Jack wiped the slime from Reyes’s hair and tucked the hair behind her ears. “You okay?”
Reyes nodded, tears in her eyes. “They took Doyle. And George. Chitin scum. I’m going to kill them. I’m going to kill them all.”
With Reyes’s wound dressed, she climbed unsteadily into her meat suit. Jack left her sitting in an alcove and reopened the landing craft ramp.
Walking off the ramp and down on to the fine sand, he turned to Torent. “We have to attack the Chitins.”
“Jack,” Torent said, “where’s the commander?”
Jack hesitated. He couldn’t lie but he couldn’t tell the truth. “He didn’t make it,” Jack stammered.
“What do you mean by that, Jack?”
“He fell, Sam. He got taken out.”
“Taken out how?”
“He’s back there,” Jack said.
“That is not what I asked you. How did he fall, Jack?”
Jack looked Torent in the eye. “Can we deal with those Chits first, Sam?”
Jack felt Torent’s eye drill into him. “You better get your story straight before we get off this rock.”
“If we get off this rock,” Jack said.
Sam fixed Jack with a stare. “No jokes, please.”
Jack nodded and looked to the floor. The pink grains had crept up over his boot. He was sinking in this moon and sinking in the feelings of guilt. Finch was dead. Whatever he was, he didn’t deserve to die like that.
Jack drew a rough map of the Chitin construction site in the sand. The grains kept moving in to fill the space and they climbed up to form miniature versions of the forest all around. Jack worked and spoke fast.
“Whatever they are doing, Sam, we need to stop them. We have to take them out.”
“I suggest we close in on two fronts and create a crossfire. We get between the sentries and attack, deal with the sentries when they come on. Most important is to take out that Chit construction first. Agree?” Torent looked at Jack.
Jack thought it was the best plan. Yes, they would come under attack from the sentries, but with no way to take them out silently, they would have to launch an attack on the main site first. There would be casualties.
“I agree,” Jack said. And then the sand grains around the site began to lift ever so slightly, just a few millimeters off the ground. Jack felt the hairs stand up all over his body and his data display began to flicker. Jack looked up. A dark spot appeared high in orbit. A massive craft with tentacle-like structures spread out.
“It’s a Chitin Leviathan,” Jack said.
Suddenly, a massive beam of light appeared, leaping up from the surface of Kratos and running up to the base of the Leviathan.
“They are attacking,” Terry shouted and aimed his rifle.
“Stand down!” Torent ordered. “Keep your head. Try and be a Marine.”
“They are not attacking,” Jack said. “That beam is coming from the Chit site.”
“It’s a fueling station,” Reyes said. “That’s what they are doing here. They are using the moon as a fueling station.”
“What fuel?” Torent asked.
Jack ran his hand through the sand that was floating just above the surface. “It’s some kind of electromagnetic energy. Kratos is so highly charged by the gas planet. They are harvesting off the moon.”
“Why don’t they take it from the gas giant itself?” Torent asked. “There must be more there than on this little moon.”
Jack stood up. “Like oil back on Earth. You couldn’t put oil in a gas tank, it needed to be refined first. Maybe this moon is like a refinery for the gas giant’s huge electromagnetic charge.”
Torent stood up. “Who cares about the science? Let’s destroy the krav out of it.”
“Wait.” Sarah staggered over. “If we kill the Chits, that Leviathan will send more. There could be thousands of the bastards up there. But if that is a fuel line to the Chits...” Reyes hesitated for a moment. “What if we destroy that, we might damage the Leviathan too.”
“The fleet has never destroyed a Chit Leviathan.” Terry stood up and swung his rifle up. “It’s pointless to try. Let’s attack, now. And so what if they send more Chitin scum? I can kill a thousand.”
“But maybe we can take that Leviathan out,” Jack said, calming the excitable Terry. “Do you think you can do it?” he asked Reyes.
“I think I can do it,” Sarah said, nodding, “I’ve been experimenting with their tech for months. It’s not so much tech, it’s more like biology. I’ve been inside their suits, and inside one of their Krakens. I’ve got inside their minds. I know how they work, and I think I know how to break them.”
Jack and Torent looked at each other and smiled.
“She’s good,” Torent said.
“I think so.” Jack turned back to Reyes. She was looking down at the Chit suit on the floor, her thick hair tumbling forward.
“I might have to use the Chit shell as a link to their device, but I think I can do this. If you get me to that device I will reverse the energy polarity and drain the charge from the Leviathan back to Kratos. I kind of did it with this Chit suit when I was working it out. I think I can do it with their ship.”
“That Leviathan is massive, it’s not like this shell.” Torent nudged the Chit with his toe.
“But it is. It is exactly the same.” Reyes nodded at Jack to gain his support. “And I’m the closest thing to an expert we have.”
“I’ve seen her working this thing, Sam. I think we should give it a shot.” Jack smiled and nodded at Reyes, giving his approval for the plan.
Reyes clapped her hands excitedly, “They’ll be out of fuel and dead in the void. The moon’s gravity might even bring them down. Without their power transfer device, they’ll be stranded.”
“Until another Chit comes looking to top off his fuel,” Torent said.
Jack shrugged. “It’s the only chance we have of getting off this moon right now.”
Torent nodded. “It’s worth a shot. But if we’re going to give Reyes a shot, we’re going to have to kill the Chits at the site.” Torent looked at Jack. “Any suggestions?”
Jack folded his arms and set his jaw with a steely edge. “We go in hard and fast. Get Reyes to the device and hold off any counter-attack while she does her stuff.”
“Sounds pretty much a do or die approach, Jacky.”
“We are short on time and short on ideas. This is all we’ve got. If it works, we might have a chance to get off this moon. If not…” Jack paused and looked at his squad-mates. “We’re all dead otherwise in any case.”
The squad seemed lost in thought for a moment until Torent shouted, “Let’s get this done. Jack, assist Reyes. Rest of you, grab your gear. Weapons and ammo only. Got any ordnance, bring it along. Let’s go Sixth Squad. Time to be Marines.”
Torent nodded at Jack and Reyes. “Good luck,” he said.
“To us all,” Jack replied.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked.
“I think it’s a good shot. Worth the risk.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “Let’s get you what you need.”
Reyes grabbed the remote console and activated the Chit shell. It stood up, towering over the Marines. She looked into Jack’s eyes. “I’ve got everything right here.”
Jack felt nervousness come over him. He was worried about the battle to come. He feared for his life and the lives of his squad. But mostly he feared that if he didn’t return from the mission, he wouldn’t get to spend more time with Sarah Reyes.
“Ready when you are, Squad Leader,” Jack called out.
17
Jack ran through the sand forest toward the Chit position. At any moment, they knew the Leviathan hovering in orbit above could dispatch hundreds of Chit soldiers to the surface, or even scour the surface with the massive plasma arcs and turn the pink sand to glass for a hundred square kilometers, incinerating every one of 6th squad in the process. Speed was the key.
The two forward scouts, Osho and Terry, opened fire and Jack knew they had reached the Chit sentries. The game was on and there could be no hiding from the battle now. He moved forward quickly, running toward battle and uncertainty. The only certainty now was that he was a Marine. If it lasted beyond the battle was another question, but for now, he was Marine.
Moving fast, he came to the point where the forward scouts were engaging the sentries.
“No time. Move forward,” Jack said as Torent came up, his rifle firing on the Chit sentry to his left.
“We’ve given ourselves away. They know we are here. We must press on.” Jack ducked under a disintegrating sand tree as a Chit plasma spear sliced through it, scattering a pink dust cloud everywhere.
“Use the dust as cover,” Torent shouted. He grabbed the nearest Marine and pushed them toward the left sentry.
The tag on Jack’s data display showed the name of the Marine. Jack knew him as Bubble, the crybaby.
Bubble moved, low and fast, toward the Chit. Torent grabbed another Marine. It was Bailey, the smallest of 6th squad who usually wore the biggest grin.
“Bailey, go right and smash that Chit.” Torent stood his ground as a plasma spear crashed into the ground centimeters from his feet. “Osho, stay with Bailey. The rest of you follow me.”
Jack grabbed Reyes as she came running up, panting heavily.
“Catch your breath.” Jack pulled Reyes down as a plasma spear streaked overhead. “We move into the center of the depression and straight for the device. I will cover you. You ready?”
Reyes nodded and staggered to her feet. A plasma spear slashed through another sand tree, blasting sand over her. Reyes flinched and let out a pitiful wail of fear. Jack grabbed her arm and pulled her with him.
“It’ll be okay. Stay with me.”
Jack reached the rim of the depression in a few strides. Away to the left, he saw Osho and Terry advancing on the far sentry. The first sentry lay twitching in the sand. Across the other side of the depression, Bubble was charging forward, an electron bayonet lighting up the end of his pulse rifle. His partner Bayle was crouching and firing on the far right Chit sentry. Every round from Bayle’s pulse rifle tore chunks out of the far sentry, forcing the Chit backward. It raised its weapon and let out a poorly aimed plasma spear at Bubble. The electron bayonet was thrust into the ring of teeth on the end of the long, skinny black head. Bubble lifted and ripped through the head. The Chit fell, thrashing and throwing up pink sand.
Torent was down on one knee and firing controlled bursts at the Chits gathered around the base of the device. Lee stood next to Torent. The rest of 6th squad had split into two small fire teams and moved out to the flanks, firing on the remaining Chits.
Jack saw the Chits falling back and being cut to pieces by the sudden, unexpected, and ferocious attack. He grabbed Reyes and ran to the device. They fell to the sand at the base of the tower sending a column of energy into space to the Chitin Leviathan.
“Think you can do it?” Jack stood over Reyes and scanned the area for any Chit threat.
Reyes brought the Chit shell over to her and dropped it in front of the device. “I think so.” She cracked open the shell and began pulling out sinews and muscle strands. She lay them onto some of the glowing channels that flicked over the base of the device.
Torent came running over. “That’s all of them. Not very well defended. There must be more.”
Jack saw a Marine standing on the ridge looking upward and felt a sudden sinking feeling. He looked up and saw dozens of points of light high in the thin Kratos atmosphere. Every point of light left a small tail behind it. They grew in size rapidly. Jack knew all too well what they were. Torent realized too and he started barking orders to 6th squad.
“Sixth Squad, on me. Make a defensive perimeter around the device. Give Reyes cover. We’ve got Chitin soldiers incoming. Hundreds of them. Light up your bayonets. Let’s go. Move. Move.”
The squad came into the depression and formed up around Reyes. Torent walked along in front of them all. “Looking good. Everyone a battle-hardened, full-on pro. Pick your targets. Drop as many as you can before they land. Let’s give our plan every chance. Don’t give the Chits any. Here they come.”
Jack knelt next to Reyes and fired up at a Chit soldier five hundred meters above, moving across the sky. Reyes tugged Jack’s arm.
“I need your help.” She held up a thick purple strand that she’d pulled out of the Chit shell. “This needs to be attached to one of these channels on the far side of the device. Get it as far up the pillar as you can, about three meters should do it.”
Jack looked at the pattern of sinews and muscle strands that were connected to the base and the tower, all seemingly absorbed into the purple channels that cris-crossed the device.
“Okay,” Jack said.
Reyes grabbed him just before he moved off. “When that is in, I just need to activate the shell.” She held up the remote control she used on the Chit and showed him a tab on the screen. “We need to hit this tab and then select the inversion field. It’ll draw the power to the shell. The shell will vaporize, but once the inversion is established, the drain will be unstoppable.”
From the corner of his eye, Jack saw the first Chit appear over the rim of the depression. The head was smashed by fire from a dozen eager Marines and their hungry pulse rifles. Then another, and then another.
The squad poured fire out from the defensive perimeter and shredded every Chit that crested the ridge, but they kept on coming. And still more appeared in the sky as a silver rain of distant flying Chitins lit up in the thin atmosphere.
“Jack, when we activate this drain, this depression is going to be a bad place to be.”
“How bad?”
Reyes pushed Jack away. “Get that strand in the channel and let me know when it’s done.”
Jack skirted around the wide base of the device. The tower rose some thirty meters into the moon’s thin atmosphere and from the tip rose a fat glowing stream of energy that tugged at the hairs on Jack s head.
Jack climbed up onto the base and scrambled up the slight incline to the tower. He spotted a purple channel about three meters up. Tucking the sinew in his belt, he began to climb.
The black composite of the tower was similar material to the Chitin shells. It was smooth and only the slight indentations for the glowing purple channels gave him anything to grab hold of. Slowly, he moved up to his target.
The ring of Marines around the base gave out a constant and devastating hail of fire. Jack realized the Chitins were not firing back. They must have been desperate not to damage the device that was still pouring energy up into orbit and into the belly of the massive Chitin Leviathan.
The Chit tactics seemed to involve deployment of overwhelming numbers. Jack saw that for every Chitin that fell to the Marines’ fire, another two appeared over the rim. Their forward tentacles, so often armed with the plasma spear launchers, were stiffened and sharpened. They were shiny black, the dull light from the gas giant glinting off the sharpened blades, blades that came forward, closer and closer to the defensive perimeter of 6th squad.
Jack pulled himself up one more meter and grabbed the sinew. He held it to the channel and was surprised that the sinew melded in with no effort. He simply held it close and let it meld with the purple light in the channel.
He called to Reyes using his suit’s communicator. “It’s in.”
Jack climbed down and dropped behind the ring of Marines. Towering over the Marine was a Chit soldier, its blades raised. The Marine fired at the ring of teeth and the Chit fell away, only to be replaced by another.
“Jack,” Torent’s voice burst over Jack’s communicator. “You got an update on that science project? We’re close to breaking point here.”
“Ready, just waiting for Reyes.” Jack walked back around the base. A black saber, two meters long, slashed down in front of him. A Marine sliced up with his electron bayonet and cut it off.
Jack saw Reyes hunched over her console. Jack dropped to his knees next to her and draped his arm over her shoulder. “We’re ready,” he said.
Reyes slumped forward, a wound in her shoulder from a Chitin saber blow. Her blood was leaking out through the suit and boiling away in the low-pressure atmosphere.
A Chitin blade slashed by Jack’s head. He ducked away, turned, and fired up at the Chit towering over him. A Marine closed the line in front of Jack and fired at the Chits that pressed in even closer.
Jack grabbed the device from Reyes’s limp hands. He knew what to do. He accessed the tab and scrolled through a list for inversion field. He found it.
“Sam!” Jack shouted. “Activating the inversion field now.” He pressed the tab.
Looking up at the power beam pouring up into the atmosphere, Jack thought he could see an immediate change. The beam seemed to grow fatter for a moment and then the rush of energy seeming to pour up the beam flickered between an upward flow and a downward flow, like a fork of lightning in an intense electrical storm.
“Is it working?” Torent blasted a Chit in the face and then slashed at another with his bayonet.
Jack felt dizziness come over him as he saw the energy flow oscillate from up to down a couple of times every second. It had a strobe-like effect. Dizziness turned to sickness. Then Jack saw the pink sand grains that had been floating just above the surface were suddenly pressed back to the ground.
“I think it is working.” Jack turned and fired at a Chit as a Marine parried its slashing blades with the tip of his pulse rifle.
“What now?” Torent asked. “Any suggestions?”
“We can stay here and wait. If it’s worked, we’ll be annihilated. Or we can try and get back to the landing craft and try and get out of here.” Jack fired another burst at a Chit head that lunged forward with its round ring teeth biting at him.
Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9) Page 16
