The Tau Ceti Agenda

'Maybe it was the other crew's day off.' Bates grinned.

'Pagoolas!' Sergeant Nicks shouted. 'How many goddamned fucking times have I told you not to go around fucking with shit that you had no clue about? Who told you to push that goddamned button?'

'Uh, I don't know, Sergeant.'

'When we get home, we're gonna have a motherfucking talk!'

'LT. Check it out. This thing is charged and locked on to the Blair, but the Blair is hiding behind that Seppy hauler.' Tommy pointed to the sensor flatscreen above the joystick console. The sensors were zoomed on the supercarrier, but there was no way to get a clear shot at it. The captain of the Blair was clever.

'Can you unlock it from the Blair and lock on to a different target, Tommy?'

Yes, we can, his AIC responded.

How?

It was in the data we hacked from below. This is basically a user's manual. Here, I'll walk you through it.

'Uh, my AIC says we can, LT.'

'Then do it!'

Tommy stood at the console, carefully touching buttons with a single finger as lightly as he possibly could. His armored hand was twice the size of a normal hand and therefore made the task a bit clumsier. A few minutes of tapping buttons and turning keys unlocked the target acquisition system. At that point, his AIC took control and put the targeting display in his DTM and virtual control system.

'Okay, sir. I've got control of it. Target the hauler first?' Tommy stood still in his suit, watching the battlefield through the railgun's sensor system in his mindview. The hauler looked like it was right in front of him, as if he could reach out and touch it.

'Sounds good to me, Lance Corporal Suez. Fire at will.'

'Yes, sir. I don't know who Will is, but if he's on that hauler, he's about to have a bad fucking day.' Tommy toggled the virtual fire command.

The room whined with the hum of thousands of repulsor fields firing at once. There was a short whoosh of air rushing upward, and out of the tunnel, the metal rails tracked up. Almost immediately following, there was a rapid flash of light against the hull of the Seppy hauler.

'These bars here show the charging of the power banks. They're red because we just fired. When they are green, we can fire again. My AIC says that will take about thirty-one seconds.' Tommy pointed out the controls to the rest of the AEMs with a smile.

'Yes! Marines with a big fucking gun!' Pagoolas cheered. 'Oo- fuckin'-rah!'

The conveyor kicked on, loading another one of the large metal blocks forward and into place at the bottom of the two-beam metal rails. An automated giant lifter pad loaded it from the conveyor upward into the hole in the ceiling.

'The thing seems mostly automated. I wonder what all those damned Seppies were doing,' Bates asked.

'Goldbricking,' Pagoolas replied.

'Probably maintenance. Big things like this got to need a lot of spit- polish and jiffy-lube,' the lieutenant put it plainly. 'Tommy, keep at it. Hammer those motherfuckers into oblivion. I'd better call this in to the major.'

'Hold it, Tamara . . . . Yes, Johnny?' Major Roberts held a finger up to Gunny to be quiet. They had been sitting patiently watching the control room topside for several minutes. It had been fairly uneventful once they had left they hangar. 'You're fucking where? Uh huh. That is fucking outstanding, marine. We better patch this through up top. Hold on.'

'They did what?' Captain Jefferson shook his head in surprise.

'Yes, sir. The Seppies fired the mass driver at the hauler. It was a direct hit. It looks like a large section of the forward section was blown completely out.' The STO was just as amazed by the outcome as anybody else.

'Well, damned if that wasn't helpful,' the XO replied.

'What the hell would they do that for?' the STO asked.

'CO?'

'Go, Ground Boss.'

'I've got Lieutenant Johnny Noonez from Roberts' Robots on the horn. He says that he and his recon unit have commandeered the mass driver on the moon and, sir, he's asking if it is okay to keep firing,' the ground boss said with a smile.

'Your goddamned right it is! Tell him to immediately target the straggling battle cruiser! Now!' Captain Wallace orderd over the cheers on the bridge.

'How the hell did they get up there?' the COB asked, looking out the viewer at the small planetoid moon more than ten thousand kilometers away.

'Who gives a damn, Charlie? They're up there. Let's use 'em,' the XO replied.

'You heard me, Tommy. That battle cruiser right now,' the lieutenant ordered, pointing his gray armored finger at the formation- lagging battle cruiser on the flatscreen view.

'Yes, sir.' Tommy put the yellow X over the battle cruiser and locked it on. The X turned red. He waited patiently for the yellow bars on the charger graphic to turn green.

'Look! It's about to teleport,' Nicks said.

The final bar went green, and Tommy depressed the trigger.