Starship Guardian (The Galactic Wars Book 4)

by Ellis,Tripp

  Rourke’s face looked sunken and pale. Sweat was beading on his forehead. He was beginning to realize he had made a mistake.

  27

  New Earth

  “We’ll wait here for a proper rescue,” Ms. Vance said.

  “No one else is coming,” Presley said, incredulous.

  “It seems reckless and dangerous to expose these children to a war zone without proper protection. No, thank you. We’ll wait here for the proper authorities.”

  “I don’t think you fully understand the gravity of the situation. The Army is pulling back. This whole area is about to be incinerated. We’ve got less than three hours to make it to the extraction point. The cavalry is not coming.”

  Ms. Vance looked flustered.

  “Stay here if you want,” Presley said. “But I'm getting these kids to safety.”

  Ms. Vance was speechless.

  “Everybody who wants to come with me, up the rope,” Presley said.

  One by one, all of the students proceeded to climb up the rope. Levi helped them when they reached the surface. Ms. Vance folded her arms and scowled at Presley. Timmy was the last student to climb out.

  “Are you coming?" Presley asked.

  Ms. Vance huffed. A moment later, she stomped toward the rope. “For the record, I think this is a horrible idea.”

  She grabbed onto the rope and tried to pull herself up, but she didn't have the strength.

  “You’re doing it wrong.”

  Ms. Vance gave her a snide look.

  Presley demonstrated the J-hook technique. “Loop the rope around your feet like this, and use your legs to push up.” With the rope pinched between the top of one foot, and the soul of the other, Presley scaled the rope with ease. She never thought she’d be teaching Ms. Vance how to do something.

  Ms. Vance gave it a try. Her feet flailed about, trying to grasp the rope. After several tries, she finally made a connection and pinched the rope between her feet. She inched up the rope, and Presley and Levi pulled her out of the hole when she reached the surface.

  Ms. Vance looked around and got her first glimpse at the destruction. Her jaw dropped. The full magnitude of the situation finally hit home with her.

  Presley took a headcount—26 in total. She was always going to have to count 26 heads, including herself, to make sure no one got lost. She was now in charge of 26 lives. At breakfast this morning, she could barely manage her own.

  “Stay close and follow me,” Presley said. “Come on. Let's move.”

  Presley led the group through the demolished streets, back to the sewer grate. She and Levi hefted it aside. Levi climbed down and the group began to follow after him. Presley stood at street level, keeping watch.

  “I must note my objection,” Ms. Vance said. “This is highly unsanitary, and no environment for a child to be exposed to.”

  A Decluvian fighter roared overhead. It circled around for an attack run.

  “Hurry!” Presley yelled.

  The last of the students descended into the sewer. Ms. Vance was still objecting. But when the fighter screeched by, strafing the street, Ms. Vance changed her mind.

  The street erupted as the fighter’s cannons blasted plasma rounds. Chunks of concrete sprayed from the craters in the roadway.

  Presley dove for cover behind a pile of rubble.

  The fighter circled back around for another run.

  Ms. Vance scurried down into the sewer. The look on her face was priceless. Her nose crinkled up and her face turned green. She looked like she was going to hurl.

  The Decluvian fighter soared low. Geysers of concrete erupted from the street as its cannons blasted.

  Presley stood her ground, lining the fighter up in her sights. Her heart was about to punch through her chest. She squeezed the trigger, unleashing a flurry of plasma projectiles.

  The fighter streaked toward her, incinerating the ground before her.

  Presley held steady and kept firing. One of her shots connected. It was a direct hit on the cockpit. A small explosion was followed by a larger explosion. The fighter shredded into pieces. Debris crashed down to the street. The flaming fuselage swept overhead and plowed down the avenue. Metal screeched and groaned. Sparks showered from the twisted wreckage. The fighter ground to a halt. It was a flaming hunk of metal.

  Presley’s eyes filled with glee.

  She ran to the sewer grate and climbed down. She pulled the grate back into position, so it wouldn’t arouse suspicion by any passing patrols. She finished her descent, and her feet splashed down into the muck.

  She did a quick headcount—26. Everybody was accounted for.

  “It smells like stale farts down here,” one of the kids said.

  Presley chuckled. “Yes, it does.”

  “That’s an inappropriate use of language, Conrad,” Ms. Vance said. “That’s a detention.”

  Presley gritted her teeth. “Do you think now is really the time to be handing out detentions?”

  “Careful, young lady. You may not be in one of my classes, but I can recommend disciplinary action to your principal. You want to graduate on time, don’t you?”

  Presley scoffed. “Trust me. I don’t think we’re having class for the rest of the year.”

  She marched through the sludge, heading back toward the extraction point. All they had to do was stay in these passageways and keep moving. It was 16:00 hours now. Two hours to get to the LZ. It was going to be cutting it close, but it was doable.

  Presley waded through the brown murky water with Levi. The students followed along. Ms. Vance was somewhere in the middle. She kept turning her ankles trying to walk through the slop in heels. But she wasn’t about to take her shoes off and walk barefoot. The thought of sludge squishing through her toes was mortifying.

  “How's your arm?" Presley asked Levi.

  “It's stings. But I'll live."

  “I wouldn't have been able to do this without your help."

  “Naw, I don't buy it. You would have found a way. You seem like the kind of girl who always gets what she wants.”

  She grinned. “My dad taught us that you get what you settle for. So don’t settle for anything less than what you want. Failure is not an option.”

  “Clearly your dad never had Mr. Philips for Advanced Calculus.”

  Presley chuckled.

  “I’d settle for a D in his class.”

  “I don’t think you have to worry about that now.”

  Levi’s face was solemn. “Yeah. I guess I don’t.”

  They marched for several blocks, twisting through the maze of passageways. Presley craned her neck and took another count of the students trailing behind them. But the count came up short. 25, including herself.

  Her eyes grew wide with panic.

  She counted again, but came up with the same result. She raced back down the line. “Who’s missing?”

  The students shrugged.

  "Who's missing?” she demanded again. Presley scanned their blank faces. She had a lump in her throat, and her whole body was shaking from nerves. The faces of the students were all unfamiliar to her. Her stomach twisted in knots as the realization hit her. She knew who was missing.

  28

  Revenant

  Another enemy nuke slammed into the Revenant’s hull. The old destroyer shuttered. Crew members slammed into bulkheads and bounced off command consoles.

  “Engine number 2 has taken a direct hit,” Zoey yelled. “We have to get out of here!”

  “We’re going to stand and fight,” Rourke growled.

  A wave of terror washed over the crew. Rourke’s mutineers were starting to have second thoughts.

  “Helm, starboard full!” Rourke commanded.

  There was no response from the helmsman.

  “Goddamnit, I said starboard full!”

  Davies marched to the helmsman and pushed the barrel of his weapon against the officer’s head.

  “Starboard full, aye,” the helmsman stammered.

 
; The Revenant turned, aiming straight toward the lead destroyer.

  “Fire control, hit them with everything we’ve got,” Rourke shouted.

  “Aye, sir.”

  “What are you doing?” Zoey asked.

  “We can’t take out this entire fleet. But we can ram their command ship. And that’s something.”

  Zoey clenched her jaw. She wasn’t ready to die just yet. “This is insane. Taking out one ship is not going to do any good. We should fall back. Regroup.”

  Zoey began to plot jump coordinates. She was going to get the Revenant out of there, whether Rourke liked it or not.

  “Commander Bryant, back away from that terminal,” Rourke yelled.

  Davies marched to Zoey and took aim.

  More inbound nukes streaked toward the Revenant. The constant barrage of small tactical missiles from the enemy fighters impacted the hull. The report of the Mark 25s continued to rattle throughout the ship.

  Zoey planned on jumping the Revenant as soon as the calculations were finished. She didn’t give a shit if Davies shot her. She was going to save the ship and the 1600 crew members.

  “I’m not going to tell you again,” Rourke growled. “Back away from the terminal.”

  Davies’ finger wrapped tight around the trigger. He was moments away from putting a round into Zoey’s skull.

  “This is bullshit,” Dodson said. “We’re not supposed to be fighting each other.”

  Rourke glared at him. “Shut up, Dodson.” His menacing gaze turned back to Zoey. “Spaceman Davies, shoot Commander Bryant.”

  “Aye, sir.” Sweat dripped from his brow. He hesitated for a moment. Then his finger gripped the trigger.

  BANG!

  Davies’ head exploded, splattering crimson blood all over Zoey.

  Smoke wafted from the barrel of Dodson’s weapon. He hit the access button on the bulkhead with his fist, and the hatch slid open.

  Walker and his team flooded into the CIC, their weapons bearing down on the mutineers. None of them put up a fight. They dropped their weapons to the deck, and raised their hands in the air.

  The LRADDS display was covered in flashing red icons. An inbound nuke had broken through the defenses of the Mark 25s and was seconds away from impacting the hull.

  The nav computer finished its calculations. Zoey engaged the slide-space drive, and the Revenant vanished.

  Slade entered the CIC and reassumed her command. She looked over the devastation with sad eyes. Bishop’s lifeless body lay on the floor. He had been Slade’s tactical officer for the last few deployments. He had a wife and two children back on New Earth. Her throat tightened with anger.

  Corpsmen swarmed in and carried out the bodies and attended to the wounded.

  Walker shoved Rourke toward the exit. He glared at Slade. “At least I’ve got the guts to stand and fight.”

  “Please let me space him?” Walker asked.

  “No,” Slade replied. “That’s too good for him. Take him to the brig.”

  “He could trip along the way and break his neck?”

  “Just lock him up for now. And make sure he doesn’t get out this time.” Slade arched an eyebrow at him.

  Walker grimaced. “Aye, sir.” He marched Rourke, and the mutineers, down to the detention center. He assigned an entire Marine platoon to guard the compartment.

  Zoey stepped to Slade. “They caught us off guard, sir. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault, Commander,” Slade said. “What kind of shape are we in?”

  “Not good. We’re down to 62% engine capacity. We’ve taken massive damage to the hull. An estimated 163 crew are dead.”

  Slade grimaced.

  “That’s not all. Our targeting system is inoperable. They knew right where to hit us. Even if we could get back in the fight, we wouldn’t be able to hit the broadside of a barn.”

  “As soon as we get out of slide- space, I want the maintenance techs working on the hull, and get the weapons techs on the targeting system.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Nice work on getting us out of there,” Slade said.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “If I still had any sway, I’d recommend you for your own command someday.”

  Zoey smiled. “I’d like that. But I don’t think I’d ever leave your side, sir.”

  Slade smiled.

  The Revenant emerged from slide-space an hour later, near Rigel 6. It was a desolate part of space and a good place to effect repairs. Hull maintenance technicians began to repair the exterior of the ship. Electronics experts and weapons techs began piecing the CIC back together. But there weren’t enough parts to refurbish the targeting system.

  29

  New Earth

  “Go,” Presley said. “Get to the extraction point.”

  Levi looked hesitant. Presley could see the concern in his eyes.

  “Go. I’ll be fine. You said it yourself.” She lifted up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I’ll meet you there. Don’t worry.”

  Presley sloshed back through the passageway calling out for Timmy at the top of her lungs. She marched as fast as she could through the water, which wasn’t nearly as fast as she’d like. Her brow was crinkled up like a raisin, and her sad eyes darted about the sewer.

  “Timmy?” she called out again as she reached a fork in the passageway. She strained to hear a reply over the rushing water.

  “Timmy?”

  Still nothing.

  A moment later, she could have sworn she heard his voice squawk back.

  Her eyes snapped toward the sound. She sloshed toward Timmy’s faint reply. She followed the passageway as it curved. Her eyes went wide as she saw her brother clinging to the rungs that led up to the street.

  A novaraptor was snapping at his heels.

  Timmy wasn’t strong enough to push off the manhole cover above him. Even if he could, there were enemy troops passing in the streets. Presley could hear them chatter.

  The beast growled and gnashed, leaping up from the murky water, hoping to snag a chunk of flesh. The creature looked every bit as vicious as the urban legends had made it out to be. Its jaw snapped with such force, it could chomp your leg in two like it were a cheese puff.

  Presley slung her weapon into the firing position and took aim. She squeezed the trigger as the demon leapt into the air again. The plasma projectile smacked its belly. The creature’s guts splattered the walls of the sewer. Chunks of it’s body splashed into the murky water.

  The current swept the carcass away, drifting past Presley. Its body was still twitching from nerve impulses. Even dead, the thing gave her the creeps.

  She raced to Timmy as he climbed down the rungs. He was favoring his left leg.

  “What are you doing?” Presley asked, panicked.

  “Nothing.”

  Presley’s face tensed. “Nothing?”

  “I lost dad’s watch,” he said, ashamed. “I know I had it at the museum. Then I realized it was gone. I thought maybe I lost it back here somewhere. Then that thing attacked me.”

  “You had me scared to death. Are you okay?”

  He nodded, but his eyes were full of tears.

  “Let me see your leg.”

  Timmy rolled up his pantleg. He had deep gouges in his calf where the creature’s sharp teeth punctured his flesh. It was oozing blood. Presley worried about the possibility of infection. The water was highly unsanitary. But there was nothing she could do about that now. The first concern was to stop the bleeding.

  “Give me your shirt,” Presley demanded.

  “No.”

  Presley pulled out a pocket knife and flipped the blade open. She grabbed onto Timmy shirt and sliced the fabric.

  “What are you doing? That's my favorite shirt!”

  She tore off a section and wrapped it around his bloody calf and tied it off. “I’ll buy you a new one.”

  Tears were streaming down Timmy’s cheeks. But it wasn’t the shirt he was upset about. “I can’t
believe I lost it,” he said through jerking sobs.

  Presley hugged him tight. She knew how much the watch meant to him. “It’s okay.”

  “I miss dad so much.” Timmy’s face contorted, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

  Presley’s eyes went slick. “I do too.”

  They hugged each other for a moment. Presley didn’t have the heart to tell him about their mom. She’d save that for when they were safe. When they had time to grieve.

  “Come on,” Presley said. “We gotta go. Climb on.”

  “I can walk.”

  “Don’t be stubborn.”

  Timmy climbed onto her back, and they started down the tunnel. Timmy was a lot heavier than the last time she had given him a piggyback ride. He wasn’t a small little kid anymore. At 14, he was almost as tall as she was. And weighed almost as much. It was hard enough to slog through the water by herself, but with an extra hundred pounds on her back, she was getting a real workout.

  The grinding sound of a manhole cover sliding open froze them in their tracks. The commotion in the sewer had drawn the attention of the soldiers above.

  Presley shuffled into a side passageway. Timmy climbed down and they hugged the wall as a Decluvian soldier peered through the manhole. His big, round eyes scanned the passageway. He watched the water flowing through the tunnel. His nose crinkled as the stench wafted to his nostrils. Then he thought better of dropping down into the muck for a closer look.

  Presley heard him slide the manhole cover back on, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She peered around the corner—the passageway was empty.

  Timmy climbed on her back, and Presley sloshed through the muck, trying to catch up with the others. She was huffing and puffing in no time. Her quads were burning, and her lower back was starting to ache.

  “When did you get so big?”

  “I grew four inches over the summer.”

  “Do you think you’re going to be as tall as dad?”

  “I don’t know. What about you?”

  Presley scoffed. “I’m stuck at this height.”