The sound from the ship-wide communicator echoed around the large, dark workshop.
“All hands to battle stations. This is the captain. Devex warship on intercept course. All hands. All hands. This is not a drill. Battle stations.”
5
The command deck was a frenzy of activity when Jack walked in. Captain Pretorius was sitting in his command chair, and an image of Group Captain Tanaka aboard the Scepter dominated the main holostage. Her avatar hung over the map of the entire fleet at the base of the image.
“We are not sure that they have detected us,” Tanaka said.
Pretorius nodded. “Nevertheless, it’s better to assume hostile intent at this stage.”
“Agreed. How is the Scorpio, Captain?” Tanaka asked.
“We are battle ready. Limited functionality on some subsystems, but we can bring all offensive systems to action. The Scorpio stands ready.”
“Acknowledged, Scorpio,” Tanaka said. “Move to the vanguard. Good luck. Group out.”
Jack looked up at Pretorius in his chair. The captain looked tired. His beard was showing, and he had clearly spent an entire watch rotation on the command deck. Now he was going to put the Scorpio in the vanguard of the fleet.
Jack didn’t know Pretorius had noticed his arrival until the captain spoke, his gray eyes fixed on the small armrest holostage and the files he was activating there.
“Better get suited up, Jack,” Pretorius said without looking down. “We can expect company. And if those Devex do board us, I will be relying on you and your Marines to keep them away from our vital systems.”
“Maybe I can infiltrate the Devex before they get here. I just need a handful of Marines and Commander Torent.”
Pretorius didn’t look down. He was busy preparing the Scorpio for battle.
“We have our orders, Jack. I want the battalion deployed throughout the ship.” He looked down at Jack, his eyes red with fatigue. “Make ready to defend the Scorpio. Beat to quarters, Major Forge.”
Jack nodded his compliance and ran off toward the Marine deck.
The corridors were busy but steadily becoming less so as crew made for their battle stations, locking down hatchways and access points, sealing themselves into their stations. Jack activated his communicator and messaged the battalion to muster on the Marine deck in full tactical gear. Jack went to his locker and pulled out his tactical suit. He had only just taken it off after days of wearing it, and its self-cleaning program and system update were still in progress. Jack canceled both and began to pull the familiar suit on. It was cold from the cleaning program, but it would be hot soon enough and the environmental systems would be running at full capacity to channel his excess body heat and perspiration away.
Jack let the suit seal before slapping a pulse pistol to the hip holster. The suit grabbed the pistol and held it in place, ready for the moment Jack would need it. He grabbed his pulse rifle and slung it over his shoulder, and the familiar feel of the weapon against his back was a minor comfort. Then he put on his helmet and strode off to the Marine deck where his battalion would be waiting.
“Where is everyone?” Jack said as he stepped on to the deck with only one full company standing ready for orders.
The battalion squares marked out on the Marine deck were there for the twelve squads for each of the three companies of the battalion—Adder, Boa, and Cobra. Currently, only Adder was filled, and a single squad stood in place on the Boa company square.
“Where’s Cobra?” Jack said.
Commander Osho stepped up. “Orders from the general. Concentrate all squads into A Company in each battalion.”
Jack looked at the empty Cobra square. That was his company. Although he was now battalion commanding officer, he still had affection for his old company.
“Listen up, Marines. We have a Devex warship approaching. If they have detected the fleet, they will try and take the civilian transports. It’s the Scorpio’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen. However, they will try and board the Scorpio to take her out of the fight, and it’s our job to make sure they fail.
“Hold the drive room and the command deck at all costs. We will not fail the Scorpio, and she won’t fail us. Squads, to your stations. Go.”
The squad leaders shouted the order again for the Marines to move. They ran out in good order, squad leaders leading the way.
The defensive positions throughout the ship were preselected for maximum defensive strength. Main routes along the length of the vessel were defended, as were the main entrances to the drive room and the command deck. The Devex would have a hard time moving through the ship, and they would face resistance at every step. The drive and command deck were particularly heavily defended. Loss of either would render the Scorpio ineffective and out of the fight. Once neutralized, it could be bypassed or destroyed.
The Devex were powerful, but the destroyers were powerful as well and could take on the Devex. They were not invulnerable, but in all encounters, the Devex made a significant impact on the fleet only once. The Devex had destroyed a carrier, the Overlord, and a number of destroyers, but that encounter had taught the fleet a lot about their enemy. They were not about to lose to them again.
They were ready this time.
Commander Osho stood next to Jack as the Marines ran out of the deck.
“Where will you be, sir?” Osho asked.
Jack checked his wrist-mounted holostage. They were too few. If the Devex came in force, the Scorpio could not hold them off indefinitely. Jack knew he could only delay them and hope the rest of the fleet beat the attackers back.
“I’ll be on the command deck overseeing the defense. If it comes to it, I’ll join the defensive action outside the command deck.”
Jack checked the progress of the Marines throughout the ship. The tiny points of light representing each Marine moved over the holoimage of the Scorpio mapped out. One Marine was moving against the flow of the others, toward the Marine deck that was now empty save for Jack and Osho.
“Who didn’t report?” Jack said. “Someone is tardy.”
Sam stepped into the Marine deck wearing his utility outfit.
“Reporting for duty, sir,” Sam said.
“Sam? Are you fit for duty?” Jack knew Sam wouldn’t run from a fight, and Jack needed every available hand, but Sam was under the orders of the Fleet Intelligence.
“Sarah, I mean, Agent Reyes, said I’m fit for duty.” Sam held up his Mech hand. He clenched and unclenched the fist. “She still wants to run a few more exercises with me, but only if we survive the attack.”
Jack nodded, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Get suited up and grab a pulse rifle.” Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “Join me on the command deck when you are done.” Then, turning to Osho, he said, “Hold the drive room. Good luck.”
Osho saluted Jack. “To us all, sir,” she said before quickly moving off.
“Are you sure you are fit?” Jack said, walking with Sam toward the exit.
“I’m fit, Jack. Are you?” Sam asked.
Jack felt tired, but he had his duty. He had to be fit.
“Hurry and join me on the command deck,” Jack said as Sam made his way to storage to collect his tactical suit. “I might need to you slap me if I start to fall asleep.”
“Strike a superior officer?” Sam said. “I’ll be in trouble then for sure. If you make me do that, Jack, I’d kravin well better kill you.”
Jack grinned, and the pair separated, Sam heading to collect his equipment as Jack hurried to the command deck.
The deck was strangely quiet, but still fully crewed with its many officers. Pretorius and Commander Chou stood at the holostage looking at the current fleet formation displayed there.
The center of the image was the Scorpio. On this scale, it appeared about as big as a Marine in full tactical suit. Around the Scorpio were the support ships assigned to the vanguard. A frigate held position off the port side and another off the starboard. Two corvet
tes were in formation abreast of each other holding a few hundred meters above and behind the Scorpio’s stern. A squadron of Blades were in close formation, hidden under the Scorpio’s belly.
Behind the Scorpio, the rest of the fleet crept deeper into the nebula, hoping to avoid the Devex and make an escape.
Bearing down on the destroyer was the Devex warship—a huge craft, bigger than the biggest fleet ship. Heavily armored, heavily armed, and packed with scores of Devex raiders and thousands of Devex warriors.
Jack stepped up to the holostage. He was greeted by Chou with a slight nod before the commander resumed his duties. Pretorius didn’t look away from the display. He reached out and tapped the holoimage of the Scorpio on the upper laser assembly. The image zoomed in. The data readout showed that the laser was fully charged.
“We’ve had some trouble with the anterior emitter loop on the upper assembly,” Pretorius said. “If it fails, that’s where the Devex will try and board. That’s the weak link.”
“The battalion is spread pretty thin, Captain,” Jack said.
“Will they stand?”
“Oh, they will stand, sir. We have enough veterans in the ranks to help the new Marines along when it gets tough.”
“And what about you, Jack? How are you going to hold out when it gets tough? According to your latest data feed, you haven’t slept in…” Pretorius looked away from the holoimage and at Jack. “Too long, Major.”
“Well, it is too late for sleep now. Maybe I’ll get a chance after the Devex have been dealt with.”
Pretorius scrutinized Jack. Pretorius was a friend and mentor, but now he was captain of his ship and Jack was the battalion commanding officer. Jack wasn’t Pretorius’s friend now, he was an asset, a weapon, and he was not at peak efficiency. Like the upper laser assembly, Pretorius had a doubt that Jack could perform to the necessary level.
Jack felt the cold, gray eyes study him, looking for weakness. Then he looked back to the holoimage, presumably satisfied that Jack was up to the task.
A command deck officer called out, “Devex Warship approaching weapons range.”
Jack looked at the range finder. The dense nebula would make targeting more difficult and less accurate than in the vacuum of space, but a well-aimed shot from the Devex energy weapon could still strike the hull of the Scorpio. And the Devex could deliver a wide spread of the rapid-fire white energy bullets. One hit would give away the Scorpio’s position and allow more accurate targeting.
Jack knew battle was only moments away.
“Draw back the surveillance drones,” Pretorius said. “Slowly. Let’s assume they haven’t spotted us. I’m not going to give our position away if I can help it.”
Jack watched the small drone network ten thousand kilometers in front of the Scorpio slowly move back to the destroyer. Deeper in the nebula, the Devex ship came to a halt. A wave of dust and gas billowed forward as a bow wave ahead of the Devex ship, heading toward the Scorpio.
The sudden halt in the Devex ship’s progress drew murmurs from around the deck. Commander Chou called out for quiet, and the command deck fell silent again.
The Devex warship hung there in the colorful clouds, disappearing from sensor view as the surveillance drones drew back, the dust and gas of the nebula scattering the signals to practically nothing.
Jack watched the image fade.
“Ready forward batteries. High-density kinetic hail load. Open all combat drone launch tubes. Stand by for contact,” Pretorius said.
Then out of the dust that obscured the massive warship came a Devex raider. The bulky little ship was the primary interceptor fighter and warrior deployment craft. They were similar in size to a fleet tac boat, but longer and more streamlined for operation in planetary atmospheres as well as deep space. The weapons array, a line of the Devex blaster weapons, were deployed across the front of the raider and extended a meter out from each side. Although small, the rapid-fire blasters could deliver a relentless stream of the tiny but devastating white energy bullets. The raiders were dangerous little craft, and the fleet was wary of them. And when they came in numbers, they were a match for a destroyer, evading the destroyer’s hail cannon with their incredible maneuverability.
Jack watched the raider emerge from the dust and come into weapons range.
“Stand by weapons control,” Pretorius said.
Jack was impressed by the captain’s stoicism. The captain gave away no hint of what he might be feeling, but Jack guessed he was as concerned as any other person would be that fury and fire was about to fall on the ship they all called home.
The raider came closer. Jack watched the holoimage feeding surveillance data to the image in real time and expected to see the other Devex raiders emerge in their spearhead formation.
But there were none. The single raider came on.
Now Jack realized the raider’s speed was slow. Not a race into combat. Maybe it was a scout. A single craft sent to find the enemy, to pinpoint the location before the full weight of fire power could be delivered. A sacrificial craft.
Engaging the target would give away the Scorpio’s position. Jack knew Pretorius would not reveal himself for one raider…
Then the raider stopped.
“Full power to forward hull integrity field,” Pretorius said.
Jack felt alive, his senses tingling. He gripped the edge of the holostage and waited for the stream of white energy to come pouring through the clouds and slam into the Scorpio.
Then came a flash from the front of the raider that lit up the surrounding dust and gas. A bright white flash that was quickly followed by a second. Then nothing. Then three more flashes.
Then nothing.
“Weapons control ready for your command, sir,” the weapons officer called out.
“Stand by,” Pretorius said.
“Are they trying to detect us?” Jack said.
Then another series of flashes.
“Analysis,” Pretorius said.
But when the next burst of lights came, Jack knew what it was.
“Prime numbers,” Jack said. “It’s flashing us with primes. They are trying to communicate.”
“Copy that,” Pretorius said. He walked over to his command chair and climbed up to the seat. After a few moments and another prime number had flashed from the Devex, the image of Tanaka appeared on the main holostage inset against the images coming from the nebular.
“Are you seeing this, sir?” Pretorius said.
Tanaka nodded. “Maintain position, Scorpio. Send out surveillance drones and gather as much data as possible. Scepter out.”
Jack was amazed. The Devex had never attempted contact before. It might be a trap, a ruse. Pretorius clearly felt the same.
“Send out the drones carefully. Show me that Devex warship and target that raider with the forward laser assembly. If this standoff goes wrong, I want that raider vaporized in the first nanosecond of the fight.”
The holostage showed the surveillance drones as tiny points of light as they move away from the Scorpio. As they drifted into the dense nebula, the Scorpio’s effective sensor range was extended. Behind the single raider, several hundred kilometers behind, was a wall of raiders, all hanging in formation.
And as the drones went deeper, closer, the Devex warship could be seen behind the raider wall. The huge ship was still in its last-known position. Sitting there, huge, dark, and threatening, but motionless. Waiting.
The communication officer called out from his console.
“Captain, I am detecting an audio transmission from the raider. It is computer generated, but it’s in plain language.”
“Let’s hear it,” Pretorius said. He stepped down from his command chair and walked to the holostage.
The sound of a computer-generated voice sounded alien and synthetic, but the words were clear.
Pretorius staggered to a halt as he heard the words, the first contact with the Devex that did not involve weaponry.
The message
repeated on a loop.
“We request meeting. We request Jack Forge.”
6
Jack stood in stunned silence as all eyes on the Scorpio’s command deck turned to him. Listening again and again to the Devex voice calling him by name was hypnotic. Pretorius signaled the communications officer to cancel the message with a swipe of his hand, but even after the audio was cancelled, Jack could still hear the sound echoing around in his head along with the single thought.
“Why me?”
“Jack,” Pretorius said, stepping over to him. “Get cleaned up as best you can. I think the admiral will want to talk with you.”
And no sooner had Pretorius said it than a message was received from the Scepter.
“Pretorius,” the admiral said, his image filling the holostage. “Jack Forge? He’s one of yours, isn’t he?”
Pretorius held his hand out toward Jack. “He’s right here, Admiral.”
Jack detected a tone in Pretorius’s voice that he’d not heard before. The captain was stunned. And when he looked over at Jack, there was a look in his eye, something like distrust.
Jack shook his head in short little movements.
“I don’t know what they want with me,” Jack said.
“Get over here now, Forge,” the admiral said.
Jack staggered off the command deck. As he stepped into the corridor outside, two black-suited Fleet Intelligence enforcers came marching down the hall. Jack stopped in his tracks as the two tall enforcers, fully armed and in full tactical gear, walked toward him. They stopped in front of Jack and fell in alongside him.
“What is it?” Jack said, looking from one to the other.
“We are here to escort you, sir,” one said from behind his helmet’s black faceplate.
The news had spread through the ship faster than a plasma fire in a high oxygen atmosphere, and the corridors were filled with stunned faces, all watching Jack as he marched along with his enforcer escort. The only two faces to not look at Jack with a mixture of fear and distrust were Sam Torent and Sarah Reyes as they came toward Jack.
Alliance (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 5) Page 4
