“Sir. Cobra ready.”
Jack smiled. Sam Torent was boisterous and impertinent, but he was respected and had a natural authority and roguish charisma.
He walked through the ranks of Cobra Company. This had been his company; he had been one of these Marines. He knew Cobra better than any company in the battalion, and he struggled not to feel affection for it.
Jack stopped in front of the squad leader of 6th squad. That had been his squad. He had known the squad leader since day one in training.
“At ease, Osho,” Jack said as the squad leader saluted him. “How are you finding the pressure of command?”
“Terrible, sir,” Osho said, “but as long as I discharge my duties as squad leader better than you did, I’ll be happy.”
Jack sensed the unease from the Marines in 6th squad that their squad leader would talk so casually and informally to the battalion major, but Jack knew Osho. They had fought together more times than Jack cared to remember. They were not just former squad-mates, Jack considered her a friend.
“I’m sure we can all learn a thing or two from you, Osho,” Jack said and then with a tip of his head at 6th squad, he added, “Make sure you look after my squad.”
“Your squad?” Osho said. “You look after the battalion and I’ll look after my squad, sir.”
Jack saluted Osho and walked off smiling. Torent fell in beside Jack as he walked to the small podium in front of the battalion. Torent spoke quietly so only Jack could hear.
“So, Jack, we going now or what?”
Jack patted Torent on the shoulder. “Yes, we’re going, but remember, Sam, this is a security operation, not a combat one. Keep Cobra under control. There will be distractions. Most of these Marines haven’t seen Eros in months. Make sure you keep them on task. Clear?”
“You got it, boss,” Torent said, then returned to his position in front of Cobra Company.
Jack stepped up onto the small podium. This podium also had a sturdy holostage built in so the battalion major would be able to address the battalion via a hololink from the comfort of his office. Jack had vowed never to be so distant. These Marines were his responsibility and he would always give them the respect of sending them on deployment in person.
“Listen up, Scorpio Battalion. We are going to assist the boarding of the transport ships that will take the population away from Eros, away from danger, and to our new home. There will be emotions from fear, to anger, to distress, and our job is to remain calm and direct the population to their designated transport. They will look to us for safety and security, so we will show them discipline and courage. Company Commanders, move out.”
Jack stepped down from the podium and walked toward the three landing craft on the Marine hangar deck. He stood and watched as, squad by squad, the Marines poured up the ramps and into their designated seats in the huge landing craft.
With the last Marines aboard, the three company commanders entered their designated landing craft. Jack walked toward Cobra’s craft and jumped onto the boarding ramp just as Torent closed it.
“You need me to find you a seat, sir?” Torent asked.
Jack shook his head. He went to the front of the craft and took a seat in the cockpit. He watched every move the pilot made. The flight console was green. The landing craft had been serviced, and all were in good shape. Jack looked out of the view screen and watched the hangar doors slide open. Eros lay ahead, a blue jewel in the black of space.
He was heading home with his battalion to save the population from destruction by the Chitins. Even though they had won many battles, they were still abandoning their home and running away, but Jack knew that it would do no good to fight to the death. Any one of the Marines would bravely fight to the end and die in a last-ditch battle if it meant victory, but there could be no victory over the Chitins. What good was fighting to the death when there could be only defeat? What purpose was there in constant war, when they could all be free? Even though abandoning Eros felt like a defeat, it was the only real hope for victory.
Jack had a job to do. His only thoughts now were of doing that job the best he could.
9
The landing craft of the Scorpio Battalion approached the capital in formation with Cobra’s craft flying front and center. Jack looked at the view screen and saw for the first time the lines of transport ships sitting and waiting for their human cargo and their orders to leave the planet.
They were massive ships, and they looked even bigger now that Jack saw them for real and not just some holoimage projection. They were arranged in two lines of five ships in the center of a massive open-topped hanger. Around the hangers were lines of fences and walls that channeled the population to the boarding gate. Already, the population was waiting, a sea of people waiting for their turn at evacuation from Eros.
“How did they build them so fast?” the landing craft pilot said.
“We’ve been preparing this evacuation for some time, pilot,” Jack said. He leaned forward in his seat in awe at the sight of so many huge craft.
Unlike the carriers, these transport craft were pale in color. The drive assembly at the rear of the transport ship was similar to the drive on the carriers, but the nose section was different. Instead of the chiseled nose section of the other Fleet craft, these ships had a number of horizontal beams jutting forward over fifty meters in length. Amongst the horizontal beams were three curved beams like twisted scythe blades, curving inwards. The beams were made of a pale lattice work while the curved blades were solid.
“Have you ever seen anything like that before?” the pilot asked.
Jack shook his head, but the more he looked, the more he thought the structures at the front of the transports did remind him of something. They looked like the forward section of the Chitin Leviathans.
People were already streaming aboard one of the transports. A huge boarding ramp was positioned next to the massive ship and a wide entrance was open along the side of the massive craft, letting hundreds of civilians pour inside.
“Coming in to land now, sir,” the pilot said.
Jack spotted the landing pad in front. “Prepare for landing,” he called back into the passenger hold. He heard the call repeated by Commander Sam Torent and then again by the squad leaders.
The landing craft set down on the pad and the doorway opened, the boarding ramp sliding away. Jack was up and out of his seat. He watched Torent order his squad leaders to move their squads out. It was a textbook operational egress.
Torent looked back to Jack. “All squads deployed.”
Jack walked over to Torent. The bright sun poured into the landing craft’s passenger hold, fragments of dust dancing in the bright rays.
“Stay with your company, Sam,” Jack said.
Torent saluted and jogged off down the boarding ramp.
Jack followed out into the wide-open courtyard just outside the massive hangar.
The entrance to the courtyard of the hangar was protected by a heavy-duty fence with a set of gates set in them. Beyond the fence, there was a series of low walls and high fences, clearly designed to stop the mass of people pushing at the fence as one. Even the strongest fence would not withstand the pressure of thousands of desperate people pressing against it. Jack watched as the population weaved their way through the series of fences to the large set of gates, a crowd of several thousand civilians, with even more joining the back of the crowd every second.
Jack took position in a command post set on top of a tall observation tower in the middle of the courtyard. He looked out across the long, wide courtyard leading to the transport ship’s hangar and then to the crowd flowing up to the gate. If they were going to get these people aboard their transport, they would need to start boarding right away. It looked like it would take days.
A sudden wind blew up from behind Jack, blowing in through the open windows on his observation tower. A transport ship was lifting off from the far end of the hangar. The pale, hulking craft lifted slowly and silently. Jack watched
the apparatus on the front section begin to move, the scythes rotating impossibly amongst the stiff horizontal beams.
The front of the transport ship began to rise gently and pointed upward before, suddenly and impressively, accelerating away into the bright blue sky.
The crowd cheered as the ship climbed away. Jack found himself feeling a sense of relief. The evacuation was underway.
Soon the massive transport ship was lost to sight as it raced away under the power of the graviton drive. Jack pulled up his field scanners and looked at the ship. It was already on the edge of space and still accelerating away.
Jack felt a sense of elation that the first transport had successfully lifted off and was on its way to a new home. He began to understand why the Fleet had struggled with poor maintenance and substandard equipment for so long. All the resources of the entire system had been poured into these transport ships. He had only just been made aware of the huge threat to the system. He realized the threat must have been known for some time.
All Jack’s efforts since being drafted into the Fleet Marines had been buying time for humanity to finish its greatest engineering project since first arriving in the Eros System. He was now witnessing the culmination of all that effort.
A communication came in from Fleet Command and Control with a message to the entire population. The first transport was away. Transport hangars all across Eros were departing and soon the total evacuation of Eros would be complete.
Jack opened a channel to his commanders.
“Did you hear that, Marines?” he said.
Torent, Laidlaw, and Bevan all responded. Jack could hear the cheer in their voices. It was good to be saving people instead of fighting Chitins for a change, and it made them all feel good.
“Any idea when we can start letting these civilians through, sir?” Bevan said.
Jack looked over to the large gates. They were still closed. Jack had assumed the Scorpio Battalion was here to facilitate the orderly boarding of the transports. Jack accessed the observation tower’s holostage and called up the details on the gate. The status of the gates was locked, and Jack was unauthorized to open them.
“Hold position, Bevan,” Jack said. “We are not boarding at this gate yet.” Jack accessed the evacuation orders. The population had all been given transport ship codes and had been directed to this gate. Jack had no way of knowing when they would be boarding. He opened a channel to the battalion.
“This is Major Forge. Listen up, Marines. We’ve got a lot of worried people out there. Just hold position. Inform them that we will begin boarding as soon as their transport ship is cleared for boarding. Ask for their patience. Forge out.”
Jack looked out at the fence and the entrance gates. It looked more like a heavy fortification than a simple security fence. Not far behind him, in the huge transport hangar, was the only available way off the planet Eros.
The rush of wind behind alerted Jack to another transport taking off. He turned and watched as the massive craft lifted off, pointing its strange forward apparatus skyward before accelerating away.
Cheers went up again from the crowd. There was definite joy in the cheers as all could see the means of their escape. But Jack knew that soon that joy would turn to frustration, and to fear soon after that if they too were not allowed to board.
A message from Laidlaw came over Jack’s communicator.
“Sir, I’ve got a family at the gate here. Their transport boarding codes are all different. The children have different designated transport to the parents. Can we do anything about this, sir?”
Jack looked out at the growing mass of people. How many other transport boarding codes were in error, he wondered. There would be other errors in the system. An operation of this scale would always have glitches and errors, but he knew that as long as everyone got away, the errors would be worked out eventually. The most important thing was that everyone was safely taken away.
“Laidlaw, is the family at the correct gate?”
Laidlaw replied after a few moments. Jack pulled up his field scanner and looked to Laidlaw’s position. He was standing at the heavy fence and looking at each of the family’s boarding codes.
“Yes, sir,” Laidlaw said. “They are all at the correct gate. They have different transport designations. They say they’ve been here since last night waiting to ask someone for help.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Jack said, looking at Laidlaw’s position at the fence. The family on the other side of the fence was showing Laidlaw their documents. “Tell them to sit tight and we will find a solution.”
Jack opened a channel to the evacuation operation center at Fleet Command and Control. An automated reply told Jack that his gate was not yet authorized for boarding.
Another transport departed. This time, the cheers from the crowd were tinged with the frustration that Jack expected to hear.
Jack opened a channel to the battalion. “Remain calm, Marines, and the civilians will remain calm too. Forge out.” Then Jack opened a channel to his company commanders. “I’m going to try and find out something about that gate. There is an office in the transport hangar. Keep me informed. Copy?”
The three commanders replied. Jack knew they could manage the situation for now. There was, in fact, very little to do until the gates were opened, then it would be a case of moving the population to their designated ship as quickly and safely as possible. But for now, Jack wanted to get that gate open.
The noise of the crowed died away as Jack walked toward the hangar. A cheer went up, and Jack knew another ship had lifted off.
Inside the hangar, Jack found a bank of hover bikes. He jumped on one and made his way into the vast cavernous space toward the small office.
The office was at the base of the inner landing pad where Jack’s transport had landed. The Scorpio Battalion’s landing craft were gone and a smaller, sleek, private craft was in their place. A few people were wandering down the ramp into the hangar.
A hover transport came racing out of the distance and stopped at the base of the landing pad.
Jack could see the few people were clearly among the wealthy and powerful. Jack recognized a politician amongst the group. Another was ageing and overweight. He was accompanied by a glamorous young woman, and they were followed by a number of well-presented, young domestic servants, all carrying huge, plush luggage cases.
“You there,” the overweight man shouted.
Jack looked over and realized the man was shouting at him.
“Help the staff bring the rest of my luggage.”
Jack looked at the line of servants and the mass of bags. He couldn’t believe there was still more. The transports were big, but space was still at a premium if the entire population was to be evacuated.
“Who, me?” Jack said.
“Yes, you. Help now.”
The politician stepped next to the large man and said something in his ear. The large man threw his hands in the air.
“I didn’t get where I am today only to have to carry my own bags,” he said.
Another word from the politician and the large man climbed onto the hover transport, the craft drooping dangerously low to the ground under his weight.
The politician walked over to Jack.
“Major? Major. Hello. I’m Secretary Hudson.” The secretary held out his hand for Jack to shake. “How is the boarding going?”
Jack shook the secretary’s hand. “Slow, sir. The gate I am responsible for hasn’t been opened yet.”
The secretary nodded.
“Get on board, Hudson,” the fat man said.
Hudson stepped away from Jack. “You are doing a fine job, Major. We’ll get those people to their ships. I’ll send a message to the evac central command right away.”
The secretary climbed onto the hover transport. The transport moved off immediately, heading toward the distant evacuation ships.
“Evac central command,” Jack said to himself. He tapped his wrist’s holo
stage and searched for the evac central command.
Jack found the office. He opened a holochannel and waited for the answer. An automated reply informed Jack that evacuation protocols were in effect.
The small office at the base of the landing pad was open and empty. Jack went in and tried to find a person responsible for his gate. The only information he could find was that the Scorpio Battalion had been deployed to manage the civilians at the gate.
Jack looked to the hover transport disappearing into the distance. The next ship looked small at this distance. There were still more than enough ships for all. Jack just needed to get the people from his gate to the correct ship.
The hover transport with the fat man and Secretary Hudson was disappearing fast. Jack jumped on the hover bike and went after them. Secretary Hudson would know who to talk to.
Jack caught up with Hudson at the base of the evac ship. Drones were swarming around the craft, spraying it with the chemical cloak.
More people were arriving from other landing pads on hover transports. They all looked well dressed and carried an air of superiority as they walked up the boarding ramp to the massive transport ship. There were more luggage bags and more domestic servants. Well-dressed men with heavy watches and cufflinks accompanied by glamorous women with long hair and short dresses.
“Secretary Hudson,” Jack called out, seeing the politician walking up the huge boarding ramp into the evac ship.
Hudson turned and spotted Jack. He waved politely and carried on walking.
“Major Forge,” a voice burst over Jack’s communicator. “This is Fleet Intelligence. You are not at your post. Explain.”
“I’m trying to find out details about my boarding procedures. When can I start boarding at my gate? I thought the secretary would help.”
Jack looked up the ramp as the secretary was being welcomed aboard by a hostess.
“The secretary is busy, Major,” the voice on his communicator said. “Your gate will be boarding at the appointed time. Return to your post and prepare for boarding.”
Jack looked into the hanger. The next transport was barely visible in the distance and the darkness. It seemed still, and there was no activity on the boarding ramp.
Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9) Page 73
