Warstrider: Jackers by Ian Douglas

Author:Ian Douglas [Douglas, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Galactic Empire, Military, Space Fleet, Space Marine
Amazon: B00MT7UZT8
Publisher: War Planet Press
Published: 2014-08-16T12:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

In the days before cephlinks and virtual reality, of course, EW—Electronic Warfare—was restricted to mean those tactics employed by opposing forces to learn about the enemy's dispositions by listening in on his radio and radar transmissions, while simultaneously baffling his attempts to do the same through jamming and various types of electronic countermeasures.

With ViRcommunications, of course, the game became far more complicated, and deadly.

—Man and the Stars: A History of Technology

Ieyasu Sutsumi

C.E. 2531

When Dev and Katya had lifted off from Eridu in an ascraft months before, they'd been pursued by Imperial warships, by Amatukaze-class destroyers identical to the Eagle, in fact. As with all ship-to-ship communications, the ViRcom exchanges between Dev and Arasi's captain had been recorded, both by Dev's own cephlink and by the ascraft's lasercom circuits. By downloading those records to Eagle's link network, the destroyer's AI had been able to create a computer analogue of the captain of the Imperial destroyer Arasi.

This is Taisa Yasuo Ihara, the computer-generated image had said, mimicking perfectly the real Ihara's gruff manner and harsh-slurred Nihongo. Captain of the Imperial destroyer Arasi. I require direct passage to Ohka Squadron's operational area. Over.

The time lag, as Eagle's lasercom transmission had crept across intervening space to the waiting corvette, then again as the corvette's lasered reply crawled back, had seemed interminable. Randi Lloyd had provided all of the current Imperial codes and passwords stored at Daikokukichi, as well as every scrap of electronic data he'd been able to record when Ohka Squadron had stopped at his base, but there was always the possibility that Ohka possessed some secret recognition code that Lloyd had not intercepted, or that a real messenger from Munimori would have some private access word agreed upon back on Earth. Of particular concern was whether Arasi and Captain Ihara were still at Eridu, as seemed likely, or whether in the past few months they'd been reassigned to Ohka.

It would be suspicious, to say the least, if a destroyer claiming to be the Arasi dropped out of K-T space with a secret communique for Kawashima . . . and the real Arasi was already parked in orbit a few kilometers off Donryu's starboard side.

"We have a return laser," Eagle's communications officer reported over the link. "They've acknowledged!"

"Play it."

A scene formed in Dev's mind as he accepted the transmission downlink. Giving a mental command, Dev took on a new ViRcomm persona . . . that of Taisa Ihara on Arasi's bridge, as reconstructed by Eagle's AI. According to ViRcomm protocol, the setting for any exchange was aboard the ship belonging to the higher-ranking officer; juniors always reported to their senior's bridge, never the other way around. Dev's persona was seated on a thronelike and purely imaginary seat, surrounded by the bulky jack modules for the bridge crew. Before him stood the persona of a Japanese naval officer in an immaculate dress uniform.

"Yoku irasshaimashita, Taisasan!" the man said, smiling and bowing low. "Welcome, sir! I am Chusa Shioya, of the Imperial corvette Tosshin. Your transmission acknowledged! Please transmit special clearance codes and ID.

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