Operation Homefront, Come Into My Parlor

**********************************************************************
    The LDS LYDIA glided silently through the night, 22,300 miles
above Equador.  The Legion Spacedock rested just off her bow, far
enough away so as not to cause a traffic jam, but still close enough
to make it easy to shuttle back and forth with spare parts.
    In the main sensor room, Colonel Rick Sanford sipped his Jolt and
watched the results of some of that shuttling.  The Legion Spacedock
had done a good job of repairing the damage of her last battle, and
had even upgraded a lot of her equipment (so much of it had to be re-
placed anyway).  Now Colonel Sanford watched Lieutanant Forbes run
checks on the upgraded RDF (Radio Direction Finding) gear to see just
how good it was.
    The Colonel glanced up at a discolored spot on the overhead in re-
flection.  It hadn't been that long ago, when that spot had been a
gaping hole, open to vaccum.  To cure an onset of melancholy he looked
down at his collar insignia.  It hadn't been that long since he'd worn
a Captain's insignia either.
    Lieutenant Forbes was shaking his head, dissatisfied.  "Sir, we
either need to tone down the gain on the receivers or come up with a
better noise filtering algorithm."
    "I've never heard you complain about haveing receivers that were
_too_ sensitive, before Mr. Forbes,"  the Colonel remarked drolly.
"Usually, it's just the opposite."
    Lieutenant Forbes sighed, "I like sensitive receivers, but not
when they can't tell the difference between a signal and noise.  Just
look at what they're showing us on North America, sir."  He punched a
key and a map of the USA showed up, criss-crossed with an intricate
pattern of lines.
    Colonel Sanford frowned and took a closer look.  "It looks like
some kind of spiderweb."
    "That's what a lot of radio networks look like, sir," the Lieuten-
ant answered, "and that's what our sensors say it is, but it can't be
right.  For one thing, take a look at the strength of the signals."
He pointed to a readout.  "They're below the level of the background
noise.  That guarantees garbled messages unless you've got some seri-
ous processing power."
    "For the sake of argument, why couldn't...'they', for lack of a
better word."
    Lieutenant Forbes shrugged, "In principle, no reason, but look how
many stations there are, sir.  Do you really think that someone could
set up a network that would require Supercomputers at every node with-
out our knowing about it?"
    Colonel Sanford was silent for about two minutes.  Then, "I'm not
sure.  My first guess would be no, but then we've seen B'harniian
forces do some clever things before."  He thought for a few minutes
more.  "Spongies are very good at following orders.  If someone smart
gives them the right ones, the results might surprise you."  One of
the dots on the map winked out, taking a large part of the web with
it.  "What happened?"
    Petty Officer Darnell, who was operating the RDF equipment an-
swered.  "Colonel, a station in southern Kansas went offline."  Parts
of the web tried to come back in fits.  "It almost looks like stations
elsewhere are trying to reestablish contact."
    "Fits with my theory that it's random, sir," added Lieutenant
Forbes.  "Look at how messed up the pattern is.  If this is a network,
they've got very sloppy procedure."
    "Still Lieutenant, it's interesting.  Why don't you use it as a
training exercise?  Map and track it over time."
    "Aye aye, sir."
    Colonel Sanford smiled at the Lieutenant's tone as he left the
sensor room.  He could recall all too well how many times he'd told a
superior it was nothing and been told to take care of it anyway.
    The boatswains call sounded over the loudspeakers, "Commanding
Officer, please contact the Bridge."
    Colonel Sanford spoke into his wrist-com, "Colonel Sanford."
    "Colonel, Brigadier General Most Holy called.  He wants you at the
Spacedock briefing room in an hour."
    Colonel Sanford's brows went up.  "All right, have a pod ready at
the number 2 port in ten minutes.  Don't bother with a coxswain.  I'll
pilot her myself."
    "Aye aye, sir."

                                  ***

    Colonel Sanford walked into the briefing room to find General Most
Holy, Captain Jones and a bunch of other Despongification personnel.
All were talking excitedly.
    Most Holy saw the Colonel and announced, "Since we're all here,
let's get started."
    Everyone took their seats.  General Most Holy stood up.  "People,
about two hours ago, Warrior Persephone of the DE and Lt. Comdr Keith
of TRES Corps stumbled onto a new sponge-plan.  It seems to be called
the, 'Real Big Nice Making Array.'  Apparently it involves an array of
field generators that, when linked and activated together, will cover
the entire world with an energy field in less than a minute.  DE and
TRES personnel found out some technical specifications, not least of
which is the fact that this field will cover the Earth to an altitude
of 200 miles."  There was a murmur at that.  "Warrior Persephone made
some recordings."  A scene flashed up on the screen.
    It wasn't pretty.  "People, this is perhaps the greatest threat to
the Earth since the Lizards came here.  We have to find the central
generator and fast."
    Captain Jones raised his hand, "General, when and where were those
pictures taken?"
    Warrior Persephone took those when she infiltrated a hidden spong-
ie supply depot in southern Kansas...yes Colonel, what is it?"
    Colonel Sanford had started at that announcement.  "Sir, did Pers
manage to deactivate one of those field generators about an hour ago?"
    This time it was Most Holy's eyebrows that went up.  "Yes, she and
Keith captured one.  She said she managed to deactivate it about the
time that I called for this meeting.  How did you know, Rick?"
    "General, may I call my ship?  There's something I think you need
to see."
    The General nodded and the Colonel got up and keyed an intercom.
A few moments later, Lieutenant Forbes was on.  "Yes, sir?"
    "Lieutenant, are you still tracking that web?  If so, patch it
through to the briefing room, here."
    The map of North America came up.  "General, my sensor operators
picked this up while they were calibrating their new equipment.  Look
down here, sir."  He pointed to southern Kansas.  "There was a station
there that went down at about the same time Pers turned off that array
element.  You can see where they're trying to reestablish contact."
The whole room leaned in to watch.  "My Intel Officer thinks it's ran-
dom, but in view of what we just saw, well..."
    General Most Holy nodded.  "Gentlemen, we need to get busy.  I ex-
pect you all to start tracking down this Array ten minutes ago.  I
hope I don't need to emphasize how important this is?"  Nobody said a
word.  "Dismissed."
    As everyone started to leave, Colonel Sanford caught up to Most
Holy.  "Permission to do a little investigating on my own, sir."
    "Do you have something special in mind?"
    "Yes, sir.  See this node right here?"  He pointed to a spot in
the Catskill Mountains.  "That's near my hometown.  I'd like to make
sure it's ok."
    General Most Holy shook his head.  "Rick, I know you're worried
about your family, but I need you analyzing this array pattern.  Your
guys are the ones who have the jump on this."
    Colonel Sanford looked downcast.  "Aye aye, sir."
    "Tell you what, Colonel, Get me some solid info on this array and
I'll let you go."
    "It's a deal, General."
    "Get going, Colonel."
**********************************************************************

To be continued...

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Colonel Rick Sanford, Legion of Doom, Despongification Division
   "Hit hard.  Hit fast.  Hit often."  Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz
----------------------------------------------------------------------