Starship Valor (The Galactic Wars Book 5)

by Tripp Ellis

  They staggered to the exit. Synthetics were strewn about the floor. Walker wasn't sure how long the effects of the disruptor would last. He might have 5 minutes, or 50, before they woke up.

  Walker cracked the door and peered out. There was a commotion over by the barracks. Several prisoners were rioting. The guards were sidetracked dealing with the insurrection. It seemed Braun came through with the diversion.

  Walker pushed Slade through the door and marched her at gunpoint across the camp. Dressed as a guard, he didn't draw any attention. They plodded past the command building toward the landing pad. The gunship was still on the tarmac. The ramp was down, and the ship was unattended.

  “You hanging in there?” Walker muttered.

  “I’ll make it,” she said, her voice thin.

  The closer they got to the gunship, the more anxious Walker felt.

  From his office, Drek caught a glimpse of the two marching across the tarmac. He did a double take, then recognized Slade and Walker. His body tensed. He sprang from his chair and sprinted down the hallway. He burst through the door and shouted to the guards, “Stop those two!”

  Walker and Slade ran to the gunship as the guards opened fire. Bullets snapped through the air. Walker spun around and returned fire. He squeezed off a flurry of rounds, taking out one of the guards, then the other.

  Slade vaulted up the ramp and slid into the pilot’s seat. She took a quick glance at the controls—she had never flown one of these vehicles before. She took a moment to familiarize herself with the controls.

  Drek drew his sidearm and took aim at Walker. He was standing maybe 40 yards away. He blasted off several rounds as Walker sprinted for the gunship. The bullets tore through the air. One of them grazed the back of Walker's helmet.

  The impact was enough to spin his head to the side and give him an instant migraine. But Walker stayed on his feet. He spun back, brining his weapon into the firing position. The reticle of his sights lined up with Drek’s head. Walker squeezed off two rounds.

  An instant later, Drek’s head exploded in a red mist. His synthetic body flopped to the ground. No way his nanites could repair that.

  That one’s for Lily, Walker thought.

  He sprinted up the ramp. Walker mashed a button on the bulkhead, and the ramp slowly lifted.

  Bullets pinged off the gunship. Sparks erupted like small fireworks against the hull. By now the area was flooded with both synthetic guards and mechanized warriors. The constant stream of small arms fire peppered the craft. But it wasn't doing much damage to the armor plated composite hull.

  Walker took a seat next to Slade. She had managed to power the vehicle up, and the system was going through its preflight checks. She didn't know how to bypass the safety feature, so they were forced to wait helplessly.

  “You think you can fly this thing?"

  “We’re about to find out, aren’t we?” Slade throttled up and lifted off the tarmac. The craft pitched and rolled as she got used to the controls. Her arm was practically useless, so she was operating one-handed.

  The craft lumbered through the air as the soldiers on the ground continued to pummel it. Bullets clanked against the hull. The sound was unsettling.

  Slade angled the craft around, then unleashed a torrent of gunfire from the craft’s forward machine guns. The hot lead eviscerated the guards. Plumes of dirt and concrete erupted like geysers from the massive impacts. Mechanized soldiers were torn in two.

  “Take out the power station,” Walker said.

  Slade targeted the station and fired a rocket. It streaked from underneath the sub-wing pylon, spitting sparks and propellant from its tail. It shrieked down and exploded in a brilliant ball of flame. It billowed into a small mushroom cloud, and black smoke rose into the air.

  Lights flickered, then went black as power to the entire complex went out. The containment wall vanished. Suddenly, thousands of prisoners were now free.

  But there was no time to enjoy the victory. A proximity alert sounded. An incoming RPG blasted toward the gunship. It slammed into the side of the craft, jarring the ship. Another alarm sounded. The port-side thruster coughed and wheezed, then sputtered out.

  The ship listed to the side, but Slade regained control. “I think we have outstayed our welcome."

  She throttled up and pulled back on the controls. The craft angled to the sky, and drifted away.

  Another alarm sounded. Two more incoming rockets. The ship wouldn't survive another direct hit to a thruster.

  Slade deployed electronic countermeasures. ECMs launched from the stern of the craft and blazed in the sky. One of the rockets took the bait and detonated with a blinding flash upon impacting with the ECM. But the other rocket passed it by and proceeded toward the gunship.

  Slade cut the remaining engine. Walker felt his stomach leap into his throat. The heavy gunship plummeted like a stone.

  The rocket narrowly missed, and Slade re-engaged the thruster. The craft was still plummeting toward the ground faster than Slade would have liked. She pulled hard on the stick, trying to keep the nose up. The ground was fast approaching. They plowed through treetops as the craft finally leveled out.

  The gunship gained altitude, climbing to the upper atmosphere. The internment camp became a small speck on the ground.

  But they weren't out of the woods yet. Another proximity alert sounded. An enemy fighter was on their tail.

  37

  Walker

  The gunship limped through the sky. There was no way they could evade a nimble fighter.

  “We need to make an in-atmosphere jump,” Slade said.

  “Way ahead of you,” Walker said, programming in the jump coordinates.

  It was always a dangerous thing to make a slide-space jump so close to a planetary body. The mass of the planet needed to be considered when making jump calculations. And even then, it was risky. But there wasn't much choice.

  The fighter launched two air to air missiles. They raced toward the gunship. The proximity alert beeped faster and faster as the missiles approached, until it was a steady tone.

  At the last moment, Slade engaged the slide-space drive. The bulkheads rippled from the quantum distortion. In the blink of an eye, the ship vanished from the atmosphere.

  “Cutting it a little close, don’t you think?” Walker asked.

  Slade didn't respond. She was pale and sweat was beading on her face. She moved her lips to speak, but fainted. She slumped in her chair.

  Walker unbuckled his safety harness and floated out of his chair, pulling himself close to her. Slade had lost a lot of blood. There was nothing he could do for her, but keep pressure on the wound. If she didn't get medical attention soon, she was going to be in trouble.

  Slade regained consciousness a few moments later. Her woozy eyes glanced up to him as he hovered over her. “I'm fine. I just got a little lightheaded."

  “Just take it easy.”

  Slade crinkled her brow. Nonsense, she was fine, she thought. She reached toward the control panel but felt woozy again.

  “You don't listen very well."

  “That’s what you love about me.” Her voice was thin and weak.

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  She grinned. There was a long moment of silence. “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  A smile curled on Walker’s lips, but it was bittersweet. Slade wasn’t doing well. Her skin looked like porcelain. She was fading.

  “You hang in there. I’m going to hold you to your word. You can’t get out of it by dying.” Walker kept a smile on his face, but he felt a dry lump in his throat. His eyes started to fill.

  He compressed both the entry and exit wounds. He began to think that maybe the bullet had nicked the subclavian artery. He kept the pressure on until they emerged from slide space at Zeta 9 Centauri.

  Walker could see the Revenant was still in orbit. He knew that they'd be scrambling fighters to deal with the enemy cr
aft that had certainly popped up on the LRADDS display. He needed to let the Revenant know that they were dealing with a friendly vehicle.

  Walker took Slade’s hand and placed it over the wound. "Keep the pressure on."

  She nodded.

  He climbed back into his seat and switched on the comm link. “USS Revenant, Zulu Xray. This is Commander Walker. Hold your fire. Repeat, hold your fire.”

  “Good to have you back, Zulu X-ray,” a voice crackled back over the line.

  “Request permission to land.”

  “Permission granted. Flight deck B.”

  “I have critically wounded aboard. Request an emergency medical team on the flight deck.”

  “Roger that, Zulu X-ray.”

  Walker maneuvered the craft around and began his approach. He was in the groove for a perfect landing, but he knew it was going to be a little difficult to manage the switch to full gravity with only one engine. He felt the imbalance as soon as he crossed over the edge of the flight deck. The gunship pitched and drifted, but he leveled the craft out.

  The moment the skids touched down, Walker opened the back ramp and launched out of his seat. He scooped Slade from the pilot’s seat and waited for the ramp to lower. Her body hung limp in his arms. He raced down to the flight deck. The corpsmen were waiting. Walker set her on the gurney. “She’s not breathing!”

  The corpsmen enveloped her. One put his fingers on her neck. “I don’t have a pulse.”

  “Start defibrillation,” another yelled, and started CPR. He pulled open her shirt and administered chest compressions as fast as he could, while another corpsman placed contact pads on her rib cage and upper chest, on opposite sides. He activated the device, and it went through a diagnostic phase and measured Slade’s vitals.

  Another corpsman applied a bio-polymer foam to the entry and exit wounds. It would stop the bleeding. It had antibiotic and regenerative properties. He started an IV and ran synthetic plasma to replenish her blood supply.

  The AED (automated external defibrillator) issued voice commands. It advised everyone to stand clear and administered a shock. Slade’s chest arched, then fell back to the gurney. The AED hummed as it recycled for another shock.

  “Please stand clear,” the AED said.

  THWACK!

  Another charge.

  Slade's body arched again. Still no pulse.

  “Please stand clear,” the AED repeated. It was going to try one more time to revive the admiral.

  Walker looked on with absolute terror. There was nothing he could do. The situation was out of his hands. He always exerted some type of force over his own destiny—but not this time.

  It was ironic that the love of his life was in the hands of a semi-intelligent automated machine. His body tensed and he clenched his fists, hoping against hope.

  38

  Tyler

  Discrete bursts of gunfire rocketed through the air. The squad moved with speed and precision, eliminating the bugs as they attacked from the dense foliage. They were holding their own, but ammo was getting low.

  It was never a fair fight with bugs. You were always outnumbered. They didn't share the same thought process as other higher life forms. They fought in swarms, for the good of the whole. There was no individualism, or self-centeredness. They never seemed to have any fear. That was one thing you could always count on with a higher intelligence. Every sentient being was always afraid of something.

  Right now, the thing that was concerning Tyler was not only getting to the substation, but getting into the substation. It would suck if the access code didn't work, or if there was a malfunction with the main entrance, or if the place was overrun.

  But as they approached the substation, Tyler's concerns were put to rest. The main doors began to slide open.

  Tyler sprinted with all his might. His heart pounded, and his chest heaved for breath. His quads burned, and his boots smacked the ground as he dashed for the door.

  The platoon dashed into the structure. Dr. Holly Noble pressed a button on the wall and closed the door behind them. The heavy steel doors crawled shut much too slow. A horde of bugs were chasing after the squad. One of them reached the entrance before the doors shut.

  Faulkner remedied the situation with an up close and personal introduction to the M640 machine gun.

  Faulkner squeezed the trigger and rattled off a blistering slew of rounds. The bug was blasted into bits, spraying blood and chunks of exoskeleton everywhere.

  The heavy steel doors clanked shut. The platoon hunched on their knees, catching their breath as Elliott embraced Dr. Noble.

  “Thank God you’re alright,” Elliott said, clinging on to her for dear life.

  "You shouldn’t have come,” She said. “It's too dangerous."

  Tyler watched the two interact. It was clear that Elliott had orchestrated this whole rescue operation to save her. And that was fine by Tyler. It seemed honest and pure. Far better than a mission based solely on corporate greed.

  Holly Noble was definitely the type of woman you would travel across the galaxy to save. She was even better looking in person. Her beauty was breathtaking. She had that sexy librarian thing going on. Blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, ice blue eyes, creamy skin, and full lips. Her glasses gave her that sexy, nerdy vibe. She was hot as hell, but didn't act like she knew it. There wasn't a man in the platoon that didn't want to see what was underneath her lab coat. But what the hell was she doing with a guy like Elliott? She seemed too smart to be into him just for his money.

  “I hate to interrupt this reunion,” Tyler said. "But do you want to tell me what's going on here?"

  Dr. Noble exchanged an awkward glance with Elliott. “I’m afraid that’s classified.”

  “I think it’s safe to say we all have clearance,” Tyler said.

  Dr. Noble did a double take. “Wait a minute, aren’t you…?”

  Tyler rolled his eyes. “Yes.”

  She looked utterly confused. Reality had somehow merged with a cheap B movie. Holly glanced to Elliott. “What’s going on here?”

  “That’s what I’m asking you,” Tyler said.

  “It’s okay,” Weston said. “Tell him.”

  Dr. Noble hesitated. “Research and development is a key function of this facility.”

  Tyler clenched his jaw. “What kind of research?”

  “Bio-weapons,” she stammered.

  Tyler scowled at her, then his glare found Elliott. He lunged for the corporate man, grabbed him by his tactical vest, and slammed him against the wall. "You knew what we were getting into.”

  “I swear, I had no idea.”

  "Bullshit."

  “I knew they were developing weapons. That's all,” Elliott said. “Plausible deniability."

  Dr. Noble glared at Elliott in disbelief. She knew he was lying.

  “Okay, okay. Fine. So I didn’t tell you everything. It was above top secret. None of you had clearance. You got a problem with it, talk to the UIA. They didn’t want any details of the program slipping out.”

  Tyler reluctantly released Elliott. “What the hell are these things? And how do we get rid of them?"

  "It might be easier if I show you,” Dr. Noble said.

  She led them through the corridors of the substation to her lab—a state-of-the-art sequencing facility with the latest hardware, software, and wetware. There were centrifuges and incubators. There were freezers and autoclaves. Electrophoresis apparatus and gel docks. PCR machines and glassware. There were supercomputers, microscopes, and display screens.

  There were several high-security specimen containers made from impact resistant polycarbonate. Inside one of the containers, was a horde of squirming white larvae. Inside another, a swarm of small insects buzzed about. They look similar to mosquitoes, but a little larger.

  “This is project Butterfly. It's a first strike anti-personnel weapon. It can be deployed as larvae, or as these ectoparasites,” she said, pointing to the mosquitos. From there, these parasite
s act as a vector for the disease, infecting the host with the mutagen. The incubation period is 1 to 3 days. You've all seen the result,” she said, dryly.

  Tyler took a closer look at the specimen containers.

  “Within three weeks, the large arthropods can decimate an entire population. The mutagen can be targeted to affect a broad spectrum of life, or a specific species. At 4 to 5 weeks, the arthropods die off, leaving the planet viable for repurposing. It's the perfect weapon."

  “Seems reckless and unsafe to me,” Tyler said.

  “This technology could save millions of Federation lives,” Elliott said. “You of all people should be able to appreciate that."

  "It seems like it has the potential to kill millions of Federation lives as well. Just one of these mosquitoes could take out the entire population of New Earth.”

  “Or Saarkturia. Or Decluvia,” Elliott said.

  Tyler had to admit, the possibility was enticing. The utter annihilation of their enemies. An end to the existential threat of alien invasion. It was easy to understand why the UIA wanted this technology developed.

  “If we can just wait it out, maybe another 3 to 5 weeks, we’ll be fine,” Dr. Noble said.

  Tyler laughed. "We don't have 3 to 5 weeks. We've got maybe 3 to 5 hours.”

  The optimism faded from Dr. Noble's face as Tyler explained the failure of the cooling system, and the imminent explosion that would soon follow.

  The drone network was still buzzing high in the sky. Tyler studied the surrounding area on his PDU. He zoomed into the freighter on the tarmac just outside of Station 5. It looked like it was in good shape.

  “What condition is the freighter in?" Tyler asked. "Does it fly?"

  “If it flew, I wouldn't be here,” said Dr. Noble with more than a hint of sass in her voice.

  Tyler's eyes narrowed at her. “What’s wrong with it?”

  “I’m a genetic scientist, not a mechanic.”