The Deadly Pact
Page 28
“Captain Patho just arrived in system. We’ve sent an encrypted transmission to him to meet up with you. He has some potentially good news, but I’ll let him relay that to you.”
Stokes nodded. “Understood. What do you plan to do there?”
“The Woduur gave us a few minutes to evacuate the shipyard before they destroyed it. Everyone got off. So far, they haven’t moved beyond Istyul City. Our ground forces are being marshaled to try to gain access to the center of the landed ring ship. There’s still a lot of chaos here. Check in in an hour, and I should have further instructions for you.”
“I left a stealth corvette in the system to watch over the situation, sir. I’ll contact you again in one hour.”
“Very good, Admiral. Misato out.”
The screen shut off. Bendel turned and said, “We just can’t let the Woduur invade Lashmere, sir.”
“Right now, we have no choice. Until we can effectively attack them and, more importantly, defend against their weapons, we can’t venture back into the Lashmere system.”
Valencia moved along the side of one building that seemed entirely intact with Cooper trailing behind him. They’d seen more of the Woduur troops moving through the area, but most of them seemed to be towing small cages with two or three people inside. They got to a vantage point where they could see the side of the ship. The Woduur were hauling the humans inside.
“They’re taking captives,” Valencia said. “I wonder why.”
“No idea,” Cooper said unhelpfully. “I hope it’s not for food.”
“Nice. Thanks for that,” Valencia said. “We can’t just let them take civvies. We have to get in there and take them out. Just watch my back, will you?”
“Yes, Sergeant.”
“I’m going to go in there and start freeing our people.” He heard heavy plasma cannon fire, explosions, and the sound of collapsing buildings. “Come on. Those civvies won’t rescue themselves.”
Valencia and Cooper pushed towards the gleaming silver wall. A large hatch stood open, and he ducked inside. A Woduur came around the corner, and they quickly gunned it down. The inside of the ship didn’t have the protective mist, unlike the area outside.
“Switch back to energy fire. We don’t have an unlimited supply of bullets.”
Cooper complied and followed Valencia up the passageway. They moved briskly, relying on their suit sensors to locate the enemy troops.
He rounded a corner and saw a large door that opened into what had to be a staging area. He advanced carefully. His suit told him there were six Woduur and a few dozen humans inside. He sighed. There probably wasn’t time to go back and get any kind of reinforcements, presuming he knew where any might be. He turned to Cooper. “Do you have any concussion grenades?” Cooper nodded and handed one over. “Good.” He turned to face the door once again. A Woduur had exited the area and was moving towards them
“Crap, crap, crap,” Valencia jumped to his feet, hurled the grenade and charged in behind it. He brought his rifle up in a single smooth motion and fired into the approaching Woduur, who froze at the sight of the screaming, charging humans.
The grenade went off with a deafening roar. Valencia and Cooper dashed into the area, Two of the Woduur were knocked down and were obviously struggling to recover. The other three were staring at them as they moved into the room. Valencia fired a short burst into the head of one of them. A second was quickly cut down by Cooper.
The third Woduur had taken the Marines’ momentary focus on its companions to step to one side and raise its rifle. Valencia dropped, rolling away and felt the shot hit him in the left hip. Pain flared through his consciousness. He came up and aimed his rifle at the remaining Woduur. A burst caught the enemy low on the chest, near where the lower torso turned up to the upper torso.
The creature staggered and then jerked when it was hit by Cooper’s shot from the side. Valencia was able to line up a shot through the head, killing it. He quickly turned to the cages. Some of them held civilians and some held soldiers. The cages were held shut with heavy locking mechanisms that weren’t easily opened.
“Cooper, keep watch, I’m going to try to get these cages opened. Everyone, please try to keep quiet.” A clamor of voices asking to be released had sprung up as soon as the Woduur were killed. “I’m going to try to get you all out, I promise.” He hunted around for a moment and found one of the knives he’d seen the Woduur using. It was simple enough, a long, cylindrical handle with a button on it. When he pressed the button, the knife hummed softly. He pressed the edge against one of the locks, and it cut through with some resistance.
Moments later, he had sixteen other Marines with him, all junior enlisted and thirty odd civilians. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll find a safe place to pull back to and then try another raid into the ship to free more people. Gather up any weapons you can find, people, but hold you fire unless you know we’ve been discovered.” Valencia saw grim faces and determined eyes looking back at him. He quickly led them back into the devastated streets of Istyul City.
Stokes sat in a conference room with Bendel. Admirals Misato and Coffee were on the screen mounted to the wall. Captain Patho was also displayed there, having just arrived at Buckman’s Star.
“I really don’t understand their motivations,” Misato said. “Why did they attack us that way? Why did most of their ships leave? What are they doing at Istyul City?”
Coffee said, “We’ll have to discover their motivations at a later date. Right now, what we need to do is find an offensive and defensive doctrine that’s effective against them. Until we can protect ourselves and our civilians, there’s no point in making any kind of counter-attack.”
“Have the Woduur advanced beyond their landing site?” Stokes asked.
“No. They seem content to have established a beachhead,” Misato said.
Aden Patho said, “It’s not all bad news, sirs. My mission was a complete success. The survivors of the expeditionary force have been located and all but one of them are aboard my ship.”
Stokes felt his heart leap in his chest. He hadn’t had the chance to speak with Patho yet. “Admiral Drogue? Captain Hanlon?”
Patho’s face fell for a moment. “I’m sorry, sirs, but Admiral Drogue did not survive. Captain Hanlon isn’t here, but she is alive. She’s managed to begin diplomatic relations with the Ulef. They’ve been fighting the Woduur for a long time and may be able to help us fight them.”
Stokes felt the tension starting to drain out of him. Ulef as possible allies. She was really okay. He heard voices in the room around him, but he really didn’t hear them clearly. It was possible they had genuine allies against the Woduur, and Hanlon was alive.