Lone Star Renegades

by Mark Wayne McGinnis

  Collin stepped in closer to Humphrey, bringing his face close to his. “You need to stop screwing with me.”

  “I will … I promise. Just let go.”

  Collin let go and watched Humphrey as he fell to his knees, cradling his bruised hand into his stomach. He noticed Bubba and DiMaggio were no longer behind him; instead, they were nose-to-nose with Darren, Bosh, Platt, and Hurst. Collin was relieved—the two did have his back after all. Then he saw the three Daccians hovering in the background—they too looked ready to step in.

  The first incoming enemy fire shook the barracks so violently everyone was thrown to the deck. Sounds of thunderous explosions hitting nearby, one right after another, caused Collin to flinch.

  Commander Fico Lucan of the Brave Hearts, and Rocco Puma, commander of the Righteous Warriors, ran into the barracks. Both looked like they’d run a mile and were breathing hard.

  “Half the station … is gone … totally destroyed,” Lucan said, gasping. “They must have known where the troops were being deployed from. Where the Brotherhood barracks were located.”

  “Is the station going to blow up?” Tink asked.

  “I don’t know … No … probably not,” Rocco Puma replied. “Two of their bulk carriers have come alongside the main station hub. They’re deploying their troops. Thousands of Kardon Guard forces. We need to surrender. That’s the only way we survive—”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Collin said back. “Surrendering to the Kardon Guard would mean our instant death or being held captive indefinitely.” Either way, he thought, we’d never get home again. “Where did you get your weapons? Are there more?”

  “The Chief left us with these. This is all we have.”

  Collin felt momentarily humiliated that the chief didn’t have the same confidence in him as he did in these two Chain commanders to leave him a weapon as well. “Give me your Ponge for a second.”

  Puma shook his head. “Like hell …”

  “I’ll give it back. I promise.”

  Bubba grabbed the recruit commander’s wrist while pulling the handgun free of its holster. Lucan moved to pull his weapon, but Darren moved in and wrapped his arms around him—trapping his arms in a clamp.

  “What are you doing? We can’t win against their forces,” Lucan protested.

  Bubba handed Collin the Ponge 412. Collin sat down on the deck and pulled up his left pant leg. He changed the power setting to the fifth position, pulled the minimizer band as far away from his skin as possible, and fired once. “Shit!” The heat scorched his leg. It hurt more than he wanted to let on so he took a little more time with the minimizer band on his other ankle. He rubbed both ankles and stood up quickly. Without the diminishing effects of minimizer bands, Collin’s feet left the ground. DiMaggio grabbed for his arm and brought him back to the deck.

  “Thanks, man. Here … be careful not to shoot yourself.” He handed DiMaggio the Ponge. “Darren, take Lucan’s weapon and go to work on your own bands.”

  It took another ten minutes to shoot everyone’s minimizer bands off. Collin retrieved his rucksack from his pod and was just strapping on the Glock’s holster when Humphrey walked into the confined space.

  Not knowing what his intentions were, Collin continued to strap on the holster and didn’t say anything.

  “You want to keep this?” Humphrey asked, holding the weapon out in front of him.

  “No. We said we’d give them their weapons back. But thanks.”

  “Any idea how we’re going to take on a few thousand Kardon Guard troops?”

  “We’ll need to arm ourselves. Let’s hope the lifts still work so we can get down to the rifle range and armory.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Collin heard Humphrey say as he rushed out from the pod.

  By the time Collin reached the others, they were getting familiar with their newfound strength. Lucan took back his weapon from Humphrey and both he and Puma left to return to their Chains.

  DiMaggio, now floating five feet high in the air, waved his arms at Collin. Tink was elevated too, even five feet higher up. This could be a problem: the diminished effects of gravity’s pull and how their physiology interacted in this alien environment. Their molecular structure being so different was both a blessing and a curse. A curse, if they didn’t learn to control their movements.

  Collin watched as both Tink and DiMaggio settled onto the deck. “Watch your movements. Running the way you normally do will send you into the air like you’re on the moon. In the meantime, let’s all keep our eyes on the person next to us. Have each other’s back.”

  “So what are we doing?” Bubba asked.

  “We’re arming ourselves. Heading to the armory, down on deck one.” His words were drowned out by the sound of nearby weaponry fire.

  Chapter 34

  “Let’s move fast and stay together,” Collin said. He looked around and did a mental head count. Including himself, they were still at twenty. He was surprised to see the cheerleaders standing together nearby, at the front of the group. Lydia looked back at him. “Are we going to do this or what?”

  He smiled at her gumption, turned, and headed out of the Lone Stars’ barracks. DiMaggio and Bubba were next to him, on either side. They passed through next-door-neighbor Brave Hearts’ area, which was totally empty, and continued on through the Righteous Warriors’ barracks. These were empty as well.

  “Maybe they went to surrender,” DiMaggio said.

  They exited the barracks into a frenzy of activity. People were running, mostly in one direction. Some were clothed in Brotherhood uniforms; others wore regular civilian clothes. Bubba took up the lead and headed right into the oncoming masses. A Brotherhood soldier slowed and put up his hands. “You’re going the wrong way … transport is this way.” He didn’t wait for an answer, just kept on running, along with the hundreds of others trying to flee.

  The team reached the large elevator they’d used previously to descend to the station’s lower decks. As they approached, the doors opened and no less than thirty people, tightly packed together, emerged at a dead run. The Lone Stars took their place within the elevator car and waited for the doors to close. DiMaggio was quick to figure out the controls and immediately Collin felt the G-forces as they descended.

  “Um … are we sure we’re doing the right thing? What did that Brotherhood guy say about a transport?” Royce White asked. Before Collin could answer, Darren said, “I wouldn’t be so sure they’ll ever make it. If Kardon Guard forces are infiltrating, they may be running to their own executions. Anyway, we already talked about this … we’re not running from this fight.”

  “Don’t worry, Royce, I’ll protect you,” Tink said, standing to the big Lone Star center’s right. That brought a few nervous chuckles. At half his size, she had to crane her neck to look up at him. The interior elevator lights started to blink and then went out completely. The darkness was absolute. Fortunately, the lift was still descending at a high rate of speed. Collin briefly wondered if the car was simply free-falling down the shaft and would soon careen headlong at its bottom. But the car began to slow and everyone let out a collective breath. Apparently Collin wasn’t the only one visualizing the same scenario.

  The doors opened to Level 1, which was only marginally more illuminated than the elevator. The smell of smoke billowed into the car. Stepping out, there was something profoundly different about the lowest deck on the space station. As if it had been put into a massive vice, the outer bulkheads were now bowed inward. Fallen pipes and conduits blocked every corridor and numerous sparks flashed outwardly, without any regularity, in each direction.

  Again, Bubba took the lead and headed toward the rifle range. He didn’t get very far, stopped by a wall of metal girders. He turned back to see Collin and the group approaching. Looking discouraged, Bubba shrugged at them. Collin looked up; overhead, he got a glimpse right into Level 2 of the station, some forty feet up.

  Bubba grabbed the end of one of the girders in bo
th hands and pulled. The sound of metal against metal made a high-pitched screeching sound, but the girder was at least moving.

  Collin said, “Okay … we’ll pile up the debris down the corridor.” Bubba passed back the first twelve-foot-long by two-foot-wide girder. Collin took it in both hands and was surprised at how light it felt. He passed it back to DiMaggio, who passed it back to Lydia, and so on. Like a bucket brigade, they moved the fallen debris away, one piece at a time, eventually stacking it all off to the side, behind them. What had amassed to metric tons of weight they’d dislodged and moved with their bare hands, and with more efficiency than a forklift would achieve back on Earth.

  With the blockade removed, they moved forward, Collin again in the lead. He found the double hatchway into the rifle range, which, as he’d expected, was closed.

  “Let me!” Collin and Bubba turned to see Tink making her way to the front of the group. She didn’t even hesitate before placing both small hands on one of the heavy metal hatch doors. She planted her feet wide apart and shoved with all her strength; the hatch broke away from its hinges and fell forward, into the compartment beyond. Tink slapped her hands together in the gesture of wiping dust from her palms.

  “Good work, Tink,” Collin said as he stepped into the rifle range. Flashes and motion to his left caused Collin to reach for his Glock. He went down on one knee and aimed, his finger poised over the trigger. Three battle suit-clad combatants ran forward several steps and fired bright bursts from their energy weapons. It took Collin a second to realize they were caught in some kind of virtual, holographic loop as the three repeated the same action over and over again.

  Standing up, he watched as the rest of the Lone Stars entered the rifle range. Each ducked for cover at the sight of the three virtual combatants. Like the rest of Level 1, this compartment had undergone a tremendous amount of damage. There was more debris falling down from above amid lingering black smoke. As Collin made his way toward the armory at the back, he covered his nose and mouth with his arm. Relieved when he got there, he saw the racks were still fully stocked with Ponge 412s and Larrik 5 Doublers.

  No one needed any prompting to grab up weapons. Collin hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a second interior hatch between the racks of 412s and Doublers. DiMaggio spotted Collin’s interest and together they moved to the opening and peered inside.

  “Come to Mama,” DiMaggio said with a smile. Inside were several rows of black, upright, protective battle suits.

  * * *

  It took a full twenty minutes for Collin to figure out how to open the damn things. In his mind, the Kardon Guard was on the verge of storming their position any second, their guns blazing. In the end the most obvious thing worked. The suits opened with little effort by pulling down on a protruding cowling that ran along the back shoulders of each suit. From that point on, everything became self-evident—from stepping first into the back of the suit, then triggering the suit’s back portion to automatically self-close securely, and then self-adjusting it to snugly fit one’s anatomy.

  By the time Collin had on his battle suit and was moving about the compartment with a level of proficiency, the rest of the Lone Stars had selected their own suits and were inserting their bodies into them.

  “Can you help me? I can’t get it to close,” Lydia asked Collin, not fully inside her still-open suit.

  Collin saw the problem. Her Brotherhood uniform had bunched up high around her torso, exposing the naked skin of her waist and hips. The suit had somehow detected the obstruction. Collin pulled the fabric down and said, “Try it now.”

  She triggered the mechanism and the suit quickly closed around her. Collin passed her the helmet and she placed it over her head. “Cool. A display thingy came alive.”

  “That’s the heads-up display, called HUD,” Collin said.

  Bubba, Royce and Tink had problems getting their suits to properly fit. Tink was the one who soon found a way to contract and/or expand the battle suit’s various jointed sections to fit virtually anyone. It was another fifteen minutes before Collin figured out the basics of his HUD enough so that the battle suits would even be usable. Undoubtedly, there were many features and functions he was still unaware of, but at least he’d figured out the means to basic communication between individuals on closed channels, as well as open channels to the group. He also figured out how to monitor such things as a battle suit’s integrity and its basic physiological aspects, such as heart rate, respiration, blood pressure levels, and so forth.

  “Crap! I must have done something wrong,” Lydia said, now walking somewhat awkwardly toward Collin. “I’m getting all these little red icons moving around on my HUD.”

  “Let me help you.” Collin had just figured out how to mirror another suit’s HUD view in a thumbnail portion on his own HUD. It was a cool feature and something any team leader would surely find useful. He’d already allocated each Lone Star a numerical designation. Lydia was number nine. He brought up her HUD’s thumbnail feed and was instantly on guard. Those little icons Lydia was talking about were small representations of enemy, Kardon Guard, forces—forces that were quickly moving into the rifle range.

  Chapter 35

  Collin chided himself. Damn! Even the lamest of commanders would have thought to leave a lookout. Looking around the confined space of the armory, his heart sank. It’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel. It’ll be a massacre.

  “How did you get those icons to appear on your HUD, Lydia?”

  She showed him what she’d done. Since all options and menus were selected via eye movements, it took a few seconds for her to convey the steps. What Lydia had inadvertently done was to initialize combat mode—which brought up a whole slew of other readouts and options. Using the open channel, Collin informed the others how to initialize the same combat mode on their HUDs as well.

  Distant energy weapons fire erupted from outside the compartment. That would be the Kardon Guard forces being surprised by the virtual combatants. For the tenth time, Collin looked around the bulkheads. Nothing. He returned to the area holding the now-empty gun racks and scanned the compartment. Then he looked up. Like much of the first level, the ceiling on this compartment was a mess of pipes and cables. But the support girders above him, unlike those in the corridors, looked to be well secured.

  He spoke into the open channel again: “Grab your weapons, ensure they are set on setting six, and follow my lead. Hurry!” Collin looked up again, found where he wanted to go, and leaped. He used a bit more force than was necessary and plowed head first into the top bulkhead. His fingers found purchase on the nearest crossbeam and he held on with his free hand, his right hand still holding his Doubler. He looked down, seeing nineteen upturned, smiling faces.

  One by one the other Lone Stars followed Collin’s example. Several jumped too hard and also slammed into the top bulkhead; others didn’t jump high enough and needed to wait until they dropped back to the deck before trying a second time.

  The last to successfully jump was Royce White. He was still in the air, halfway to the top, when the first of the Kardon Guard combatants entered the armory. Their dark-gray battle suits looked slightly different from the black Brotherhood suits. Each held a Ponge 412 at his side and carried an energy rifle.

  Collin spoke softly into the open channel: “Don’t fire … let more of them enter the compartment.” He wondered how many that would be. His HUD indicated there were twenty guards total—five were just outside, in the rifle range, while fifteen were here in the armory. He figured they also had the same enemy-icon representations displaying on their HUDs. His high school math prowess was kicking in. These HUDs provided the Cartesian coordinate system that specifies each X and Y point separately on a plane, via a pair of numerical coordinates. Below, the guards didn’t use a three point, X, Y, and Z, three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system that would have also given them their enemy’s elevation level.

  Fifteen soldiers entered. Collin saw they were being hyper-alert
and several were waving their arms, or their rifles, in front of them.

  “They think we’re down there … that we’re invisible or something,” DiMaggio said.

  Collin caught sight of Royce White starting to squirm around. He opened a private channel to him, “What are you doing, Royce? You need to stay still for a few more seconds.”

  “My fingers are tired.”

  Before Collin could tell him to just hold on a few more seconds, the big teenager was already falling toward the deck. Collin yelled, “Fire! Don’t hit Royce.”

  Collin let loose with his own barrage of plasma fire at three combatants directly below him. As they fell to the deck, their red icons disappeared from Collin’s HUD. Now who’s the fish in the barrel? Collin thought.

  Bright energy bursts rained down all at once. Collin soon found that the enemy wasn’t going down as quickly as they should have—it took at least five plasma pulses, sometimes several more than that, before those Lone Stars who had never received firearm training got their aim close enough to be effective. It didn’t take long for the Kardon Guard forces to figure out where their fire was coming from, and they were now shooting back with superior marksmanship. Collin saw several Lone Stars fall down to the deck. The ten still-standing combatants were returning fire as those on the outside rifle range began moving into the armory.

  “Time to drop, everyone,” Collin said. He let go of the crossbeam, still firing toward the open armory hatch. He nailed two more and wounded another.

  “I’m hit … oh God … I’m hit!”

  It was Tink. Collin spotted her on the other side of the armory, holding her side. He heard several more screams but didn’t know who else was shot. Right then, all he could do was keep firing. To Collin’s own surprise, he was a natural. His aim was true and the enemy fell, one after another. Bubba and DiMaggio were apparently managing on their own too: They’d each taken down a Kardon Guard soldier and were looking around for others. Darren and Humphrey were moving into the rifle range in pursuit of the last three Kardon Guards who were trying to escape. Collin watched as the last of the red icons disappeared from his HUD.