“We don’t even know if they’re here,” Harper said.
“She’s right, Captain,” Ghost said. “How the hell are we going to find them in time.”
Like lightning the realization of what he’d been missing hit him so suddenly he felt like a fool for not thinking of it sooner. With a few blinks he changed the comlink frequency from his platoon channel to the open EsDef setting.
“Crew of the Roosevelt, do you read, over?”
“It’s about damn time!” a voice snarled back. “This is Admiral Holden of the E.S.D.F. Roosevelt. My crew, and the workers from the Alrakis Ship Yards are prisoners on board an alien ship, over.”
“Admiral, this is Captain Blaze, of the Charlemagne. We have penetrated the alien vessel and are here to rescue you. Can you tell us where you are, over?”
“We’re in a large room with a glass wall. Across the corridor that I can see, is a circular red doorway. That’s the best I can do, over.”
“Good, Admiral, help is on the way, over and out.”
“This way!” Dean said, after switching back to his TCU’s platoon channel.
He sprinted up the long corridor, away from the hatch that led back to the space station. He didn’t know how he was going to free the prisoners or get them off the alien ship, but he wasn’t going to give up after all they had sacrificed to get there.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Ghost shouted before firing several rounds from his long-rifle back toward the mechanized figure they had just recently defeated.
Dean looked back just in time to see a short, thickly muscled creature climbing out of the wreckage of the mechanized battle armor. The first two bullets, shot on the run, missed the creature, but the third was a perfect shot, center mass. The alien flipped back off the mech and out of sight.
“Did you kill it?” Wilson asked.
“I don’t know, but I damn sure hit it,” Ghost crowed.
“Keep moving people!” Dean shouted. “We’re running out of time.”
Chapter 43
They ran until Dean saw the red hatch on a section of the ship to his left. He turned to the right and saw figures crowded against the glass wall.
“There!” he said.
The platoon slid to a stop as Dean switched over his comlink to the open frequency again.
“Admiral, we’re going to blow out a section of the wall, move your people as far back as they can go, over.”
“Alright,” the senior Naval officer said, clearly unaccustomed to taking orders.
“Tallgrass,” Dean said. “You have something that will take out this glass?”
“That depends on what it is,” she said, pressing one hand against the wall. “I have some thermite that might burn through it.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Dean said. “Let’s give her some cover people. There could be more of those creatures out there.”
They formed a semi circle around Tallgrass, who was extruding the chemical mixture onto the glass from what looked like silver tube with a narrow nozzle. She formed a large circle, then nodded at Dean.
“Light it,” he ordered.
She raised a small device to the gel and then turned away quickly. Dean’s TCU visor darkened as the thermite ignited. It sparked as it burned, flashing as bright as a welding torch, but once it was consumed the light disappeared. Dean turned toward the wall, his visor returning to normal, only to see that the thermite hadn’t penetrated all the way through the wall.
“Didn’t burn through,” Dean said.
“A grenade might finish the job,” Tallgrass suggested.
“Or my AAV,” Harper said.
“Out of the way,” Wilson shouted.
Dean looked up then hurried backward as the big HA Specialist charged toward the wall. He turned just before he reached the section cut by the thermite, launching himself backward, so that his titanium-hydrogen alloy shield smashed into the glass. The section weakened by the thermite broke and the big round glass sheet from the hole crashed into the room with Wilson on top of it.
Dean and the others followed Wilson through the glass wall and found themselves in a large room with well over a hundred people. Some were EsDef navel personnel, and most were workers from the space station, but another small group were Operators and Dean’s heart nearly stopped when he saw a face he recognized.
“You’ve broken in,” Admiral Holden snapped. “Now how the hell do we get out?”
“Ah, sir, I uh…” Dean was at a loss for words. “What happened to your Recon platoon?” he asked just to give himself a moment to collect his thoughts.
“They died defending their ship,” Holden snarled. “We’ve got to get off this cobbled piece of alien shit before its too late.”
“You’re right sir, I’m working on that right now. Staff Sergeant?”
“Yes, Captain,” Chavez said.
“Any chance we can get these people back across the hatch and onto the space station?”
“It’s doubtful sir,” Chavez replied. “It was in motion when we crossed.”
“Damn, well, maybe we can find a ship to use.”
“That’s just like a Recon grunt,” the Admiral complained. “Come rushing to the rescue only to need to be rescued because he he’s too damn stupid to know what the hell he’s doing.”
Ghost, Tallgrass, and Chavez all started to argue with the Admiral but Dean silenced them with a raised hand. He knew the Admiral was afraid and frustrated, but arguing wouldn’t help them find a way off the alien ship.
“Sir,” Captain Esmerelda Dante said, “Perhaps we should try and get back to the Roosevelt.”
Dean wanted to pull his TCU off so she could see him, see who had come to her rescue, but he didn’t dare. They were in the middle of dangerous situation and he had to find a way off the ship.
“What good would that do?” the Admiral shouted. “The fusion reactor’s down. The Roosevelt’s dead in space. Even if we could get her free we’d just be floating there, no way to get home.”
“At least we wouldn’t end up in the hands of the aliens if they transition out of this star system,” she said defiantly.
“Can you get to the ship?” Dean asked Esma, who clearly didn’t know who she was talking to.
“We can see it beyond that wall,” she pointed to the ship’s exterior wall, which was made up of the same translucent gel that Dean had seen adhering the drones from the space station to the alien ship. “They opened a passage through that panel. If you could blast it open we could get on board.”
“And do what, Captain? Hide under the bed?” the Admiral argued.
“Wait, isn’t there an emergency separation procedure on a double helix ship?” Dean asked.
“Of course there is,” Esma said.
“Tallgrass, get that panel open. We’ve got to get everyone aboard the Roosevelt.”
“Yes Captain,” the Demo Specialist said.
“Admiral,” Dean said. “We’ve got Operators on the space station and there are shuttles in the hanger bay. If we can get off his ship, and onto the shuttles, we can make it back to the station.”
“And what’s to keep the aliens from blowing us all to hell and back?” the Admiral growled.
“I’m working on that too,” Dean said.
“Captain, we’ve got incoming!” Ghost shouted.
In the big corridor the sound of gunfire roared like thunder, and Dean dashed back to the opening in the wall. A dozen of the feline creatures, were dashing toward his platoon. He raised his rifle and added his firepower to the defense. Dean knew if he’d had a full HA line they could have used their cannons to rip the approaching creatures to shreds, but after the assault on the mech the Triplets were dangerously low on ammunition, and Tallgrass was working on getting the passage way clear to the Roosevelt.
“Sir, I’m going to try and blast that panel open,” Tallgrass said.
“Do it,” Dean ordered.
“Everyone take cover!” she shouted.
Sergeant
Eleanor Tallgrass hurried away from the large metal panel that had sealed off the passage through the gel that held the Roosevelt to the alien ship. When everyone was out of harms way she set off her charges, blasting the metal away from the passage.
Dean heard the blast, but his mind was completely occupied with the feline creatures attacking them. The beasts had changed tactics, dashing back and forth across the wide corridor with the weapons on their back swiveling to take aim at the small platoon. Dean knew that if they didn’t turn the tide soon, one of the laser bolts would sneak past their defenses and he would lose another member of his platoon. That, to Dean, was unacceptable.
“Harper! Concussion grenades!” he ordered
Sergeant Emily harper raised her left arm, curling her rest down and then launching three of the small grenades. They exploded with surprising force and killed or wounded all but one of the creatures, who retreated as Dean’s Specialists finished off the rest of the beasts.
“Get everyone on board, then separate from your ship Admiral,” Dean shouted as his platoon dove back into the glass walled room. “We have to get out of the alien ship’s gravity well before we can communicate with my people on the space station.”
The prisoners didn’t have to be told to hurry through the passage. They were moving as soon as the smoke cleared. Esma and the other Operators went with them, and immediately began helping the naval personnel as they prepared the emergency procedures that would separate the two haves of the double helix shaped starship. Dean and his platoon stayed until every prisoner was through the passage that led to the EsDef ship, then they boarded.
“This seems too easy,” Chavez said.
“Yeah,” Dean agreed. “Kind of like they want us off their ship.”
“Maybe they do,” Tallgrass said. “The Urgglatta are not a militant species. Perhaps we are the first race they have captured that fought back.”
The Roosevelt had no network capability and no power. Only the red emergency lights were on, and Dean could sense the fear from the passengers who were crowded into the ship’s winding corridor.
“Prepare for separation,” Admiral Holden announced, with more than a little pomp and circumstance. “Three, two, one, separate.”
There was a strong lurch in the ship, and many of the passengers were knocked off their feet, before the Roosevelt broke free from the alien vessel’s gravity well. There were shouts as the gravity disappeared and people began to float through the dark passageway. Dean ignored their cries and activated his comlink.
“Lieutenant Owens, do you copy?
“Captain Blaze! You’re alive!”
“Alive and well,” Dean said. “Now listen closely. We may only get one shot at this. Is the foundry powered up?”
“Let me check,” the Operator said. “Yes, it is, and at nearly full capacity.”
Get those tug drones moving,” Dean said.
“What? Why?”
“You’ve got to pull that foundry toward the alien ship.”
“But won’t you be killed if we do that?”
“We’re off the alien vessel and on the Roosevelt. She’s separated the two halves to get free, and we’re dead in space, but drifting away from their vessel. If the aliens come back around, they could kill us.”
“Oh, I see. We’re on it.”
“Give me eyes as soon as you can.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Four vid feeds flickered to life on Dean’s TCU shield. He saw the foundry not far away from the hanger portion of the space station.
“Swivel around,” Dean ordered. “I need to see what the aliens are doing.”
The picture rotated on one of the drone feeds. The Alien ship was moving away from the space station, turning in a slow, wide arc, and Dean could see the separated half of the Roosevelt like a sliver of ice among the vastness of space. After a few moments the alien ship was continuing to turn. It was a huge ship, but it was clearly spinning around. Dean guessed that at first it had rotated to be clear of the space station, thinking just to get away from the danger on board, but it was continuing to turn and he was sure he knew why. The aliens were bringing the massive beak of their ship to bear on the Roosevelt intending to shatter the smaller ship before fleeing the system.
“Not much time,” Lieutenant,” Dean announced.
“We’re attaching to the foundry now,” Owens said. “It’s made to be towed into place. We should have no trouble getting it to you.”
“Get it here quickly, Lieutenant,” Dean demanded.
“Oi, we’re getting it as fast as we can.”
Dean could only watch the movement of the alien ship as the drones pulling the foundry got the large platform moving at last, but he was afraid it was advancing much too slowly. When the three teardrop shaped vessels from the alien ship appeared, Dean feared they were going to cut the foundry loose and foil his plan of attack. Instead, they harnessed themselves to the tug drones and rushed them toward the alien ship.
“What the hell are they doing” Owens said.
“They’re trying to steal the tugs,” Dean said happily.
“Don’t they realize the danger?”
“Not yet, when you get close to the alien ship release the foundry. If they get those drones inside their gravity well you’ll lose control of them.”
“I remember,” the Lieutenant said.
What happened next was like a dream to Dean. The tugs suddenly released their load, which began spinning toward the alien vessel. He had hoped the large foundry, full of molten metal would crash into the enormous alien ship and send it limping home. Instead, the drone tugs were abandoned and the teardrop shaped alien ships shot out toward the foundry. They caught the spinning platform easily with their mechanized towing arms. And to Dean’s amazement, began moving toward their ship, just as they had the utility drones.
“Extrude the hot metal,” Dean nearly shouted to Lieutenant Owens. “Open the flood gates.”
“I’m on it, I’m on it!” the Australian Operator shouted back.
The foundry’s extruder arms began spewing molten metal just before it crossed the gravity well. The red hot metal continued to pump out as the platform was stuck fast in the goo the alien ship used to adhere the captured prizes to the giant vessel, including the extruding arms. Dean couldn’t see the molten metal pouring into the ship, but he could see the foundry’s supply gage dropping rapidly and smoke was flooding around the platform and being sucked to nothingness in space.
Suddenly, with no warning what-so-ever, the alien ship ruptured. The huge pincer-like grappling arms tore free, and the rest of the ship began to spin as debris was sent hurling out into space. The teardrop shaped vessels tried to return to their ship but were battered away by the out of control spacecraft. Before Dean realized what was happening Lieutenant Owens had the tugs attached to the Roosevelt and was pulling the ship back toward the space station.
“We did it,” Dean said, sending images to his platoon of the destroyed alien ship.
“Did what?” the Admiral demanded.
“We destroyed the alien ship,” Dean said.
The people on the Roosevelt began to whoop and cheer. Everyone was hugging and clapping. Even Admiral Holden looked pleased.
Dean made his way to Esma, who was with the other Operators, huddled together and congratulating each other.
“Captain Dante,” Dean said. “It’s good to see you again.”
Esma looked at Dean, but she couldn’t see through his battle helmet. On his chest, in small letters, his last name was stenciled on his battle armor.
“Dean?” she said, the disbelief in her voice was obvious.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you get carried away by an alien race before we finished our conversation, did you?”
She didn’t answer. Instead she threw her arms around him and held onto him. He could feel her trembling and wanted more than anything to pull off his helmet and kiss her again, but that would have to wait. The important t
hing was she was safe, they were all safe, but for how long?
Epilogue
The tug drones pulled the E.S.D.F. Roosevelt right into the large hanger of the Alrakis space station. Some of the Ship Yard workers talked Lieutenant Owens through the process of bringing the station’s power back on line and pressurizing the hanger.
Eventually they were all allowed out of the Roosevelt and onto the space station. The wheel sections were spinning again, and once Dean had seen that the weapons were collected including the explosives Tallgrass had rigged were deactivated and stowed safely away, he sent his platoon to the dinning area for some much deserved rest.
Admiral Holden had wasted no time taking charge of the station, but Dean didn’t mind. His work was over, at least for the time being. More drones were launched, some to record what was happening with the alien ship, and others to keep a watchful eye out for more trouble. Dean wanted nothing more than to pull off his armor and find Esma, who had been swept away by the Admiral’s flurry of orders once they were allowed off the Roosevelt, but first he had Recon business to attend to.
Sergeant Robert “Bear” D’Vris’ body was sealed in a burial tube so that he could be returned home and honored for his sacrifice. The tube was stored in the hanger, which felt odd to Dean, but he couldn’t think of a better place for it, so he let the station workers secure it for him. Dean’s next stop was the medical bay, which was on the dinning and recreation wheel of the space station. Adkins was resting, the effects of his concussion seemed minor enough, and the doctor who was part of the Alrakis Ship Yard workers, didn’t think he would have any lasting negative effects from the collision with the huge creature.
Pimrey wasn’t as lucky. Along with a concussion he had several bulging disks in his neck and a small, hairline skull fracture. He had a good chance of a full recovery, but the doctor didn’t think he would ever be strong enough to serve as an HA Specialist again. They would keep him sedated until he could be taken back to Sol, or an EsDef space base for examination.
Finally, Dean checked on the rest of his platoon. The Triplets were dancing in what looked like a night club. They were built like legendary heroes, with so little fat on their bodies that their oversized muscles stood out from every angle. They were surrounded by workers from the space station, mostly females, and looked as happy as anyone could ever be.
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