STARDIVER FOUR: CHAPTER 8, PRE-BATTLE CYBER LAUNCH

CHAPTER 8

PRE-BATTLE CYBER ATTACK

          O'Bee barely fit his fat round body in the oversize chair. He rocked back in snub confidence.  Around him sat inferiors. He was smarter than they; he knew it and they should. Once the order came he would execute, and launch the first attack. Placing the cyber helmet on he began to acquire.  In a moment, the positions of all the ships in the near region of space displayed on his helmet screen.  O'bee watched and studied with a mix of the logic, linear thinking, and gut intuition.  The hack was successful and his mind merged with the minds of three ships. He saw them, he felt them, he was swimming in knowledge.

           Just for fun, O'Bee probed the cyber team in the bare room, no one else had gotten as far. They each targeted one ship with only small success, but he had entered the secret guts of all three. It felt gratifying, and he would rub it in their faces afterward while they celebrated a successful cyber-attack and victory for Her Majesty.

         The order came with a flash across the screen. The first attack was confusion, it was beautifully subtle. He could sense the actions of persons on the command center of Stardiver Four make misjudgments and errors. Frustration and anger would begin to bubble up on the ship. He launched a virus, causing a few innocent system crashes. A brief mental glance around and confirmed his fellow cyber warriors had launched viruses against the other two ships. He downloaded another virus to tangle communications. The helmet screen fed back information as O'bee toggled between screens and systems. Next was a downloaded of false reports to distract the Captain with problems that did not exist. The crew would be getting orders that scattered them and committed them to tasks that could not be stopped once started.

          O'bee paused his attack and dug through the computer brain of the ship, somewhere was the command code- get that and you own the ship. Looking and looking but not finding. He found the files for other things and began to take them over, shields, life support, power, and engines; one by one he pulled them to himself with greedy fingers that danced around the holographic keys floating before him. More downloads, more hacks, and more viruses; O'bee was winning the battle and the enemy did not even know they were in a fight.

         “Too easy.” He sent a thought message to his cyber command, “Beware of false success look for decoys and go on."

         “Oh. Yes. It is too easy.” One of his bubble-helmeted commandos thought spoke, “I see what you mean. They're baiting us.” There is the real entrance. Got you now!”

         O'Bee continued his attack, looking for targets of computer software. Some decoys were obvious and were passed over to keep the attack up.  “Wait for the real attack.” He thought spoke through the helmet to the others.”

         There was resistance. O'bee felt someone or something looking. Who was it? Could it be their ship's computer, a cyber-warrior, or software?  Not knowing bothered him. The battle was about to turn, to get ugly. He put up software firewalls and launched decoys of his own.

          Someone, or something, in cyberspace, struck back hard, they were probing and slowing him down. They began to block and hide behind walls, his grip was slipping. He hit back with a web of downloads like software bombs, but some came back like a tangled spring toy.  The screen showed Ob'ee's tenth birthday party, his college transcripts; he was hacked. He answered by launching a data-eating program.

          He was exchanging software blow for punch with a master. The battle was on and in moments, rockets would be launched.

(c) Adron

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