“We all know what to do,” he said. “Good luck.”
Bevan and Laidlaw saluted.
“You sure you can do this by yourself?” Bevan said.
“All I need is a ship and a communicator. Sam can assist me. You won’t have much need of a one-armed Marine down here.”
“It’s my best arm,” Torent said. He clenched a fist and held it up as if to challenge Jack. “At least, it is now.”
“Let me send some Marines with you to service the corvette’s weapons,” Laidlaw said.
Jack considered it. “I won’t need them, and you need every Marine available down here.”
“There are some walking wounded,” Laidlaw said. “I would only have them hold the command post. They can go with you.”
“If this works, I won’t need them. If it doesn’t, they’ll be safer down here than up there with me,” Jack said.
“Great,” Torent said. “So why don’t I get to sit on my kravin ass in the command post too?”
Jack looked at Torent. “You can stay if you want, Sam.”
Torent shrugged. “Nah, I’ll go.”
Bevan and Laidlaw saluted Jack. Jack returned the salute and then walked up the ramp.
“Close the ramp behind you, Sam,” Jack said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Climbing out of the spaceport gave Jack a view over the city. He climbed higher and spotted the fires of the fallen Chitin craft. A horde of Chitin soldiers were moving through the city in a wide sweep. They would reach the command post at the civilian spaceport in a little under an hour.
Torent leaned forward and looked closer.
“We should go back and let the battalion know the Chits are closing in,” Torent said.
“They’ll do just fine,” Jack said. “Besides, we don’t need to go back. I’ll tell them right now.”
Jack looked over to Torent.
Torent nodded.
“Ready?” Jack asked.
“Ready,” Torent replied.
“Opening a channel now.” Jack reached out for the communicator, then he hesitated. The corvette was currently invisible to the Chitins thanks to the chemical cloak. As soon as he hit that button, he would light up like a flare and bring the Chitins against him.
“Attention, Scorpio Battalion. Chitin ground forces advancing from the south. Stand by to defend your CP.”
Jack deactivated the channel.
“I’m sure they’d say thanks if they could,” Torent said.
Jack nodded. He looked at the passive scanners. A flight of Hydras was moving toward the corvette at speed.
“Incoming, Sam. Let’s take them on a ride.”
Jack powered the drive and pushed the corvette to speed. He checked the progress of the Hydras moving to intercept. They had reached the point where Jack’s transmission had been made and were holding position.
Jack opened the channel again.
“This is Jack Forge, Scorpio Battalion, Fleet Marine Service.”
The Hydras leapt to high speed and moved in on the corvette. Another flight of Hydras approached on the port side. Jack moved off with a burst of speed. He stopped and waited and watched. The Hydras formed up into a massed squadron. Jack hit the communicator controls again.
“This is Corvette Scorpio One.”
The Hydras moved in again, another group moving in on an intercept course. Jack moved off slowly and let the Hydras come close to his tail. He pushed the passive scanners to their limit. Hydras were moving in from all over the continent.
“This is Jack Forge aboard Scorpio One. Scorpio Battalion.” Jack powered the drive and accelerated away. The Chitin Hydras followed. “Major Jack Forge and Commander Sam Torent of the Fleet Marine Service.”
Jack saw the Hydras moving in on all sides. They darkened the sky with their number, all converging on the continually moving transmission. A plasma arc leapt out from one of the Hydras and then another, the plasma arcs converging and sparkling in the evening sky.
“Come on, Chitins, is that the best you can do?” Torent said into the communicator.
Jack took evasive action as a flight of Hydras and a Leviathan moved in on an intercept course. Jack punched the corvette higher into the atmosphere.
“Bring that kravin Chit fire up here,” Torent said. “You Chits ain’t nothing but a bunch of scroats. I’ll beat you down with my one good arm.”
Jack turned to Sam and gave him a puzzled and amused look.
Torent saw Jack staring. He shrugged. “I’m running out of things to say.”
Jack pointed at the communicator.
Sam reactivated it. “I’m running out of things to say to you Chits. All of you Chits ain’t nothing. I’ll take you all on. Me and Jack Forge will smash your hulls with a legendary beat-down.”
Jack saw the Chitin craft following, advancing on the transmission only to find it had moved. Jack pushed the corvette vertically and climbed out of the atmosphere. Black space filled the view screen. Jack powered on. He activated the communicator.
“This is Major Jack Forge. Fleet Marines. Welcome to space.” Jack switched off the communicator and turned to Torent. “That’s enough. We’ve cleared the atmosphere.”
Jack turned the ship, tipping it end over end, and pointed the nose back at Eros. The corvette still moved away from the planet, but Jack could see the blue planet and the swarm of Chitin craft. The passive scanners showed hundreds of craft, including several Leviathans, all following the signal that had now vanished.
“What if they just return to the planet?” Torent said.
Jack watched. The Chitin formation was beginning to drift apart, opening out into a defuse arrangement of ships.
“They don’t know where it is,” Jack said.
Then a number of ships accelerated toward the corvette. Jack turned the ship and moved away, maintaining his distance.
“Do you think they have spotted us?” Torent asked.
“I don’t know, but why don’t we give them a more attractive target. See if you can find one of Bevan’s grenades, Sam.”
Torent clambered out of the copilot’s chair. Jack watched the pursuing Chits. Every Chitin signal was beyond the atmosphere of Eros. Every Chitin craft was in space. Amazingly, not a single craft was left on Eros. Any that had been in orbit had long drifted away, but the hundreds of Hydras and the Leviathans that had been inside the atmosphere were now pursuing Jack’s little ship.
“I’ve got a crate of them here,” Torent said. “Six grenades. What’s the plan, Jack?”
“Load them into the high-density shot cannon and get ready to fire. Let’s put some distance between us and Eros first. Full power to the drive. Hurry up, Sam. I don’t know how long I can keep ahead of them.”
The lead Leviathan closed in on the corvette. Jack pushed the drive to melting point.
“How’s that cannon coming along, Sam?” Jack called out.
“Done. Loaded. We’ve got three shots.”
Jack turned the ship about its midpoint and brought the cannon around.
“I’ve got that Leviathan in my sights,” Torent said.
“Fire.”
Jack watched the surface of the Leviathan on the passive scanner. The small detonations of the grenades lit up like tiny specks of lights glinting against the dark hull.
Then the Leviathan lit up as a plasma arc blasted out from an adjacent Leviathan, targeting its companion.
“It worked,” Jack said. “Target another, Sam. Let’s put the cat amongst the pigeons.”
“Or the Chit amongst the Chitins,” Torent’s said, firing another blast from the cannon.
A second Leviathan lit up with tiny flecks of fire as the grenades with the inverted cloak exploded on its surface. The tiny detonations were never going to make a scratch on the powerful Chitin warship, but it would attract the plasma arcs from the surrounding Chits, and a Chitin plasma arc was an extremely powerful weapon.
Nearby Leviathans slashed out with their plasma arcs, firing on one of t
he tainted Leviathans and then the other. The Hydras moved in, their smaller arcs flickering over the dark hulls of the Leviathans, spitz cannon blasts slamming in and lighting up the targets.
Jack moved off at speed as the Chitin ships turned their firepower against the two Leviathans.
“One more shot, Jack,” Torent said.
“Save it. We might need it,” Jack said. “We’re heading to Zelos. We’re gonna make sure the Chitins go home.”
The massive gas giant world of Zelos was surrounded by Chitin Leviathans. The armada that had attacked and surrounded Eros had drifted away after the chemical cloak had hit the atmosphere and effectively hid the planet. They were now hanging in orbit above their home world.
Jack deactivated the drive, powered down the ship to minimal power, and coasted past the massive planet.
“Looks like they returned home,” Torent said. “We did it, Jack,”
“It’s not over yet,” Jack said, looking at the scanner. There is still quite a fight going on back on Eros. “I wonder how they are holding out on Eros?”
As if in answer to his question, a deep space message was detected. “This is Commander Laidlaw. We have come under heavy ground attack, but we are holding out. There is no Chitin air craft anywhere on Eros. We’ve been joined by a squadron of Blades, and they report clear skies. The Blades are assisting the battalion. We will clear Eros eventually, sir. We understand if you can’t respond. Laidlaw out.”
“Did you hear that, Sam?” Jack called back along the gundeck.
Jack turned and looked back at Torent. He was rigging the blast cannon to fire.
“What are you doing, Sam?” Jack asked.
“They attacked us, Jack. We can’t let them get away with it. I can’t let them get away with it. They took my arm, Jack. They nearly took my life.”
“Hold fire!” Jack shouted.
“Negative, Major,” Torent said with a mischievous smile.
Jack looked at the passive scanner and saw the small shot race away from the corvette, a small collection of grenades with the flasks of inverted chemical cloak.
“What have you done, Sam?” Jack shouted.
“Just a little payback.”
The grenades raced toward the planet and disappeared into the atmosphere.
Jack watched the ships surrounding the planet, and then, as one, every Chitin ship—Leviathan and Hydra and Kraken—fired their weapons into the gas clouds of the giant planet.
The firepower was intense and terrifying. Hundreds of ships firing at once.
Then Chitin craft came racing in from their furthest reaches of the system and added their fire power to the attack. Jack looked on, horrified and mesmerized.
Despite the display of firepower, Jack doubted that even the combined might of the Chitin fleet could destroy the planet. Even if it did, there were more than enough ships and soldiers in orbit to wreak havoc across the system. Jack assumed the effects of the inverted chemical cloak would wear off before too long, anyway.
Either way, the Chitins had attacked only after humanity had attempted to mine the gas clouds of Zelos. As long as humanity stayed clear of Zelos, they should be able to live in the system free from attack.
The communicator crackled as another message was detected. Jack checked the Chitin armada one more time. They were still attacking their own world with as much fury as they had ever deployed against the Eros Fleet and the Fleet Marines.
Jack turned back to the console to check the incoming communication.
Torent dropped into the copilot’s chair next to Jack. “We got a message?” he asked, casually and lightly, almost as if setting the entire Chitin armada against their home world meant nothing to him at all.
The communication was weak, the signal too distant and too defuse to carry visuals or speech. Only a single tone signal could be detected.
“It’s code,” Jack said. He listened to the series of beeps.
“Code?” Torent asked. He put his feet up in the flight console.
Jack slapped Torent’s feet off the console, then adjusted the communication receiver. “Yes, for very long-distance communication. I’ll have to put it through the decryption core.”
Torent climbed out of the copilot’s seat and wandered into the rear of the corvette. “I think I saw some ration blocks back here,” he said. “You want one?”
The small holostage on the flight console showed a holograph text message.
“Listen up, Sam. It’s a message from the carrier Scepter. They are under attack from unknown forces. They request assistance from any and all Fleet vessels.”
“Ration blocks,” Torent said. He walked back to the cockpit and dropped a silver-covered ration block in front of Jack. “Eat,” he said.
“The Scepter?” Jack said to himself. “I think Sarah went on the Scepter when they left Eros.”
Torent took a bite from his ration block. He chewed greedily. “So what you going to do?”
Jack set a course. “We’ve got no crew and no ammunition.”
Torent pulled out the Fleet Marine Pulse Pistol from his holster and dropped it onto the console.
“We got some,” Torent said, taking another bite of the ration block.
“They’ve got a three-day head start and are under attack from an unknown force. We don’t know if one corvette and two Marines are going to be of any help at all.”
“Want to go and find out?” Torent said.
“I’ve already sent us on our way,” Jack said. “Drive at full power. Heading out of the Eros System now.”
Torent tapped the passive scanner and called up the image of Eros. The small planet was receding fast until it was just a dot. Zelos was surrounded by Chitin warships firing their weapons in a wild firefight that seemed to be raging between all the ships.
“How long until we make it to the Scepter?” Torent asked.
Jack shrugged. “Don’t know. It’ll be hard to find them out there. We don’t know where they were heading. Hopefully, they’ll keep transmitting so we can approach and offer assistance.”
“Wake me when we get there,” Torent said and crossed his arm over his chest, still chewing a chunk of ration block.
Jack looked out into the black. Somewhere out there was Sarah Reyes. If she had not discovered the chemical cloak and the inverted form of the chemical that drove Chitins to destroy themselves, then the Fleet and every human in the Eros System would be no more. She deserved a chance at being saved from this unknown enemy.
Jack was in a position to help. He had been transformed from a mild university student and sole survivor of his family into a Marine, an officer, and a hero. It had been a long time, and no time at all, and through it all, he had been Forged by War.
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for reading the stories in the Jack Forge Fleet Marine Boxed Set. I hope you enjoyed following Jack as he went from unwilling hero to Fleet Marine commander.
Humanity may have survived the Chitins, but they are far from safe. There are more adventures coming in a new series starring Jack and some of the other heroes from this series. Keep an eye out for it on Amazon.
If you did enjoy these stories (or even if you didn’t), it would be awesome if you left a review for me. That really helps me know how my stories are doing.
At the end of the book, I have a preview of Discovery which is the first book in the Niakrim War series which is published under my primary pen name (and real name) David J. VanBergen Jr. It’s right after the information about our newsletter. After you read the preview, you can download the book on Amazon.
Get Discovery here:
amazon.com/dp/B071NJBNH4
Lastly, if you would like to be notified when the next book is released plus learn about all kinds of new books and special offers, you should consider signing up for our Science Fiction Newsletter. The details are on the next page. You will get a free story when you sign up.
Thanks again. Now check out the Science Fiction Newsletter and
the free preview that follows!
Sign up for our Science Fiction Newsletter
and get a FREE short story
Canis Borg: Alien Control Agent
Half human. Half Alien. All Attitude!
fairfieldpublishing.com/sci-fi-newsletter/
Sign up today!
And don’t forget to check out the free preview on the next page.
Bonus Content: Story Previews
Preview: Discovery
Space is so boring!
This was certainly not what Violet had expected space travel to be like. She had dreamed of this since the first time she looked up at the stars in the sky, but none of those dreams had included endless days of nothingness. The only excitement she had experienced during the first days of the journey was when an occasional piece of space debris penetrated the warp field forcing the pilot to take evasive action. Even those potentially deadly encounters were brushed aside, as if they were no more bothersome than a fly buzzing around the room, by the Krim Sprinter's legendary pilot, Cyrus Jones, who was as much machine as man.
The captain had assured her that the Krim Sprinter was the fastest ship in the fleet, which made it the fastest ship in the known universe, when he reluctantly brought her on board the week before. The problem with space travel was the incomprehensible distances between planets. Even at three hundred times the speed of light, the travel time to Proxima was listed as seven days. The captain had assured her that they would be there in five. When she asked what they would do on the Proxima outpost for two days while they waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, Captain Mitch Cooper had just smiled and walked away.
After four days of watching countless specks of light stream past in a blur, Violet wished her childhood dream had involved something less monotonous...like being an accountant. She was wondering if it was possible to actually die of boredom when the ship violently lurched, throwing her from her chair. She froze in the air momentarily as the warp drive was forcibly shut down, dropping the ship back into real time, before being slammed into the navigation console. Everything went black.
Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9) Page 84
