Bellini stood next to Boyd and sighed as he looked at Thresh. “Faction through and through. Did you see how she killed those Marines? She has come so far. I remember when she was first blooded. A battle in the belt, a group of Marines. Kitzov blooded her himself. She was a favorite of his. After the battle was won and the Marines were our prisoners, he brought her forward, put a pulse pistol in her hand, and told her to execute their officer—a young lieutenant. He was brave. Stubborn. Didn’t flinch once when she aimed the pistol at him. She didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger then either. She was so keen to impress Kitzov.”
“We all were,” Thresh said, hearing everything. “I remember how impressed you were with him too.”
“I was. Haven’t you heard? I challenged him for the leadership of the Faction. I would be here as your leader now if the Skarak hadn’t attacked the shipyard. Kitzov ran. A coward, not a leader. But not like that officer you shot. He was a brave one. He died without a sound. Remember?”
“Every day,” she replied solemnly. She looked at Boyd as the remaining Faction fighters ran into the entrance to the landing pad.
Bellini grinned and with a wave of his rifle, he gestured for Thresh and Boyd to follow his group.
A small ship was docked in the landing pad, nothing more than a battered old bus. Thresh pointed it out.
“We can use that to get to the cruiser.”
Bellini raised his wrist and started tapping away on his holo-stage. “I recoded it,” he said with a sideways glance to Boyd. “I love a good execution. Not as exciting as killing a man with your own hands, but it is a laugh, isn’t it? You want to see your girl make her first kill? It was at the Battle of Black Rock Asteroid.”
Boyd looked at Thresh. He knew that battle. His brother had fallen at that battle. Killed by Kitzov, or so he had thought. He felt a hard shove from Bellini and looked at the small stage. The image was from a smoldering battlefield. A young Marine lieutenant was kneeling amongst a group of troopers. Boyd recognized him instantly.
It was his brother. Lieutenant Daniel Boyd of the Union Marine regulars.
Boyd watched as the recording showed Kitzov with his pistol aimed at Daniel’s head. Bellini laughed as he watched.
Then Kitzov hesitated and called someone forward. A young girl, no more than a teen, was dragged forward and a pistol pressed into her hand. Boyd recognized her immediately and felt sick. It was Thresh. Thresh was his brother’s killer.
Before he could think about it a moment longer, an explosion rocked the landing pad and knocked Boyd off his feet. The lights went out, and in the darkness, Boyd saw the deflection shield over the opening to space flicker as the landing pad was rocked yet again. The emergency bulkheads that protected the central chamber in case of a deflection field failure slammed shut.
“Get in that bus!” Bellini shouted. Boyd ran into the bus and dropped into the pilot’s seat. He tapped into the onboard sensors. The holo-stage lit up and showed him the scene outside. A ship was hanging over the settlement. It lit up with a blue crackle beam and poured fire into the Union cruiser.
“It’s the Skarak,” Boyd said.
Bellini pressed forward and looked at the image. The cruiser erupted as the blue beam punched through her hull.
Bellini yelled in frustration as his prize erupted in flame.
Boyd saw the underside of the Skarak warship open and hundreds of dark spots fall to the asteroid’s surface. He knew immediately what it was.
“Skarak soldiers,” he said. “They’re coming. They’ll be crawling over this hangar in moment. We need to fall back. Now.”
9
Boyd led the way out of the main landing pad as Skarak soldiers began touching down. He moved back into the central chamber and took cover in one of the destroyed buildings. Bellini and his band took cover in the rubble outside and across the debris-strewn street.
Blue crackle beams flickered over internal structures, catching people in the beam. Some fell, while others were transformed. They wore the vacant expressions of a mindless drone, the Skarak flesh drones. Lumbering and grasping, they set upon anyone in their way.
The Skarak soldiers seemed to enter the chamber from everywhere at once, pouring into the streets.
Boyd looked up through a large crack in the ceiling and saw Skarak soldiers firing on Marines, while Faction fighters and troopers attacked in chaotic bursts. The flicking of pulse rifle fire and blue crackle beams lit up the interior of the settlement.
“We need to fall back and regroup,” Boyd said. He looked out to Bellini’s men, scattered across the street. Blue fire slammed into the backs of those running through the debris. “We are too spread out. They are cutting us to pieces.”
Thresh took aim at the Skarak soldiers in the street and laid down a heavy burst of fire with her pulse pistol. She dropped one, the insect-like limbs twitching for some time before becoming still. Many more Skarak were already stepping over the fallen body and moving in.
“I’m not going back,” Thresh said, picking a new target and firing another burst.
Boyd fired and dropped a Skarak, but there were too many. He let off a wild burst of fire and then turned to retreat.
Thresh was stepping back into the shadows of the broken building, eyes wild with panic and fear. She was firing at the Skarak pouring into the settlement from the landing pad. Boyd picked a target, but his pulse pistol couldn’t stop the waves of Skarak soldiers. They closed to the side of the broken building. Boyd grabbed Thresh and dragged her back into the street through a smashed wall. Thresh raised the pistol to her head.
Catching a glimpse out of the corner of his eye, Boyd reacted instantly and ripped the pistol from her hand.
“No!” he shouted. He pulled her as Bellini and his gang rushed along the street around them. “We need to get into the mines. We can defend the tunnels.”
Thresh looked at Boyd. She was red around the eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Boyd couldn’t help but to wonder what she was sorry for. Was she sorry for considering ending her life instead of facing another spell of torture in the Skarak experimental cells? Or was she sorry for killing his brother? Either way, he felt sick.
Boyd held on to her pistol. He had been motivated by the thirst for revenge for years. Since joining the Marines and finally the Blue Stars, all he had wanted was to kill pirates and ultimately bring Kitzov to justice, but that was when he had thought Kitzov to be his brother’s killer. Now, it appeared that Thresh had murdered his brother on Kitzov’s orders.
Who was truly to blame? Boyd ducked as a flash of blue crackle slammed into a building’s first floor just overhead. The building exploded and a faction fighter fell to the ground, blue crackle fire rippling over his broken body.
Boyd grabbed Thresh and ran as fire fell all around. She didn’t resist and let him pull her along. Soon they were catching up with Bellini.
The nearest mine entrance was only a few hundred meters away and Boyd knew he could run there without breaking a sweat, but it would be no good for him to get there alone. He couldn’t mount much of a defense on his own. It was a highly-defensible position, and the Skarak would take many casualties trying to dig him out, but they would take him eventually. Boyd needed allies. Right now, Bellini was the closest thing he had.
“Take cover in that mine entrance. We can concentrate our fire. Tell every Faction fighter to take cover in the mines.” Boyd went into the long, dark tunnel.
Boyd released a micro drone and sent it along the tunnels. The drone moved fast and relayed back the data. Several mining tunnels were connected and created a network of interlocking tunnels joined at small chambers, with blast doors that now protected the settlement’s defenders.
“Bellini, tell your people to move into the tunnels here.” He pointed at an image on his holo-stage. “Here and here. We can link up and defend here.”
Bellini looked at Boyd and shoved him away. “I’m not taking orders from you. I’m a pirate, a lone
wolf.” Bellini howled. “I take orders from no one.”
Boyd got to his feet. “Take them or not. The Skarak are coming. We will stand a chance if we stand together.” He started walking away.
“Where are you going?” Thresh said, her voice broke with a quiver that took him by surprise.
“Yeah, so much for holding in defense.” Bellini aimed his rifle at Boyd. “He thinks he can run away already.”
Boyd stopped and turned to face Bellini. He’d already stared down the barrel of a pulse rifle once today, and he was not afraid of it anymore. “I’m going to get my Blue Star jacket,” Boyd said. “Maybe I can convince the Union Marines to join forces with your Faction.”
“The Faction will never protect Union Marines,” Bellini laughed. “Let them die out there while we are safe in here.”
“Die out there they will,” Boyd said, “and then the Skarak will come for you. We can die apart, or we can join forces and stand a chance of fighting them off.”
Boyd marked the mine tunnel map and showed the best places to mount a defense, a practically impossible position for the Skarak to breach, one where the defenders could hold out as long as they had strength.
“Hold these positions. I’ll bring the Marines, if I can. Make sure you hold these positions so I can make it back.”
“I’ll come with you,” Thresh said weakly. She stood up.
Boyd glanced back. Her face was covered with tears. She was not the Thresh he had known and fallen in love with—strong and confident. She was timid. She was afraid.
She was his brother’s killer.
“No.” Boyd stepped away, backing toward the end of the tunnel out to the chamber. “Hold the defenses. Wait for my return in the north tunnels.”
Boyd ran out into the chamber. Marines were holed up in buildings here and there, and a Blade was moving out of the central chamber. They were all taking heavy fire from the handheld Skarak weapons.
Boyd made directly for his habitation block. It was scarred with weapons fire as he turned into the street. At the end of the street, he saw a group of civilians running toward a Marine squad. They ran in that crazy manner of the Skarak flesh drones, clawing forward, biting at the air, their mouths bloody and frothing.
Boyd saw the Marines fire, but they were soon overwhelmed. Boyd knew they could not stand in small groups. They needed a leader.
Running fast while still staying in cover, Boyd headed for the apartment he had shared with Thresh these last few weeks. He burst into his habitation block still thinking about her. They had shared so much. He had told her everything about himself, and she had told him all about herself and her time with the Faction. He had thought there were no secrets between them. But now he wasn’t sure he could touch her again. He couldn’t even look at her.
There was an old man lying in the dark corridor who stood in a swift movement and turned toward Boyd. He was naked from the waist up, and he had a large pulse round wound in his abdomen. It didn’t stop him from launching himself at Boyd.
Boyd saw the dark eyes of the flesh drone. Somewhere deep behind those eyes might be the man he once was. Boyd had no time. He fired a single shot and stopped the man in his tracks.
Boyd stepped over the fallen old man and kicked in the door to the small box apartment he had shared with Thresh these last few quiet, happy weeks. He reached under the bed he had shared with her and his fingers found his jacket. He pulled it out and dusted it off.
Swinging it over his shoulders and pulling it on, Boyd felt a swell of pride. He had worked hard to become a Blue Star, and he had never really left. He’d been so deep under cover he wasn’t sure if he had gone rogue, but pulling on his jacket, he knew in his heart that he was true Union, and a Blue Star Marine through and through.
Boyd opened a channel on his wrist-mounted holo-stage. “This is Sergeant Will Boyd, Blue Star Marines. I am taking command. All units, converge on the northern side of the settlement. Boyd out.”
The squads all replied with an acknowledgement code signal. The nearest group was only a block away in a damaged security hub. It was a strong point in the settlement, but in danger of being surrounded.
Racing to the security building, Boyd could see it had taken damage from small arms. The Marines had probably been holed up inside since the initial fight, but it would not protect them for long against the Skarak
“Blue Star approaching!” Boyd shouted as he got closer. He sent a coded message.
“Approach, Blue Star,” a regular called from inside the building.
Boyd walked up to the building, pistol held overhead, but an explosion sent him diving for cover.
A squad of Marines was behind the building, peering sheepishly out of shattered windows, pulse rifles gripped so tightly their knuckles were white. An older Marine stepped forward. Even though he was weathered, Boyd could tell he was still a few seasons younger than himself.
“Are you in command of this squad?” Boyd asked.
“We lost our sergeant,” the Marine said. “I’m the oldest. Name’s Wilcox. The boys listen to me.”
Boyd looked down at the squad, all eyes on him and their leader.
“Eyes on the street,” Boyd said. They snapped to their duty and looked through the shattered windows. “Watch for Skarak.”
“I didn’t know any Blue Stars were in our company, sir,” the Marine said.
“I’m no officer,” Boyd said. “I’m a sergeant, a Marine just like you.”
“Blue Stars are not just Marines,” the other man said.
Boyd laughed. “We bleed just like you. And we will bleed out if we stay here. But we can defend the tunnels, and we can hold out long enough for support to arrive. We will just get picked off by the Skarak once they get here.”
“But the Faction has taken the caves.” Wilcox showed him an image of the Faction rushing into the access tunnels. “I’ve got drones in the sky watching for enemy movement. The way I see it, we let the Skarak and the Faction fight it out and then we can clear up the leftovers.”
Boyd nodded. He understood the thinking. They had secured a defendable position and from Wilcox’s point of view, the settlement was full of enemies—there was no distinction between Faction or Skarak, they were all the enemy to him.
“The Faction will get wiped out by the Skarak—they are the superior force—but if we stand with the Faction…” Boyd felt all eyes fall on him like he’d suggested the worst crime in the system. “I know,” he said, “but we can discuss politics later. For now, we need to survive. We need the Faction, and they need us. The Skarak are here in numbers, we stand a chance with the Faction on our side.”
The image on the young man’s wrist showed Skarak movement, and then the Skarak blasted the drones out of the sky and the feed was lost.
“We need to move,” Boyd said.
“We can’t trust the Faction. They are savages. Scum. I say we wait for the Skarak to kill them all off for us.”
A blast of Skarak fire erupted through one of the windows, throwing a Marine off his feet. He was dead when he hit the ground.
“Follow me!” Boyd looked at the stunned squad as another blast burst into the building, blue beams flickering over the surfaces and leaving dark scorch marks. “We’re dead if we stay here.”
Boyd picked up the pulse rifle from the fallen Marine and led the way out into the streets.
The sounds of crackle fire echoed along the streets as Boyd weaved his way to the northern cave. He clambered through shattered buildings, cutting across to the far street, and they were soon in sight of the northern tunnel.
The tunnel entrance was surrounded by a small group of Skarak soldiers directing a horde of captured civilians, all slavering and wild eyes. A group of Faction just inside the tunnel were holding back the Skarak, but the horde was pressing in hard. They were going to overwhelm the defenders in moments.
“Advance in line,” Boyd said, checking the rifle before lifting it to his shoulder. The Marines were afraid, lost and
leaderless, but a new leader with clear instructions gave them confidence and they fell into line on either side of Boyd as he moved forward. “Fire!”
The entire line opened fire, forcing the Skarak to turn to face the attack coming from the rear.
The mindless horde did not turn, but ran on toward the tunnel, unable to divert from what they’d already been pushed to do. They did not think. They just ran, grasping and biting.
The Skarak returned fire, but now they were outnumbered in addition to being taken by surprise. They leapt into the air and escaped.
“Activate electron bayonets!” Boyd shouted as he took another step forward, ignoring the Skarak escaping overhead. His attention was now on the horde running into the tunnel. He fired a burst of rounds into the rear of the horde and dropped a handful of clamoring bodies. With his bayonet fizzing on the end of his rifle, he ran ahead.
The Marines ran with him, and they all crashed into the rear of the crazed horde that had slowed as it tried to press into the narrow tunnel. The dark rock overhead flickered with the rifle fire from the troopers inside. The horde ignored the bayonets cutting them down.
By the time they were gone, Boyd ordered his Marines to drop. “Hit the deck, Marines. Deactivate bayonets.” Boyd took a knee and looked at the squad around him. “On your gut, belt buckles to the deck. Down, Marines! Now!”
A group of troopers were wiping sweat from their heads, and a pair of civilians were dragging a wounded man back from where he had fallen.
“Get back, Union scum,” one said.
Boyd stood up. “I am here with Bellini. I flew with Kitzov. Thresh, are you back there?”
Bellini stepped forward from the shadows, a pair of pistols in his hands. He rubbed the muzzles of the pistols against his face and head, grinning and stepping forward in slow, deliberate steps. “The spy is back again. You should have stayed away, Boyd.”
“If I had stayed away that horde would have overrun your position and you would have been torn to shreds by their bare hands.”
Blue Star Marine Boxed Set Page 55
