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

by James David Victor

“We’re already moving. Good luck to you too, Jack.”

  Jack looked at his team. Behind every faceplate was a stern countenance. They knew that with the destruction of the defense battery, their escape route would be destroyed too. They were stuck, unless they could battle their way past hundreds of Chitin soldiers and the spacecraft being prepared for battle.

  “Marines,” Jack said. “We have to lay these charges. We can accomplish the main goal of this assault and destroy this drydock. If we destroy this dock, we deliver a huge blow to the Chits. It could be the turning point in this war.”

  The Marines nodded in agreement. The drydock had to be destroyed. They were here and in a position to end the battle.

  “Maybe we can climb out,” Bubble said, his voice calm and steady. “We might make it.”

  “I have a hunch,” Jack said. “On the other side of this dock, we’ll find another tunnel just like this one that will lead us to the eastern cannon.”

  The Marines nodded and Jack sensed the rising confidence.

  “Now, the eastern cannon is still defended. Boa Company must be pinned down by some of those spitz guns. We’ll have to come out fighting on the other side.”

  The Marines all nodded again. They each pulled out an antimatter charge and prepared for action.

  “Sam.” Jack put his hand on Torent’s shoulder. “Maybe you should have stayed in the med bay.”

  “What, and miss all this?”

  “Take three Marines along the left. Lay the charges evenly around the left perimeter. I’ll do the same on the right. Osho, Bubs, you’re with me.”

  “Yes, boss,” Torent said.

  “We’ll meet at the arch on the other side. Quickly and quietly now, Marines. Those Chits up there look busy. Let’s not alert them to our presence.” Jack pulled out an antimatter charge. “Go.” His order was simple and direct. The group of Marines moved out of the tunnel and into the massive drydock, moving low, quiet, and fast.

  Osho laid the first charge after a few dozen meters. Bubble laid the next with a nervous glance upwards. Jack moved quickly and laid the next, tucking it up against the curved composite and the smooth, flat ground surface. They went on in the same manner until they reached the far side. Torent and his team came moving out of the darkness toward his position. Jack searched across the wall for the arch. He found the opening to the dark tunnel beyond.

  Jack waved the Marines into the tunnel. When the last was running into the darkness, Jack stepped inside. He took one last look up through the crossed gantries and checked out the Chitin soldiers still crawling over the Chitin craft. He could only hope they hadn’t been detected.

  Then Jack felt a massive explosion. The destruction of the western battery was complete. Cobra Company had achieved their objective, and now Jack had to make sure the battle was won. He had to destroy the drydock.

  As he stepped through the arch, he noticed the Chits in the gantry moving rapidly downwards. They swung down, their tentacles allowing them to move in huge swinging bounds. Time was going to be short. He would detonate those charges at the base of the dock rather than fail. He’d come this far. Now he would do nothing else but win, even if it cost him his life.

  Jack headed into the tunnel and ran. He trusted his instinct and ran into the darkness.

  The tunnel began to climb upward after a long run. The Marines were feeling the burn. Jack ran on and overtook his group of Marines. He reached the wall at the end of the tunnel and searched for the arch. Jack had a worrying thought that maybe the groove that formed the arch was only on the outside. He felt around, growing more and more frantic. And then his fingers found it. He pressed and pulled, and hoped the arch would open.

  The rest of the group came running up, breathing heavily, and they stood behind Jack as he tried to get the arch to open.

  Osho came alongside Jack. “Bubble fell behind, boss,” she said.

  “He never could run,” Jack said as he pressed at the groove. “We can’t wait for him.”

  The data from the micro drone showed Jack that Bubble was a few hundred meters away. Even an exhausted Bubble could make that distance in a short time.

  Jack felt the grove give way under his fingers. The arch began to open. His heart beat hard in his chest. On the other side of this door was the orbital defense battery crew. The Chits would attack as soon as the arch slid open.

  “Ready, Marines,” Jack called as the arch slowly slid open.

  A Chitin plasma spear flashed into the dark from outside as the arch slid open. It slammed into the helmet of a Marine standing behind Jack. Jack and the surviving Marines poured fire from their pulse rifles into the Chit and it fell away, tentacles thrashing. The next Chitin came and fell to the pulse rifles before it could launch a plasma spear.

  “Move as one. Go. Go. Go.” Jack ran out into the wide, deep trench around the defensive battery. Bubble came panting to the archway, his pulse rife rattling a rapid fire into a Chit coming to the top edge.

  “Sweep the trench,” Jack shouted. He ran forward, firing at each new Chit he came upon. He fired up his electron bayonet. The element of surprise was gone. All he could trust in now was speed and commitment. He rushed the next Chitin soldier and sliced through its smooth back shell with his EB, pouring fire at the next.

  Osho came alongside Jack and gave fire, putting another Chitin soldier down.

  “Boss, boss,” Bubble shouted. “They are coming along the corridor. They are coming up behind us.”

  Jack checked the data from the micro drone still in the tunnel. Dozens and dozens of Chits were scurrying along the corridor floor and walls, pressing past and over each other in a frantic dash through the corridor.

  “Set the charges to destroy this battery,” Jack called. He pulled his last antimatter charge from a pocket.

  “I’m all out, boss,” Oho said. She fired at a Chitin soldier who came scurrying around the curved edge of the battery.

  The Marines all reported that they were out of antimatter charges. “Did no one think to save some for this gun?” Jack called out, but he knew as long as they drydock was destroyed then the mission would be complete.

  The Chits in the corridor were coming ever closer. Jack knew he only had a moment before they came pouring out and into the trench around the eastern battery. Jack looked over the edge to the battlefield beyond. As he suspected, there was a defensive trench system with spitz guns all along it. The spitz guns were firing into the distance. Jack grabbed his field scanner and looked at the guns’ targets. It was Boa Company. They were pinned down, and some Marines were falling back.

  “Boss,” Osho called out. “They are nearly here. What’s the plan?”

  “We’re going to attack that defensive trench and take the pressure off Boa.” Jack checked that his rifle was ready for the next charge across open ground.

  “We’re only six Marines,” Osho said.

  “So make every shot count. We can’t stay here. I’m going to blow the drydock. Go, go, go!”

  Jack scrambled out of the trench. He lobbed the last antimatter charge through the archway and started running toward the eastern defensive trench. The Chits in the trench were so focused on giving fire to Boa Company that they were not aware of the small squad rushing at them.

  Jack accessed the detonator codes. He needed to get his Marines to a safe distance before he could detonate the charges. He set a dead man’s trigger on the detonators just in case he was killed. He wasn’t going to let a little thing like his own death prevent him from setting off the charges and destroying that drydock.

  He ran as fast as he could. He loved running. Even now, fatigued and anxious, he still loved running. If he had to die here, at least he would be enjoying his last run. He knew the drydock would be destroyed and the battle won, even if he was killed, so he put his head down and ran.

  24

  Group Captain Li watched the holostage and the bitter realization that the battle was lost crept over her. The main assault had stalled. The rei
nforcements had taken massive casualties before the TAC boats had even landed on the moon. The Marines still pressing forward toward the drydock were encountering heavy resistance.

  The assault on the eastern battery had failed. Boa company had taken heavy losses and had lost battle effectiveness. The destroyers had wasted munitions on a failed, sustained long-range bombardment of the eastern cannon and the drydock facility.

  Li wasn’t going to send in more Marines to die in a hopeless cause. She considered a frontal assault with the Monarch leading the charge. The destroyers and the monarch could move in and lay down a barrage that could swing the battle, but she knew her carrier group would take losses. The fleet could not afford to lose a destroyer, much less a carrier. If she could win a victory with a heroic charge, it would be a hollow victory at best, and could even result in a massive defeat. To turn a battle capable of crippling the Chitins into a crippling defeat for humanity would be the worst act of treachery from any serving captain in the fleet. Li might get demoted, sacked, or even flogged for retreating now, but she could be executed for treachery.

  “Sound the recall. All Marines retreat to the closest Destroyer. All ships, prepare for full retreat to home space.” Li leaned heavily on the holostage. She reached up to her shoulder and grabbed hold of her group captain pips. She should pull them off right now, she thought. She should do it. But the group still needed a commander, at last until they got back to home space. Then she would remove them.

  How did the battle go so wrong? She thought back over all the planning. All the intelligence she had gathered. The plan had been good. They had been assured victory. The Chits were just too hard to beat. The Marines had gone in with a huge force, but it wasn’t enough.

  Maybe the Chits had too many soldiers. And they were reckless. They had sacrificed themselves to stop the fire from the destroyers hitting their intended targets. How could they fight an enemy that was so ready to throw themselves at danger and certain destruction? The Marines were brave and tough, but they didn’t give themselves over to the enemy like the Chits seemed to do. Li looked at the holoimage of the Marine companies on the surface. None seemed to be moving. She’d ordered the retreat. They should have started back by now.

  “Why aren’t the Marines falling back?” she asked. “They need to get out of there right now.”

  “Group Captain,” a command deck officer called out in a worried voice. “Chitin Leviathan detected, sir. It’s on an intercept course.”

  Li looked at the failed battle on the moon. The Leviathan would be on them too soon for her to make an effective evacuation of the moon, not with all that Chit activity.

  Li opened a channel to her destroyer captains.

  “Captains. The battle is lost,” she said as matter-of-factly as possible. “There is a Leviathan incoming. We must withdraw immediately. It’s my call. We must save the ships.”

  Captain Lauafa spoke up. “I’m overrun with Chits, Group Captain. If I can’t recover the rest of my battalion, I’ll lose the Aries. They already occupy most of the ship.”

  “The battle is lost, Captain,” Li replied. “The battalions are lost.”

  “I might not be able to save the Aries, sir, but I might be able to save the battle.” Lauafa stood up straight, her holoimage flickering. “Request permission to ram the drydock, sir.”

  “Request denied, Captain,” Li said harshly. “You will do what you can to save the Aries. We have to preserve the ships. Set your heading for Eros and make for home space with all speed on my command, is that understood?”

  “Sir,” Pretorius spoke up. “The drydock. It’s blowing up from the inside.”

  25

  The explosion ripped through the drydock, sending up a massive blast and throwing gantries and Chitin craft fragments with it. The blast rippled through the glassy surface of Proxis, fracturing it under Jack’s feet. He ran and stumbled forward with his Marines. The blast wave from the massive antimatter explosion threw them forward and into the eastern defensive trench system.

  Jack landed heavily. He felt his muscles tear in his shoulder, and his meat suit immediately administered painkillers. Jack instinctively brought up his pulse rifle, but his arm would not cooperate. His meat suit reported a right shoulder dislocation, so Jack grabbed the pulse rifle with his left.

  The Chits nearby were pouring fire on B Company from their spitz guns. Jack readied himself to assault the guns. The small group of Marines came up alongside him.

  “You okay, boss?” Osho asked.

  Jack nodded. He felt nauseous from the pain and the painkillers.

  “Look at that thing blow,” said Bubble.

  The antimatter explosion in the drydock was blasting energy upward into space, converting kilos of matter into energy. The ground began to shake violently. Jack began to worry.

  “We’re too close,” he said. “We’ll be swallowed up by the blast. We have to move. There’s only one way to go. We have to move through this trench and clear it out as we go, and we’ve got to go fast.” Jack aimed his pulse rifle with his left hand, his right useless at his side.

  “You can’t fire with your left, boss,” Torent said, stepping in front of Jack. “I’ll take point. Stay behind me.”

  Torent charged along the twisting trench, flashes from his pulse rifle flickering along the top edge.

  “Move,” Jack shouted and sent his Marines forward. With a last glance back at the explosion, he charged after his eager squad.

  As the small, mixed squad rushed forward, they took down one spitz gun after another with speed and fury. The Chits servicing the guns were distracted by the explosion and their rate of fire slackened. Jack ran behind his Marines, adding his own fire to the squad’s, dropping a Chit here and shredding another one there.

  Jack looked out at B Company. With the spitz fire lessening, Boa was free to move. Jack saw figures crawling out of their small fragments of cover and getting to their feet.

  “We’ve got them now,” Jack said excitedly. “B Company can start hitting them too.”

  As the guns fell to Jack’s Marines, he glanced out at Boa. Then the message from the Monarch came over Jack’s communicator. It was a general retreat.

  “This is Group Captain Li. Attention all ground Marines. Withdraw. Mission accomplished. Drydock destroyed. Make for nearest destroyer. Leviathan incoming. Withdraw with all haste.”

  Jack slowed to a walk. His small team punched the air in celebration.

  “We’ve still got to get out of here,” Jack said. “Tactical advance with speed along the trench. Watch for Chits and let’s find a TAC boat before they all take off. Go.”

  Jack ran with fresh determination and enthusiasm. They beat back the remaining Chitin soldiers and cleared the trench. Climbing out, Jack looked back the way he had come. The ground was moving. Jack guessed it was the detonation disturbing the ground. He needed to get away before all was consumed in the antimatter reaction. But it was not the ground that was moving, it was a hoard of Chitin soldiers, hundreds and thousands, pouring over the black glassy surface toward Jack’s position. They would be on top of Jack in moments if he didn’t move. Not even an entire battalion could stem that flood of Chitins. Jack turned his back on the monstrous sight and ran. He ran with his demolition team, running to catch up with the retreating B Company. He ran in the hopes of finding a way off this dark and dangerous moon. He ran in pain and in hope. With the massive drydock erupting in a violent explosion behind him, he ran forward to the lights of TAC boat engines powering up.

  26

  The crisp sheets of the med bay bunk felt strange against Jack’s skin. A medical drone came into his cubicle and grabbed his right hand, pulling hard on his arm. The shoulder crunched back into place and sent hot flashes of pain through Jack’s neck and spine.

  He yelled out. The medical drone prodded the reset shoulder, and Jack winced. The drone administered a shot to Jack’s neck and quickly left.

  Jack slumped against the pillow behind him as t
he painkillers and sedatives kicked in. The clear composite walls of the cubicle seemed to warp and twist as Jack felt the drugs take him.

  “Hey, Jacky.” Torent came alongside Jack’s bed. “Didn’t get hurt enough to get a new arm, eh, old pal?” Torent flexed his prosthetic arm in front of Jack. “Just a dislocation for you. Call that commitment?”

  Jack tried to speak, but his tongue wouldn’t cooperate.

  “Take it easy. Sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but Griff just made me squad leader again. Sixth Squad is mine again, old pal.” Torent tapped his badge with a finger of his prosthetic arm.

  Jack couldn’t reply, but he was pleased for Torent. He was a good squad leader. He had authority and the respect of the Marines. Jack would make him squad leader if it was his decision.

  “Someone wants to say hello,” Torent said. “I’ll see you later.”

  Jack watched as Torent left and another person came forward. His vision was badly blurred, and he strained to see who it was. Then he felt a gentle hand on his forehead.

  “Take it easy, Jack,” Reyes said. “You need to rest.”

  He recognized her touch and her voice. He wanted to reach out and take her hand, but he couldn’t.

  “Just rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

  Jack looked up at her face. He struggled to keep his eyes open and fight off the sedative washing over him. After all he’d been through, all he wanted was a minute with Reyes. Hopefully when he woke, they would be safe, far from battle and the war, and he could spend hours and days with her.

  Jack lost the fight to keep his eyes open and drifted off into the comfortable darkness of sleep.

  Forged in Darkness

  Prologue

  Standing in the muster area for 6th squad, surrounded by the people he’d come to know better than any alive. Jack knew he was as close to home as he would ever get, and he didn’t want to leave.