Reclaim: Books 1-3

by J. A. Scorch

  Darkness swallowed him whole as the light above faded to nothing. He had no idea if he would stop in time before the bottom snapped his body in two. Teve braced his body for impact and closed his eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  "So, how are we supposed to push through that?" Porter asked Ryder as they stared at a twisted pile of the MBC Mayall's remains. The area was bathed in darkness. The X90S Porter needed could just be seen on the other side of the large floating pieces of the deck. The stealth ship had been automatically strapped down to the deck—a standard procedure for all fighters in the event the ship's electrodynamic gravity generators failed.

  "It's not going to be easy, " Ryder said. We've got an active debris field still flowing from the broken floor. My suggestion is we take the Rascal up and around and try and work our way through from below."

  Porter, Ryder, Briggs, and Smith sat inside a four-seater repair ship the crews used to access external damage a carrier might endure. The straightforward and small design of the Rascal gave it an edge due to the amount of floating debris around the remains of the deck. Porter sat up front with Ryder.

  "Sounds like a plan. Lead the way."

  The specialist jostled the joystick forward and swung the small craft down below a long, twisted beam, avoiding the critical piece of the structure by several ship lengths.

  "Getting to the ship isn't going to be the worst of our problems. Moving the X90S out without any damage will be the real killer."

  "We need the delivery unit at the very least," Porter said. "If we could get the ship it would be a huge bonus."

  "I realize that," Ryder said, "but the package still takes up a decent amount of space."

  Porter sighed. The specialist was doing his best to avoid the task at hand. "These assets are too important to leave behind."

  "So you keep saying. Frankly, I think we should hit the bastards with every nuke we have left. Blow the alien pricks out of the sky instead of trying to sneak in with stealth technology."

  "That would be nice, but Command has better ideas. They want to take the ship for themselves and see what technology the Zeal store inside the beast."

  "No kidding? Well. I take it back. Sounds like a good idea. We could figure out how they got here in the first place. Maybe reverse engineer the ability to go the speed of light or faster. I mean, think about it, how else did they get here? Even if they existed in the nearest system to Earth, we're talking years of travel at the speed of light alone."

  Porter scoffed into his helmet, making sure his comm was off. He didn't want to piss off Ryder and place another obstacle in the way of the X90S.

  "Steel beam headed our way," Porter said.

  Ryder ducked below the slow approaching support and avoided it. The light from the Rascal’s headlights bounced off the beam. Eventually, he began to run out of space to drop down and was forced to navigate the Rascal back up toward the mess of steel and paneling. Large sections of the deck were spinning above, stuck in an endless state of motion until an external force said otherwise.

  "Oh shit," the specialist said.

  "What? What is it?"

  "Nothing. I ... I Just realized what I was looking at up ahead."

  Porter faced the stunned man and then traced his eye line out to the area the specialist was referring to. In the dark of the former deck, the outline of a dozen or so dead bodies could be seen. The remains of crew and pilots without suits on were scattered through the next section of debris the Rascal needed to shove through. There was no other way around.

  "Push through it, Specialist."

  "But, sir—"

  "Don't argue with me."

  "Hey screw you, Captain. These people were my friends."

  Porter let out a huff and turned to Ryder. "I know how hard this is. We came from our own ship that got attacked. We all had to wade through corpse after corpse as we fought the Zeal to survive. We can't let the loss of life slow us down now."

  Ryder lowered his head and began to sob over the comm. This was possibly the first time he had to process what had happened to his ship and the people inside it.

  Porter placed an arm on his shoulder and gave the man a moment they didn't have to spare, encouraging him to keep going. "You can do this, Specialist. Just treat them like debris. Nothing else. We have to make it to that ship and figure out our next move."

  "Okay, sir. I can do this," Ryder said, shaking his head. "Just give me a second to think." The specialist tilted the vessel to the right and angled the Rascal around and up to the point where he had to start pushing through the bodies. More corpses floated up ahead once they reached the gap.

  Porter lost count as he stared out at the frozen faces of the dead. Their eyes all told a different story. Some spent their last moments letting go and allowing death to take them while some fought on to the end with their last piece of defiance. And then, there was the majority of the faces Porter saw, the terrified ones. Wide eyes and open mouths set in dead skin left a mark on his mind he would never forget. The loss of life on the carrier was catastrophic.

  "Keep going. You're doing fine. Just a little farther and we're through."

  With closed eyes, the specialist nodded sharply. "Okay, okay, okay. Almost there."

  "Watch out for the—"

  The body of a young woman came from the side of the transport's field of view and slammed into the main window of the ship.

  "No," Ryder shouted as he swung the Rascal in the wrong direction.

  "That's just a body," Porter said. "Don't stop now."

  "It's not just a body, dammit. That's my girlfriend. I thought she made it off, but thanks to you ... " The specialist fought back more tears and continued. "Thanks to you, I have to see her fucking body floating around."

  The Rascal came to a rolling stop as Ryder stared at the girl. Her hair floated in the gravity-free environment. Porter felt a pang of sweat hit his forehead. It wasn't his fault that the girl had died, but he did accidently bring her death to the specialist's attention. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

  "Screw you. You can work this out yourself." Ryder unbuckled the center console from his control and shoved it toward Porter. The controls slid along a rail into his grip and locked into position. Ryder looked away from the scene outside and crossed his arms, shutting himself off from the world. There was nothing anyone could say.

  Shrugging at his team, Porter continued through the cloud of bodies all caught inside the collapsed deck. He accelerated the Rascal to full speed and handed Briggs a small, secondary console to allow him to use the front-facing arms of the ship to start shifting the corpses to the side.

  "Go easy. We don't want to disturb them too much."

  The two mechanical claws gracefully parted the dead away from the front dome of the craft, allowing Porter easier access. Briggs used his skill as a pilot to carefully shove the bodies aside without splitting open their remains.

  After fifteen slow minutes, the Rascal set down by the X90S. Porter, Briggs, and Smith climbed out and left Ryder behind. The specialist was still in a state of defiance, no longer willing to help. Porter didn't blame him for the anger, but to give up on his duty was something else.

  The three pilots floated along toward the stealth ship and locked on to the remains of the deck with their magboots. They glanced into the cockpit.

  "Okay. Time to work out how we can do this. The delivery unit is attached, and the vessel seems to be in a good condition, maybe even space worthy, but we need to make a hole in that debris field to get her back out again."

  "Can we use the Rascal to shift the bulk of it?" Smith asked.

  "Maybe, but the claws are only designed for small items. If we lost control over one of those larger beams, we could end up making things a lot worse for ourselves. Otherwise, there is one more idea I have up my sleeve."

  "What?" Briggs asked, his arms floating freely.

  "Controlled demo. We take a chunk of D-block and set it to force the field along. If we time it right,
we can send the X90S through straight after and we're good."

  "What about the debris from the explosion? Without gravity, it'll blow out in a ball and mess up the Rascal and the X90S."

  "Already thought of that. If we can pull that section of wall above us down and place it in front of the two ships, it should act as a shield. Then we shove it aside and fly on out."

  "That easy, Captain?"

  "In theory."

  Briggs laughed. "How many times a day do we need to test wild ideas?"

  "Enough to see us through this damn war. Okay, let's get started. We don't have time to—"

  "Captain," Smith yelled. "The Rascal."

  Porter glanced up at the small utility ship and realized Ryder had fired up the engine. "What are you doing, Specialist?" The comm answered him back with static. He repeated his question and tried a few different channels. The man was ignoring them. Without thinking, Porter charged after him using his suit, but it was too late to make the distance.

  Briggs grabbed Porter and stopped him wasting precious air. "He's gone, sir. Let him go."

  "I can't. How else are we supposed to do this?"

  The two pilots stared out at the Rascal as Ryder rammed it through the debris field without any care at all. A large beam bounced off the small craft, leaving a dent in the top of the canopy.

  Porter shook his head and cursed under his breath until Ryder swiveled the ship around and headed for another steel beam.

  That was when Porter realized what the specialist was really doing: killing himself.

  Chapter Thirty

  Time seemed to slow down as Teve waited for his life to end. Instead, the ground came up abruptly beneath his feet, fast enough to make him stumble but not enough to cause any harm. The gravity dampeners had slowed his descent as promised. He opened his eyes wide and patted around the pitch-black landing until he found the wall. It would be his only means of getting back up the tall shaft. Ward had made the task seem too easy.

  "Holy shit," Teve said, letting out his realization that he had cheated death. He looked down at the only source of light on his hands and switched modes to enable the magnetic lock on his palms. With no real clue what the best approach was to climb back up, he slapped his hand on the wall and practiced rolling off the grip.

  After ten seconds of this, Ward shouted down the hole, yelling something about the limited time Teve had left before he came down there and shocked him back up top.

  "Fuck you, Ward," Teve said, confident the lieutenant would not hear the remark. It wouldn't surprise him though if the Zeal virus gave the man the ability to catch any bad thing said about him.

  Another shout came down the way. Teve stared up and yelled, "I'm on my way." He slapped one hand on the wall and placed the next one higher up. The lock acted like something solid he could grip, feeling quite secure. He lifted himself and rolled off his left hand to place it farther up. He was moving at a slow pace but moving all the same. How Ward managed to run up the shaft was nothing short of impressive.

  Teve made it part way up the long drop when he craned his neck to see Red dropping down with a yell. The Russian was decelerating sporadically toward the bottom and somehow missed Teve in the process of landing.

  "Jesus Christ, Ward. What the hell are you doing?" he muttered as he continued for a few magnetic paces before shouting down to Red. "Are you okay?"

  "I am fine, Tower. Just need a moment to collect my thoughts."

  "I know what you mean. That was scary." Teve kept ascending, trying to pick up the pace as he heard Red muttering to himself in Russian.

  "You better get climbing, Red. Ward will keep sending them down."

  "Okay, Tower. I go now."

  The Russian began his climb as the next private came haphazardly down the chute. Romeo, despite her confidence, was spinning around, palms down, as she flew toward the bottom and landed with a thud. Teve checked on her as well, not wanting to hear someone declaring they had broken an ankle or worse. Romeo was all right.

  He continued until he reached Ward. All the privates had been sent down after him. Red was still a fair distance behind, struggling with the climb. As Teve rolled over the edge of the doorway and stood from the drop, Ward placed an arm on his shoulder.

  "Fifteen minutes. That was pathetic, Private. Do you honestly think I'm going to be satisfied with the amount of time this simple task took you?"

  "No, sir. I can imagine that you are—"

  "Did I ask for your opinion, Private? No. So shut the hell up and do it again."

  Teve rolled his eyes away from the lieutenant and crept up to the edge, doing what he could to contain his frustration. Ward would smell it on him, either way.

  "Sir?" Teve asked, glancing back to his CO.

  "Speak."

  "Why are we doing this? How will it help us in the field?"

  A smirk formed on the side of Ward's mouth as he strolled over to Teve, both hands behind his back. "Simple, Private. When we toss your asses into the field from a low-swooping dropship, you morons are going to need a way to slow down before you hit the ground. And as for the climbing, well I'm sure you've already worked that out."

  "The Zeal base?"

  "Bingo. The UESF will be infiltrating each base while our regular forces keep the Zeal distracted on the ground."

  Teve felt a million more questions stab at his brain at once, but Ward silenced him and said, "More about that later. First, you need to prove to me that you are worthy of being sent into the field. Now drop down again and get back up here. You've got seven minutes to do it before I come down there. Go."

  With his mouth half open, Teve dropped off the edge—already making sure to enable the right mode—and stretched out his fingers to slow down his descent more gradually.

  The coming battle sounded like the UEF and UESF were putting everything they had on the line to push the Zeal out of the solar system. Despite the excitement and prospect of ridding the planet of the alien menace, all Teve could think of was Mish.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Ryder rammed the Rascal into an oversized steel beam in front of Porter's eyes for the fifth time. Briggs was still holding him back while Smith stared on in confusion.

  Porter switched his comm over to a private channel only his team could hear. He then ordered his team to swap channels with a silent command.

  "We need to stop him."

  "Why? What's the worst he could do? Crack the front panel?"

  "No, you don't understand; I think he's trying to kill himself." Briggs let Porter go and faced the Rascal. "Well, he's not going to do it like that."

  "Yeah, but he's got the tools he needs on board that ship to do the job. In particular, a crapload of D-block."

  "Oh, shit," Briggs said.

  "Exactly. We need to float over there and stop him before he figures that out and blows us all up."

  "God. Why can't one thing go right today? So what do we do?"

  Porter stared at the Rascal for a moment as his eyes danced around in thought. "I've got one idea."

  "What?"

  The captain turned around and shouted to Smith. "Get over here, now, Cadet. I need you and Briggs to launch me across the gap. It'll save on oxygen."

  "Launch you?" Briggs asked. "What? Like a Stalker out the side of the ship?"

  "Unless you've got a better idea?"

  Briggs shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment. "So how are you going to stop Ryder once you reach him?"

  Porter glanced down at the compartment on his leg that held a laser sidearm in his suit. It was an energy weapon that pilots were given to use in the emptiness of space. He pulled the blaster out and raised it up to show Briggs his intention.

  "Okay. Message received. Smith move your ass."

  Porter took a quick breath. "I need you to float over after me. Smith will give you a push. Better to throw two people at this than just one." Porter faced the cadet. "After you launch me and then Briggs, jump inside the X90S. This access card will op
en the canopy. I want you to maneuver the ship and point her in this direction to be ready to fly over. Got it?"

  Smith's eyes both darted from Briggs to Porter and back again.

  "Got it?" Porter asked as he grabbed the cadet.

  "Ah, yeah. Easy. Let's do this."

  With a nod, Porter slowly turned around and jostled into position for the two pilots to shoot him across the gap. He could see Ryder was still bashing the Rascal into random beams and pockets of debris. The front section of the ship would be starting to crack from the constant assault by the pissed off specialist.

  "Okay, on three. One, two, three." Porter engaged his directional thrusters the second Briggs and Smith lobbed him across. He made sure he was on track and not spinning on his journey over the open gap toward the Rascal. He needed to avoid the numerous bodies in his way. Everything was going well until he made the mistake of looking down through the large hole in the deck and out into the expanse of space. The Andromeda sat a relatively short distance, waiting for him to return. All he could think about at that moment was Nicole. If he had lost her in the same way Ryder did, would he be reacting any different? He pushed the thought away, needing to concentrate on the task before him.

  "I'm right behind you," Briggs shouted over the comm. "Got my blaster out, too."

  "Good work, Briggs. Smith, get to the X90S. If we fail in any way, you need to try and make your way through the debris. Command needs this ship for the op to have any chance of succeeding."

  "Understood, Captain. Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

  "It won't," Porter muttered to himself as he arrived at the Rascal. Ryder was bashing it into another section of the debris field without any real thought. Porter connected with the ship, utilizing his magboots to scamper over the dome of the craft to face the specialist inside. He swapped comm channels in a flash and made his presence known.