“For those reasons, General,” Kai added, “I believe it is safe to assume that the enigmas will have developed a flexible self-destruct capability in their ground installations that can be tailored to meet requirements. They can probably quickly and easily designate exactly which portions of the installation to destroy and immediately carry out the task.”
Drakon sat back, one hand to his mouth, still looking at the old diagrams and thinking. “How do we beat that?”
“If we simply want to destroy the installation piece by piece,” Kai suggested, “then send in robotic scouts. We would need a lot of scouts, though, as we must assume the enigma defenses would inflict serious losses on anything trying to enter their base.”
“We don’t have that many, not even close, and the enigmas must have watched humans try to employ robotic combatants often enough to have seen all of the countertactics the Syndicate and the Alliance have used over the last century,” Drakon said. “The command and control links are too easily severed by jamming, or intruded upon.”
“The enigmas have demonstrated extensive capabilities to mess with software on our warships,” Safir said. “They can surely do the same to our battle armor and other ground forces software.”
Drakon stared at her as Safir’s words penetrated and he realized the implications. “Where is the armor those three soldiers from Iwa were wearing?”
“Still on that ship, I think,” Rogero offered. “It was going to be brought down on a routine shuttle run.”
“The code monkeys on that ship can scan for enigma quantum-coded worms in their own software, right? Did they do any scans like that of the battle armor software that came off Iwa?”
Everyone else finally understood. “Our system software might also already be laced with enigma worms?” Safir said, horrified. “If we went into a fight against them like that—”
“They’d wipe us out,” Rogero finished. “Maybe that’s what happened to that unit the three soldiers were in. Maybe enigma worms provided the long-range targeting. But then how did going passive save the three soldiers from death?”
“Let’s see if we can find out,” Drakon said. “Colonel Kai, what tactics did the Alliance ultimately develop to use against the Syndicate’s calibrated self-destruction?”
Kai spread his hands. “I could find nothing in the files available to us that speaks specifically about Alliance countertactics. There are just general statements that such tactics had been or were being developed.”
Drakon turned to Gozen, who had been sitting silently to one side of Drakon’s office, listening to the discussion. “Colonel Gozen, take the lead on working with the space apes to check the armor of those three soldiers for enigma worms. Let me know if any are found. If that battle armor is infected, we’ll have to check every set of armor and every system down here as well.” He turned back to face the others. “Colonel Rogero, check with Captain Bradamont on whether she ever heard anything about Alliance countertactics against that calibrated self-destruction. I’m not expecting her to have ever heard of it, but maybe somebody mentioned something.”
“Would Black Jack know anything about it?” Safir asked. “He’s from back around then, right?”
Rogero shook his head. “Black Jack was lost in survival sleep after one of the first battles of the war. All he knows of the first decades of the war is what he might have read in old reports. But I will ask Captain Bradamont.”
Hunching forward over his desk, resting his arms on the surface, Drakon eyed his colonels. “This job keeps getting more difficult. I know that can be discouraging. However, we have never met a challenge we could not overcome. I have the utmost confidence that together we will figure out a way to kick the enigmas out of their underground base at Iwa and not lose our own butts in the process.”
When Gozen reported back two hours later, her eyes were wide. “Those space code monkeys say the three sets of battle armor from Iwa are pumped full of so many enigma worms that they feel like fishing bait buckets.”
“Great.” Drakon considered his first response, then repeated it in more enthusiastic tones. “Great. We’ve discovered some of the enigma weapons that would have been used against us. Those warships know how to scrub out all the worms, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Gozen said. “It’s sort of weird. Instead of anti-malware software like we’re familiar with, the stuff the warships use scans the operating software for stable, persistent patterns at the quantum level, and if it finds any it cancels out the patterns using quantum wave interference. Whoever thought of that was a genius.”
“So I understand,” Drakon said. “She was an Alliance battle cruiser commander. Someone whom Captain Bradamont knew.”
“Knew?” Gozen asked.
“She died at Varandal, fighting our own Reserve Flotilla.”
Gozen shook her head. “More waste. How much human potential did that war grind into dust? And our side, the Syndicate, killed the person who might provide a critical boost to our efforts to beat the enigmas?”
“Yeah,” Drakon said. There really wasn’t any need for more words than that.
She sighed, then saluted him. “I’ve already arranged through Colonel Malin for warship code monkeys to come down here and run our people through the drills so they can scan all of our stuff. Colonel Malin gave it priority from the president’s office, so it should only take three hours for the shuttles to get those monkeys to us, then an estimated hour longer for scans to start.”
“Good.”
“And Colonel Rogero asked me to tell you that when he asked Captain Bradamont about an obscure aspect of Alliance ground forces tactics eighty years ago he received in reply a quote blank stare unquote.”
Drakon couldn’t suppress a grin. “That’s what I expected. Anything else?”
“The docs say that one of those three soldiers from Iwa is broke too bad for him to get back into combat condition,” Gozen reported. “From what they got out of him and the other two, his unit had been chewed up fighting a rebellion-suppression mission at some star about two dozen jumps from here. Instead of sending the survivors in for treatment, the Syndicate broke up the unit and sent the survivors out piecemeal as replacements to units that needed the warm bodies.”
His smile vanished as Drakon clenched a fist. “Already nearly broken and the Syndicate just sent him out again, without even the support his former comrades could have offered. He’s the one who couldn’t talk to me? I suspected something like that. Tell the docs to see what they can do and to take their time. Maybe they can pump enough happy pills into him to help him be functional again in some non-combat job.”
“Already told them that, sir.”
“What about the other two?”
“Not nearly as settled as they ought to be,” Gozen said. “But good enough if you want to take them along with the assault.”
“I’ll get a final appraisal on them just prior to the assault force leaving before I make that decision,” Drakon said. “You do realize that I am not going to Iwa?”
Gozen nodded. “Permission to ask a question, sir?”
“In my headquarters, officers do not have to ask permission to ask questions, Colonel. What is it?”
“Why not, sir? It’s going to be one tough fight, and, well, you’re pretty damned good.”
“Thank you,” Drakon said dryly. “I’m not happy about it. But President Iceni has to go to Iwa. Between you and me, I’m not happy about that, either. That means I have to stay at Midway as leader of the government in the president’s absence.”