“No one, sir.”
Featherstone tapped his desk and called up Boyd’s service file. “I don’t want to make this official on your record. You have a great record and could go on to great things.” He looked up at Boyd. “You are under open arrest and will confine yourself to shipboard duties only.”
Boyd felt his heart sink for the first time since he realized he might never see Enke Thresh again.
“Sir, please,” he said.
“You will confine yourself to non-combat tasks aboard ship. Don’t make me mark this record.”
“But…sir. We could be called into action at any moment.”
“We already have been. Tactical intelligence wants us to check out a location on that map you found. A reconnaissance mission. We are inbound and will be at the location very soon. And that is why you are stood down. This is a possible Skarak location. I need discipline on this one. No more unnecessary risks. No more selfish actions.”
“Who will lead the Blue Stars on the mission?”
“Sergeant Dorik,” Featherstone said.
Boyd nodded. Dorik was a veteran and a solid leader.
“Dorik would be my choice too, sir.”
Featherstone looked up at Boyd. “Watch the feed from Sergeant Dorik. Try and remind yourself how a Blue Star leader should conduct themselves.”
Boyd left the major’s office and walked straight to the Marine deck where Dorik was assembling his assault team for the mission. Boyd found it difficult to sit this one out. He had found the map thanks to his daring and risk. He should be on this mission.
“Sorry not to have you along on this one, Will,” Dorik said as Boyd walked onto the deck.
“What makes you think you’re going without me?”
“The major just informed me you are to remain shipside.”
“I’m ready to go,” Boyd said, indicating he was still suited up. “You really think the major would have me sit out a mission to investigate the Skarak location?”
“He told me you’d probably try and tag along. No one appreciates your ability more than me, but if the major says you are not to go, then you are not to go. I have my team and I’m ready to lead them. Don’t take this the wrong way, Will, but I don’t need you.”
Boyd shrugged. “Fine. I’ll stay. But don’t blame me if you get your ass chewed out by Skarak.”
“It’s just a recon mission. The map you found is probably just a crashed derelict left over from the last Skarak incursion into the system. There are only faint power signatures detected at this location, and nothing suggests it has offensive capabilities. Just some secondary system still running in the background. I’m just going to go down there, check it is all quiet, and then have the major pound the location with mass beam and spitz gun fire.”
The voice of Yanic Knole came over the communication system.
“Resolute is in position for tactical insertion of Blue Star recon squad. Stand by for authorization to proceed. Command deck out.”
“This is it,” Dorik said, pulling on his helmet. “Stand by recon squad. Ready for deployment to asteroid surface.” He turned to Boyd. “Get out of here, lay low for a couple of days, and do as you are told. I’m sure the major won’t keep you out of action forever.”
Boyd nodded. The exterior door opened showing the asteroid a few hundred meters away. It was dark against the black background, but the asteroid was lit up with spotlights from the Resolute showing the target location—a cavern on the surface that led to the hidden Skarak energy signature.
“Good luck,” Boyd said to Dorik, clapping him on the shoulder.
“Blue Stars,” Dorik said in a powerful war cry. The squad on deck replied, and Dorik ran to the open hatch.
Boyd watched as Dorik leapt out of the open hatch, his suit thrusters carrying him through the deflection shield and out into space.
The assault team shrank away into the distance, and Boyd watched their progress on the Marine deck holo-stage. Dorik touched down in moments, his team all around him. He proceeded toward the cavern entrance and disappeared into the dark.
The deck was quiet, with only the reserve Blue Stars, a maintenance team working on the damaged fighter, and Boyd watching the multiple feeds from the recon squad. The feed from Sergeant Dorik showed him at the front of the team, leading the way into the cavern. His scans showed a buried ship, its hull surrounded by rock.
The hull of the ship was not Skarak, Boyd could tell right away. The Skarak hull had a strange depth to it, as if it had no outer edge. The ship in the rock looked more like it had the composite hull of a Union ship.
As Dorik moved into the cavern and closer to the ship, his suit’s light showed markings on the side of the vessel. Boyd soon saw the name of a Union cruiser. Although partially obscured, Boyd could make out the name. He tapped on his wrist-mounted holo-stage and searched for the ship.
It was the Ultimatum. Last known location: beyond the Sphere. Missing and presumed destroyed.
“Are you reading this?” Sergeant Dorik’s communications with the command deck were relayed to the reserve team on the Marine deck.
“Confirmed,” Major Featherstone replied. “It’s the Ultimatum. Proceed inside, Sergeant. Maintain communication. Use caution.”
Boyd looked at the image of the Union ship. The team needed to act firmly, with aggression. He opened a channel to Dorik.
“I’ve seen this sort of thing before, Rik,” Boyd said. “If the Skarak are involved, then the Ultimatum’s crew might be dead, but they can still attack.”
Major Featherstone’s voice interrupted Boyd. “Sergeant Will Boyd. This is an operational channel. You are permitted to observe and that is all. Stand down and stop interfering with the operation.”
“Resolute, this is Dorik. I have movement. It looks like Union crew. The ship is exposed to space, but they are moving, coming forward fast.”
“They are not Union anymore, Rik. They are Skarak now. Open fire,” Boyd said, remembering how he’d seen a Faction crew attack in vacuum after the Skarak had transformed them into lifeless drones.
“Boyd!” Featherstone snapped. “Stay off this channel or I will send a security team to place you under close arrest. Do you hear me?”
The channel filled with the sound of pulse rifle fire.
“We’ve got Skarak down here.” Dorik sounded calm over the noise. “We are outnumbered. Send in reserve team now, and ready a further team. There’s too many of them.”
The reserves on the Marine deck were on their feet and running to the opening, leaping out into the void and toward the asteroid. Pulse fire flickered from within the cavern on the asteroid’s surface.
Feeling frustration creep up on him as he watched the reserves race away, Boyd clenched his fist. Remembering the major’s orders to confine himself to shipside duties did nothing to kill the feelings he craved. Action.
“Ahh, krav it all,” he said. He pulled on his helmet and ran across the deck, leaping out into the void.
7
Exiting the Resolute on an assault jump was as exciting as it ever had been. Today, there was the added excitement of disobeying his commanding officer’s direct orders. He was under open arrest and expected to stay on the ship, but Dorik had called in the reserves and Boyd knew the danger they faced.
The asteroid below was lit by the powerful lights striking down from the Resolute. The cavern was flickering with pulse rifle fire. The blue crackle beam of the Skarak lit up the entrance, and Boyd saw the shadows of Dorik’s recon team fall back from the cavern.
“Fall back,” Boyd messaged Dorik over a private channel. “Bring the Skarak out and we’ll have them in a crossfire.”
Dorik remained silent. Maybe Dorik was shielded from his suit’s powerful communication systems by the asteroid. He boosted the power and then broadcasted the message to all the Blue Stars.
“Bring the Skarak out and the reserve team will have them in our sights.”
Dorik did not reply.
Boyd heard Featherstone’s voice. “Sergeant Boyd. What are you doing? You are relieved of duty. Return to the Resolute and confine yourself to quarters.”
The asteroid below was growing larger by the second. The Marines of the recon squad were falling back with a group of Skarak soldiers bearing down on them, crackle beam flickering through the darkness and throwing jagged shadows across the asteroid’s dark surface.
“Sergeant Dorik is not responding. I’m taking charge of the assault. Reserves, light them up.”
Boyd aimed down with his pulse rifle and opened fire. A burst of rounds slammed into the asteroid, throwing up grit and dust that hung in the weak gravity of the asteroid. The pulse rifles of the reserves poured fire down. The Skarak in the open fell, some retreating into the cover of the cavern.
“Blue Stars,” Boyd said over the squad channel, “hold your ground. Give fire. Controlled bursts, send the Skarak back.”
“Sergeant Boyd, return to the Resolute right now or I’ll see you flogged by end of watch.”
“Dorik is down,” Boyd said, pouring fire on a new target. “The Blue Stars need a leader on the ground. I’ll take the flogging if it means keeping the team focused on task.”
Boyd touched down on the asteroid in front of the cavern entrance. The helmet’s enhanced data view showed him movement in the darkness—Skarak soldiers falling back to the hull of the partially-buried cruiser.
“With me,” Boyd said, moving forward into the cavern. “That’s a Union ship. We are taking it back. Watch out for the crew of the Ultimatum. They may have been turned.”
“Turned?” Major Featherstone asked from the command deck of the Resolute. “What do you mean, ‘turned’?”
Then, as if to answer the major’s question, a mass of bodies came surging forward. The crew of the Ultimatum was on the attack.
“They are not wearing any suits,” a Blue Star from the recon squad said.
“They are dead,” Boyd said. “Open fire.”
Boyd poured a series of pulse rounds into the first of the lifeless attackers. The recon squad and the reserves were reluctant to fire on Union crew until they moved in close enough for the Blue Stars to see the dark holes where eyes should be, the gaping mouths with tongues swollen by the vacuum of space.
“They are Skarak now!” Boyd called out. “They fight for the enemy. Take them down!”
Boyd fired up his electron bayonet as the mass of lifeless bodies lunged for them. His pulse rounds took down another and then he began the grizzly work of slicing into the dead as they came at him, clawing with fingernails in blackened fingertips, biting with teeth loose in bloody mouths. Only the sheer weight of numbers could do any damage. Behind the mass of reanimated soldier-slaves stood the few Skarak soldiers.
Boyd counted a line of four Skarak, waiting with their hand-held crackle beam emitters aimed. The mass of Ultimatum crew thinned, and finally Boyd dropped the last with a thrust and an upward sweep of his fizzing electron blade.
Then the crackle fire came.
The cavern filled with jagged, blue beams. Boyd took a knee and fired a well-aimed barrage of pulses into a Skarak soldier. It fell backward, tumbling over in the light gravity, its crackle emitter tumbling along at its side. The beam continued tearing into the rock for a long moment before it fell dark.
The barrage of pulse rounds took down the remaining Skarak, leaving them floating in the asteroid’s weak gravity.
Stepping over the bodies of the Ultimatum crew, Boyd wasted no time in advancing, calling for the combined Blue Star team to join him. He saw movement and aimed his pulse rifle, but then saw it was a Marine. His enhanced data view on his helmet flashed the bio readings.
It was Sergeant Dorik.
“Rik!” Boyd shouted in excitement and relief. He slung his pulse rifle and reached down to Dorik, who was rolling over on to his back and looking up at Boyd.
“What happened?” Dorik held up a hand and let Boyd haul him to his feet. He checked himself for his weapon.
“You must have been trampled by the lifeless,” Boyd said. He drew his pulse pistol and handed it to the unarmed Dorik.
“Must have,” Dorik agreed. He checked the pistol and pointed it toward the breach in the Ultimatum’s hull.
“Resolute, this is Dorik. Proceeding into the Ultimatum now.”
“Sergeant Dorik,” Featherstone said. “Take over down there and send Sergeant Boyd back to the Resolute.”
Boyd looked at Dorik and shook his head. He pointed with his rifle’s muzzle to the ship in front of them and then he tapped the side of his helmet, suggesting communication trouble.
Dorik shook his head. “Copy that, Resolute. I’ll send Sergeant Boyd back immediately.”
“Say again, Dorik,” the major said. “We are having trouble reading you. The Skarak signal is interfering with communications. Say again.”
Boyd walked toward the breach, low and fast. He waved for the Marines to follow.
“Copy that, Resolute. Stand by.” Dorik walked up next to Boyd. “Looks like the Skarak want you to stick around for a bit. Their signal is interfering with communications.”
“What Skarak signal?” Boyd said. “This is a Union ship.”
“Let’s go and find out,” Dorik said. “As you are the gate crasher on this party, maybe you’d like to take point.”
Boyd stepped inside the Ultimatum, his rifle light illuminating the dark corridors. He checked both directions, sweeping his pulse rifle across the dark corridors.
“Clear. Advancing. Moving forward to the Ultimatum’s command deck. You are welcome to join me, Rik.”
“Smartass,” Dorik said. “Sending in recon and reserves teams now. I’ll take rear guard. Proceed, Boyd.”
Boyd was not as familiar with a Union cruiser as he was with a Faction raider. He had never been posted to a cruiser. He was a Blue Star and had always been posted on frigates—fast and powerful, able to swiftly deliver Blue Star Marines to any point in the Scorpio System.
The command deck was in the forward section of the ship and his data view directed him with a series of holographic markers superimposed on his image of the Ultimatum’s corridors. The forward cross-corridor, running from port to starboard, gave access to the command deck corridor—a long, straight, highly-defendable hallway to the command deck. Boyd moved quickly along the cross-corridor and stopped at the corner. He peeked around it. The commend deck door was sealed.
“I’ve made it to the command deck corridor. The entrance is sealed. I’m going to attempt to hack the door and open it up.”
Boyd ran down the corridor and stopped at the door, a heavy composite blast door capable of withstanding a fierce assault. Boyd took a knee at the side of the door and cut away a section of the wall composite with his electron blade.
Sergeant Dorik came along the corridor and stood looking down at Boyd.
“Any luck?”
Boyd tapped into the Ultimatum’s security systems. The door was not locked, only closed.
“So, open it then,” Dorik said.
“But there is an atmosphere in the command deck, and I’m detecting life signs.” Boyd looked up at Dorik.
Dorik scanned the door with his wrist-mounted holo-stage, sweeping his forearm over the door. The data came back just as Boyd had said.
“We can’t pop the door and risk blowing crew out into the void. Seal off the cross-corridor.”
With Dorik’s instructions, the assault team came forward. Boyd activated the hatches on the port and starboard side, creating a sealed environment safe from the vacuum of space.
“Just going to introduce an atmosphere into the cross-corridor,” Boyd said as he accessed the environmental controls and pumped breathable air into the sealed area. Once done, Boyd accessed the command deck security door controls.
The door slid back with a hiss. Lights flickered over the deck from the control consoles, and they showed Boyd an unusual sight.
In the center of the command deck were several benc
hes laying back at a forty-five-degree angle. Tubes and cables were streaming away and connected to a dark, throbbing sphere that had been set up on the main holo-stage. As Boyd’s eyes became accustomed to the light, he saw there were bodies on the benches—the bodies of the Ultimatum’s command deck crew, all hooked up to tubes and cables.
“What the krav?” Boyd said, climbing to his feet. He walked onto the command deck and stood in front of the line of benches.
There were six in total, each with a body strapped down. Tubes came out of their necks, and cables were fastened to the tops of their heads.
Boyd checked the first. It was the body of a regular Marine captain, probably the commanding officer of the Ultimatum’s Marine company. Next was a command deck officer. Boyd’s helmet informed him it was Commander Jacqueline Briggs, the Ultimatum’s second-in-command. She was alive but weak.
Next to her was the ship’s captain, Brendon Sheen. His life signs were erratic and extremely weak. His eyes rolled around in his open sockets, mouth gasping and chewing the air. He struggled weakly against the restraints. As Boyd looked him up and down, he could see Sheen’s left arm had been removed and a Skarak arm had been grafted on in its place. The Skarak limb was gray and limp, not the usual dark shine of a Skarak arm, but the joints and the gripping fingers at its hand-like end were unmistakable.
The next in line was a young junior officer. He too had a Skarak limb in place of his left arm, but he also had a secondary arm grafted to his torso near his lower left rib. The secondary arm ended in a Skarak technological device. It had a power supply of its own and was glowing in dark lines. A snub end to the device crackled with a light similar to the crackle beam.
“A weapon?” Boyd said to Dorik, who was at his side, looking the poor, mutilated officer.
Dorik remained silent.
The next in line were all dead. Cables coming out of their skulls and various Skarak attachments had been grafted to their bodies.
Boyd shook his head in disgust and disbelief. He walked back along the line. He stopped next to the captain and put his ear close to the captain’s mouth. The only sound to come out was a faint hiss and rasp of his dry throat.
Blue Star Marine Boxed Set Page 42
