Deneb or Die

by Stephen Arseneault

  THE SQUAD

  (Novelette 6)

  Deneb or Die

  By: Stephen Arseneault

  "These glowing balls of light, the stars they call our name.

  From them we draw our might, from them we spark our flame.

  In heavy ships we fight, our quest to stake our claim.

  These glowing balls of light, from them we make our fame."

  S.A.

  View the author's website at www.arsenex.com

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  Copyright 2018 Stephen Arseneault. All Rights Reserved

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law, or in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  THE SQUAD Deneb or Die

  Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

  Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

  Chapter 7 What's Next? Books

  Chapter 1

  * * *

  It was a busy morning spent acquiring supplies while every ship in the Confederation it seemed was stocking up. We still had no word from the Herzek at Deneb or from the renewed assault by the Maxans at Bellatrix. Hundreds of merc ships had already taken flight. And hundreds of the ships of our military fleets were already on the way to Bellatrix. Xurpok had again attempted to contact his brother Bardok, but to no avail. His comm hails had not been accepted.

  Mendez carried a crate of food packets in her arms. "Collins, you're blocking me, man. We have to get this stuff aboard."

  "Sorry, doc says I need at least another week before doing any heavy lifting, even with the bond."

  "Then at least get out of our way. We need to get this done."

  "You know, you've been riding me hard the last few days. What gives? I know I can be a pain-in-the-ass, but seriously, your comments haven't been sarcastic or funny, they've just been harsh. What gives?"

  "I'm a woman. Haven't you heard? We have bad days."

  "Ah. Gotcha. I'll keep my distance from your rage."

  Collins turned and walked down a ramp and out into the hall.

  Mendez smirked as I came up the ramp. "Can't believe you played the woman card."

  "Yeah. It's all part of the plan."

  "The plan?"

  "To get him to admit in front of the others that he can be a jerk."

  I chuckled. "You don't have to have a plan for that. He'll admit that freely. If it's one thing about him and Tanner both it's that they are honest about what they think and feel. Can their comments be abrasive and irritating? Yes. Will you score points with others by forcing that out? No. If anything it will just make you look petty. I know this isn't about their drinking scam, so what's really bugging you?"

  Mendez stopped as I set down the crate I was carrying. "Those two pinheads have been going through my personal stuff."

  "What? As in how?"

  "Shampoo bottles have the lids undone, things are just out of place. I know they are just doing it to drive me insane. And they hit Danielle's locker up yesterday as well."

  I sighed and shook my head. "It's not them."

  "Then who?"

  "Xurpok. He's just being curious about Humans and our habits. We tend to use a lot of scented products on ourselves. For the Corbo that was taboo, apparently. He's just trying to figure out why."

  "Then he needs to stay out of my stuff and just ask. I have nightmares about my shampoo bottle getting filled with blue dye by those two oafs, or something worse."

  "I'll have a word with him."

  A comm hail buzzed on my bracelet. "This is Balls."

  "This is Herman Faulk. The Fracker will be ready for flight test within the hour. I thought you would want to know."

  "All back to normal?"

  "It is. With the exception of the generator room. Because of the armor failures you had during your last outing, we've made the effort to reinforce that section. Without extensive testing I can't say how much better the protection surrounding those generators should be, but it should be improved."

  "We'll have to negotiate a price for that once we return. And thanks for getting that done."

  "You are welcome and there will be no need for compensation. You still have a substantial credit with us from that Warstalker hull. We're hoping by next year to have a full frigate design to try to sell to the CDF. And I believe our design will not only be superior, but we may be able to cut as much as a third off their current cost."

  "Trying to go legit on us, are you?"

  "At least partially so."

  The comm closed with a smile.

  "She ready?" Mendez asked.

  "Within the hour."

  The last of our supplies were loaded, and the container was moved to the main dock. The Fracker was collected and the supply container dropped aboard by a series of giant cranes. Most ships our size or larger had an externally loadable cargo hold. With the deed done, we performed our final checks.

  Sammy said, "I'm showing eight bios aboard."

  Collins came hustling up the ramp carrying a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers.

  Mendez's expression turned into one of curiosity. "Who are those for? You bringing a date?"

  "Just for a friend who's having a bad day. Now, excuse me I need to get these in some water."

  Mendez turned to face me with a concerned look. "That thing you said before about them getting sweet on me, you were just kidding, right?"

  I chuckled. "You've been messing around with people who love to mess around. Be careful how you tread."

  The hatch was closed and sealed. As we backed away from the dock, Collins returned from the back with a makeshift vase. The flowers had been placed inside in a nice arrangement. Mendez drew in a worried breath and began to mumble as Collins walked our way. I had to again chuckle when he turned and handed them to Xurpok.

  "Flowers. There you go."

  Xurpok looked over the dozen stems before reaching down with his teeth and biting off about half the buds.

  Collins returned a look of amused horror. "Dude? What are you doing? Those aren't for eating. They're for smelling. I thought we went over this?"

  Xurpok set the vase to the side. "They aren't very good anyway. The flowers on my world are much more succulent."

  Collins shook his head as he turned away. "You're a trip, Xurpok. You keep doing stuff like that and we're gonna have to change your name from tornado to weed-eater or something."

  Tanner picked up the vase and handed it to Mendez. "Here, you might find these more appetizing."

  Mendez shoved them back. "And you might want to be careful those don't wind up poking out of your—"

  I put myself between the two. "Let's de-escalate this now. It's a three-week run to Deneb and we don't need the extra tension. Bad enough that we again don't have any intel as to what has actually taken place. So how about you kids play nice for the ride out?"

  Tanner handed the half-eaten bouquet back to Xurpok. "You can finish these if you want. She's not hungry."

  At the halfway point of the journey we were passed a message by a merc ship that was heading the other way.

  It read: Outpost was overr
un. Four enormous ships are in orbit. A battleship and two cruisers were utterly defeated while only inflicting moderate pain on one of the four ships. Proceed with caution. A new staging area is in the vicinity of the outpost at Gamma Cygni. End.

  Sammy frowned. "If they've pulled all the way back to the Gamma outpost they must be worried. That's at least a hundred jumps from there."

  I said, "It's also likely a mistake. If a single ship jumps in from that direction they'll lead those ships right to that outpost. With four of those Herzek warships out there we might lose the entire Cygni sector."

  "How many outposts are we talking?"

  I pulled up a starmap. "Thirty-two. Probably two hundred thousand lives. There are five habitable planets in that region. It has been talked about for expansion for some time, if we could ever finish up with the Maxans. That war has been a resource drain for a hundred twelve years now."

  Chapter 2

  * * *

  Our course was altered for the ride to Gamma Cygni. Upon arrival, the fleet of merc ships had grown to more than three hundred, many of them newly licensed by those thinking they could score a quick credit or two. Somehow word had gotten out that it would be easy money. We knew this mission would be far from it.

  Tanner, Collins, and Mendez joined me down on the planet's surface, the fourth planet in the Gamma Cygni system, where a giant warehouse was in use as a meeting place. A crowd of nearly a thousand crewmen and their captains were gathered, all talking over one another while someone attempted to address the group over a loudspeaker. It was about as disorganized as it could possibly be. There were no military ships at the outpost to offer command.

  Tanner tapped me on the shoulder. "Might as well make your way up to that podium. This crowd needs a boss. Go give them your best impression of one."

  "And why would they suddenly listen to me?"

  "Just tell them who you are. I guarantee all the mercs from Alday know you."

  "Those only account for about 10 percent of this crowd."

  "Then 10 percent will have to do, Sarge. If we all just charge in unhinged at Deneb it's gonna be a massacre."

  Collins nodded. "Give them your best rallying speech."

  "You mean the one where I say I'm gonna grind up your asses and use you as dog food if you don't get in line?"

  Collins chuckled. "I always liked that one."

  Mendez said, "They're right. We need to take control of this mess. Even if we only manage to get a third of these meatheads aboard with us, we have a better chance than not of making it out of this alive. Come on, Sarge. We'll even clear a path going up for you."

  Tanner added, "I think we already know what has to be done. If there are four of those ships we'll have to board all four of them at once."

  "That means a suicide run." I replied.

  "Yeah, and I think you already know not to word it as such. Get up there, Sarge. Take control. We know it's needed. Make it happen."

  I growled to myself, knowing they were right. We had a force before us that was capable of assaulting and perhaps even taking over the four Herzek warships, but only if attempted in a coordinated manner. I nodded for the others to clear the way and a path toward the stage was opened up before me. Mendez was the most boisterous, screaming at the top of her lungs as she pushed people out of the way.

  Two minutes later, I was standing in front of a crate being used as a podium. Mendez let out a blood-curdling screech that grabbed the attention of the room. "Listen up morons! If you want to live you'll listen to what this man has to say!"

  I cleared my throat. "As some of you know, I'm Sergeant Xavier Balls. I have thirty-six years in the Combat Marines of the CDF. Until a few months ago, I was the longest serving enlisted man in the force. I've now retired and I'm here to work as a merc, just like the rest of you."

  I walked out from the podium, using my own voice. "It was my squad who successfully boarded and took over a Herzek warship at Cygni Station, with the help of other mercs of course. Anyway, we need to coordinate our efforts here. This will not be a picnic as some of you have been led to believe. The Herzek ships have a laser weapon that will burn through your hull in a matter of seconds, incinerating everything and everyone inside.

  "And their ships are fast and maneuverable. We only managed to get aboard due to either an arrogance or a big miscalculation on their part, and because of the fact they had almost all their troops on the station. We won't have that bit of luck on this outing. We're certain they will have adjusted tactics since that loss.

  "So what exactly do we have planned? Well, we can show you the schematics of those ships. And we have data on the weapons used and perhaps a few tactical tips to share. But make no mistake, our only avenue of assault is a straight-in bum rush. We have to all go at once and we have to get boarding parties onto those ships.

  "Unfortunately that means many of us are going to die before we make it to them. They will be picking off our ships left and right as we race in. Our sheer numbers are the only defense we have. And if you're lucky enough to make it to a ship and to extend a tube and board, don't expect them to just roll over. These will be trained warriors who are every bit as fierce and hard-fighting as the Maxans."

  A voice in the audience cried out. "You expect us all to just charge in at once?"

  "It's our only option. The one report we have says the four ships are in orbit. We may be able to take advantage of that fact. If we jump in on the opposite side of Deneb IV, drop down to the surface and approach while in atmosphere. That should give them the minimum time to target us. And those lasers should be slightly less effective in atmosphere. We then all charge up at them from the surface at once. With luck they will hold position, giving us an opportunity to breach their hulls and to board."

  The group was silent for almost a minute.

  "I'm now going to ask that we break into groups of ten or twenty for discussion. We'll take an hour. Aside from a simple yes or no response, I want to hear alternatives. If there is a better way I'm certain everyone here would like to hear it. So, divvy up your groups and discuss. I'll come back up in about an hour and we'll make a final decision.

  "And please keep in mind, every hour we do nothing is another hour the Herzek are in a better position to defend themselves. And to make things worse, it gives them one more hour where they can attack another colony. These are our colonies, our outposts. And our military is unable to defend them while the Maxans are attempting another all-out assault. So that job falls to us. We either hold them here or soon there won't be a Confederation to defend."

  I walked off the makeshift stage and joined the others in a small discussion group. The din of voices around us, some getting heated, grew to an almost roar. Several fistfights were threatened, but narrowly avoided as cooler heads prevailed. Within our own group, several ideas were floated and each shown to be flawed.

  When the hour had come to an end, I made my way back up to the podium. "Before any final decision is made. I would just like to say that this is an all-voluntary force. Despite the threat of losing your merc licenses, you are all here of your own accord. No one is forcing you. And regardless of whatever we decide here, I want to provide each of you with the opportunity to gracefully bow out of any cooperative effort.

  "If you believe what I have suggested or that any group effort in general is not the way for you, please collect your crews and make your way out of this warehouse. You will not be chastised or ridiculed. We are all on the same side here and we all have the same goal, to kick the Herzek out. So if any of you want to go this on your own, please make your way outside, or if preferred, stay here and be quiet for the remainder of this meet."

  A handful of captains and their crews headed for the door, some arguing among themselves as they went. I looked over those who were left and offered several nods of thanks.

  "Now. Let's bring forward any serious ideas we may have. And I would ask that these be solid. We need better than what we have. We don't want to be wasting valuable
time if unnecessary."

  Four ideas were floated and each found to be unworkable. A vote was taken with a unanimous decision the result. The next hour was spent dividing the ships and their crews into four forces. Each would be assigned a Herzek warship and each would be responsible for identifying breaching points and the ships that would take them on. A deadline of two hours before departure was set.

  Tanner looked over the crowd. "You did better than I thought, Sarge. I expected a lot less cooperation."

  Mendez said, "They finally got someone who wasn't trying to sell them something slick. Let's just hope they stick to their commitment decisions when those laser pulses start flying."

  Chapter 3

  * * *

  Sixteen captains and crews departed on their own a half hour before the rest of the merc fleet. I had doubts we would ever see any of those ships again. The rest of us prepared ourselves as the hundred-wormhole-jump journey got underway. I sat in the Fracker's small lounge with the others as the last of our gear was checked and rechecked.

  Mendez said, "You did good back there, Sarge. That was the exact leadership they were in need of."

  Tanner chuckled. "Bet we see at least half turn tail and run once those lasers are fired up."

  "I don't think it will be that bad."

  "Oh yeah, well I was looking over the data. Nearly a third of those ships out there are rookies. This will be their first merc engagement. Some are war veterans and will do alright, but the rest? When ships start exploding you're gonna see a panic. Good news for us though. The chaos that will follow should give us an opportunity to make it to our target."

  "I have to believe he's right," I said. "We're trained for this and know what to expect and how to handle it. Many of those captains and crews aren't ready, despite what they might think. Of course any crewman who has been a merc for long enough to have fought a Maxan warship will know what's coming. Let's just hope there are a significant number of them spread throughout those rookies."