by Z D Dean
Zade handed over the girl but held onto his rifle.
The men moved forward, Max taking the lead so he could clear crossings before Zade got to them. As they moved, Max tried to raise Sam on his headset. During his fight, it had been damaged. A round whipped past his head close enough to shatter one of the earpieces. Since he was fighting alongside guards who weren’t on the same network, he had let it fall around his neck, forgotten. He wouldn’t allow himself to panic yet.
The closer they got to the docking bay, the slower Zade moved. The bleeding was bad enough to leave a trail as he walked.
Damn it! I wish I would have gotten some medical training along with sniper school, Max thought as he tried to raise the ship again.
It sounded like he was getting through, but any response was completely garbled. He worried that the headset was too damaged to transmit. The fact that there was no communication at all made him think that their channel was being jammed. It had happened on his last mission during his time in the Alpha’s Protection Unit.
∆∆∆
Max and his spotter had been sent out to take down a rebel leader that had been threatening to fight for the position of alpha. It took them three days to crawl into position from the drop off point and they had to wait another three days on the target. The day the leader arrived, he couldn’t get comms with higher to clear his shot. The transmissions had the same mechanical, garbled sound.
Being the assertive, decision-making individual that he was, he identified the target and took the shot. It turned out to be the wrong move. The rebels had set up surveillance and replaced the leader with a double. They used the footage as fuel to overthrow the alpha and imprisoned Max for assassinating a political rival. It was the last mission Max was on before being discharged.
The political faction of the unit wanted to make an example out of him, so they slapped him with a dishonorable service charge. The warriors in the unit wanted to make sure he was treated fairly, which allowed him to escape a hard labor sentence. The more he interacted with Zade the more he realized Zade was like the latter group from his old unit.
If he had any doubts about Zade’s character before this day, they were gone. The stories of heroism from his sister, once attributed to her crush, had all been validated. The Baast were not viewed in the best light amongst the other species in the Unity. Many even viewed them as simple animals, and yet Zade had risked his life to save a Baast child.
Although he had no plans to have children, the Baast culture’s love and protectiveness of them had been instilled deeply in him. It was the reason he had become so enraged when he watched the ships being shot down. Baast reproduced extremely slowly, many women having only one cub in their entire life. Because of this, children were protected at all costs. Most outsiders wouldn’t lift a finger to save a Baast child, and Zade had nearly laid down his life for one.
If this information got out, he’d be a fucking saint, Max thought.
He tore himself out of his head and looked back to find Zade had fallen even farther behind. The man was almost two full sections behind him. Not wanting to get too far ahead in case Zade needed something, he stood and waited for the man to catch up.
As he watched the man slog along, too stubborn to give in, the passage they were in was rocked by an explosion. Max looked past Zade to see explosions working their way towards the injured man, hitting every section they had walked through. For the first time in his life, he found himself unsure. He looked at the girl he held, and back to Zade. Before he could make a choice, the emergency hatch snapped shut inches in front of his nose.
∆∆∆
Zade struggled forward, fighting to keep the darkness forming at the edge of his vision from swallowing him completely. He had just finished examining his map overlay when an explosion almost knocked him off his feet. Since he had been using the wall for support, he slammed into it instead of hitting the floor.
He heard the explosions behind him getting closer and knew, even though he was only two sections from the docking bay, he would not make it. As the section behind him was turned to shrapnel, he screamed for Max to run. The man was hesitant, his focus quickly alternating between the girl he carried and Zade. A smile bloomed across his face when he saw the emergency hatch snap shut between them, forcing Max to finish the escape.
At least she’ll be safe, he thought as pushed himself off the wall.
An ear-splitting whistle screamed through the air. It was a sound he had known from his days in the artillery, a sound so many insurgents heard before they ceased to exist at his hand, the sound of an incoming shell.
If you can hear it, it’s already too late.
The thought crossed his mind the instant before his body was consumed by pain and his world went dark.
Chapter 15
Sam watched from her place on the bridge as both Zade and Max charged into the colony. The door closing behind them seemed too final for her, but she understood what needed to be done. The problem she had with the plan was leaving them alone on the planet. She would be a sitting duck for the merc ships that circled ahead which was why Zade wanted her to go back to Axis’s command ship and wait for the exfil order.
Ann accelerated out of the planetoid’s gravity and made directly for armada overhead. Although Samix monitored her screens and the picture through the windows surrounding her, her mind wandered back to Zade. She was against the plan he laid out and told him so as they rode the lift into their ship after the party had been cut short, but grudgingly agreed to it when he said he would be taking Max with him as support. She didn’t know anything about the Baast man, although his sister had painted him in a great light.
Even when the ship started towards the objective, she didn’t know she would have to leave the ground team on their own. Only when the planetoids thin atmosphere started igniting around them did he tell her she was to take the ship off the surface. Zade had changed the conversation to their personal channel to prevent the Baast crew members from hearing their argument. She finally relented, as he was the captain, and the logic about keeping the ship safe made sense, but memories of the last time she had left him behind still played across her mind.
The thud of the landing gear being secured to the deck of the docking bay pulled her back to the present. She didn’t have input from a command module like Zade, but she could see the location of the two men on the map of the colony projected in the center of the bridge. Mara came up from the engine room after she had powered the ship down to standby levels.
“How are they doing?” she asked as soon as she stepped onto the bridge.
“They’re moving towards the command center. They’ve only had to stop a few times to fight.”
Both women watched the screen, silently hoping for the safe return of the rest of the crew. As they watched the men make their way down a corridor side by side, the markers to indicate their position split up. Zade changed direction while Max continued along his original trajectory. As Max’s dot came to the entrance to a large bay, the map filled with other blue and red markings.
“That must be the guards,” Mara said, happy to see her brother was no longer alone.
Sam didn’t even hear her as she watched eleven hostile marks appear around Zade’s marker with only one friendly non-combatant joining the group. She watched as the green and blue bunched together and began moving away from the hostiles. Two of the red markers faded to grey before he increased his pace. Seeing the concern on Sam’s face, Mara turned to see what had her worried. At the sight of Zade being harried, she too adopted an anxious visage.
“Go, go, go. You’ve got this, Zade!”
“You’re almost back to where you started, and Max is on his way,” she heard Sam whisper as she wrung her hands, the intensity causing her to stand and start pacing.
Just as the women thought he would make it to the corridor that connected to where they had infiltrated, three new red marks appeared blocking his way. Zade’s marker stopped moving and Sam
knew he was thinking.
“Just push through, you’ve beaten three at once before.”
None of the hostile markings faded to grey, signifying he never effectively engaged them. Instead, he turned into a side room.
“No!” Both women screamed in unison.
“That’s a dead-end,” Samix gasped.
They both watched in horror as the hostiles gathered outside of the room where Zade was trapped.
“I can’t just stand here and watch this. We need to help him,” Sam said, turning on her heels and sitting down at her pilot station.
Mara wanted to help, but as an engineer, she wasn’t sure how she could. From what she saw through the window of the airlock on their escape back to Axis’s ship, she knew they were not equipped to fight or even defend themselves from the attacking ships. She wanted to tell Sam how foolish her idea was, but part of her agreed with the pilot.
Upon entering the room, a new marker appeared on the map. It was yellow, signifying that Ann couldn’t tell if the individual was friend or foe. Moments passed then suddenly the enemy markers faded to grey. Just before Zade began moving out, the yellow marker disappeared from the map.
“Wait! He made it! The mercs are dead!”
Sam stopped her take-off procedures and returned to the map. The new crop of grey markings confirmed that Mara was right. She couldn’t physically go help him, so she settled for ensuring he was ok on comms. She keyed the mic and was met by the sound of heavy static. Some transmissions were being passed, but they were so distorted she couldn’t understand them. She couldn’t tell if the men were calling for help or celebrating. She couldn’t even tell if it was her ground team that she was hearing.
After Zade had turned the corner and begun the trip back towards the docking bay, he was met by Max. The unknown friendly began moving alongside Max’s marker, while Zade’s started moving slower and slower.
“Somethings wrong,” she said after turning and finishing the take-off sequence. Her sense of helplessness doubled when she found she couldn’t separate the ship from the docking locks. She checked to ensure there was no malfunction with the landing gear and tried to take flight again, to no avail.
“Docking pad number 37, cease all action and power down. No ships are allowed to leave until the threat has been neutralized. By the orders of the armada commander,” flight control informed her, the voice the bored monotone that seemed to be a requirement for the position.
“Damn it,” she yelled back. “I have two members of a ground team in trouble, one might be hurt.”
“Docking pad number 37, cease all action and ….” the man repeated his instructions, sounding as unaffected as ever, but she didn’t stick around to hear him finish.
“Have the ship ready to leave as soon as I return,” she instructed her engineer as she stormed off the bridge.
She rushed towards the cargo bay, intent on demanding release from Axis. Unwilling to wait for the lift to lower, she opened the airlock and jumped to the floor. As she hustled across the bay towards the passage that would take her to the bridge, one of the Settler workers tried to stop her.
“No unauthorized personnel on the bay floor during an emergency. Please return to your ship.”
Sam didn’t have time to waste arguing with the little creature, so she grabbed him by his ears and tossed him to the side. After her exhibition of strength, nobody else stood in her way for fear of being discarded in the same way.
The guards securing the entrance to the bridge recognized her as their commander’s guest and let her pass unobstructed. The bridge of the ship was magnitudes bigger than her own, with hundreds of workstations for the crew. Luckily, it was laid out exactly like every other starship, with the captain’s chair in the rear on the highest level. He held up a hand, stalling her imminent tirade.
As he finished giving orders, she looked out the windows and viewed the battle that was unfolding. The Settler ships in the main fleet had established a defensive formation, with each ship covering a specific sector of the next ship. Smaller fighters zipped around, landing shots on the larger and less maneuverable enemy ships. She overheard crew members discussing how the ships that had been sent out to scout were making their way back to flank the enemy fleet attacking them.
The largest of the grey enemy ships was locked in a fatal dance with the ship she was on. Both were maneuvering to get to the broadside of the other where they could inflict the most damage. The coordination between the large Settler ships and the fighters was impressive. She watched as a barrage of cannon fire forced the enemy ship to roll sideways, in an attempt to evade the multi-ton warheads screaming towards it. She worried that the volley would be a waste until she saw the swarm of firefly like fighters waiting to intercept the ship.
As it rolled, the fighters sensed their opportunity and released their missiles into the ship’s engines. There was a magnificent explosion just before the engines went dark and the ship was left rudderless. Axis, having counted on the success, had his ship coming around to land the killing blow.
During the battle, Sam couldn’t even feel the recoil of the massive cannons attached to the ship because they were firing independently. With the enemy adrift, the cannon crews lined up with the target, and, in unison, every crew fired. Their unified recoil jarred the bridge, the crew holding on to maintain their positions. It took two more volleys to tear the enemy ship apart.
As the enemy ship broke into pieces, she could see fire and atmosphere venting into space. It had broken nearly down the middle, perfectly bisecting the ship. If she squinted, she could see debris falling into the void from the myriad of perforations in the ship’s hull. Without notice, there was a humongous secondary explosion from the rear piece of the ship. The warp engine had finally gone and she knew there would be no survivors. If the explosion didn’t kill them, the massive amount of radiation spewed into the surrounding area would quickly overwhelm their environmental suits and cook them alive.
“Now that we have the upper hand, we can send ships down to the planet to provide support for the dismounts. I couldn’t risk drawing weapons from the battle to cover the rescue party with the enemy command ship operational,” Axis said when she finally tore her eyes from the devastation and looked at him.
“I’m going with them,” she declared.
“I would expect nothing less. I am sending two frigates to provide orbital support so you can land. While you’re gone, I will try to figure out who these heathens are. No one attacks a Settler armada without repercussions.”
She raced back to the landing bay, happy to find that Ann had lowered the lift in her absence and Mara already had the engines running. She impatiently rode the lift up, as soon as it sealed, she sprinted for the bridge. Sam piloted Ann out of the containment field before the landing gear had fully retracted.
Once she cleared the bulk of the armada, she caught sight of the planetoid. The surface she was looking at was completely barren. The space battle must have pushed the armada from directly above the colony. Her thoughts were confirmed when she examined her scans. The colony was on the far side of the planetoid, partly due to the battle and partly due to its rotation.
Sam spotted the two frigates heading in the same direction as her and gave the engines full power. Her smaller, faster ship shot past them as she burned for the colony. As the horizon rolled along, the first thing she saw was a frigate-sized enemy lander releasing kinetic space-to-surface payloads. The rounds had a small engine that pushed them from their rack, at which point gravity took over. Small fins on the weapon kept it on target as it fell through a body’s gravity well, constantly speeding up along the way. She couldn’t see what the ships were firing at due to the curvature of the planet, but she felt a pit growing in her stomach.
As the impact-cratered colony came into view, two missiles from the trailing frigates screamed past her ship. She watched as the first detonated directly into the side of the ship dropping the bombs, while the second blew just miles aw
ay from impact, pushing debris and the crippled ship out from atop the colony. The ship was destroyed, but the threat was not gone. She watched with horror as the last kinetic rounds screamed towards the docking bay she had planned to use to recover the ground team.
She held her breath. The round impacted two sections away from where she planned to land. Her body relaxed and she released the breath she had been holding. Her relief was short-lived.
“Oh no,” Mara said in disbelief from her position at the projected map of the colony.
“No, it’s ok. It missed where we are picking the guys up at,” Samix said, trying to reassure her fellow crewmember.
The thud of Mara collapsing to the ground caused her to turn and look. Her engineer was curled up, knees to chest, her body wracked with sobs. Sam jumped up, ran over to her, and looked over the woman for injuries. When she found none, she turned her attention to the map. It showed a greyed-out marker with Zade’s name above it in the section that had been struck last.
Her world began to spin, and a torrent of emotion washed over her. A crushing sense of loss settled in in her chest before she could even identify the feeling. She immediately blamed herself for not being faster, but a part of her realized she had done everything she could. A sense of disbelief helped her hang onto a fleeting shred of hope. She snapped out of her head and willed the ship forward.
He’ll be ok. He’s one of the toughest people I’ve ever met.
The thought drove her on.
“Ann, how did this happen? You were supposed to be protecting them down there,” Sam demanded of the ship.
“I guided him as to which actions yielded the highest probability of his survival, but he disregarded them. I am sorry, Captain Samix, but he chose the life of another over his own.”
Her new title, signifying the finality of the situation, cut at her soul. She didn’t want to be captain. She was happy being first mate. Just as she had found herself comfortable and happy for the first time she could remember, it had all been ripped away from her.
