Europa Strike(87)
It took several long seconds before Lucky realized…it wasn’t slowing down!
The 1,200-ton orbit-to-surface shuttle impacted on the ice nearly half a kilometer beyond the crater’s east rim, well to the north of the first craft. It drifted in tail first, landing gear deployed…but when the landing struts touched the surface they appeared to crumple as the rest of the craft mashed on down into the ice. There was no flame, no blast, not even the boom of an impact.
If there had been any sound, though, it would have been instantly drowned out by the cheers of the watching Marines.
And Lucky cheered with them, half rising to punch a gloved fist into the black sky. Victory was sweet…even if it was only temporary.
SIXTEEN
21 OCTOBER 2067
C-3, E-DARES Facility
Ice Station Zebra, Europa
1215 hours Zulu
“So,” Jeff said with a wry grin. “Is this wonder cannon of yours going to work?”
“All of the systems test out, Major,” Kaminksi replied. “I don’t see what else we can test.”
“And it’s a use it or lose it proposition,” Lieutenant Walthers added. “We’ve been lucky so far, but sooner or later Papa Romeo’s gonna come over and plant a crowbar smack in the middle of that thing. And we won’t be able to patch it up afterward. We don’t have the spares.”
“We used all of that superconducting cable?”
“Most of it.” He pointed at a computer monitor on the bulkhead, which was currently showing the view from a camera set up on the ice. “In any case, we’re not going to get more than one shot, you know. Charlie’ll come down on it like a ton of hypervelocity crowbars.”
Jeff and the other officers were all present, plus Kaminski and Shigeru Ishiwara, who was representing the science team. The compartment was crowded with so many people, but the electronics suite gave them immediate access to all available information, from individual Marines, from sensors outside, from a host of AI and dumb systems both inside and out.
“Yeah. I was figuring that.” Jeff rubbed his jaw. “You know, Sergeant Major, I’ve been thinking about that. We might be able to get your toy out there to pull double duty.”
“In what way, sir? We don’t even know if it’s gonna survive the first shot!”
“It won’t need to. The thing is, when we fire, let’s do it at a time when the Star Mountain can easily shift to a new orbit to overfly us. If we know when he’s going to come over the horizon, and exactly from what direction…”
Walthers’ eyes widened. “You’re thinking of an intercept? With the bug?”
“Exactly.”
“We might lose the bug.”
“We might. It’ll require a volunteer.”
“No problem there, Major. Armament?”
“I was thinking of a shit can. Literally.” Quickly, he sketched out his plan in a few words.
“Jesus Christ!” Lieutenant Biehl exclaimed. “If this works…”
Shigeru’s eyes widened as Jeff explained. “Major, what you are suggesting?”
“You have a problem with it?”
“It’s reckless! Irresponsible! You…you could ruin everything here!”
“Frank,” Jeff said, “get a work detail together and get the, um, supplies. I suggest we strap as many drums to the upper works of the bug as we can. Fill the cans with the special munitions. And might as well chuck in any other small bits we have lying around. Scrap from the other bug. Leftovers from that microwave tower. Whatever you can find.”
Kaminski was grinning. “Aye, aye, sir!”
“You’ll need that volunteer,” Walthers said. He raised a hand. “Here he is.”
“I appreciate that, Lieutenant, but I have something else in mind.” He patted the screen frame to his PAD. “I have to have a talk with Chesty and see what he can suggest.”
Chesty Puller
Ice Station Zebra, Europa
2045 hours Zulu
The program known as Chesty Puller was commercial software, a design known as Aristotle 3050 characteristically running at 2.97 × 1015 operations per second, approximately at human levels, on a system network with a memory capacity of 1.2 terabytes of fast cache buffer and 2.33 petabytes of nonvolatile memory. Normally resident within Jeff Warhurst’s PAD, he’d been uploaded recently to the Sperry-Rand CVAC-1280 system within the Europan E-DARES facility. And now, a broad-band communications channel had been opened between the E-DARES C-3 suite and the remaining bug, which in the past few hours had become festooned with large storage canisters strapped to the side and dorsal struts of the craft’s framework. Marines were completing the finishing touches, attaching a series of “squibs,” or small explosive packages to the aluminum strips securing the canisters to the spacecraft.