Last Stand Boxed Set

by James David Victor

  She was wild. She was crazed. She was determined to capture and kill all humans immediately.

  15

  Maintenance craft from across the fleet swept in toward the Scorpio as they came back into formation. Jack Forge watched the ships race toward the destroyer, and he couldn’t help the smile of joy and relief that crept over his face as he realized the Scorpio would be brought back to fighting condition.

  And soon, Jack would be there himself. One ship from the fleet raced to the civilian transport, bringing the relief crew, with a new captain ready to take command of the ship. Another medical ship brought med drones and doctors to administer to the civilians suffering from the effects of the corrupted Dox vapor.

  “So I guess you’ll be getting back to your battalion, Major,” Special Agent Kitt said. She stood in front of the command chair looking up at Jack, her enforcers at her side with Lou Beretta in custody.

  “I don’t think there’s very much left of the Scorpio Battalion. I think we are down to about two squads, if my math is right.”

  “Well, let’s see if we can’t get you some new recruits,” Kitt said, smiling up at Jack. “But something tells me you’re getting used to the command chair. I don’t know if you want to go back to being a frontline Marine.”

  Jack finished his operation, opening the docking bay for the new command crew and the medical ship to land, and then he climbed down from the command chair. He adjusted his jacket.

  “Not afraid of the big chair,” Jack said, looking back up at the command chair of the civilian transport, “but I’d much rather have my boots on the ground, alongside a squad of well-trained Marines.”

  “And I can’t think of anyone better to train those Marines,” the agent said. She gave Jack crisp salute and a smile. “See you soon, I hope, Major Forge.”

  Jack looked down at Kitt. She was so much shorter than any Marine, but she was a powerful individual, and Jack was sure she was going to be an important member of the Fleet Intelligence Service. At last, Fleet Intelligence would have some agents with real-world experience in their ranks.

  Jack returned Kitt’s salute. “Look forward to working with you again, Special Agent Kitt.”

  “And if you’re not too busy training your new recruits, maybe we could meet socially. Special agents do occasionally have some off-duty moments.”

  Jack was surprised, but pleasantly so, and nodded sharply. “Yes, Special Agent, I’m sure that would be enjoyable.”

  Jack watched as Kitt marched off ahead of the enforcers and their prisoner, taking him to the tac boat waiting on one of the landing pads.

  Sam stepped up next to Jack and gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs. “Are you getting fresh with intel?” he jabbed.

  “Get your Marines in order, Commander,” Jack said. “Get ready to disembark. They are heading back to the Scorpio immediately.”

  “Did you hear what I said, Jack? Are you avoiding the question?”

  Jack looked at Sam and nodded. “I guess it would be nice to get to know someone socially.”

  “So it’s not enough for me to get you tickets to the game anymore, is it, Jack?” Sam said.

  Footsteps in the command deck corridor caught Jack’s attention. He looked up to see a new civilian captain and crew walking towards him. Jack stepped aside from the command chair and saluted the new captain as he stepped up.

  “Captain Maslin relieving you of command, Major Forge.”

  “I stand relieved,” Jack said.

  Jack and Sam left the command deck and made their way to their waiting tac boat.

  Racing from the civilian transport to the Scorpio, Jack could see the damage over the Scorpio’s outer hull. One laser assembly had a broken emitter, bent halfway along its length, putting it out of action for some time. Marks all across the hull composite showed where the Skalidion green fire had smashed through the stability field.

  “She’s a great ship,” Jack said.

  “She sure is, just like her battalion major,” Sam said. He patted Jack firmly on the shoulder.

  Entering the Marine deck, Jack tapped the control panel on the inside of the boat boarding hatch and walked onto the familiar deck. Walking toward him came the familiar sight of his old friend Sarah Reyes, now a member of the Fleet Intelligence Sci Division. She had become more serious since taking on her duties as an agent. She had a stern look on her face now. Jack was suddenly concerned.

  “Agent?” Jack said with concern. “What is it, Sarah?”

  “Did you see Special Agent Kitt take Beretta to the intel boat?”

  Jack shook his head. “No, she left on her own with her enforcers. She was taking Beretta to the Scepter’s brig. Is everything okay?”

  Sarah Reyes shook her head.

  “No, Jack. Beretta is gone. He never made it to the Scepter’s brig. He didn’t even make it to the Scepter.”

  “Has he stolen the tac boat? Give me the boat’s ident code and I’ll get after him right away,” Jack said.

  Sarah shook her head ahead. “No, Jack, the tac boat arrived on the Scepter, but Beretta was not on board.”

  “I know Special Agent Kitt left the civilian transport with him. I don’t think she would let him get away. Ask her. What does she say?”

  Agent Reyes turned to walk away.

  “Sarah, tell me, what is it?”

  Agent Sarah Reyes paused and turned slowly to face Jack. “Special Agent Kitt arrived on the Scepter. She’s dead. So are the two enforcers. We are trying to locate Beretta now.”

  “I’ll find him,” Jack said.

  “I’m with you, Jack,” Sam said, folding his arms across his chest and stepping up next to Jack.

  Agent Reyes shook her head again. “Negative, Major. The last message we received from Special Agent Kitt was that you should be put in charge of training Marines. Fleet Intelligence will handle Beretta. You can handle the Marines.”

  Jack stood on the Marine deck and watched his former friend now agent walk away.

  Sam turned to Jack. “If you want to go after Beretta, I’m with you,” he said.

  Jack looked at his boots and shook his head. “No, Sam, our duty is clear. We have to rebuild the Fleet Marine Service. Who knows what we are getting into on the other side of the stellar void? We will need a good force of disciplined, dedicated Marines. That’s our duty. That’s what we have to do. But if the intelligence service needs me to capture or kill Beretta, I’ll be ready.”

  Jack sat at his desk and looked through the holofiles for the Marine recruits. Some were too young, some were too old, but all were enthusiastic, dedicated, and committed to becoming the best Marine they could be. Jack allocated the training squads to the training commanders. Central arenas on three civilian transports had been kitted out to provide a full training simulator. He hoped he could at least have the basis of the new reinforced Fleet Marine Service before the fleet reached the other side of the void.

  A message on his desk holostage drew his attention away from the stack of holofiles he was still looking through. He tapped the holostage without thinking.

  “Hey there, Jacky.”

  Jack felt a shiver of cold hate run down his spine.

  “Lou Beretta, you—”

  “Yes, I’m fine. How about you?”

  “I’m going to find you, Lou.” Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He felt his fist clench and tighten.

  “I hope so, Jack. I think I have some unfinished business with you. No need to go hunting around for me. I’m not that far away. And anyway…” Beretta leaned forward, his face filling the image on Jack’s holostage. “I’ll be coming for you soon enough.”

  The image of Beretta faded away as the old pirate ended the call. Jack continued to stare at the blank holostage for some time. Finally, he looked back to his work, making a huge effort to focus on selecting the new Marine recruits rather than selecting the method by which he would make Beretta pay for everything.

  Jack had been a professional for su
ch a long time that he’d almost forgotten what it was like to be a private individual. But now, he had a strong feeling that this was more than just professional. This was personal.

  For the first time since he could remember, Jack was truly angry.

  New Home

  Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 8

  1

  The fleet limped out of the stellar void and emerged into a new star-filled region. The drive systems on ships all across the fleet were struggling. Sputtering. Blue active drives flickering, a sure sign that the symmetry of the reaction field was slipping out of range. The failing drives created a variance in speeds across the fleet. To stay in formation, all ships were forced to move at the speed of the slowest.

  And with navigation systems on the older craft out of calibration, many ships were drifting off course. Constant realignment with the fleet’s lead ship had slowed the fleet still further.

  But they had made it.

  The starfield on this side of the stellar void was bright and vivid after the months of complete and utter darkness. The stellar void had been the fleet’s escape route from a dangerous region to a new region where every star held a possibility for a new world, a new home.

  The darkness of the void left a darkness in the minds of the civilian population, all crammed into the dozens of city-sized transports. Every person was desperate for light, all longing to feel a planet beneath their feet. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were crammed into decaying starships, and with system failures occurring all too frequently, a total disaster was only a matter of time. The fleet needed to land.

  Jack Forge watched the main holostage on the command deck of the Scorpio as the data on the local starfield was updated. The holostage updated every few seconds as a new star was scanned and its data added to the growing map—stars and their planetary systems all being detected and processed as the fleet crept along.

  The sight of so many new and uncharted star systems was exciting for the Scorpio’s officers and an enthusiastic chatter rippled around the command deck. Jack watched each new star appear. There had to be a planet around one of them that they could call home.

  “See one you like?” Captain Pretorius called to Jack. The old captain was sitting up in his command chair overseeing countless ship operations as Jack watched the data pour in.

  “They all look pretty good, sir,” Jack said, turning to face the captain. He leaned against the edge of the holostage, new stars blinking onto the image behind him. “The civilian population could do with some time off-ship. Any habitable planet will do right now.”

  “It almost sounds as if you have had enough of being aboard the Scorpio, Jack,” Pretorius said, looking up from his work.

  “Not at all, sir,” Jack said, turning back to face the holostage. “I could never give up this old ship. But it would be nice to have a change of scene for a few days.”

  The appearance of the blue giant on the holostage was accompanied by an alert from Fleet Intelligence. A planet in the habitable zone around the star had been earmarked as a potential colonization site. Jack tapped the side of the holostage and called up the report.

  “A super terrestrial,” Jack said, looking at the data. “But the gravity is just about standard. And there’s an incredibly dense, metal-rich moon orbiting the planet. What a crazy configuration. The gravity on that moon is huge. It’s creating a massive tidal bulge across the planet’s ocean.”

  Jack continued to sift through the data. The super terrestrial had a vast ocean, running from the north pole right down to the south pole, which wrapped almost entirely around the planet. A blue planet. On one side was a scattering of small islands creating an archipelago that covered the entire face of the planet. The seas were incredibly shallow between the islands, and the data showed a vast sunken continent with only the tips of the mountains standing out from the water.

  The ocean between the islands at high tide was only twenty meters deep. At low tide, it would be possible to wade across from one island to another with the waters coming up to chest height, if it were possible for someone to walk the hundreds of kilometers between the largest islands in chest-deep water.

  The only major landmass was a continent centered on the huge planet’s equator and reaching far north and south. It was almost as long as it was wide, and its western and eastern coasts were marked by two long, white sand beaches.

  The entire planet was warm and humid. The islands and the interior of the huge continent were heavily vegetated. Dense jungles grew in the damp, warm atmosphere.

  “Scans are coming back showing a lot of life,” Jack said. “Data is pouring in on flora and fauna. Atmospheric chemistry looks good. It’s definitely habitable.”

  “Don’t get too excited, Jack,” Pretorius said. “We have good data on the nearest dozen stars. They are all likely to have a habitable world. If not a planet in the habitable zone, then potentially some moon that could support the civilian fleet. My feeling is this will just be a pitstop. A place to stock up on supplies and reorganize the fleet, before we head deeper into this region.”

  Jack tapped the holoimages of another couple of stars and checked the data coming back from the surveillance network. A number of orange mid-range stars were showing planetary systems that were hospitable to life. One mid-range star was young and in its early phase of planetary development. Thirty large terrestrial planets orbited close to the star with a chaotic mass of asteroid debris moving amongst them, a system in the early stage of a heavy bombardment with the potential for major planetary collisions every couple of orbits.

  The innermost planet of that system was a hot gas giant while the outer system was home to several small ice giants. One moon around an ice giant appeared stable with a frozen water crust. It was a potential landing site and refuel station, but certainly nowhere the fleet would want to call home. Jack tapped the image of the star and let it shrink away. Then he tapped another.

  This was another mid-range star, but the system was in a more advanced stage of development. Again, the innermost planet was a hot gas giant orbited by several small terrestrial moons. The moons were tortured by gravitational tides from the gas giant and the star. Pulled and stretched to create a virtually permanent liquid rock surface. Baked by radiation from the gas giant and solar radiation from the star as the moons orbited between the two. Clearly inhospitable to life, even to Jack’s untrained eye.

  The outer planets perhaps had more potential. A large gas giant, although far from the habitable zone, had a planet with a liquid water surface. Heated by radiation from the gas giant and protected by an unusually strong magnetic field, possibly the result of an extremely dense nickel core, the ocean moon was highly likely to harbor life, marine life at least. Data suggested the moon’s water was extremely low salinity, but not fresh. Not good enough to drink, but enough to make it a tempting prospect for a visit.

  Jack selected another star. He read the same results again, a series of planets with potential for a landing site, but nothing as good as the super terrestrial already identified around the blue giant.

  Jack heard Pretorius respond to a communication from another ship. Jack turned and listened.

  The message was coming from the fleet’s flagship, the largest military vessel and the power at the center of the fleet: the Scepter. Group Captain Tanaka appeared on the main holostage and her voice echoed around the Scorpio’s command deck.

  “The science division has identified a planet around the blue giant in sector three. I’m dispatching the Scorpio to go in and take a closer look. How is the Scorpio holding up, Captain?”

  “We are in good condition, considering,” Captain Pretorius said. “We’ve been through a lot, but we’ve been worse. A little planetary exploration will be no problem at all.”

  Jack looked around the bridge of the Scorpio. She was an impressive ship. She had taken on some of the deadliest enemies ever encountered and had stood toe-to-toe with them in some of the most brutal encounters the fleet had know
n. With all the action the old destroyer had seen, it was amazing that she was in such good shape.

  The image of the group captain shrank away on the holostage, leaving the image of the local starfield. The holoimage moved suddenly to position the blue giant at the center.

  “All hands,” the captain’s voice came over the ship-wide address system. “The Scorpio is moving to the blue giant star in sector three to take a closer look at what could be a habitable planet. All hands to your duty stations. Stand by to move out of formation.”

  Jack turned to the captain. “I will assemble the battalion. No doubt the Marines will be the first boots on the ground.”

  “Agreed,” Pretorius said. Then he paused and looked up from his work. “You know, as the first ship in the new system, I will have the right to name the system. Any suggestions?”

  Jack looked around the command deck. It was so familiar. He had stood here as a squad leader, as a company commander, now he was a major in charge of the entire battalion and was the senior Marine aboard.

  “She’s a good ship, sir,” Jack said. “You should name the star and the system after her.”

  “Blue Giant Scorpio.” The captain mulled it over, checking the name out. “I like it. It sounds good. Just wait one moment before you go, Jack,” the captain said and opened a channel to the flagship.

  The image of Group Captain Tanaka grew to fill the central holostage.

  “Moving out of formation, sir,” Pretorius said. “New heading set for the blue giant in sector three. We will be on route to the Scorpio System in a matter of moments.”

  Tanaka smiled wryly and nodded. “Very well, Captain,” she said. “I want a full assessment by the end of watch. Atmosphere, geological activity, biota, all of it. I’ve already dispatched the Aquarius and the Canis to two other stars and a group of corvettes are surveying some other nearby systems, but the super terrestrial around the blue giant in sector three looks like our best chance for a safe harbor while we patch up the fleet. I look forward to the first report back from the Scorpio System, Captain. Good luck.”