One fallen tree had caused a domino effect and other trees had fallen in a line that stretched a few dozen meters to the west. The distant star glinted at the end of the path through the deep green.
The last of the micro drones returned to Jack. He sent them vertically above him in a line with the topmost reaching hundreds of meters above the canopy, the others in a line down to the one that hovered just above his wrist-mounted holostage. The micro drones would be his beacon to send a message to the fleet. The Skalidions were coming.
Connecting the tac boat’s communication node through his suit’s transmitter to the tower of micro drones, Jack activated his suit’s sensors and searched the surrounding space for any ships, friend or foe. The sensor range would never be as great as that available on his tac boat, but it might be enough. It was also all he had.
As Jack waited for any sort of signal, he looked up to the gas giant above him. Radiation from it fed the needle trees in the forest, the distant star merely glinting off the tips of the leaves.
The tactical suit’s environmental sensors alerted Jack to the heightened levels of radiation pouring onto the moon. He would have been quite safe in a fully-powered tactical suit for some time, but his suit had taken a beating. He’d vented the internal atmosphere during his descent. That had given him a dose of radiation that his medical package was dealing with, but he was starting to feel ill. The needle leaves that had scratched the suit had left tiny micro scars all across the surface, which were being attacked by the radiation. Jack could almost see the color change due to the reaction with the radiation.
The tactical suit’s power supply was being drained at an accelerated rate, partly due to damage and partly due to the radioactive assault. Jack would not have as much time as he would have liked, but then, he never did.
The passive sensors detected a distortion in spacetime caused by a ship’s drive system, but at this range and with limited sensor ability, Jack could not tell if this was his fleet or a Skalidion.
Jack crouched in cover and watched the approaching signal, indistinct on his wrist-mounted holostage. Would this be rescue, capture, or death?
9
The signal came closer, and Jack looked to the sky for the telltale signs of the ship’s entry into the moon’s atmosphere. The burning tail across the sky roared overhead. He made out the outline within the burning fireball of a Fleet Marine tac boat. Checking the ident, Jack saw the signal. It was Scepter Three.
The boat crashed along the canopy, scattering green glassy daggers down through the branches. Jack ran toward the landing site. He felt the boat’s impact rattle through the ground, and billowing clouds of dust and glassy fragments rolled back through the forest toward him.
Jack ran through the forest, his boots crunching on the glassy leaf litter underfoot. His tactical suit’s sensors sent him an alert that the Skalidion fighters were entering the moon’s atmosphere. A dozen of the small, sleek craft were approaching fast, hot on the trail of the other tac boat.
Jack moved quickly, hoping to make it to the boat, his only possible means of escape from this moon, before the Skalidions intercepted him.
He was too late. The Skalidion fighters overhead released something that dropped down. Jack continued to move through the trees as he watched the falling object. The fighters that followed also released something. Jack felt sure the Skalidions were bombing the forest floor to destroy whatever was down there, but as the object came closer, Jack could make out the unmistakable outline of an actual Skalidion—the pilot from the fighter craft.
The Skalidion was shorter than a man and thinner. The skin appeared to change color between green, purple, and blue, and it shimmered in the dull brown light from the gas giant above. It appeared waxy and hard, like an exoskeleton.
The Skalidion’s head was roughly diamond-shaped with two large, dark regions on the top of the head and a small mouth with rasping teeth that sat under the huge eyes. The Skalidion appeared to wear no protective suit. The only equipment it carried was clearly a weapon.
Held in one hand, the weapon was a half-meter long and ended with three curved needles that almost met. The nearest Skalidion was dropping directly in front of Jack, cutting off his path to the tac boat up ahead. It crashed through the trees at what would be a fatal speed for Jack or any human, landing on its two thin legs as it dropped to the ground, its left hand extended downward. The weapon in its right hand was held out behind it.
Jack drew his pulse pistol, aimed, and fired. The pulse rounds glanced off the tree trunks, smashing huge green shards and ricocheting with an alien sound. Jack advanced—firing, refining his aim, zeroing in on the Skalidion fighter ahead of him.
The Skalidion rose to its feet and brought its weapon around. As Jack moved in, he saw purple flecks of energy flickering over the needle points that almost met at the front of the weapon. A ball of green fire grew between those points. The Skalidion rocked back as the ball was launched at Jack.
The fire burned through the forest, and Jack jumped to his right and rolled over his shoulder, taking cover behind a trunk of one of the needle trees. The green fire raced past the point where he’d just been standing, colliding with a tree trunk and exploding in a shower of fire and shards.
Jack broke cover and fired a series of rounds at the Skalidion as its weapon recharged for a second shot. And Jack’s aim was good. The first pulse round caught the Skalidion in one of its large eyes, while the second caught it lower on its head. The third struck it in the spindly chest as the Skalidion fighter fell, its weapon dropping at its side.
A blast of green fire came tearing through the forest from behind Jack and smashed into the trunk just above his head. The force from the impact sent Jack tumbling to his side, and he scrambled away from the glassy debris that scattered all around him.
Keeping low to the ground, Jack searched quickly for the Skalidion firing at him. Another blast of came tearing through the forest, slamming into the ground next to him. Jack saw the dark shadows of Skalidions moving between the green trunks, their shadows falling, their reflections flickering over all around.
Jack saw movement between two distant trunks. He fired. Three quick rounds found their target, and the Skalidion fell. He rolled to his left, sensing return fire was only moments away, and as he got to his feet, he jumped to the side. A ball of Skalidion green fire slammed into the ground where he had stood.
Jack ran, taking cover between heavy green trunks as more fire rained down. Breaking cover just to fire off a few rounds, Jack took a quick assessment of the enemy coming against him.
The reflections on the green trunks of the needle trees made it extremely difficult for him to count the Skalidions pursuing him. He saw movement between two trunks and fired. The pulse round struck satisfactorily, knocking the Skalidion off balance, but the Skalidion was not out of the fight. It brought its around, the needles fizzing their sparkling energy, the green ball growing, ready to be launched. The Skalidion toppled over as it launched the green fireball toward Jack.
Shifting position once again and firing wildly behind him as he ran, Jack ducked from one point of cover to the next. He drew his second pulse pistol and held them behind him, pointing both back over his shoulders as he fired. The pulse pistols fired a stream of pulse rounds, laying down covering fire as he moved.
Releasing a micro drone from his tactical suit and leaving it on the forest floor, Jack hoped he could count the number still on his tail. The shimmering forest made it impossible for him to make a visual assessment, but Jack knew there were more Skalidions than Marines on this moon.
The flicker of movement up ahead was the only warning Jack needed. He brought both pulse pistols in front of him as he ran toward the movement. The dark shape of the Skalidion stepped out from behind a tree. Jack’s timing was perfect, and he fired a withering series of pulse rounds that struck the Skalidion’s head, chest, and abdomen. The creature fell backward, and Jack moved in.
He looked at the fallen Skal
idion as he approached. It was small and thin; it could hardly weigh anything. Yet the Skalidions were extremely powerful, and extremely numerous.
As Jack came closer, he saw the Skalidion still moving its arm out toward its fallen weapon. The hand on the end of the arm was more like a series of feathers, all moving independently like a thousand fingers scrabbling through the leaf litter to find its weapon. A clear ooze was dribbling from the mouthparts of the Skalidion, and also from one of the entry wounds.
Jack slowed slightly as he came near. He kicked the weapon out of reach and looked down at the Skalidion. The Skalidion spluttered the thick ooze from its mouth as Jack looked down at it. The Skalidion lashed out with one of its thin legs, striking for Jack’s left ankle, but he moved aside just in time.
The Skalidion let out a high-pitched chattering, and that brought the Skalidions’ green fire, several balls slamming into the area and trees around. Jack ducked as tree shards showered over him. He pulled a grenade from his tactical suit, activated it, and tossed it over his shoulder. The grenade would detonate in seconds, and any Skalidions closing in on him would be caught in the blast.
Jack saw the destruction caused by the tac boat crash landing up ahead, tree trunks snapped halfway up their height. He jumped over a fallen tree, using his suit’s grav field and thrusters to help him up and over. He landed on the other side, covered from the Skalidion fire by the fallen trees.
He felt the detonation of the grenade shake the ground, shaking needle leaves from high in the trees. They fell like shards of glass, tinkling to the ground.
The hull of the tac boat was still glowing as Jack came near. It was tipped onto its starboard side, the boarding ramp partially open. Steam and smoke were pouring out of the gap, and Jack made out the hand of someone struggling to get out. The black gauntlet of a Fleet Intelligence enforcer’s suit struggled to escape the tac boat.
“I’m coming,” Jack said as he came near. “Take my hand. Hold on, I’ve got you.”
Jack pulled the black-suited figure clear of the boat and fell back onto the forest floor. He felt the sweat trickle down his back and sides, and his suit’s environmental controls activated to cool him. Jack checked the medical files from the enforcer tactical suit. The data was displayed on Jack’s enhanced data view. The person in the suit was unhurt, and he did not even appear distressed, though his heart rate was elevated.
The ident was classified, but Jack didn’t need an ident to recognize the voice.
“Hey, Jack. Fancy meeting you here.”
“Lou Beretta?” Jack pulled Beretta away from the tac boat. “You hit me.”
Beretta stood up and leaned heavily against one of the needle trees.
“Correct.” Beretta rose to his full height. Jack could see he was injured. “It was supposed to look like an accident, but whatever works.” Beretta drew a pulse pistol and aimed it at Jack.
Jack stepped forward and snatched the pulse pistol out of Beretta’s shaking hand. “Well, you’re not doing a very good job of it. Why did you take out my ship? Who sent you here? Answer me.”
Beretta collapsed to the forest floor. He gripped his right thigh with both hands and applied pressure, squeezing until Jack could detect the rise in his pulse through the effort.
“You were not as popular as you like to think, Jack. I’m not the only person who wants you dead. You’ve made some pretty nasty enemies.”
Jack tucked Beretta’s pulse pistol away into his tactical suit and began to assess the damage to the fallen boat. There appeared to be some minor outer damage, but not enough to crash the boat into the moon.
“You were a pretty good pilot from what I remember,” Jack said. “What happened to bring this boat down so hard?”
Looking over to Beretta for an answer, Jack saw Beretta point up. “I only wanted to take you out. It only needed a little tap in the right place. I just miscalculated the Skalidion and they spotted me. I took some of that green fire. This was the only place to bail out.”
“What about the other tac boats?” Jack said, stepping over to Beretta, standing over him and glowering down at the dark faceplate of the enforcer helmet the old pirate was wearing.
Beretta shrugged. And then Jack spotted the new signal on his wrist-mounted holostage.
A new group of Skalidion fighters were entering the moon’s atmosphere following the path Beretta had taken.
“We need to get out here,” Jack said. “More Skalidions will be on top of us any minute.”
Beretta leaned up against the needle tree while still applying pressure to his thigh. “What makes you think I am going to let you escape?” he said.
“Fine, you be like that,” Jack said. “I’m getting out of here.”
Jack climbed through the open boarding ramp and into the smoking interior of Beretta’s boat. The flight deck was sparking, and dark smoke billowed out of a conduit. Jack needed to get this ship off the ground.
Stepping up to the flight console, Jack tapped the control, more in hope than expectation. The flight console was a mass of red lights. And then the power failed, and the flight console went black.
The ship was broken.
Jack was going nowhere.
Crawling back out into the forest from the now-black interior of the tac boat, Jack realized his predicament. His own orders were for no communications. He was alone. The mission was more important; that had to succeed.
And then a blast of Skalidion green fire slammed into the side of the boat.
“Take cover,” Jack called. “They’re here.”
10
Throwing a micro drone into the sky, Jack scanned the area from his position behind the boat. Checking his wrist-mounted holostage, he saw the Skalidion fighters advancing through the trees. A dozen of the short, thin, shiny-skinned Skalidions were advancing toward him.
“What did you do to this ship?” Jack said, looking over at Beretta.
Beretta shrugged. “Guess it didn’t like crashing into you. You want to toss me a pulse pistol?”
Jack checked the position of the nearest Skalidion fighter. It was moving through the forest at speed. Jack broke cover, leaned on the hull of the boat, and fired a stream of pulse rounds into the oncoming enemy. The creature fell.
Jack ducked back into cover just as a series of green fire missiles rained down. Beretta sat in cover, clutching his thigh in pain, but he otherwise looked undisturbed by the Skalidion attack. He looked at Jack.
“Pistol, Jack.” Beretta held out his hand. “Come on, Marine. You are not going to get out of this on your own. Throw me a pistol and let’s fight our way out of here. Face it, Jack, you need me.”
Breaking cover and laying down heavy fire, Jack looked over at Beretta. “I need you like I need a lungful of plasma,” Jack said. He turned and fired again at the nearest Skalidion darting through the trees nearby. “I need to get this ship running if I’m getting out of here.”
Another flight of Skalidions raced overhead, the pilots dropping out of their craft and falling rapidly to the moon’s surface. Jack took aim at one crashing through the trees above and let loose with both pistols. The Skalidion tumbled out of control and crashed to the forest floor just meters away from Jack, and his holostage lit up the nearest targets, which glowed red on the holoimage. He turned this way and that, firing and holding off the Skalidion attack.
But still they moved through the trees. Jack glanced at the tac boat and could see that one of the side hull plates had been torn away by the hard landing. The conduit for the main drive was behind that panel. If Jack could repair that, even a patch-up job, he might be able to restore power and get the boat off the ground. Whether he would leave the moon’s orbit before the Skalidion shot him down was another matter.
“One thing at a time,” Jack said to himself as he fired another salvo before ducking for cover.
“Do you think I want to die here?” Beretta said, his hand outstretched. He withdrew his hand suddenly as Skalidion green fire globule scorched b
y. “You’re my only way out here, Jack. Toss me a kravin’ pulse pistol and let me give you some cover fire.”
Suspicion filled Jack. Beretta was here to kill him. He knew exactly how devious Beretta could be. There was every chance he had an escape plan already worked out and would not hesitate to kill Jack the moment he gave him a pistol. There was just one question Jack asked himself: would he rather be killed by Beretta or the Skalidions?
“I think you know me well enough to know I’m not giving you a weapon.”
A Skalidion came rushing through the trees. Jack spotted it, took aim, and shot the alien down.
“Scurry over to that open panel,” Jack said, pointing quickly at the broken hull plate. “Take a look inside. Is the main conduit ruptured?”
Beretta shook his head. “I’m injured, Jack. And I don’t know what a main conduit looks like, ruptured or otherwise.”
“Don’t give me that, Beretta. You know your way around a ship well enough.” Jack twisted to his right and fired at the Skalidion who had moved out from behind his tree trunk cover. “Now get over there and give me a damage report.”
“You can’t order me, Jack. I’m not one of your Marines.”
Moving to the cover of the tree next to Beretta, Jack dodged a sudden hail of Skalidion green fire that rained down on his previous position. Sitting now only two meters from Beretta, he pointed his left-hand pulse pistol into Beretta’s face.
“It’s not an order, Lou, it’s a friendly request. Now get in there, or I’ll put a pulse round in your ugly face.”
Beretta leaned down on the ground and began to crawl on his elbows toward the open hull plate. “I’m not ugly,” Beretta said under his breath.
Jack moved quickly, picking his targets and laying down rapid bursts of pulse pistol fire before relocating and firing again. The Skalidions were moving in slowly, but Jack’s accurate shots were holding them off. The micro drones through the forest reported back on the locations of a dozen Skalidions in weapons range, the green fire balls slamming in and giving away their positions.
Alliance (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 5) Page 8
