The Fringe Wars

2.12

Seda began. "The walls and ceilings are reinforced with titanium, and the floors are solid rock with titanium rebar. As you can see, it's the Collective's largest Faraday cage to prevent any sort of EMP disturbance."

"Cages can be broken," Reyne said.

"It won't be easy," Seda said. "We must use EMPs. Any other tools involve deadly force, which guarantees prisoner deaths from friendly fire as well as draws unwanted attention from the outside."

Critch pulled up a crate and sat down. "EMPs will work." He traced his fingers around the walls. "All the cells line the outer walls, so we can't shoot our way in without collateral damage. Prisoners are randomly rotated into new cells each day, so it's impossible to know where anyone is on any given day. To make it more complicated, prisoners are rotated between two shifts. When one shift is in the commons, the other shift is in cells."

Critch continued. "That the Citadel is fully automated will work in our favor. I only saw two staff when I was there. The drones distribute food and supplies. They shock anyone carrying more than one food ration or anything else they deem to be on the contraband list. Other than that, it's a self-run ecosystem. The problem within the prison is the people. The gangs control everything. While the majority are political prisoners, there are some criminals in there. I don't see a way to separate the two when we take down the Citadel."

Reyne's lips thinned. "We'll be unleashing criminals back into the fringe. I hadn't thought of that."

"I have," Seda said. "I have no qualms about releasing criminals back into the system if it means we're doing a greater good."

"I figure we make the same offer to everyone, regardless of why they're in there," Critch said as he scrolled through the maps. "Become a torrent or go their own way. But we'll be quite clear: any torrent who breaks the rules will pay the price."

"They'll naturally congregate with their gangs from the Citadel after we free them," Reyne said. "We'll likely have to deal with that at some point."

"Any thug who tries to return to his previous ways on my planet will find swift justice from me," Seda said.

"Here they are," Critch said and both men turned to the screen. "The backup generators are here and"—he shifted the map— "here, across the prison."

Seda frowned. "They have two separate backup generators? That complicates things."

Critch continued. "The Citadel has redundancies for everything. So it makes sense it has redundant backup systems. It's a simple layout once you understand it. If you cut the Citadel down the middle, each half is a mirror image of the other. The generators sit a level below the open prison area where prisoners spend each day, and each is enclosed in its own Faraday cage to protect it from EMPs and electrical interference."

Reyne held up three fingers. "We need three EMP teams. Two teams to take down the generators and a team to take down the Citadel."

"I believe you could still get by with two teams," Seda offered. "A team for each generator. Then, once the generators are fried, one of the teams sets off the big EMP."

Critch turned to Birk. "How far out are the specters? We could use some of them on this one."

"They're all at Nova Colony," Birk answered. "To assist with the evacuations."

Critch frowned. "Evacuations from what?"

"The CUF has been using the Coast for target practice," Reyne said.

"I can call them in if we need them," Birk offered.

Critch held up a hand. "No. They can do more good there."