"Nothing yet, Sam," he said over the communication channel, but also so all Marines on the command deck could hear. "They know our situation. They will attend when they can. It doesn't change what we have to do."
The internal surveillance network alerted Jack that the inner hull had been breached and intruders were now moving through corridors on the upper deck.
"All Marines stand ready. The Devex are aboard."
Commander Scherer watched the enemy sweep across the dark swamp, their rapid-fire blasters tearing through the water and drawing ever closer. The stream of white energy bullets from each raider swept from left to right as they advanced slowly, every square centimeter of swamp taking fire.
With all systems powered down, Scherer knew his tac boat would not survive a hit. A single white energy bullet would not be enough to destroy the boat, but it would punch a hole through the upper hull. The impact would give away his position and then would come the concentrated weapons fire that would tear the tac boat apart.
Commander Scherer understood Major Forge's orders, but he did not want to sit and wait to be hit. He made ready to power up his tac boat and leap into the sky to engage the attacking raiders. It was likely he would not last any longer in a dogfight with the raiders than he would sitting still in the swamp, but at least he would warm up his guns and possibly take one of the Devex with him.
With the raking stream of white energy bullets now only a couple of hundred meters away from the nose of his boat, Scherer made the decision. He would order the two boat pilots with him to power up, ascend vertically, and fire on the nearest attacking raider.
It would be a short battle.
The small holostage showed him the civilian transport at the center of the image, his three tac boats on one side and the three allied Devex raiders on the other.
And it was the allied Devex Raiders that drew his eye now as he made ready to make his first move. They were breaking cover. They came out of the swamp with their white energy bullets streaming into the lead attacking raider, and they came under fire the instant they fired.
The line of raiders closing in on Scherer’s position turned suddenly and raced to join the attack in the north.
Commander Scherer activated his tac boat systems in a few swift movements. He sent a message to the other two tac boats and to Jack on the civilian transport.
"We have an opportunity to kick these attacking raiders in the rear. Attacking now. Scherer out."
The confirmation and agreement from the two tac boats came almost instantly. Scherer guessed they'd been waiting to attack just as he had. A brief acknowledgement from Major Forge came a few moments later as Scherer was lifting out of the swamp.
"Engage attacking raiders. Good luck. Forge out."
Before the three tac boats had cleared the low canopy of the dense swampy vegetation, they were already firing. The high-energy lasers lit up, a beam appearing between the emitter and the target Devex drive systems instantaneously. All three tac boats targeted the nearest raider. The laser beams blinked out a moment later as the raider’s drive system erupted in fire.
Climbing vertically, the three tac boats fired a salvo of kinetic hail. Huge gouts of hail blasted out from both flank cannons on all three. The kinetic hail slammed into the attacking raiders and knocked them out of the green sky.
Away in the north, the allied raiders diverted their fire to the next nearest raider. The first allied Devex went down in flames, all attackers concentrating their fire on one ship at a time. With the first allied raider crashing back to the black swamp, the attackers switched fire and within seconds had smashed another ally.
Commander Scherer lit up his high-energy laser and fired his flank hail cannon into the next target. One tac boat had taken a hit as the attackers flipped end over end, bringing their rapid-fire blasters onto the tac boats on their rear.
And then the second tac boat went down. As it spiraled into the swamp, its high-energy laser activated and it slammed several short-lived beams into the nose of the nearest raider. The moment the tac boat crashed into the dark waters, the raider it had targeted exploded, white plasma rippling over the hull.
Commander Scherer was the last remaining tac boat, flying head-on into four enemy ships. He fired a blast of hail as a defensive curtain and brought his tac boat about. He banked the ship and turned a tight high-G turn, the stability field around his chair failing near his left ankle. He felt it being crushed under the pressure. Now fully in retreat, he diverted all power to the drive and blasted away from the attacking raiders.
With the upper canopy of the dense swamp foliage flicking over the lower hull of his tac boat, Scherer raced away.
"Commander Forge, this is Scherer. Scratch four attackers. Scratch two tac boats. Scratch two allies. I am in retreat. I'll try and draw off these attackers. Good luck, Major. Commander Scherer out."
And as Scherer raced away, his attackers closing in behind, he swiveled the flank hail cannon to fire at his pursuers. The instant he gave a blast of high-energy kinetic hail, he felt the tac boat buck. The nose pitched down while the tail pitched up. Collision alarms sounded and system failure lights lit up over the flight console.
A white energy bullet sliced through the rear section and exploded just above the flight console. Scherer twisted out of his seat and stumbled toward the boarding ramp. He activated the ramp as the boat tumbled out of control, taking more fire.
Scherer leaped from the tac boat and was flung away by the sudden explosion of the main drive. He tumbled in midair and fell. The deep green leaves slashed against his tactical suit before he hit the black waters of the swamp.
Jack Forge crouched in cover on the command deck, his pulse rifle aimed down the only corridor that would give the attacking Devex access to the transport’s central command systems. He glanced at his wrist-mounted holostage as the report from Scherer came in. All boats were destroyed, status of the pilots unknown. All missing in action.
The last communication from the leader of the allied Devex was that they had fought and destroyed six of the eight raiders sent against them. Jack confirmed the numbers.
But there were more to come. Jack had lost all his ships, and he'd not even taken half the Devex. Now all Devex warriors would be focusing their attention on the civilian transport’s command deck, and Jack.
The surveillance net throughout the civilian ship’s interior relayed every step of the Devex warriors that had broken through. Jack watched on his wrist-mounted holostage as they advanced closer.
He patched his enhanced data view through to a corridor internal sensor node. He looked out of the node at the advancing Devex.
The Devex that attacked were too big to stand up in the corridors of the civilian ship. They advanced slowly, stooped to fit within the smooth white hallway. They advanced with their long, heavy rapid-fire blasters in their hands.
The three-meter-tall Devex warriors could not easily maneuver through the corridors, but they came on with speed nevertheless.
Approaching a mid-deck junction, the Devex warriors began to climb down a set of stairs to the deck below, still several decks above Jack's location.
But another group of Devex was already even closer. Jack switched to the surveillance node in the nearby corridor where the closest Devex group was.
A group of six Devex warriors came along the corridor. They moved in twos, side by side, their huge bulk making very little room for anything else.
Jack assumed that of the eight Devex warriors that had arrived in their raider, six advanced on the command deck and two remained behind to defend their ship. But with so few Marines at Jack's disposal, the Devex did not need to defend their raiders. He did not have the numbers to be diverted from his very simple plan to hold the command deck.
The Devex warriors on the command deck level were now only a few corridors away. They advanced toward the cross corridor that led to the long hallway outside the command deck. Jack knelt next to the command chair, the back of whi
ch was facing the partially-open command deck blast door. A Marine knelt on the other side, pulse rifle aimed down the long corridor. Two Marines were in position at the open command deck entrance, one on either side. A group of four Marines to hold off the first six Devex.
The small device scuttling down the corridor, bouncing and clattering as it came, caught Jack's attention. Possibly a surveillance device, maybe a grenade, but whatever it was, it was Devex. Jack took aim at the small bounding item. It was already halfway down the corridor and closing in fast. He pulled the trigger and let off a single pulse round.
Jack hit his target, and the small device detonated in a brilliant white flash. The blast wave slammed into the corridor’s white wall and punched a dark sphere in it. The blast wave raced toward the command deck.
"Door," Jack called out the simple order.
The Marines on either side began to push the two parts of the sliding door together. The blast wave hit before they were shut.
The partially-closed door buckled inward. The blast wave that made it through the gap slammed into the command chair, knocking it off its small pedestal. The chair flew over Jack’s head and landed on the holostage. Jack saw the holoimage flicker and finally blink out as it was smashed by the falling wreck.
A second small device came bouncing down the corridor. This time, all Marines were alerted to the danger and a stream of pulse rounds raced down the corridor toward the device. It detonated further away this time, punching another sphere into the smooth corridor. The lights flickered and died, plunging the corridor into darkness. The blast wave came again and slammed into the partially-closed doors, racing into the command deck.
Jack took cover behind the broken plinth of the command chair, but he still felt the blast wave slam into him and push him across the floor. If one of those devices made it into the command deck, it would kill or injure all four Marines.
Jack checked the location of the nearest six Devex on his wrist-mounted holostage, now his only link to the ship’s internal surveillance system. They were in the cross corridor, just out of sight at the end of the corridor. He saw one of the six Devex take an item off its hip—a tiny silver sphere, another blast grenade ready to be thrown.
"Stand ready, Marines. Another one of those blast grenades any second."
And then Jack saw movement behind the Devex.
A group of four Marines, led by Sam Torent, appeared in the cross corridor. With two taking a knee and two standing behind, they poured a stream of pulse rifle fire into the rear of the six Devex warriors. One fell, then another. The four still standing turned to return fire. One was struck in the faceplate and fell back. Another took a pulse round to the hip, then the shoulder, and finally the throat before falling into a crumpled mass on the floor.
The surviving warriors opened fire, but the Marines were already retreating back along the corridor, leaving a grenade behind.
The detonation of the Marine’s grenade disabled the surveillance node at that section. Jack lost his view on his wrist-mounted holostage for a moment and then reconnected with another nearby node. When the signal returned, six Devex warriors lay in the corridor.
That was when the left-behind grenade detonated.
The six Devex warriors were slammed against every surface. One was flung along the cross corridor to the junction with the command deck corridor. Jack aimed with his pulse rifle and focused in on the single Devex warrior with his pulse rifle’s sighting screen. The Devex warrior was still and silent.
Cheers went up from the Marines on the command deck, and Jack allowed them a moment of jubilation before bringing them back to order.
"Steady now, Marines," Jack said firmly. "It's not over yet."
"Jack, this is Sam," Sam’s voice came over a private channel. "Redeploying now. Two more groups of Devex advancing along the port and starboard side, heading to either end of the cross corridor. I'm going to be cut off if I stay here, and they'll be kicking me in the nose and the kravin ass."
Jack felt a smile tug the corner of his mouth. Sam Torent was a born Marine—brash, bold, and never overwhelmed by the task.
"Copy that, Sam," Jack said. "Keep mobile. Keep hitting them."
And as Jack watched Sam relocate on his wrist-mounted holostage, moving fast through the corridors of the civilian transport, he saw the next group of Devex moving up into position to assault the command deck.
"Stand by, Marines," Jack said. He raised his pulse rifle, settling it against his shoulder, and took aim. "Here they come."
The silver sphere came bouncing down the corridor. A Marine at the partially-open door shot it with a single pulse round, and it detonated at the far end of the corridor where the Devex were positioned. Jack checked the surveillance node on his enhanced data view and saw that the warrior group had been blasted by their own grenade.
"Great shot," Jack said. "That'll make them think twice about throwing one of those at us again."
The next group of Devex stepped through the carnage. Jack knew they would change tactics. The only way into the command deck was with a frontal assault. It would be brutal work, but the Devex warriors were determined. They needed to take the command deck in order to take the ship. They needed to take the ship to secure the fifty thousand live humans aboard. They needed the humans to give to the Skalidions in a desperate attempt to save their own skins.
The Devex stepped into the far end of the corridor two abreast, their rapid-fire blasters alive and pouring the fizzing white energy bullets along the corridor.
A white energy bullet slammed into the door. Jack saw the interior glow white hot as the energy bullets struck the far side. Given enough fire, the door would melt away under the onslaught. Jack took careful aim through the narrow gap between the doors and fired.
His pulse rifle poured a stream of well-aimed pulse rounds into the Devex on the left side of the corridor. The other Marines picked their targets and let loose streams weapons fire. The two Devex fell quickly. One, refusing to die, crawled forward, its huge rapid-fire blaster still pouring a stream of white energy bullets toward the command deck. One more pulse round to the Devex helmet and the warrior collapsed to the deck.
And then came two more, firing the instant the Devex in front had fallen. They stepped over the fallen warriors, the corridor even more cramped for them as they picked past the bodies. The energy bullets came on incessantly. They raked the sides of the corridor and peppered the partially-closed door. Many streamed into the command deck, slamming into the far side.
The Marines returned fire and another Devex fell, only to reveal yet another one marching steadily along the corridor, its blaster lighting up the moment it had a clear line of fire.
"Maintain the fire, Marines," Jack said as he fired another stream of pulse rounds. Jack paused to take aim and fired again, the rounds racing away through the gap between the doors and down the corridor to connect with an advancing Devex warrior.
A Marine on one side of the open door had his rifle knocked out of his hand. Jack glanced for a moment to check the Marine’s status. He dropped the broken pulse rifle and drew a pulse pistol from his hip holster, aimed down the corridor, and resumed firing. Jack noted with satisfaction that the Marine had not lost his aim. The first pulse round struck the next Devex warrior high on the helmet, the second lower down. A third and a fourth hit the chest exo-armor. It glowed white hot under the assault of the pulse rounds, and then the Devex fell, first to its knees and then face down just centimeters further along the corridor than the other fallen Devex.
And still they came in pairs, their rapid-fire blasters pouring fire toward the command deck. Jack saw the door on one side of the corridor was now glowing white hot. Soon the composite would begin to crumble. All he could do was maintain the fire.
The latest pair of Devex stepped over their fallen and came closer. The Marines’ fire intensity continued until they fell. Behind them lay a corridor with only dead Devex lining the deck. Jack shifted his aim from one end of the c
orridor to the other, flicking his pulse rifle lightly across the space. No more Devex came.
Jack checked the nearest surveillance node and saw a group of six Devex warriors holding around the far end of the corridor, just out of sight.
There had to be a reason why they stopped.
"Sam, report." Jack flicked through all the nearby surveillance nodes, checking the corridors on his wrist-mounted holostage.
"I'm preparing to move. Devex attempting to outflank me. I am looking for a way past them. Attempting to enter transport loop channels. How is the fight at the command deck?"
"They've stopped."
"They must be planning something. I am moving to support you now."
"Negative, Sam," Jack said, scanning the far end of the corridor ahead of him." As long as they are hunting for you out there, the pressure is off me up here. But you're right, Sam. They are planning something."
Jack accessed the main surveillance systems and scanned the surrounding area. He zoomed out to maximum range. Jack was able to scan as far out as high orbit. And there, above the civilian transport, was the unmistakable shape of a Devex warship.
And now Jack knew why the Devex warriors had stopped. Their main assault group had arrived. Thousands of Devex warriors would soon be pouring into the civilian transport, not this time to convert them into Devex warriors but to capture them and hand them over to the Skalidions.
Jack knew he couldn't fight them all. He was trapped, surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned. He was out of chances. But if the Devex wanted to take back the civilian transport, they would have to go through him.
Jack would fight to the bitter end, and by that bitter end of it, the Devex would know they'd been in a battle with the Fleet Marines.
10
"Make ready, Marines." Jack checked his rifle’s power load. "Devex warship incoming." Jack had seen before how the warships could clamp onto a civilian transport, punching huge boarding arms in through the outer hull. Dozens of warriors could pour into the civilian ship. Jack knew he could not hold them off forever.
Betrayal (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 6) Page 7
