A sudden wind gust rushed through the cargo hold as Mabry got the outer hatch to open while blocking the closure of the inner hatch. The black-suited marines, each of whom carried a laser rifle, a revolver like Jack’s Smith and Wesson six-shooter, and multiple knives, snapped their waistbelt hooks to their personal rappel lanyard and crowded through the inner hatch.
“Dropping!” yelled Mabry through the howl of the white windstorm.
Maureen elbowed him as he made to follow the last of the marines. “Me first! Then you. The others can follow.”
He nodded to the woman who, like him and the others, was dressed in a black enviro-suit and had a laser rifle slung over one shoulder. She also carried a Roman short sword and javelin spear criss-crossed over her back, a revolver on each hip and hunting knives strapped to each thigh. Jack had made do with his own sword Old Roy in a back scabbard, supplemented by a laser rifle, a revolver on his right hip and a hunting knife on his left hip. Ignacio carried a Roman short sword and a revolver, while Max had chosen to carry two revolvers, a laser handgun strapped over his chest and hunting knives on each thigh. A tap on his shoulder stopped him as he made to follow Maureen out into the blasting winds.
“Here!” said Ignacio over the comlink. “Take my boina. You left yours behind on the Uhuru.”
Shit. He reached back, grabbed the black beret, put it atop his face mask helmet, then grabbed an elastic band to hold it on, pulling the band under his chin. Maybe the winds would not rip it off. “Thank you, my brother.”
“Go!” called Max from behind them.
Jack latched his waistbelt hoop to the lanyard, grabbed hold of the black rope and stepped out into space. A space that was mostly dark due to the blizzard despite it being daytime.
The pale yellow glow of three skylights gave him the target to aim for as he worked the lanyard’s friction release to lower him quickly to the roof. His IR vision showed the fifteen marines already down and moving to position, with five marines per skylight. Maureen’s slender IR image was just landing. Giving thanks for encrypted comlinks, he called down. “Watch out for my boots!”
The thump against the metal roof of the factory hangar was stronger than he had expected. Being active in one gee had been normal for months, thanks to the shipboard one gee provided by the gravity-pull drive. But intense exercise like rappelling down a slim lanyard for ten meters and then landing without falling over was fairly new to him. Jack kept his waistbelt hoop attached to the lanyard. The cord was his entry mode for accessing the floor of the hangar factory. Hideyoshi had drawn him and the marines a map of the interior. There were three ship construction bays that were mostly open from concrete floor to ceiling. Elevated metal walkways surrounded each bay halfway up to the factory ceiling. Which was lit by LED panels. The cables that fed power to the factory from the nearby fusion plant entered the building at the end closest to the academy. Mabry had assigned one marine to rappel over the building’s side to access the power control panel that was located next to the ground level Mech access door. Mabry’s plan was for that marine to laser cut through the panel, cutting off power to lights, air circulation and any sensors inside the factory. Leastwise until the backup power panel in the access tunnel switched on. The admiral had warned him and Mabry that the automated backup system would wait a full minute before activating its power feed, since windstorms in the Dry Valleys frequently popped open the ground panel’s access flap. Dismissing old thoughts he leaned into the windstorm and stomped toward the central skylight. The ship bay below that skylight was where Cassie had been strapped into a metal seat, according to Hideyoshi. She might be elsewhere in the building, in view of the hundreds of refugee students now flooding into the factory from the access tunnel. But it was his and Maureen’s target. Max and Ignacio would follow him down along with the five marines assigned to that skylight.
A marine in black enviro-suit and purple face mask looked to him as he arrived.
“Captain Jack?” called Mabry, his tone anxious.
“Yup. You folks ready to follow?”
The man turned away from him to focus on the skylight. The thermoplastic pane had been cut loose and was being held by four marines until the signal to toss it aside for entry by them all. “Of course. We shoot anyone with a weapon, right?”
“Right,” Jack said, moving up to the waist-high edge of the skylight. “You all have infrared images of my sister Cassie. She is as tall as you, Lieutenant. Comes from growing up in micro-gee. And she is quick as a bee. If you can take out her four guards, and laser cut her straps, she will hit the floor and slither away faster than you can blink.”
“Good. Exit plan?”
Jack felt the hands of Max and Ignacio grip his shoulders. “As discussed before we left Bismarck. Use the grenade launchers on your rifles to blow a hole in the hangar door of the middle bay. I’ll call our lander to come down just outside the hangar. There are dual laser mounts on the lander which I can voice direct if needed. Or Maureen can do it.”
She snorted from the right of Jack. “I’ll take care of the lander lasers. You get that sister of yours and move her outside quick! While I expect Narváez’s marine guards to be distracted by the loss of lights and our lasers, they are trained as well as Lt. Mabry’s people. Try to keep students between you and any academy guard!”
Jack gripped the skylight edge with one hand, reached up with the other gloved hand to pull on the lanyard and then hoisted himself to stand at the edge. Maureen’s enviro-suited form was already there, balancing on the edge, one hand holding onto her lanyard while the other already held her laser rifle pointed downward.
“Now!” Jack yelled.
The four marines tossed the skylight pane to one side.
“Lights out!” Mabry called to his ground level marine.
He stepped out and down just as the brightly lit factory went dark. Pulling his .45 revolver from its holster, he aimed it downward.
Dozens of red people shapes glowed in the vision plate of the face mask. Most were placed randomly across the floor of the central bay. But off to one side were four red bioshapes. They surrounded a fifth bioshape that was smaller. Cassie!
“Firing!” called Maureen from beside him as she reached halfway to the floor.
The green beam of her laser streaked out and hit the head of one of the four guards. Two other laser beams shot down from above as Mabry’s marines followed Maureen’s example. He aimed his revolver at the fourth guard, setting the gun’s laser designator on the guard’s head.
“Boom!” went the revolver.
Other booms filled the bay area as Max and Ignacio shot at red bodyforms that also had a UV glow indicating a laser weapon.
The four guards fell away from the seated heat glow of Cassie. Who now bent down, trying to keep below the level of laser and bullet fire. Smart girl!
Jack’s feet hit the hard concrete. He snapped loose the waist latch and headed for his sister. Four people glows stood between him and Cassie. None of them were armed. He dodged around them, covering the ten meters to his sister nearly as fast as Maureen, whose heat image was to his right.
“Boom! Boom! Crack!” sounded shots from the revolvers carried by Maureen, Max and Ignacio.
Bodies fell twenty meters ahead, below the metal walkway that stood between their bay and the bay on the other side of Cassie. Purple glowing weapons fell to the floor.
Green laser beams shot toward Jack and his people. Nearby screams said academy people had been hit. Fifty meters away in the far bay were six red bodyforms running toward him, Maureen, Cassie and his buddies. Each held a purple weapon. One shape lifted its laser rifle and shot toward Jack.
Rather, toward Cassie.
“Owww!” she screamed.
Green laser beams filled the sky above him as three Mars marines shot down at the oncoming marines. Who clearly wore face masks with IR vision ability. The shots missed as the running marines zigzagged left and right.
Behind those ground level marines the
re now appeared five Mars marines, their red heat glow descending from the end skylight. Each of them fired.
Five of the six running bodyforms dropped to the ground.
Jack aimed his revolver at the sixth running heat shape.
“Boom!”
The running marine staggered, then lifted his purple rifle.
“Ka-boom!”
A grenade blew the man into red-glowing pieces.
Giving thanks to whatever gods ruled the universe, Jack reached his sister and threw his arms around her.
“Cassie!”
She shuddered at his touch. “Ouch! Brother!” she breathed into his helmet pickup.
“Idiot!” yelled Maureen from his left side. “Get your hands out of the way so I can cut those straps loose!”
Jack pulled his hands to each side of Cassie, making sure to protect her body with his enviro-suit.
Green light flared at the back of the metal seat holding his sister.
“Free!” yelled Maureen. “Pick her up and head for the bay door! We’ve got just ten seconds of darkness left!”
Jack grabbed his sister about her waist, lifted her, heard her moan from bruises and a laser cut somewhere on her body, then cradled her against his chest. No antique over the shoulder carry that would expose her heat glow to laser fire. They would have to get through his laser resistant enviro-suit before they could get to Cassie!
“Come!” yelled Ignacio from his side.
“To our right!” shouted Max over the comlink.
“Running!” he yelled back, holding his still breathing sister tight to his chest.
Dodging the red body glows of unarmed people, Jack made for the blue coldness of the middle bay’s lift door. A door now sealed against the snowy windstorm that had descended just before his fleet’s antimatter beams had vaporized the six buildings of the academy.
“Stop!”
It was the voice of Fleet Admiral Santiago Narváez. Coming from a red heat shape that ran toward them from the tunnel entry portion of the factory. The man’s body glow weaved between milling people, telling Jack the admiral also wore an IR face mask.
“Mabry!” Jack yelled over the comlink. “Blow that hangar door!”
The strap of his laser rifle loosened. Someone was pulling the rifle off his shoulder. His infrared vision said it was Cassie, who twisted in his arms to bring the laser down to her belly and point it outward.
“Die you bastard!”
A green beam shot from Cassie to Jack’s right, hitting the Unity admiral in his upper body.
Gurgling sounds came from the man. His running bodyshape slowed, stopped, swayed and then fell to the ground. The purple glow of a weapon, likely a laser handgun, clattered loose and tumbled away from the man’s grasping reach.
“Kla-bam!”
Gale force winds gusted against Jack and his people as the middle bay’s exit door grew a giant hole.
Yellow light came on.
The blue-suited shapes of academy students and some older staff looked around in confusion, most of them sitting or squatting on the concrete floor. Black-suited academy guards were scattered here and there about the floors of the three bays. All were down and unmoving, or barely moving.
Five marines wearing the red patch of Mars ran toward him and his people just as they reached the hole in the giant metal door. They aimed laser rifles at the shocked people, only a few of whom were trying to stand up. Jack’s peripheral vision showed the other two teams of Mars marines sprinting toward him and his people, pushing people aside when needed. One of the sprinting marines carried the factory’s computer pedestal strapped to his back. Yes! Maybe it held the specs for the grav-pull drive. The Mars marine closest to Jack stopped, touched his face mask and looked at the milling crowd.
“Interfere and you die!” yelled Mabry, using his mask’s loudspeaker function. “Move back to the tunnel! This factory will be vaporized in less than three minutes! Get the hell out of here and back into your tunnel. The reactor will keep you warm until rescue comes from McMurdo Station!”
Alarm showed on the faces that Jack saw just before he ran out into the white snow blast of the blizzard. “Lander! Close external hatch and come to ground at my signal GPS!”
“Complying,” said the mech voice of the lander NavTrack computer.
“It’s so cooold!” cried Cassie.
To either side Max and Ignacio surrounded Jack and his sister, doing their best to shelter her from the subzero winds. Maureen stood between his group and the factory, her laser rifle lifted in one hand while her other hand held a revolver pointed toward the jagged edges of the bay exit.
Black-suited Mars marines poured out of the blasted hole and ran toward Jack and his people.
“Landed,” called the computer. “Access ramp lowered.”
In the thick white snow of the blizzard Jack could hardly see anything. But the red heat glow of the lander’s midbody airlock guided him.
“The ramp is ten meters this way!” he yelled over the comlink to his crewmates. “Follow me to warmth!”
The clang of his metal boots hitting the ramp echoed in his ears, surprising him until he recalled the amplification ability of the enviro-suit. It took less than five seconds for him to reach the open airlock hatch. He plunged inside, followed by Maureen, Max, Ignacio, Mabry and seven marines. They filled the airlock. Jack reached out and slapped the touch panel to close the outer lock hatch. “Hang on!” he yelled to the face masked marines who could not fit into the lock. “It will recycle in a ten seconds! Then you can all make it inside.”
“They damn well better be inside,” Mabry muttered as the man pulled his face mask off and glared around the yellow-lighted space. “Give me empty space any day!”
In his arms Cassie looked up at him, giving him a smile of wonder. “You did it! I thought for sure I was going to die there. I’m so sorry . . . sorry I caused all this trouble,” she said, tears filling her lovely eyes.
Jack shifted her weight, pulled off his own face mask, grabbed her bleeding legs, and bent down to kiss her on her black-smudged forehead. “We all did it. Lieutenant Mabry and his brave marines. Max and Ignacio here. And grandma Maureen. We’ll lift off from this fucking ice box as soon as the last marines come aboard!”
Cassie blinked, wiped tears from her eyes, looked around at the black-suited crowd, then winced. She looked down at her shoeless feet. “That bastard guard cut me with laser. Don’t look bad tho.”
The inner hatch opened with a slight hiss. Jack stumbled out into the cargo hold of the lander, then turned and ran for the Pilot Cabin, still holding Cassie. “We can fix it. There’s medkits by the airlock. And Elaine wants to hug you sooner than yesterday!”
“Give her to me,” said a woman marine as Jack reached the pilot hatch. “I’ll get her strapped in and then medoc her.”
Jack handed his sister, her long black hair, hazel eyes and stubbornness still intact, over to the woman whose name stencil read R. Munoz. “Thank you Corporal Munoz,” he said, reading her rank tab. “And thank you for volunteering for her rescue. I will not forget the efforts of you, your buddies and Lieutenant Mabry.”
“Get the hell in here,” yelled Maureen from the co-pilot seat of the lander. “The Sensor panel says there are two inbound helitack copters from McMurdo. They show weapons hot! I need you to fly this thing while I work the lasers.”
Jack sat at his Pilot seat, tapping active the NavTrack panel. “Mabry!” he called over his suit’s comlink. “Everybody inside?”
“Inside!” yelled the marine leader.
“Lifting off,” Jack called over the lander’s announcer system. “Lock your straps and be ready for sharp jolts! We’re under attack and the jet stream over the South Pole is a bitch!”
His butt felt the pressure of the lander rising on belly jets, with a shuddering from the impact of the blizzard winds. The view through the lander’s front screen was a solid sheet of white illuminated by the ship’s nose lights. He switched off t
he lights, not wanting to make easy the targeting of the incoming helitacks. While the lander could fly fast enough to make orbit, still, the heat-seeking missiles carried by the helitacks could accelerate faster than they could. Tapping on his panel, he felt the lander swing about to show its front-mounted lasers at the oncoming enemy craft.
“Firing!” yelled Maureen as she worked the two lasers.
Bright green beams slashed out through the snow, vaporizing the air and snowflakes with their passage. He glanced over at Maureen’s Tactical Display panel. The helitacks were within forty kilometers of the academy site. The panel showed two red blobs as it showed weapons lock-on by the helitacks.
Even in atmosphere lasers travel faster than human reactions.
First one red blob, then the second blob expanded in the panel image.
Ahead of them two bright yellow lights glowed as the helitacks exploded.
“One missile launched!” Maureen yelled. “Get us the hell out of here!”
Jack tapped the Drive controls and felt the lander push him back against his seat. Tapping again he put the craft into a vertical climb. On Maureen’s panel a tiny red dot left a glowing red trail as the missile tracked on their heat glow and followed, moving at Mach 3 speeds.
“Maureen! Can you hit that thing with your lasers?”
“Trying!” she grunted.
Behind Jack came the clatter of rifles, canteens and other loose material clattering against the metal floor of the cargo hold. He heard a low moan from Cassie as the accel pressure pushed against some wound of hers.
The panel image showed the missile closing. Ten klicks away. Five. Three—
“We’re free!” yelled Maureen as her panel showed the distance between the lander and the missile expanding.
Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) Page 6
