by Sam Schall
“Just be careful.”
“I will.” She stepped forward and reached for Tremayne’s hand. “Miranda, I promise you aren’t going to have to tell my mother something happened to me.”
“Good.” The redhead smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. “I do have one last order, Ash. If you start suspecting this is a trap, you are to abort the mission and get back here. Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.” She hoped it didn’t come to that. They needed to know what happened. More than that, Liberator’s survivors deserved to know they hadn’t been abandoned by FleetCom or by the Corps.
“Keep your comms open, Ash.”
“I will.” She followed Tremayne to the door. “We’ll be ready to launch in five.”
“Very good, Colonel.” The admiral looked around, pausing when she spotted Connery at the shuttle hatch. “Corporal, a moment, please.”
Ashlyn fought the urge to roll her eyes. She had no doubt why Tremayne wanted to speak with Connery. Nor did she doubt it was unnecessary. The corporal had been told by Talbot, by her mother and by General Okafor to stick close to Ash during the mission. She didn’t need Tremayne telling her the same thing. Not that it seemed to be stopping the redhead.
Instead of standing there, watching them, Ashlyn entered the battle shuttle. She glanced around, nodding in satisfaction. Those accompanying her were ready for launch. Gear had been carefully stowed. The Marines waited, taking advantage of the last few minutes before launch to check their weapons once again.
“Talon, be ready to lift as soon as Brigid has boarded and we receive clearance,” she said as she moved to her place immediately behind the shuttle cockpit.
“Roger that, Angel.”
Knowing all she could do was wait, Ashlyn settled into her jump seat. It wouldn’t be long now.
“Sir, CIC reports point defenses down to twenty-five percent,” Tactical said.
Jurić snarled in frustration. Damn the Fuerconese! They shouldn’t be this difficult to defeat. He had them outgunned. But their commanding officer had to be Satan’s spawn. Nothing he did, nothing he threw at them seemed to be enough. Even with their ships damaged and bleeding atmosphere, the Fuerconese continued to withstand him. It was as if they didn’t fear death.
He could almost admire this Admiral O’Malley who stood, along with his remaining ships, between the Sobek and the Tenasic System.
“Concentrate fire on the Campbell. Those fools will surrender once their commander is destroyed.”
The comms officer turned to relay his order. Before he could, an alarm tore through the ship. Stunned, Jurić pushed out of the command chair and crossed to the holo plot. Bile bubbled up from his stomach and he gritted his teeth to keep from cursing. Suddenly, without warning, the plot showed close to one hundred blue dots, each one representing an enemy LAC. Worse, hundreds of red dots closed the distance between the LACs and his ships.
“Time to impact?” he snapped.
Where had they come from? Had this O’Malley willingly sacrificed so many of his men and women, so many of his ships, just to lure him into a trap? No, he couldn’t have. He wouldn’t have. That was what a Callusian would do, not a soft Fuerconese. This had to be a ruse of some sort.
He repeated it over and over like a mantra, trying to convince himself so he could convince his crew they weren’t about to meet their deaths.
“Six minutes,” Tactical announced.
“Has CIC confirmed?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Evasive maneuvers, Helm.” He returned to his chair, “Tactical, release countermeasures.” Hopefully, that would be enough to cause at least some of the incoming missiles to misfire or deviate from their current course.
“Sir, CIC reports sensor hits on a number of ships coming in behind the LACs. Preliminary estimates are a minimum of twelve hulls.”
Jurić couldn’t hold back his curse this time. The gods were truly against him. After everything he had done, victory was being snatched away from him. He’d been so close to triumph. He’d been so sure the Fuerconese would fail to send reinforcements in time. That confidence caused him to take risks he wouldn’t under most circumstances. Now those reinforcements had arrived. He had only one decision to make – stay and try to destroy as many ships as he could before his own command was destroyed or retreat.
“Order our ships to withdraw,” he said as he slumped in his seat.
Even as he issued the order, he knew it was too late. The enemy missiles continued to close the distance. Before the course change could be implemented, they would reach their targets. All of this, all he worked for, had been for naught.
“Colonel, you aren’t going to believe this.” The shuttle pilot looked back at her, his expression stunned.
Worried, she released the locks that attached her armor to the bulkhead and moved toward the small cockpit. “What is it, Vic?”
“Look.” He nodded first to the small plot before them and then to the viewscreen.
For a moment, Lucinda thought she had to be dreaming. Maybe she had been injured in the fighting and this was all a hallucination. If so, she didn’t want to wake from it. Finally, her prayers had been answered. There was no other explanation for it. The tide of battle had turned and they might just survive after all.
She watched as missile after missile closed in on the enemy ships. Their trajectory made it impossible for any of Liberator’s ships to have fired them. That meant one thing. FleetCom had come through. Taskforce Sentinel was on-station and doing all it could to end the battle as quickly as possible.
“Vic, I think our luck just changed.” She grinned and thought for a moment. “Signal not only the Campbell but the incoming ships. Send this under my code. Enemy flagship disabled. Sorceress and company boarding. We’d appreciate some cover.”
“Roger that, Sorceress.”
Relieved, mentally adjusting the mission plans, Lucinda returned to the shuttle’s crew bay. As she did, she felt the eyes of every one of the Marines accompanying her. When they’d left the Campbell, they’d known it was most likely a one-way mission. Now, finally, they had a chance and she was damned if they’d blow it.
“Listen up,” she said. “Our mission parameters just changed. No longer is this a mission to disrupt the Sobek. This is now a mission to grab the contents of her databanks and anything else we can find.” She activated the screen so they could see what she had in the cockpit. When several of the Marines cheered as a volley of missiles cut through the Sobek’s defenses, she smiled slightly. Part of her wanted to join their cheers. Another part knew she needed to stay focused. There was still a great deal that could go wrong. “We haven’t received confirmation, but it would appear our reinforcements have arrived.”
And not a moment too soon.
“Sorceress, with this change, shouldn’t we get you back to the Campbell?” Sergeant Frey asked.
She shook her head. Normally, she would never lead a mission like the one they’d planned before leaving the Campbell. Hell, she wouldn’t have sent her people over. But she, as well as O’Malley, knew the taskforce was losing. They had to do something to keep the system safe a little longer. More than that, they needed to get as much information about not only the mission but the Callusian taskforce for FleetCom. Maybe now, however, they had the chance to not only survive and keep the system safe but to get the information FleetCom so badly needed.
“Negative. We’ve come this far. Now we need to trust Angel and the rest of Taskforce Sentinel to keep the rest of the Callusian ships busy and off our asses until we land.” She turned back to the cockpit. “Vic, status of the Sobek?”
“She’s been hit hard, Sorceress. Bleeding atmosphere all over the place. If I had to guess, we won’t have much time before the power plants go critical.”
“What does CIC say?” Even as she asked, she prayed the Campbell had managed to survive the latest round of enemy fire.
“Not much more than that, I’m afraid. They are trying to patch through t
o the Phoenix Rising but you know the state our coms were in. Until Admiral Tremayne’s closed the distance between our forces, we are going to have to make some educated guesses about what we’re going to face.”
She didn’t like it. This was too much like going in blind. But they had no other choice. They’d go in, weapons armed and ready, make their way to the bridge and, if luck was still on their side, be in and out without incident.
“Get a view of the Sobek,” she ordered and turned back to the cabin. “All right, Marines, that’s our target,” she said as the image of the Sobek appeared on the screen. For a moment, she studied it. The ship looked like a derelict. As the shuttle pilot said, she leaked atmosphere like a sieve. There might be some survivors onboard, but she doubted there would be many. A few escape capsules launched from the ship but the visible damage to the hull told her most of the crew had been trapped or killed in the battle. Hopefully, they’d be able to get to the bridge without much problem and then be off before it was too late.
“Take us in, Vic,” she ordered. “We’re going in hot. Heavy armor off first. Secure the bay and hold it. The rest of us have one target: the bridge. We need to secure and download the databanks and then get the hell out. Questions?”
“Sorceress,” Frey said over a private link. “You need to stay with the shuttle. I’ll lead the team.”
“Negative, Grinder.” Her time working with Rico Santiago had taught her a great deal, including how to break the security on the data banks quicker than anyone else in the squad could.
Before he could argue, the pilot announced they were making their approach to the bay. Lucinda held her breath. This was where it became even more dangerous. This close in, they could be hit by any remaining ship’s weapons or by heavy weapons from the bay. She turned to warn Vic only to have him assure her he was on the lookout for trouble.
“Heavy armor, go!” she ordered the moment the shuttle touched down. As she did, she slammed her fist against the hatch control.
She waited as the lead elements moved to clear the bay. As they did, she listened to their reports. They confirmed what the pilot reported. The bay had sustained heavy damage in the fighting. Airlocks leading deeper into the ship had been blown. Radiation readings were climbing and soon their armor would not be able to protect them.
“Hold position.” Lucinda thought hard for a moment. “Is there a working terminal out there?” she asked, holding the rest of the squad onboard the shuttle.
She waited as the half dozen Marines searched the bay. After what seemed an eternity, one of them reported in.
“Sorceress, Hunter. I found you a terminal.”
Praying they’d just gotten lucky, she turned to Frey. “Grinder, hold the rest of the squad on the shuttle. I’m going to see if I can hack the system from here.”
“On one condition, Sorceress. If our readings worsen, you get your ass back onboard without argument so we can get the hell out of here, all of us.”
“Agreed.”
Trusting him to keep an eye on her six, she left the shuttle. Instantly, two of the heavy armor Marines took up positions on either side of her. They escorted her across the bay to a terminal. As she studied the readout, activated the virtual keyboard. Her heart skipped a beat and her breath hitched. She forced the uncertainty down. She could do this. She had to do this. She would do it and then she’d get back to the Campbell.
A bead of sweat ran down her spine as her gloved fingers flew across the virtual keyboard. The lack of atmosphere in the bay combined with the lack of resistance reassured her. Even so, she knew so much could go wrong. But she couldn’t think about that. She needed to concentrate. The sooner she got into the system, the sooner they could get off this floating coffin and back to safety.
“Sorceress, Lir.” O’Malley’s voice cracked over the battlenet. “You need to get out there. The power plants are going critical.”
“Just a few more minutes, Lir, then we’ll be clear.” She cut the transmission before he could protest. If he wanted to bring her up on insubordination when she returned to the ship, so be it. But for now, she needed to concentrate on the task at hand. “Grinder,” she radioed.
“Go, Sorceress.”
“Tell Vic to have the shuttle ready to take off. I’m sending the others back. As soon as I’m done, we’re out of here.”
She breathed a sigh of relief as the system accepted her last line of code. Soon the data would be downloaded. Turning, she ordered the others back to the shuttle. All but the two acting as her escorts complied. At the same time, the shuttle’s engines powered up. Good. That was good. That meant as soon as the hatch shut behind them, they could take off.
Suddenly, the decksole vibrated beneath her boots. She cursed softly and checked the download. Almost there. She only needed a few more seconds. A low rumbling sounded from somewhere deep inside the ship. At least one of the power plants had gone critical. Time was up.
“Sorceress, move your ass!” Frey yelled from the shuttle’s hatch.
The emergency lights flickered. The terminal readout seemed to stutter and then the terminal went dark. Cursing again, Lucinda turned and started running. She had to get this information back to the Campbell. If she’d done all this for nothing. . ..
“Admiral?” Connery braced to attention in front of Tremayne, her expression betraying none of her concern.
“Stand easy, Corporal.” Tremayne glanced around, as if making sure no one could overhear them. “We don’t know what you’re going to find when you rendezvous with the Campbell. There’s a very real chance this is a trap.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I have one order for you, Connery. I’m trusting you to carry it out.”
“Ma’am?” She narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
“If you see anything that makes you think this is a trap or that the condition of the Campbell is such it is no longer safe, you are to get Colonel Santos away from there. I don’t care what she says.”
Connery drew a deep breath, her mind racing as she tried to figure out how to answer without seeming to be insubordinate. “Admiral, you are putting me in a difficult situation.”
“Corporal, I understand that. I also know I’m not the only one to give you that particular order. Consider mine a final confirmation of it.” Tremayne paused, as if waiting to see what the young woman would say.
“Admiral, you are asking me to potentially disobey orders from my CO, lawful orders I would have no legal reason to disobey.”
Tremayne frowned and then nodded. As she did, her expression softened. “Connery, I assure you that you will face no discipline for following these orders. Your colonel might bitch about it, but she has also received the same orders.”
Connery nodded, not feeling any better about what the admiral asked.
“There is something else, something your colonel isn’t letting herself consider. We know Taskforce Liberator, the Campbell included, has taken heavy damage. You’ve been a Marine long enough to know that means people have been injured and killed. There is the very real possibility that you will find Colonel Ortega or Master Sergeant Anderson among the wounded or dead. I shouldn’t have to tell you how that will impact Colonel Shaw if that’s the case.”
Connery swallowed hard and nodded.
“Stick with her, corporal. Make sure she doesn’t do anything foolish. If you have to hit her over the head and drag her back here, do so. You’ll be covered. I promise.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Dismissed, Connery, and take good care of your colonel.”
Connery nodded and executed a parade ground about face. As she crossed the staging area to the shuttle, she wondered just how in the hell she was supposed to explain to her colonel what the admiral had said. Now she understood what Talbot had meant when he told her she might find herself with conflicting orders and loyalties if the proverbial shit should hit the fan. All she had to do was figure out a way to not only keep her colonel happy but to keep her safe.
J. W. Campbell, flagship
Taskforce Liberator
Tenasic System
Ashlyn sat in the rubble that had been Admiral O’Malley’s ready room and closed her eyes. Exhaustion and sorrow so strong it was a physical pain washed over her. Tears burned her eyes and tightened her throat. She couldn’t give in to them, not yet. Not for a long time. Too many other lives depended on her keeping a clear head and convincing Tremayne that they needed to withdraw before more of the enemy arrived in-system.
Connery almost silently entered the ready room and placed a mug of coffee and a plate with a sandwich on it on the table in front of her. Then, in a break of military protocol, she placed a gentle hand on Ashlyn’s shoulder. It wasn’t much but, just then, it helped keep Ashlyn focused. They would mourn their dead soon enough. For now, they had to focus on the living.
“Comms has managed to set up a secure link to the Campbell, Angel.”
“Thank you. Make sure Admiral O’Malley’s last report is transmitted as well as the latest damage control reports for not only the Campbell but the other ships as well.” Her voice sounded harsh, even to her own ears.
“Already done, ma’am.” When Ashlyn didn’t do or say anything else, Connery knelt next to her chair and waited until she looked at her. “Angel – Ashlyn, I’m making you a promise right now that I will find those responsible and they will pay. I swear it as a Marine, as a Devil Dog and as your friend.”
Ashlyn nodded, her expression hard. Then she reached out and, much as Connery had done earlier, rested a hand on the young woman’s shoulder. “We will make them pay,” she corrected. Then she sat up and scrubbed her hands over her face. She needed to pull herself together. “Status?”
“The Devil Dogs are doing all they can to help the crew keep systems operational. I’ve put Tank to assessing the status of the Marines stationed onboard. It appears they, especially the Warlords, have taken the highest number of casualties.”
