The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian by Jack Campbell Read Free Book Online Page B

control of this ship. But they’d have to eliminate my Marines to prevent us from stopping them from carrying out that kind of threat.”
    Geary shrugged irritably, trying to ward off the ghosts his senses claimed were bunching around him as he moved. “Do you want reinforcements now?”
    “We can’t use them, Admiral,” Dietz explained. “The safe area on
Invincible
can’t support many more humans. We’re better off with a smaller force that knows the ship fairly well and can hit attackers where they least expect it.”
    “And where would they least expect it?” Geary asked.
    “If they come, they’ll be Syndics. Or people who were trained as Syndics. That means they’ll follow standard procedures in their planning.”
    Geary shook his head. “Surely they realize that the deck plan for this ship doesn’t match anything built by them or the Alliance.”
    “Yes, sir,” Major Dietz said, then continued in very diplomatic tones for a Marine. “These plans will be very important. They’ll be drafted by the Syndic high command. Not by any field forces. By the highest-ranking CEOs in the Syndic military hierarchy.”
    “Which means,” Admiral Lagemann added, “that any relationship between reality and those plans will be purely coincidental.”
    “That’s the way it tends to work,” Geary agreed. “Those high-ranking planners far from the scene of the operations will use standard assumptions, so any attack force will come in and try to locate the three critical areas. I have to admit I have trouble believing that they could manage a boarding operation without our spotting it.”
    “It is possible, sir.” Major Dietz spoke with authority but no hint of boastfulness. “As I said, lurking at full stealth near the path they expect us to use, so they’d only have to use minimal power to bring about an intercept. I’ve done it to their ships. I’m force recon, Admiral.”
    “I see. That makes you a much bigger expert on the matter than I am.” The group had reached another temporary air lock blocking their path. “What is this?” Geary asked.
    “The fake main engineering control,” Admiral Lagemann advised.
    “You’ve made a fake main engineering control?”
    Lagemann opened the air lock and stepped inside.
    Geary blinked at the lack of clean atmosphere on the other side of the air lock. “A fake air lock, too?”
    “Naturally.” Lagemann waved around him. “This was some kind of Kick recreational area, we think. Mostly empty except for what looks like sport equipment sized for Kicks. General Carabali sent over two Persian Donkeys at the request of Major Dietz.” Lagemann pointed to a squat device resting in the center of the space. “Here’s one of them. Have you been briefed on what the Donkeys do, Admiral?”
    “Yes. We used them at Heradao.” Geary came closer to the device, which didn’t look at all like a real donkey. “Marine deception gear. They can send out full-spectrum signals and signatures to mimic just about anything.”
    Major Dietz nodded. “Anything from a headquarters complex to a dispersed armored ground forces unit on the advance,” he said. “Each Donkey isn’t very big, but they each carry scores of little subdecoys that can be sent out and generate all kinds of signatures that someone is there. Communications, bits of spoken conversation, infrared signatures, seismic thumps to match steps or equipment moving, other sounds of weapons and other equipment, you name it. This particular Donkey has been set to generate fake indications that this compartment is full of power-core-control equipment and people operating that equipment.”
    “Nice,” Geary approved. “Where’s the other Donkey?”
    “In the compartment a ways from here that will look like a bridge area to Syndic sensors,” Dietz said a trifle smugly.
    Geary smiled despite the sense of disapproving ghosts hovering nearby. “A fake bridge and a fake main engineering control. These Donkeys will lure