War of Alien Aggression 4 Taipan by A.D. Bloom

Author:A.D. Bloom [Bloom, A.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

As Hardway and the Taipan battlegroup made for the Groomsbridge-Castor Transit on the far side of the system, the brimstone stink spread up into the bridge. Lt. Commander Dana Sellis had to work in it as she put together the account of what had happened on her watch.

First, she crafted a vigorous simulation that reconstructed the position of every ship and defensive patrol in the Taipan carrier group over the last hours and everything known about Squidy stealth craft. Then, using her simulation, she tried to penetrate the defenses and actually fly through the patrols to Hardway.

53 minutes later, she'd figured out how it was done and she even had the answers to Cozen's questions, but that didn't change the fact that it had all happened with her in the command chair. She was responsible.

As the bridge officers and Harry Cozen entered the observation deck, Dana took small comfort in the fact that Chief Terrazzi had got the artificial gravity back up. It's easier to stand tall when you can plant your feet on the deck.

Cozen stood up close to the windows and looked down at the redsuits 150 meters below, working to repair the holes where the Squidies cut their way in. He didn't turn around as he spoke. "The markings on the dead aliens' exosuits match those found on the lone Squidy sent to Sagan Yards to kill our hypermass transit expert, Dr. Noondie, almost a year ago. Lt. Commander Sellis, please explain to me how a team of no less than 24 suicidal Squidies from an alien special forces unit managed to penetrate this battlegroup's defenses, cut their way into my ship, set my crewmen on fire, and then, knock on my hatch?"

His eyes remained on the hole being repaired below.

"That's the primary point of access you're looking at right now," Dana said.

"You don't say."

"They cut through the armor and outer hull of the command tower. Once the alien boarding teams had penetrated the inner hull, they leveraged their physiology to worm their way through areas considered too tight for human passage. They traveled between decks and made it deep into the command tower where they used directed explosive charges to create two, separate points of egress...one into the aft tube of the command tower and one into the ship's spine."

Cozen said, "That part I know." He turned to face her. "I want you to explain how they evaded detection and got through dozens of patrols including Hardway's own junks." As he said the last part, he glared at Asa Biko. The carrier's Air Group Commander was the one who set the number of junks on combat air patrol and determined their patrol patterns, but no matter who set the CAP, they'd been flying it on her watch. It was her responsibility, all of it.

"The incident began when Hardway's arrays picked up intermittent radar contact returns. Taipan could not corroborate the returns, but directed a flight of their Bitzers to investigate – SOP for bogies that far out.

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