Tanaka sent her deployment orders to the rest of the fleet. The corvettes and frigates arranged themselves on the fringes with their hail cannons ready and targeting the point Tanaka had identified.
“Calm yourself, Admiral,” Tanaka said. “Let me do my job. If not, I’ll have you removed from the command deck. Is that clear?”
“Admiral? You call me admiral and yet you are openly disobedient. I have command here! I am senior! I am taking control of this fleet right now!” Henson spun around and shouted to the command deck and its officers standing at their consoles. “Set heading out of the system. Deploy combat drones to cover our retreat. Fire all weapons!”
Tanaka looked at her armrest holostage, watching the Skalidion swarm reforming to its familiar teardrop shape, having circumnavigated the plasma fire wall. She called out calmly, “General Wallace, will you escort the admiral to the officers’ lounge? You can observe the battle there.”
“You can’t evict me from my own flagship command deck!” Admiral Henson shouted, spit flying from his mouth, tears in his red eyes.
General Wallace and Colonel Snipe stepped over and stood on either side of the admiral.
“This is no time to be changing our strategy, Admiral,” Wallace said. “Let the group captain do her work.” The general escorted the admiral away.
“All ships deploy hail curtain now. Fire.” Tanaka looked up to the main holostage and saw the image showing the hail cannons on all ships, from the Scepter all the way down to the last tac boat. Flashes erupted from them all, indicating charges of kinetic hail ready to release their devastating wall of shrapnel.
The charges raced away from the fleet toward the Skalidion swarm. It spread out, and moments before the Skalidions collided, the charges detonated, scattering superheated shards of hail and creating a curtain of deadly, molten metal.
The Skalidions slammed into the hail curtain, the fighters’ green explosions tearing holes through the hail curtain. The Skalidions were being destroyed, dozens by the second, but the fighters flowed through the gaps created by the destruction of their own fighters, and soon the swarm was sweeping through, over the wreckage of their own fellows.
Group Captain Tanaka watched the range finder. Soon, the Skalidion swarm would be in range of the high-energy lasers on all warships. With the tac boats giving second-by-second perfect targeting data, the laser batteries would soon account for yet more of the Skalidion fighters.
But still they came, their numbers hardly impacted by the fleet’s defensive measures.
“Close proximity hail curtain, now,” Tanaka said, giving the order to launch the final defensive curtain before the fleet engaged the Skalidions directly.
Beretta checked his position in the corridors of the Scorpio on his handheld holostage. Around the corner was the long, straight corridor that led to the Scorpio’s command deck. Beretta called a group of his crew to him.
“We have nearly got them, lads. Just around that corner and down the corridor. Go in shooting, kill anything that moves. If it doesn’t move, kill it anyway. Go.”
Beretta waved his crew around the corner and heard them shrieking as they ran. Soon, the zinging fizz of pulse rounds colliding with the composite of the corridor walls came around the corner.
Beretta, excited by the sound of gunfire, checked his pulse pistol and charged off.
The floor of the corridor was already littered with the dead from his crew. Ahead, in the command deck, Beretta saw pulse rounds fizzing back and forth. He felt his heartrate quicken, and he ran headlong into the fire.
Nearing the end of the command deck corridor, he saw the blast doors begin to close. Beretta urged himself to greater speed and rushed toward the narrowing gap. He ducked through a moment before they slammed shut. He rolled over his shoulder and skidded into cover behind the command chair. An officer came into view, a pulse pistol aimed. Beretta swung up his weapon and loosed a shot. The round snatched the officer off his feet, the burning smell of uniform and flesh filled Beretta’s nostrils and excitement rushed through him.
He stood up and looked out into the command deck. Behind the main holostage, a group of officers were taking cover and giving fire to Beretta’s crew, who were taking cover behind the control consoles.
Beretta moved out of cover and skirted around the edge of the large command deck. He laid down cover fire and called to his crew to advance on the group of officers.
As the pirate moved in, he saw an officer break cover and take aim at one of his crew. Beretta’s aim was good, and he shot the officer dead.
Coming around the side of the holostage, Beretta saw the man in the captain’s uniform with his second-in-command at his side. He aimed the pulse pistol at the captain, but his XO stood up and placed himself between them.
Beretta fired one round that slammed into the commander’s chest.
“Commander Chou!” Pretorius said, grabbing his second-in-command as he fell. Pretorius looked up at Beretta, who was standing there, grinning, with his pistol held loosely at his side.
“Captain,” Beretta said in a friendly tone, “won’t you join me at the command chair?”
Pretorius stood up and looked Beretta square on. A hand grabbed him from behind, a hand across his face pulling him backwards. Another hand grabbed the pulse pistol from his grip, and yet another grabbed his left arm and dragged him across the deck. They flung him at the foot of the command chair.
Pretorius looked up at Beretta. “You will never take the Scorpio,” Pretorius said.
“Guess I’ll have to prove you wrong,” Beretta said as he climbed up into the command chair and sat down. He tapped the controls on the armrest and accessed the drive systems.
They were locked.
“Like I said,” Pretorius said, looking up at Beretta, “you will never take the Scorpio.”
Beretta felt himself become angry. He was here on the command deck of a fleet destroyer, but the controls were locked out. But they could only keep him out for so long.
“I think I’ll have command of this ship before long,” Beretta said. He climbed down and walked across to the security console. Somehow, he was going to find a way to break this encryption and take control of the ship. He had the command deck. All needed now was access to the systems.
Henson paced in the officers’ lounge, Colonel Snipe guarding the door and General Wallace watching the feed on the small holostage.
“I will have her shot. She will hang for this! I am the admiral!”
“If she wins the battle, I think we’ll give her a pass, don’t you?” Wallace said.
“If she wins, it will be because she has the most powerful ship at her command. The Scepter is bigger than both destroyers put together, bigger than the rest of the fleet! Tanaka thinks she’s the one with the power. It’s my ship, and I should be in command!”
Wallace had known Henson for years, since before the evacuation, since before the Chitin War. They were colleagues. They were friends.
“You command the fleet, not just one ship,” Wallace said.
Henson grunted and walked toward the exit. Colonel Snipe stood in the doorway looking slightly uncomfortable as Henson approached him. Wallace called out.
“Where are you going?” Wallace said amiably.
“I’m going to spend some time with my daughters,” Henson said.
“The girls are not here,” Wallace said. “I had them sent with the civilian fleet to the planet the moment we detected the Skalidions. I took care of it myself. I chose their escort personally. They are safe and in good hands. I didn’t think you’d want the girls on the flagship when we went into battle.”
“This is the safest place they could possibly be,” Henson said. “Where are they? I’m going to join them. I’m not going to wait around here and have my authority questioned.”
“I don’t think there are any ships available right now,” Wallace said. “Anything with a drive system is in the fight or heading to planet Blue. There is nothing for us to do
now but wait, and hope.”
Jack watched the Scorpio on the holostage of the tac boat’s flight console. The Scorpio was in orbit above the gas giant. Jack resisted the urge to send a message to the command deck. Any message he sent might be intercepted by Beretta.
The signal from the other side of the system showed Jack that the fleet had engaged the Skalidion and was deep in combat. The Skalidion swarm poured in on the far side of the system, heading toward planet Blue with the combined fleet in its path.
Jack clenched his fist. The Scorpio needed to be in that fight. Captain Pretorius was one of the best combat captains in the fleet, and the Scorpio needed to be there, standing alongside the other destroyers and the Scepter. The million-strong Skalidion swarm was powerful, but it could be defeated if the fleet operated together. Jack already had enough reason to be angry with Beretta, but keeping the Scorpio from the fight was the worst act of criminality the old pirate had ever committed.
Jack crept closer to the Scorpio, its drive systems powered down, only the maneuvering thrusters holding it in its geo-stationary orbit.
Jack moved the tac boat over the upper hull of the Scorpio and held the position a meter above it. Jack climbed out of the pilot seat and pulled on his helmet. He called out to the Marines in the cabin.
“We are going to be on familiar ground,” Jack said, standing in front of the Marines with all eyes on him. “But we do not know the strength or disposition of the enemy. We will move carefully and in fireteams. Look after our point man and watch our six. Suit up and follow me.”
Jack checked the Marines with his enhanced data view. The data showed that every Marine had correctly sealed his tactical suit. They were ready to leave the boat.
Tapping the boarding ramp console, the ramp moved away from the side of the boat and Jack descended. There was nothing but black space outside, and in the distance, the flicker of the battle as the Skalidions attacked the fleet. Jack walked down the boarding ramp and stepped out into empty space. Only a meter below him was the Scorpio. Jack let himself fall and land gently on the hull, activating the mag-boots in his suit. He walked toward the aft section and the cold drive assembly. Before moving on, he checked that his squad was falling in behind him. The last Marine out was Squad Leader Lane, and they all moved in step, following Jack.
The group came up to the upper hull access port behind the secondary laser assembly, but he found it sealed. Jack sent his command codes to the exterior hatch panel and the hatch popped open. He pulled it open and looked down the long ladder, the path lit by a dull red light. Jack stepped over the edge of the hatch and let himself fall slowly down toward the inner hatch, the others gliding after him. There was just enough room for the entire squad, and Jack looked up to watch Lane close the hatch above them.
With the pressure equalized in the access corridor, Jack opened the inner hatch. The hatch opened with a gentle hiss, and the group dropped, one by one, to the corridor below.
The Scorpio was eerily quiet. The drive systems were unpowered, and there was no movement in the corridors. Jack accessed the internal surveillance network and switched to a view of the command deck on his wrist-mounted holostage.
Standing on the command deck was Captain Pretorius, his back to the holostage that showed the fleet’s battle with the Skalidion swarm. Pretorius was looking up at the command chair. Jack refocused the image to show the person sitting in the chair. He didn’t really need to, as he knew exactly who was sitting there, but he wanted to get a good, long look at the man he was about to kill.
Lou Beretta. A scourge to the fleet. And he had taken the Scorpio.
Jack zoomed out the view to see the corridors surrounding the command deck. Several armed men were scattered around the corridors and across the deck. Some had ident chips, some did not, but Jack knew they must all be Beretta’s pirate gang. Further out, some gun crews were manning their positions at the high-powered laser stations and at hail cannon placements at the port and starboard batteries. They were waiting for their orders, expecting a fight, but with all communications cut off, the crewmen had no way of knowing what had happened on the command deck. Jack suspected they had no idea the ship had been captured.
Jack searched for the Marines of the Scorpio battalion, hoping some were still on board. But Jack soon discovered that all had been transferred to the Scepter. And then Jack identified a single Marine’s ident chip. The signal was moving toward the forward section, moving fast through narrow side corridors and closing in on the command deck.
Jack opened a channel. “Sam, it’s Jack. I’m on board.”
“Glad you decided to show up, Jack. Although I was looking forward to retaking the Scorpio all by myself, I could use a hand.”
“Rendezvous with me at this location.” Jack sent Sam the location of the maintenance hatch on the deck below the command deck. “The fleet has engaged the Skalidions. They need the Scorpio’s firepower. We need to take control of the command deck and get the Scorpio into the fight now. We haven’t got much time.”
“I’m moving into position,” Sam said. “Think it’s best we observe communication silence for now.”
Jack deactivated his communication system. He held up a hand and called the squad to attention, then indicated with a series of hand signals for them to follow him close behind at the double.
Jack moved off at speed, determined to take back the Scorpio, and determined to kill Beretta.
The Skalidion swarm punched through yet another hail curtain. Finally in range of the high-energy laser, the fleet gave fire.
The tac boats fed real-time data back to the central targeting network. Every laser assembly identified the nearest Skalidion fighter with pinpoint accuracy. The high-energy laser beams from the dozens of assemblies across the fleet flicked on and off, individual beams existing for only a fraction of a second, lancing red light out from the fleet and connecting with Skalidion fighters. The momentary connection with the beams delivered enough energy to obliterate a single fighter instantly.
As the lasers flickered in a dazzling display of ordnance, the hail cannons blasted out high-explosive rounds into the tightly-packed clusters of Skalidion fighters. Hundreds of Skalidions were destroyed in the first second, and a hundred more a second later.
The Skalidions moved in, seemingly unaffected by the loss of so many of their fellow fighters. Even as they were destroyed by the hundreds, thousands more swept into the deadly cannon fire and the flickering laser beams.
And then the Skalidions were in range with their own weapons, and the green fire burst into life.
Gouts of boiling shot raced away from each fighter, coalescing into a massed pulse. A tortured, seething mass of green fire energy tumbled forward through space toward the center of the fleet’s line—the Scepter.
Tanaka sent her orders to angle all stability field energy to deflect the incoming mass of Skalidion green fire. With the order delivered, she then issued orders to fighter control to deploy the Blades. The squadrons of fighters raced away from their flanking positions and tore in to the Skalidions, the maneuverable craft avoiding the green fire and laying down a deadly fire of their own from their forward laser assemblies and flank hail cannons.
The tumbling mass of Skalidion green fire connected with the Scepter’s angled hull stability field. The fire slammed into the field and spread over the lines, wrapping and twisting and choking it out of existence.
Then the Skalidions fired again, and the second boiling mass of green fire came tumbling toward the Scepter’s unprotected hull.
The green fire connected and began corroding the hull. The black composite blistered and smoked, boiling away into space. With the first layer melting, the hull began to tear away in chunks. The green fire clung to the surface of the Scepter and spread over its surface. Eventually, the green fire found a crack here and a broken access port there, pouring directly into the Scepter. Even as the second massed green fire assault corroded and tore the Scepter apart, a third volley came.<
br />
And there was nothing to stop it this time. The green fire flowed in through the corridors of the Scepter, corroding it from the inside out. The fire flowed through the corridors like a toxic liquid, obliterating everything in its path. Where it met a blast door or a sealed bulkhead, it began to corrode the structure even as it flowed around it, seeking another way, coursing deeper into the Scepter’s body.
Tanaka watched the image on the main holostage as it showed the green fire racing through the ship. Gun emplacements blinked red as they went offline, destroyed by the unnatural fire. And with the green fire only moments away from the main reactor, she sounded the alarm for all hands to abandon ship.
She slumped back in her chair and, in her final act as group captain, she transferred the flag to the Aquarius.
As the green fire burned into the reactor chamber of the main drive, the Scepter lost all power. A moment later, she exploded in a final, terrible, green and orange fireball. The explosion ripped forward from the drive section, consuming the ship entirely. Orange drive plasma boiled away into space, mixed with the Skalidion green fire that clung to every surface and every fragment of debris, corroding it, boiling it away to form clouds of incandescent dust that swirled in the black of space.
11
Jack moved quickly and silently through the Scorpio’s familiar corridors. He held up his hand to call a halt and took a knee. Glancing behind him, he was satisfied to see the squad of new Marines right behind him, kneeling in two lines along the sides of the corridor, Squad Leader Lane at the rear but moving forward to join Jack.
“Movement,” Jack said to Lane.
Lane turned back to the squad and called two Marines forward using a series of hand signals. His actions were so accurate that Jack forgot for a moment he was so new. His hand signals were clean and precise, not at all like his stuttering speech pattern.
Last Stand Boxed Set Page 18
