The skiff lurched as Wendt fired the thrusters to brake. Copenhaver and Murdock stood next to the spindle, their suit lights flashing in the darkness. Wendt killed the skiff’s momentum to less than a meter per second.
“Copenhaver. Murdock. Use your thrusters and get the hell over here!” Gunny yelled.
The two marines launched themselves at the skiff. A second before Copenhaver slammed into the gunwale, she put out her arms and feet. Her boots hit the side of the skiff and mag-locked immediately. Her hands shot forward from the momentum and she cushioned the blow by flexing her elbows as they connected.
Murdock, less skilled, was more than a meter above the gunwale. The kid was going to miss the skiff. Gunny saw what was about to happen, stood to his full height, and reached out an arm. Murdock flailed the air with pinwheeling arms, screaming through the comms. Gunny left the gun mount and mag-walked to the pilot’s chair. The line gun sat next to Wendt. He released it from the deck, turned, and aimed. Murdock flew over the skiff. Gunny set his boots to maximum and fired.
The rocket propelled magnetic harpoon hit Murdock dead center in the back. Gunny increased the tension on the line just as the first few meters of slack ran out. The jolt nearly dislocated his shoulders. Groaning in pain, he leaned back as far as he could and activated the line-gun’s micro-engine. The line began retracting into the spool. Murdock was still yelling.
“Shut the fuck up already. I’ve got you,” Gunny said in a low growl. “Wendt. I’ve got him. Punch it!”
The skiff’s thrusters fired again. Gunny pulled Murdock down and into the skiff. The young marine’s mag-boots locked him to the deck. “You two get rifles,” he said. “Now.”
“Aye, Gunny,” Copenhaver said. She clapped Murdock on the back and the kid finally seemed to realize he was safe. The two of them headed for the locker.
Gunny’s arms tingled with pain. He strapped the line-gun to his leg and stepped back into the mounted gun. “Wendt? Status?”
“Ten seconds to get off this wreck.”
He sighted through the targeting array once more. Something moved on top of the ship near the tail. No, several somethings.
“Hang on, Nobel. Hang on,” Gunny said under his breath.
Chapter Forty
Once upon a time, 2nd Lieutenant Eric Dunn led two squads through a minefield of broken ship debris and countless floating corpses to a freighter filled with combatants. His mission was to capture the freighter or destroy it by any means necessary. His squads captured the ship, but lost five marines, a skiff, and he nearly died in the process. For that “success,” he was given commendations and promoted to the rank of first lieutenant.
Every time he entered space with only a suit protecting his body from vacuum and temperatures that could either fry or freeze him, the void calmed him instead of terrifying him. If you died outside of a ship, it was a fast, relatively painless death. Usually. Better than being ripped apart inside a ship where munitions and debris could cut you to pieces before you drew your last breath.
Walking on the side of S&R Black, his command, left him feeling confident and in control despite the fear he’d be too late to save Nobel. At least until he saw the pinecones.
Even from this distance, he saw the shadows of dozens of the creatures. He’d seen images of the things, but had just thought they were some new mineral Mira had brought back. The moment he saw them moving, how they seemed to draw in emptiness and then push it back out to propel themselves, there was no question they were alive.
Heart rate rising, adrenal glands starting to pump, he disengaged his mag-boots and hit the suit thrusters. The clouds of creatures were far too thick for him to approach them directly. And he didn’t see Nobel’s suit lights. He needed to go up top.
He flew upwards from the side of the ship, changed attitude until he faced the tail, and froze his ascent. Ahead of him, he saw Nobel’s suit lights flashing in between pinecones pummeling him. Dunn held his flechette rifle forward, hit his thrusters again, and started the ten-second journey to the tail section.
Five seconds in, his HUD lit up with radiation warnings as well as a proximity alert. He eyed the strange image on the HUD just before it slammed into the hull next to Nobel. The engineer was already doubled over from the impact of the creatures just before the newcomer whirled one of its arms and smashed into Nobel’s leg. Dunn saw the leg snap just below the knee. He aimed the rifle, prepared to fire on the creature, and then Nobel was no longer attached to the ship.
The engineer shot into the air, the cut tether dangling on the hull like a lazy snake. Nobel’s arms flailed for an instant before going limp. His suit thrusters fired once more sending him away from the ship in a spinning tumble. Dunn disconnected his tether, said a prayer to the void, and hit his suit thrusters.
The creature attacking the pinecones reached an arm out for him as he passed. Dunn snap-aimed the rifle and fired. One of the tritium rounds left the barrel before its rocket engaged. The round was a streaking blur an instant before it detonated on one of the creature’s limbs.
He barely noticed the strange appendage shattering at its base. The creature jumped off the hull in the other direction. Dunn ignored the pinecones floating below him and remained focused on Nobel’s spinning form, but the light was quickly draining away, leaving him little more than a shadow.
“Black,” Dunn said, “you better bring me some help.” He managed to keep his voice calm although the adrenaline flowed through his veins with electric tingles.
“Captain, reinforcements are inbound.”
Nobel seemed to be moving further away. Dunn saw the tell-tale glow of a stuck thruster. “Nobel! Wake the fuck up!” There was no response. Dunn initiated a suit override through his block and shut down the thrusters. By the time the suit ceased propelling, the unconscious engineer further into space, he was moving at more than 20 m/s.
Dunn had to be careful. He didn’t have a line-gun, just an emergency tether. He had to get close enough to corral the unconscious marine, but he also had to make sure he had enough fuel to get back. Otherwise, this was going to be a one-way trip into darkness.
He mag-locked his rifle and increased his speed. Flying this fast, he’d have little room for error. If he hit Nobel during the approach, he could damage both of their suits, not to mention push Nobel further away. Dunn increased his speed.
Nobel’s rag doll arms flailed from the momentum. Dunn focused on the engineer’s waist and tried to time his approach. If he hit the engineer’s already broken leg, the bone could shred through the skin and perforate the suit. That was something he didn’t want to think about.
Dunn spread his arms wide and punched the thrusters once more. He flew through the darkness and connected with Nobel’s waist head first. The concussion filled his HUD with static for an instant before it normalized. Clamping his arms around Nobel, the two marines started twirling in an uncontrollable spin.
They were moving at 25 m/s from the ship now and heading deeper into the Kuiper Belt. Dunn tried to use the suit thrusters to stop the spin, but it was hopeless. Fuel was running low and all he could do was hang on.
“Black?”
No response.
“Black!”
No response.
Dunn ground his teeth. The void was welcoming him with open arms.
Chapter Forty-One
A cauldron of fiery anger filled Gunny’s stomach. He was no longer afraid, no longer worried. He was just pissed off.
“Get us there faster!” he yelled at Wendt.
“I have enough fuel for three more full burns, Gunny,” Wendt said. “After that, we’ve got fumes.”
Growling, Gunny targeted S&R Black’s tail section over a hundred meters away. The skiff’s speed of 15 m/s ate the distance faster than he liked, and yet not fast enough. “Black! Where’s the captain?”
“Sergeant, he has captured Lieutenant Nobel. However, they are spinning out into space.”
“Dammit! Get me a lock.”
“Aye, Gunny,” Wendt said.
“Copenhaver! Get ready with the line-gun,” he said. “The rest of you assholes get ready to provide some covering fire.”
The affirmatives pinged through the comms. Gunny focused the cannon on a shadowy form near the ship’s tail. “Black. What the hell is that?”
“That is an exo-solar lifeform. The same kind that attacked Lieutenant Taulbee.”
“Shit,” he said. “All right, marines. You see something? I want a flechette up its ass.”
He switched the cannon’s ammunition to anti-personnel rounds and prepared to fire. Just as the skiff came within twenty meters of the tail section, the shadow took flight straight at them. Without thinking, Gunny fired the cannon.
A dozen flechette rounds flew through space and detonated a few meters from the fuselage. The clouds of flechettes pounded the shadowy form, knocking it away from the ship and the skiff. Pinecones descended into the maelstrom, the tungsten shards bouncing off their hardened shells in showers of sparks. The strange objects spun away as if pushed by invisible hands.
The skiff flew by the tail, the hull vibrating as it punched through the swirling pinecones and the remnants of flechette rounds. In his HUD’s rear feed, he watched Copenhaver, Murdock, and Lyke firing their rifles at the groups of remaining creatures.
“Wendt,” Gunny said, “I need more speed and I need it right fucking now.”
“Aye, Gunny,” Wendt said. The skiff lurched and Gunny leaned backward as the craft’s rear thrusters came to life for a long burn. Their speed increased past 20 m/s. 25. 30. “That’s as fast as I can go, Gunny. Any more than that, and we’re not going back to S&R Black.”
“Marines! Tether yourselves and get ready to move. Copenhaver! Take the gunwale and prepare for a shot.”
“Aye, Gunny,” she said.
The pinpricks of light in the distance might as well have been stars, except they were getting larger, closer. “Captain! Do you read?”
“Ah, Gunny,” Dunn said. “Where you been all my life?”
“On your six, sir. Prepare for a jolt.”
“Looking forward to it. Just make sure you hit me, and not Nobel.”
“Aye, sir,” Gunny said. “Copenhaver?”
“Got it, Gunny,” the PFC said.
Gunny swiveled the cannon checking for more targets. There was nothing out here apart from the two humans locked together in a spinning tumble through space. Their suit lights were brighter now and he made out the clump of shadows that was Nobel and Dunn. The skiff rumbled from an attitude burn. Wendt had lined them up, as best he could, to fly right by the two men without hitting them. If they were lucky.
“Get ready, PFC.”
She didn’t answer. Copenhaver had already moved to the gunwale, the line-gun held tightly in her hands. He knew she was sighting through her HUD, waiting for the range to close. If she missed, they might not have another shot at this. Not if they wanted to get back to the ship.
The skiff’s floodlights painted Dunn and Nobel. Wendt constantly changed their focus and direction to keep the pair illuminated. 20 meters. 15. 10.
“Fire!” Gunny yelled.
The line-gun’s tether fired from the barrel with a brief instant of light. The magnetic harpoon lanced through the darkness before striking Dunn square in the back. Copenhaver leaned back as she waited for the tether slack to run out. The skiff flew past the two marines a little more than three meters from them.
Wendt hit the forward thrusters and slowed the skiff, but it wasn’t enough. The tether jerked hard enough to snap Copenhaver forward, but she held on. Murdock had left his post to help her with the line. Gunny didn’t know whether to scream at him or thank him.
The thrusters burned again, the hull vibrating beneath his feet. Copenhaver activated the micro-engine and the line began pulling Dunn and Nobel to the skiff. Murdock locked a mag-glove to Dunn’s back, lifted him, and placed the pair gently on the deck.
“Wendt? Get us the fuck out of here,” Gunny said.
“Aye, Gunny.” He heard a smile in Wendt’s voice.
“Captain?”
“I’m alive,” Dunn said. He sounded exhausted and in more than a little pain. Gunny watched the commanding officer untangle himself from Nobel, making sure to mag-lock the engineer’s back to the deck, careful not to touch the broken leg. “Gunny? What’s our status.”
“Well, sir,” Gunny said with a grin, “as you can see, my squad is here.”
“Thankfully,” Dunn said. “What about that thing on the hull?”
“I think we drove it off, sir,” Gunny said.
“Let’s hope so,” Dunn said and stood from the deck.
The skiff rotated after another attitude burn until it faced the shadowy form of S&R Black and the massive hulk beyond her. Gunny saw lights in the distance closing fast on their ship. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Aye, Gunny,” Dunn said. “Taulbee’s about to kick some ass.”
“Wendt! Hit it!”
“Aye, Gunny.”
The skiff vibrated again as Wendt fired another full burn. The skiff’s momentum dwindled to nothing before it began accelerating toward the ship. Dozens of pinpoints of light flared in space near S&R Black’s tail. He hoped Taulbee could find a way to clear those things before they got back.
Chapter Forty-Two
The SV-52 was in bad shape. Four camera feeds were down, a pair of attitude thrusters had been damaged, and one of the rear thrusters no longer responded at all. Every time he tried another burn, another system failure alert appeared on his block.
It didn’t matter. He was moving fast enough and headed in the right direction. Black had told him Gunny’s squad had captured Dunn and Nobel. That was the important part. Now all he had to do was provide a little air cover. He was looking forward to it.
When the SV-52 came within fifty meters of S&R Black, he saw the shadows of pinecones and another familiar shape. A thing like the one that had attacked him was moving back to the ship, its arms snatching at the pinecones around it. “Feeding time is over, motherfucker,” Taulbee breathed.
He switched to anti-personnel flechettes. If he tried to use anything else, he might perforate Black’s hull. But these should do the trick. Taulbee grinned and activated the cannon.
A hundred rounds left the barrels in less than four seconds. The space around Black’s tail section turned into a maelstrom of metal. The tungsten flechettes smashed into the objects at a far greater speed than those fired from the skiff. The clouds of speeding metal slammed into the pinecones, pushing some of them away and cutting through the carapaces of others.
The starfish-like thing flipped itself to face the onslaught of metal. Sparks of blue blinked in the relative darkness as the flechettes bounced off its skin. The creature seemed to pull itself inward and then expanded. It flew at him, closing the distance at a terrifying speed.
Taulbee switched to explosive rounds, glared through the HUD and fired. The craft vibrated as another twenty shots left the cannon and flew at their target. The creature drifted slightly to the left before the munitions hit, but they exploded close enough to knock it off course.
The creature flung its arms out grabbing at nothing. The pinecones formerly trapped in the appendages flew away at less than 2 m/s. The arms plucked a little more nothing out of the air and then flailed forward. Taulbee didn’t figure out what it was doing until a barrage of tungsten scrap bounced off the hull.
“Oh, you wanna play?” he asked the creature. Taulbee fired the cannon again, this time upping the number of rounds. The thing, still busily gathering flechette debris to toss back at him, didn’t notice the streaking munitions until they reached it.
The rocket-propelled flechettes exploded in a cloud of metal. If he’d been
firing at humans clad in combat suits, or hell, even a skiff, the area around the metallic whirlwind would be thick with droplets of blood, shredded flesh, and disintegrating fabric. Instead, there was only the glitter of metal and the shadowy thing still lurking near the ship.
It looked at least to have gotten the message it wasn’t welcome. But instead of heading into space away from S&R Black and toward Mira, the creature changed direction and moved further toward the aft. “No, you don’t,” he said. If the creature continued in that direction, it would come across the skiff and he couldn’t have that. Taulbee aimed another set of shots beyond S&R Black and in the thing’s path.
The cannon fired and a dozen explosive rounds left the barrel. The shots exploded between the creature and the end of S&R Black’s long tail section. The thing hesitated, its arms flicking and gathering more chaff. Taulbee fired another volley in the same place, willing the creature to leave the area.
More fragments detonated, showering the attacker with tungsten shards. The creature drew in its arms, was still for a second, and then pumped the appendages. The flechette debris it had gathered came flying back at the SV-52. This time, the shards did more than bounce off. They connected with the hull fast enough to set off three warnings on his HUD.
Taulbee hit his thrusters, the ones that remained, and closed on the creature. This was going to be dangerous, but if he didn’t clear the area, the skiff couldn’t approach the ship.
Chapter Forty-Three
The skiff moved slower than he liked. Dunn stood near the gunner’s mount, his HUD filled with Taulbee’s feed. They needed to give the lieutenant some options before he ended up perforating S&R Black’s hull. Or, almost as bad, the thing destroyed the SV-52. “Wendt?” Dunn said. “How much fuel do we have?”
“We’re running on fumes, sir,” Wendt said. “One more sustained burn and we’ll have nothing apart from attitude thrusters.”
Dunn cursed. “Dunn to Taulbee.”
“Glad to hear from you, sir, but I’m a little busy.” Taulbee sounded as stressed and tight as he thought he would.
Derelict: Tomb (Derelict Saga Book 2) Page 26
