Last Stand Boxed Set

by James David Victor

  Jack looked down at the Marines. One was looking up at him and waving his left hand above his head to signal to Jack that the squad was ready to move. Jack opened a communication channel to the group, but his suit’s communications were dropping in and out. Jack canceled the channel and shouted down.

  “Let’s go, Marines! We’re leaving.” Jack waved the Marines over then turned to check his back, sure a fresh attack would be coming at any moment. He did not have to wait long before three of the dark green creatures came swinging toward him. One was twirling a slingshot in its right hand. It released the sling, and a small projectile came flicking through the air toward Jack, small force lines sparking off the projectile as it tumbled forward. Jack turned away, lifting his left arm to fend off the item. It struck him on the elbow with the huge electric twang that sent his left arm and shoulder slamming back into his body, knocking him off his feet.

  Jack brought his pulse pistol around as he fell and fired a stream of high-yield pulse rounds into the oncoming creatures.

  The first creature took a blow and fell out of formation, but the other two kept swinging. One of them was already twirling a slingshot ready to release another shot. Jack poured another blast of pulse fire into them and sent another one spinning away from the electrical explosion. Then the Marines from third squad were clambering up onto his tac boat and their electron bayonets seemed to scare off the last of the creatures.

  “Get aboard, Marines. Lane, take the co-pilot seat. The rest of you strap in.”

  With the Marines piling in through the boarding ramp on the sideways tac boat, Jack could see deep in the jungle. All around were the slight movements of the jungle creatures slowly circling. Swinging lightly from one branch to another or sitting on high branches and staring, they all snarled and hissed at the group. With the last of the Marines aboard, Jack dropped into the boat. Looking up through the open boarding ramp, he could see dozens of the creatures swimming toward him through the foliage. He raised his pulse pistol with his right hand and slapped the boarding ramp control panel with his left. The boarding ramp began to close. Through the narrowing gap, Jack saw twenty or thirty, maybe even forty or more move in. With the boarding ramp finally sealed, Jack heard the patter of feet over the outer hull.

  Because the tac boat was lying on its side, Jack half-climbed, half-crawled toward the flight deck.

  “Keep an eye on that boarding ramp, Marines. Don’t let any of them in here.”

  Jack dropped into the pilot seat and held himself in position with his grav field, stopping himself from sliding sideways into the co-pilot seat. He deactivated the emergency shutdown system and made ready to charge the drive.

  Squad Leader Lane turned to Jack.

  “It wasn’t my tac boat that was the problem. It’s the local gravity field in this region. There is a magnetic anomaly that was interfering with my systems. That’s why I crashed.” Lane turned back to the flight console and helped Jack prep for takeoff. “I’m not that bad of a pilot, I don’t think. It was my best skill in training. I’m sure that’s the only reason they made me squad leader. It’s lucky for me I have a good squad that are ready to do the right thing. I’m only their squad leader because they let me be.”

  “That’s fascinating, Squad Leader,” Jack said. “But this is hardly the time for a performance review. I understand the problems with the magnetic fields in this region from my flight and landing, and how the weapons behaved. The thrusters are too unreliable in this area. The only way I’m going to get this boat out of here is by using the main drive assembly.”

  “Main drive should only be used in outer space,” Lane said, his voice showing his surprise and concern. “We can’t use the main drive here.”

  “If we don’t use the main drive, we’ll be stranded, and I don’t like our chances of walking out of here with those tree sharks out there. Hold on, Marines. Engaging main drive now.”

  The roar of the main drive filled the tac boat. Jack was thrust back into his seat as the drive kicked in, and he felt the pressure threaten to crush him. The powerful main drive sent the boat racing forward through the jungle, its nose plowing through the thick ground cover. Jack angled until the front came up and began skidding over the surface. Finally, the nose came up off the ground. Jack angled the drive to its maximum tilt and directed its thrust down to throw the tac boat up. Tearing through the jungle, ripping through the branches that crisscrossed across its path, the craft raced away from the surface.

  The flight console panel flickered, stabilized, and came back to life. All systems reported back to the flight deck and Jack could see that the tac boat had taken a beating. Yellow lights appeared on all systems indicating they needed attention. Thankfully, very few red warning lights appeared, most of them for the thruster assembly that had blown out during his landing. Jack reset the maintenance schedule and bypassed the diagnostic and calibration routines, allowing all him access to all functioning systems, no matter how battered they were.

  With the navigation systems open, Jack set a course back to the original landing zone on the plain. The holostage came back online, and Jack could see the jungle below him. From this distance, it looked like a beautiful soft covering, so alive and so beautiful, but filled with dread for anyone not ready to take on the deep jungle.

  “Set course for the landing site where Tac Boat One is waiting,” Jack said to Lane. “Show me these piloting skills, Squad Leader.”

  Jack sat back and took off his helmet. He felt a dribble of sweat on his upper lip. He raised his fingers to his nose and mouth and rubbed it away, but when he pulled his hand away, he saw the blood on his gauntlet-covered hand.

  Maybe the impact of the electrical shocks from the tree creatures’ weapons had ruptured a blood vessel? His nose was bleeding steadily.

  “Listen up, Marines. Check yourselves for bleeding. Use your tactical suits’ onboard medical package to identify any bleeding and administer first aid.”

  Jack looked back at the Marines. Even though they were all fully kitted out in their tactical suits, Jack could sense the distress at having been attacked by such a strange enemy. He pulled on his own helmet and accessed med data on the squad. Bio readings flashed up on Jack’s enhanced data view and showed him that all were suffering from minor injuries: a sprained wrist, a mild concussion, even a broken finger. But each was bleeding from the nose, and all showed signs of heightened stress. Jack accessed the squad med package and administered a mild sedative. If this was a well-trained squad of Marines, they would be able to cope with the stress of having suffered an attack, but these were new recruits and had never been in the field before. Their training was wholly inadequate, and Jack could not expect them to take this without some reaction. A mild sedative would calm everyone down and they might be able to act with clear thinking for the rest of the ground mission.

  Seeing the squad relax, their heart rates showing that the mild sedative had taken the edge off their distress, Jack relaxed as well. His own med data showed a slightly erratic heartbeat, but that was probably due to electrical disruption to his system rather than anxiety. Of course Jack had been afraid when the creatures attacked him, but Jack knew and understood fear and was able to calm himself and act with clear and decisive thinking. In time, this squad would learn to manage their emotions, but for now, medication would take some of the load.

  Jack was impressed with how they had performed, however. These were no longer raw recruits; they were veterans of their first encounter with a strange creature that no one had ever fought before.

  The Fleet Marine Service had its newest group of combat veterans. Jack was proud to be among them.

  “Coming up on the landing site now, Major.” Lane appeared relaxed and in control in the co-pilot seat.

  Jack put the landing site up on the holostage. A dark cloud of smoke hung over the area.

  Crap. The thought invaded the major’s relaxed mind.

  “Thank you, Squad Leader. Good work. I’ll take the tac boat
in for landing. She’s taken a beating, so it might be a rough landing. Hold on and I’ll put her down as gently as I can.”

  Jack lowered the tac boat down into the thick cloud swirling around the landing site. The smoke cleared as the boat’s remaining functional thrusters blasted out, letting the craft descend gently to the surface. As the smoke blew away, Jack could see that Tac Boat One was missing, and in its place was a large, smoldering impact crater.

  “Weapons ready, Marines. Combat egress.” Jack stood up and turned to face the cabin, his helmet in place and pulse pistol in his hand. “Line up at the boarding ramp and move out, combat pacing and combat spacing. Create a close perimeter.” Jack turned to Lane. “You have trained for combat egress from a tac boat, haven’t you?”

  Lane’s failure to answer was an answer in itself. The training had been so slight that the squads had not been trained to fight their way out of the tac boat while landing in a hostile area.

  “Hold, Marines. Wait for my signal. Form up on me.” Jack clambered through the boat in between the two lines of Marines and stood in front of the boarding ramp on the starboard side in the mid-section of the squat tank of a ship. He slapped the boarding ramp control and the ramp moved out and down to the surface of the plain. Jack aimed his pulse pistol forward and moved quickly out onto the boarding ramp, calling out behind him as he went.

  “On me in twos, fan out—one left, one right. Move around the boat and clear your sectors. Call out your targets if you see them and give fire.”

  Jack dropped onto the surface and stepped away from the craft. He looked all around him and could see there was no movement anywhere on the plain. There was no tac boat anywhere on the plain apart from his own right behind him. There was no enemy. Only a smoldering crater the size of a curveball pitch, and scattered around, lying on the dusty yellow grass, were the bodies of Marines from first and second squad.

  Jack halted, his pulse pistol raised and held cupped in his left hand. He looked around in all directions one last time, checking for any movement.

  “Move out, Marines. Area secure. Check those Marines for any survivors.”

  As third squad rushed away from the boat and toward the bodies scattered around the plain, Jack walked back in. Lane was standing on the boarding ramp staring, his head turning this way and that looking at the devastation all around.

  “You hold here,” Jack said, patting Lane on the shoulder as he slapped his pulse pistol into his hip holster. “I’m going to check if any of the micro-drones have sent reports on what happened here and see if we can find out who’s responsible. Keep an eye on your people out there. Make sure you guard this boarding ramp. I don’t want anyone getting on board who shouldn’t be here. Is that clear, Squad Leader?”

  Lane continued to stare, absorbed by the sight of the plain.

  “Is that clear, Squad Leader?” Jack said again with force.

  Lane nodded suddenly and repeatedly. “Sir. Yes, sir. Secure the boarding ramp. No one gets in. Copy that, sir.” Lane swung his pulse rifle up and held it across his chest as he turned to Jack. “What happened here?”

  Jack patted Lane once more lightly on the shoulder. “That’s what I’m going to try to find out.” And then Jack walked inside the boat to the flight console, where he was going to get some answers.

  6

  Beretta stood over Heaton, who was strapped into the seat at the rear of the tac boat. Beretta leaned with one arm against the hull and looked down at the Marine.

  “What are we going to do with you?” Beretta said with a broad smile.

  “Just kill him now, boss! Let me do it!” Titch shouted from the flight console at the front of the boat.

  Beretta raised an eyebrow. “Killing you would be the simplest thing. Not sure why I would want to keep a Marine around. Tell me, how would you like to go? Pulse round to the back of the head? Maybe we just flush you out into space. Or would you like to do it yourself?” Beretta rubbed his chin and considered the options.

  “I can help you. I’m on the inside. I can be a spy. Let you know what the Marines are doing,” Heaton stammered as he frantically searched for any reason for Beretta to keep him alive.

  “Nah,” Beretta said dismissively. “I already have people on the inside, and higher up the food chain than you.” Beretta patted Heaton on the side of the head like parent to child. “You will just be in the way. No hard feelings, but it will be better if we just get rid of you now, don’t you think?”

  “Whatever you do, boss,” Titch called out, “do it quick! I’ve got a reading here. The fleet is entering the system. We’ve got two of the destroyers, the carrier, and all the civilian transports. They’re all heading this way.”

  “Guess we better get rid of you quick,” Beretta said, stepping back from Heaton, strapped and struggling in the chair. Beretta pulled a pistol from his waistband. He primed the weapon and tapped it against the side of his leg. “Can’t have you knowing my location. Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick. I’m not a monster.”

  Heaton shook his head, then he spoke with a voice that was breaking but trying desperately to remain calm and somewhat jovial.

  “No. No. Listen. You don’t have to do this. I hate the Marines. I can help you.”

  Beretta smiled and nodded, holding up the pistol.

  “There’s a message coming from one of the destroyers,” Titch said. “It’s already in the system, heading toward that orange gas giant. You want to hear it, boss?”

  Beretta grinned. “Yeah, sure, play it.”

  The voice of Captain Pretorius aboard the Scorpio crackled over the communication system.

  “Scepter. This is Scorpio. We have identified reserves of dense hydrocarbons at the surface of the moon around the system’s orange gas giant. I am attempting to capture as much as I can store. Assistance would be appreciated.”

  “This is the Scepter. How can we assist you, Scorpio?”

  “If you can get a maintenance team over here, I can convert some of my storage capacity to contain the hydrocarbon fluid. I will be able to bring a lot more back to planet Blue. It could give the fleet a large enough secondary energy resource while we make repairs to the power systems.”

  “Copy that, Scorpio. The Scepter will organize a maintenance team for you and dispatch to your location. We will be arriving in orbit around planet Blue shortly. We have a request from the civilian fleet command: Marines to assist with disembarking the civilians to planet Blue. A lot of them are keen to get planet-side and it’s going to take us days to disembark the civilian transport. Civil unrest is a concern for the civilian command. All available Marines to assist the disembarkation operation. Respond please, Scorpio.”

  “The Scorpio battalion is depleted. I’ll check with the ranking officer, but I think we are down to a skeleton complement as it stands. However, I will instruct the senior Marine to dispatch all available Marines to assist the civilian disembarkation process.”

  “Copy that, Scorpio. The Scepter will dispatch maintenance teams to you now. Scepter out.”

  Beretta walked toward the flight deck and looked at the holostage, showing the positions of the ships throughout the fleet. The Scorpio was in orbit around the moon of the orange gas giant while far out on the edge of the system and, just clearing the diffuse Oort cloud, came the rest of the fleet.

  “Get a message to our people on the Scepter,” Beretta said. “I want a crew on board that maintenance ship heading to the Scorpio. We will be the maintenance team and we will take control of the Scorpio. Make sure you send only the hardest associates we have, and they need to be smart, and anyone with some maintenance experience would be good. Get that message away now, Titch.”

  Beretta watched as Titch started contacting cell leaders in Beretta’s criminal network. Then he turned back to the Marine strapped into the seat at the back.

  “I could kill you now,” Beretta said with the sympathetic tone, “but it’ll make a mess, and Titch is too busy to clean up right now. So I guess we�
�ll wait until we rendezvous with my maintenance crew, and then we can get rid of you. You don’t mind waiting, do you?”

  “I can help,” Heaton said, tears and desperation in his eyes. “I was on the Scorpio. I know my way around. Let me help you. I can help you.”

  Beretta considered Heaton’s suggestion. He tapped Heaton on the head with his pistol while he gazed into space. Beretta ran the pistol down Heaton’s cheek and tapped him on the shoulder. Beretta looked down at Heaton.

  “I’m not really looking to take anyone on right now,” Beretta said, and he tapped Heaton again with the pistol, looked at the pistol, and his smile melted away.

  Heaton stammered and pleaded.

  A sympathetic look appeared on Beretta’s face. He shrugged and smiled a broad, joyful smile as he tucked his pistol back into his waist band.

  Heaton gasped and sighed and thanked Beretta, promising not to let him down.

  “Don’t mention it,” Beretta said dismissively. “I’m sure you’ll do great. And if you are as useful as you say, then there might be a permanent position for you. And if not, I can always shoot you later. Is that okay?”

  Heaton nodded, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I won’t let you down, sir.”

  Beretta punched Heaton in the jaw with a casual yet powerful punch. “I’m not a Marine. You don’t have to call me sir.” Beretta punched him again hard. “Just call me boss, and I’ll call you ‘Tears.’ Is that okay?”

  Heaton nodded.

  “The contact on the Scepter just sent a message: he’s assembling the crew now. They’ll be leaving for the Scorpio as soon as they get into orbit. We are a bit exposed here, boss. You want I should move us out of sight?”