Christopher Nuttall: Storming Heaven

“We believe that we may have a way,” Brent said. Patti found herself staring at him, and then wondering if Brent and Tabitha had planned the meeting beforehand. “One of our main problems is that we have been unable to obtain any samples of their technology on more than a small scale. What we need — desperately — is one of their starships to analyse. We believe that we can obtain one.”

He sent a command into the room’s processor and it displayed an image of a Killer starship, a very familiar image. Patti felt her heart race as she took in the massive form, a starship far larger than anything humanity had ever built. The others were showing similar reactions. They all knew what those ships had done to humanity.

“This is Killer #453,” Brent said. “We do not, of course, know what the Killers call it, but we located this one over a year ago and tracked it as it moved from star system to star system. It appears to be comparatively isolated from the remainder of the Killer fleet and doesn’t seem to have any actual links with any known base. Of course, we can’t hack into their communications network, so we don’t know for sure, but all warfare is based on risk. The important thing is that this ship is isolated.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Father Sigmund said, after a long pause, “but only one engagement has ever been fought against more than one Killer starship. All of the engagements have been disasters. How many more people are you prepared to send to their deaths against this monster?”

“That’s not entirely accurate,” Brent said, firmly. “In their attack on High Singapore, and most of the other engagements, we had to stand and fight. We couldn’t break because the Killers would just have moved on to destroying the asteroids and slaughtering the civilians. That meant that we were permanently exposed to their fire and, when they came at us, they broke through. This battle will be fought in a location that is clear of civilians and our starships can jump in and out at will.”

He paused. “One thing we do know about their ships is that their targeting capability isn’t actually that good,” he added. “If our starships keep evading in random patterns, they will be unable to target them easily and we can pound away at them from relative safety. That will not, however, be the actual threat. The starships will distract the Killers while the Footsoldiers board the craft.”

There was a long pause. “You intend to board a Killer starship?”

“Yes, Father,” Brent said, firmly. “I intend to put an entire army into one of their ships and take control of it from the inside.”

“Impossible,” Patti said flatly. “You don’t know enough about the enemy ships to take control of one.”

“We have volunteers for the mission,” Brent countered, “and at least some understanding of their technology. Even if we cannot gain control, detonating an antimatter mine inside the craft would certainly wreck it and give us something we need desperately — a victory. If we could even get our hands on a real live Killer… we might even be able to learn how to talk to the bastards.”

“And even images of what the interior of the craft looks like would be helpful,” Arun added, from his position. “We believe that we are on the verge of unlocking some of their technology, or at least developing theories that account for how it works, but we need additional information to allow us to develop a defence.”

“That still leaves the risk of provoking them into coming after us,” Patti countered. “The Community is on the verge of falling apart anyway. We cannot take the risk of forcing them to drive after us and completing the task of wiping us out.”

“They’re intent on wiping us out anyway,” Tabitha pointed out, sharply. “I’ve been watching and listening through the MassMind. Over the last thousand years, the human race’s… determination to overcome everything in its path has been steadily broken by the Killers. The number of people who have just… given up is astonishingly high, worryingly high. Thousands are seeking refuge in fantasy inside the MassMind or other simulations; hundreds more are committing suicide or just giving up inside. They will locate and destroy every colony of ours, eventually. They even wiped out the pastoral worlds and God alone knows what attracted them there.”

Patti winced. Three hundred years ago, a group of settlers had concluded that the reason the Killers located human worlds so fast was because of the emission signatures caused by their technology, so they’d settled a handful of worlds with nothing beyond hand and water powered technology. It hadn’t been a pleasant life — no one had any experience living in a world without technology — and, a hundred years later, the Killers had arrived, bombarded the worlds into radioactive wastelands, and that put an end to that. Perhaps it was telepathy, as some humans had speculated at the time; there seemed to be no other explanation for how the Killers had located their prey.

“They are set on destroying us all,” Tabitha continued. “We don’t co-exist with them. We merely… wait until they turn their attention to destroying us. If we can take out that craft, or capture it, it will give the human race a boost, a boost we desperately need. If we can’t fight back, we might as well commit suicide now and save them the trouble of exterminating us.”

“We can’t do that,” Brent said. He smiled, thinly. “We’d never get everyone to agree to commit suicide.”

Patti looked down at the image of the galaxy. There were hundreds of known Killer star systems and thousands of known Killer starships. It seemed absurd to believe that the Community could wage war against such a foe and yet… they were right. The human race was in hiding, the Defence Force only capable of observing and monitoring the enemy… and it was tearing the Community apart. There were groups launching colony fleets to the nearest galaxies, using the Anderson Drive to cut the journey times down to a manageable level, but what would happen when the Killers reached those galaxies as well?

And humanity was alone. There were no allies out there, no aliens who might be friendly or would join humanity in war against the Killers. The Killers had wiped out thousands of races over the years, leaving humanity alone. It didn’t bode well for humanity’s future. The human race wasn’t the only race that had reached space before the Killers arrived, but no others had survived, unless they were in hiding. She would have liked to believe that some of them were hiding under the noses of the Killers, but the Killers would probably have ferreted them all out — eventually — and destroyed them. Humanity was just the last in a long line of defeated and exterminated races.

“Can we even break into the craft?” She asked, finally. “Can we board craft coated with invincible hull material?”

“We believe so,” Brent said, simply. “We have studied the craft carefully and believe that it might be possible to board it with Footsoldiers. There is an element of risk, as I said, but we believe that it can be minimised.”

“And if it is not, they all die,” Patti said.

Tabitha smiled. “Shall we move to a vote?”

Rupert, the Spacer, spoke first. “We support this risky endeavour,” he grated, slowly. “We will grant what support we can to the Footsoldiers.”

“We agree,” Arun added. His voice was distressingly eager. “We need insight into their technology and this is the only way we can obtain it. The risk is worthwhile.”

It isn’t you who will have to take the risk , Patti thought, but she knew that it wasn’t quite accurate. The Technical Faction would be intimately involved with examining the captured ship — if it were captured — and if the Killers arrived to recover their ship, they’d be caught in the firing line. She made a mental note to ensure that the starship was flown well away from any inhabited human settlement, just in case, before waiting for the next person to speak.