Two of the Shiveen missiles made it through the gauntlet, though.
“Brace!” shouted Nambo. Laroux grabbed onto the holographic desk as he awaited the inevitable impact.
Both missiles struck the Dauntless within moments of each other, slamming into the hull of the dreadnought at some distance from each other. Everyone inside the CIC were thrown around, caught by the potential energy of the missile strike along with the spinning of the dreadnought. Laroux himself was thrown away from the desk and into a nearby wall. He grunted as he smacked into it. Those Shiveen missiles packed a punch.
“Damage report, Mister Nambo,” he said, getting up. The first officer was still standing where he had been before.
“Two of our point defense cannons are destroyed. Damage in the impact areas is minimal although there are some casualties.”
The Shiveen had targeted the cannons directly with large missiles with a wide burst effect but low damage yield. They weren’t trying to destroy the Dauntless, at least not yet. They wanted her intact.
“The next attack will attempt to take out more of our cannons. We can handle that right now. Get that next Shiveen ship in our sights.”
The second ship that the Dauntless was targeting now began turning towards the dreadnought itself, as it drifted along the trajectory its main engines pushed it along. The helm officer of the dreadnought had taken this into account and as the Dauntless turned, the enemy Shiveen ship would fall directly into the path of where the next shots from the mass drivers would land.
“Ready to fire,” said the officer.
“Then fire,” said Laroux, whose attention was now on the third cruiser. He watched as its trajectory changed to head towards the Dauntless. “And get us moving.”
“Firing.”
On the tactical hologram three more shots from the Dauntless’ mass driver appeared, tracking towards the second Shiveen ship trying to turn to bear on the dreadnought. It displayed the parabolic arc of their trajectory in a series of dashed lines, showing them targeting a space in front of the Shiveen craft. The third Shiveen cruiser launched another round of missiles, which all appeared on the holograph display as a cluster of fast moving dots.
“Burst thrust, now!” yelled Laroux, who was rewarded by a sudden shift in the dreadnought’s momentum as its main engines fired at maximum burn. As the Dauntless inched forward, the next volley of Shiveen missiles streaked towards it.
“Come on, come on,” said Laroux softly. He touched the holographic table. “You can do it, girl.”
The Dauntless accelerated, but several of the missiles would still impact upon its rear, right where its main engines were.
“Helm, lift our tail,” Laroux said. The helm officer changed the pitch of the dreadnought by firing the posterior rear combat thrusters, dipping the dreadnoughts nose and lifting its tail.
“Aye, Sir. Applying forty three degree down angle.”
Three seconds later there was a massive shudder in the dreadnought’s body as at least one missile struck the engines. No-one was knocked to the ground this time, but everyone on board the ship felt the strike. Alarms began blaring in the CIC.
“One — no, two — of the Shiveen missiles struck our engines,” said Nambo. “We’ve lost the port-side unit.”
“Still gives us plenty of power,” replied Laroux. He looked at the tactical map. The second Shiveen ship was displayed there, along with the damage from the Dauntless’ mass driver shots. The ship had taken all three shots and looked to be immobilized.
“Any minute now, any minute now,” said Laroux under his breath. He watched the screen, hoping to see what he knew should be seeing. “Keep that Shiveen boat at a distance and turn to come about to it.”
Something was wrong. It was rare for linkspace travel to go awry, but it sometimes happened. The chances were one in a trillion, though. Laroux kept his eyes on the tactical map.
Another Panhumanic Sphere starship suddenly appeared in realspace several thousand kilometers away from the Dauntless, its engines already engaged. It was pursued by another two ships appearing on the same bearing. Three cruisers: the Agamemnon, Achilles, and the Washington.
A moment later a ship five times the size of the cruisers appeared on exactly the same bearing. On the tactical map, its transponder registered it as the Kitty Hawk. Dozens of smaller transponder markers appeared around the supercruiser, indicating it had launched its starfighters. All the newly appeared ships changed bearing and headed towards the other Shiveen ships far from the Dauntless.
“Okay, Mister Nambo,” said Laroux. “Let’s dispose of this last Shiveen ship then join the fray.”
“Boss!” Bandura yelled. “The Dauntless is back!”
“Are you sure?” asked Jack.
“They just sent a message across the mesh requesting status updates on the drop platoon.”
“Did the Shiveen pick it up yet?”
“Can’t tell.”
Jack’s mind raced. He needed to check in with Corporal Morales to let him know his team’s situation, but he also needed to get the gathered information on the Shiveen off-planet, including Caroline’s research. The problem was, sending the information via the mesh network could draw attention to his position if the Shiveen were actively scanning within the ruins.
Jack made a decision.
“Okay, Bandura, I want you to bundle all of our drone and other data together so we can flash burst it through the mesh network. You’ll add the science team’s research to that.”
“That could expose our position.”
“The information is far more important than us at this point. Besides, we’ve got Anderson to help us shoot our way out.”
Anderson grinned and raised his heavy rifle in salute.
“Everyone,” he said. “Our chances of getting out of this alive are very slim at the moment.”
He could tell by the looks on their faces they’d already deduced this and were now processing it. Nowak’s face was impassive, but Jeff’s was full of raw anger.
“Did your big soldier brain work that out on its own?” sneered Jeffs.
“The information we’ve gathered here is too important to let it fall with us. It needs to be relayed back to the Panhumanic Sphere. The Dauntless is back in orbit.”
“Can they send a rescue team,” said Shirazi.
“We are the rescue team,” said Jack.
“And a fine job you’re doing,” growled Jeffs. No matter how much he wanted to, Jack knew that he wouldn’t be allowed to leave the annoying man behind. Perhaps a good punch in the nose would shut him up, though.
“We need to transmit all the data you have to the Dauntless so it gets into safe hands. It’s important that we preserve all your research.”
No-one said anything.
“Caroline, you know I’m right,” Jack said. “Don’t let everything you’ve done so far be for nought.”
Caroline looked directly at him, fear in her eyes for the first time since Jack had met her.
“Is it that bad?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Jack. “I’m not giving up hope. We know now that there are multiple ways in and out of the cave, but we need to get back up to the ruins floor to get out of here. There’s an entire squad of Shiveen up there, and there’s no telling how many other squads are on their way down. We have six weapons to share among seven of us. The odds are a lot stacked against us.
“What do you say, Caroline?”
Caroline looked around the room at her fellow scientists then at each of the marines. Jack saw the consternation on her face as she processed what he was saying.
“You’re sure this is what we need to do?” she asked.
“I may only have been in charge of this fireteam for a short time, but I spent the last six months in officer training. One thing we’re trained to do is identify the probabilities of success for any action. We’re also taught to identify no-win scenarios and how best to make them play in our favor. We’re in a no-win scenario. I’
m sorry.”
“I don’t want to die,” cried Shirazi, her eyes tearing up.
Anderson walked over to her and put a hand on her arm. She leaned into the big man, sobbing.
“Me neither, and I’m not planning to. You just stay behind me and I’ll keep you as safe as I can. Doc?”
“Okay,” she said. “We do it. How do we do it?”
“Send your information to Bandura. She’ll include it in the upload burst.”
“I have a way of improving the odds of our data making it to the surface,” said Bandura. “Attach the Doc’s VI to a drone with a secondary backup package and have it head through the tunnels and out.”
Both Bandura and Jack knew it was against the rules to load military data onto civilian systems or devices, one that might end in a court martial. But Bandura was right. That would improve the odds of getting the data out. Perhaps sending the drone on its own would be enough. If it made out, perhaps Jack could lead everyone to safety.
That was a big if. He needed to guarantee the drone making it out, especially as the radiation storms on the planet’s surface could interfere with the mesh upload.
“New plan. The drone is now the primary package. We ensure that it gets out by creating a distraction.”
“What kind of distraction?” asked Caroline.
"Bandura, can you get access to the Priority One channel to the Dauntless?"
"Uh, maybe,” she said. She looked a little sheepish. Jack had guessed she'd already done that at least once. He had once heard that tech specialists liked to play games of chicken with the communication network intrusion software and see how long they could hack and stay in secure areas of the net without being detected. It could end careers, or make them, depending on just how good the tech specialist was.
“Okay, hail the Dauntless. I want to speak to Captain Laroux.”
“Captain,” said the comms officer. “There’s a Priority One call coming across the mesh network from the planet.”
That would be most likely be Lieutenant Hughes reporting in. It would be good to know exactly what had been going on down in the planet in the few hours that the Dauntless had been away from it. Laroux had never enjoyed dropping marines into the middle of combat and then leaving them to their own defense, even if he had no little choice in the matter.
“Put it through to tactical,” said Laroux. “Lieutenant Hughes, what is the platoon status?”
“This is not Lieutenant Hughes, Sir.”
Laroux didn’t recognize the voice speaking to him.
“Who is this?” he asked.
“Private First Class Jack Conway, recent graduate of Arianne Station OCS and current leader of Echo Team, Sir. I have important information regarding the Shiveen.”
How the hell was a Private calling through on the Priority One channel? Access to those channels were only by authorized command personnel, and that didn't include fireteam leaders. Or yet-to-be-commissioned offers just green out of the OCS.
"How did you get onto this channel, PFC?"
"My tech specialist has a broad skill set, Sir."
“The information about the Shiveen… continue, PFC,” said Laroux, making a mental note to find out more about this tech specialist.
“My tech specialist is about to send a data burst across the mesh network containing information about a Shiveen ritual cave. It’ll also include information from a team of scientists researching the area.”
Nambo raised an eyebrow.
“A ritual cave, PFC Conway?” asked Laroux.
“It’s complicated, Sir, but the data will explain everything. We’re also sending a drone with a backup of the data in the chief scientist’s VI topside too.”
“Where are you?” asked Laroux.
“We’re trapped in the lower part of the ritual area. There’s at least one squad of Shiveen above us. We’ll need to fight our way out.”
“What are your odds?”
“Not good, Sir. Hence the reason for the mesh upload and the drone.”
“Captain,” said Nambo. “Status updates are coming in. We’ve lost one dropship and some marine fireteams out at New Macedon. There’s still one dropship in the field. It’s picking up survivors.”
“PFC, send me your position and we’ll get that dropship to you as quickly as we can.”
“Yes, sir. But only for you to pick up the drone. Do not enter the cave and do not attempt a rescue. If you do that, you’ll be walking into an entire nest of Shiveen. I can’t have that blood on my hands. We’ve already lost Sergeant Stone. And probably all of us, to be honest. I’m not willing to lose anyone else beyond that on my watch.”
This young marine has balls, thought Laroux. He’s sitting in an impossible position, and yet he was putting others ahead of himself. Some people never learn that level of compassion and understanding of warfare.
“Understood. Send your package and the drone.”
“Affirmative, Sir.”
“Godspeed, PFC Conway,” said Laroux. “Get your people home.”
The call ended.
Dammit, thought Laroux. Those eggheads in MilCom had been right.
17 A Distraction
They only heard Jack’s side of the conversation with Laroux.
“Do not attempt a rescue?” said Jeffs shrilly, advancing angrily towards Jack, one fist raised. “They were going to rescue us?!”
Jeffs made it almost all the way to Jack before Anderson stepped in front of him. “Back off.”
“No,” lied Jack. Laroux had great respect in the ranks and a stellar reputation as an honorable man who would do anything for those under his command. While technically Lieutenant Hughes was officially in charge of the marine platoon on the PSS Dauntless, Laroux had a nominal level of power over them, as the platoon was attached to the starship. Jack knew that Laroux would most likely have attempted a rescue unless he shut down that avenue. Hughes would have done the same.
It was in the creed.
It was in a marine’s blood.
Semper fidelis.
No-one left behind.
“We’ll get ourselves out,” said Jack. “We marines are a resourceful bunch. First things first. Bandura, is that drone with the VI ready?”
Bandura presented the drone to Jack in her palm. “Yes, Boss. Ready and willing.”
“Is there a clear path it can follow to get out of the cave upstairs and get to the rovers?”
Bandura’s eyes flicked left and right as she scanned her AHUD. “Looks good, Boss. One drone made it all the way out from the central cave. Another was able to map another way up from this area to the central cave.”
“Send it.”
Bandura tapped the air in front of her a few times with one hand and the drone rose into the air then zipped past the group as it fled through the tunnel. Jack pulled up its progress in his AHUD and watched as it followed a path out of the cave system.
“Okay, we need to give the drone some time to clear the caves and then we implement the next part of my plan.”
There was deathly quiet for the next ten minutes as the drone moved at maximum speed through the cave system. Twice it detected Shiveen troops in the upper tunnels and adjusted its course to compensate for that. As it flew, Jack and Bandura followed it in their AHUDs, watching its live vidcast feed. Anderson stood and glowered at Jeffs, who leaned against a wall, sulking.
The drone cleared the cave system about seven hundred meters away from the cave entrance Jack and the others had used to descend. In his AHUD Jack saw it fly into the sky through what looked like a small vent hole right into the path heavy winds. The drone bucked and spun in the air as it fought to stabilize itself against not only the wind but the ionizing radiation being carried by it. After a few terse moments the drone stayed in the air and began its wobbly journey back to the parked rovers
Jack let out a slow breath, satisfied that the drone would be safe and make it to its destination.
Now for the next part of his plan.
&
nbsp; “Who knows how to use a firearm?”
Neither Shirazi nor Jeffs had held a gun never mind fired one. Caroline had some experience with firearms, having dated a ‘gun-toting crazy’ when she was much younger. She showed the other scientists to handle the marine handguns that Jack had them surrender to the scientists, explaining the importance of keeping the safety on, and clearing the chamber of any rounds.
Jack’s respect for Caroline continued to grow, and he felt confident she’d be able to keep the other scientists save, allowing Bandura and Anderson to focus on getting them all out.
“Are you crazy, Boss?” whispered Bandura. “You’re putting firearms into the hands of untrained civilians.”
“Gotta agree with B, Boss-man. This is a bad idea.”
Jack looked at both of them. “Can either of you shoot a rifle and a handgun effectively at the same time?”
“No.”
“Precisely.”
The chances of the untrained civilians shooting a marine was higher than them being able to shoot oncoming Shiveen, but additional firepower was additional firepower and could just tip the balance of any firefight the marines and scientists found themselves in.
“Just make sure they know how to point and shoot. Keep them between yourselves, follow the path the drones provided, and get them to safety. When you get topside, make for the rovers.”
“Uh, Boss, sounds like you’re not coming with us?”
This was the part Jack hadn’t been looking forward to explaining.
“I’m not. In order for you all to get out, the Shiveen need to be drawn away from you. While you go one way, I’m going another and making a lot of noise.”
Anderson shook his head. “No way. Not happening. No-one left behind.”
“Private, you’ll do it, because I’m ordering you to do it. I may not have my commission yet, but I’m an officer. You will get these people to safety without me.”
“Boss —”
“Not another word. If we don’t do it this way, we all die, and I’m not letting that happen. I’m not letting Stone’s death be for nothing.”
Emancipation Page 15
