Boyd was firing, his pulse rifle blasting at the oncoming Skarak. He thought the chance to escape couldn’t come fast enough. Skarak soldiers were still dropping and grabbing Faction troopers and civilians alike. Weapons fire still sounded from across the landing zone. Flashes of gunfire and several small detonations punctuated the background noise of frightened people.
A sudden roar drew Boyd’s attention momentarily as he poured fire on the advancing Skarak soldiers. The ship to his left was powering up, strip lights along the hull blinking into life. The drive assembly focus planes were fanning in and out and then the drive flare began to grow. Thrusters on the underside blasted, sending out clouds of dust.
The Skarak soldiers advancing on Boyd’s position continued forward. They fired their weapons, their aim erratic, but heavy and sustained. Boyd fired the same series of short bursts that had worked before, the whole group defending the Fist doing the same. They slowed the Skarak, but could not stop them before another trooper was burning under the blue-and-white fire from the alien weapons.
“I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” Thresh’s voice was loud and excited, crackling and popping over the communication channel.
“I’ve got power to the flight deck,” Poledri said. “Everyone, get ready to fall back. To any Odium Fist crew or company in range of this transmission, fall back to the Fist immediately. We are leaving.”
The three troopers still lying in front of the Fist began to get to their feet and fall back, firing as they went. Noland was firing his pulse pistol and calling out to them to hurry. Boyd added to Noland’s covering fire. They targeted the nearest Skarak and knocked it back with a series of rounds before it finally fell.
And then Boyd saw the nearby Faction ship, a raider just like the Odium Fist. Its older, battered outer composite told tales of many narrow escapes from Union cruisers. It lifted off slowly, just a meter. The nose pitched so that it was presenting the main drive assembly to the ground. The drive field punched into the dust and gravel. The blast wave from the drive field knocked over the group of Skarak advancing on the Fist. Through the dust, Boyd could see pulse rounds flickering, picking out Skarak silhouettes. Above the dust cloud, Boyd saw the forward section of the raider climbing steadily—ten meters, fifty meters, a hundred meters.
A blast of blue, crackling energy from a Skarak ship in orbit slammed into the nose, pushing the raider back and making the front of the ship glow white-hot. Fingers of crackling energy moved back over the raider before gathering on the drive assembly. The drive fell cold, the blue and white lighting up the dust cloud thrown up by the raider’s drive. The ship began to fall back, slowly at first. A second blast punched the raider back more. The drive assembly erupted, plasma punching out from the sides of the assembly and flooding over the surface of the moon, turning the white gravel to black glass.
“We have power!” Thresher said excitedly.
Lights in the Fist flickered on behind Boyd, which was when he realized the Fist had just made itself a target for the Skarak warships in orbit.
8
“Captain, this is Boyd. Don’t attempt to take off. Thresh, don’t bring the power online.”
“We are getting out of here,” Poledri said. “Thresh, don’t listen to him. Give me power as soon as possible.”
Boyd watched another ship lifting off, and he could sense the danger. A blue beam crackled down from high above and connected with the ship. It fell back to the ground after achieving a moment’s flight, the drive section slamming down, twisting and fracturing the composite. The drive field tore the ship apart, and plasma burned up the side of the ship in a boiling cloud.
“The Skarak are hitting the ships trying to leave,” Boyd said.
“Then the sooner we get out of here the better.”
Boyd watched another group of Skarak soldiers marching forward. He handed Noland his pulse rifle.
“Hold the ramp,” Boyd said.
“Where are you going?” Noland asked after taking the rifle.
“Going to stop Thresh. If we take off, we are dead.”
“Defy the captain and you’ll be dead.”
“But you’ll be alive,” Boyd said and ran back into the Fist.
The drive room was only a few twisted corridors away. As he ran, he could hear ship’s systems starting up. Boyd needed to stop Thresh. He could see that the Skarak were stopping ships from leaving. He had a strange feeling that another ship was taking off—he could almost see it in his mind—then he felt it fall. The sound came rattling through the Fist as the ship crashed back to the surface.
“Another one down,” Noland said from the boarding ramp. “Hurry up and let’s get out of here.”
Boyd was still connected to the network he had created to search for Kitzov. He opened a channel to the entire landing zone—all crew, troopers, and ships.
“Power down. Do not attempt to take off. The Skarak are only hitting ships trying to leave. Don’t attempt to leave.”
“Boyd, is that you?” Poledri said. “How did you access the entire LZ?”
Boyd burst into the drive room. He saw Thresh high up in the reactor chamber.
“Thresh, don’t do it!” Boyd called out.
She looked down at him. Her hand hovered over the power control.
“Don’t listen to him, Thresh,” Poledri said. “I am at the flight console and I am ready to get my ship out of here. You are my engineer and you have an order. Give me power now.”
Thresh looked down at Boyd. She shrugged and mouthed the word, ‘sorry’.
“All ships,” a voice burst over Boyd’s communicator. “This is Kitzov. Now hear this. All ships, power down. The Skarak are destroying any ship taking off. Tactical intelligence aboard the Silence calculates that the energy signature of the drive field is assisting the Skarak’s targeting. If we are to stand a chance, we must hold our ground and fight. Running is not an option. Retreat is death. We will stand and fight. Faction. Freedom. Forever.”
Boyd held Thresh in his gaze. She shook her head and smiled down at him before stepping away from the power control.
“There’s too many of them.” Noland’s voice sounded like he was exhausted, pulse fire fizzing in the background.
“On my way,” Boyd said and ran back to the boarding ramp.
The fighting outside was still heavy. Faction troopers were running for the cover of raiders and firing at the Skarak walking freely about the landing zone. Boyd took position against the open hatch on top of the boarding ramp and looked for a target.
The remaining troopers of the Fist’s company lay on the ground under the ship’s hull. Blue beams struck indiscriminately, destroying anyone unlucky enough to be caught by the aimless fire.
“The captain is not going to be happy with you,” Noland said, his eyes scanning for Skarak targets. “Going over his head like that. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t feed you to a Skarak for that.” Noland threw Boyd his pulse rifle and armed himself with his pistol.
Boyd shrugged. “Don’t mind pissing off Poledri,” Boyd said, just before he heard the footsteps behind him.
Boyd turned just in time to see Poledri’s bunched fist flying at him. It was a heavy punch and knocked Boyd back into the frame of the boarding ramp.
Boyd recovered and squared up. He stepped towards Poledri, ready to fight for his life, ready to fight to the death.
Noland stepped up and jammed his pulse pistol to the side of Boyd’s head.
Boyd held up his hands.
Poledri was fuming, his face contorted in a grimace of hate and anger—more so than usual. The scar over his eye appeared to deepen as if rage drew it down into his flesh.
He punched Boyd again.
“You ever countermand my orders again and I will crush you.” Poledri snatched the pulse rifle from Boyd and took position, ready to defend his ship.
Most of the Skaraks dropping from the skies began to form up into tightly-packed squads. There were no more people running around for them to grab
. Everyone was hiding, taking cover in or under a ship. Boyd sensed the Skarak desire to capture people. Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, like the memory of an echo, he heard their call. He had been in their ship and felt the draw of the Skarak. Now he could feel them, feel their intentions.
“Hold them,” he called out as a group of Skarak marched forward.
The trooper in front of the Fist turned to fall back as the Skarak weapons poured fire at him.
Poledri fired a sustained burst. Boyd was impressed with how the pirate held his aim while firing such a long barrage. He joined him and added a series of pistol rounds, finally dropping one of the Skarak.
“There are too many of them,” Noland said as he retreated a few steps into the Fist. “We need to get out of here.”
“You heard Kitzov,” Poledri said. “We stand and fight.”
“We need a better position,” Boyd said as another Skarak dropped in front of the ship. Boyd looked at his wrist-mounted holo-stage and called up an image of the entire landing zone.
The defenders were scattered across the area and were too spread out, while the Skarak moved freely. All the troopers and flight deck crews were defending their own ships. Boyd knew they could never hold off the Skarak like this. They were simply waiting their turn to be picked off.
“We need to concentrate our firepower if we are going to survive this,” he said as he raised his pistol.
A blast of Skarak fire struck the side of the Fist. Boyd recoiled and lost his footing. As he lay on his back, clambering to find his feet, he saw movement above the boarding ramp.
He could hear the Skarak’s movement, like a scratching and scuttling. And he could feel its presence. He aimed, and the moment the Skarak soldier peered around the edge, he fired.
Captain Bozilova called in all the troopers of the Creeping Fate and arranged them inside his ship. The Skarak were at the edge of the boarding ramp. With the power offline, the ramp could not close. The crew held the corridor, the narrow space concentrating their fire and holding the Skarak back.
Bozilova had never been boarded. In all his years attacking Union freighters from the belt to the sphere, he had always been the attacker. He knew once he had a foothold on a ship, he was not giving up. The first Skarak soldier rushed up the ramp and was inside.
“This is Bozilova. We have Skarak on board. I’ve lost all my troopers. Flight deck crew only remaining. I’m falling back to the flight deck and I’ll try and stop them from getting in. If it looks like the Skarak will breach my final position, I will destroy my ship. The Creeping Fate will fight as long as we can. Faction. Freedom. Forever.”
With Skarak soldiers inside his ship, Bozilova gave the order to fall back. He ran with his engineer, navigator, weapons operator, and pilot. The Skarak fire that chased them slammed into the engineer, dropping him with a scream. The screaming stopped as he fell, white energy crackling and fizzling out over the back of his head.
Bozilova turned and gave fire, his pulse rounds going wild and slamming into the walls, narrowly missing the Skarak standing at the end of the corridor. It raised its weapon and took aim at Bozilova. He saw more Skarak join the other, while others were moving off into other adjoining corridors, spreading through the ship.
Bozilova turned and ran, just making it around the bend before the Skarak fired. He made it to the flight deck in a few more strides.
Taking cover in the flight deck, all weapons were trained on the open entrance. Bozilova’s remaining crew looked breathless but determined. They were not beaten yet, even though they all knew they could not win.
A sudden hail of Skarak fire screamed through the entrance. Bozilova stood aghast as his remaining crewman fell to the floor.
Running to the command chair, Bozilova had one last move—a failsafe, installed on all raiders to ensure they would never be taken into custody by the Union. But it was the Skarak that prompted him to use it now.
As the Skarak rushed onto the flight deck, Bozilova pulled open the small cover on the side of the armrest. A single, simple switch. A Skarak came into view around the command chair just as he flipped the switch.
The roar of the Creeping Fate exploding shook the ground and made the gravel shake. Boyd kept firing. Poledri was focused and filled with deadly bloodlust. Noland was momentarily distracted by the blast.
Thresh arrived at the opening, a rifle in hand. She stood behind them and raised the weapon.
“The Creeping Fate just self-destructed,” she said as she blasted pulse fire into the dust.
“We always said one would be there when the other was killed.” Poledri picked a new target and fired. “Didn’t think it would be like this.”
“Why don’t they just destroy the ships from orbit?” Noland said. “Why don’t they just let us escape?” His voice rose with fury. “Just let us go. It’s not fair.” He stepped forward and fired wildly into the dust and the Skaraks moving in on their position.
“Get back,” Poledri said, cold and firm. “Maintain your position and fire.”
“They are not destroying the ships because they want us alive, as many of us as they can get,” Boyd said. He stepped back into cover and tapped at his holo-stage.
“What are you doing cowering back there?” Poledri said, not once letting up the heavy fire he was pouring onto the Skarak outside.
“I am looking for a way out of here. If we stay here, we will be killed, or worse.”
“What’s worse?” Poledri said.
“You want to wait and find out?”
Still connected to his covert device, Boyd accessed a set of Union maps of the moon. The maps showed him a series of underground bunkers that had been a hidden Union outpost. It had only recently been abandoned after the Union had pulled back to the inner system following the discovery of the Skaraks. The nearest entrance to the bunker complex was at the banks of the red lake, and only a few meters from the Fist. Boyd knew it would be difficult to explain how he found the system of hidden Union bunkers, and he didn’t have long to come up with a convincing story because he knew for sure if he stayed here, he would soon be dead.
“I think I have something,” Boyd said.
“What have you got?” Poledri said.
“A network of caves,” Boyd said.
“Where?”
“Not far. We all need to move, all Faction forces. We can strengthen our defense if we work together.”
“Send the coordinates to the Faction command,” Poledri said.
“Done,” Boyd replied, picking a target and opening fire.
A roar of a drive field somewhere from the far side of the landing zone reverberated over the loose stone ground. Pulse rounds flashed through the dust along with return fire from the Skaraks. A blue bolt struck from above, slamming into the nose of a raider climbing off the surface. The beam disabled the ship and sent it crashing back to the ground, where it erupted in fire.
“Maybe we should all try and leave at once,” Noland said. “They can’t blast us all.”
A Faction-wide call came from one of the ships somewhere in the landing zone. The captain was calling for help. His holo-image appeared on Boyd’s holo-stage. The captain looked tired.
“The Skarak are hitting us hard. I can’t hold them off much longer.” Then the channel went quiet, followed by a high-pitched chattering and clicking as the Skarak soldiers moved into the ship. Finally, a Skarak moved into the capture field of the captain’s holo-stage. It looked into the device, its covered head projected across the landing zone. It raised its weapon and fired. The image vanished.
Then came a message from the Silence.
“This is Kitzov. We need to concentrate our forces. They will just keep picking us off if we remain separated. We have identified a cave system. Entrance coordinates available to you now. All Faction personnel make for the caves. We will defend ourselves there. All forces, move. Now.”
Poledri stepped out of cover into the opening of the boarding ramp. He continued firing on the
Skaraks as they dashed back and forth through the dust.
“You heard the leader. We move. Boyd, you take point. Go.”
Boyd broke cover and ran down the ramp. He didn’t know how far he would be able to make it, but remaining aboard the Fist was certain death. Speed was the key. He moved fast, staying low and firing at any Skarak foolish enough to stand in his way.
9
The landing zone erupted into life with the shouts of Faction troopers and ships’ crew charging down open boarding ramps and spilling out onto the surface of Kalis. The ships had been grounded by an energy field from the Skarak warships, and now their only hope of survival lay in banding together and fighting.
Boyd stepped onto the white gravel of the moon’s surface. Something was wrong. As Thresh ran past him, she turned to see why he had stopped.
“Where are all the bodies?” he said. He looked at the places where the Fist’s troopers had been shot down by the Skarak soldiers. They were gone. There was not a single body anywhere to be seen.
Boyd looked at the warship overhead.
“So where is this cave, Boyd?” Poledri asked, running down the ramp and halting next to Boyd. He ducked as a wild blast of Skarak fire whizzed overhead.
Boyd cleared his head of thoughts about missing bodies and scanned ahead with his wrist-mounted holo-stage. The image of the bunker entrance appeared, superimposed over its actual location, a small outcrop of white rock only a few meters from the Fist.
“Right there.” Boyd pointed. He brought up his pulse rifle and fired into the rock. After a sustained barrage, the white rocks flickered as the pulse rounds interfered with the camouflage shield that covered the entrance, masking it with the image of a rock face.
Blue Star Marine Boxed Set Page 19
