by TR Cameron
Athena replied, “It’s not like they intended to have a civilian population inside it. That was simply the best metaphor at the time.”
Any signals? Security systems?
“None active.”
Give me thermal. The sensor package switched into the requested mode, and the display in his glasses rendered shapes in yellows, oranges, blues, and greys. There was no sign of any individual body heat signatures, although each of the buildings glowed with warmth. The overall climate was fairly balmy so the effect could be due to heat absorption.
That’s weird. Think they’re shielded?
Athena replied, “It’s the most likely explanation. A defensive facility would benefit from such a choice.”
Let’s try electrical.
The image switched so that anything with an electrical charge to it glowed. All the buildings did, and the center fortress was triple the intensity of the others. No clear evidence of life was visible on that scan, either.
Jax sighed. So, we have no idea what we’re getting into is what you’re saying.
Athena replied, “I’m not saying anything, so you must be talking to yourself this time. One of the early signs of insanity, you know.” He shook his head and turned toward Marshall, who had waited patiently and quietly. He pointed at himself, then at his partner, and indicated the facility. The other man nodded his understanding.
Guess we’re going to have to do it the hard way and rely on visuals. Time to take a walk.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jax led the way through the breached wall with Marshall trailing close behind him. He stayed low and peered in both directions before crossing the gap, in case there were aliens nearby that for some reason he couldn’t see with the sensors. But nothing waited for them. No sign of movement, no activity. This is really weird.
Athena replied, “Agreed.”
He used hand signals to indicate to Marshall what they were going to do next, then dashed for the nearest outbuilding and set his back against the wall. His partner followed a step behind and took a position at his left. Athena, any way you can boost my sensors?
“Standby.” His glasses showed the electrical scan again, and this time the colors were more intense, but it revealed no additional information. When she switched to the thermal mode, a flicker encroached on the edge of his vision. He turned his head and saw heat sources on the opposite side of the wall. They were horizontal as if they were in bunks or something. Maybe they’re nocturnal?
Athena replied, “Could be. There are a significant number of alien races in our records that are indeed nocturnal.”
He put his mouth next to Marshall’s ear. “This is beyond strange. But there are heat signatures in the building. It looks like a lot of them, and they’re sleeping.” His partner nodded and sketched a question mark in the air. Jax shrugged. “If there are some in each building, then trying to get in and cause trouble is almost certainly a bad idea. And if they’re in this one, they’re probably in the others. I say we put explosives on the doors, so when they come out, boom.” Marshall nodded again.
Athena asked, “And if someone should come out before we want them to?”
He shrugged. We run. If you have a better plan, I’m ready to hear it. No response was forthcoming. He handed his rifle to Marshall, pulled the pack from his back, and dug in it for the explosives. They were smaller versions of the limpet mines he’d used on the ships and could be set to detonate by remote trigger or movement, making them useful in a wide variety of situations. He crept around to the first building’s door with his partner a step behind traversing his weapon in a pattern that covered all approaches.
Jax knelt and attached the mine to the door near the handle. When the portal opened inward, the device would read the motion and explode. It stood out against the barrier’s light-colored plastic but would only look like a palm-sized dark splotch from a distance. And if we see someone wandering around once everything’s trapped up, we shoot them. No problem there.
They mined each of the outbuildings, carefully moving from cover to cover, eating up much more time than Jax would’ve preferred. He sensed the same frustration in his partner’s expression. A couple of hours had passed when they finished, which meant the Special Forces team wasn’t all that far out. Athena, anything from the Grace?
“The communication drones are in place, but nothing more than the channel’s existence. They’re remaining silent.”
Good call, I guess. He put his mouth next to Marshall’s ear again. “How about we take a look at the main building?” He slung the backpack over his shoulders, accepted the return of his rifle, and led the way toward the structure. Like the other structures, this one had no windows to offer insight as to what lay within. Electrical scanning displayed significant activity everywhere, and thermal scanning showed several figures, seemingly sleeping. He shook his head. I certainly expected to find something going on in here, at least.
Athena replied, “It wouldn’t be much of a trap if you got what you expected, would it?”
Fair point. Heh. Wouldn’t Arlox lose his mind if he knew that I was right here messing with a trap he’d set for other people?
“Maybe you can tell him at some point.”
Probably not. I find it difficult to believe we’ll take that one alive. I bet his subordinates want to kill him as much as any of us do. He walked around the entire perimeter of the building and placed mines on both doors he discovered. Then he retreated to the tree line to wait for what was to come.
As he settled down beside him, Marshall asked, “Did that seem too easy to you?”
Jax nodded. “Definitely. Something is going on here, and I have no idea what it is. Let’s hope they didn’t account for our early entry and love of things that go boom.”
The other man laughed. “Let’s hope. I’ll drink to that.” They both downed some ration bars and water, refreshing themselves as Athena kept a countdown running for the Special Forces teams’ arrival.
About fifteen minutes before they’d expected the team to be on the ground, she said, “I’m reading Special Forces transponders on the way down. Twelve of them. They are relaying through our repeaters.”
Jax nodded. The plan had been to use the drones for contact with the ships in orbit to keep that connection secure as well, at least until the squads linked up with him and Marshall. Likely the transponders were feeding back to the Cronus, and her crew was sending that data down through the transmitters. “Excellent. So, we wait for them to get here, and we attack the place together.”
He watched in his display glasses as the little dots got bigger and bigger, then landed in a clearing about a mile away from the opposite side of the installation. He nudged Marshall. “Let’s circle to meet them.” When they’d covered about half the distance to the other tree line, something he hadn’t noticed previously caught his eye and he froze in place to examine it. “Athena, was that antenna there before?” A stubby piece of metal showed on top of the central fortress, and he didn’t recall seeing it during their recon or in any of the photos he’d studied.
“Negative.”
“Okay, so something in the facility apparently woke up. I don’t like anything about that. I think we should detonate the explosives ourselves. What’s your opinion?”
The other man replied, “They’re not big enough to bring down the structures and will probably do far less damage than if we waited since the aliens won’t be right next to them.”
Jax nodded. “Unless our enemies have something different in mind and don’t plan to use the doors in the first place.” He made the decision. “Athena, blow the explosives.”
She didn’t reply, but a string of staccato detonations occurred within the compound. The door of the nearest outbuilding turned into shrapnel that flew inside. He expected to see aliens boiling out of it, wounded and angry, and was confused when they didn’t. His confusion lasted only a moment before the entire facility went up in a mammoth blast that knocked him and Marshall fl
ying. He landed on his back six feet from where he’d stood and tumbled backward as the shockwave tossed him around. When he stopped, he observed, “Bloody hell, that wasn’t us.”
Athena replied, “No, it wasn’t. Someone wired the compound to explode. Apparently, the smaller charges were enough to trigger it.”
He got up, ran in the direction of the Special Forces teams, and activated his comm connection. “Wasp, this is Axe. The facility blew up.”
Beatrice O’Leary’s voice came back to him, and he realized it had been some time since he’d heard it and that he’d missed it. “Roger, Axe, we noticed. What’s your status?
“Heading toward you as fast as we can.”
“Affirmative.” There was chatter over the comm from voices he didn’t recognize. With a note of concern, she added, “Run faster, Axe. The Cronus is reporting movement not too far from us. A lot of movement.”
Jax and Marshall burst into the clearing where the Special Forces soldiers stood guard in a ring with their rifles trained outward. The transponders in their uniforms ensured they’d show as friends on their allies’ displays, but running toward the weapons was still at least momentarily alarming. Jax traded hellos with the captains of the other two units but ran over and bumped fists with everyone in his, then grabbed Beatrice O’Leary’s forearm and held it a little longer than necessary. It felt incredibly good to see them again.
He realized he wasn’t including Marshall and introduced his Academy partner to the rest of the team. They exchanged nods, handshakes, and fist bumps. O’Leary said on a private channel, “Command’s yours if you want it, boss.”
He shook his head. “Your team, your show. Tell us what you need us to do.”
She grinned and called, “Dare, get these two some real weapons.” The big man handed over a pair of heavy rifles, each of which was more than double the firepower of the ones they carried even before you included the grenade launcher slung underneath. Bandoliers of grenades flew through the air toward them next, and they both caught them cleanly. They put on the equipment, surrendered their old rifles, and Jax took a moment to ask Marshall, “You good?”
The other man nodded. He had an energetic look Jax recognized from so many previous missions. He clapped Marshall on the shoulder. “You’ll do great. You’re on my six unless Wasp tells you differently.” Jax walked back over to O’Leary. “So, what’s the plan here?”
She gave a dramatic sigh. “Well, we were going to take over the facility and use it as a defensive position to wipe the aliens off the planet. But then, you know, you guys blew up our objective.”
The others on the channel laughed, and Jax shook his head. “Technically, that wasn’t my fault.”
O’Leary snorted. “Axe, you’re among people who know you. Please. No need to lie.” He rolled his eyes.
Athena enthused, “I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it when you’re with Acting Captain O’Leary.”
Shut it. “And now?”
She shrugged. “Take down as many aliens as we can since the installation isn’t relevant anymore. We have to keep them busy until our backup arrives to bail us out.”
“When will that be?”
“Major Stephenson advanced the timetable. Two hours tops.”
He nodded. “Good for her. Smart as the day is long.”
Sparks called, “Boss, you might want to take a look at this.”
O’Leary crossed to where the man stood in front of a heavy sensor module that had dropped with the team. On its display was a semi-circle of heat signatures closing on their position. “That’s not looking too good.”
The other captains, Catherine Lorenzo and Hugo Frangilo, showed up a moment later. The woman asked, “What’s not good?”
O’Leary pointed. “There’s a lot more of them than we expected from the Cronus’s warning. What is that, a hundred or so?”
Sparks nodded. “At least. There might be more behind them. Now and again I see a ghost image back there.”
O’Leary asked, “The drones have anything to offer?”
He shook his head. “They went up, and we lost contact before they saw anything. They must have some sort of defense bot up there.”
Jax and O’Leary breathed, “Dammit,” at the same moment, and he gave a small laugh. “Tell me we’re going to go with the prudent choice and get the hell out of here.”
She looked at the other two squad leaders. “That sounds like a good idea to me. There’s no way our twelve can take down their hundred, even with the heavier gear.”
“Fourteen,” Jax corrected, which earned a scowl from O’Leary.
Lorenzo said, “Slow retreat, we leapfrog back and cover each other. Eventually, we’ll probably have contact, but we don’t want to run all out and suddenly discover there’s more of them waiting behind us.”
O’Leary nodded. “Sounds good. What direction?”
Jax interrupted, “Wait one on that.” Athena, connect me to the Grace, please.
“Go ahead.”
“Cia, where are you?”
She replied instantly by giving him the coordinates. He passed them on to O’Leary and told her, “I brought a ride. We can all fit.”
She laughed. “I knew there’d eventually be a reason for me to miss you. Turns out it took an alien ambush to make it happen.” Her voice switched into command mode as she yelled, “All right people, let’s move. The aliens are coming, and we need to not be here when they arrive.”
Their team was the first to surrender their position, running at the fastest pace they could sustain for a third of a mile before turning back and pointing their weapons forward. The next group passed them, and the last did as well. When it was almost their turn to run again, Marshall hissed, “Contact.” Jax spotted the movement in the trees a hundred feet or so away that had alarmed his partner.
O’Leary’s voice was calm as she ordered, “Everyone, grenades, incendiary, on my mark.” Jax found the right ammunition by touch and inserted the canister into the launcher, then aimed straight ahead and slightly up. When she gave the word, six soft belches heralded the grenades arcing toward their enemies, and before the munitions landed the team had already turned to run. The forest behind them went up in an explosion of sound and flame, and O’Leary reported the contact to the rest of the Special Forces troops as they jogged forward.
They stopped a full mile later, listening as the other teams used the same strategy to deter their pursuers. On the squad channel, Jax asked, “They won’t be stupid enough to do that again, will they?”
O’Leary replied, “It sure would be nice to think so, but if I were them, I’d move to flank us.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I had the same thought.”
She blew out a loud breath. “Any chance of getting that ship closer? This is getting a little hairier than I expected.”
Athena relayed the question, and Cia replied in the affirmative. Another clearing lit up on his map, one about a mile and a half away. He shared it with the others, and the leaders conferred briefly before agreeing it made sense to do it. They changed their approach, deciding that the back two teams would race for the extraction point. At the same time, O’Leary’s squad, now unfortunately in the front position, would retreat more slowly and attempt to delay the enemy before turning and running when the ship was nearby. Jax didn’t love the plan, but he didn’t have a better idea either, beyond the leapfrogging. And keeping the aliens away from the Grace sounded pretty good to him.
A flicker of motion ahead and to his right caused him to snap his rifle up and pull the trigger, and an alien screamed as it fell. O’Leary ordered, “Retreat by twos. Dare and Books first, Axe and Marshall second. Me, Strings, and Einstein third. One hundred yards, then stop and wait for the next.” The enemy seemed to know that their quarry was slipping out of their hands, and they advanced aggressively, taking loss after loss to the Special Forces soldiers’ rifles and grenades without slowing.
O’Leary growled, “Okay, screw this. Grenades, then run.�
�� They complied and dashed for where the Grace would soon be. It became quickly apparent that they might lose the foot race, and Jax had a moment of worry about it before he heard Cia’s whooping cry as the ship flashed by over their heads. Behind them, a series of explosions went off that in aggregate sounded almost as loud as the one that blew up the installation, and caused him and the rest of the team to stumble. They made it to the Grace without further problems. The ship landed as they arrived, and he collapsed on the deck as they lifted off. Explosives, huh?
Athena replied, “In a pod, explosives, yes.”
You didn’t mention they were quite that powerful.
“As I said, I was unable to access the inventory, so I didn’t know.”
He shook his head. Why don’t I believe you?
She laughed. “Would I lie to you?”
He pushed himself up off the floor and headed forward to have a word with the pilot. You might, Athena. You might.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Grace blasted out of the atmosphere into the formerly empty space surrounding the contested world where the Cronus was in the middle of a battle. Many of the ships they’d seen in the tender’s system were involved, the ones they hadn’t wrecked, anyway. But probably much to their enemies’ surprise given their ahead-of-schedule arrival, so were several Alliance ships. Jax, his team, and the Special Forces soldiers watched on the galley’s display, most of them sitting on the floor. O’Leary said, “Captain Jensen had a good plan. Once we jumped out of the shuttles, she was going to use them as missiles to take out some enemies.”
Lyton laughed. “Yeah, being packed in there with all of those explosives and automated piloting wasn’t a great time, let me tell you.” The Grace continued to the nearest jump point, then leapt into the system where they’d agreed to meet up with the Cronus after she fought free. She arrived about an hour later, and everyone except Trianna transferred over to the bigger ship.
