Outpost

by W. P. Brothers

  “If you say so, Supervisor.” Tom wasn’t convinced, but he could see that the Supervisor was in one of those moods that couldn’t be argued with.

  “Smith, Tom. Smith. I have a name!”

  Tom ignored him. “And what about our reinforcements? Why aren’t they here?”

  Smith shrugged. “Probably a delay. No need to worry yet. We do have more than two thousand troops at our disposal already.”

  Tom changed the subject. “I’d like to organize patrols to begin searching out wherever the remaining Alliance forces are. It would be easier had you not ordered our fighters to return to the fleet. We had air superiority and—”

  The Supervisor clapped his hands, cutting Tom off. “And now they will help our armada find the enemy ship. They are much more useful up there.”

  Tom pretended to agree, nodded his head. “I will return to the command center and help with the efforts there. I want to begin work on the barricades.”

  “Good man.” The Supervisor stood. “How long do you think it’ll take to get the silos operational?”

  “Our best computer technicians say at least a month.” The Legion was a movement of simple people, but many of his warriors had been skilled with technology because of their work for the companies. However, the system of mechanical locks and computer codes protecting the silo controls was formidable.

  “Plenty soon!” The Supervisor beamed.

  “If you’ll excuse me.” Tom didn’t want to see the man’s smile anymore. He turned to walk away.

  “Tom?” The Supervisor’s voice made Tom turn around again.

  “Yes, Supervisor?”

  “Don’t forget to have my transport brought over.”

  The Supervisor had claimed one of the cargo tenders as his personal transport. It grated against Tom’s sensibilities. The movement was not about personal gain. But whatever the Supervisor wanted, he got.

  “I’ll send someone north immediately.” Tom gave Smith a nod, then stalked out of the room.

  As he walked through the concrete corridors from the Supervisor’s office to the command center, he mulled over a mental list of dangers facing him and his people in his mind. The Supervisor didn’t understand the peril, or else he didn’t care. That fact bothered him, because the threat was real, and all of it seemed to revolve around that battlecruiser. Would it repair its engines and bring a fleet before the Legion could solidify its position here, or would it be caught and transformed into the movement’s greatest warship?

  Damn that ship!

  Everything had gone perfectly until it had arrived, unscheduled and unexpected. Now it jeopardized any chance of holding Kensington.

  Not for the first time that day, Tom found himself pleading with the universe to let the battlecruiser fall into their hands. Or, if that was not possible, to reduce it to burning waste. Everything depended on it. Either the battlecruiser would be seized or destroyed, or it would lead to their end. They were in too far now for any other outcome.

  “Steady, Mr. Stetler.” Kim felt the Verdun tilt to starboard slightly as it pulled out of the gas giant, the holoports clearing of the green gases and showing the distant forms of three enemy ships. They were making way toward the inner part of the solar system, no doubt sent to reinforce the enemy contingent on Kensington. But, like the group that had tried to pass through yesterday morning, Kim had other plans for them.

  “All batteries report ready.” Isabelle’s voice chimed over the loudspeakers. “Shells loaded and ready to fire.”

  “Good.” Kim looked over her shoulder at Holsey, who was bent over her console. “Pass this on to fire control: I want our fire divided between all three ships. I want them all gone in one, smooth pass.” They couldn’t risk spending much time in the open. Kim was certain the armada around Kensington would still be looking for them, and they couldn’t afford to give away their hiding place.

  “Aye, ma’am.” Holsey keyed her headset and relayed Kim’s orders.

  “I’ve got our return course to the gas giant plotted.” Urquhart called out, her chipper voice somehow soothing.

  Count on Callista to lighten the mood.

  “Ten seconds to optimal range,” Fowler called out. “They still haven’t seen us.”

  Kim heard the light tinkling noise of small rocks and ice bouncing harmlessly off the Verdun. The gas giant’s orbiting cloud of debris was doing its job, saturating the enemy ships’ sensors with white noise, hiding the massive warship bearing down on their positions. The Verdun was almost on top of them, and they didn’t even know it. With the element of surprise behind them, they would strike before the hostiles had a chance to charge their magnetic ordnance deflectors or even bring their defensive emplacements to bear. As long as the Verdun’s turret gunners did their job and scored good hits, this should be easy. But Kim knew better than to expect best-case scenarios.

  “All guns are clear to fire at will when in range.” Kim took a deep breath.

  This had to go perfectly.

  “Shells on the way!” Holsey shouted over the dull boom and vibrations that always came when the fifteen-inch turrets fired.

  Kim concentrated on her screen, watching as the shells streaked toward their targets, willing each of them to hit their mark. The enemy ships blossomed into a series of explosions as the shells breached their hulls and detonated inside. Kim’s screen fizzled as a series of white flashes obscured the ships. She blinked, and when she looked back, the three vessels were listing, fire spouting from their sides. Two of them converged together and crashed into each other. Another flash, this one larger than before, and the ships were completely torn apart as their reactors went critical.

  The crew on the bridge cheered.

  “Turrets report all salvos fired.” Holsey’s delight was obvious.

  Kim had to admit, that had been an impressive display of firepower. Even damaged, the Verdun had plenty of teeth.

  “Tell them to reload and return to ready status.” Kim looked up from her screen and at the back of Stetler’s head. “Mr. Stetler, bring us about. Best safe speed back to the giant.”

  “Aye, ma’am.” Stetler bent over his console slightly as he manipulated the thruster controls. “Home again, home again, jiggity jig.”

  The seconds dragged on as the Verdun banked about, then powered toward the gas giant, the tension inside Kim’s chest a stark contrast to the happy chatter of her bridge crew. Until they were back in cover, the game wasn’t over.

  “I almost feel bad for them.” Urquhart turned to look over at Voth. “They didn’t even have a chance.”

  “They had a chance.” Fowler grinned, stowing his headset back in its holder. “They threw it away when they chose to take on the Navy.”

  Stetler chuckled. “The Navy: Every day an adventure—”

  “Every day a victory!” Urquhart and Fowler joined in, completing the phrase from the familiar recruiting poster.

  “Cut the chatter and pay attention down there.” Holsey’s voice silenced the others, who looked back at their stations.

  Morden made a note to thank Holsey when she got the chance. At least someone else seemed to realize that the threat wasn’t gone. Then again, with so much tension and concern on board for the ground team, who could blame the crew for celebrating the lighter moments when they came?

  “Entering the outer atmosphere in ten.” Stetler’s hands made micro-adjustments to the controls, and the slight creaking of the hull told Kim that they were pulling into the planet’s turbulent gases.

  Kim turned back to her view screen, clicked to change the view to the aft camera, and watched as the stars were swallowed up by green vapor. It didn’t look like anyone had been behind them. She exhaled, finally releasing the anxiety inside her. So far, so good.

  She folded up her computer and stood from her chair. “Ms. Urquhart, continue to monitor readings from the sensor drones in the debris cloud.”

  Urquhart looked back over her shoulder. “Yes, Captain.”

  Mo
rden turned toward the communications station. “Chief, if another group passes by, call me to the bridge. And inform Lieutenant Geonor to prioritize the engine repairs. I want translight capabilities sometime before I retire.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Baudouin nodded and keyed her mic.

  “And don’t forget to bug him about fixing the external communications array. If the landing party is still alive on Kensington, I want to be able to get a message through to them. Not next week, not tomorrow, now. I’ll be in my quarters.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  It had been a long couple of days, and Kim hadn’t slept well. They’d hidden in the gas giant while the enemy armada had searched for them. Their efforts frustrated, the hostiles had returned toward Kensington. Repairs onboard the Verdun had begun immediately, interrupted only by these occasional sorties. They couldn’t allow any more enemy ships into the system, not if they wanted to take on the armada later. They were already outnumbered, so why let the odds get worse? Besides, it kept the crew motivated. So many of them had friends among the ground contingent that had been left behind, and Lt. Commander Wilcox’s presence was keenly missed. Without a working external radio, it was impossible to contact Kensington for the moment, so it was anyone’s guess what was going on there. There was nothing more frightening than not knowing, and anything Kim could do to keep her crew in better spirits was worth it.

  Kim stood and rounded her chair, walking toward the door, but stopped when she found Holsey standing in front of her.

  “Mind if I join you?” Holsey’s mouth was set in a firm line.

  “By all means.” Kim looked over her shoulder. “Commander Wilcox, you…” Kim stopped herself. She was so used to him being there that she’d spoken out of habit. “Mr. Stetler, the bridge is yours.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Stetler replied, the slightest hint of emotion in his voice.

  Isabelle announced the change of bridge command as Kim and Holsey exited the room. They walked for a while in silence down the corridor, stepping into the stairway leading down to the next deck.

  “We can’t keep this up forever,” Holsey said, finally.

  Morden shook her head. “I don’t think so, either.” Their footsteps clanged against the metal grating of the stairway.

  “What’s your plan, then? You’re not considering leaving the system without our ground party.” The certainty in Holsey’s voice caused a brief prickle of irritation to work its way into Kim’s jaw.

  “I consider all options, Commander.”

  They paused to return the salute of a shipman heading up the stairs, then reached the bottom landing, heading out into the corridor and taking a right toward the captain’s suite.

  “My decision will depend on how repairs go.” Morden chose her words carefully. “If our engines can be brought back online quickly, we’ll break our orbit here and leave the system, find reinforcements, and come back with a task force.”

  “In a few weeks.” Holsey frowned. “By which time, our people will be dead.”

  Kim stopped in her tracks and looked Holsey in the eye. “The communication relays in this sector are out, probably taken down by these bastards before they attacked. The only way to alert the rest of the fleet is to play messenger and go to them ourselves. We have no idea what else is going on. There could be a fleet on its way to attack some other part of the Alliance right now. Given the scale of the incursion here, I think it’s a safe bet that these guys are part of a larger force.”

  “Agreed there.” Holsey put her hands on her hips.

  “If we don’t tell the rest of the fleet soon, a lot of people could die, a hell of lot more than are in our shore party, or even this entire ship. If we went off and tried to re-take Kensington against that many enemy vessels, there’s a chance we’d be destroyed in the attempt, and no one would learn what has happened here.”

  Kim paused, putting to words the fear she’d been harboring ever since she’d discovered their enemy was human. “We could be looking at a full-scale civil war here, and what this ship does next will impact the outcome of the first battles, wherever they may be. For all we know, they’ve already happened.”

  Holsey’s eyes had widened almost imperceptibly. Clearly the idea of conflict within the Alliance was as disturbing to her as it was to Kim. They started walking again in silence.

  “Civil war?” Holsey’s voice held the slightest twinge of fear, something Kim rarely heard from her.

  “Think about it.” Kim rounded the corner and stopped at her door, punching in her key code. “Our enemy is human. You saw their small arms. They’re using Alliance technology, and there’s no sign of outside influence. This sector doesn’t hold strategic value to anyone anymore—”

  “Unless it were someone trying to disrupt lines of supply and communication internally.” Holsey finished Kim’s sentence as they both stepped into Kim’s darkened quarters.

  Kim touched the light pad, then turned to face Holsey again. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but if it means preventing our forces from being hit in a surprise attack, our landing party is to be considered expendable.” Kim hated the taste those words left in her mouth, but she’d learned from years as second-in-command that being the captain sometimes meant voicing the most terrible truths, making the most inhuman decisions.

  Holsey nodded. “And if they don’t work?”

  Kim blinked. She’d expected Holsey to fire back at her. Apparently, her rapport with the woman had improved more than she thought. “Pardon?”

  “The engines? If they don’t work?”

  Kim smiled despite the situation. “Then we ram this ship down the bastards’ throats. We’re not letting them get a foothold on Kensington, and if we’re the only ship that can respond, we’ll have to do the job ourselves or die trying.”

  Holsey returned Kim’s smile. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever wanted a system to be broken.”

  “Don’t let Isabelle hear you.” Kim reached her desk and sat down, fatigue suddenly weighing her down. “Regardless, our focus now is on repairing whatever we can and finding some way to get a message to our shore party.”

  If they’re still alive.

  Kim kept those words to herself, preferring to not express her fears, to not make them any more real.

  Holsey nodded, seemed to look around for somewhere to sit. Kim suddenly felt very conscious of the lack of furniture in the room. She glanced at her refrigerator, wondering if there was anything in there she could offer Holsey, but the moment had passed, and the commander was already moving toward the door.

  Holsey stopped when she reached the doorway, turned to face Kim again. “I’ll light a fire under Geonor’s behind and make sure he stays on task.”

  “And I’ll tell him to keep an eye on you if you’re near the engines. No sabotage on my ship.” Kim smiled again.

  Holsey’s face remained impassive, except for a small twitch at the sides of her mouth. “No promises.”

  Kim watched Holsey exit the room and waited for her to close the door before walking into her bedroom and dropping into bed. But somehow, even though she could barely keep her eyes open, sleep didn’t come, her thoughts lost among thousands of acres of forest.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lying on his stomach, Jack peered through the trees at the man trailing the enemy patrol, the one who’d been shouting at the others, encouraging them to keep up their pace. There were no markings on his uniform — if you could call the pale, stained rags that these people wore uniforms — but Jack would bet his fleur-de-lis that the man was some kind of officer.

  “Everyone’s in position.” Lieutenant Flores’ voice murmured from near Jack’s elbow.

  He glanced past Flores and down the line, impressed that the platoon was all but hidden from sight, not even the occasional bayonet or helmet peeking out from cover. No matter that he’d lost count of the number of ambushes they’d staged in the past four days. When push came to shove, these rangers knew how to do their jo
bs.

  Patrols from the fort had started scouring the woods the day after the command briefing. The four ranger rifle platoons had been ready, dispersing into the woods and eradicating enemy patrols where they found them. It wasn’t hard — whoever these opponents were, they weren’t good soldiers, and even Jack could tell that they didn’t know much about wilderness combat. They stuck to the roads, made too much noise, always clumped together, and never thought to use scouts to check for ambushes. He almost felt bad for them, but remembering the faces of men and women he’d already lost to them wiped away any trace of sympathy. More than that, he was too tired to care. They’d hiked many miles during the past few days, changing their position after each ambush. As Flores had explained, they couldn’t risk staying in the same place, and they had to keep the enemy guessing about the location of their headquarters at the bunker. Jack couldn’t argue with that logic, even if putting it into practice had pointed out certain deficiencies in his physical fitness. They had tracked this particular group for a couple hours, using the shouts and conversations of the enemies to locate them. They’d covered about a mile of tough ground almost as fast as Jack could jog it and then prepared their position on a hillside overlooking the old jeep road. Jack had only just caught his breath. He’d always thought of himself as a sporty individual, but it had taken all his willpower to keep up with the rangers — and not let them see his fatigue.

  “We’ll open fire on my signal.” Jack turned his attention to his carbine, opening the bolt slightly to make sure it was loaded. He’d pulled the trigger on an empty chamber during their first ambush, and he wasn’t about to repeat the mistake. He saw the silver glint of the bullet’s base, then eased the bolt forward again. Since they’d begun staging ambushes, they’d burned through ammunition at a surprising rate, even despite the rangers’ careful, accurate fire. The bunker had less than half of its reserves left, and the enemy patrols had curtailed the rangers’ supply runs on the other bunkers and warehouses, making them extremely dangerous. It was impossible for them to carry off more than would fit in their packs or encumber them if they didn’t want to risk being found. If the Alliance troops were to deplete their supplies before the Verdun returned…