by RJ Johnson
A third explosion rocked the hallway and he heard the decompression alarm. Whoever it was out there was beating his ship to hell.
He opened his ArmBar, “Conn, Captain here, status!”
“Sir, that last hit killed our engines and we’re about to lose main power.” Snider’s face was sweating and his voice sounded tinny through the weak connection. “We can’t take much more of this sir!”
“Relax Chief, they’re not gonna kill us until they get what they came for.”
“Whatever it is, I hope they find it before they hit something critical,” Snider said.
“COB, all I need from you right now is to keep the ship afloat until the Coalition sends us some help.”
“That might be harder than we think sir. That last shot ruined our orbital solution. Without thrusters, I won’t be able to flip our engines for the slowdown to Mars.”
“What are you telling me Chief?”
“We’re dead in the water Captain. If we can’t get back engines back online to correct our vector, we’re heading in.”
“Belay that!” he growled as he felt the deck shift under his feet. The Higgs field generators increased power in a futile attempt to keep up with the listing ship. He held an arm against the bulkhead next to him to steady his feet. “You get the thrusters back up and working or you’ll answer to me in the afterlife, you hear me sailor?”
“Roger that sir,” Snider signed off.
He touched his head gingerly, feeling the lump forming up there. It was his prize after hitting his head on the bulkhead during the first volley from the mysterious ship. He counted one blessing in that at least the ship had ceased firing at them.
As if provoked by his thoughts, the mysterious ship launched another attack on the Madera throwing him to the ground. This time, he wasn’t able to hold on and hit his head solidly on a pipe that ran the length of the corridor. The main power relays on his deck blew spectacularly around him and the entire ship plunged into darkness. The Higgs generators were powered by local thorium reactors within them, so gravity would last a few more minutes hopefully.
He pushed his salt and pepper hair out of his eyes and felt warm moisture on his forehead. He removed his hand and saw the crimson red that soaked his hands. Wiping the blood off on his slacks, he checked the power setting on his ArmBar and typed quickly on it to send out radar pulses so he could see where he was going without the lights.
Suddenly, the hallway in front of him was filled with three red figures of people cloaked in invisibility tech. His eyes went wide and he hit the deck firing three blasts at the invaders with his Growler.
Two of them fell to the deck critically wounded by the captain’s fire, but the third heard the oncoming shots in time. He quickly turned and returned fire at him. The captain ducked behind a bulkhead and continued to fire back at the remaining man in the hallway.
The silhouetted man fired his gauss rifle at him hitting the elderly Captain in the shoulder. He cried out in pain and fell to the deck. The mercenary moved confidently out from behind the pile of crates he had taken cover behind aiming his rifle at the prostrate Captain. Satisfied that his quarry wasn’t going to move anytime soon, he opened up his ArmBar display and pressed the comm button.
“This is Three. Encountering resistance. Two and Seven are down.”
The comm on his ArmBar squawked and a metallic voice sounded through the embedded speakers. “Status of the package?”
The mercenary flipped his ArmBar display and brought up the hallway cameras. He saw two men holding Cadet Cooper tightly, dragging him out of his room against his protests.
“Package is secure.”
“Download the data. Destroy the vessel,” The metallic voice hissed, issuing the orders.
“It will be done,” Three said, closing his ArmBar.
Three moved past the unconscious Captain and towards his comrades. The mercenary opened his ArmBar and swiped, turning his invisitech off, the shimmering veil lifted. He watched as Cadet Cooper was dragged towards him by two of his still invisible men.
“Source ordered us to secure the data and kill the vessel,” Three said as his companions approached him with the terrified cadet.
“He has his ArmBar on lockdown,” the other man hissed back.
Cadet Cooper stared at the barely visible men in front of him, unable to process what was happening. Three aimed his Gauss rifle at Cooper’s head.
“Unlock your ArmBar.”
Cooper just stared up at the man, unable to process what was happening. Three pulled back the bolt and the rifle whined as the magnets inside spun up.
“I will not ask again,” Three said calmly. “Unlock your ArmBar, or I will remove your arm and do it for you.”
Cadet Cooper moved a shaky hand to his left arm and swiped his ArmBar open. The second he did, one of the mercenaries wrenched the cadet’s arm, holding it tight, as he downloaded everything. Cooper screamed in protest, as he struggled against his captors.
Captain Gonzalez woke suddenly and felt what must have been several dozen hot sharp knives slicing up the blackened hole the gauss rifle had created in his upper shoulder. It had been a clean hit, the wound instantly cauterized by the round that had passed through him (and likely a few decks behind him), but that didn’t make it any less painful. The world around him slowly came into focus and he saw the mercenaries who had invaded his ship roughly grab Cooper and download the information off the Cadet’s ArmBar.
Cooper wasn’t making it easy for them though. He even managed to land a lucky punch on one of his invisible captors. Blood erupted from nowhere, and that was all the distraction he needed. The captain quickly typed on his ArmBar and moved, ignoring his screaming shoulder.
He rolled out from behind the bulkhead and aimed his weapon towards the end of the hallway. The preprogrammed firing solution marked where radar had identified where the invisible soldiers stood. The men attacking his ship may be able to cover the heat and light so they could move around stealthily, but they were still solid matter and there was no defeating those physics.
The flashes of bright energy bouncing off invisible specters told him he was on the right track. Unfortunately, he couldn’t hit them all at once, and by the time two more of the mysterious attackers had fallen, the men holding onto the Cadet had finished their business and were firing back at him. One of their rounds clipped him in the shoulder and he grunted, his body yanked around by the power of the gauss round.
The mercenary who referred to himself as Three looked at the download indicator on his ArmBar and was satisfied to see that the transfer had finished. He didn’t glance at the cadet as he fired his gauss rifle and mortally wounding the young man in front of him.
Three looked at his two comrades the Captain had killed and he shook his head. The man felt no sympathy for his fellow mercenaries - they perished because they had failed. He moved back towards the hatch he used to board the ship and opened his ArmBar comm.
“I have the package and am about to depart,” Three looked behind him at the struggling Captain and swiped his ArmBar. The airlock hatch opened and he stepped inside, swiping it closed on his ArmBar behind him. He pushed open the hacked hatch they had used to gain entry and pushed himself off the doomed spaceship gently, aiming for the fast attack ship that was hovering close, waiting to retrieve him and the data package they had come for.
Three gently floated in between the few hundred meters between the ships and grasped onto a handhold when he reached the other side. He climbed into an open hatch, closed it and opened up his ArmBar.
“Three on board. I’ll blow the ship when we’re clear.”
The ship moved quickly, the hatch closing behind the mysterious attacker. He settled into a small pilot chair that sat in front of a glittering console. Three connected his ArmBar and the console in front of him lit up with the image of the Madera. The computer highlighted the damaged portions of the ship, targeting all crucial areas. Three quickly typed on the console as the targ
eting computer took over. He watched as the ship slowly floated down towards the Red Planet.
The metallic voice hissed over his ArmBar Comm, “You are clear. Blow the ship.”
Three pushed a button on the console.
A series of precisely aimed metallic flashes of light sped towards the doomed vessel. A flash exploded behind the Madera as the engine cones flew apart into a thousand pieces. The old ship groaned and began to rotate slowly as fire and bodies of the colonists whose compartments that had been too close to the explosions spilled out behind the wounded ship like blood from a struggling animal.
Three closed the targeting console, watching uninterested while the Madera turned into a spin that would end in an eventual collision with the Martian planet. The carnage that followed would ensure that there would be no evidence of him or the boarding parties’ presence. He clicked his ArmBar and spoke to the pilot.
“Take me to the Source’s headquarters. I have what he’s looking for.”
The ship rocketed out and flew towards the Red Planet’s surface, retreating far from the destruction they left behind.
4.
Gonzalez felt his ship rock with another massive explosion. Alarms sounded and he was thrown to one side as the ship began to list. The Higgs Generator on his deck failed, and suddenly, he found himself floating in midair. He floated painfully over to the fallen Cadet, and picked him up, holding him in his arms. The light in Cooper’s eyes was fading fast, and he was shaking as blood poured out of his chest.
“I did what I was told,” Cooper said, almost in a whisper. “I did everything… I don’t understand…”
A final breath shuddered out of the young man and Gonzalez felt hot tears wet the corners of his eyes. His raised a shaking hand and stared at it, covered in the cadet’s blood.
He let go of the kid and watched him float away from him for a second. He was suddenly very aware of the years and combined toll of hard living between the stars had taken on him. He moved, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and hip. Thirty years of war took a toll on the body, the last five of which (full of easy living) was doing him no favors. He ignored the pain and held on tightly to the handrail in the corridor. He opened his ArmBar.
“Conn, this is the Captain, status report!”
Static was all he heard and he tried again. “Conn, this is the Captain, someone answer me up there goddammit!”
A face appeared on the view screen, painted black and red with soot and blood. It was the young radar ensign whose name he’d never been able to keep track of. She was a late addition to his crew on his last voyage. “Sir, there’s no one left on the bridge. I’m the only one alive…”
“Then you’re in charge Ensign.” he roared. “Get me power back to the thrusters and out of this spin before we end up a smear on the deck.”
“Sir, there’s no one left in engineering either,” she pushed a video feed to his ArmBar and he saw the result of the mercenaries who had sabotaged his engine room. The whole crew was dead, cut down by the boarding party. They never intended to let them survive.
He couldn’t help but laugh at their hopeless situation. He had often wished for a little action on his voyage - the boredom one felt on these trips between the Homeworld and Mars could be excruciating at times. But now that it had finally gotten a little exciting on his ship, things weren’t as fun as he had hoped.
“Sound the alarm to abandon ship,” he ordered with a heavy heart. “Blow the Civies’ compartments off their supports and if we have any comms left, inform Martian Space Authority that they’re about to have one hell of a mess to clean up.”
“Aye sir.”
The alarm to abandon ship sounded. He knew that anyone left would take refuge in their rescue pods, eject and await pickup by friendly forces nearby. At least with them being this close to Mars, they wouldn’t have to hang around too long waiting. The pods would even take them in safely to the Martian Spaceport since they were fairly close to the Red Planet.
The ship shook as another explosion rocked the rear of the vessel. That’ll be the storage tanks lighting off he thought. He pulled himself up and began moving slowly towards the bridge, but found his way blocked by a collapsed bulkhead. He heard four muffled explosions in the distance and for a moment felt something akin to relief. That wasn’t the sound of artillery or torpedo shots, but rather the explosive bolts that separated the wings holding the fifteen hundred colonists housed in the side compartments.
“Captain, Conn!”
“Go ahead Ensign.”
“Sir, the port side colonist habitat didn’t separate,” the panicked ensign said over his view screen.
“Use the auxiliary bolts,” he ordered.
“I tried sir, but it’s a no go. I don’t have any power available to blow the bolts.”
“Those bolts have dedicated power systems,” he fumed. “What’s happening?”
“Unknown at this time sir,” the ensign replied. “We took one hell of a beating, there’s no way for me to tell.”
“How much longer do we have with our orbit?” he asked.
The ensign turned her head and checked the nearby display, “Sir, as far as NAVMAX is concerned, we have no orbit. We’re in a spin plunging headfirst into the atmosphere. The only reason why we can’t tell is because the Higgs Generators are still able to deal with the inertia.” Her eyes went wide and she gulped, “Are we gonna burn up?”
He shook his head. “Mars’ atmosphere is too thin for that. All we’ve got waiting for us is a very hard landing if we don’t get off this tub.”
“What about the colonists sir?”
His mind was racing. If local power was cut off to the explosive bolts, then there was no way to separate the sections safely while they were still in space, but the manual maintenance shafts might be able to offer him a way to use the hydraulic jacks so he could separate the sections.
“Ensign, I’m heading down to the port side maintenance and try to separate us manually.” he said. “In the meantime, you keep this ship afloat long as you can. At ten thousand meters elevation, you bail out.”
“Aye sir!” the ensign said and the viewscreen on his ArmBar winked out. He looked down at the wound on his side and was dismayed to see blood leaking out of it. The bolt from the gauss rifle had grazed him meaning this wound wasn’t cauterized like the other. With as much blood as he was losing, he knew he wouldn’t have much time.
He pushed himself off the deck, groaning in pain. Cradling his wounded arm, he pushed his way down the corridor amongst the flickering lights. Auxiliary power on this deck was intermittent, making his progress slow.
After a few hundred agonizing meters, he approached the hatch leading to the first deck of the colonist’s compartments. He found the control panel for the explosive bolts and noticed a large warning message flashing on the screen. He leaned in and quickly discerned from the schematic displayed that the problem was with the power lines that ran the length of the deck. They had been severed at the source.
Gonzalez pushed debris out of his way and got to his knees, heaving open a heavy grate on the deck that would let him access this deck’s Higgs Generator. Once he was able to open the grate, he looked down into the sparking electronics and saw a round from one of the boarding parties’ gauss rifles had flown through his ship, cutting through three decks like butter before finally ending up in a one in a million shot which had severed all auxiliary power to this deck.
He groaned, even with a team of wrench monkeys around him, it would take hours to repair the damage. He’d have to find another way.
He aimed his ArmBar and selected the cutting torch option on his Growler. A precise beam of energy flew out the end and began cutting open the bulkhead in front of him. He grabbed the side and ripped the bulkhead off with his good arm, grunting in pain and paying for the effort. He opened his ArmBar comm.
“Conn, this is the Captain, what’s our status?”
The ensign’s face appeared on his view screen. “Capt
ain, I’ve done all I can, but there’s just no saving her. It’s only a matter of time now.”
“How far away is Search and Rescue?” he asked, working furiously.
“No response, sir,” the ensign said frantically. “I think the communications array got killed with that last shot.”
“Our mayday didn’t go out?”
“I’m not sure sir. As far as I know we could be just broadcasting static.”
“Keep trying Ensign, I’m going to call when I’ll need those hydraulics set.”
“Aye sir!”
He struggled with the wires in his hands and they sparked. Gonzalez cursed, feeling the jolt of electricity sting him. He threw them down in frustration and looked at the leaking fluid and busted electronics in front of him. He wasn’t going to make any progress here. Maybe if…
He opened up his ArmBar and a map of the ship’s hydraulic system and explosive bolt removal. He looked helplessly at the complicated schematics. He had come up to his command piloting an older generation of fast attack ships. Trying to keep up with the latest and greatest upgrades hadn’t been much of a priority over the years.
He heaved a large piece of metal that had fallen from the ceiling during the attack out of his way. He aimed his ArmBar and activated the laser cutting through the bulkhead that separated the civilian quarters from the main beam of the Madera. He knew it wasn’t possible through the several feet of duraplating and steel, but for a moment, he was certain that he could hear the screams of trapped colonists on the other side of him.
“Captain, this is the Conn.”
“Go ahead Conn.”
The ensign’s face appeared on his view screen resigned to their fate. “Sir, there’s no stopping her. We’re about to lose…”
“I know what’s going to happen,” he said, his face grim. He worked on the auxiliary generator as quickly as he dared, “How long?”
The Ensign looked at the monitor next to her, “Minutes at best. Sir, it’s time you got into an escape pod and abandoned ship with the rest of us.”
“No!” Gonzalez said, his eyes flashing, “I haven’t lost a colonist yet, I’m not about to start now.”
