Marine

by Joshua Dalzelle

  The Kentucky surged ahead on her gravimetric engines, bearing down on the suspected enemy ship while the tactical officer programmed two of their XTX-2 "ship buster" missiles with the targeting package. The ship may have been disguised to look like an outdated bulk freighter, but her engines and weaponry were some of the best equipment money could buy.

  "Profile confirmed, sir," one of the sensor operators called. "That's a known Ull ship."

  "Tell Sullivan to get the hell out of the way," Webb said. "Captain Duncan, would you do the honors?"

  "With pleasure, sir." Duncan stepped forward. "Confirm targeting data."

  "Target package confirmed, Captain."

  "Very well. Fire missiles one and two, stagger pattern."

  "Missile one, firing!" the tactical officer almost shouted. "Missile two…firing! Both missiles away and tracking to target."

  "Two of our XTXs may have been gross overkill, but I believe in being thorough," Webb said quietly to Duncan.

  "If one missile is good, two is better, sir."

  The XTX line of missiles was equipped with a skip-drive system that made them difficult to intercept or elude. Each had a one-time use slip-drive that would allow it to close the distance with the target virtually instantaneously. The missile would re-appear in real-space close to the target and make any final course corrections it needed before impact. This meant that it had to be fired from extreme distances in order to give the skip-drive enough space to function.

  "Confirmed impact! I'm not sure which one hit it, sir, but the enemy ship has been destroyed, broken into three large pieces that are drifting away from each other. No escape pods or shuttles were detected leaving the ship."

  "Very good. Please put Lieutenant Sullivan through now."

  "What the hell, sir?!" The pilot was visibly shaken and looked pissed. "What just exploded behind me?"

  "That was the Ull support ship that you drew away from Theta Suden for us," Webb said. "Good job, Lieutenant."

  "What?!"

  "Bring your ship aboard, and we'll explain it to you," Webb said. "And be quick about it. Once you're docked, we'll be heading back to that moon to help out the rest of your team."

  "Aye, sir!" That last part snapped Sully into action. On the sensor display, Webb could see the gunboat come about and begin accelerating towards the Kentucky.

  "Please inform the hangar boss that we have an incoming Eshquarian ship," Duncan said. "And then have Lieutenant Sullivan escorted to the bridge."

  "Aye, sir."

  "That was brilliant, sir, if you don't mind me saying."

  "That was mostly luck," Webb admitted. "Once we knew Zadra had flipped on us, it was a safe bet that either she or her Ull buddies had put a tracker on the ship at some point. I've also been dealing with these clowns long enough to know they'd have at least one support ship hidden in a system they were running a major counterintelligence op in. The lucky part was that when Sullivan ran, they decided to follow him."

  "Yes, sir," Duncan said. His face was still flush with the thrill of combat, even if it had been fought entirely on terminal monitors and over a distance of a few million kilometers.

  "Go ahead and call this in to Fleet Ops," Webb said. "Have them send a recovery ship out to collect the wreckage for analysis. Once the gunboat is aboard and secure, set your course for Theta Suden and get us there as fast as this thing can go."

  "You think the ground team has managed to survive this long without support?"

  "I'm hoping against hope that they have, Commander."

  Chapter 27

  "The second team is no longer responding on coms."

  "What the fuck?! There's no way some greenhorn butter bar just took out over half your troop complement!"

  "Local law enforcement is responding to reports of explosions in the area," Zadra said. She'd been pressed into service monitoring the local Nexus now that Hollick's force was being spread so thin. "I pulled up a few images from public cameras, and it looks like the front door to the safe house was blown clear of the frame. There’s a lot of smoke coming from the rear of the building. Brown probably rigged both doors with explosives."

  "We must assume this budderbar you speak of isn't so helpless," the Ull officer hissed in anger. "That's five soldiers dead because you've underestimated your opponent." Hollick was speechless for a moment. Could he have really underestimated some kid who just stepped out of the Academy? Maybe he'd not been curious enough about why Webb would put a complete rookie on one of his Scout Fleet teams. Who was this guy?

  "Can you slice into the house's internal systems and see what the hell is going on?" he asked Zadra.

  "Not with the access codes you gave me," she said. "It looks like the system is completely offline. I can try to find a workaround, but that will take a bit now that the locals are locking down the area."

  "Forget it." He waved her off, turning back to the Ull. The arrogant bastards never gave them names to address them by. He'd be glad when Jansen was able to end her partnership with this insufferable species. "So, do you think now is the time to call in reinforcements from the ship?" The Ull just stared at him with its normal, unreadable expression.

  "The ship is not responding to hails," it said finally. "It left high-orbit to pursue the ship our captives arrived on. We expected it back some time ago."

  "Wait! Sullivan left with that stolen ship? Why isn't anyone telling me these things as they happen?!" Hollick could feel success slipping through his fingers at each new revelation. "Did that piece of shit manage to shoot down your support ship?"

  "Of course not," the Ull hissed. "But it was able to elude our ship and make it to slip-space. The last transmission I received stated they had activated the tracker this Veran had attached."

  "It's a burst tracker so they'd get regular updates even while the ship is in slip-space," Zadra said.

  "Yeah, but if Sullivan and Brown decided to cut their losses and fly back to Terranovus, or were ordered back, how long will your ship chase them before coming back?"

  "I am not in command of that ship."

  "You people are utterly useless," Hollick said. "Why we're stuck with such a—" he got no further as the Ull grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.

  "Remember your place, Human," it said. "It is we who are stuck in this partnership with your undesirable species, waiting for what you've promised us to be delivered. Without our aid, your own people would have hunted you down and killed you all by now. I'm beginning to think we should let them."

  "Put me down…now," Hollick managed to get out. The Ull opened its hand and the ex-NIS agent hit the ground with a thud, his legs buckling.

  "It looks like I picked the wrong time to flip sides," Zadra grumbled. "I would have been better off sticking with the young pup."

  "Shut up," Hollick snarled. "And you, figure out a way to recall your ship or find another in—"

  "Attention assholes and traitors in the building I'm currently hovering over," a voice boomed from outside. "I think it's time we made a deal."

  "Who is that?!" another of the Ull asked from where it stood near an exterior door.

  "That's the young human who’s managed to kill five of your buddies and find our secret hideout," Hollick said. "He's in an aircraft above us. Resourceful little shit, apparently."

  "I'm waiting," Brown's voice came again. "Or would you rather I alert the local authorities about this little paramilitary party you have going on in the warehouse district?"

  "Inform your human soldiers I have need of them on the roof," the lead Ull said imperiously.

  "That's not a good idea. This is obviously a—"

  "The time for debate and half-measures is over," the Ull said. "We will eliminate this slysta for the lives he took, and then we will figure out how to successfully conclude this mission."

  "Fine," Hollick sighed at the inevitable and keyed his com. "Baker, Miklos, leave Meyer there to guard the Marines and meet our Ull friends up on the roof. Keep sharp,
the real attack will likely come from the building to the southeast."

  "So, let me ask you one question," Zadra said as the two remaining Ull marched off. "Do you have a contingency plan to get out of here?"

  "Without Webb there's no deal, Zadra," Hollick reminded her. "Your intel network is a tempting offer, but we both know you're unenthusiastic about handing it over to us and will likely sabotage it in ways we'll not discover until you're long gone."

  "You'll still need to be alive for that," Zadra said. "As will I."

  "Your survival instincts are keen, it would—"

  "Sir, it looks like this idiot is just sitting in an aircar above the building," Miklos's voice broke in over the com. "If he keeps shouting over that PA, the local LEOs are going to eventually come over to see what the hell the ruckus is about. He's already drawing a crowd below."

  "Maybe I gave him too much credit if he's actually in that thing." Hollick frowned. It didn't seem right. This kid had the balls and skill to wipe out five Ull soldiers and then sits like an idiot shouting from an aircar. Even if anyone in this district gave a shit, there wouldn't be a law enforcement response if all he was doing was being loud. He looked at Zadra, but her expression gave no hint that she knew what the jarhead lieutenant might be up to.

  "Marines…so predictable," he muttered before keying his com again. "Have the Ull take him down. Try to keep out of sight, he may do something stupid like—"

  An explosion rocked the building so immense that Hollick was thrown to the floor. Every window in the main factory area was blown out, and the skylights were blown in. The massive pressure wave that followed threw transit cases and equipment around the room like scrap paper in a hurricane. He could only hear a ringing in his left ear, nothing at all in the right, and his vision swam in and out of focus. Surprisingly, he found he could stand and walk, his neural implant doing its best to help his demolished inner ear maintain his balance.

  "What in the unholy hell was that?!" he shouted, barely hearing his own voice.

  Jacob knew he'd royally screwed up when he triggered the explosives he'd planted in the aircar before one of the Ull could shoot it down. It was supposed to be enough of a focused explosion to create a downward pressure wave that would incapacitate anybody stupid enough to have climbed up on the roof when he was yelling and disorient everyone in the building when the skylights gave and the building over-pressured.

  Instead, the blast had launched everyone that wasn't vaporized off the rooftop so quickly that Jacob had barely been able to track them, and he'd seen the walls of the factory bulge in places from the pressure wave directed inside. He must have completely miscalculated how many demo packs he needed for the desired effect. There was no way an explosion that size was going to go unnoticed by the local authorities. Worse than all that, however, was the fact he'd been standing too close to the building when he'd triggered the blast and had been launched into the door of a freight entrance to the building across the street.

  Now a little woozy and feeling like he may have cracked a couple ribs, he was running full tilt for a door in the factory wall that had been blown open by his careless application of high explosives. He'd actually rigged a spot on the wall he planned to breach after his…diversion…but thought better of triggering another explosion after the first mishap.

  He didn't know where his team might be in the building—assuming he hadn't inadvertently killed them all—so he dialed the aperture on his plasma rifle all the way down for pinpoint fire. They weren't terribly accurate weapons by nature, but at least he wouldn't be saturating the place with wide-area bursts. With any luck, the handful of bodies he'd seen hurling from the rooftop at near-supersonic speeds were the bulk of the defenders.

  When he moved into the building, the first thing he saw was Weef Zadra lying prone on the floor. There wasn't anybody else visible but there was a lot inside the factory to hide behind. His boots crunched over the broken glass of the skylights as he made his way cautiously to the downed Veran.

  "Zadra, you alive?" He gently nudged her with his toe as he continued to scan the area. "Zadra!"

  "Y-yes…I think I'm still alive. Did you do that?"

  "It was an accident," Jacob said. "Where's everyone else?"

  "Hollick ran—I have no idea how, I can't even stand up—and the rest were on the roof," she said, her voice shaky. "Your team is in the last office on the left when you go up those stairs."

  "You stay right fucking here," Jacob said, barely controlling his temper. "I should shoot you for what you did."

  "You're too smart for that, Pup," she smiled at him, lying flat on her back. "I'm still the mission…at least for you. I think I saw your traitor engineer go up on the roof, so congratulations there."

  "Stay here," he repeated. He had restraints but not enough for both sets of arms and her legs.

  "I wouldn't go anywhere even if I could feel my legs, which I can't. Thanks for that."

  Jacob did another quick scan of the area before sprinting for the stairs to the mezzanine. Since the office complex above the factory floor was essentially a building inside of a building, everything upstairs looked surprisingly undamaged. There was a tipped over chair here and there, but the walls and doors were all still intact.

  When he cleared a corner to move where his team was being held, he saw a human standing guard by the door. Without thinking, he raised his weapon and fired. The pinpoint plasma bolt struck the guard in the throat and dropped him before he could raise his own weapon or sound the alarm. Jacob felt little remorse for the kill. The man was one of Hollick's people and therefore a traitor, the same as Scarponi.

  The man didn't get back up, so Jacob continued to advance. He made a mental note that his weapon seemed to shoot high since he'd been aiming center-mass on the target. There was no sign of anyone else guarding the office, so he picked up the pace. Maybe it was target fixation on the door his men were behind, maybe it was because he didn't have enough experience to temper his impatience. Whatever the reason, Jacob walked by an open office door without clearing the room.

  A shot he never heard took him in the back where his soft-armor was able to absorb and dissipate most of its energy. He instinctually tried to move away from the source of intense heat, at first not realizing he'd been shot with an energy weapon, and his dive to the left likely saved his life. The second shot passed within millimeters of his head, the intense heat of the plasma burning away his hair and peeling away the skin of his scalp. Jacob kicked backwards with his right leg as he fell, his boot making contact with someone's shin and eliciting a grunt of pain.

  "Hold still, you little shit!"

  A third shot went far wide and burned into the wall, not even close to where Jacob had been. He rolled to his right and looked up. There, still standing in the doorway, was Scarponi. The traitor had a plasma pistol and was waving it at him.

  "Hands off the weapon," Scarponi ordered. "Toss it aside, asshole." Jacob popped the quick-disconnect on his sling to detach the plasma rifle and shrugged it aside, keeping his hands up.

  "What're you waiting for?" Jacob asked, tasting the hot bitterness of defeat. Not only will Earth not get Weef Zadra's network, his men will still be held hostage and, in the ultimate insult, the man who killed his CO will also be the one who kills him.

  "You're going to join your Obsidian buds in that office right after I restrain you," Scarponi said. "I'll let Hollick decide what to do with you. Mosler thought you were hot shit before he brought you aboard, so who knows, maybe Earth will negotiate for your release."

  "Not the brains of this operation, I see." Jacob shook his head. "Hollick is gone, dipshit. Everyone else is dead or hasn't landed yet after being blown off the roof, and Earth isn't going to negotiate for the return of one measly ass lieutenant."

  "So, you're arguing in favor of my shooting you?" Scarponi asked. "Don't move!" Jacob had rolled to his right slightly to conceal that his sidearm was still holstered on his thigh. The fact the engineer had been so focu
sed on the rifle and not the other weapons Jacob carried told him Scarponi was out of his depth.

  "I'm not moving," Jacob said. "Look, there's no reason to— Did you hear that?"

  "You can't possibly think I'm that stupid," Scarponi said. "You carrying any restraints? Where are they?"

  "Right calf pocket," Jacob said. "I brought them hoping I'd get to ship you and Hollick back to Taurus Station in them. Seriously, though, I heard something. It sounded like maybe the roof getting ready to give."

  "Cocky ass lieutenant," Scarponi scoffed and walked over to Jacob's right. "You couldn't even manage to—" the loud groaning of metal reached their ears, and the floor seemed to drop an inch or so. Apparently, the mezzanine hadn't escaped being damaged after all.

  Scarponi had been in the process of bending down to check the calf pocket when the tremor hit and was thrown off balance. Jacob acted without thinking, lashing out hard with his left foot and catching the traitor in the stomach and sending him backwards. Scarponi's eyes widened in surprise, but he never let go of his pistol. Jacob drew his own weapon while Scarponi, now realizing how badly he'd screwed up, raised his at the same time. Jacob panicked and fired first without aiming before Scarponi could get his weapon up for a kill shot.

  Jacob hit the engineer in the left outer thigh, the close-range shot obliterating the unprotected flesh when it struck. Scarponi howled and fired as he fell to his left, the shot sailing wide and harmlessly hitting the far wall. Jacob fired twice more, his pistol still resting on the floor, and scored two more hits along his target's unprotected left side. Scarponi rolled to his right and curled up into a fetal ball, moaning in agony as the smells of scorched flesh and burned clothing filled the hall.

  "Moron," Jacob muttered, rolling to his knees and yanking Scarponi's pistol from his hand. The moaning engineer didn't even react. After retrieving his rifle, Jacob jogged to the door at the end of the hall, pulled the dead guard out of the way, and kicked it in.