by G J Moses
“Bratatat, bratatat, bratatat, bratatat, bratatat…” the pair of rail guns echoed continuously over and over again. Jeanne saw there were no Marines managing the guns so they must be controlled by the AI’s in the Marines helmets.
The Chohish ran into the Bridge with no regard to the fire coming from the rail guns. The Chohish held their own fire in fear of hurting their screaming Sovereign. The rail guns, though, did not have that concern and tore them to shreds.
The rail guns, with computer precision, put a projectile after projectile on target. Swinging first one direction, moving up, down, and then back around again while firing the whole time. One, two, three Chohish were hit each time it was fired. The slugs from the rail guns went through anything in their way. Even the walls, hence why they were never used inside a ship.
“Karter, what about the other groups? They leave as planned?” asked a gasping Zeke.
“I ordered them out once we knew the Sovereign was in here with us. They confirmed that they were successful in getting the equipment you asked for. They are in the process of boarding their shuttles and will be heading back home. We are on our own.”
“Bratatat, bratatat, bratatat, bratatat, bratatat…” continued on. Jeanne watched as a Chohish ran in, only to stop and stand there in shock, looking down at a large round hole in his chest before collapsing.
Body after body piled up. But the piles of bodies did not stop the projectiles being fired from the rail guns. The projectiles went through the piles like paper to hit more Chohish entering the room.
It had to be a good ten to fifteen minutes before the rail guns suddenly stopped. Looking around the corner, it took everything Jeanne had not to vomit in her helmet. There must have been hundreds of bodies scattered around the Bridge and a good many were in in multiple pieces, green Chohish blood was everywhere.
As she sat there stunned, she watched as a large section of the wall slowly leaned in. It was punctured by thousands of holes.
“Captain, we need to get out, now! Not sure what type of damage we did to the ships integrity.” Karter suggested. “Those rail guns went through multiple wall and floors.
“I agree, gather our package and let’s move.” concurred Zeke in a weak voice. “Demolition charges set?”
“Charges all set. People, time to move. Pack up and let’s go home.” ordered Karter.
With that signal, Antonia pulled a syringe out of one of his pockets which he then injected into the screaming Sovereigns arm. Once done, one of the marines brought over an extra-large flight suit to dress the Sovereign in.
It was slow going once they were ready. They were forced to climb over or through all the packed Chohish bodies only to find out the halls outside were also filled with dead Chohish. Without their powered armor, getting through all the carcass’s while carrying their dead and injured along with the unconscious ‘package’ would have been near impossible.
As they had made their way back, Jeanne noticed the Marines collecting portable scanners in almost every hall they passed. That explained how so many Chohish were killed outside the Bridge. Jeanne guessed correctly that the AI’s controlling the rail guns had been connected to all the scanners and fired right through the walls to get to their targets.
They met some resistance along the way, but nothing meaningful. None of the Chohish they met were the soldiers or officers that Zeke had identified earlier. Rather, they were the smaller sized individuals that attacked with little skill in the use of arms.
The armor Jeanne wore tried its best, but failed in its attempts to keep her cool. She was covered in sweat and totally exhausted by the time they punched through the last of the emergency barriers.
The Marines left to watch over the shuttle were still there waiting for them, thankfully, as she was not sure Zeke could go much further.
Staggering up to Jeanne, Zeke put his arm around her shoulders and connected with her in private mode.
In a rasping voice, Zeke communicated in a barely audible whisper through the speakers. “Jeanne, I hope you do not mind, but I may need to lean on you a bit… I may have bruised my ribs.”
Corporal Dennison, who had been hovering around them, grabbed Zeke from Jeanne’s arms and hoisted him over his shoulder. Once he had Zeke settled, Corporal Dennison carefully made his way outside.
Still connected to Zeke through their private communication link, she heard him sigh heavily before hearing him faintly say in the background. “Ah… I would much rather have stayed in my angel’s arms…” Then just before the communication connection dropped, two final words that she could barely make out even with it at full magnification. But they made her heart jump and get light headed with emotion. “My love.”
Nocuous
“It has been a long time since I last flew one of these birds. And never in an atmosphere like this. I am not sure how many of us will make it with the sleds loaded down like we are. We are way too heavy. But without the extra missile, we may not complete our mission. Necessary risk… but still…” thought Jan.
Heavy smoke, sulfurous clouds, intense heat, flying chunks of magma, and treacherous winds were the norm that they were flying through.
Twisting his left wrist counterclockwise while pushing his right foot down, Jan, dived to the right to miss a plume of sulfurous smoke that just appeared. Masson, did the opposite diving to the left.
Straightening out and rejoining, both continued on only to have to change direction sharply to sweep around a mountain range that appeared suddenly in front of them. The mountain range did not exist when the maps were made several months ago.
His nose crinkled from the sweat that tickled as it ran down his face. Not even his sealed armor could handle the heat. They were moving as close to the ground as possible, but they were way too high as far as he was concerned. He just hoped that between the Fox laying down a smothering covering fire and the atmosphere, they were not detected. If they went down, they only had their sidearm for defense, if they survived the terrain, which he seriously doubted.
Looking to his left, he could just make out Masson. Masson was having as much difficulty as himself, which was speaking volumes, as Masson was recognized as the best sled operator on Tortuga.
There were eleven sleds following a safe distance behind him and Masson. All sled operators were from Tortuga and close friends that have flown together before. Masson and Jan were tasked with leading the way and warning of upcoming dangers.
As bad as it was for the sleds, it was the five shuttles that trailed behind that Jan was most concerned about. They could not move as agilely within the atmosphere as a sled and in this dangerous soup, flying so close to the ground, they were most at risk.
They had inserted into the atmosphere a good distance from the target after which the Fox started their harassment run. The Fox was pounding the Chohish camp with everything it had. It would cause damage, but they were too deeply buried with heavy shields to remove them completely.
Which is why they were here flying though a hell that no one in their right mind would attempt at any other time. Their main challenge right now was just making it there. And as he and Masson, in panic, dogged a pair of flying magma boulders the size of a large house, he knew that was a tall order.
Suddenly, his sled was hit from below by some type of debris. The sled shuddered and dipped to the left while system alarms started screaming in his ear piece. Desperately, he adjusted the left rudder hoping to compensate the loss of use of the right rudder that now looked to be frozen.
“You ok Jan?” asked a stressed Masson.
“I lost the rear rudder on the right side. Still flyable, barely.”
“Well, my friend, Jeanne would never forgive me if I let something happen to you so drop back a little and let me lead. That is why there were two of us.”
“Will do… I will join up with the others. No heroics, you are to be careful my friend. See you soon.” With that, Jan, who was having trouble keeping the sled level, slowed a bit. It wa
s hard for him to watch as Masson sped off alone. He had grown up with Masson’s brother, Brant, who was one of his best friends. The memory was still fresh in his mind of the night before they left when he promised Brant that he would watch out for Masson before they left Tortuga.
“Don’t make me a liar, Masson, don’t you dare make me a liar. You hear me?”
In a few minutes, he saw the rest of the sleds in his display. But something was wrong. There should have been eleven sleds. He only saw ten.
“Warner, where is Oren? I do not see his icon.” Jan demanded.
“Oren went down. Taken out by magma. Never had a chance.” responded Warner.
“Alright, we knew this was going to be rough. Major Richards, how are you all doing back there in the shuttles?”
“Hi Jan, we are managing, barely. Had a few close calls. Damn, this planet is not playing nice, is it? Heard your conversation with Masson. How is your sled holding up?” responded Khaleesi.
“Well, let’s just say this sled is on a one-way trip. I am losing the stabilizers more and more. But I believe I can make.”
“Well, you better, we need you. Looks like Masson is having the ride of his life. Is he screaming or laughing? No matter, the data he is sending back is definitely needed. Without it, we would not have made it this far. Just FYI, we saw what happened to Oren. He was sandwiched between multiple magna rocks. Sorry Jan, I know he was a close friend to all of you.”
“Oren was, he will be greatly missed. His wife, Ramonita, is an engineer on the Fox. It is going to be very tough on her. Damn… that was close… gotta go… need to concentrate… Jan out.”
It was another fifteen minutes before they came in sight of their destination. A mountain, many miles high, loomed in the distance. Smoke and explosions swirled around the mountain. Energy blasts slammed into the mountain every few seconds.
“Crap, Meghan is not holding anything back… Masson, where are you?”
“I am just a mile or so from our destination. I can see the Chohish camp from here. Meghan is hitting them hard, but they are dug in deep. Their defenses look to be pretty formidable. But I doubt they will be expecting us.” answered Masson.
“Map out the best attack course for us. We will get there in a few. Wait for us Masson, we need to hit them all at once if we hope to have any impact.”
“Attention all, start arming your sleds. We will go directly in, no time to go around. You are to follow Masson; my sled is damaged so I will attack last. Khaleesi, when we start attacking, that is your signal to land at the entrance indicated by Corporal Algernon. I will meet you there once I have expended my ordinance.”
Flying through the buffeting wind was getting harder and harder. The frozen rudder was dragging him down. It would not be long before he had to ditch the sled. Fighting for control, he slowed down until he was trailing the others just ahead of the shuttles.
Watching the icons on his display, he watched as the group started merging with Masson.
Losing speed while fighting his sled, he listened as Masson led the way in. ‘Avast ye Filibusters, time to heave ho and feed some fish. Follow me in boys!’ yelled an excited Masson.
Raising his head so he could see over his sleds shield, Jan watched as the sleds dipped lower until they were just a few yards from the ground. With flames showing out of their afterburners, the sleds went supersonic. Twisting and turning they raced up the side of the mountain.
Sweeping out from the mountain just below the Chohish camp, the sleds went racing directly towards the entrance.
Whether it was a well-placed shot by the gunner on the Fox, or a lucky random shot, a laser strike from the Fox hit the camp shield just as the sleds were starting their run.
The first few missiles from the sleds hit the shield and were stopped. The following missiles passed right on through. Explosions rocked through the mountain.
Following last, Jan had not yet fired his missiles when he saw the last few missiles fly through the now depleted shield. Making a quick decision, Jan flew towards the camp. If the camp shield regenerated before he got through, his sled would slam into a wall of energy and disintegrate, himself along with it. But if it had not… he would be inside…
The sled wobbled and wanted to flip over and down. It was taking everything he had to keep the sled level and heading in the right direction. Once he was able to level out, he pushed the throttle to the max.
Within a very short time, sweating profusely, arm muscles burning from the constant strain to control the now smoking sled, he had reached the point of no return. “Oh man this sucks… well here goes nothing…”
And then he was in. But if he thought he was going to go unnoticed; he was dead wrong. Almost immediately he came under small and medium arms fire.
“Ha, looks like I sure poked the angry bear… they are scampering around like a nest of ants… now where oh where are the shield generators?” he thought just as a laser blast pinged off his sled.
Flying, if flying could be the correct term now, in circles, he knew he only had seconds. Scanning the area, he finally found what he wanted, the shapes of the large shield generators he recognized from Niflhel.
Setting the missiles to fire and forget, he targeted the generators. Firing the missiles, he did a crazy flip loop to head back the way he came in. As he raced on, he pivoted back and forth, trying to avoid all the laser fire coming from below.
The sled shuddered and dropped a few feet before rising again. He surely did not like the noise coming from the engines and doubted that he had more than a few moments left. And as if that was not bad enough, looking at the entrance just ahead, he saw the shimmer of an energy field.
There was no option, the sled would not last long enough to go around again. Continuing on with little hope, he prayed the missiles did their job.
Fighting the sled and the debris dropping from the ceiling caused by missed laser blasts, Jan swerved around a stalactite blocking his way. Groaning as he strained to turn the sled that was barely responding, he was buffeted by a blast of flame and heat closely followed by the sound of a terrific explosion.
The sled turned on its side at the same time as it twirled around sharply in a full circle. Jan was thrown half out of the sled. Hanging onto the handlebars, he dragged his legs slowly back into the sled. Just as he got them reset in their sockets, he raced past the entrance barely missing the side wall.
“Well, that was cutting it close…” Jan thought as he flew past another sled. But as he breathed a sigh of relief, his sleds power cut out.
Dropping like a rock, Jan pulled with all his strength on the horizontal stabilizer fighting to get the nose up. Little by little, the nose of the sled came up. Jan knew that this delayed crashing into the ground by only a few seconds.
But it seemed, others were not ready to sit by and watch him die. Two sleds came flying past only to swing around underneath. Unable to see the other sleds, Jan watched as the ground rushed towards him. With only seconds before he slammed into the ground, Jan’s sled rocked crazily and groaned with the sound of metal hitting metal.
The sled yawned heavily to port before leveling out with his descending speed dropping off rapidly. In amazement, Jan felt the sled start pushing forward. With no power, he had no idea what was going on.
His sled was going forward at a good clip when his descent slowed to a complete stop just a hundred feet above the ground. “You still alive up there?” Masson’s voice boomed in his helmet.
“Still alive, thanks to you. Who do you have with you?”
“Xenos is here with me. You will have to thank him as it was, he, not me, that watched as you entered the camp along with your exit plummeting to your death. Said something about you owing him big time from our last card game and you were not getting off that easily.” answered Masson.
The sled was rocking from side to side and shaking harder from the turbulence by the moment.
“Masson, this is not going to last much longer. Better drop me befo
re I take you two down too.”
“Wow, he sure is ready to die, isn’t he?” piped in Xenos.
“Yeah, my father told me that he always had a hero complex…” quipped Masson. “Good thing he has friends to watch out for his sorry ass.”
Before he could reply, Jan felt the bottom give out under his sled where he dropped hard to the hard ground sliding forward ploughing through rock and magma. Rock splinters splattered his faceplate blocking his vision only to clear as he was about to ram a pillar of stone head on.
Throwing all his weight to the right, the sled skewed just before he hit the pillar with his port side. Wincing as his sled lost its port wing, the sled smashed into a crag which caused it to go into a tight spiral. Thankfully the sleds had deep wells for his feet as he would have been flung from the sled before coming to rest close to a large furrow.
“Go join Khaleesi and see if you two can stay alive. Meanwhile, we are going to run a diversion now that you have taken out their shields. Masson out.”
Watching two flame trails rising upwards, he marveled at being alive. Stepping gingerly out of the sled, he made his way shakily to the shuttles where he met several men in Marine armor standing guard.
One ran over to assist Jan while the others kept watch on a sentry sensor control panel.
“Where is everyone? Can you give a status update?” whereupon the guard pointed to the large entrance about a hundred yards past the shuttles.
“The Marines and support staff are inside. We were told to watch over the shuttles. All we know.” answered the guard who had rushed over to assist.
“And you are?”
“Burg and Richmond from the Lucky Strike. We are chefs normally. The other two are chefs from the Fox. Not a good day to be a chef.”
With a startled look, Jan shook his head before he started making his way to the large entrance.
Stepping inside, he heard what could not be heard over the atmosphere outside. The steady clash of small and medium arms fire. Skipping into a ground eating lope, he made his way towards where the sound was the loudest.
