It was Salchar, his armor slagged in places and his arm and hand connected to his body by just a few inches of exoskeleton, resolutely holding a plasmid sword. The other hand held a plasma rifle.
Yasu’s eyes went wide as he fired at her. She rolled away, coming up, her fists ready and pointing at Salchar.
He’d just tried to kill her was all she could think as he unloaded his rifle. He threw it, grabbed his personal sword, and drove into the enemy.
She watched as his yells became grunts as he hit with all of his power. His reinforcements joined him without thought, joining with her line and hitting the pirates like a wave.
The walls and roof opened as more commandos poured into the fight, a relentless wave as the pirates screamed in pain and surprise as their near victory had been turned so suddenly with Salchar’s arrival.
He brought his left up to stop a blow. His melted exoskeleton blunted the blow and finally separated from the force. James bellowed in rage. His other plasmid sword rammed into the offending pirate to the hilt as he picked her up with his sword and stump with inhuman strength and threw her into her cramped companions.
“Surrender or die!” James yelled at them as more than one pirate threw their weapons down in fear.
“Move back. Disengage,” James said through the local AMC channel. All of the commandos did so, killing anyone who wished to still fight. Those who didn’t, or were too wounded to continue the fight, stayed still. Finally, the fighting stopped.
“Round them up! They do so much as breathe wrong, kill them.” His voice was cold as grim commanders set to work. A squad pulled apart the pirates’ armor none too gently and tossed it into piles as another bound them.
“Fuck—will someone please find my goddamn hand!” James looked at his severed exoskeleton. His protection detail started to move bodies out of the way.
James slumped against a wall, pulling his data pad out for a few seconds before he got to his feet. “Those not on prisoner detail—on me. We’re nearly there, people. After this, beers are on me!”
This brought some grins to the faces of the troops as she looked on in amazement. Moments ago, they’d been near the cusp of death; now he was asking them to again risk death and they greeted it.
Hell, she could feel inside that she greeted it. She was an Armored Marine Commando. Even if she was to die in the next minute or hour, no one could take that pride away from her or anyone else in this hallway. She felt pride and a feeling in her chest of belonging, of anger, a bond to the people around her who had gone through the same things, had sweated, bled and pushed themselves to become the warriors they were now.
Someone handed him his hand.
“That’s a nice souvenir,” he said grimly before he looked around. “Someone have space tape?”
“Here you go, sir.” A man in his protection detail handed him a roll of the silver tape, very similar to duct tape but it could work in thousands of more environments, including the vacuum of space.
“Can you stick my hand to me; I’ll need that later. While you’re at it, can you connect my sword to my hand? Doesn’t do me any good sitting on the floor,” he said, as if he were asking him to pick him up some milk from the convenience store. The commandos laughed. More than one pirate’s eyes went wide—those with translators, anyway.
Yasu moved closer. The Sato sisters automatically closed behind her, watching the room and everyone in it with suspicion as she advanced to James, who had a team taping his hand to his back and a sword on the remaining portion of exoskeleton on his left arm. As she came closer, she saw he hadn’t come off from his bout with the last pirate unscathed. A violent red gash cut his forehead. Blood seeped down his face as he leaned back.
“Use the tape to seal my face as well,” he ground out. They did so, putting the sliced skin back to his face as it bled freely. One of his protection detail got the blood out of his eyes and mouth as they worked his face, now with a line of silver across it.
“All right, get those prisoners moving. Jeremiah, get over here with your headset.”
The protection detail commander did so, opening his visor as James jammed his head in it.
“Henry.” A few moments later: “Tell me you have the damned hub now.”
“Yes, sir, we’re in control of it,” she could hear through the leader channel.
“Good. Get those wireless hubs up.”
“Yes, sir. Also, my teams have reached the other ships we can with minimal resistance. They’ve been broadcasting the messages and a few crews have shut down all operations of the ships they are on and sealed their Syndicate crew in their quarters. I’ve got Eddie running internal kill switch jammers through my people jacked into the ships to stop the slaughter, but already some ships have been completely killed off.”
“Shit.” James smashed his hand into a wall, leaving a dent in its surface.
Yasu’s sword came an inch higher as she came at him on an angle as she listened. She nodded to the members of the protection detail, who nodded back to her with smiles. Most of them were her best students turned instructors, she noticed, who moved aside for their commander’s wife.
“I need some reinforcements, though. Is there anyone free?”
“Rick is on his way with all I can spare. I’ll hold all that we control currently so you can drive the main push.”
“Good man. Tell Rick to hurry it up if he can. Salchar out.” James waved Jeremiah away as he moved his left forearm with its attached sword experimentally. He turned, checking its reach, grimacing before he looked Yasu right in the face.
“You’re the farthest forward; we’re going to advance through here to the control center. We’re just a few hundred meters from the main blast doors.” He sighed, looking drained before he stood. His Mecha groaned as he did so.
“You nearly killed me,” she said in a deadly whisper as she was close enough that others couldn’t hear her, looking at his mounted blade, her own ready to drive through his chest.
His face flashed with confusion then anger. “This is war. You’re alive where people are dead. Think on that,” he said, his words as hot as the sun and unrelenting as he made an annoyed and aggravated noise.
He turned and tossed his head. “All right commandos, let’s take this damned control center!” He pointed at a wall and Mechas rushed to cut it open as he continued after his men.
Yasu was left in disbelief, confused at his words.
If he’d wanted to kill her, though, he would’ve done it. James had changed. She could see it by his will and stubbornness dragging him on even while so heavily wounded that most honorable warriors would have seen treatment. She’d at least married a great warrior with a loyal group who would, and had, followed him into hell, outnumbered and outgunned.
***
“They’re almost here.” Welick’s eye stalks moved rapidly in nervous anticipation.
“Activate the kill switches,” Jorsht said with a languid wave to one of the personnel manning a command console. The operator, ready with the kill switch program open, hit the button and the room breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well, I’m glad that’s done with; get me a count of Syndicate personnel on station.” The tension left Jorsht’s body.
“Sir, the kill switch isn’t working!” the command console operator said, in a near panic as they activated the program over again and again.
“WHAT!” Jorsht and Welick said as one as all the tension returned tenfold.
“Activate internal weaponry! Wipe them out!”
“Sir, the relays haven’t even been powered up. It will take ten minutes to bring them online!”
Jorsht shot the operator without thinking. “You, get them working within a minute or you’ll follow your friend. The next person will have thirty seconds.” Jorsht leveled his pistol at the new operator, who gulped, throwing the body out of the console as his hands flew across the interface.
“They’ve reached the command center’s outer door!”
&nbs
p; “That should hold them long enough. They’ll need a plasma cutter to get through that door,” Jorsht said with a satisfied grin.
“See, Welick, even though the kill switch doesn’t work, we will win,” Jorsht said, a grin on his face as he sat back in his chair.
Welick’s eye stalks darted across the screens, his nervousness getting on Jorsht’s nerves.
Jorsht was going to need someone else to run his fleet. Having a spineless coward like Welick controlling his fleet would not do. He stroked his pistol.
It would also give him a scapegoat, he thought with a sick smile as he saw a red line appear in the door. His eyes widened as another and then another red line appeared in the door, slowly growing. He could see where they would meet up. He looked at it, stunned; they were cutting through his two-foot-thick armored door as if they had plasma torches. All they had were plasmid... He connected the two as another and then another sword added to the circle. He got out of his seat.
“Get those guns online!” he said, panicked as the tech just stopped.
“There’s no way,” they said. It sounded as if they were sobbing as three boots attached to the other side of the door.
They used the momentum of the falling door to roll on their sides, coming up with their weapons raised.
The command center was in panic as some operators lurched from their seats with blade weapons.
These Mechas were scarier than any pirate he’d ever seen; they didn’t gloat or even speak as they took down attackers with only enough rounds to drop them. They were cold and silent like statues; more poured into the room behind them, working with those inside to create the most damage.
He remembered seeing holovids of trained Union storm troopers. He’d thought of them as silly, hiding behind cover and firing blindly as others advanced. These humans were constantly firing and hiding, but any thoughts of them as cowards were lost as his hand shook.
Each shot hit its target as they advanced like an unstoppable tide, killing his personal crew, the baddest pirates he’d garnered over the years. Pirates with genetic and technological advancements that put them on par with a Mecha without a suit themselves were dropped like dogs as teams of two worked together, taking out targets before searching for more.
He felt the pistol fall from his hands numbly as Welick charged them with an unseen blaster. A hail of rounds caused his gel-like form to bubble and explode over Jorsht. The fighting was over except for those who had surrendered.
Even here, these humans were different than the commonwealth that killed their prisoners outright. They stayed their weapons, binding those who had surrendered. They even tended to their own wounded and those pirates still alive, not placing one above the other.
Their leader, obvious from the way the people moved away from him in respect and the way a group congealed around him in protection, marched into the room. His eyes locked with Jorsht’s. There was power behind those eyes, which kept Jorsht rooted where he was.
He took in the sight of the man. Dried blood covered his face and his Mecha was slashed and melted in places. The servos and pneumatics whined as armor plates grated with the mass of the fighting Mecha. In one hand, he carried a plasma rifle; his other hand was a plasmid sword attached where his hand should have been.
No less than four rifles pointed at Jorsht as the man came closer, his face kept together with a strip of space tape. His Mecha let out a hiss of air as it stopped.
“I am Commander Salchar of the Free Fleet and I am taking this station.” His voice was like granite.
“The Syndicate will hunt you to the corners of the universe for this. You will never be able to hide from them,” Jorsht said in a bare whisper, his eyes wide and scared.
Commander Salchar’s face broke into a grim grin as his eyes became dark and deadly, making Jorsht want to soil himself.
“Who said I was going to hide?”
Again, Jorsht had to fight the need to go to the bathroom as he saw the truth in this man’s eyes and felt fear in his gut. He swallowed against his dry mouth as Salchar came close to Jorsht, as if sharing a secret.
“Let them come,” he said in a deadly whisper, his grin a thin white line. “Now, tell your people to surrender, to throw down their arms, get out of their armor and lie face down on the ground and they will not be killed but put into service with the Free Fleet.”
“What?” Jorsht couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Don’t try me; it’s been a long day.” The man moved what remained of his left arm with its plasmid blade attached.
“You’re not going to kill us?”
“No, but I’ll make you damned well wish I had with hard work.”
“We’re going to be slaves?”
“I prefer to call you conscripts, paying off your time with service. Call it what you will,” he said with a wave of his hand. “Now get out of my seat.”
Jorsht did so slowly, wary of the amount of weapons pointed at him. He knew when he’d lost and he’d prefer to stay alive.
“Jeremiah, make sure he sends the message. Also, detail someone to get Rick in here.” Commander Salchar took a stick from his leg, inserting it into Jorsht’s universal jack before he sat in his seat.
“Yes, Commander Salchar.” Then, to Jorsht, he said, “Follow me,” before talking into his helmet.
Jorsht tore his eyes away as he saw the one called Jeremiah was guiding him to a communications console that a human was already in, opening a channel to the entire station. Who were these humans to learn all of these systems so fast? Jorsht could swear the communications tech was doing the job in seconds that his own operators would have taken minutes to do as screens opened and closed rapidly. He was put in the chair.
“Here are the main points of what you are to say, and this is the talk button.” The tech who had vacated the seat indicated a box of words in Jorsht’s home world dialect and a green button.
His eyes opened wider in shock again.
“Read quickly.” Jeremiah’s tone promised what he’d do to Jorsht if he didn’t speed up the process.
“To all Syndicate personnel, this is the captain of the Parnmal station, Jorsht. The control center of the station has been taken by the Free Fleet. This includes all internal and external weapon systems.” Jorsht’s eyes boggled at this. These humans where filed with surprises!
“If you try to run, you will be killed; resist and you will be killed. Every ship has a battery aimed at it. If the main engines light up, the batteries will destroy the ship. Your only option is to surrender. You will be treated in a manner fitting your species and tried according to the acts you have committed. Depending on your crimes, you will serve the Free Fleet for longer or shorter terms. To surrender, get out of your Mecha and throw down your weapons. Lie on the ground away from any weapon with your upper limbs spread to either side. Any other action will be regarded as hostile, and you will be killed.” Jorsht finished as the communications tech leaned in close again, his armored neck inches from his face. It would be so easy for him to snap his neck as they put the message on repeat through the station and then the ships attached.
“Don’t think about it. Get up,” Jeremiah said, just far enough away that Jorsht couldn’t hit him but no one could hear his whisper.
Jorsht’s blood went cold as his survival instinct came to the fore. He stood up from the seat, keeping far away from the tech as he took his position. The other stations had already been taken over by people and he could see that it didn’t take ten minutes to warm up weapon systems, which were already active and roaming.
“I want communications with every ship set up. Rick?”
“Yes, boss, I’m here!” A man stowed his weaponry, taking off his helmet and pulling out a data pad.
“Please link me into the systems,” he said to one of the techs as they produced a jack, inserting it into the pad.
“Going to need a second, boss!”
“Get it done. Work with Eddie to get the drones to work. Have M
in Hae’s people check to make sure there aren’t any extra—surprises, shall we say, in the computer systems.”
“Agreed. Make it so, communications.”
“Yes, Chief of Staff,” said the tech who had sat in the seat Jorsht had been in seconds ago.
“Hands behind your back,” Jeremiah said.
Jorsht complied, feeling something tighten on his wrists with a clicking noise. Now incapacitated, he was dragged out from the room and out through his station with a vise-like grip on his wrists and elbow.
How Did We Do It?
I heard the whine of turrets coming online as Resilient now had full control of the station’s inner protection. I heard the heavy caliber weapons firing throughout the station. I saw on the command screens as pirates, wearing full Mechas, were cut down before they reached my commandos. There was still a difference of force about eight to one against my people, but we had the heart of the station and all of the ships.
“Begin cutting off pirate forces and draining oxygen till they all pass out,” I ordered.
Techs worked the command terminals as blast doors enclosed pirates. Drones were still taking the many injured and dead back to the Free Fleet ships.
“Rick, coordinate with Henry to get people through the medical chairs and rested. Three hours later administer wake up so we can round up prisoners. We’re going to need everyone to help.”
“Where should we put them?”
“Hangars for now. Strip them of clothing.”
“Boss?”
“They did it to us and we survived. Plus, they will have fewer places to hide weapons then.”
“I’ll handle it, boss. Do you want to get medical attention now that we’re done?” he said.
“Fine, you’ve convinced me.” I got up slowly, feeling much more tired than when I’d sat down. I felt my blood seemingly rush out of my body and then make my arms, then stomach, weigh more as I broke into a cold sweat.
“Rick, you have command,” I said, feeling sick, barely hearing his reply as I fought darkness and fell to the floor.
Free Fleet Box Set 1 Page 32
