Reyes grabbed him just before he moved off. “When that is in, I just need to activate the shell.” She held up the remote control she used on the Chit and showed him a tab on the screen. “We need to hit this tab and then select the inversion field. It’ll draw the power to the shell. The shell will vaporize, but once the inversion is established, the drain will be unstoppable.”
From the corner of his eye, Jack saw the first Chit appear over the rim of the depression. The head was smashed by fire from a dozen eager Marines and their hungry pulse rifles. Then another, and then another.
The squad poured fire out from the defensive perimeter and shredded every Chit that crested the ridge, but they kept on coming. And still more appeared in the sky as a silver rain of distant flying Chitins lit up in the thin atmosphere.
“Jack, when we activate this drain, this depression is going to be a bad place to be.”
“How bad?”
Reyes pushed Jack away. “Get that strand in the channel and let me know when it’s done.”
Jack skirted around the wide base of the device. The tower rose some thirty meters into the moon’s thin atmosphere and from the tip rose a fat glowing stream of energy that tugged at the hairs on Jack s head.
Jack climbed up onto the base and scrambled up the slight incline to the tower. He spotted a purple channel about three meters up. Tucking the sinew in his belt, he began to climb.
The black composite of the tower was similar material to the Chitin shells. It was smooth and only the slight indentations for the glowing purple channels gave him anything to grab hold of. Slowly, he moved up to his target.
The ring of Marines around the base gave out a constant and devastating hail of fire. Jack realized the Chitins were not firing back. They must have been desperate not to damage the device that was still pouring energy up into orbit and into the belly of the massive Chitin Leviathan.
The Chit tactics seemed to involve deployment of overwhelming numbers. Jack saw that for every Chitin that fell to the Marines’ fire, another two appeared over the rim. Their forward tentacles, so often armed with the plasma spear launchers, were stiffened and sharpened. They were shiny black, the dull light from the gas giant glinting off the sharpened blades, blades that came forward, closer and closer to the defensive perimeter of 6th squad.
Jack pulled himself up one more meter and grabbed the sinew. He held it to the channel and was surprised that the sinew melded in with no effort. He simply held it close to and let it meld with the purple light in the channel.
He called to Reyes using his suit’s communicator. “It’s in.”
Jack climbed down and dropped behind the ring of Marines. Towering over the Marine was a Chit soldier, its blades raised. The Marine fired at the ring of teeth and the Chit fell away, only to be replaced by another.
“Jack,” Torent’s voice burst over Jack’s communicator. “You got an update on that science project? We’re close to breaking point here.”
“Ready, just waiting for Reyes.” Jack walked back around the base. A black saber, two meters long, slashed down in front of him. A Marine sliced up with his electron bayonet and cut it off.
Jack saw Reyes hunched over her console. Jack dropped to his knees next to her and draped his arm over her shoulder. “We’re ready,” he said.
Reyes slumped forward, a wound in her shoulder from a Chitin saber blow. Her blood was leaking out through the suit and boiling away in the low-pressure atmosphere.
A Chitin blade slashed by Jack’s head. He ducked away, turned, and fired up at the Chit towering over him. A Marine closed the line in front of Jack and fired at the Chits that pressed in even closer.
Jack grabbed the device from Reyes’s limp hands. He knew what to do. He accessed the tab and scrolled through a list for inversion field. He found it.
“Sam!” Jack shouted. “Activating the inversion field now.” He pressed the tab.
Looking up at the power beam pouring up into the atmosphere, Jack thought he could see an immediate change. The beam seemed to grow fatter for a moment and then the rush of energy seeming to pour up the beam flickered between an upwards flow and a downwards flow, like a fork of lightening in an intense electrical storm.
“Is it working?” Torent blasted a Chit in the face and then slashed at another with his bayonet.
Jack felt dizziness come over him as he saw the energy flow oscillate from up to down a couple of times every second. It had a strobe-like effect. Dizziness turned to sickness. Then Jack saw the pink sand grains that had been floating just above the surface were suddenly pressed back to the ground.
“I think it is working.” Jack turned and fired at a Chit as a Marine parried its slashing blades with the tip of his pulse rifle.
“What now?” Torent asked. “Any suggestions?”
“We can stay here and wait. If it’s worked, we’ll be annihilated. Or we can try and get back to the landing craft and try and get out of here.” Jack fired another burst at a Chit head that lunged forward with its round ring teeth biting at him.
The tower of the structure began to glow brightly, the purple light glowing and building to a bright electric blue. The sand was compressed under foot as the energy was now directed into the moon’s surface. Jack felt his hairs stand up all over his body. A strange swaying dizziness grew and the fluid in his inner ear was compressed, the hairs in his inner ear standing at attention. His suit’s medical diagnostics reported a sudden onset of vertigo and administered a dose of antihistamines.
“Can you fly that landing craft?” Torent asked.
“No jokes, please.” Jack grabbed Reyes under her arms and pulled her to her feet. Her suit’s auto-mobility servos engaged and made Jack’s job easier. “Get us out of here, Sam.”
“Sixth squad,” Torent yelled as he fired, “form square.”
The squad quickly formed up into neat tight ranks, firing and slashing at the Chits that pressed in on all sides.
“Concentrate fire forward.” Torent sounded cool and levelheaded as he shouted his orders. “As one, Sixth squad. Back to the landing craft. Double time. Move.”
Jack ran along with his squad, his pulse rifle in one hand and Reyes held up with the other. He risked a glance back toward the tower. Chitin soldiers were crawling all over it. They pulled Reyes’s Chit suit away and it was shredded by a dozen blades. Jack saw a Chit scurry up the pillar and pull free the sinew he had planted, but all the time, the channels in the pillar burned with a more brilliant light than before. From electric blue to white and then an incandescent brilliance that started to burn the shells of the surrounding Chits.
Overhead, Jack saw even more light trails of Chits being dispatched to the surface. He urged 6th squad to move faster. Torent echoed his call and the squad advanced at a run, tearing through the Chitin soldiers that rushed in from every side.
The lander was surrounded by Chits when the square came upon it. They were on top and around, blocking the ramp up to the hold.
Then the plasma spears leapt toward the square.
The Marine in front of Jack fell as a plasma spear sliced clean through the shoulder of his armor. The defense systems of the tactical suit combined deflector shields from all surrounding suits and more of the spears ricocheted away. The square fired a withering hail at the Chits on the top of the lander, tearing one and toppling another off.
“Check your fire,” Jack shouted. “Don’t damage the lander. EBs only. Bayonet them away from the ramp.”
“Form diamond,” Torent called as the square pressed forward. Torent took the tip and hacked at the next Chitin. The rest of the squad formed up in a wedge behind Torent.
A plasma spear sliced through the air from Jack’s right. Reflex caused him to jerk away just in time and the plasma scorched the front of his helmet. Reyes fell from his arms to the ground. He bent to pick her up. Behind him in the distance, he could see the lights on the tower glowing brilliant white, becoming too painful to look at. The pulses of energy travelling dow
n the beam moving with terrific speed, it was as if the energy of a thousand plasma spears was slamming into the moon’s surface.
Jack realized the formation had left him and Reyes behind. They were on the ramp and slicing and stabbing with electron bayonets at Chits inside the hold. A burst of plasma spears erupted from inside the landing craft, blasting outward into 6th squad’s formation. Two Marines were thrown backwards by the volley, their suits torn apart. One lost an arm, his blood boiling away in the thin air in an instant.
A Chitin came scurrying and slithering around the side of the landing craft. Jack fell backwards, pulse rifle raised. He loosed a volley of his own into the Chit’s body, causing the tentacles and antennae to thrash about. The Chit fell away.
“Jack,” Torent called from the ramp. “We need you.” Torent came forward and dragged Jack to his feet.
“Sarah,” Jack shouted and reached for her.
“She’s gone, Jack. She’s gone.”
“No,” Jack shouted. He pulled himself away and grabbed Reyes off the ground. Torrent stepped up next to Jack and fired at an advancing Chit soldier, plasma spear sizzling in its hand ready to be launched.
Torent coved Jack’s retreat to the landing craft’s ramp, turning this way and that, firing and slashing with his bayonet. And as Jack dragged Reyes in to the hold, the ramp began to close.
A line of Marines rushed forward and fired out of the closing gap. A plasma spear cut through the last narrow gap into the hold. Jack saw a Marine spin around on the spot as the plasma spear smashed into the shoulder. The spear went on and struck the opposite bulkhead, exploding into a million shards of light.
Jack ran to the cockpit and started firing up the landing craft. Official pre-flight checks would take fifteen minutes for a scheduled takeoff. Jack reckoned he could activate the necessary systems and have the thing off the ground in seconds.
Through the viewscreen, Jack saw the distant energy beam pouring down to the moon’s surface. The Chitin Leviathan in orbit seemed closer. Then Jack realized it was being drawn to the surface by the energy beam.
Jack heard the lander scream and hiss. His running repairs and jury-rigged systems were working, but it made a frightening noise and shook the Marines in their suits.
Then, as the landing craft built up energy for the leap into orbit, Jack took one more look at the energy pulse on the Chit device. The Leviathan was even closer and looked to be bound to the energy beam. Then the direction of transfer switched in a blinding instant, from flooding down to the surface to being returned to the Leviathan in a huge burst of energy that slammed into the belly of the Chitin craft. Brilliant white light glowed from hairline cracks in the massive ship. Then the light was gone, leaving it’s afterimage on Jack’s display.
The Leviathan glowed for an instant as the light poured out of a thousand tiny cracks in the hull. Slowly and silently, it fell from space. As it came closer and closer, Jack could see the true scale of the massive craft. It was bigger that any of the fleet’s three carriers, its many tentacles that spread out to the sides were each longer than the Scorpio.
The Leviathan fell directly onto the now dead energy transfer device. Jack pushed the landing craft as hard as he could, the systems screaming their disapproval.
The Leviathan collided with the Chit device and exploded in a flash. Jack pushed the landing craft to orbit. He realized Marines were standing behind him and looking out of the viewscreen in awe at the terrible destruction. Then awe turned to elation as the enormity of the destruction and the enormity of their victory overcame their fatigue and emotion. The hold was filled with whooping and cheering, Marines in their suits dancing and leaping.
“Hey, Sam,” Jack called out. “Better get those Marines in their alcoves, old buddy. I can’t keep this battered crate in the sky with that lot skipping about.”
Jack heard the cheering die away. Osho came up beside him and spoke quietly.
“Torent took a plasma spear in the chest just before the door closed. He’s still with us. Just. You want to see him?”
Jack sat back in the pilot’s chair. “I need to fly this thing. I’ve gotta find the Scorpio. Strap those Marines in their alcoves, Osho.”
“They’ll listen to you, Jack,” she said.
“Listen up, Sixth Squad. It’s not a successful mission until we land back on the Scorpio flight deck. Calm down. Act like Marines. Let me get this boat home and we’ll all celebrate. You get me?”
“We get you, Jack,” came the firm reply, followed by a quiet, orderly movement to alcoves.
Jack checked the landing craft’s scanners. “Where the krav is the Scorpio?” he muttered to himself. “Where the krav am I going to take these brave Marines?”
Chapter 18
Captain Pretorius tugged his cuff. “Mister Chou, put me through to the Overlord.”
Group Captain Wellard of the Overlord appeared on the holostage, sitting in his chair aboard the massive carrier.
“Ahh, Alistair,” Wellard spoke in a deep, calm voice. “What can I do for you, Captain?”
“Request permission to detach from the flotilla, sir.”
“Yes, of course. Is there somewhere you need to be?”
“One of my long-range sensor drones has detected a signal from my missing landing craft. It’s the boat that put down on Kratos, sir.”
Wellard sat back in his seat. “They’ve been lost for a few days. Hope they’ve held up well.”
“I’m making for their position at full speed now.”
“If you find any of your people in there, give them my regards. How that company of Marines brought down that Leviathan is a miracle. I want extensive debrief and commendations for all.”
“Yes, sir,” Pretorius replied, “but it wasn’t a company, sir. Just one squad. Sixth Squad of Cobra Company.”
Wellard leaned forward in his seat. “I haven’t read the reports yet.” Wellard rubbed his chin. “Go get your people, Captain.”
Chapter 19
Jack sat slumped in the pilot’s chair. The distant star field drifted across the viewscreen. His throat was dry, his stomach hollow and heavy. He turned and looked along the alcoves and the Marines strapped in them. The status of the squad displayed on his enhanced data overlay. All life signs weak. Torent was clinging on by a fingernail. Sarah’s data wasn’t reading at all. It should have read something, even if she was... Jack couldn’t bear to finish the thought. He looked out in to the void, the dark distant void. How long would he drift with his squad before they decayed to nothing in the emptiness of space?
And then over the top of the viewscreen came the hull of a destroyer. A bright light exploded through the viewscreen and washed over the hold and its cargo of fatigued and desperate Marines. The hold filled with the sound of a collision alarm. Then came the sound of docking clamps latching on.
Jack saw the black of space turn to the bright lights of the destroyer’s flight deck. As Jack’s eyes drooped, he saw the letters ‘SC’ painted on the wall in bright letters. This was the Scorpio’s flight deck.
Jack was home. There was no denying it any longer, he was truly a Fleet Marine.
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for reading Forged in Space, the second book in the Jack Forge, Fleet Marine series. This was Jack’s first real deployment and things really didn’t go well for some of his fellow Marines, but in the process of saving the day, again, Jack has truly been forged into a Fleet Marine, whether he likes it or not. The next story is in progress and I expect to have it published in January.
If you enjoyed the story, it would be awesome if you left a review for me. That really helps me reach more readers because Amazon features books with lots of good reviews.
And if you would like to be notified when the next book is released plus learn about all kinds of new books and special offers, you should consider signing up for our Science Fiction Newsletter. The details are on the next page (or in a couple pages depending on how the book is formatted on your device
). You will get a free story that is only available to newsletter subscribers when you sign up.
The last thing I have for you before I go is a preview of Discovery which is the first book in the Niakrim War series which is published under my primary pen name (and real name) David J. VanBergen Jr. It’s right after the information about our newsletter. After you read the preview, you can download the book on Amazon.
Get Discovery here: amazon.com/dp/B071NJBNH4
Thanks again. Now check out the Science Fiction Newsletter and the free preview that follows!
Sign up for our Science Fiction Newsletter
and get a FREE short story
fairfieldpublishing.com/sci-fi-newsletter/
Sign up today!
And don’t forget to check out the free preview on the next page.
Preview: Discovery
Space is so boring!
This was certainly not what Violet had expected space travel to be like. She had dreamed of this since the first time she looked up at the stars in the sky, but none of those dreams had included endless days of nothingness. The only excitement she had experienced during the first days of the journey was when an occasional piece of space debris penetrated the warp field forcing the pilot to take evasive action. Even those potentially deadly encounters were brushed aside, as if they were no more bothersome than a fly buzzing around the room, by the Krim Sprinter's legendary pilot, Cyrus Jones, who was as much machine as man.
The captain had assured her that the Krim Sprinter was the fastest ship in the fleet, which made it the fastest ship in the known universe, when he reluctantly brought her on board the week before. The problem with space travel was the incomprehensible distances between planets. Even at three hundred times the speed of light, the travel time to Proxima was listed as seven days. The captain had assured her that they would be there in five. When she asked what they would do on the Proxima outpost for two days while they waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, Captain Mitch Cooper had just smiled and walked away.
Forged in Space Page 10
