by TR Cameron
Cia snorted. “Arlox. Clever bastard.”
Athena resumed speaking. “We presume the aliens will have compromised one or more of the walls in their efforts to take over the facility, and there hasn’t been sufficient time to repair them. That should be considered a primary entrance route.”
Jax nodded. “Even if they’re whole, I shouldn’t have too much of a problem climbing them, given the equipment the Cronus left me.”
Athena finished, “Other than that, the only relevant information we have is about the surrounding countryside. It’s a mix of trees and clearings, with neither roads nor paths cut into them.”
Marshall asked, “So what’s the plan?”
Jax stood tall from where he’d been leaning on the cabinets. “Originally, I’d thought the Grace would set down nearby and let me out to create some trouble. However, the fact that I have a jump suit and some Special Forces gear changes the situation dramatically. I’m going to jump from the ship from outside the atmosphere, then you all will descend somewhere they can’t see you and find a nice place to hide. Close enough that you can come to the rescue, but far enough away that no one will notice you.”
Cia interjected, “I think we can handle that.”
He nodded. “So, the way this works is that the Special Forces deploy before the main assault to soften the place up. I’m going to extend that plan and go in before the Special Forces teams to see what Arlox has in store for them. I’ll do my best to mess that up, which should give our people an advantage when they reach the ground.”
Verrand asked, “What about the major’s ship?”
“Yeah. We can’t offer a lot on that score. Captain Jensen knows enemy ships will be coming, and we fed all the data we gathered on the ones in the tender’s system to her. I suppose it’s always possible the bad guys might step up their timetable, but they can’t know we found that information. Athena owned their systems from the moment we were on board, and since the Grace was in disguise, there’s no reason to suspect it was us. I think we’ll be okay on that front. Unless one of you also has a hidden fleet lying around to bring to the party, I don’t see that we could do much more than we have.”
Cia felt all the eyes in the room turn to her and scowled. “What? Yes, my family has a lot of ships, but trade vessels lack a certain offensive capability if you know what I mean.”
Jax laughed. “I think what will happen is the Cronus will send out a message telling the rest of the fleet not to jump in if she gets in trouble, or at least warning them of the changed situation. If the captain is smart, and I know she is, she has a plan for how she’ll retrieve her troops and get to a jump point if things go wrong.”
Marshall nodded thoughtfully. “I noticed that all along you’ve said ‘I,’ when there are three jump suits.”
The others made murmurs of agreement. Verrand observed, “And we’ve all already proved we’re pretty good in a fight.”
Jax shook his head. “I have to do this alone. This isn’t your battle. We’re taking on alien soldiers, likely elite ones. It requires a level of skill that no one outside the military is going to possess. I have nothing but the greatest respect for you all and would take you into just about any situation, but this is one where experience will make a serious difference. Potentially, literally a life-and-death difference.”
Cia added, “Besides, we’ll be nearby to help out. That said, Jax, you’re being an idiot again.”
On the monitor, Athena’s avatar burst out in laughter. “Oh, good. I thought I would have to be the one to tell him.”
He turned so he could scowl at them both simultaneously. “I presume there’s more you’d like to say?”
Cia tilted her head toward the avatar on the screen. “Go ahead.”
Athena countered, “Oh no, you, please. I’ll have ample opportunity to remind him of what an idiot he is when we’re on the planet.”
The pilot laughed. “Okay. Remember back when we first met, and you were a control freak who had problems with trusting other people?”
Jax didn’t appreciate the sudden turn in the conversation, not one bit. “Yeah, I seem to recall something like that.”
She nodded. “Well, it seems as if you didn’t learn your lesson. You have another person right here in our crew who was in the military and offers the ability to double your potential effectiveness by taking him along with you. Instead, you’re thinking of yourself as the lone hero again.”
He sighed. “First of all, I think you’re oversimplifying my alleged personality issues.”
Athena interjected, “Oh, definitely not alleged.”
Cia piled on, “And we’re only scratching the surface of your personality problems. But please, do continue.”
Despite the situation’s seriousness, the people around the table were smiling to one degree or another, except for Marshall, who intensely stared at him. Jax continued, “You know, jump suits are a Special Forces thing. Correct me if I’m wrong Kenton, but you’ve probably never used one.”
The other man leaned back in his chair, shook his head, and spread his hands in a gesture of defeat. “You’re right. It’s true; I haven’t. If only there were some way to help me with that part of it. Like, I don’t know, maybe a state-of-the-art, only-one-in-the-universe, artificial intelligence with the ability to transmit instructions over short distances using some sort of, like, comm system. I realize it’s crazy, but I think if we had those ridiculously hard to get things, it just might work.”
Everyone else burst into laughter as Jax shook his head resignedly. “You realize how risky this is, right? Everything we’ve done up to now is completely unlike going up against an entrenched enemy.”
Marshall nodded. “But you’re not planning on taking them on toe-to-toe, right? We’re talking about subtle moves, subterfuge, that sort of thing.”
“You have a point, and I can’t argue the fact that it could turn out having both of us there would be better than me alone. But it’s a severe risk.”
“You’ve made that clear. Let me ease your conscience. I understand this is incredibly dangerous and nonetheless, I choose to come along. Because I believe I can help. I guarantee you that anyone else here if they had military training, would step up and take the third suit.”
Every member of his team bobbed their heads, and Jax found himself moved by their commitment and trust. “Okay, then. Marshall and I will jump. That means the Grace has a little more free agency than I thought. Cia, what do you think you can do?”
She considered it for a moment before replying. “We have the mining drones. We can use them as repeaters to keep our comms secure. It’s a lot harder to detect the signals when they’re bouncing place to place than when they’re going out everywhere.”
“Athena, can you hack the software in the drones to make that work?”
“Count on it.”
He nodded. Line-of-sight communications were almost impossible to mess with. “You’ll set down far enough away that the ship won’t be at risk? I can’t stress how important it is that the Grace is available as a safety net in case something goes wrong.”
Cia answered, “You know it.”
Jax shook his head one final time. “Marshall, you’re a crazy man. Last chance to make the smarter choice.”
The other man shrugged. “I know. But, at the end of the day, I’m going to look really good for having done this.”
Everyone laughed, and Jax sighed with a smile. “You wouldn’t have thought I could find a bunch of people crazier than I am, but here you all are.”
Athena added, “Smarter, too. Don’t forget smarter.”
Jax rolled his eyes. “Anyone want to take her off my hands? Er, out of my head?”
Kimmel pointed out, “Haven’t we concluded doing that would kill you?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but at the moment, that’s starting to sound like a desirable alternative.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
When the Grace entered the Lorennsten system, it was
again on the outskirts to ensure she would remain undetected. Jax, already in his jump suit, watched from his customary position between the pilots. Cia observed, “No sign of alien ships.”
“Any chance that they’re cloaked or something?”
Trianna snorted. “There’s always a chance of everything when you come right down to it, isn’t there?”
Cia shook her head. “She’s right, anything’s possible, but it’s unlikely. Certainly we don’t know what every ship has, especially where the aliens are concerned, but I would think that if they’d created reliable cloaking technology, we’d have heard about it. Either from the Academy or the military. I think we’re okay.”
“Surveillance satellites or other tech around the planet?”
“None that I can see. Seems like they smacked the Confederacy off the world and left town.”
It was weird enough to be concerning. “All the better to make it seem like an irresistible opportunity, I guess. Okay. We stick with the plan. I’ll grab Marshall and get ready.”
Cia kicked the engines to maximum, and the starfield moved on the display. “Have a good flight.”
He shook his head as he left the compartment. “Somehow, I don’t think there’s going to be anything good about this experience.”
They’d decided to use the side hatch airlock and leap from beyond the atmosphere, in case the aliens on the ground did have some detection in place despite their inability to find any. The plan called for the Grace to remain as unnoticed as possible, and while he wasn’t relying on the ship not being spotted on the way in, he certainly hoped for it. Cia had plans and ideas to deal with a potential sighting, if necessary, and he trusted her to handle it. He found Marshall waiting in the airlock with their gear and laughed. “You’re eager to get going too, I see.”
The other man smiled a little, but his tension was obvious. “Sooner started is sooner finished, right?”
“Absolutely, although this will be like a lot of military missions and include a big hurry up and wait component. Once we set things up, we’ll still need to delay until our backup arrives to get the ball rolling.”
“Still.”
Jax nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get into the gear and run through our final checks. I’m guessing we still have about thirty minutes before we’re in place, but no reason to delay.”
They spent the excess time going through jump procedures. Jax tried to give the other man the broad strokes of several months’ worth of training in case Athena lost connection with his suit during the maneuver. In truth, the gear would take care of the safe landing part of the jump, which was doubtless Marshall’s biggest concern. It was the steering beforehand that required some skill and potentially overriding the chute deployment for a moment or two in order to land where they intended. Jax had picked out a clearing about a mile away from the installation as their target but had warned his partner it could change on the way down since they had no clear intel on what defenses the aliens might have put in place while they had no eyes on them.
Marshall offered a lot of affirmative responses, clearly invested in making sure Jax knew he was completely ready. When Cia gave them the five-minute warning, Jax still felt conflicted about the other man’s involvement. He reminded himself, His choice. Not mine.
Athena replied, “Exactly. You’d do well to remember that, whatever happens.”
Easier said than done. He announced, “All right. Let’s switch to internal air supply.” His partner complied, and the readout in Jax’s display, which included command functions, showed that the other man’s equipment was operating properly. He hit the button to evacuate the atmosphere inside the airlock, then called, “Cia, please open the side hatch. We’re ready to go.”
The pilot confirmed, “Affirmative,” and the door slid aside. The sight of the planet below filled the opening. She’d angled the Grace to ensure they faced it for their maneuver. Jax looked down at the green world below. “Last chance.”
Marshall replied, “Shut it. Let’s jump.”
“You first.” Jax following after had been the plan all along. Marshall threw himself out of the airlock, pushing off toward the sphere below like a skier launching himself out of a gate. Jax jumped a couple of seconds later to ensure they wouldn’t smash into each other, then announced, “We’re clear. Seal it up and stay safe.”
Cia’s voice was full of concern. “Same to you, jerkwad. Grace out.”
The first several minutes of the fall were serene, almost relaxing. Their ride got a little rougher when they hit the thicker part of the atmosphere and resistance began in earnest. He heard Marshall grunting as he was buffeted during the passage, but there was no panic or alarm in it. Jax nodded in respect of the man’s toughness and ordered, “Athena, show us the way.”
A yellow line that curved as it neared the planet appeared in their displays. It included waypoints demonstrating where they should let the flight suit portion of their outfit catch the air to direct them on the correct heading and where they should deploy their parachutes. Marshall would see only one route, but Jax had both in his helmet, along with a telltale that would warn him if his partner exceeded a certain distance beyond his marks. He grinned at the joy of being airborne, as he usually did at this point in a jump. Gotta live in the moments between, he thought to himself. “All right, here we go. Not much I can do to help you from here on out. Follow the instructions and try not to hit me when you land, or we’re going to have words.”
The other man laughed. “Roger.”
Both flew through the proper markers along the way, and while Marshall did take a tumble during the landing instead of ending the jump in a clean jog like Jax did, all in all, it was a solid effort. Jax pulled off his helmet and gathered in his parachute, speaking each part of the process aloud to keep Marshall up to speed. It took less than ten minutes for them to strip off their suits, pull out the gear that had ridden down in their backpacks and strap it on over armor and uniforms, and rig the jump suits to explode if anyone without the appropriate UCCA transponder tried to mess with them.
Tall trees with thin trunks and large forking branches filled with needles surrounded the clearing he’d chosen as their landing zone. His intended path to their destination went through more trees since he’d decided to approach from the most densely wooded side. The images the Grace had acquired during the runup to the jump had confirmed it was the best choice, both because it was hidden and because it was the option closest to the target.
He would have selected differently if aliens were watching, but they’d seen no evidence of any activity at all. Not one creature moved in or around the installation. That was worrisome, but since he was already mentally prepared for traps and dangers, it didn’t rise to the level of a significant deterrent. If he were with the Special Forces team and dropping onto the planet in such a situation, he would’ve been far more alarmed. But Jax and his allies already knew there was a double-, triple-, or quadruple-cross in play, so he’d have to stay on his toes and deal with whatever trouble lay ahead when he reached it.
He led the way forward with his rifle held close to his chest to avoid snagging it on the ubiquitous branches. They’d chosen energy for the primary weapon since more of the alien races they knew about were armored against physical damage than were against energy damage. Each also wore a stun pistol on one hip, in case the electric taser option would work better, and a heavy projectile pistol on the other, filled with explosive rounds in case brute force was the best option. He also carried extra magazines, a medkit, and an advanced sensor module that would give him the ability to see trouble coming from an extended range, plus an extra battery to power the sensor.
It was a heavy assortment, and again his legs complained about the fact that he’d been spending less time than usual in the gym. He ignored it, determined not to show any sign of weakness in front of Marshall. The latter walked along behind him without complaint, identically outfitted except for the additional sensor and battery. The other man as
ked, “Any new information?”
He shook his head. “The communication relays aren’t up yet, right, Athena?”
She replied, “Correct. The Grace has to set down before releasing the drones.”
“And whatever else is in those other two pods?”
The AI laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
His voice turned serious. “If it has any bearing on the mission we’re on right now, I need to know.”
The playful tone left hers. “One is filled with explosive devices. I don’t have access to the Rearden company inventory to know what kind. The other contains a ship-to-ship missile.”
He nodded. “Thanks. Especially since you probably could’ve made the argument that I still didn’t need to know.”
“Cia’s surprises aren’t worth additional danger. But if you could act like you don’t know anything about them when she reveals them, I would appreciate it.”
He chuckled. “Gotcha.”
Marshall, who had stared at him throughout the exchange, remarked, “You two have the weirdest partnership I’ve ever seen.”
Athena snorted. “You should try it from in here.”
Jax nodded. “If I die and someone offers you the opportunity to have her implanted in your brain, I suggest you pass.”
The other man made a face. “Eww. That kind of presumes I’ll have to cut off your head and take it with me if something goes wrong. I’m not normally squeamish, but I don’t really enjoy the idea of carrying around a severed skull, either.”
Jax laughed. “You said you wanted to come along, remember? Okay, radio silence, nothing but essential talking from here on out. We’ll use hand signals.” The other man nodded, and as they reached the edge of the tree line, Jax crouched to review the scene ahead of them. The wall had taken a lot of damage during the aliens’ assault, leaving a gaping hole three feet wide at the bottom that expanded upward in a V. Beyond it lay the outbuildings that Athena had described, and the reinforced fortress structure rose to three stories in the center of the complex. For a walled city, it’s pretty small.
