The Fringe Wars

4.16

Silent Night

Sol Base, Darios

The Littorio's lights blinked and then went dark.

Sixx chuckled. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

"The warship's dead in the water," the tech confirmed.

"Let's hope it stays down," Reyne said.

"It'd be great if we could load the virus onto every CUF ship across the Collective. Then, this war would be over," Sixx said.

"I wish that were the case," Reyne said. "Even Vapor couldn't send it out to all the ships at once. Unfortunately, as soon as the CUF learns how Vapor got through their firewall, they'll have a patch loaded onto all of their ships."

Reyne sent out a ping to the wrist comms of twelve thousand torrents and two thousand resistance fighters involved in the operation. The next step began as softly as a toddler's snore. From his video feeds across the city, he watched as people bled out casually onto the streets. The scattered dromadiers performing their security walks didn't seem to notice the colonists; after all, it was in between work shifts and they wouldn't have received any warning from the Littorio.

It wasn't until colonists were on the streets by the thousands that the dromadiers figured out it wasn't another, ordinary evening. Reyne scanned the feeds to see pairs of dromadiers raising their blasters and yelling at the crowds to disperse. Fortunately, none had fired yet. The fighters weren't supposed to reveal their weapons until the dromadiers drew first blood. That way, Hatha would have a clean video of what looked to be a peaceful boycott ending in the CUF bringing violence. Reyne knew the video wouldn't change the outcome of the war, but videos had the power to create doubt in the minds of citizens over who was really in the right. And when it came to peace negotiations, the more support the fringe had, the better.

Reyne hoped the dromadiers wouldn't fire upon a crowd, but he knew better. Something would always happen when someone with a twitchy trigger finger found himself in a stressful situation. It was as guaranteed as finding a card game in Devil Town.

The plan was as straightforward as possible. Reyne couldn't afford complex maneuvers when working with fourteen thousand relatively inexperienced fighters who were at as much risk from friendly fire as from the CUF.

The Littorio would be out of action as it dealt with a virus across all its systems, which would also prevent it from launching its gunships. That left four destroyers; however, Reyne assumed they would be impacted to some extent by the virus by being linked to the warship. How badly impacted waited to be seen.

He was confident they could take Sol Base from the ground. A few dozen dromadiers against a horde of armed colonists made that result inevitable. Holding on to Sol Base was another story.

The sky was an uneven match, heavily tilted in the CUF's favor. The destroyers carried many times the armament. A single shot could annihilate a ship, while a destroyer could take dozens of critical hits. What helped the specters, however, was the fact that they were small and nimble. They could change direction in seconds, while destroyers were slow and moved like icebergs.

Reyne tapped the comm channel. "Specters, you have a green light. Go sting some CUF ass."

Reyne watched his video feed. Seconds later, one dozen dots appeared over the horizon and quickly approached the colony. When he could make out the individual shapes, the ships changed direction and shot upward toward the complement of CUF ships sitting above Sol Base.

A destroyer fired photon blasts. Reyne swallowed. "Damn. I was hoping the virus would've taken out the destroyers' weapons systems."

"The specters can hold their own as long as that warship is out of commission," Sixx said from the chair next to Reyne's.