You Don't Know Jack: Jack Foster Space Opera Book 5 (Jack Foster Space Opera Series) by John Hindmarsh & Craig Martelle

Author:John Hindmarsh & Craig Martelle [Hindmarsh, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Hindmarsh
Published: 2022-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Jack Senior pumped his fist, then grabbed Leo and danced around in a circle.

Leo stared at him. “I am at a loss. You are celebrating the successful escape when you never knew Jack was a prisoner.”

“Guilty as charged. Sometimes you’re better off not knowing bad stuff, especially when there’s nothing you could have done about it,” Jack Senior admitted. “It begs the question of why Jenny didn’t tell me that Jack had been kidnapped, but my relief is overwhelming.”

“I suspect Jenny didn’t want to distract you from protecting Jack’s Planet. What could you have done had you known?” Leo pointed at the screen. “You know what else is overwhelming?”

Five ships bore down on the planet, already well past Black Orchid and Bulwark.

The battle commander straightened. “We could have taken no different actions had we known. Jenny is wise, and my Jack could not have done better than her.” Jack Senior reoriented himself. “Orchid, are you prepared to conduct combat operations?”

“I am ready with all functions,” the AI replied.

Jack Senior continued, “SAC747, take out the SAC scouts and attach limpet mines to those ships while clearing their hulls of aerials and other communications equipment. Leave their engines functional for now.”

“An analysis of the two cruisers suggests they have external weaponry that should also be disabled,” Orchid suggested.

“Make it so, SAC747, you and all your scouts. Launch, and let’s start evening the odds.”

The cargo bay doors opened, and SAC scouts flooded into the void of space. Once they oriented, they disappeared as they entered ETL with laser precision to get inside the screens of the encroaching vessels. Fifty cloaked scouts disappeared and reappeared next to the inbound ships.

“Marvelous flying,” the battle commander said, always amazed by the abilities and precision of the SAC AI.

Once they were near the hulls, the scouts went to work stripping aerials and arrays.

The heavy cruisers were geared differently from the other three ships. They immediately opened fire at danger-close range on the scouts within their shields.

The SAC scouts winked out as they returned to ETL, but not all of them. Three of the scouts paid the ultimate price, though they never knew what hit them since the counterattack was quick and violent. The ships’ debris floated freely, trapped within the bubble around the heavy cruisers.

The cruisers accelerated away from where they’d been engaged, spiraling erratically to prevent any more ETL incursions within their shields. They fired randomly, expecting their cloaked enemies to be nearby.

The battle commander watched the scene unfold from the safety of his position behind the moon of the system’s next planet. “Orchid, did you learn any tricks from Axe about how to get in the backdoor and have a pleasant conversation with the AIs on those ships?”

“I am well-versed on what I can do, but the GalFed heavy cruisers have firewalls to keep me from doing what I should be able to do. The other ships, not so much.”

“GalFed heavy cruisers? Not quite the RSN, but they seem more capable. An RSN cruiser wouldn’t have been able to see the SAC scouts.

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