Rumors of Glory (The System States Rebellion Book 1) by Dietmar Wehr Read Free Book Online Page B

shuttle, but when it drops below a preset altitude, the explosives will
detonate, turning the shuttle into a cloud of shrapnel that should be lethal
for quite a large radius. If the Chancellor is waiting near the landing pad,
then there’s a good chance the blast will kill him.”
     
    “Hmm. It’s an interesting idea, but now that I think it
through, I can see another potential problem. Ground personnel will be
communicating with the shuttle’s pilot, except there won’t be one. If we set it
up so that the shuttle relays ground transmissions to us and then relays our
response back to the ground controllers, they’re bound to notice the seven plus
seconds delay. It’ll only take one person figuring out why the lag time exists
to blow the lid off the operation. We need to figure a way around that,” said
Stacker. Both men said nothing for a while as they pondered the problem.
     
    “I don’t suppose one of our shuttle pilots would be
willing to go on a suicide mission?” asked Stacker in a tone that was only half
rhetorical.
     
    “No, sir. However…if the pilot had a way of evacuating
the shuttle before it exploded, then I’m sure we could find one volunteer. Our
standard shuttles don’t have escape pods for the flight crew, but our assault
shuttles do. If the pilot takes an assault shuttle loaded with explosives and
lets ground control pilot the craft to a landing, then he can wait until he
sees the Chancellor get within lethal range before setting the timer for the
explosives. He’ll set it for just long enough for him to use his escape pod to
get far enough away to survive the blast. Naturally he’ll be captured, but
he’ll be instructed to tell his captors that we will treat any of their people
we capture well, and that we expect the same from them,” said Corvosier.
     
    “You don’t think their people will think it strange that
an envoy is coming down on an assault shuttle?” asked Stacker.
     
    Corvosier shrugged. “It’ll still be dark by the time the
shuttle lands. They won’t notice that it’s an assault shuttle until just before
it lands and maybe not even then. Most of the telltale differences can only be
seen in daylight.”
     
    “That might work, but what about the shuttle’s
transponder? Assault shuttles have a very distinctive transponder id. Can we
change that without it taking too long?” asked Stacker.
     
    “I believe we can, but I’ll find out for sure,
Commodore.”
     
    “Good. While you’re doing that, have all the shuttle
pilots meet me in the Flight Ready Room in five minutes. If we can’t find a
volunteer, then the transponder id change is moot anyway.”
     
    It was actually almost fifteen minutes before Stacker and
Corvosier stepped into the Ready Room. The delay was caused by arrangements to
have Stacker’s briefing transmitted to the shuttle pilots in the other two
cruisers at the same time. The chatter between pilots quickly died down to
nothing as Stacker took up his position at the front with his hands on his hips
and his feet further apart than usual. He considered it his gunslinger stance.
Corvosier stood to his right and a half step back.
     
    “As you all know, we’re in orbit around the capital
planet of what they’re calling the System States Union. What you won’t know is
that I have secret orders to attempt to decapitate the leadership of the SSU if
at all possible. A direct attack by missiles is out of the question because the
Spartans have told us to maintain a distance of one million kilometers.
However, we’ve come up with another plan, and it requires a volunteer shuttle
pilot. There is some risk of physical injury, but the chances of surviving the
operation are high. This is NOT a suicide mission. That said, there is a
virtual certainty that whoever volunteers for this mission will be captured by
the SSU and held as a prisoner until the SSU is defeated or an exchange of
prisoners can be arranged, whichever comes first. Therefore I’m only