The Fall: Crimson Worlds IX

by Jay Allan

  “Enemy target destroyed, Captain.” The chief gunner was on the com, sounding enormously pleased. “It was Fern, sir.” The junior gunner had scored a direct hit, ripping through the guts of the stealth ship and starting a fatal chain reaction of secondary explosions. But the dying vessel had gotten off one last blast before its reactor blew, and that shot had sliced into Sand Devil like a power saw.

  “All hands to damage control.” Jennings and his people had destroyed the enemy vessel. Now they had to save their own ship from the same fate.

  “I think I found a way in, Erik.” It was Teller, and he was standing over what appeared to be a large metal hatch. It wasn’t disguised or camouflaged in any way. “I don’t think they expected anybody to come at them from the surface.”

  Cain walked over slowly. His mind was strangely calm, despite the fact that they’d just fought two platoons of enemy soldiers, and they were about to enter Stark’s final stronghold.

  He’d lost three more of his people in the last fight. Combat in a vacuum was unforgiving, and even a superficial wound could kill. Marine armor had a sophisticated repair system for patching holes, but it was still difficult to fix a serious breech in the airless void of space. The atmospheric control system increased internal pressure to compensate for the loss, buying time for the system to plug the hole, but if the breach was too big, there was nothing to be done.

  Cleves had been killed by shot to the arm. In a normal fight, it wouldn’t have even taken him out of the line, but it had come in at an angle, and it tore a large, jagged chunk from the elbow section of his armor. His comrades tried desperately to get a patch on, even after his automated system had failed, but they couldn’t reseal his suit. He lasted a little over four minutes, but finally he succumbed.

  Cain felt differently than he normally did in combat, seemingly less affected by the loss of his men. He was focused, all his thoughts directed to the final showdown with Gavin Stark, and nothing else mattered. He’d already written the entire expedition off as lost. This was a suicide mission, and he knew it. He’d already mourned his men and made peace with his own fate. All that mattered was killing Stark.

  He found it oddly peaceful not to worry about an escape plan. All his thoughts were directed to one goal. His seething anger, the lust for vengeance that had taken control of him – all were aimed at one thing. Killing Gavin Stark.

  “Let’s blow this thing and go do what we came to do.” Cain motioned to Breyer, who was carrying a large container.

  The Marine walked up to the entrance and pulled a 25 centimeter sphere from the case. He punched at a tiny set of controls on the small pad attached to the explosive and set it down next to the metal hatch.

  “Two minutes,” he said as he began moving away, shuffling carefully but quickly toward a line of large rock outcroppings.

  Cain and the others mirrored his movements, climbing methodically over the spine of 3-meter high rock wall and crouching down.

  “Forty seconds.” Hector was counting down every ten seconds.

  Cain could feel a strange tingling throughout his body. He’d been chasing Stark for more than half a year, and before that he’d sparred at long distance with the spymaster, back as far as the Third Frontier War. Toward the end of that long conflict, Cain’s animosity toward his newly-assigned political officer almost landed him in the brig – or in front of a firing squad. He hadn’t realized it at the time, but the dispute with the political officer was one of his first conflicts with Stark. Or that Rafael Samuels, then the Commandant of the Corps, was Stark’s creature, a traitor who still hadn’t paid the price of his betrayal.

  “Thirty seconds.”

  Now it was time. This would be the final reckoning. He knew the odds would be long, as they always seemed to be. Cain didn’t hold out much hope of escaping, but he was determined to kill Stark before he died. Thoughts of his friends and comrades passed through his mind. Sarah, of course, but also Augustus Garret, Isaac Merrick, Cate Gilson. He’d been fortunate to encounter a number of good people in his life, and he was grateful to have known them all. He’d taped a last message to Sarah and left it behind. He hoped he’d managed to express what she meant to him. He knew his death would be hard for her, but she was strong, a Marine.

  “Twenty seconds.”

  He felt another sadness, thinking of other friends lost. Elias Holm had died in his arms, but he hadn’t been the first close friend Cain had lost. Most of his original squadmates died in the Third Frontier War, and his oldest friend in the Corps, Will Thompson, had been killed leading the rebellion on Arcadia. Terrence Compton had been trapped behind the Barrier, surrounded by a massive enemy fleet. How long, he wondered, had he and his people survived before they were overwhelmed?

  “Ten seconds.”

  Then there was Jax. If Elias Holm had been like a father to Cain, Jax had been his brother. They met just before the Slaughter Pen, and they’d served together through Holm’s famous campaigns at the end of the war. Cain still missed Jax, and his loss was a wound had that had never healed. Sometimes he still expected the massive Marine to walk around the corner and start arguing with him about something stupid. But he was gone, and his death had been Cain’s fault. He’d been blinded by relentless rage and arrogance, and the robot warriors of the First Imperium defeated him in their first major battle. Jax had warned Cain, but he hadn’t listened. In the end, Jax held the line while Cain brought up reserves to stabilize the position. But the last ditch defense cost Jax his life and, despite years of friends and comrades trying to convince him otherwise, Cain knew it had been his fault.

  “Three seconds…two…one.”

  There was a loud boom, and the ground shook. A spray of shattered rock rained down everywhere, bouncing off the stones and fighting suits alike. Cain slowly looked out from behind his covered position. There was no sign of the hatch at all, just a large crater around the opening. He climbed up and over the rock wall, reminding himself to take it slow and not inadvertently launch himself into space. He shuffled through the rocky debris and looked down into the crater.

  There was a passage below, now half covered with dust and debris. They were in.

  The control center shook violently, and Stark had to hang on to the armrests to avoid being thrown to the ground. “What the hell was that?” he barked. But he knew already.

  “It was an explosive on the surface, sir.” The officer was staring into his scope, watching the data stream in. He froze for an instant then he turned toward Stark. “Sir, it appears enemy troops have blasted open one of the surface hatches.” There was confusion in his voice, and most of all, fear.

  Fucking Marines, he thought to himself, decades of hatred and frustration rising from the depths of his mind. He’d spent years developing the Shadow Legion clones, and he’d kidnapped real retired Marines to use as his models. He had equipped them the same and removed most of their ability to feel fear through conditioning and genetic manipulation. And they still couldn’t defeat the Marines without a massive numerical superiority. What was it about those cursed warriors of the Corps? What was their secret?

  “All personnel are to move against the intruders at once.” He paused. “Anybody who kills one of those Marines stays alive.” His voice was thick with frozen anger.

  The officers around him stared back silently, intimidated by a threat they knew far too well could have been serious. “Yes, sir.” The comm officer answered with as much firmness as he could muster, which was moderate at best.

  “And call down to the landing bay. I want Spectre ready for takeoff in fifteen minutes, no excuses.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Stark stared at his workstation, punching the keys to bring up a schematic of the base. For all the facility’s recently revealed weaknesses, surveillance was not one of them. Stark liked to know what his people were doing at all times, and every corridor and room was covered by multiple cameras and spy devices.

  He zoomed to the area of the breach. There were 7 s
mall red dots moving down a corridor. Seven! He’d sent 80 men to the surface. Perhaps his people had taken out most of the enemy force before they’d gained access. That almost placated his rage until he realized the Martian Torch couldn’t carry more than 10 or 20 Marines, not with their full armor and equipment. He hated the Marines with a raging passion, but he could help but admire their ability. He’d repeatedly tried to destroy them, yet here they were, invading his ultra-secret base. There weren’t enough of them to prevail, but he was amazed they’d gotten so close.

  He could see a series of small black icons moving down a hallway perpendicular to the Marines’ corridor. They were his people, closing on the enemy, using the same tracking data he was.

  Hopefully, his soldiers would perform better than the unfortunates on the surface. He couldn’t imagine he didn’t have enough manpower left to overcome 7 Marines. But he wasn’t going to take any chances. He punched a long series of codes into his workstation, activating a secret directive known only to him. In 30 minutes, the station’s reactor would go critical. And that would be the end of the Marines.

  Stark stood up and walked silently from the command center and out into the hall. It was time to get off the station.

  “I said I want 3g thrust now. Course 315,270,135.” Jennings understood Verason’s hesitation, but he’d never been in the habit of repeating his orders, and he wasn’t about to start now.

  “Yes, sir.” The tactical officer acknowledged respectfully, but it was clear he still disagreed with the order.

  Jennings didn’t like leaving the Marines behind any more than Verason, but he had priorities, and Erik Cain would have been the first to agree. Besides, he wasn’t abandoning the Marines. He was just going far enough to escape the station’s jamming radius and get word back to Roderick Vance. Then Sand Devil would come back and support the Marines…if any of them were still alive.

  “Three gee thrust commencing in five seconds. Three…two…one.”

  Jennings felt the force hit him, pushing him into his chair with the equivalent of 3 times his body weight. Thrust at 3g was uncomfortable, but it was tolerable, especially for short periods. He would have pushed the engines harder, to 5g or 6g, if he’d thought they’d take it. Sand Devil had won her duel with the enemy vessel, but she was severely wounded herself, and Jennings knew he had to treat her with care.

  He knew Vance would want to know where Gavin Stark was, but he was less sure the Martian leader would be able to use that knowledge effectively. The fleet was still out at Saturn, and Jennings hadn’t heard any reports on the status of the battle there. He didn’t have any updated information on the situation on Mars itself, but he couldn’t imagine it was good. The Martian emergency services were very well trained, and he was hopeful most of the population had been saved. But what about the cities they’d been building for over a century? Were they completely lost? Would the next generations of Martians live in holes in the ground, as the original colonists did? Was the civilization they’d created, a source of pride to every Martian, completely gone?

  “I want 3g deceleration ready to go in 4 minutes, 30 seconds.” In ten minutes they’d be outside Stark’s jamming range, sitting at a dead stop. Then he could send his message and get back to the station. He didn’t want to miss the final showdown.

  Cain crouched down around the corner, his rifle poking just into the corridor. His people had been halfway down the hall when he heard the enemy troopers approaching. He snapped out a quick order, and they’d all gotten back under cover just in time. Getting caught in the open would have been the end of them all.

  He’d been exchanging fire with the enemy down at the other end of the hall for a few minutes, ducking around to take well-timed shots just as his opponent was doing. He’d been faster and more accurate so far, and he’d managed to pick off two of the troopers facing him. He guessed one was only wounded, but he’d practically blown the other’s head off. He counted that one as a pretty solid KIA.

  “This isn’t getting it done. We’re stuck here, and they’ve got better intel. They can watch us, but we’ve got no idea what they’ve got coming our way.” Cain was peering around the corner as he spoke. He took a quick shot and ducked back around, dodging a burst of return fire.

  “We can’t go down that hallway, Erik, and the other way is a dead end.” Teller was standing right behind Cain. The only other way is back up to the surface.” He didn’t add that the way back was blocked by a pair of massive blast doors that had slammed down to restore pressurization to the inhabited areas of the station.

  “No.” Cain’s voice was like iron. “We’re not going back. Gavin Stark is in here somewhere, and we’re going to find him.” His voice dripped venom. “And we’re going to kill him.” He turned and looked past Teller. “Elliot, give me one of those charges.”

  Breyer reached into the container and pulled out another spherical explosive. “This is pretty close quarters for one of these, Erik.” He had a doubtful expression on his face, but he handed the globe to Cain.

  Cain poked around the corner, spraying the corridor on full auto. Then he reached back and took the explosive from Breyer. He punched five seconds on the timer and threw the sphere down the hallway, ducking back around and waving for his men to hit the ground.

  The explosion was almost deafening, and a blast of fire came back down the corridor. An unarmored man would have been killed, or at least injured, but Cain’s armored Marines were fine. He waited a few seconds, and he yelled, “Now, follow me.”

  Cain leapt to his feet and spun around the corner, racing down the blasted corridor, firing on full auto as he did. The walls were blackened and scorched and sections of the ceiling had collapsed. He leapt over the debris and whipped around the far corner, firing wildly as he turned on the enemy position.

  He stopped shooting almost immediately. The corridor was shattered, and there were a dozen enemies down. Most of them were dead, but two of them were moving, trying to crawl away down the hall. Cain raised his rifle and riddled them both without hesitation.

  “Erik…” Teller’s voice expressed his disapproval.

  “We don’t have time for prisoners, James. We’re here to kill Stark. Nothing else matters.” Cain’s voice was without emotion, nothing there but cold-blooded focus.

  He turned and moved down the smoky corridor. “Let’s go,” he snapped. “It’s time to find Stark.”

  “This is an urgent communique from Captain Jennings aboard Sand Devil to Roderick Vance.” Jennings sat in his chair, speaking into the small microphone on his workstation. “I repeat, this is a top priority message for Roderick Vance.”

  Sand Devil had just cleared the jamming radius from Stark’s base, and Jennings had directed all available power to the long range com unit. It would take about 12 minutes for the signal to reach Mars and another 12 for a response to travel all the way back. But Jennings had no intention of staying in place that long. He was going to send the message and get back to the asteroid base as quickly as possible.

  “We have followed Gavin Stark to a previously unknown base in the asteroid belt. The Marines landed on the surface and are attempting to find Stark now, but they are heavily outnumbered. We broke away to send this message and will be returning as soon as transmission is complete. I am sending coordinates with this message, and I request any assistance that is available.”

  He took a deep breath. He doubted Vance had anything to spare, but the chance to destroy Stark was too important to pass by. He wondered if his communique would draw resources away from rescue operations. Would civilians die because of his message?

  “Jennings, commanding Sand Devil, out.” He turned toward the Verason. “Let’s set a course back…”

  “New contact, Captain. Bearing 135,180,090.” The officer’s face was pressed down to his scope. “Make that multiple contacts. Tracking 30+ ships now, sir.”

  Jennings felt his morale sink. Sand Devil was normally one of the fastest ships in space, but with her bat
tle damage, she wasn’t going to outrun anything. He took a deep breath. He knew his ship couldn’t battle its way past a lifeboat right now, but he’d be damned if they were going down without a fight.

  “Battlestations, Lieutenant.”

  Chapter 21

  Ruins of the Ares Metroplex

  Martian Confederation

  Vance stared out over the battered buildings of the Ares Metroplex. The city wasn’t destroyed, not completely. Many buildings were hardly damaged, and others were battered but clearly repairable. But the enormous dome, built of pure hyper-polycarbonate at an almost incalculable cost, was a total loss. The material was almost indestructible under normal use, but multiple nuclear explosions in close proximity had been too much, and it had collapsed in on itself.

  It had fallen completely on one side, with massive shards raining down on the buildings below. Many of the structures in those areas had been flattened by the huge chunks of clear polymer, and most of the others were damaged. The center of the dome had fallen as well, but most of one side still stood, despite the loss of structural integrity, a testament to the strength of the material and the tremendous engineering that had gone into its construction. Mars’ low gravity helped as well. Vance doubted any of the dome could have remained standing on Earth.

  Vance had always been unemotional, able to focus on the facts of a situation, and push aside anything not pertinent to the matter at hand. He had a reputation for being cold and unfeeling and, while he understood why people had that opinion, it wasn’t the truth. Vance was a true patriot, and he loved the Martian Confederation. His calm rationality, coldness to some, had always been used in service of his nation and his people. His rational mind approached things differently than most people, and his ability to remain calm and clear-minded was his most defining characteristic. Those who viewed him as cold were likely to substitute pointless emotion for rational action. They would tell themselves they cared more than a cold fish like Vance, but the Martian spymaster would do more good, and save more of his people, by remaining calm and rational.