Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (16 page)

Finally, when I thought we had discussed everything we needed, I said to Commander Cefvoux, “One last thing, try to capture their base commander alive if you can.”

“I’ll try, sir,” Cefvoux replied, “but I can’t promise you I will be able to.”

“Give it your best effort,” I said, “I have plans for him if we can take him alive.”  In the back of the room, I noticed Admiral Regeny raised an eyebrow as he tugged on the loose skin beneath his chin.  I walked over to him and said, “This battle is taking longer than I anticipated, Admiral.  This underground fortress is an unexpected development.”

“You seem to be handling it well, Tibby,” Regeny said, “I looked over the casualty reports, and our losses have been lower than I anticipated.  For an operation of this magnitude, you are to be congratulated.”

I responded, “Don’t congratulate me too soon, Admiral, the battle isn’t over.  Besides, any casualties are too many in my book.”

“Hmm,” Regeny cleared his throat and then said, “Wabussie tells me that Halfredies now has a personal-sized Cantolla Gate set up on Irribis.  He’s not contacted the Tottalax refugee there personally and is waiting for directions from us.  Have you selected a team to go through the gates to interrogate him?”

“No,” I replied, “I plan to go there personally to meet with him.”

“Is that wise?”

“I think it is,” I responded, “While the Tottalax may be our enemies, this particular one hasn’t shown any signs of aggression or hostility toward us so far.  I see no reason for us to treat him like the enemy during this time.  If you treat a person like an enemy eventually they will become one, treat them like a friend, and you may find a new one.”

“Hmm, an interesting speculation,” Regeny said.  “I could argue that point, but you seemed to have demonstrated it with both the Ruwallie Rasson and the androids, so I’ll give you some credence with your idea.  Tell me though, when do you plan to go there?”

“As soon as things are under control here,” I replied.

“Oh, Wabussie here has some news for you that I think you will find to be of interest.  Why don’t you tell him, Wabussie?”  Regeny said.

I looked at Wabussie, who up until this point had sat quietly listening to our conversation.

“Our FSO agents are reporting that Brotherhood ships are passing near Weccies and seem to be checking out the defenses there.  We also have intercepted messages that indicate that the Brotherhood is requesting the Tottalax to join them near there.  We believe the Brotherhood plans to attack Weccies.  Though no one outside of the Weccies knows just how much of the wealth in the universe is stored there, suffice it to say it’s more than even you have, Tibby.”

“Do you think the Brotherhood can take the planet?  I asked.  “I thought the planet was so heavily protected that no one could get to it.”

“It was before you arrived and before RMFF technology was a real thing here.  But now a starship with an RMFF shield could fly right up to Weccies with no damage to the ship at all.  It’s even possible that the Tottalax ship can fly through their mine fields and fleets of warships with little consequence.  Now that the Brotherhood has a few ships they captured from the Federation with RMFF capabilities, I think they may try it. ”

“Do we have any idea how long it will be before the Brotherhood plans to attack there?”  I asked.

“No time soon from the chatter we have been picking up,” Wabussie replied, “there seems to be some problem getting the Tottalax to commit to when they are available to join them for the attack, and apparently they are a key component in the Brotherhoods plans."

“If that’s the case, then taking this base is even more important, as it is from this base that the special headgear the Brotherhood uses to block the effects of the Tottalax sleep weapon originates.  There can be no doubt that there is a huge supply of such gear on this planet that we can use, as well as the Weccies.  I’ll get Commander Cefvoux to have his men on the lookout for supplies of the headgear and to confiscate it at once.

“Admiral Wabussie, do we have any new leads on that woman, Sisopan, who drugged Bandur?”

“No Sir, she seems to have vanished right after she gave the bomb to Bandur to place on the
NEW ORLEANS. 
Her apartment was scrubbed with a protein fogger that erases all fingerprints and destroys all DNA evidence that she may have left behind.  She obviously knew what she was doing, as this method isn’t known to many people.”

“A protein fogger?” I inquired.

“It’s a device that sprays a gas into a room that destroys any biological substance with DNA in it or proteins.  Any fingerprints left behind are erased and any hair and dried skin flakes or blood is dissolved, leaving nothing that can be identified,” Wabussie replied.

“Wouldn’t that kill the person setting it off?”  I asked.

“It would if you released it directly, but usually, there is a time-release mechanism.  The stuff dissipates very rapidly though, and if it leaks outside the room it’s so weak by then that it doesn’t have any impact on anything outside.  It also breaks down rapidly once it comes in contact with the air and in five minutes, there is little to no trace of it.  We only know it was used, because the aerosol bomb device was left in the apartment.”

“Would it be strong enough to dissolve a body?” I asked as another thought hit my mind.

“No, nothing that large.  If you had enough gas in a sealed room, it might, but not in this case.  Why?  Do you think Sisopan may have been murdered before the bomb was set off?”  Wabussie asked.

“It was a possibility,” I answered.

“Our FSO agents are pretty sure she left the planet before Bandur ever returned here to the ship.  Though we have no actual physical proof of it at the moment we believe she left in a ship headed to Tetteferd 3.  It’s a non-aligned world but we do have several agents there, and I have alerted them to be on the lookout for her.”

“So then we know what she looks like?”  I asked.

“From various street and business surveillance cameras, we have been able to get vids of her and Bandur with each other several times, and the computer has put together this 3-D image of her.”  Wabussie made some adjustments to his vid pad and nodded toward the holographic display area at the center of the room.  There in the center stood a 3D likeness of a rather attractive woman.  I could see why Bandur would have found her alluring.  “Of course by the time her ship reaches Tetteferd 3, she may no longer look like this,” Wabussie said.  “The journey will take over three months and by then she may have availed herself of the cosmetic surgery features of the med unit and depart the ship with completely new looks.”

“Is there any way we can intercept the ship before it reaches Tetteferd 3?”  I asked.

“Not legally,” Wabussie replied.  “The ship is not a Federation ship, and it would be considered an act of piracy to do so.”

“What if we had some actual pirates from a non-aligned world do it?”  I asked.

Regeny sat up looking interested as Wabussie frowned and replied, “It would reflect poorly on the Federation if it ever was discovered that we were involved in any way.”

“I was thinking of the Ruwallie Rasson” I replied.  “Technically they are still considered pirates, and they are not part of the Federation at the moment, though they are unofficially allied with us.  I’m relatively sure they would be willing to intercept any ships going to Tetteferd 3, if we gave them the information on the ship we believe Sisopan to be on.”

“Some innocent people could get killed in such an operation as well as property being taken by the Ruwallie Rasson.  To make it work you would need to steal the cargo from the ship and take prisoners for ransom as well as for slaves, otherwise it would look like a sham.  Is it worth that?”

Wabussie asked.  I looked at Regeny, who now had slumped back in his chair with a dejected look, and I had my answer.  “No,” I replied, “I guess not, “what do you suggest?”

“I suggest we wait until the ship arrives at Tetteferd 3.  They will have a complete listing of passengers and crew of the ship with their vid images.  When they disembark, we will have a computer analyzing each of their images against the database.  If anyone resembling Sisopan, or not resembling anyone supposed to be on the ship disembarks, we will have our agents in place to follow them and intercept them when we need to.”

“I guess that will have to work, I don’t really see any other options,” I replied.

It took a few more hours to get everything in place on the surface for our assault of the Brotherhood’s underground base.  By now, our ground troopers had secured all the surface facilities and captured most of the remaining Brotherhood troops there.  All the unshielded Brotherhood ships in orbit had been captured, disabled or destroyed and the few ships equipped with RMFF capabilities had cloaked and fled the area.  The only combative troops on the planet were in the underground base.

Using the old tunnel our advanced recon team had discovered earlier, I had several squads of troopers ready to enter the underground base once we began attacking their entrances at the surface.  When all was in place, I ordered our ships in orbit to begin firing on the main surface entrances to the base.  I had to make sure that none of the ships firing were shielded with RMFF’s, because the RMFF fields amplified the power of any shots fired from these ships, and I only wanted to damage the base and gain access to it, not destroy it completely.  We needed the head set devices that muted the effect of the Tottalax weapon, and I believed the bulk of them were stored in facility below ground.

After twenty minutes of firing at the surfaces entrances, I gave the word for the troopers in the old access tunnel to blast through into the base.  I was relatively sure that by now most of the Brotherhood troopers were in defensive positions nearer the entrances under attack, and I hoped that when my men blasted out the last bit of rock between them and the interior of the base, the sound of it would be covered by the sounds of the battle elsewhere.

The stars were with us, and it appeared the only Brotherhood personnel in that area of the base were next to the wall when it blew, and they were killed instantly.  Our Federation troops poured in and once inside they cloaked and spread out, each team taking different routes and knocking out the enemy using stun weapons that would keep them unconscious for 20 hours or more.  At several locations on the surface the fire from the ships was sufficient to break through into the tunnels below.  Our surface troops moved in quickly with equipment and began clearing debris and making a ramped path down into the base.  There was heavy fighting in these areas, which was exactly what I anticipated and wanted. If the enemy thought this was our main assault, they would be unlikely to discover our special ops teams creeping up behind them.  The battle lasted another seven hours before the enemy realized that most of their men were not responding to calls, and that only a handful of them continued fighting.  Finally, the last of them surrendered and the planet was ours.

Against the protests of Admiral Regeny, Admiral Wabussie and I went down to the surface to check out the facility for ourselves.  The base was far more sophisticated then I had expected, and it was obvious the Brotherhood had put a lot of time and effort into building this stronghold.  It could easily house over ten thousand troopers.  We discovered several hundred citizens on the planet that were being held in the underground base as slaves.  There were over one hundred women slaves imprisoned there solely for the purposes of sexually servicing the Brotherhood troops.  The fortification was well stocked with supplies and there were sufficient food and replicators to keep the base operational for years, if needed.

We also found an underground laboratory that was being used to create new drugs, and we found samples of
Ginuluvti-Neusser-rufous
being cultured in a separate lab.  I had samples taken and sent to A’Lappe to see they matched the samples discovered on Megelleon at the Capitol and in Regeny’s office.  There had been nearly one hundred scientists in the laboratory; most were Brotherhood men, but a few were slaves with science backgrounds who were forced into helping the Brotherhood in their scientific endeavors.  In rooms next to the laboratories we found dozens of slaves that were being used to test the new drugs being produced.  Many of these slaves were little more than vegetables, their minds totally destroyed by the drugs injected into their bodies.  We found several slaves staring blankly at the walls, total zombies, and we found three that screamed constantly and had looks of extreme horror in their faces.  All three died within less than a day, and our medics said they appeared to die of fright-induced heart failure.  All the notes and computers were confiscated and turned over to the FSO for further investigation.

In one computer, we found in a room we believed to be their central communication room; we found copies of messages and orders for the base as well as other ships.  Of significant interest to Wabussie and myself was that 80% of the orders were coming from Ming and only 20% from Roritat, and fewer orders were from Roritat as time progressed.  One communication hinted at a possible new ally and frustrations about the Tottalax.  Roritat seemed to defend the Tottalax and Ming wanted to find a way to capture their ship and take it from them.  There were also complaints that the Tottalax were too absorbed in some project of their own and not giving enough attention to helping the Brotherhood like they agreed.

At that moment, the ground shook and there was a loud explosion followed by a blast of air and dust from one of the corridors.