by Jason Kent
"What?" Kate responded; trying to figure out what Sergeant Merrick meant.
"Send it on down, ma'am." He gestured down the aisle with his gloved hand.
The package was a bulky canvas parcel measuring about forty centimeters on a side and contained something overly heavy inside. Kate stared at it for a moment, confused.
Dense. Cold. Solid...most likely extremely deadly since it belonged to the Marines. Kate turned the bag with trembling hands and found a stenciled label:
DANGER!
EMTEC MK-37 THERMONUCLEAR CHARGE
HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE!
"Dang, I swear those nukes get smaller every mission," Ross commented. By the way he eyed Kate and the smile on his face, she was sure he enjoyed her obvious discomfort at handling the device.
Kate gasped and let go of the nuclear charge.
"Tral!" Kate realized her error immediately and snagged the satchel by one of the sturdy carrying straps sewn into the canvas before the bomb got away from her. Like a hot potato, Kate quickly passed it on to the next marine in line. She did not bother to say anything. The rest of the soldiers seemed to know it was a nuclear weapon without the need for her to play telephone. By the way they tossed it, none of them seemed overly concerned about proper handling techniques.
Master Sergeant Merrick handed Kate a second device. She reluctantly took it and held it gingerly.
"Don't worry," Merrick stated with a tight smile, "if they were easy to set off, they wouldn't give them to a bunch of grunts to carry around, right?"
"Right," Kate breathed, not relieved by Merrick's reassurance. She passed the package on with what she considered 'extreme care'. She was dismayed to see the marines down the line did not and silently wondered what part of 'thermonuclear' failed to grab their attention. Kate forced the thoughts of a quick, but extremely violent death due to an ill-timed nuclear blast from her mind and leaned as close to the sniper as their suits allowed.
"We were supposed to be held in reserve!" Kate complained. She did not wait for Merrick to answer as she strained to lean forward in her bulky suit to look to the front end of the bay. Kate hoped to make eye contact with Captain Black, the unit CO and namesake behind their motto Black Death Delivered. Black was preoccupied with his oversized, hardened data pad. Kate knew she probably should have made a note about the Captain's use of the device, something along the lines of it being 'indispensable to space battle ops'. She realized she did not care one iota about any reports to the EMTEC home offices at the moment. Black was engrossed in whatever was displayed on the 'indispensable' pad and did not look back at Kate. She swept her gaze around the cramped compartment of the attack shuttle. Instead of support, she found only battle hardened soldiers as they prepared for combat, each closely checking their gear in the time available.
"Can't keep all this locked up in a bottle," Sergeant Ross boasted as he slammed a magazine into the receiving slot of his assault rifle then snapped it into an oversized holster at his back. He repeated the loading process with a second weapon.
"Why two?" Kate asked, temporarily distracted by Ross from her impending doom.
"Why not?" Ross glanced up at Kate with a smile. He was a big guy whose build pushed the limits of the auto sizing function of their powered armor. His wide face broke into an easy smile at his attempt at humor. With his muscles, carved features, cropped blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes, Ross could easily serve as the poster child for Kate's Stellar Union Marine recruitment vid. "As I like to say, 'twice the firepower, twice the fun'."
"Oorah!" the marine next to Ross added. The members of Black's team were shifted regularly between the shuttles, so Kate looked at the man's nametag to remind herself this was Sergeant Cohen, Demolition Specialist. "Ross here lost his rifle during an op—"
"Jammed!" Ross interjected with a slash of his armored hand, "I did not lose my weapon!"
"...swore he'd never be alone again," Cohen plowed on.
"Doubles my chance of survival!" Ross threw in.
"He sleeps with at least one—"
"Both of them!" Ross corrected. He held up two fingers and winked at Kate. "Like I said, 'twice the fun'."
Facts from Kate's corporate training tumbled around in her brain. At a less stressful moment, she would be expected to explain to Ross how the reliability numbers for the M-35 Assault Rifle were calculated. She shook her head. This was not the time to point out the marine would be better off with additional ammunition rather than a back-up weapon to optimize the weight of his overall kit. Still, she wanted to ask about the circumstances of this 'jam'. EMTEC gear did not malfunction in battle, no matter what. Kate did not get the chance for any follow-up questions.
"Last chance to get off!" Chief Anders' voice boomed through the troop compartment.
Kate looked up as the Chief pulled himself smoothly from hand-hold to hand-hold down the tight aisle, a neat trick when you are encased in full combat armor. A matte black M-35 assault rifle was clipped crosswise to his breast plate. The senior enlisted member of the team kept his hand on the grip, finger on the trigger guard, ready for action. He swung his dark brown eyes from one marine to the next. Anders checked the pop up display hovering just below his left eye as he passed each soldier ensuring their suits were properly sealed and their individual weapon packs were on-line.
Kate moved her eyes to check her pop-up. It showed her weapons status as red, normal for her since she carried no firearms. Her heart and breath-rates were elevated, abnormal for her as she generally took challenges in stride. But, this was about to turn into more than her average day on the job. Kate did not usually find herself charging into battle.
"I'd like to get off!" Kate volunteered and held up her hand. "I just wanted to run a few suit diagnostics. You know, tag and bag any anomalies in the link-margins between the 707th relay and the master unit back on Decatur, under realistic, high-stress conditions. I was hoping to be able to optimize Fleet Battle Net functions..." Kate came up short when her eyes met Anders' steady gaze. She swallowed and stopped babbling. Kate wondered if her med read-outs would ever fall back into nominal territory.
Deep breaths, Kate reminded herself. In...out...
OMG. Kate thought, did I really just say tag and bag?
"You any good?" Chief Anders asked. His natural drawl drew out the question.
"Sorry?" Kate asked. What on Earth was Anders talking about?
"Are you," Anders asked even slower, "any good?"
Kate bit her lip then followed her own advice. She took a deep breath. Her heart rate fell from insane pounding to less insane thumping. Kate swallowed hard and met Anders' gaze.
"I could rebuild your entire tacnet with a piece of gum and the wire from my little sister's braces," Kate blurted. "And it would operate at twice the data rate."
"Outstanding!" Anders roared. He pointed to the sniper next to Kate. "Stick with Merrick. Merrick, try not to get our tech support killed." Anders twisted himself in mid-air using a one-handed grip and pulled himself forward. The Chief managed the feat despite the shuttle's ongoing gyrations. To the rest of the marines, he shouted, "Consider this your final warning gentlemen; seal up or die!" He looked back over his shoulder at Kate and pointed at the helmet she held with a death grip. "Ma'am, you might want to put that on. Hard vacuum is not a kind mistress. "
"Tral," Kate breathed. She fumbled with the helmet to get the faceplate oriented correctly and jammed it over her head and onto the metal ring seal around her neck. Kate's hair pulled painfully on her scalp. She cursed her decision to keep her hair long and checked again to be sure the helmet visor was lined up with the front of the armor. She pulled the helmet down again. It stubbornly refused to attach to the rest of her suit.
Not good, Kate thought. She pictured her body being sucked from her suit into the cold blackness of space. She pulled her helmet off and examined the latches quickly then tried again. Again, the helmet caught her hair with excruciating results. The helmet remained steadfast in its resolve t
o remain free. Kate complained as she checked her latches once more, "For crying out loud, we're fighting an enemy who uses steam power and I can't even..."
The shuttle rolled violently. The action slammed Kate's head into the bulkhead. She cried out and hugged her helmet to her chest lest it sail away.
"And that's why we wear helmets," Ross noted. He snapped his visor down with a single gloved finger. Kate was left to stare into the marine's mirrored faceplate.
"Sixty seconds!" Captain Black called out. "Weapons ready!"
Kate stopped fighting with her helmet for a moment and stared at Sergeant Ross as he slapped a spare ammunition magazine against a magnetic patch on his chest armor.
"This is real," Kate whispered. She was surprised by the unexpected calm which washed over her. Perhaps she was simply so terrified her body decided to give up on being nervous. Was this how soldiers felt all the time? She checked her read-outs again. Pulse quick and strong. Respiration...nearly normal; she would not burn through her air scrubbers anytime soon. Kate guessed the edge she felt now was more adrenalin than anything else. Actually, Kate felt ready for almost anything. She wondered if this was the ever-vaunted 'combat high'. For some reason, she always figured there would be a lesser amount of nearly overwhelming fear involved.
As Kate's thoughts drifted to what she might find inside the ironclad, two gauntlets took hold of her uncooperative helmet. She instinctively tightened her grip. Now was not the time to lose a key piece of her suit. The vivid image of her eyes freezing solid inside her head as she was flung into the silent void of space flashed through her mind.
"Obstruction," a nearby voice interrupted Kate's grisly thoughts. The voice was muted by the helmet twisting around her head.
Kate looked sideways at Sergeant Merrick who took charge of her helmet. She felt him lift her pony tail and tuck it under her collar. Kate cursed silently. Almost killed by my own hair. Nice.
With practiced smoothness, the marine lined up the latches. Merrick pressed down and twisted. A satisfying click verified Kate's savior knew what he was doing.
"Check check...," Merrick's voice came through clearly over the net now that Kate's helmet was secure and various suit components were synced with the 707th's communications net.
"Thanks, Sergeant Merrick," Kate replied.
"Just doing my job," Merrick said. He held out a pistol to Kate, grip first. "You'll need this."
"Non-combatant," Kate explained and held up her gloved hands, palms out. "I really shouldn't carry a weapon."
"We run into mechs, they won't give a tral about your legal status," Merrick remarked. He considered Kate then added. "Self-protection is the right of every citizen."
Kate gave a single laugh and reluctantly took the pistol. "You a second amendment advocate?"
"More like enforcer."
The large handgun fit surprisingly well in her gloved hand. Kate tightened her grip and hefted the weapon. The weight was good for her. Realistic, high-stress conditions, Kate thought. Great.
"Don't worry, it probably won't bite," Ross called over the tacnet.
Kate's ears burned for a moment and she focused on the oversized weapon. It was designed to fit in the powered gauntlets of the Marine armor she was wearing. She thought back to the visits to her grandparent's farm back on Earth. The visits included plenty of hands on experience, from milking goats to target practice with a shocking array of weapons.
Kate pulled the slide back. The mechanical action of the gun was smooth. Clean. She checked to be sure the chamber was empty, then dropped the magazine out with an expert press of her gloved thumb on the release stud located where the grip joined the barrel. She jammed the extended twenty-five round magazine home and thumbed the slide catch lever in a single action. The slide clicked into place with a metallic snap. Machine precision. Solid. Kate shoved the weapon into the built-in shoulder holster of her armored suit. She felt the auto-clasp engage; the gun would stay put during whatever gyrations the suit-wearer may experience, even in the throes of space combat.
"Careful, Ross," Merrick laughed, "Our tech has skills."
Kate looked down into her helmet seal to hide her smile, on the pretense of studying the status tell-tale lights located there. Again her thoughts went to the Tallinn ship. Fleet personnel had managed to get inside the ironclads only on a few rare occasions. The reports of the Tallinn reliance on clockwork devices and even steam power was enough to capture Kate's imagination. She did not relish the idea of combat, but she was not adverse to a little scientific discovery. Kate glanced at Sergeant Merrick. Maybe with Merrick watching over her, everything would be alright, even in the weightlessness and strangeness of the Tallinn ironclad.
Uh, zero-gee, Kate thought as her stomach rose and churned thanks to the latest maneuver the pilot was using to evade fire. She was okay in the shuttle, strapped into a seat with the inside of the troop bay as reference. And aboard the Decatur, there were at least zones with artificial gravity. But, past experience proved the absence of gravity, especially when linked with any sudden movements in a new environment, tended to be a sure recipe for regurgitation.
"Please let this action be brief," Kate prayed.
This was not how Kate expected things would work out. She was not supposed to be involved in a hot drop. Slated to remain in reserve, her shuttle was to be ready to place marines aboard any vessel which surrendered after being pummeled by Fleet's heavy guns. Earlier, Fleet Command projected a handy win over the enemy garrison known to occupy the worlds around Gliese 433. Kate knew enough about starship drives to know a victory here would give the Stellar Union the perfect spot to assemble forces within easy translation distance to several Tallinn stronghold systems. With Gliese 433 as a bargaining chip, the politicians back on Earth probably hoped to negotiate a cessation of the on-going conflict between the Stellar Union and the Tallinn Republic. Although she figured this may be giving the politicos more credit than they deserved.
Kate and the rest of the fleet discovered the Tallinn Republic planned a very different outcome. Exactly seven minutes after the battle began, things started to go terribly wrong for the Stellar Union Fleet.
The Tallinns received reinforcements.
The newly arrived ironclads were unexpected, but the transmissions Kate was monitoring, thanks to her link back through her Net equipment aboard Decatur, indicated Fleet Command felt confident in a victorious outcome. Officers absorbed and dispersed the new details, pinpointed the complement and trajectories of the various newly arrived enemy combatant units, then redeployed forces for optimal response effectiveness. All seemed well; at least as well as any battle. As usual, the original plan did not survive contact with the enemy. But Fleet Command seemed to be adapting.
After a few minutes, uncharacteristic curses started to filter over Fleet Net. One-by-one, Fleet Captains reported their translation drives had mysteriously gone off-line. The Union Fleet was paralyzed before Admiral Kingsley ever knew the true extent of the problem. His Fleet was dead in space as yet another wave of Tallinn ironclads appeared. The Union Fleet's surprise attack turned into a brilliant Tallinn ambush. Without their translation drives, Fleet could not retreat. They were forced to stand and fight the Tallinn ironclads which now outnumbered the Union ships two-to-one. Not an impossible battle for Fleet to fight. But not great, either.
Admiral Kingsley decided to throw his reserves into the battle. Black's new orders involved Kate's shuttle and three others. All four attack shuttles were directed to land their load of marines onto one particular Tallinn ironclad. Fleet Intel determined this vessel to be the source of the translation drive interruption. The marines were to get aboard, locate the source of the interdiction field, and neutralize the threat. Kate looked at the armor-clad marines crowded into the shuttle bay. She knew when superiors told them to 'neutralize' a target, they really meant, 'break it good'; thus, the pocket nukes.
Kate pulled up the external feeds from the shuttle's cameras. She gasped as one of their sist
er assault ships flared into a fireball. It was then Kate realized she and the rest of the marines were all one solid impact from becoming 'acceptable losses'. Only one shuttle needed to reach their target ironclad in order to complete the mission. They were now down to three. Kate's shuttle shook from a near hit. The pilot rolled violently and she found her, thankfully, helmeted head thrown back against the wall once more.
Furiously, Kate tried to think of any way she could assist the shuttle pilot or anyone else in the Fleet. After a hurried brainstorming session, Kate came up with nothing. She was completely reliant on the pilot's talent and sheer luck. There was no doubting the skills of either the pilot or the marines around her. It was luck Kate did not trust at this point, having seen a lot of seemingly random destruction during her short involvement in the Tallinn War. She wondered if their luck would hold long enough to prevent her shuttle from being vaporized by a high energy beam no one on-board could see coming. Or blown to bits by a slug of super-accelerated steel or chased down by a hyper-velocity missile Garrett could not hope to outmaneuver. Or...
Kate stopped. She knew herself well enough to realize she was trying to solve a puzzle and she was missing about four hundred of the five hundred pieces. She was caught up in a situation where she was, quite literally, along for the ride. She glanced at her data pad and gave up trying to solve Fleet's problems. She looked at the marines crammed into the compartment with her. I can at least help them, she thought. Kate straightened her shoulders as much as her armor allowed. Black Death was going to be served with the best freaking comm systems EMTEC could field.
Kate caressed the stock of her new pistol and stared at the images which flickered across her datapad. She shook her head, decided she was never going to use the weapon anyway and pulled her hand away. Instead she focused on the gear strapped to her left forearm. The oversized data pad allowed her to interact with the array of sensors in her suit and backpack. She knew the sort of field monitoring she originally wanted to conduct could be done remotely, but she insisted on being part of the reserve ops team in order to troubleshoot any problem with the latest version of the EMTEC Battlefield Comm Units issued to the Marines. EMTEC was built on the foundation of world-class service to match their cutting edge systems. She wanted to be there with the troops to ensure this batch of communications gear worked exactly as promised. Back on the Stellar Union Naval Starship, SUNSS Decatur, it seemed like a good idea to get in the field and be the face of the corporation which cared!
