His Coast Guard buddy Joe raised a hand. “Bill?”
“Spit it out,” he said calmly.
The chunky man patted the chest plate he wore atop his green BDUs. “What are these plates for? And who will be the team leaders?”
Bill reached over his shoulder and pulled a white tube and a red tube out of his backpack. Holding the white tube in his left hand, he lifted it and aimed it at Joe. “Hold still. This will hurt a bit but the plate will keep you from being knocked out.”
Joe lifted a black eyebrow, then nodded. “Ready for whatever,” the man said as he grimaced.
Bill pressed the button at the end of the slim white tube. A red beam shot out and hit the center of the bullet-resistant vest. Red sparkles flared. He let up on the button. The beam vanished.
Joe groaned. “Fuck that stings!” The man lifted shaking hands up to touch the black burn spot on the vest. “So that red beam is what knocked out you and captain Jane?”
“Yup,” Bill said, scanning the faces of his saloon buddies and the MacDill folks. “People, this is your primary weapon for disabling the Aliens who will be sent to capture or kill you. It shoots an electrified beam of red light that looks like a laser. Ship mind tells me the power cell in this tube is good for a hundred twenty taser shots like the one you just saw.”
“One hundred twenty-one shots,” the AI hummed from the high ceiling of the chamber.
“Mouthy AI!” He stowed the white tube in a loop of his leather belt, then moved the red tube front and center, holding it with both hands. He lifted it. “This laser tube is similar to but different from the taser. You can see that it has a flat box at the butt end and a flat box in the middle, where a clip might be on an AKM-74.” He looked up at the yellow-glowing ceiling. “Ship mind, move one of the hover bots in this chamber so it hovers just above me.”
“Complying.”
A silvery ball floated over from where it had hovered above the top tier of collector pods. Bill lifted the red tube and aimed. He tapped the button on the tube’s butt end. A green beam shot out and hit the ball. Which blew up in a yellow burst of electronics and tiny silver fragments. As the fragments rained down on him and his boarding volunteers, he faced them with the red tube weapon held upright. “Joe asked what the chest plates you now wear are for. Well, the titanium plate in your front and back vest slots are tough enough to block a taser shot. And they are dense enough to briefly block this laser beam . . . if you move the hell out of the way very fast! You’ll get burns on your arm or leg, but better than standing still and letting the beam burn through the plate and zap your heart.”
“Damn,” Alicia muttered. “That’s a nasty weapon.”
“Looks like a portable version of the Navy’s LaWS,” Stefano said softly. “How similar is it to the system on the USS Ponce?”
All of the volunteers looked very awake and very alert. The MacDill people followed every movement of the red tube laser weapon as he lifted it and stowed it in his backpack. “It’s different and more powerful. The LaWS is a solid-state laser array that shoots out an infrared beam with a top energy of 30 kilowatts. This thing shoots a carbon dioxide beam with a five megawatt energy level. It will cut through most metals. Jane and I used it to melt the caterpillar tracks of a robot sent to kill us. The robot’s frame was laser resistant, but its tracks were just steel. Which could be made to partly melt so as to immobilize it.”
“I like it,” said Janice Watanabe, her black eyes watching him closely.
“You will all like it. It also worked to kill the laser tubes atop the robots sent against us.” Bill pulled out a black square with a dome on it. He showed it to everyone. “This is a magnetic disruptor. Tap the top of the dome three, one and three times. Then stick the square against a robot or an access door. It will zap the electronics of whatever it’s stuck to.”
“It does more,” Star Traveler said from the ceiling speaker. “The magnetic disruptor is suitable for disabling the magnetic controls of a transport ship, a local gravity plate or similar devices that rely on the interaction of electromagnetic fields.”
Bill gave the finger to the ceiling. Which brought chuckles from most of his buddies and brief smiles from the MacDill crowd. “This ship mind is a vital ally to me and Jane. But its fixation on being exact in whatever it says can be tiresome.” He put the box and dome back into his backpack and faced the two lines of volunteers. “Joe’s second question was who will be the team leaders. I’ve thought about that.” He pointed to his right. “Alicia, Frank and Stefano are team leaders for the Denver crowd. They pick whomever they want for the folks who will board a pod with them.” He nodded at the nine spec ops people who’d arrived with the admiral. “You MacDill folks are active duty. I’m sure you have your own ideas. Well, I’m biased. Your three SEALs will be your team leaders. That’s Janice, Jake and Mack.”
“Yes sir!” called the three SEALs, who did not salute him as was common SEAL practice. In the field and on a mission, no SEAL indicated who an officer member of the team was. Nor did team members rely on rank. Experience and whomever had the right abilities to carry out a function was all that mattered on any SEAL team.
“Willing to serve,” called Alicia, her amber eyes bright.
His Gunnery Sergeant buddy showed a sober expression. “Ready and willing,” Frank said in a low voice.
His fellow retired SEAL Stefano did not look surprised at Bill’s selection of him to be a team leader. Instead, the man nodded slowly. “When do we start the Op Force training? And how much damage can we do to the hallways and such of this ship?”
Bill felt his heart race and his nerves go tingly. This moment reminded him of what all the crazy times at Coronado, Kodiak, San Clemente and Mount Laguna had been about. There was no need to share the details of his fifteen combat tours with these people. His IED nightmares would be old news to most of them. They each had their own history and superb training. No one here had anything to prove. Everyone was already into mission focus. Which, since they had just 46 hours left before the Collector ships arrived, meant they would go short on sleep and food. That was something he could handle. Now, time to find out who could be the sneakiest of the two groups!
♦ ♦ ♦
Bill, now wearing his vacsuit with backpack and vest over it, led the way through the Collector Pods Chamber airlock room and out into the high-ceilinged hallway of the right side of the ship. His volunteers followed him. He walked across the wide hallway to an eight foot high oval door on the opposite side. He gestured at it.
“That’s the way into the Weapons Chamber.” He pointed his small red cube at the door and pressed its button. Nothing happened. “As you can see, the red cube door openers do not work on this doorway. Or on the Engines doorway. On this ship, only the touch of the hand of a ship officer will open it.” He turned and faced the vacsuited volunteers. “As you saw in the holo of our takeover, I used the claw hand of an Alien crewman to open this door. You will have to do the same using the hand or claw of whatever Alien greets your collector pod. For other ship doors, use the red cube carried by your greeter Alien.” He hoped everyone was paying close attention. Gaining control of the Weapons Chamber of a Collector ship was vital. “Unlike us, you will arrive armed with lasers. So use them to spot-weld this door shut so the Alien crew cannot gain lasers! Now, follow me inside.” He touched the door surface.
“Whoosh!” The door slid to one side faster than he could follow.
Beyond lay a chamber as big as the pods chamber. Five bright yellow spots shone from its ceiling. Ten low walls stretched before Bill, receding into the chamber’s distant back space. On top of each waist-high wall was a series of round basins. Inside the basins lay objects of different shapes. Bill saw three white tube tasers. Next in line were three red laser tubes. Beyond the two tube weapons, sitting in larger basins, were black boxes with a dome on top of them. Lettering covered one side. The golden letters had weird shapes, like the pictographs he’d seen while studying Mandarin Chin
ese. The same grouping of three weapons types were repeated along the wall in front of him and on top of adjacent walls. Beyond them, to the right and left, dumpster-like boxes with slanted lids were lined up against either wall. He gestured.
“Everyone, grab a taser tube, a laser tube and two magfield disruptor boxes. Stuff them in your backpack,” he said, walking to the right toward the back wall line of dumpsters. He lifted the lid on one dumpster, leaned it against the wall and faced the spread out teams. “People, inside these dumpsters you will find golden globes, yellow globes, white globes and blocks that resemble bars of gold. Grab one of each. Team leaders grab double.” He looked up at the room’s ceiling, then recalled the AI could hear him over his helmet’s comlink. “Star Traveler, tell everyone what the globes and bars are.”
“All items in the dumpsters are explosives,” the AI hummed. “In human terms, each golden globe is equal to ten sticks of TNT. Each yellow globe has the power of a hundred sticks of TNT. The white globes have a thousand TNT sticks impact. The golden bars are the most dangerous. Each bar has within it explosive power equal to a five kiloton nuclear device.”
“Are the bars nuclear devices?” called Alicia, who had already stowed her tube weapons and disruptors in her pack and was looking at the dumpster innards.
“They are,” the AI said. “Each bar weighs one-fifth the weight of a human male. Its nuclear charge is a simple atomic device that explodes when two segments of highly enriched uranium are explosively combined. Be careful when transporting them.”
His volunteers opened nearby bins and moved very, very carefully as they pulled out globes and bars to stuff into their packs. He added to the AI’s data dump. “As for how to activate the globes and bars, that is similar to activating the disruptors,” he said. “However, to avoid any accidental use of the explosives, the exact activation codes will be told you over your suit comlink just before you enter your collector pod.”
Frank gave him a quick nod of acknowledgment, as did Alicia. Stefano gave a quick ASL hand sign meaning All Okay. The three MacDill SEAL team leaders gave him a SEAL gesture meaning the same thing. Stefano walked toward him, his backpack full and his manner operational.
“Bill, can we do our target practice while carrying out our Op Force fights?”
Stefano’s tone was calm, casual and matter-of-fact. Which was something Bill had always liked about his fellow SEAL. That, and the fact he never made any demand for special treatment due to his Hispanic heritage. Plus, Stefano had shared a few homemade fly lures with him that had helped him catch some brook trout on one of their mountain fishing trips. His request was a reasonable adaptation of the training regime Bill had outlined earlier.
“Sure. We can do that. Makes sense.” He turned to face the other boarders, who had clustered nearby. “Rules of engagement are these. First, no one uses a laser on this ship without my spoken permission. Second, we use the taser tubes in the Op Force battles. Third, with the tasers, shoot only at the chests or backs of your opponent. Hit the vest plates. You hit the vacsuit anywhere else and that person will be out for nine hours. And need a change of underwear.” Several of his buddies grinned, while the MacDill people were all serious focused. “Fourth, anyone hit by a taser beam is counted as being unconscious and unable to help their team. You stay where you were hit. Fifth, if you use an explosive ball, nothing will happen without activation. Sixth, any combatant can verbally ask Star Traveler to change the gravity level in the hallway section they are traveling, or in any side room they may be accessing. Seventh, be aware that on the enemy Collector ships the Alien crew and captain will hear everything you say and understand it all thanks to instant translation done by that ship’s AI. Feel free to come up with alternate non-verbal com modes. Eighth, I am now ordering our ship mind to change the gravity everywhere in the ship to one-half gee and to change the lighting to red. As you saw in the holo, the Alien crew of this ship preferred red illumination and lighter gravity. Ninth, winning an Op Force fight means the boarders disable all crew opponents and take over the Command Bridge room. Or the Alien team disables all three boarders before that happens. Our Engine Chamber is now designated as the alternate Command Bridge. Which fits since there really is a backup Command function pedestal in that room. Tenth, I will designate which team is boarding and which team is acting as Alien crew in opposition.” He headed for the chamber’s exit door. “Now, let’s get the hell out of here.”
In seconds there were 18 people in the hallway, each one wearing a green BDU under the clear skin of their vacsuit. Some had tightened the straps of the chest and back plates they wore over the suits. Backpacks hung over back plates. Everyone had a white tube in hand. All were looking at him.
“First boarding team leader is Janice and two people she picks. The Op Force Alien team leader is Frank and two folks he taps. The rest of you join me in the Collector Pods Chamber and watch the live action holo of these two teams doing their thing.” He pointed his red cube at the oval door. It slid open, giving access to the airlock room they’d just left. “Teams, go for it!”
♦ ♦ ♦
Thirty-five hours later Bill hovered near the ceiling of the short central hallway that led to the Engine Chamber, its gravity nullified thanks to an order from the Op Force team below. That team included the MacDill SEAL Jake Slowzenski, a PJ pararescue man and a disabled Green Beret guy. All the teams had learned the value of varying, or killing, the gravity in whatever hallway they encountered an opposing team. Jake had moments earlier ordered null gravity, so his people floated to either side of the access door, while he floated near the hallway ceiling. Behind them was the sealed door giving access to the Engine Room. Each of them huddled behind dismounted backpacks, having learned from prior Op Force battles that the metal-laden packs could absorb a taser beam. While an earlier Alien team had co-opted a laser wielding robot to use as a defensive aid, thanks to asking the ship mind for that help, no such robots were present below.
Jake’s team knew that being on the defensive, which had happened as a result of three earlier encounters with the boarding team led by Stefano, meant they were at a disadvantage. Still, they like all the teams now knew every detail of the right and left side main hallways, and the chamber doors that opened off of them. They knew that Stefano would be approaching from the right side, as he and his team came down the cross hallway in front of Jake. Bill liked a subterfuge of Jake’s. The man had taken his Green Beret buddy, who was disabled due to an earlier taser hit, and had pulled the buddy to a placement on one side of the central hallway. With the man’s white tube taser lying atop his backpack, Jake hoped the immobile trooper would serve to distract Stefano’s team long enough for Jake and the PJ to taser Stefano and Cassandra. The Denver SEAL also had a disabled team member, Bob Milley, thanks to earlier taser fire exchanges.
“Bomb!” came a yell over the vacsuit comlink.
A suited hand briefly showed at the junction of the central and side hallways as it loosed a golden globe toward Jake’s team.
“You scared?” Jake called over the comlink. “You humans are primitives! You do not deserve—”
Three vacsuited forms suddenly filled the top part of the hallway junction. Two of them kicked the side hallway wall to launch themselves toward Jake’s team. Who fired red taser beams at the boarding team.
One red beam hit the disabled body of Bob, whose chest plate absorbed the beam. Stefano had used Bob’s body as a shield held in front of him. The PJ fired at Cassandra Welsh, but the beam was absorbed by two backpacks held in front of her. Cassandra fired her taser at the PJ. It hit the man’s backpack. But even as she fired Cassandra had kicked sideways to change her angle of approach. It gave her a clear shot at the PJ’s chest plate. She took it. The red beam hit the PJ’s chest.
But Jake’s counterfire beam now hit Cassandra, causing her to go immobile. It was one on one, Stefano versus Jake.
“You Aliens are arrogant,” Stefano yelled, kicking over to grab Cassandra’s immobile
body. Holding Bob with one hand and Cassandra with his right leg, Stefano hit the central hallway ceiling with his white tube taser. That moved him below Jake, who was already turning in midair to keep his backpack in front of his chest plate.
Freefall maneuvering by two SEALs who had long practiced such maneuvers while doing high altitude chute jumps made for a twisting contortion of bodies, packs, white tubes, red beams flaring and silent aggression.
Stefano had the better shielding thanks to the two immobile bodies of his team that he held in front of him. Those buddies absorbed every red taser shot from Jake.
Jake was flying sideways toward his immobile PJ ally when an angle opened up his chest plate.
“Got you,” Stefano said softly as the red beam from his taser hit Jake on the side of his chest plate, rendering the fellow SEAL out of action.
Jake glared but held still.
Stefano ignored Jake, let go of Bill and Cassandra, and pulled his own backpack around to his front. Reaching inside he grabbed the black box and dome of a magnetic disruptor. Kicking forward to reach the Engine Chamber access door, the SEAL code-tapped the top of the dome, then turned it so the bottom of the box faced the oval door. He slammed it against the left side of the door, knowing from watching Bill’s holo that that location would disable the door electronics.
Escape 2: Fight the Aliens Page 7
