“They got me,” she said. “I thought I could run it off, but…”
Boyd looked around. The landing zone was nearby, Faction ships flickering under the dull orange glow of Extremis as Union Marines and Faction troopers exchanged fire, mixed in with the blue crackling beams of the Skarak soldiers that had been left on the surface by their retreating fleet.
“There.” Boyd pointed to a small outcrop of rock at the edge of the landing zone. He half-carried, half-dragged Thresh with him. They reached the outcrop and dropped down next to it.
Thresh rested her back against the jagged rock and brought her knee up to her chest. She looked down at her ankle and twisted it this way and that, testing its range of movement and wincing every few moments.
Boyd looked over the low outcrop and spotted the Fist. It wasn’t far away, a few hundred meters—close enough for him to maintain a sprint. Fighting was going on near the Fist, but a quick scan with his holo-stage showed him he could have a clear run to the boarding ramp.
Pulling a med-pack from his jacket, Boyd slumped down next to Thresh.
“The Fist is close,” he said, handing her the med-pack.
Thresh ripped the fabric of her suit and exposed the ankle, then she snatched the med-pack and held it over the wound. The fine tendrils reached out of the pack and connected with her skin. They burrowed in and pulled it tight. She winced once again and then felt the relief as it began its repairs.
“I can run, but I couldn’t keep up with you,” she said, pulling her pistol out.
The disguised hatch they had just exited burst open with a huge blast. Boyd and Thresh, with their backs to the outcrop, were facing the hatch. They covered their eyes and protected them from the dust thrown up by the explosion. Out of the hatch came a Skarak. It was running on its front and hind limbs, its weapon held in its smaller middle arms. As it came onto the surface, it stood upright and transferred the weapon to its upper arms. A second Skarak emerged right behind it.
Boyd opened fired a quick salvo from his pulse pistol, every round slamming into the Skarak’s head and knocking it off balance. Thresh fired also, her first round striking the alien in its mid-section, aiming for the central mass. Her next round hit higher, and the next higher still, until with her last, she hit the Skarak’s head.
The Skarak fell, its limbs thrashing against the white gravel, as its ally brought its weapon up.
Thresh was already moving around the outcrop to the far side and taking cover. Boyd kept firing. His rounds hit the Skarak in the head until it fell.
With the Skarak down, Boyd moved forward and checked the open hatch. He glanced down. No more could be seen.
Then he heard Thresh yell.
“Boyd, help, for krav sake! Get it off me!”
Boyd ran around the outcrop and saw a Skarak, its lower limbs missing and pulse round scorch marks along one side of its armor. It was pulling at Thresh’s injured ankle. Boyd activated the electron blade and drove it into the back of the Skarak’s head.
A path on the gravel left by the Skarak showed Boyd that it had crawled over to Thresh from twenty meters away, mortally injured by pulse fire, but with its last drop of life, it still attacked.
Looking out over the landing zone, Boyd saw a group of Faction troopers running. They were in good order and a few flight deck crew were with them. They fired at targets only they could see, Boyd’s view obscured. A trooper fell as pulse rounds came back in reply.
“They are trying to board a ship.” Boyd sat close to Thresh and checked the lay of the land on his holo-stage. “But all the ships are out of action.”
“Not so,” Thresh said. She was checking her one holo-stage and looking at power reading for several Faction ships. “The power is back.”
And somehow, Boyd understood. With the Skarak gone from orbit, the Faction ships were all back to full power.
“We need to get to the Fist.” Boyd focused on the ship and made ready to move. “Are you okay? Ready to go?”
Thresh got to her feet. “Ready.”
Then a blast of pulse rounds fizzed past Boyd’s head. A group of Union Marines were running toward him, right in between him and the Fist. He dragged Thresh behind the outcrop. The pulse rounds slammed into the rock, blasting chunks of the outcrop away.
Thresh lay flat on the ground, face up, the pulse pistol held to her chest. She rolled over, brought the pulse pistol out so her arms were stretched forward in front of her, and fired a few rounds at the Marines, then rolled back into cover.
Boyd propped himself against the outcrop and took aim. He targeted the lead Marine.
He hesitated. Something deep inside told him not to fire. He looked more closely and saw the Blue Star emblem on the left shoulder. Then he noticed the way the leader stepped forward. It was unmistakable.
It was Major Featherstone.
Boyd ducked into cover as a barrage of pulse rounds slammed into the outcrop.
“Kravin’ Union Marines,” Thresh said and made ready to roll out and give fire.
Boyd grabbed her by the collar and stopped her from moving.
“Wait,” he said. But wait for what? He needed a good reason.
“Wait?” Thresh said as more pulse rounds tore away another few chunks of the rapidly-shrinking outcrop. “For what? For capture? I’m going out the way I came in, Boyd.” Her face was contorted with anger. “I’m going screaming and kicking.”
Pulse rounds slammed into the outcrop. Boyd took a quick look.
The Blue Star Marines were closing in on his position. Featherstone. Sergeant Dorik. Doc. They were all there, his old squad-mates. Men he had fought with for years. Men he trusted and respected.
But they didn’t know he was the one they were targeting. It would be a cruel twist of fate if the one to kill him on his undercover operation was the very team that was supposed to be supporting him.
Boyd and Thresh ducked lower as the outcrop rapidly disintegrated under the sustained barrage.
15
Boyd glanced around the disintegrating outcrop at his Blue Star Marine squad-mates pouring fire on to his position. They were here for Kitzov, and Boyd had given them the Faction Leader’s location. He wondered why they were targeting him.
As Thresh peeked out of cover, Boyd accessed his covert device. He tapped at the holo-display and selected to send his location to Major Featherstone. He tucked the device back up his sleeve as Thresh turned to him.
“They have us outgunned,” she said. “There is another squad moving on our left flank. We’ll be in a crossfire any second now.” She pulled the power pack out of her pulse pistol.
Boyd could see right away she was going to set the pack to overload. It would kill them both and probably take out a couple of the Blue Stars too.
“No,” Boyd said, laying his hand over hers and the power pack. “It hasn’t come to that yet.”
“I’m not going to be taken alive, and I’m going to take some of them with me.”
At that moment, the pulse rounds slamming into the outcrop stopped. Thresh slammed the power pack back into the pistol and turned on the Blue Stars and took aim. She moved swiftly and decisively. Her finger on the trigger, and the major in her sights.
Boyd grabbed her by the collar and pulled her back down, knowing a single shot from Thresh could well kill Featherstone.
“Stay in cover,” Boyd said.
“I had an opportunity. I had their officer in my sights. You ruined my shot.” She punched Boyd in the ribs.
Boyd took a look. He could see the Blue Star Marines backing off slowly.
“They are backing off,” Thresh said. “They had us. Why have they stopped?”
At that moment, a Faction ship blasted off the surface. The raider climbed slowly at first, firing its hail cannon. A Blade swept in and returned fire on the escaping raider. It leapt away toward orbit, blasting out rock and dust behind it.
The Blue Stars hit the deck as a blast wave filled with rock fragments swept over them.
/> “Maybe that’s why they backed off,” Boyd said. It was lucky he’d just been given a plausible reason. Telling Thresh he had sent them a do not disturb message and that they were his real colleagues might have resulted in her stabbing him in the gut.
Another Faction ship on the far side of the landing zone blasted off. Its drive field hit out hard and sent another cloud of rock and dust flying.
“They are going to get themselves killed hitting the drive that hard this close to the surface,” Thresh said.
“Guess they are eager to get away,” Boyd added as another raider lifted off. “Can you access the Fist from here?”
Thresh rolled her eyes. She had already accessed the Fist’s power systems.
“Boyd, please. Give me a bit of credit.”
At that moment, out of the hatchway came Poledri. Boyd reacted to the movement and brought his pulse pistol up instinctively. Seeing it was his Faction captain, he lowered the pistol.
“You aim that at me again, Boyd, and I’ll strap you to the bow of the Fist.”
Behind Poledri came Kitzov, armed with a pulse rifle. He moved fast and kept low. Boyd watched the way he moved across the landscape. He was a skilled and balanced runner, and he held the rifle as well as any Marine. He was not just a skilled and charismatic political leader, but he was a dangerous fighter, too, by the look of things. He would have made an excellent Marine officer.
Behind Kitzov came Noland and a number of troopers. They hit the ground and fanned out, covering a wide arc on either side of their leader.
Poledri took a knee next to Thresh and Boyd.
“I am accessing the Fist’s reactor core now, getting her ready to go,” Thresh said calmly.
Another raider blasted off, this time closer to them. Rock bounced over the surface. One struck Boyd in the shoulder. It hurt like a kick from a Terra prairie mare. He ignored it, not even rubbing away the pain.
A pair of fighters swept overhead, dust swirling behind them. They fired their spitz guns into the raider that was just taking off. The pulses from the spitz guns ripped through the hull of the raider and burst out the other side. The ship had taken off without activating its deflector shielding or hull stability field, and it imploded and fell to ground.
“We have to get out of here,” Kitzov said. “How close is your ship?”
Poledri looked at Thresh.
Boyd knew exactly where he was in relation to the Fist. It was not the closest ship, but it was the one they knew best. If they were to have any chance of escaping, it would be on the Fist.
Boyd pointed toward their ship. “That way, about five hundred meters.”
“Lead the way, Mr. Boyd,” Kitzov said.
Boyd nodded. He stood up and checked the surroundings. There was still weapons fire lighting up the swirling dust, but with so many ships blasting off, the dust was thick and impossible to see more than a few meters.
“Follow me,” Boyd said and started off.
With Thresh on one side and a trooper on the other, Boyd led the way. He glanced behind him and could just make out Poledri and Kitzov a few meters behind, almost completely lost in the thick dust.
Boyd ducked under the hull of a raider—its power systems offline and its crew lost, captured, or killed. As he ran into the open for a short sprint to the Fist, Boyd thought how sweet it would be to fly Kitzov to Union Fleet Command on Terra and hand him over personally.
Then a Blade swept overhead, spitz gun flickering silently. The pulse rounds from the rapid-fire gun slammed into the cold raider. The pulse rounds strafed the raider from bow to stern, the final few pulses tearing through the drive assembly.
The ship exploded, throwing Boyd and Thresh meters into the air. Boyd landed with a tumbling roll. Thresh landed badly, trying to save her wounded ankle, and skidded through the rubble. She stood up quickly as Boyd came over to help her. Her hands were bloody, and her forehead had a deep cut. Blood covered her face and wild blonde hair. Her suit was torn and showed cuts underneath.
Boyd slung her arm over his shoulder.
“Where is Kitzov?” she asked groggily. “Where’s Poledri?”
Boyd looked over his shoulder. He could no longer see the others. He sat Thresh down and scanned the area with his holo-stage.
“I can’t see them. They must be on the other side of that burning raider.”
“We need to wait for them,” she said. She was swaying where she sat, looking worse than before.
Boyd had a message on his covert device. He looked down at Thresh, but she was in no condition to check what he was doing. He stepped a meter away and shielded the device from her.
“Just trying to scan for the captain,” he said, covering what he was truly doing—receiving a message from Major Featherstone.
“We have located Kitzov. We are moving in to take him into custody now. Make your way back to any Union ship for extraction.”
Boyd looked at the message. He had done it. He had brought the Blue Stars here and they had Kitzov, or very nearly. They were close enough to tell Boyd his work was done. His time undercover was over.
He looked down at Thresh. Should he take her in as his prisoner? She could be interrogated, maybe turned back to the Union. He knew in all likelihood that she would be executed. He had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was not part of his original plan.
Then out of the dust came a Skarak soldier, bounding forward. Boyd took aim and fired. The pulse rounds slowed and unbalanced the Skarak, but they didn’t stop it.
Thresh raised a pulse pistol unsteadily. She fired and missed with several shots. Boyd moved in and kneeled next to her, then fired again. This time, the pulse rounds did their bloody work well and the Skarak dropped.
“Krav,” Thresh said, her voice light and weak.
Boyd looked down. She had a local scan on her holo-stage. They were surrounded by Skarak soldiers, with at least a dozen moving in on their position.
And nearby was the Fist.
“You can’t leave me,” Thresh said. “Don’t let them take me.”
Boyd looked at the scan for the nearest Union ship. There were Marine landing craft on the surface, but they were all too far away. The Skarak would have closed in on him before he made it half of the way. With a few good shots and a few lucky ones, Boyd might be able to take out half the Skarak that surrounded them. But he couldn’t take them all down, not on his own.
“I’m going to need you to get the drive on the Fist powered up if I’m going to get off this rock,” Boyd said. He dragged Thresh to her feet. She winced in pain as he grabbed her and pulled her as fast as he could across the rough ground toward the Fist.
Thresh held her pistol out. It drooped in her hand and her aim was terrible, but she fired off single blasts into the general direction of any approaching Skarak. Her head rested against Boyd’s side.
He felt her head against the small covert device in his sleeve.
She was light. Her hair was full of dust, rock fragments, and dried blood. But there was something about the girl that he found impressive. She was a great engineer and knew her way around a weapons system like no one he’d met in the Faction. And she was tough. He’d seen Marines declare themselves unfit for duty with fewer injuries than she had right now.
The boarding ramp of the Fist emerged from the dust. Boyd dragged Thresh up the ramp. She fired at a Skarak that appeared at the base of the ramp.
Boyd turned and fired too. Thresh caught the Skarak in the upper body near its left shoulder. Boyd’s series of blasts struck the Skarak right in the center of its head.
As the Skarak staggered, Thresh hit the interior ramp controls. The ramp withdrew from the surface and the upper hatch cover slid down. In a moment, the hatch was sealed.
Thresh tried to stand, using the bulkheads of the ship for support. Boyd grabbed a stim shot from his suit and stuck it in her arm.
She yelled, her voice momentarily strong and filled with rage.
“Power,” Boyd said.
“Already done. I did it remotely. Get me to the flight deck and I’ll take care of the deflectors and stability fields.”
Boyd half-dragged Thresh along the corridor. Inside the Fist, sealed off from the battle still raging on the surface of Kalis, it felt like they were safe. But entering the flight deck and with one look at the main holo-stage, Boyd could see they were far from safe.
Skarak soldiers were still on the surface in large numbers. Several Faction ships had blasted off, while others had fallen back to the surface as smoldering wrecks. Some were in orbit with Union cruisers clamped on, seized as they tried to escape. Some were floating in orbit, partially destroyed or disabled by Union fire.
Boyd leaned Thresh against the engineering station and then went to the pilot seat. He began to activate the drive.
A message came in on Thresh’s holo-stage, which she threw up on to the main holo-stage as she worked on getting the defensive systems online.
Kitzov appeared and looked out at the pair.
“You are okay,” Kitzov said. “I am pleased to see it.”
“Where are you? We’ll come and pick you up,” Thresh said.
“No,” Kitzov said. “I am alright. I am aboard the Silence. Poledri is about to get us off the surface. We have three raiders standing by to escort the Silence past the Union ships.”
Kitzov’s image began to break up.
“That’s it, we’re taking off. I’ve got Captain Poledri in the pilot chair. I hope he is as good as I remember. Get off the surface if you can, little Enke. Faction. Freedom. Forever.”
The image of Kitzov vanished to be replaced by the map of the landing zone. Three raiders and Kitzov’s ship blasted off. They immediately came under fire from a group of Blades sweeping in from high altitude, timing their attack run to perfection and pouring spitz fire into the Faction ships before sweeping up, narrowly avoiding the surface of Kalis. A dust cloud pulled off the surface followed the Blades a kilometer up into the thin atmosphere. The flight of Faction ships around the Silence were lost in the dust.
An explosion ripped out of the white cloud, red fire and white plasma lighting the cloud as it punched its way out.
Blue Star Marine Boxed Set Page 24
