The Chit ship suddenly came into view. Torent called to Jack. “Hold position. Can you see any movement?”
Jack brought his field scanner to his helmet. The distant dark image of the crashed Kraken came clearly into view. The edges of the craft stood out from the dark background. Jack could see a breach in the hull of the craft. He focused his field scanner and zoomed in on the breach. The scanner and his helmet’s image enhancers did little to penetrate the darkness inside.
“I can see a breach in the hull.” Jack looked over to Torent on the other side of the furrow.
“It looks intact from this side,” Torent said. “Move up. Watch that breach.”
Jack advanced cautiously, keeping Osho and Gas behind him. His suit’s scanners watched the breach for any movement. He kept his pulse rifle up and aimed at the breach.
“Hold,” Torent hissed.
Jack went down on one knee and checked the horizon with his rifle sights. The area looked clear.
“Chit movement to my left,” Torent said. “I count two, maybe three, holding up behind that small ridge there.”
Jack looked to his left and past Torent. There was a small ridge on the surface of the asteroid. The ridge’s right side was obscured from Jack’s view by the crashed Kraken. “Can’t see them from here, boss.” The location appeared on the enhanced data overlay on Jack’s helmet. “Okay, boss,” Jack said. “Got their location now.”
“Listen up, squad,” Torent said. “Jack, take your team around the Kraken and take a flanking position on those Chits about fifty meters out from their right. Once you are in position, we will advance hard and fast and take them down. What do you say, Jacky?”
Jack scanned the area. He could move across the uneven surface of the asteroid with ease. His team were skilled veterans and they would keep up. The breach in that Chitin Kraken looked threatening. He would keep a close watch on that breach in case any Chit decided to emerge. They wouldn’t last long if they did. It was a risk to split the squad, but if they could outflank the Chits that Torent had spotted and fix them in a cross-fire, they would overcome their enemy rapidly. It was a good plan, not without its dangers, but that was part of life in the Marines.
“It’s a good plan, boss. I’ll be in position in five.” Jack looked over to Torent on the other side of the furrow.
“Copy, that,” Torent said, looking over to Jack. “Stay sharp, Jack. Go.”
Using hand signals, Jack instructed Osho and Gas that he wanted silence as they advanced. He signaled for Gas to stay close behind on his left, Osho on his right. He indicated he would watch the breach in the Chitin craft. He received the thumbs up from Osho and Gas and then he advanced, staying low and moving fast.
“Moving now, boss,” Jack messaged to Torent.
The darkness inside the downed Kraken was impossible to ignore as they advanced, moving around the craft to set up a cross-fire on the Chits hiding behind the small ridge. Jack expected a Chit to burst out at any moment, plasma spears flashing toward him. He was ready for anything.
The interior of the Chitin craft was suddenly illuminated in a bright white light as a plasma spear was fired from within. The spear flashed past Jack. A near-miss.
“Gas is down. Oh, krav. They got Gas,” Osho babbled.
Jack’s pulse rifle was spitting return fire into the breach before Osho finished her frenzied report.
“Contact, contact,” Jack called out. “Chits in the Kraken.”
“Contact,” Torent reported. “Chits on the ridge. Open fire, krav it. Open fire.”
“Oh, krav it. Gas is dead.” Osho was lying in the loose icy rock surface and firing wildly. “The Chits got him in the helmet.”
The change from silent advance to noisy, frenetic firefight was sudden, but for Jack, it was all to be expected. His focus switched immediately from stealthy advance to combat without hesitation. He targeted the breach in the Chitin craft and poured fire into the darkness within.
“Here they come,” Torent shouted into the squad channel. “I count eight coming over the ridge. Focus fire on the lead Chit.”
Jack looked across the deep gouge of the Kraken’s crash trail and saw the Chitin soldiers coming into view. He took careful aim and fired into the lead Chit. It fell, tentacles thrashing the ground, throwing up a spray of dust and ice. The following Chits trampled it under their own writhing tentacles and continued their advance on Torent and his small team.
“Light up your EBs,” Torent called. “Stand and fight.”
Jack saw the electron bayonets burst to life, their piercing glow lighting up the dark. He saw the remaining Chits illuminated, the glow of the EBs flickering off their smooth shells.
“Sam. Boss,” Jack called out. “Employ combat retreat. If you fall back, I can hit them with flanking fire.”
“Copy that, Jacky. Falling back. Keep up the fire.”
Jack saw the three pulse rifles delivering a punishing volley as the three Marines moved backwards. Jack and Osho poured their own fire into the flanking Chit. A plasma spear slashed across the ground in front of Jack, melting the icy soil and throwing up a burst of steam. Plasma spears from the group of Chit soldiers advancing on the retreating Torent slashed through the darkness, glinting off the shells of Chits and the meat suits of Torent’s team.
Another Chit fell to Jack and Osho’s fire, and then another went down under sustained fire from Torent and his team. Jack targeted the next closest and rained a vicious, well-aimed stream of fire. The rounds slammed into the Chit, throwing up fragments of shells and guts.
The small group of Chits had been cut down quickly and only three remained, their plasma spears slashing out toward Torent, Terry, and Bubble.
“Keep up the fire. Take them down.” Jack stood up. He kicked Osho to urge her to her feet. She looked up at Jack and shook her head. Jack transferred his pulse rifle to his left hand and tugged Osho to her feet with his right. “On your feet. We’ve got to close in. On your feet, Marine.”
Pulling at Osho and firing simultaneously, Jack moved slowly and he lost accuracy. He shouted and kicked at Osho again. “On your feet, Marine.” Osho finally clambered up. “Fire your weapon, Marine,” Jack shouted and pulled Osho toward the slope down into the gully that separated them from the rest of the squad. A plasma spear leaped out of the downed Kraken and slammed into the ground where Osho had been laying just a moment before. The rock glowed red and the ice turned to steam in a fraction of a second, sending a jet of vapor blasting into space.
“Fire at the Chits.” Jack advanced more quickly and his aim was more accurate now that Osho was on her feet and moving without being pulled.
As Jack reached the slope on the other side of the gully, the Chitin soldiers were hidden from view. He could see the flashes of light from their plasma spears and the flickering of the Fleet Marine pulse rifles laying down a sustained fire. Jack began to scramble up the slope.
Another plasma spear from the Kraken slammed into the slope just above his head. Jack and Osho scrambled up undeterred. Finally reaching the top, Jack saw there were only two Chits still active. They were moving toward the retreating Torent, slowed only by the many pulse rifle rounds that slammed into them.
Jack had the targets at close range. A few seconds more and the fight would be over. He opened fire at the nearest Chit, and after having already taken a beating from Torent’s team, it fell almost instantly. The last went down, tentacles thrashing wildly. A final plasma spear fired, but it was un-aimed and fizzed away safely overhead.
Jack climbed out of the gully, and a plasma spear slammed into the side of the gully moments after Jack had climbed up. He lay on the ground and looked back to the crashed Kraken. Osho lay next to him on her back and checked her weapon.
“Still one more in the Kraken,” Jack reported. “Sam, we need to dig out that Chit.”
“The boss is hit,” Bubble’s voice came over Jack’s helmet speaker. Jack could hear the emotion in the big man’s voice. “He’s alive, but he
needs to get back to the Scorpio.”
“We can’t bug out yet, Bubble. We have to secure that Kraken.” Jack pulled up his field scanner and studied the breach in the craft. It was dark and quiet again. Jack couldn’t detect any movement. He was sure if he stood up, he would receive a plasma spear.
“Finish the job, Jack.” Torent’s voice was weak. “Secure the Kraken.”
“Yes, boss,” Jack said, scurrying back from the edge of the gully. “I’ll advance from the right. Terry, you advance from the left. We’ll have to go in there after the kravin thing. Ready?”
But before Terry could respond, Jack noticed the fine lines in the surface of the Kraken light up with a bright white light. It rippled through the network of delicate, twisting lines that covered all Chitin exteriors from the soldiers to the massive Leviathan. Jack knew what it meant. It meant the Chitin had set the Kraken to self-destruct. It meant Jack and 6th squad had only moments to leave the area. It meant they had lost.
“Fall back. Fall back, on the double.” Jack was clambering to his feet. “That Chit craft is going to blow. Move. Move. Move.”
Jack ran. He knew Osho could keep up and she had started running the same time he had. Up ahead, Jack saw the other three remaining members of 6th squad. Sam Torent was being carried by his squad-mates. As Jack got closer, he could see the wound Torent had sustained. His right arm was missing, taken clean off below the shoulder. Jack saw an electron bayonet glowing white from the tip of a pulse rifle on the black surface of the asteroid, and attached to that pulse rifle was Torent’s hand, finger still on the trigger. The rest of the arm was missing, vaporized by a Chit plasma spear.
The shockwave hit as the Kraken exploded, sending Jack and the squad sprawling forward. The ground lurched as the asteroid shook with the force of the explosion. Cracks appeared across the asteroid, which had already been weakened by the Kraken’s crash landing and then the heavy weapons fire. The fractures that raced across the asteroid’s thin crust erupted with steam as the icy interior boiled.
“Move, move, move,” Jack shouted, urging the Marines forward. The landing craft was only a few hundred meters away, but between them lay a minefield of gaseous eruptions.
Jack and Osho caught up with Torent, Terry, and Bubble. Jack grabbed Terry’s arm and pulled him along. Osho went to the other side of the chain and pulled Bubble along, all of them pulling Torent across the erupting asteroid.
The ramp was down. Lights all around the landing craft showed the finish line and safety. It urged them to hurry. The five reached the ramp, gas jets erupting all around. Jack pushed the surviving members of 6th squad up the ramp one by one. With Osho safely on the ramp, he climbed up himself.
“All aboard, pilot. Get us out of here.” Jack watched the asteroid disintegrate into a thousand house-sized boulders. Somewhere amongst that debris were the remains of the Chitin Kraken and its crew. Somewhere out there was Torent’s right arm. And somewhere amongst that rock and ice was the body of the Marine they all knew as Gas, 6th squad’s latest casualty in the war against the Chitins.
5
A gurney drone was waiting on the flight deck for 6th squad to return. Jack and the pilot raced through the post-flight checks and watched through the cockpit window as Torent was taken to the med bay. His arm severed just above the elbow, the meat suit was melted and hung in long globular strands.
The moment the pilot dismissed Jack, he was up and out of his seat. He ran full tilt toward the med bay. With only a few turns left, Jack caught up with Torent and the gurney drone. He came alongside his squad leader, his squad-mate, and his friend.
“Sam?” Torent was still wearing his meat suit, the helmet preventing Jack from checking Torent’s state. “Sam?” Jack called again.
The gurney pushed through the double-doors to the med bay. A nurse came and pulled Jack to the side as a doctor and a drone surgeon began treating Torent.
“Is he going to be okay?” Jack asked, straining to look around the large drone surgeon and doctor as they pulled the meat suit away from Torent’s limp body.
The doors burst open again and Jack turned to see who had entered. He was surprised to see Commander Griff march in and dismiss the nurse.
“Let the med team do their work, Marine.”
“Sir, yes, sir. Like we did ours.” Jack looked Griff in the eye. “Sixth squad was down to half-strength, Commander. Why did you send an under-strength squad against an unknown enemy force?”
Looking into Griff’s cold, grey eyes, Jack suddenly felt a chill. Everyone knew about Commander Griff. He had been one of the best commanders and was surely due for a promotion to major and given charge of a battalion. But Jack had spoken. He would have to hear Griff’s reply.
“You think you are the only Marine to do any fighting, Forge?” Griff’s eyes burrowed in to Jack’s. “We’ve got a carrier group working their way through the asteroid belt, clearing out Chit garrisons one rock at a time. Three battalions fighting tooth and nail. You think you are the only squad in this war? You think you are the only squad taking casualties?”
“Sir, no, sir.”
“I don’t want to see you Marines beaten and busted, but I’m a commander and it’s my duty to send men like you to the fight. I understand you are quite the field operator, Forge. Battle of Training Moon. That stunt with the Leviathan. You are a good Marine, Forge. I wish I had a hundred like you.”
“Sir, I wish I wasn’t so good. Maybe if I failed at being a Marine, the fleet would kick my ass back to the university.”
“But you are good, that’s why you are still alive. I’ve been watching your fight on the meat suit data steam back in the Marine operation center and you are the reason he is alive too.” Griff pointed at Torent. The surgeon was cutting Torent’s arm to create a clean cut of flesh and bone.
Jack watched the surgeon drone attach a clamp around Torent’s upper arm, a ring of black composite that pulled tight and attached itself firmly. The doctor checked around the many working arms of the surgeon drone as a black liquid was sprayed over the still bleeding stump.
“Sixth squad needs a new squad leader, at least until Torent is all fixed up,” Griff said. “You like telling your commanding officers what to do, Forge. Would you like to suggest someone?”
“Everyone likes Osho. Bubble is a bit quiet. Terry is a loudmouth and gets angry, but he does have natural authority.” Jack watched the drone attach an endcap over Torent’s black, sticky stump and attach it to the black composite collar.
“What about you?”
“Squad leader?” Jack let out a humorless laugh. “I never even wanted to be here. I never wanted any of this. All I want is to live in peace.”
“Jack,” Griff said calmly, “every Marine in this fleet wants peace. You think I want to see men chewed up like this?”
“Sir, no, sir.”
“Forge, you are insubordinate at best, mutinous at worst, but you have a good head for strategy. You are thoughtful, and you know the people in your squad, you know what makes them tick. And they like you, even the ones who don’t like you. You got the duty, Jack. You are squad leader now. You copy, Marine?”
The realization of what was happening came over Jack slowly. And then it hit him. Squad leader. It seemed such a responsibility. He snapped to attention. “Sir, yes, sir. I won’t let you down, sir.”
“Don’t worry about me. Worry about your squad. Make sure you don’t let them down.”
As Griff marched away, Jack watched Torent be moved into one of the compartments. The nurse let Jack follow the gurney. Torent was still in a medically-induced sleep. His arm looked neat, the black composite endcap covering the short stump. A burn across his neck and chest where the plasma spear had cooked his flesh was cover with a white ointment that smelled like rancid fat.
“I hope you don’t think you are getting out of sixth squad this easy,” Jack said. He remembered the first time he’d met Torent. He had come to the military instead of serving time in a prison for t
heft. Torent had given so much to the Marines, he was a good leader and no longer a thief. The kravin Chits had stolen his arm. Jack was sure Torent would want to pay them back for that.
Stepping out of the compartment, Jack noticed the Marine guard outside the closed door of Sarah Reyes’s compartment. He’d only been gone for a few hours, but it seemed like a lifetime since he’d last tried to see her. He took a few faltering steps toward the guards. One of the guards, a fat Marine from Boa Company, took a step forward and with a slight shake of his head, told Jack that Reyes was still in a coma, and he would not be letting Jack see her. She was still under close guard. It seemed Agent Visser was doing everything she could to make sure she was the first person to talk to Reyes when she finally regained consciousness.
The nurse passed Jack in the corridor, she gave him a half-smile. “Your friend will be fine. I’ve seen a lot worse, Marine.” She put a comforting arm on Jack’s arm.
“And what about her down at the end?” Jack asked. “I worked with her in maintenance.”
The nurse looked along the corridor. “I’ve only been in there once. They are keeping her isolated for some reason. But I heard the doctor say she could wake up at any moment, or she might not wake up at all. To be honest, we don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
Jack thanked the nurse and stared at the far door, closed to him and everyone except Fleet Intelligence.
The med bay was becoming too familiar. Two of his closest friends lay here unconscious. Jack feared that more of his friends from 6th squad would be sent here before this war was over. Then Jack checked himself. No, 6th squad were not his friends, not anymore. Now that he was squad leader, they were no longer his friends. They were his responsibility.
6
The Marine deck showed just how undermanned Cobra Company really was. The areas marked out in the floor for each squad were occupied only up to 6th squad. The areas marked out for squads seven through to twelve were empty.
Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9) Page 19
