Forged to Lead

by James David Victor

  Jack was getting ready to get to his feet, listening for the call from the forward fire team. A Marine dropped heavily to the ground next to him. The whimpering and spluttering from the Marine could only mean one thing: Bubble was back in the fight.

  “Bubs, where’s Terry?”

  The fractured voice was just clear enough for Jack to understand. “He’s wounded. His suit is giving first aid and taking care of him. He needs evac, boss. Commander Griff is wounded too. His communicator is knocked out and he’s supervising an evac point for the wounded.”

  Jack looked back. Somewhere in the darkness was the commander and a bunch of wounded Marines. The Chitin fire had taken them by surprise and Jack knew many of Cobra Company were lost. They had already been undermanned, and now Jack wondered if they would have enough to take their objective.

  “You okay?” Jack asked Bubble.

  Bubble replied with a whimper.

  “Good, let’s go.”

  Jack climbed to his feet and charged forward, firing as he went. A spear sliced past Jack’s helmet, the flash temporarily blinding his right eye. He blinked and tried to restore vision. And then he saw, illuminated by the flashes, the rapid-fire plasma spear gun.

  The spitz gun was mounted on a rotating base. Four spear launchers, much like the Chit soldier’s weapon, were mounted in two rows of two. A Chitin soldier stood behind it, turning it across the field of fire. Spears blasted from each launcher in a near constant stream.

  Firing his pulse rifle at the mounted spitz gun, Jack advanced. The Chitin soldier turned the four launchers toward him as he came ever closer. The Marines rushed the gun, all firing. The Chitin fell away from the device. The gun went silent and fell into the darkness. The next gun along the trench was turned toward Cobra Company and spat out a fierce, flashing spread of spears. The spears exploded onto the glassy rock surface, spitting shards of rock from the impact. Jack tumbled forward, rolled over his shoulder, and dropped into the trench.

  19

  Pretorius watched the battle unfold on the holostage. Cobra was advancing slowly and had infiltrated a network of trenches defended by what the Marines were calling ‘spitz guns.’ They were defending the approach to the ground-based orbital defense battery and had slowed the Marine advance to a crawl. Boa was pinned down by a heavy fire from a similar trench and spitz gun network.

  The main assault on the drydock was also advancing slowly. Too slowly, Pretorius thought. Major Cruz was halting the advance and sending scouts ahead to check for the spitz guns that Cobra and Boa had reported. Pretorius was a cautious leader himself, but he knew hesitation was as dangerous as recklessness. Cruz needed to go forward.

  “Captain,” Commander Chou said. “Group Captain Li sent a fire order. A corvette scout has detected a swarm of Krakens incoming. They have Hydras with them. We are ordered to coordinate with the Pisces and the Aries and engage the Hydras. The fighters will handle the Krakens.”

  Pretorius swapped the holostage view from the ground assault to the ships around Proxis. The distant swarm was closing in fast. A hundred Krakens with four Hydras in support.

  “Bring the starboard battery to bear on the lead Hydra. Bring the laser coils to full power. Open fire when they are in range.”

  Pretorius watched the mass of Chitin craft closing in. Aries and Pisces closed formation with the Scorpio.

  “Open a channel to the Pisces and the Aries, Mister Chou.” Pretorius tugged his cuffs.

  The images of Captains Baskin and Lauafa appeared on the fringe of the holostage. Pretorius kept his eyes on the image of the Chitin craft racing toward them.

  “Captains, these Hydras are tough bastards, and we don’t have room for a hit and run battle here. We need to take them head-on. Concentrate fire on the lead craft. That’ll leave us one each. Take the nearest to you and kill it.” Pretorius glanced at his fellow captains.

  “Agreed,” Lauafa said.

  “Good luck,” Baskin added.

  The Scorpio’s starboard batteries opened fire first and set a high-density field of kinetic shot on the approach vector for the lead Hydra. The Chitin craft, approaching in swarm formation, maneuvered around the deadly field. Several squadrons of fighters swooped in and ripped into the Chitin swarm, their forward lasers slamming into one Kraken after another, flank cannons flickering against the black backdrop of space.

  The first Hydra to avoid the curtain of kinetic shot came into range of the Scorpio’s laser. The entire assembly on the upper and lower hulls burst to life. The laser connected with the first Hydra and the Chitin craft glowed under the assault. The lasers from the Aries and Pisces lit up and slammed into the Hydra, adding their power to the attack. The Hydra activated its focused plasma arc. It flickered across the space, twisting this way and that in a dazzling fiery arc, finally slamming into the upper port side of the Pisces, throwing up a shower of debris and fire.

  The Pisces laser lost power, its beam dimming from a bright orange to a dull brown before terminating altogether.

  The Hydra’s focused plasma arc activated a second time, briefly flicking toward the Pisces again before the Chitin craft gave in to the punishment from the laser assault. The composite shell cracked and the craft fell apart.

  “Good shooting, sir,” Mr. Chou said excitedly.

  “Target the closest Hydra. Hit them with everything we’ve got, Mister Chou.”

  “Yes, sir,” Chou said excitedly. “Opening fire on them now, sir. Laser at full power. High-density shot cannon ready to fire. Giving them a salvo of high ex, sir.”

  Pretorius watched the images from the battle flickering over the holostage. The Pisces was falling back to the cover of the Monarch’s guns. The Aries was slamming all its laser power into its target Hydra. It took a hit from a plasma arc and the upper hull assembly went dark. A moment later, the Hydra attacking it was destroyed in a brilliant flash.

  Pretorius was suddenly thrown into the holostage. The lights on the command deck flickered and the holoimage blinked off for a moment before coming back to life.

  “We’re hit, Captain.” Chou moved around the holostage and tapped on a damage control console. “We’ve lost one cannon from the starboard battery. The battery is still operational. Laser still active.”

  “Keep firing. Everything we’ve got, Mister Chou.”

  Pretorius watched with satisfaction as the Hydra that had hit them was destroyed, the Scorpio’s high ex salvo making contact and destroying the Hydra, already weakened by a sustained laser assault.

  “Target the final Hydra and fire.” Pretorius watched as the Chitins came even closer. The Krakens were in a dogfight with the fighters from the Monarch, and several Krakens were chasing the limping Pisces. The Aries was firing on the last remaining Hydra, but was about to be attacked by a dozen Krakens.

  “The Aries,” Chou said. “We should assist.”

  “The Chitins are in too close to the Aries for us to give fire, Mister Chou.”

  “Why aren’t they firing at the Aries?” Chou asked.

  “They don’t want to destroy her.” Pretorius watched as the Krakens moved in, chased by a squadron of fighters. The Krakens attached themselves to the hull of the Aries.

  “Send a message to the Aries, Mister Chou. Let the captain know they are being boarded.”

  20

  The trench was as deadly as the open ground it protected. Every twist brought the danger of running into a mass of Chitin soldiers. The spitz gun kept spitting out the flashing plasma spears that went slashing overhead. The Marines advanced, heads down.

  Jack turned a corner and opened fire. The Chitin soldier waiting there was thrown backwards, staggering and stumbling under the pulse rifle fire. Another Marine stepped up next to Jack and added fire. The Chit fell. Dead.

  “Keep moving.” Jack ran along the trench and leapt over the fallen Chit. A plasma spear flashed by his head and slammed into the tip of the trench just a few centimeters from his head. “Keep moving,” he shouted again.

&n
bsp; A Marine from 2nd squad caught up with Jack and ran ahead. The 2nd squad Marine shouted into his communicator. “Keep moving. Keep moving.” He ran around the next bend. Jack followed.

  A spitz gun positioned in the trench filled the narrow trench with plasma spears. The 2nd squad Marine in front of Jack was thrown backwards, his suit blasted apart as the spears struck home. Jack frantically stumbled back and took cover around the corner.

  “Hold,” Jack shouted. He held his hand in the signal for a halt, palm flat, fingers pointing upwards. “Hold,” he repeated.

  The fire from the spitz gun stopped. Jack reached out for the fallen Marine to pull him back and out of the way. The spitz gun fired up immediately as Jack’s hand came around the corner.

  Navidi came forward along the line of Marines in the trench. “What’s the holdup?” He crouched next to Jack.

  “Spitz gun,” Jack said. “They’ve put it in the trench. There’s no way we can take it head-on.”

  A Marine sitting behind Navidi held out an antimatter charge. “Set a short fuse and throw this,” he said, eager to move forward.

  “No,” Navidi shouted and pushed the Marine and the charge back.

  “That’ll take out the spitz gun alright, and annihilate the rest of us too. Put it away until we get to the defense battery.”

  Jack glanced up to the rim of the trench, then looked down to Navidi. They nodded at each other.

  “It’s the only way,” Jack said. He signaled his squad to him.

  “I’ll go left,” Navidi said.

  “I’ll go right.”

  Jack gave his orders over the squad channel. Navidi did the same. Then Jack looked at Navidi.

  “On three?” Navidi said.

  And then together, Jack and Navidi counted to three.

  Jack clambered out of the trench. Immediately, the spitz fire from along the trench flashed across the surface. The Chit fire team that had positioned the spitz gun in the trench were hastily trying to elevate the launchers to fire at the Marines that came at them from either side. They were too slow.

  Jack fired into the trench as he advanced. The Marines on either side poured their fire and fury onto the Chit gun. The soldiers returned fire with their own plasma spear weapons, but were quickly overcome by the determined Marine assault.

  Jack dropped back into the trench next to the spitz gun. He prodded it with his rifle.

  “Can we turn it against them?” a Marine asked.

  “No.” Jack turned away from the abandoned gun and looked toward their main objective—the massive defense battery. It fired another blast into space.

  “Why can’t we use it?” A Marine picked up the spitz gun and tugged at what looked like the controls. “Why can’t we fire it?”

  “We need a Chit suit, probably. I don’t know. All I know is we have to destroy that defensive gun, and quick.”

  The Marines ran along the trench, blindly firing around corners and keeping their heads down. Jack took a knee at one dogleg in the trench and took a sneak peek. It was the end of the trench system. They were so close to the main objective. It was time for them to do what they’d set out to do.

  The ground-based defensive cannon was set in a deep trench of its own. No doubt there would be more Chits defending the cannon, and more spitz guns too. There was a hundred meters of open ground to cover to the trench around the massive series of defense cannons.

  The battling advance along the trench had been fast, but it had been slow enough for the straggling Marines to catch up. Jack and Navidi caught their breath.

  “Speed is the key,” Navidi said.

  “We’re quick or we’re dead,” Jack agreed. He peeked over the edge of the trench toward the battery. He half-expected to come under fire right away. There was only the darkness and the gas giant Penthus glowing brown and orange in the black of space.

  “Maybe they’ve gone back to Zelos?” Navidi said. He checked that his pulse rifle was loaded and powered.

  “Maybe,” Jack agreed.

  “Maybe we should just throw these antimatter charges over and into that deep trench around the battery?” Navidi said.

  “No,” Jack said disappointedly. “We have to lay them at intervals around the base. We won’t be sure to destroy the guns otherwise.”

  “Do you always have to be right?” Navidi asked, taking a quick look over the edge of the trench.

  “All right, Marines. This is what we came to do,” Jack called back to the mass of Marines. He could see there were members of every squad of Cobra Company. He was pleased to see Torent alongside Osho and Bubble, waiting for their orders with the rest of Cobra. “Move in hard and fast. Fire at anything with tentacles. When you get in the battery trench, wait for command.” Jack turned to Navidi. “Electron bayonets?” Jack fired up his EB.

  “Do you want them to see us coming?” Navidi replied.

  Jack realized the burning EBs would light up each Marine in the dark and make them much easier targets, so he powered it down.

  “Guess I’m not right all the time,” he said to Navidi, then turned to the Marines of Cobra Company. “Quickly, quietly. See you at the battery. Go.”

  Jack climbed over the side of the trench and began running toward the massive battery.

  Then the spitz guns opened fire.

  A fighter came racing in low. With incredible speed, its forward laser sliced through the glassy rock and the trench, throwing up rock and Chits and the broken fragments of their spitz guns.

  “We’re open for business, Cobra.” Jack raced on. He felt alone. He feared he was the last survivor of Cobra. Then Osho caught up, the only Marine who could match Jack for speed. The two jumped into the trench around the massive defense battery together.

  The charred remains of Chitin soldiers littered the deep trench. The fighter’s laser had cut and fried them in seconds. Jack skirted around the battery’s wide curved outer wall, looking for any nearby Chitins. The rest of Cobra Company dropped into the trench. Jack marshaled them to order.

  Navidi took a team to clear the trench in one direction while Jack led a team in the other.

  “Lay an antimatter charge every ten meters. And make sure we don’t fire on each other when we meet up on the other side,” Jack said.

  The other battery, far away to the east, fired another massive gout of plasma. It raced away into space toward the distance craft. Jack could see the flashes of light far overhead that marked the battle going on in orbit. Jack knew that Boa hadn’t completed their objective yet.

  Jack fought his way around the defensive battery, dropping Chits as he went, then met up with Navidi and the rest of Cobra on the far side. Jack looked up at the massive barrels of the orbital defense battery. It hadn’t fired since they’d taken the trench around it.

  “Looks like we’ve chased them all away,” Navidi said.

  “Looks that way.” Jack leaned against the curved composite wall of the battery’s base. He noticed a small groove in an arch shape.

  “We better clear out and detonate these charges,” Navidi said. “We need to get at least a kilometer away or we’ll be blasted along with it.”

  Jack pressed his fingers into the groove he’d found. The composite moved and slid aside to reveal a gently sloping ramp.

  The Marines took a step back in surprise. Jack looked inside.

  Navidi stepped up next to Jack. “Do you want to throw a few charges down there as well?” He grabbed one out of a pocket on his suit.

  Jack glanced over to the far-eastern battery as another blast of plasma was fired toward the carrier group above.

  “Why are they still firing?” Jack asked out loud.

  “Because Boa company hasn’t finished them off,” Navidi replied. “Now let’s get out of here and blow this thing.”

  Jack looked into the dark space inside the opening. Maybe, he thought, the defense battery was connected to the drydock by this underground access.

  “If we destroy this western battery,” Jack said, lo
oking up at the massive barrels above him, “but the main assault fails, we’ve lost.”

  “Don’t worry about the main assault,” Navidi said. “Let Major Cruz worry about that. Let’s just worry about getting out of here.”

  “I’m going to check out this tunnel,” Jack said.

  “Easy, Jack,” Navidi said. “That’s off mission. “You might be a squad leader, but they’ll still thrash you for going off mission.”

  “Our mission is to defeat the Chits, right?”

  “They told me you were a rebellious scroat,” Navidi said.

  Jack looked deeper inside and then took a step into the tunnel. “Stay here,” Jack said to Navidi. “If I’m wrong, then this tunnel goes nowhere. If I get caught, trapped or killed, you need to blow this battery. Get me?”

  “You can’t go alone,” Navidi said. “But you can’t order anyone to go off mission.”

  “I’ll go.” Bubble stepped forward, his voice cracking in fear, tears only a second away.

  “You can’t take that coward with you,” a 4th squad Marine said, laughing at the idiocy of Jack taking a Marine who was constantly in a state of distress.

  “He’s no coward,” Jack said forcefully, turning on the insolent Marine.

  “But he’s crying all the time. He’s afraid all the kravin time,” the Marine retorted.

  “I know, he’s wracked by fear,” Jack said, “and still, he goes forward. Still, he stands alongside his squad-mates and he fights. He is afraid and he goes forward anyway. He’s a real Marine. He’s probably the bravest Marine here,” Jack said, squaring off against the 4th squad Marine.

  “I’ll go too,” Osho said, placing a hand on Bubble’s shoulder.

  “And you’ll only get in trouble if I don’t go along,” Sam Torent said.

  Three other Marines stepped forward and volunteered for the new mission, to delve into the dark with Jack and follow the squad leader’s hunch that the tunnel led to the drydock.

  The massive bolt of plasma from the eastern defense battery and the flickering light of the spitz guns around the drydock itself told the Marines all they needed to know—the main assault was stalling, and so was the eastern assault. Only Cobra had completed their objective.