Chapter 11: Preparations

Intelligence Office
MSS Ballbuster, Earth Orbit
Friday, October 13, 2147

“Are you ready, Lieutenant Hacker?” asked Steve Sugiyoto.

Hacker looked back at the skipper of the Ballbuster. Sugi was normally easy-going, but that question sounded suspiciously official. “I’m ready, Captain.”

“Very good. Haley says we’ll be in position in just a couple of hours. I’m going to the bridge in a few minutes to do the final maneuvering.”

Willis Hacker nodded. He had spent most of his time before joining the MPG as a junior coder for MicroZon-AmaSoft. As far as MicroZon-AmaSoft was concerned all a Greenie junior coder was qualified to do was minor software modifications under the supervision of an Earth-based supervisor. However, since Earth was too far for the changes to be made on WestHem vessels, they needed local junior coders to do the installs. In reality, the WestHem Marines and Navy didn’t want to wait for the back and forth of communications between Earth and Mars, so they simply gave whatever jobs needed to be done to the local division and let them handle it. However MicroZon-AmaSoft wanted to handle the paperwork was their problem, not the military’s.

A junior coder for the Mars division of MicroZon-AmaSoft generally knew more about the systems they were working on than the supervisors either on Mars or Earth. Their expertise was eagerly sought after by the new Martian government, and Hacker could have made more as a civilian than he was making with the MPG. He decided to stay with the MPG until after Martian Justice and then decide on getting out.

He had stayed aboard Ballbuster when Admiral Belting and Captain Ingram left, so he was present when their orders were opened.

TO: MSS BALLBUSTER, COMMANDER STEVEN SUGIYOTO

FROM: MARTIAN NAVAL COMMAND (NAVCOM), ADMIRAL MATTHEW BELTING

ORDERS FOR BALLBUSTER DEPLOYMENT ARE AS FOLLOWS:

PROCEED UNDER STEALTH CONDITIONS TO EARTH ORBIT.

DECELERATE TO EARTH ORBIT VELOCITY AND RENDEZVOUS WITH WESTHEM SATELLITE SYSTEM FOR SURVEILLANCE OPERATION NUTSACK.

AFTER SURVEILLANCE OPERATION NUTSACK COMPLETED, PROCEED TO HIGH POLAR EARTH ORBIT FOR STEALTH OBSERVATION OF WESTHEM AND EASTHEM ORBITAL INSTALLATIONS UNTIL RELIEVED. REPORT VIA STANDARD PROCEDURES DAILY OR AS NEEDED.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: WEAPONS TIGHT. FIRE IN SELF-DEFENSE ONLY.

STANDING BY TO EVACUATE ANY CREWMEMBERS UNWILLING TO GO ON THIS MISSION. PLEASE ADVISE ANY CREWMEMBERS ELECTING TO REMAIN THAT, FOR SHIP SECURITY, THEY WILL BE HELD IN ISOLATION UNTIL SUCH TIME AS BALLBUSTER RETURNS.

AWAITING YOUR REPLY, NAVCOM.

MESSAGE ENDS.

The last paragraph was always guaranteed to get laughter out of the crew. Every crew member was a volunteer to begin with, and most had been on an Earth surveillance mission before. It took less than five minutes before the entire crew declined to stay behind and Sugi was able to give orders to leave Triad Naval Base.

“Haley, get me NAVCOM.”

“Right, Sugi.” The pretty Executive Officer flipped a few switches on her console and said, “You’re live, Sugi.”

“NAVCOM, Ballbuster. We are ready to break contact with Triad. What’s with Ronnie and Cockblocker?”

“Ballbuster, NAVCOM. Cockblocker and Shitkicker are in position along projected transit route. Middle Finger and Assfucker are in support. Projected transit route is deemed clear. Proceed at best speed consistent with orders.”

“NAVCOM, Ballbuster. Orders received. Heading out. Ballbuster out.”

“Ballbuster, NAVCOM. Have fun, NAVCOM out.”

With that, they were cleared to proceed. Ronnie was Captain Ron Bales, Commodore, Anti-Stealth Squadron One, which consisted of the captured Seattle-class ships, Sao Paulo and Boston, now renamed Cockblocker and Shitkicker. Middle Finger and Assfucker were captured Owls like Ballbuster, the ex-Swordfish and ex- Hammerhead. They had been conducting anti-stealth training in Mars orbit. Bales suspected a Henry-class EastHem stealth ship was somewhere in Mars orbit, but he hadn’t found it yet. He still wasn’t sure what Admiral Belting would order if they found it. They weren’t at war with EastHem and blowing up one of their ships would probably be unappreciated, considering they were trading hydrogen for food.

Sugi ordered Haley to break the connection and then detach from the umbilicals and unlatch from TNB. Sugi ordered General Quarters and the crew took launch positions. “Take us out of here, Haley, .1Gs, full stealth conditions. There might just be somebody out there we don’t want to know what we’re doing.”

“No shit! Let’s do it, Sugi.” She flipped a few more switches and ordered, “Engineering, course laid in. Make .1Gs.” She received acknowledgment and turned back to the skipper. “And to think, we get paid to do this!” Half the bridge crew laughed, and the other half groaned; Commander Sugiyoto simply smiled and shook his head.

Now, three months later, Ballbuster was entering final Earth orbit. Sugi had ordered every stealth protocol possible, had limited waste heat dispersal to the bare minimum, and only when no WestHem or EastHem ships were nearby, and was maneuvering at .05Gs. They were two hours away from WestHem SurvSat 47-21, in geostationary orbit over Quito, Ecuador, and everybody’s nerves were on edge.

Two hours later Ballbuster was on station twenty kilometers away from 47-21. “Willis, you want to come to the bridge?”

Hacker floated onto the from the hallway he had been waiting in. “Already here. Are we there yet, Mom?”

“Haley and the navigational system says we are. Are you ready to do your thing?”

“Any time you say, skipper.”

“The sooner the better. I don’t like hanging out here next to a WestHem military satellite.”

Hacker nodded. “Yeah. Okay, let’s do it. Hover, if you would?”

Hover Johnson, the ship’s communications officer, flipped a switch and undid the Velcro strapping that held him to his seat. “The board is safed. Let’s hope this works.”

Hacker settled into the seat and secured his position before activating the board again. The first job was to extend the short-range laser array and focus on the satellite. 47-21 was supposed to be identical to the satellites orbiting Mars, but those were the property of InfoGroup, ICS, and WIV, civilian and not military. They had spent time practicing this maneuver with Martian satellites, but did the military version run by the WestHem Navy have the same protocols and security features? Only one way to find out.

First was to examine 47-21 optically. The laser array had an advanced electro-optical sensor package, and twenty kilometers was well within the range of the system. Hacker slaved the sensor to the navigation computer and focused on the silvery dot further along in the orbit. Then he turned up the gain on the system and closed in. He slowly dialed in, constantly adjusting to keep the satellite in the crosshairs. A minute later and he was reading the markings on the satellite and examining the satellite’s structure.

“You catching all this, Harry?”

Harry Holmes was in command of the team Hacker had brought on board, and they were all watching what Hacker was seeing on the communications system. “We’re watching, Willis. The team is watching. “So far, it looks like a standard ICS Model Twenty-Seven with WestHem Navy markings. Give us a few more minutes to check it out.”

Hacker agreed and turned back to Sugi. “So far, so good. It looks like a standard WestHem surveillance and communications satellite. If we get lucky, I hit it with a coded laser burst and we’re gone.”

A couple of minutes later, Harry commed Willis. “As far as we can tell, it looks standard. Do your thing.”

“Keep an eye on this. Let me know if I am about to fuck it up.”

“Gotcha.”

Hacker focused the system on a small antenna on the side of the satellite near an access port. Even though the satellite and the ship were twenty kilometers apart, moving around the Earth at a speed of over eleven thousand kilometers an hour and at a height of almost thirty-six thousand kilometers, the optical system didn’t seem to be even jittering. Hacker slaved the comm laser to the viewer and pressed a button. “I’m dialed in, Harry.”

“Concur, Willis.”

“Start the acquisition protocol, Harry.”

“Starting protocol.”

Down in the Intelligence compartment, Harry Holmes began the process they had taken to calling ‘tickling the dragon’. They needed to send a signal through the comm laser to acquire programming access to the satellite. Once system access was acquired, a modified control package could be transmitted, giving Martian Intelligence access to the WestHem satellite system. That was the theory, anyway.

“Protocol Alpha not being accepted,” said Holly Winkler, the tech sitting next to Holmes.

“Go to Bravo.”

A minute later she replied, “No go, Harry. Bravo not being accepted.”

“Try Zulu.”

She simply nodded. Then she grimaced and shook her head. “Zulu failed.”

“Try them in succession again.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hacker called in while she was cycling through the acquisition codes. “What’s going on, Harry?”

“We’re having some problem with the acquisition protocols.” He looked at Holly, who shook her head.

“Problems?”

“No go on acquisition. Either they’ve changed the protocols or there’s something different between the civilian birds and the military birds. We can’t get them.”

Hacker sighed. To have come all this way and fail was not an option. He thought for a minute and said, “Start prepping for direct acquisition.”

Holmes gulped. “Yes, sir.” He broke the connection and looked around the small compartment. “Oh, shit!”

Holly spoke for the others. “Yeah. Oh, shit.”

On the bridge, Sugi had been following Hacker’s side of the conversation but only had a partial picture. “Lieutenant, what’s the story?”

“No joy, skipper. We can’t access the satellite. We’re going to need to do a direct acquisition.”

“Shit!”

“Yes, sir.”

Sugi looked over at his Exec. “Haley, we need to go in closer...”

“Sugi...”

“You’re the best driver on the ship, which makes you the best driver in the fleet. You know what we need to do, and you’ve practiced it, just like me. You’ve done it better.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You’ll do fine, Haley. Look on the bright side! When we get detected by the entire WestHem Navy, you’ll already be in position to blast us out of here!” Haley rolled her eyes as the rest of the bridge crew laughed. “Take us in, Haley.”

“Yeah.” Lieutenant Commander Suckface turned back to her controls. She needed to keep their acceleration down, but they needed to do it fast. The longer they stayed in a fixed orbit the more they accumulated waste heat that would need to be dumped, which would be like lighting a flare. Furthermore, the closer they got to the satellite, the more likely they would be to triggering a proximity sensor. She stretched and scratched and then flipped the ship-wide intercom switch. “General quarters, repeat, general quarters. Prepare for maneuvering in thirty seconds. Repeat, general quarters, prepare for maneuvering.”

By that point the entire complement had heard that they were going to be going closer to the satellite and attempt a direct contact. Even though the acceleration would be extremely low, there was still the possibility that a sudden acceleration or deceleration might injure somebody not prepared. A few feet per second would be enough to break a neck if a person was floating free and hit a bulkhead.

Sugi told Hacker, “Get ready for your space flight, Willis. We’ll be in position in an hour.”