“I see them,” she responded in an even tone that revealed no fear.
“Let them board. Lieutenant Jefferies can handle them.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Major. The Rhino platoon won’t let you down.”
“They’ll be coming in through the holding cells, Ted,” Dean said. “Make sure your crew members are in the aviary, and don’t try anything fancy. Take them out as they come through the goo.”
“Roger that, Commander.”
“Omega One is turning,” the radar operator said. “Charley One is in pursuit.”
“Have they launched tugs?” Dean asked.
“Not yet,” the officer below Dean said.
“We have them on the run,” Matsumoto said.
“Yes, I just hope they recognize who is on these ships,” Dean said. “Let them run back and tell the rest of their kind that the human race is not worth fighting.”
“Tugs are deploying from Omega One,” the radar officer called out.
“Watch those enemy ships, Charley One.”
“Roger that, Command,” the operator replied.
“Lieutenant Seebert, you’ll have boarders once that enemy ship escapes.”
“Good, my Tigers are itching for a fight.”
Dean sat back to wait. The tugs from the longship tried to intercept the seed ship from the Dodge City but failed. It made contact, launched its nuke, and detonated the warhead. The Kroll ship disappeared in white fire, and the tug ships made straight for the Dodge City.
It only took a few seconds to bring up the vid feeds on both of the Rhino and Tiger platoons. Dean watched as Seebert and Jefferies deployed their specialists. They both knew their business, and like on the Bushido they had the advantage of knowing exactly where the enemy would board their ships.
“Chavez,” Dean said over his platoon channel. “Who do you want?”
“I’ll take Seebert,” Chavez said.
“Alright, don’t coach them too much. Seebert needs to know she can handle a boarding operation.”
“Roger that, Major.”
Dean focused on the Moses, where Lieutenant Ted Jefferies was waiting on the first boarders. The tug ships had connected to the longship and the tunnels to the holding cells had opened, but from the lieutenant’s point of view, none of the aliens had come through.
“What are they doing?” Jefferies asked on a private channel with Dean.
“Changing tactics,” Dean replied. “Maybe waiting for you to get careless, or maybe just forcing you to come to them.”
“Orders?”
“It’s your call, Lieutenant. I’m here if you need me, but this is your op.”
“Teegan, Dufrane, Humphries, move into the holding cells.”
Dean’s stomach tightened. The Recon platoon had the advantage of covering the only exit from the passageway outside, but once they entered the holding cell, they became more vulnerable. Dean wanted to call the platoon back, but he didn’t want to micro-manage Jefferies. He knew his people and their capabilities. If he thought moving forward was the right way to proceed, Dean wouldn’t second-guess him.
“Give me eyes in the tunnel,” Jefferies ordered.
Dean was tapped into their platoon channel and heard the Rhino FAS respond. Four AAVs were deployed. Dean was afraid the drones would detonate and blow up the side of the longship, but once again he bit his tongue. As soon as the drones got close, the feline aliens came roaring out.
There was cursing and yelling, weapons firing, and what seemed to Dean like complete chaos. All but one of the AAVs was damaged before the platoon members terminated the aliens.
“How many was that?” Dean asked.
“I show three,” Jefferies said. “The fourth one didn’t come out.”
“What are you seeing, Lieutenant?”
“Oh, shit, sir! They formed a tunnel.”
“Pull your people back and form bookends. I want strong defensive lines moving both ways down that corridor until you find them.”
Nine tug ships had connected with the Moses. Dean wasn’t sure where the others were. And only three of the aliens had been dealt with. He heard Jefferies barking orders, but Dean’s focus was on the plot.
“How many tugs did the harvester ship deploy?”
“Omega Six?” the radar operator asked.
“Yes, Omega Six,” Dean snapped.
“Twelve.”
“And only nine made contact?”
“It’s hard to say, commander. If they didn’t connect, then they’re hovering close.”
“Admiral Aviv, can you rotate your ship? We need to get eyes on the three remaining tugs in your area.”
“Roger that, command.”
Dean heard Aviv giving orders on her command channel. Sometimes there were so many voices in Dean’s TCU that he felt as if he were going crazy trying to keep track of them all.
“Bogeys in the passage!” Someone on the Rhino platoon channel called out.
Dean saw and heard a barrage of cannon fire. He waited as Jefferies ran from the group he was with to the other group that had set out in the opposite direction.
“How many?” Jefferies asked. “How many did you see?”
“Five, Lieutenant. We took them out,” said one of the specialists.
“Commander, this is Admiral Aviv. We’ve made a full rotation and there’s no sign of the missing vessels.”
“Could they latch on somewhere besides the goo?” Aviv’s first officer asked.
“With their grappling arms they could,” Dean said. “The question is, where and why?”
“We’ve got one unaccounted-for bogey, command. Waiting for your orders,” Jefferies said.
“Get us a look inside the tunnels they made,” Dean ordered. “Use MSVs, not AAVs. I don’t want major damage to the ship if they trigger the ordinance on those drones.”
“Roger that, sir,” Jefferies replied.
“Commander, the Dodge City is clear,” Chavez announced.
“Excellent work, Seebert,” Dean said over the command channel.
“Thank you, Commander,” Edwina Seebert said in an emotionless voice.
“Admiral Matsumoto, we need to move to assist the Moses,” Dean said.
“Bring us around to heading three, two, zero,” Matsumoto said. “Flanking speed.”
Dean watched as the big harvester ship closed on the smaller longship. The Moses was rotating slightly. Dean saw the missing tug ships just as two of them detached from the longship and headed toward the harvester.
“What are they doing?” Dean heard one of the officers below ask.
The question stuck in Dean’s mind like a riddle. He knew the answer, but he couldn’t bring it to the front of his mind. It was there, bouncing around, like a bubble floating just out of reach. He wracked his brain for the answer, staring at the approaching ships. Then, on the vid screen right beside the first, an image came up of the tug vessel still attached to the Moses and the answer hit Dean like a punch to his gut.
“They’re trying to break through to the aviary!” Dean said loudly. “They’re trying to vent the atmo.”
Chapter 40
“Parker, prepare the Wolfpack to go EVA!” Dean ordered. “Leave the Heavy Armor. I want Ghost, Harper, Loggins, and yourself ready to peel invaders off our hull.”
“Roger that, sir,” Parker said.
Dean wished that the Hannibal was still with them, along with their complement of maintenance drones.
“Moses, you have a tug vessel attempting to break through into the aviary,” Dean said. “Get your Recon platoon prepared for evac.”
“Commander, this is Lima One. I’m inbound and ready to help.”
“Excellent idea, Lima One,” Dean said. “Pry that tug ship off the hull of the Moses.”
“Command, we have seed ships ready to launch,” Esma said.
“Stand by, Captain Dante. Let’s see what those bogeys do.”
“We have it!” Lieutenant Jefferies said. “It’s sneaking th
rough the tunnel back the way it came.”
“Find it and kill it, Lieutenant,” Dean said. “We don’t have time to be playing games.”
“Command, this is Lima One. I’ve got the bogey.”
Dean looked up at the vid feed and saw the seed ship locked onto the tug vessel with its grappling arms. The tug was slowly being pried from the hull, when it suddenly released its grip and flipped up and around the seed ship. It performed a spin, freeing itself from Lima One’s grip, and then made straight for the planet.
“The other two ships are turning,” the radar officer announced. “Looks like they’re heading for the planet.”
“They must have an occupation force on the surface,” Matsumoto said.
“I’ll bet you’re right, Admiral. Let’s move to orbit the planet and take stock of what resources we have left.”
Dean felt a wave of relief. The immediate danger was past, but he had no doubt more of the Kroll would be along shortly. One of the harvest vessels had escaped, and their strategy would probably be revealed—which meant they needed to make plans to leave the system soon. Dean hated the thought of coming so far and not scraping the Kroll off the planet. He knew they couldn’t stay there and protect the Urgglatta home world, but if they could remove the threat, even for a short while, it might give the bovine species a chance to make their escape. And as long as Dean had nuclear warheads, he wanted to use every last one of them.
“Lieutenant Jefferies,” Dean said. “What’s your status?”
“The bastard is like a mouse in the attic, sir. We can’t seem to catch him.”
“Set a trap, Lieutenant. Flush the alien toward a few of your shooters and end this.”
“Yes, sir! We’re on it.”
Dean sagged against the railing. He wasn’t physically exhausted, but his mind felt as if it were an old quilt that had been pulled in too many directions at one time. It took the Rhinos almost half an hour to terminate the final feline alien, and by that time the task force was in orbit around the planet.
“Do we have cameras that can show us images on the ground?” Dean asked.
“They won’t be perfect, but it is possible,” one of the officers down on the bridge said.
“Give us eyes, then. I want to see what’s happening,” Dean ordered.
“Commander, this is Captain Dante. We have twenty-four nuclear warheads loaded onto seed ships. Seven on the Moses, nine on the Dodge City, and eight here on the Bushido.”
“How many in storage?”
“Two on each of the longships,” Esma replied. “None here on the Bushido.”
“Well, that gives us a handy amount if more ships enter the system. We now have more tug vessels than nukes to arm them with.”
“We could use the unarmed ships for other things,” Esma said.
“True enough, Captain. Let’s get remote controls on all the ships we can. There’s no telling what may show up in system at any moment.”
“Yes, sir, Commander.”
“Major, should we plan for Recon assignments on the ground?” Captain Ortega asked.
“Negative, Captain. We don’t have shuttles to carry us down. And fighting the Kroll on Urgglatta Prime isn’t our mission.”
“Commander, this is Lieutenant Tate in the comms center.”
“Go ahead, Tate,” Dean said.
“I’m getting a message from the planet, sir. The computers are decoding it now.”
“Send it out on the command channel as soon as you have a translation,” Dean ordered.
It only took a few seconds before words began to scroll across Dean’s TCU visor. A computerized voice read the translation aloud.
This is the Urgglatta Resistance. We thank you for your assistance. Our world is lost, overrun by the Kroll. We are the last holdout and will allow access to our invaluable archives in exchange for transport off the planet. Our coordinates are 47.7° N x 116.9° W
“It could be a trap,” Aviv said as soon as the message ended.
“Show us the location,” Matsumoto ordered his navigation officer.
The main vid screen showed a small prairie, surrounded by mountains in the northwest section of one of the Urgglatta home world’s major continents. Dean and Matsumoto moved closer, studying the screen.
“Can these ships enter atmo?” Admiral Masterson asked.
“The center portion of the harvester ship can,” Dean replied. “We’ll need Captain Dante’s team to fly the ship. Wolfpack and Viper platoons will provide cover for the evac.”
Matsumoto muted his comlink and opened the visor on his evac suit before placing a hand on Dean’s shoulder and speaking in a low voice.
“This is not the mission, Major. No one would fault you if we simply made our way home.”
“Our mission was to strike a decisive blow to the Kroll—we’ve done that,” Dean replied. “But we chose this planet because the Urgglatta are our allies. They were the first to warn us of the dangers we faced from the Kroll Empire. And the information they sent to us on the ship my platoon captured was valuable, but it was only a fraction of what the Urgglatta have in their archives. It isn’t just technology, Admiral. It’s the history of whole civilizations. Information on thousands of planets all across the galaxy. If we can help the Urgglatta and gain access to their information, we have to try.”
“Alright, I will command the ship. You should return to your command post on the ring.”
Dean hesitated for a moment, pondering his position. He had done all he was ordered to do as mission commander. But chances were very high that his platoon would encounter the Kroll in some form or fashion. They might not know where the Urgglatta resistance was hiding, but the avian creatures would have no trouble following the harvester down to the surface of the planet. The ship, the crew, and the refugees would be at their most vulnerable as the Urgglatta made their way onto the ship. Dean wanted to be with his platoon when that happened.
“No, I’ll stand with my platoon,” Dean said. “We go down, grab the refugees, and get out of the system as soon as possible.”
“You are a commander now, not a line officer,” the admiral said.
“I’m a fighter, sir. Force Recon, tip of the spear. My place is with my platoon.”
Matsumoto bowed, then began giving orders to his officers on the bridge below.
“Captain Dante,” Dean said over the command channel. “You are needed on the command deck for ship separation. Viper platoon, Wolfpack platoon, report to the bridge.”
A few minutes later, Esma nodded to Dean as she and four other operators rushed up the stairs to the command deck. Dean saw his platoon jogging toward him across the open space of the aviary. The Viper platoon was already assembled, and Dean waved them over as well as he opened a combat channel on his TCU that included both platoons.
“We’re headed down to the planet,” Dean said. “Chances are high that we’ll run into the Kroll as we try to help the Urgglatta. I want every specialist carrying an EMR rifle and as much ammunition as possible. Heavy Armor are to use utility cannons, not the new plasma weapons—they aren’t as effective against the Kroll. Captain Ortega, take your Vipers down on the south side of the ship. The Wolfpack will go on the north. Once we hit the ground, I want defensive formations. I’ll be with the Wolfpack, and if all goes well we’ll escort the Urgglatta to the ship, but be prepared for heavy fighting.”
“Roger that,” Captain Ortega said.
“Parker, grab enough ammo for me and get our platoon down to the maintenance area. I’ll join you there shortly.”
“Yes, sir,” Captain Parker responded.
“Dismissed,” Dean ordered.
He hurried back up to the command deck and found Matsumoto watching the plot.
“Anything new in the system?” Dean asked.
“Not yet, but I would feel better with more time. We don’t even have long-range radar set up. We won’t know if the enemy is on its way until it is almost on top of us.”
“Sen
d the Moses and the Dodge City on wide reconnaissance swings,” Dean said. “There’s no sense staying in orbit while they wait on us. How long until we’re in atmo?”
Matsumoto looked at Esma.
“Five minutes to separation,” she replied. “Maybe half an hour to descend, maybe more. I’m just not sure yet.”
“The Kroll are avians,” Dean said. “Can they attack the ship in the air?”
“It is possible,” Matsumoto replied.
“Let’s get some more controllers on board to work the tentacles. We might be able to swat the bastards if they get too close.”
“Excellent idea,” Matsumoto said.
“If you need me, I’ll be below,” Dean said. “Good luck Admiral, Captain Dante.”
“Don’t go getting yourself killed, Major,” Esma said.
“Good luck to us all,” Matsumoto added.
Dean turned to head back down the metal staircase when he saw a familiar form at the bottom. Staff Sergeant Chavez was in no shape to join the platoon on the mission. He had to stop after crossing the aviary to catch his breath before climbing the stairs.
“What the hell are you doing, Staff Sergeant?” Dean asked.
“You called for the Wolfpack,” Chavez said. “I’m reporting for duty.”
“Chavez, don’t be a damned fool. You’re in no shape to fight.”
“Can’t fight, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help.”
“You could have helped from the comms center.”
“Don’t push me away, sir,” Chavez said, a note of desperation in his voice. “I’m not ready to be retired yet.”
“You stay on the ship,” Dean said as he reached the bottom of the metal staircase. “We’ll go down to the staging area. Once the Urgglatta come aboard, you give the enlisted crewmen orders to move them up to the aviary.”
“The cows will have to use the lift,” Chavez said. “I know where it’s at.”
“Good. Now promise me you won’t do anything stupid or heroic.”
“Can’t make any promises when it comes to combat, sir.”
“You aren’t going into combat, Staff Sergeant. You will follow my orders or I’ll have you escorted to the ring and locked in the detention cell.”
“You’re a hardass, sir,” Chavez said. “I’ll follow orders.”
Abyss Of Savagery Page 28
