterials designed to bend visible light and LiDAR signals coated its exterior. Special electronics and associated sensors allowed its electromagnetic signature to effectively hide within the normal background chatter present in everyday solar emissions. On top of this, it was smal l— far too small to carry a life-support system. Instead, it carried a sophisticated (although not sentient) artificial intelligence.
    Like all IA ships the Bottom Lin e’ s mission was a simple one: observe and report. It had seen all that it needed to. The automated probe opened a jump portal and exited the system. WhimPY 101 watched it leave and noted its destination was an uncharted nebula some six thousand light years distant.
    ***
    Cat sat back in her seat aboard one of the Mado r’ s troop shuttles. She had left Ken in command of the Yorktown and Jason Ruck in temporary overall command of the task force while she was on planet. She did n’ t expect to be on the surface long. She was meeting Lt. Commander Pete LeAnder on the plane t’ s surface. He had located the computer core she had sent him to fetch, but there was a problem retrieving it.
    It seemed the Syndicat e’ s engineers never designed the core to be moved. It was, in fact, constructed as a distributed storage and processing system that