Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9)

by James David Victor

  “Negative.” Pretorius tugged his cuffs. “Put us in high polar orbit. Present the starboard battery to the first three Krakens. Target the second flight with port battery. Ventral battery, target lead craft. Make ready to give fire.” Pretorius’s voice grew in volume and intensity. Officers were thrown into rapid and intense activity. “Full speed now, Mister Chou. Power to every gun. Activate the combat drones and send them on a flanking maneuver against those Chits.”

  Major Cruz entered the command deck with a security detail. He posted them at points across the command deck and then joined Pretorius and Chou at the holostage.

  “Good of you to join us, Major.” Pretorius pointed to the holostage. “Chitin craft approaching Kratos. We are moving the Scorpio behind the moon and deploying combat drones.”

  “Captain,” Commander Chou’s voice quivered. “The Chits have moved to intercept. The second flight too. They are closing in from both sides.”

  Pretorius moved across the holostage and accessed fire control. “Wait for them to come into range, Mister Chou. Inform the gun teams to use their ammunition well. I want red dots on this holostage. Give me Chit kills.”

  Slim sat on the work bench behind Sarah Reyes. He sipped hooch from a small silver hip flask. He pulled off the flask with a growling gasp, his lips pulled back over his teeth. He shuddered and then took another nip.

  Sarah Reyes leaned against her bench with the Chitin behind her looking up at her colleague. “You got work, Slim?”

  Slim nodded and held up the flask. He sipped again, gasped and winced, then offered the flask to Reyes.

  Reyes wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “I’ve still got a few bits and pieces to work out about this Chit. I think I could almost pilot the thing.”

  Slim put his flask away and jumped off the bench. He stuck his head toward the Chit. “Pilot it? Is it a spaceship?”

  “It’s a suit,” Reyes said, turning to the Chit. “But it works like a small one-man, or one-Chit, craft. Not unlike the meat suits our Marines use.”

  “So, are you going to go running around the ship, scaring the junior officers with this? That’s some Halloween outfit, Reyes.”

  Reyes grabbed a tentacle and flicked it toward Slim. The tall man recoiled as the tentacle came toward him.

  “Hey, knock it off, Rey,” Slim said.

  “Knock it off and get back to work, Slim.” Master Doyle came marching into the maintenance hangar, George on his heels. “That life support system in green eight corridor isn’t going to fix itself. I’ve got crewmen complaining about bad air.”

  Slim turned toward Doyle and nodded. “Just taking a breather. Me and my new friend.”

  Reyes draped a Chit tentacle over Slim’s shoulder and he stroked it like a pet.

  “Stop fooling around and get that air fixed.” Doyle stepped up to the bench.

  “On my way, Master Doyle, sir.” Slim gave a smart salute and walked off, ruffling George’s hair as he left.

  “And you need to leave your little friend alone, Rey.” Doyle poked the Chitin. “I have a limited staff, kid, and I can’t spare you any longer.”

  “I’ve nearly got it all worked out, sir. Just a few more hours and...”

  “You will have to use your off hours. You can keep it on the bench but...”

  The alarm echoed across the wide maintenance hangar. The hangar door shut with a screech and a bang. George shuffled up alongside Doyle.

  Reyes ran over to the hangar’s communication display. “We have moved to action stations. All non-combat personnel to hold station and wait for orders.”

  “Okay.” Doyle looked at the Chit. “Show me what you can do with this thing.”

  “You are using up all my ordnance, Mister Chou, but we are not recording any kills.” Pretorius watched the holostage intently.

  “These Kraken class craft are too fast, sir. They are evading the guns on the main battery. They are coming into range of our kinetic hail cannons now, Captain. We’ll have them in a moment.”

  “Deploy another flight of combat drones and target the second group of Chitins.” Pretorius spoke in a calm tone that hid his inner turmoil.

  “Drones away, Captain,” Chou replied, his voice mostly calm but with a slight quiver of tension.

  The new group of signals appeared on the holostage, a flight of six combat drones, all streaking away from the Scorpio toward the second group of Chitin craft. The fire from the hail cannons showed up on the holostage as a red mist spreading out from the destroyer. The combat drones’ flight kept them under the hail of kinetic rounds.

  A cheer went up from the officers around the command deck as the first Chit kills were recorded. The first flight of Chitin craft collided with the kinetic hail and blinked from the display, each leaving a fading red dot.

  “Good work, Mister Chou,” Pretorius shouted enthusiastically. “Make good and sure that second group are lit up red too.”

  The signal from the six combat drones came in as they were detonated short of their targets. Their detonation wiped a clearing through the red mist of kinetic hail.

  “Misfire, Mister Chou? Did you cut the fuses short on those drones?”

  “No, Captain.” Chou moved across the holostage and accessed the report from the drone. “Looks like they were sent a detonation code.”

  “Who sent that?” Pretorius accessed communication data, searching for the signal.

  “I have it, Captain. Time delay on the signal shows it must have originated from the Chit craft, sir.”

  Pretorius watched as the Krakens maneuvered into the gap created in the kinetic hail by the drones’ premature detonation.

  “All guns on that group of Chits. You’ve got a few seconds to make an impact on them, Mister Chou.” Pretorius tugged at his cuffs. “Major Cruz, deploy your battalion throughout the ship. Stand by to repel boarders.”

  13

  The panels were stripped out and Jack had already bypassed the necessary systems to achieve lift off before Finch and 6th squad arrived at the crash site.

  “Report, Marine.” Finch strode up the ramp into the hold.

  “I’ve almost completed repairs, sir.” Jack stood up and stepped back to check his work. “Still need to replace a few panels and we’ll be ready to take off. It would be good if we had an electron scalpel handy.”

  “I asked for a report, not complaints,” Finch said, looking at Jack’s work. “Did you notify the Scorpio of our situation?”

  “No response from the Scorpio, sir.” Jack realized this was perhaps the most important piece of information he should have given. He braced himself for a tirade from Finch.

  “Any sign of our missing Marine?”

  Jack hesitated. Did Finch not realize what he’d been told about the Scorpio being silent? “No word from Harts either, sir.”

  Finch looked at the repairs and made clicking noises with this tongue in his check. He called for Torent.

  “Set up a perimeter and get someone on the horn to the Scorpio. Keep sending until they respond.”

  Torent gave Jack an inquiring look. Jack was reluctant to give Torent all the details in front of Finch. The commander should have brought at least the squad leader up to speed on events, and Jack didn’t want to annoy Finch by telling Torent in front of the commander.

  “Forge, I want you to take me to this Chitin nest.” Finch’s voice wobbled noticeably as he spoke. He covered his nervousness by marching off down the ramp, shouting for Jack to hurry and follow.

  Walking slowly, but loudly enough for Finch to hear him coming, Jack turned to Torent. “Harts is missing. Scorpio not answering. Probably comm silence because of those Chits out there. The boat is ready to fly but it’ll be a rough trip. Don’t fire her up unless you have to.”

  “On me, Forge,” Finch shouted again.

  Jack led Commander Finch through the sand trees toward the Chitin site. The footprints that he had left only a short while ago were gone. The sand had flowed back into the markings and was g
rowing up into small versions of the massive towering structures that covered the surface.

  “I’m not picking them up on my scanners,” Finch said.

  Jack dropped to his knee and pointed with his pulse rifle. “There, sir. A sentry.”

  The Chitin was scurrying across the pink sand, its dark tentacles free from sand and dust. It left no markings in the surface.

  “How many do you count?” Finch wiped the sand off his leg as it crept up from his knee.

  “Eight, sir. Four around the perimeter and four constructing the device in the center of that depression.”

  Finch looked down the sights of his pulse rifle. “I can’t see any construction.” He stood up and stepped forward.

  Jack quickly came alongside Finch and held him back. “The sentry, sir,” he said, careful not to annoy Finch. “It’ll spot us.” Jack took a knee and pulled Finch down next to him. “The construction is hidden in the depression. They picked the spot well.”

  “We need to destroy them.”

  “Yes, sir, I agree,” Jack replied. It was the first sensible suggestion he’d heard from Finch.

  “I don’t much care if you agree or not, Marine. Fall back to the lander. I’ll get a commendation for this one.”

  “Two Krakens left, sir. We can’t stop them.” Commander Chou paused, and then his head tipped forward. “They are on the dorsal hull.” Chou stepped away from the holostage and went to the command deck arms locker. He pulled the doors open. The locker held a sidearm for every command deck officer, but as the command deck was currently undermanned, there were several spare pistols. Lieutenant Chou tucked one in the waistband at the small of his back band and one in front. He took another and carried it to Pretorius at the holostage, handing it over, handle first.

  “I’ll command the battalion from here, Captain.” Cruz unclipped the holsters of his own sidearms, one on each hip and one under his left arm.

  Pretorius dropped his pistol on the holostage in front of him. “Give me an internal display,” he said. The holostage flickered from the external image to one of the Scorpio, all its corridors mapped out by a web of green holographic light. All the ship’s personnel were represented by small blinking specks. The two points where the Chitins were cutting through the hull appeared as dark spots.

  Pretorius recognized the spots where the Chitins were entering. They were the thinnest sections of hull covering non-essential areas. One was the main mess, the other a hangar recently given over to the maintenance department. “Send Marines to those locations, Major. And send a detachment to protect my drive room.”

  14

  The hull glowed white above Reyes. The composite blistered and fell away in molten droplets.

  “They’re cutting through,” Doyle said. “Arm yourselves.”

  “With what?” Reyes looked around desperately.

  “Anything you can find.” Doyle ran to the pile of scrap. “A knife. A club. Anything.”

  Reyes picked up a small electron scalpel from a nearby tool bench. She tuned the sizzling blade to its longest. The electron blade was sharp and should cut through the Chit shell to kill the creature inside. Sweat dripped from her face.

  George was cowering against Doyle as the master was digging in the junk. He produced a long blade taken from a long-range reconnaissance drone. It had one rounded end where it met the turbine assembly and tapered out into a long, viciously sharp blade. He gave it an experimental swing. It would do damage from its weight if not its cutting edge.

  The glowing section of hull finally gave way and a small hole appeared. Immediately, a tentacle pushed its way through.

  “The door,” Reyes said as she heard a banging on the hangar door. “They are coming to help.”

  Doyle ran to the door and tried the access panel. “It’s no good,” he said. “It won’t open.”

  Reyes looked up to the widening hole above. More tentacles were coming through. The pressure in the hangar was dropping because of the breach above. “The emergency seals are holding it shut,” she said and backed away from the growing breach above.

  George wailed pitifully as he watched.

  “We should form up,” Reyes said, walking over toward Doyle and George. “We can defend ourselves better if we stay in a group.”

  Then the hull on the hangar roof fell inward. A full-sized Chit soldier dropped to the maintenance hangar deck in between George and Doyle, and Reyes.

  Doyle yelled a wild battle cry and charged at the Chit, his blade raised high above his head. He brought the blade down hard on the Chitin. Tentacles wrapped around the blade and plucked it from Doyle’s hand.

  The pressure drop started to make Reyes feel lightheaded as the hull cracked open even more and another Chit dangled in through the breech, tentacles holding above and hanging down below. Reyes cried out in anger as the Chit picked Doyle up and passed him back to the hanging Chit, who swiftly climbed back up through the breach and took the struggling Doyle with it.

  The Chit advanced on George. Reyes watched helplessly as the Chit tentacles reached out for him. George ran at the beast with his own battle cry, deep and furious. Tears streamed from his eyes as he ran straight at the alien. He dodged between the thick tentacles and reached out for the fine antennae around the circular mouth on the long head. He snapped one off and it caused the Chit to squirm and back away, its long head swinging violently.

  Reyes saw the edge of the hangar door glowing. She hoped for a moment it was rescue, then she realized the door was being sealed from the outside. The ship systems would show how many crew were in the hangar. They were being abandoned. Reyes stumbled away from the door toward her bench. She felt the Chitin suit behind her and thought, just maybe, she could use it and escape.

  George was still screaming and beating down the Chit with his fists, the long head taking blow after blow. Then Reyes saw the second Chit appear in the breach. It dropped down to pluck George off the deck and carried him up, screaming and kicking.

  The Chit in the hangar turned toward Reyes. She felt a sudden rush of fear and adrenaline. The air was thin and she was feeling too weak to fight. The electron blade fell from her hand. She turned her back on the advancing Chit and looked at the Chit on her bench. There was space inside. She had thought about trying it out once she’d studied it some more. Study time was over. It either worked now, or she died. She climbed in through the opening in the shell. The Chit lurched toward her in what looked like a drunken state. Losing the antennae to George had badly affected it. Reyes grabbed the console she’d been using to control the Chit and pulled it inside with her.

  She curled up her legs and adopted a kneeling position in the body of the Chit, working as quickly as she could.

  The shell closed and locked Reyes inside. She could see only the inside of the shell, lit by the console. She tried to stand the Chit up on its tentacles. She felt the suit stand upright. Then she fell sideways. Now she was upside-down. She checked the console, but it wasn’t her driving that was at fault. Again, she was moving and tumbling.

  “That damn Chit is giving me a beating,” she said. Her hands danced across the console as she tried to access some exterior view. The inside of the head suddenly presented an image of the outside world. It was the maintenance hangar as seen from an unusual angle, upside-down in a corner, on top of the junk pile. She looked around and saw the Chit, still lurching drunkenly toward her.

  Looking up, Reyes could see the breach in the hull. “If I can get this right…” Reyes said to herself as she attempted to leap using all the Chit’s tentacles. She felt the movement as she flung herself toward the breach.

  As she came toward the breach, she turned the Chit and reached out with a tentacle to grab hold of the blistered edge. The tentacle missed and Reyes slammed into the roof of the hangar. She realized she was falling. Looking up, she saw the second Chit coming back through the breach, tentacles extended downward. Reyes reached out and grabbed with her own tentacles.

  She caught hold and
stopped her fall. The Chit started to pull her up. She panicked at first, a wave of fear pulsing in her chest. “If I’m going to get out of here, it might as well be this way,” she said and let herself be pulled up.

  She emerged in a closed space, filled with writhing tentacles of many colors. She saw Doyle and George. They were both held inside a translucent pod. Both seemed in shock, their mouths and eyes wide open, but both were still. Reyes moved through the mass of tentacles and saw a large display. It was shimmering like a reflection in an oil-covered pool of water and showed the outside of the Scorpio. Underneath the display was a series of what Reyes thought looked like a set of controls. It was a collection of short writhing tentacles set in a pattern of color and length.

  “If this is how you control your ship,” Reyes said, reaching out with her clumsy tentacle, “there should be a door handle here somewhere.” Reyes grabbed and tugged at the tentacles.

  The Chit craft jerked and bucked, then fell away from the side of the Scorpio. Reyes felt herself being pulled from the control. She looked around as best she could and then saw in the murky display on the inside of the Chitin head that the other Chit was grabbing her. She reached out and wrapped a tentacle around one of his small antenna and snapped it off. Quickly, she grabbed another.

  The tentacles that filled the space inside the craft were all being sucked toward the opening in the Chitin craft. Reyes had managed to detach the craft from the hull of the Scorpio and now the interior was exposed to space. Thick globs of fluid started streaming past her to get blown out in to the void.

  The fallen Chit wriggled between the ship’s interior tentacles and toward the set of short tentacle controls. Reyes saw a chance to escape. She moved her way through the craft toward the opening to space, allowing herself to be blown out along with other contents of the craft and leaving the Chit craft behind.