The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian

“They won’t be,” Major Dietz said. “I’m leaving one company to guard this area, reinforced by the sailors.” He managed not to sound sarcastic at the idea of armed sailors being effective reinforcement for Marines. “I’m taking the other company out in squads to go after the decoy compartments the Syndics captured. If they brought nukes on board, it’s a near certainty they would have left those nukes under guard in the two decoy compartments. We can’t hunt people in stealth suits, not with this amount of space to cover and so few Marines, but we can make life difficult for whatever guard force they left in those compartments and hopefully gain possession of the nukes.”

“Have you confirmed the presence of Syndic nukes?” Geary asked.

“No, Admiral. That remains an estimate of what the enemy probably intends. I strongly recommend that we operate upon the assumption that the Syndic boarding party does have at least one nuke with them.”

“Your estimates have proven to be extremely good, Major Dietz. I approve your recommendation. Admiral Lagemann, General Carabali, we will operate on the basis of the Syndics’ having nukes inside Invincible.”

General Carabali’s circuit had come to life and now she nodded in response to Geary’s words. “We’ll operate on that basis, Admiral. Request permission to land reinforcements aboard Invincible.”

“How many are you planning on and how quickly?” Geary asked.

“Everybody on Tsunami,” she replied. “Almost eight hundred Marines. As soon as Tsunami can come close alongside Invincible. I want to bring Typhoon close to Invincible in case the Marines aboard her are needed, too.”

“Permission granted. Get those Marines onto Invincible fast.”

“Understood, Admiral. We’re going in.”

Geary turned back to Major Dietz. “Did you copy that? You have a lot of friends on the way.”

“Yes, sir.” Dietz studied some of the dim displays near him. “Another Lamarr sensor in one of the passageways just went off. They’re looking for us. I’ll take my grunts out and make the finding a little easier for them. Two squads will head for the decoy engineering control and two more for the decoy bridge compartment. As our counterattack goes in, it will also distract the Syndics from realizing we have a lot more Marines boarding this ship.” He began to move away, then halted with a puzzled expression. “Firing? Admiral, we’ve got sensors reporting weapons being fired in an area where there’s nothing of ours.”

“Shooting at shadows?” Admiral Lagemann suggested.

“Shadows? These have to be Syndic special forces. Maybe even those security-force fanatics I fought once. Vipers. They’re very tough and very well trained. They wouldn’t shoot at shadows . . .” Dietz’s expression changed. “Standard tactics in stealth suits is to operate singly, or in groups of two or three at the most. Even if they’ve got a battalion aboard us, they would only converge into larger groups at an objective. More likely they’re at company strength at the most.”

“So?”

“The ghosts, Admiral! Those Syndics are wandering around in the dark alone or in pairs in areas of this ship we only go into at squad strength! One of them just snapped and started shooting at nothing!”

“Isn’t them panicking a good thing?” Geary asked.

“It would be, Admiral,” Major Dietz said with an obvious attempt at patiently explaining something his superiors should already have realized. “It would be if they didn’t have nuclear weapons.”

Geary drew in a sudden breath. Isolated soldiers with nuclear weapons, assailed by mobs of unseen, ghostly presences. “Stop them before they go crazy and blow the ship apart from the inside!” he ordered both Major Dietz and General Carabali.

“That’s the idea, Admiral,” Carabali said. “Move out the instant you’re ready,” she ordered Major Dietz.

“Got one!” Desjani and Lieutenant Castries both cried out, surprising Geary.

Refocusing on his display, Geary saw a Syndic shuttle symbol sputtering into and out of existence as the fleet’s sensors localized the tiny indications of its presence. One of the nearest light cruisers got a fire control solution, and a single hell lance shot speared down and into the shuttle.

The hell lance scored a hit, and a moment later the shuttle blinked fully into view as its power and active stealth systems failed. A half dozen more hell lances tore into it, tearing the shuttle apart.

“There’s another,” Desjani said, as indications of a second shuttle flickered on the display. “We’ve got them boxed in with that search formation. If they don’t move, it’s only a matter of time until we locate them. If they do move, we’ll find them a lot faster.”

It took a real effort of will for Geary to pull his attention back from the shuttle search, not to turn immediately to the situation on Invincible, and instead to concentrate on the entire situation, the entire region near the fleet. “The suicide attacks were at least partly a diversion,” he told Desjani. “Maybe the boarding operation is, too.”