Escape (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 3)

by James David Victor

  Pretorius ignored the agent.

  “Jack, you and your comrade are under open arrest. Do you know what that means?”

  “It means I can get back in the fight, sir. If Sam and I can infiltrate the Devex ship, we can save a lot of lives here today.”

  “Who’s the senior Marine here?” Pretorius called out.

  “Commander Osho, sir.” Osho stepped forward.

  Jack looked over at the Marine who stepped forward. Osho was as old a friend as Sam. She was alive. Jack smiled. Even with the Fleet Intelligence enforcers pointing a pulse rifle at his chest, he felt glad to be back.

  “Commander Osho, take these Marines and equip them. Jack Forge has a plan. Help him carry it out. Clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” Osho said. She walked over to Jack and saluted him.

  “He’s not an officer,” Mallet said in dismay. “Stop saluting him.”

  “Good to see you, Major,” Osho said. “If you would like to come this way, we’ll get you geared up, sir?”

  Mallet turned on Pretorius. “If this goes wrong, Pretorius, I will take your ship, your captain’s star, and then your head, is that clear?”

  Pretorius looked at Jack. “You hear that, Jack? Don’t let me down.”

  Jack saluted the captain. “Copy that, sir,” Jack replied and then, moving across the hangar toward Osho, he began to call out his orders. “Get a combat drone up here and aboard the raider. Let’s do this quickly. There’s no time to waste.”

  14

  Jack ran through the corridors of the Scorpio with a squad of Marines behind him. His bare feet slapped against the composite deck plates. He had no need to check a map or plan a route, he knew this ship inside and out. He charged into the quartermaster’s store and grabbed a Fleet Marine tactical suit. He threw it to Sam and then grabbed one for himself.

  Jack pulled the suit on, sliding his aching body into the familiar equipment. The moment he powered the suit, it began to report all Jack’s medical data. He was fatigued and almost hypothermic. He was bleeding from minor cuts all over his body. He was battered and bruised, he was hungry, and he was in need of a shower.

  The suit administered several shots to counter the most dangerous and debilitating issues. Jack immediately felt his body warm up and he relaxed. But he had work to do. He could not relax, yet.

  “Just like old times,” Sam said.

  Jack nodded. “Just like old times. Squad, with me. Move out.”

  Jack ran to the Marine hangar and the waiting Devex Raider. Jack stood at the bottom of the ramp and waved the Marines inside. Sam went up last.

  “Guess you need me to fly this thing?” Sam said. He pulled off the right gauntlet of his tactical suit and clipped it to one of his utility straps.

  “Get us to the Devex warship. Go.” Jack waved Sam inside, then followed him into the dark interior of the raider.

  With his Fleet Marine tactical suit’s enhanced display active, Jack could see the interior of the raider more clearly. It was completely undecorated in any way. Even Fleet Marine tac boats, built for action and strictly controlled, were decorated with pictures of loved ones or small good luck trophies. Every tac boat in the fleet had a small toy or picture at the entrance for the crew to touch in some way as a good luck gesture. The Devex Raider had nothing like that to show that no people with hopes, fears, dreams, or desires ever traveled inside.

  The ramp closed, sealing them inside the ship. Jack walked past the Marines in the passenger area, and the huge combat drone that had been loaded inside as well. Jack checked the activity on the drone. It was active and could be detonated remotely. He joined Sam in the flight deck. Sam’s hand was already unraveled and interfacing with the Devex tech.

  Jack sat down as the raider exited the Scorpio, and he looked at the forward view screen. It was a limited system and he couldn’t see all he wanted without constant adjustments to view direction. He ignored the forward view on the screen and activated his suit’s wrist-mounted holodisplay. He patched into the Scorpio’s sensor network and called up a picture of the battle.

  The Scorpio was in weapons range and holding position. Its massive laser assemblies on the upper and lower hulls were firing on the warship below.

  The Blades held formation on the flanks of the Scorpio, ready to defend against any attack.

  The Devex ship below was taking the laser hits on an energy field that flickered with every hit. The lancing laser beams slammed into the Devex shields.

  The Devex ship returned fire with its countless rapid-fire guns. Millions of tiny points of white energy streamed toward the Scorpio.

  Jack watched in horror as the Devex bullets streamed across space toward the Scorpio. The last time Jack had seen the Devex warship weapons in action, they had smashed a Fleet carrier in a few moments.

  Jack saw the side of the Scorpio light up as it opened fire with its high-density shot cannon. A wall of kinetic hail spread out like a shield in front of the destroyer.

  “Sam, the Scorpio is firing a spread of kinetic hail. Stay out of her field of fire.”

  “Copy,” Sam said distantly. The raider moved suddenly to one side. Jack checked on his holoimage. The raider was avoiding the massive wall of kinetic hail. The points of fierce white energy from the Devex ship streaked across space and finally met the wall of kinetic hail.

  The hail shot erupted in a wall of plasma fire and the white energy bullets were neutralized in a flash.

  Jack punched the air. The Scorpio, and the fleet, had found a counter-measure to the destructive Devex white energy.

  The Devex fired again. A stream of energy, thousands of lines each containing hundreds of thousands of points of energy, rushed across space toward the Scorpio.

  The Scorpio activated all of its high-energy lasers and delivered a massive blow on the Devex energy shield and then deployed its defensive kinetic hail wall.

  The Devex Raiders and fighters were sweeping around on the upper and lower flanks relative to the Scorpio. The Blades moved to counter the maneuver.

  “Why doesn’t the Devex warship release the civilian transport?” Sam said. “Surely it’ll be more effective without that civilian ship attached to it.”

  “It’s not its objective,” Jack said. “It is just holding the Scorpio off so it can capture all the civilians and create Devex warriors.”

  Sam nodded. “Makes sense, I guess. They must need those warriors pretty bad. Makes you wonder what’s attacking the Devex to make them need so many warriors.”

  “I guess,” Jack said, “but our priority, our duty, is to save those civilians. How long, Sam?”

  “Approaching the raider bay now.”

  The ship swooped in toward the open Devex bay. The channel they had so recently escaped through appeared the best way back in. Sam flew directly at the small opening.

  Jack called back to the Marines in the hold behind. “Thirty seconds. Move out fast. Use the raider for cover. Watch out for active Devex warriors. There will be thousands of Devex in a trancelike state moving toward the matter transport. Ignore them unless they attack.”

  Sam withdrew his Mech hand from the flight deck.

  “I’m no longer in control,” he said, his hands off the flight console. “The warship is bringing us in.”

  Jack looked at the view screen. The massive Devex assembly area and hangar lay just ahead. The narrow entrance channel opened.

  “It’s okay. It’s probably an automated docking program. Can you open the boarding ramp?”

  “We’re still thirty meters off the deck,” Sam said, “and we’re not moving.”

  Jack looked to the view screen. Then the screen went blank.

  “Open the boarding ramp, shoot it out if you have to, but we’re getting out of here now.”

  The Marines in the hold were on their feet facing the closed boarding ramp two abreast. The ramp began to open. Then the Devex fire came on.

  “Go. Go. Go,” Jack shouted and pushed the Marines toward the open door. Then, wit
h a glance over his shoulder to check that Sam was right behind him, he ran at the open door himself.

  The massive holding area was filled with the thousands of new Devex warriors all marching toward the matter transport platform. Another hundred warriors were beamed away.

  Jack linked to the combat drone and activated its drive systems. The drone exited the raider behind Jack and followed him as he used his suit’s thruster and local grav field to lower himself to the deck.

  The Marine squad was taking cover at the far end of the assembly area. The new Devex warriors continued to march out at regular intervals. The Marines ignored the automated, unthinking warriors and poured their fire on the scores of the massive Devex warriors scattered around the area.

  Jack landed in a small channel at the back of the area next to a Marine who was taking careful aim and firing high-energy pulse blasts at the Devex. A stream of white energy bullets raked the space right next to Jack’s head. His suit reported an attacker on a raised platform to one side. Jack returned fire. The Devex fell back as Jack hit him in the faceplate with a pulse rifle blast. He saw Sam out of the corner of his eye dropping down to join him as he took aim again.

  The drone hovered near Jack. The powerful combat drone should be able to cripple the warship from the inside and give Jack a chance to save the civilians aboard the transport. He checked the drone’s status.

  Jack was filled with a sudden feeling of shock and fear as he noticed the small display on the side of the combat drone.

  The short countdown had already begun.

  Captain Pretorius stormed across the command deck to Agent Mallet at the weapons control console.

  “What are you doing? We had a plan. Stop the countdown.”

  “Negative, Captain. This is the first time we have managed to infiltrate a Devex warship. I do not want to take any chances. If I could cancel the countdown altogether and detonate the drone right now, I would. Inform your fighter wing to be ready to move in and finish off any remaining raiders.”

  “But the civilians. Jack Forge is in there hoping to save the passengers.”

  “Jack Forge is a rogue Marine, Captain. He has been lost to the service for too long. This mission will be his last.” Mallet jabbed a finger into Pretorius’s chest. “Your affection for the Marine is a bad reflection on your command abilities.”

  “And destroying the civilian transport is a bad reflection on your compassion for your fellow citizens.”

  “We don’t know if the transport will be destroyed. The warship should be, and that was our mission. We just got lucky that we could get a massive payload inside. This is going to look good on both our records, Captain…if you let me write the report.”

  Pretorius walked over to the communication console. “Contact Major Forge and order him to evacuate immediately. Do it. Now.”

  The communications officer looked up at Pretorius with an apologetic expression. He shook his head and looked down, crestfallen.

  Pretorius tried the communication console. Jack Forge was out of contact, no communications were entering or leaving the dark Devex warship.

  Pretorius pushed himself away from the console and walked over to his command chair.

  “I’ll be writing a report of my own,” Pretorius said. “And I’ll be making a special mention of Jack Forge, a hero of the fleet—” Pretorius shot a look at Mallet. “—and I’ll include all information regarding my contact with the enemy.”

  Jack opened the drone.

  “I have to slow this countdown,” he said as Devex energy bullets fizzed overhead. “If this combat drone detonates here, it will take a massive section out of the civilian transport too.”

  He was there to save lives, not take them. Too many had been lost already.

  Sam clamped a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

  “It’s no good, Jack. You can’t stop it. That looks like Fleet Intelligence security lockout to me.”

  Jack knew what he was looking at, and he knew who was responsible.

  “Mallet,” he said.

  “We need to withdraw,” Sam said. “Jack. Let’s get out of here.”

  Jack looked at Sam. “Your hand,” Jack said, nodding toward Sam’s Mech arm. “Can you fix the countdown?”

  “I might be able to, but I might end up detonating the thing. I don’t know how to control it.”

  Jack looked up to the raider still holding thirty meters above. He looked up just in time to see the boarding ramp close and the ship turn and fly off along the launch tunnel.

  “Jack,” Sam implored. “We haven’t got long.”

  Jack looked at the launch tunnel. It was the only way out.

  “Marines. We are leaving. Form up outside the launch tunnel. Go.”

  The Marine squad leaped into the air and flew toward the launch tunnel. Their tactical suits’ local grav fields and thrusters propelled them forward. Devex white energy bullets tore through the air around them.

  Jack jumped off the deck last and followed his squad. He set his heading for the opening to the launch tunnel and pushed his suit to move as fast as possible. He turned and aimed his pulse rifle behind him to cover the retreat.

  A blast of fire from a Devex warrior streaked toward Jack. He quickly adjusted his heading and evaded the stream of white energy bullets. They glanced off his left hip and sent him spinning. He reached the launch tunnel and was away.

  Outside, the squad was waiting, hanging in space. Jack went ahead.

  “With me, Marines. Follow me, as fast as you can.”

  The side of the Devex warship at the launch tunnel was only a few hundred meters from the upper hull of the civilian transport. Jack looked down and moved toward the transport still clamped underneath the warship. The combat drone was about to detonate. Its antimatter payload was enough the turn the surrounding area into a small, short-lived star. Jack’s only hope of evading the antimatter conflagration was to cover behind the civilian ship.

  Jack moved down along the side of the transport. He could see in through portholes into cabins where passengers, locked in their rooms, were sleeping, victims of the Dox vapor. They had been destined to be transformed into a new Devex warrior. Now they were moments away from being vaporized by a Fleet combat drone’s antimatter detonation.

  Checking the countdown on his wrist, Jack saw that the detonation was seconds away. He looked out to the Scorpio in the distance. Its laser beams still slammed into the Devex energy shields. The combat drone would turn everything in a hundred-thousand-meter radius into a cloud of subatomic particles. Jack knew he had done his best, but it was the end.

  The Scorpio fired another blast and the Devex energy shield shimmered. Jack noticed the shimmering wrap around the Devex ship, even along the clamping arms that punctured the side of the civilian transport.

  The energy shield was one of the most powerful defense systems Jack had ever seen. The Scorpio blasted another hail wall to fend off another stream of white energy, but it cut through and blasted a hole in the Scorpio’s lower hull.

  The Scorpio was slowly overcoming the Devex energy shield. A second blast and the shimmering around the Devex ship seemed to travel further, wrapping almost entirely around the ship. One more blast and the shield would fail.

  Jack realized that if the shield held, it might contain the combat drone blast and save the civilian transport from much of the antimatter detonation.

  Jack opened a channel to the Scorpio’s command deck.

  “Scorpio. This is Forge. Captain, are you receiving?”

  “Jack. You have to get out of there.”

  Pretorius sounded rattled. Jack could hear the stiff tone but detected the emotion behind it.

  “No time, sir,” Jack said. He looked up at the Scorpio. “You have to stop your attack.”

  Jack watched his squad of Marines racing away, down along the side of the transport, desperate to clear the blast zone—a zone they could never hope to escape—unless the Devex shield saved them.

  The laser ass
embly on the Scorpio began to glow as they charged for the kill-shot—a blast that would dissipate the energy shield and expose the Devex hull to the full force of the Scorpio’s devastating laser weapons and the high-density shot.

  The glowing laser assembly went dark.

  “Explain, Jack?”

  “The Devex shield, it might contain the combat drone blast. If we can contain the blast, we might be able to save the civilians.”

  Jack looked at the Devex ship as it fired another stream energy points, and then the combat drone detonated.

  The explosion transformed the lower hull of the Devex warship to plasma. The shield held as the antimatter explosion ripped up the sides of the Devex ship and wrapped around the inside edge of the shield. The Devex ship disappeared in a seething cloud of plasma.

  The Devex puncture arms disintegrated, and the civilian ship fell away.

  Jack gripped the side of the civilian craft just as the transport’s massive drive system activated. The transport began accelerating away from the plasma fire consuming the Devex ship.

  Finally, the antimatter explosion took out the shield generator deep inside the warship. The energy shield failed, and the antimatter detonation leaped outward. The rolling plasma surged out and caught up with the transport.

  The Devex ship was annihilated, and the antimatter explosion reached its maximum range. The flickering plasma licked at the civilian transport as it moved away from the explosion.

  Jack looked up to the Scorpio. It was drawing closer, moving into formation with the transport.

  “Jack. This is Pretorius. Do you read me, Major?”

  Jack smiled and looked at the Scorpio drawing up alongside the civilian transport, dancing lights from the antimatter explosion throwing shadows over the destroyer’s hull.

  “This is Forge. Permission to come aboard, Captain.”

  Jack powered his suit’s thrusters and headed toward the Scorpio.

  It was over. He was home.

  15