by Ken Lozito
“I know,” Connor said.
“We need to do something! We should take the Hellcat and go right now,” Sean said.
“We need do nothing. You should be on your way. If it comes time that Lightning Platoon is needed, you’ll be alerted with the rest,” Connor said.
“But, sir—” Sean began.
“That’s an order, Private. Now get out of here.”
Sean’s lips became thin. “Yes, sir,” he said and turned around.
Connor started heading toward the Armory door.
“Sir, if you plan to acquire something along the lines of Field Ops combat suits, you might be in for a surprise,” Sean said.
Connor’s shoulders stiffened and he turned around.
“The desk sergeant is a real hard-ass and is loyal to Damon Mills,” Sean said and shrugged.
“Shouldn’t matter,” Connor said and turned toward the door.
“You’re right, it shouldn’t, but he could bury your request in red tape, and if something really is wrong at 97, we’d be delayed getting there,” Sean said.
Connor clenched his teeth together, considering.
“And you think you can help out with that,” Connor said.
Sean smiled and nodded. “Governor’s son.”
Connor knew he shouldn’t encourage this sort of ploy, but he didn’t have time to wait for a desk jockey on a power trip to thwart his efforts. Connor jerked his head toward the door, and Sean entered first.
Sean Quinn stuck by Connor’s side after that and made himself useful. Once they were back at the Hellcat, they checked that the communications systems had been properly repaired and that Williams’ team had mounted the main gun below the nose of the ship.
“What kind of gun is that?” Sean asked.
“It’s not a gun. It’s an M-180 gauss cannon and can shoot projectiles up to thirty millimeters in size,” Connor said.
Sean’s mouth rounded in surprise. “Too bad we couldn’t mount something like that to the armored ATV we’ve got in the Hellcat’s cargo area.”
“Could never handle the recoil. This cannon is bolted into the Hellcat’s frame,” Connor said.
“What are we going to do now, sir?” Sean asked.
“Nothing. We’ve done everything we can for now,” Connor replied.
Night had settled over the compound, and they hadn’t heard from Damon Mills’ team since they were at the halfway point to the research base.
“Shouldn’t we recall the others? You know, to be on standby?” Sean asked.
Connor shut down the diagnostics he was running using the Hellcat’s computer systems. Everything checked out.
“No,” Connor said. “There’re protocols in place for a reason. Damon still has time to check in before they’re overdue. I’ll send out an update and recall the team if something develops. Otherwise, you’re dismissed.”
Sean looked as if he wanted to make another argument but let it go. “Yes, sir.”
Sean left him, and Connor went to the barracks that were set aside for Search and Rescue. He opened the metallic door and walked inside. Elyse Winters was lying on one of the beds and Wayne Randle was on another.
“I thought you guys would be with your significant others,” Connor said.
They both sat up.
“Sean contacted us earlier, so we thought we’d stick around,” Winters said.
“Guys, I appreciate it, but you can go home. I’ll call you if I need you,” Connor said.
“If it’s all the same to you, we’ll stay here,” Randle said.
“Suit yourselves,” Connor said and headed for the officer’s quarters. He couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pride in their dedication.
There were two officers’ quarters in these barracks, and Juan Diaz slept inside one of them. Deciding not to wake his second in command, Connor went inside his own quarters and lay down. He had every intention of sleeping for the little bit his body required, but he couldn’t seem to get settled. After half an hour he gave it up, got out of bed, and activated the terminal in his room. A large holoscreen flickered on. He brought up a map of the quadrant they were in and then put in a flight path to FORB 97. A fully loaded Hellcat would make the journey in about three hours. He checked his connection to the command center at Field Operations Headquarters. There still hadn’t been a check-in from FORB 97 or Damon Mills.
Connor went over to the sink and splashed some cold water on his face, looking at himself in the mirror.
“It’s not nothing,” he said and strode to the door.
Once outside, he heard Diaz shuffle to his feet from the other room and hastily opened the door.
Connor looked toward the bunks and Lightning Platoon was on their feet, waiting for him.
“What the hell?” Connor said.
Diaz cleared his throat. “We know you, sir. If you think there’s something wrong at that base, we’re with you.”
Connor walked toward the bunks with Diaz at his side. All of Lightning Platoon stood at attention.
“Alright,” Connor said. “Let’s get to it. Be on the Hellcat in five minutes.”
Diaz clapped his hands together. “Yeah, let’s go get her.”
Connor looked at Diaz and frowned.
“Lenora. 97 is her base,” Diaz said.
Connor shook his head. ‘There is no . . . There are lives at stake.”
“I know,” Diaz said quickly. “And Lenora’s there,” he said and grinned.
Connor’s brows pushed forward. “Just get on the damn Hellcat, will you?”
It was still the middle of the night, so the airfield was quiet. Connor and the others made it to the Hellcat without being seen. They opened the doors and Connor called Amy Owens to the cockpit.
“We might need your help with something,” Connor said.
“What do you need, sir?” Owens asked.
“I need you to block our transponder for the next hour. Until then, they can lock us out of the ship,” Connor said.
“No problem,” Owens said and returned to the back.
Connor went through the preflight checks while Diaz did his own checks.
“At some point we’re going to need a pilot of our own,” Diaz said.
“I’ll place an order at the pilot store,” Connor replied.
They were green across the board and Connor engaged the engines. The Hellcat was located on one of the secondary fields for smaller ships used by Field Operations and Connor had noted the hole in security for this field. He ran a quick sweep with his scanners and there were no drones and no Field Ops security in the area. That would probably change after today. He raised the thrusters and they left the compound behind.
Connor had Owens activate their transponder, which would automatically check in at the compound command center. It was a half hour later that Franklin Mallory raised them on a comlink channel.
“This is Gates,” Connor said.
He activated the holoscreen and Mallory’s face appeared. His gunmetal hair was ruffled as if he’d just gotten out of bed.
“I should have known you were going to be a thorn in my side,” Franklin said.
“It’s not intentional,” Connor replied and checked their heading.
They’d been scanning for any comlink signals from FORB 97 or distress calls from Mills’ team and had come up empty.
“I know what you’re going to say and I know Tobias is going to have a fit about this. Worst-case scenario, we waste a trip out there,” Connor said.
Franklin shook his head and bit his lower lip. “That’s not the worst-case scenario. If you’re wrong, it’s both our asses on the line. I stuck my neck out for you.”
“I’ll tell him it was all me,” Connor said.
“And that you ordered your team without authorization—” Franklin began.
“Cut the crap. Tobias is a governor. He’s not an overlord. We started down this path because of what was happening near the compound. We’re Search and Rescue. Let us do our jo
bs,” Connor said.
“Okay, we’ll do this your way, but I want regular check-ins,” Franklin said.
“Will do. I have one more request,” Connor said.
“When don’t you?”
“Stop worrying. This is the price we pay for being able to live with ourselves,” Connor said.
The comlink closed and Diaz shook his head. “Did you bump heads with your superiors back home?”
“Sometimes, but we had a lot of latitude because we conducted operations out of contact with COMCENT,” Connor said.
He tried not to think about the last time he’d trusted his gut in his hunt for the Syndicate on Chronos Station. Millions of people had died. He’d spent a lot of nights thinking about it since he’d awakened aboard the Ark, about what he could have done differently.
He brushed those thoughts aside. He was on a planet that was over sixty light-years from Earth. As strange and somewhat familiar as this planet was, it was a place for new beginnings, and he’d committed himself to being a shield for these colonists. Part of him hoped he was wrong and the research station was just experiencing communication issues. If so, Mills would lord it over him for a while. But if Connor was right, at least what they were doing now would count for something.
23
Connor left Diaz in the cockpit and went to check on the squad. Their gray metallic combat suits gleamed under the overhead lights. Their helmets were on, but the visors weren’t engaged, so he could see all of their faces. Most were armed with the AR-71s, but Winters had an M-Viper sniper rifle and the M11-Hornet SMG holstered on her side. Connor glanced over at Sean Quinn and saw that he had the same equipment. He moved on and stood in the middle of the squad.
“We’ve had no reply from the research base, so we’ll assume the worst. We’ll be doing a flyover of the base to assess the situation. Be prepared for a low altitude combat drop deployment,” Connor said.
He looked at each of them and they all acknowledged his command. “We’ll break out as we did before for your final exercise—same teams as before except either Sergeant Diaz or myself will be with you. Winters and Randle, you’ll be our seconds. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” the squad said.
“Remember your training. Stay focused,” Connor said.
He headed back up to the cockpit and glanced at the broadcast signal. Connor took back control of the Hellcat and sent a canned check-in message to the compound.
The research base was nestled in the foothills of a vast mountain range. Connor had the scanner array activated, but there were no signals of any kind being detected.
“Not the best sign,” Diaz said.
Connor focused on the heads-up display as the Hellcat sped along. He’d kept their approach at an elevated altitude so they’d have a bird’s-eye view of the research base, and he finally caught a glimpse of a glistening metallic structure in the distance. They were flying over thick forests, so they didn’t have a clear view of the ground. Connor switched on the ultrasonic high-frequency detector and the signal was orders of magnitude stronger than back at the compound.
“The source of that signal has to be close by,” Connor said.
They closed in on the research base and the scanners detected an energy signature.
“At least the lights are on,” Diaz said.
As the Hellcat sped closer, the grounds near the research base appeared to be moving. Connor tightened his grip on the thruster controls.
“They’re under attack,” Connor said.
There was a large perimeter fence surrounding the standard prefab habitat structures, and there were bright flashes of light all along the fence. Connor magnified the view and saw hordes of ryklars storming the base.
“Look,” Connor said, “there are survivors.”
They saw weapons being fired into the ryklars, but more kept coming. Connor knew the electrified fence was meant to be a deterrent but couldn’t sustain an ongoing assault.
Diaz peered at the screen intensely. “They’re only armed with CAR-74s.”
“You’d better get back with the others,” Connor said.
Diaz pulled himself out of the copilot’s seat. “And here I thought I was going to have to talk you into staying,” he said and gave his armor a quick check. “You’re the better pilot.”
Connor glanced at the heads-up display. There were hundreds of ryklars scrambling around and some were making a run on the base. He saw a few make it over the fence.
“Use the incendiary rounds. And scrounge up every weapon we’ve got on the ship and take them down with you. I’ll make passes, cutting into their lines with the main gun. Conserve your ammo as much as you can,” Connor said.
“I’ll see you down there, sir,” Diaz said and left.
Connor glanced at the door to the rear of the ship. He wanted to be on the ground with his team. He was almost of a mind to call Diaz back in so he could fight with the group, but the sergeant was right. Connor was the better pilot, and with the main cannon he could do much more damage from the Hellcat.
The Hellcat flew toward the besieged research base, which was just a collection of standard habitat buildings arranged like a small compound. ATV tracks had worn dirt paths leading away from two gates in the perimeter fence. Connor flew to the FORBs interior and pressed the button that changed the jump indicator in the back of the ship to green. The onboard video feed showed Lightning Platoon in two lines, dropping twenty meters down to the ground. Diaz and Compton pushed an armored, high-impact storage crate out of the back of the ship and then followed.
Connor closed the rear doors and pushed the accelerator. The Hellcat lurched forward and Connor gained some altitude. He armed the main cannon and set it to full auto, then leveled off his approach. The ryklars were concentrating their efforts at the two main gates. They had the research base surrounded, but they moved around so fast that it was hard to get an accurate count. Connor swooped down to make his first attack run, grabbing the stick and squeezing the trigger. The Hellcat’s main gun unleashed the M-180 gauss cannon in an onslaught of thirty-millimeter projectiles. The slugs tore a line through the ryklars, cutting them to pieces.
Connor made another pass and this time he saw the red blaze of AR-71 assault rifles cutting into the ryklars from the observation platforms around the research base.
Connor swung the Hellcat around and continued to mow down the ryklars, but they kept trying to get into the base. He made three more passes before the ryklars retreated into the forest, leaving the land outside the base covered with their dead. Connor circled around the base and saw that there were quite a few dead ryklars inside the perimeter fence as well.
He hovered in the air, running a scan of the area. The ryklars must have retreated deep into the forest. He couldn’t detect them at all, and the Hellcat’s engines were too loud for any kind of sonic detection. Connor made one more pass, circling the perimeter of the research base. He saw the troop carrier Mills had taken from the compound the day before. It looked charred, as if it had been in a battle. There were large gouges in the hull.
Connor brought the Hellcat in for a landing in the middle of the research base, cut the engines, and left the cockpit, taking his rifle with him. The cargo bay doors opened and Connor walked down the ramp, hearing the cries of the wounded. There were research base personnel running around, most looking haggard and scared. They looked at him as if they couldn’t quite believe he was really there.
There were two women clutching each other in a firm embrace. One of the women gave him a determined look.
“Where’s Damon Mills?” Connor asked.
“We need to get out of here. They’re gonna come back. They always come back,” one of the women said.
The more levelheaded of the two held the other closer. “Shhh, we’re going to get out of here now. The ships from the compound will be here any minute now, you’ll see.”
Connor’s mouth went dry. They thought they were being evacuated.
“Thi
s is Carol. She’s just scared. I’m Lori.”
“I know you’ve been through a lot, but can you tell me where Damon Mills is? He came on that troop carrier yesterday,” Connor said.
“We can’t all fit on that ship,” Carol said, her gaze fixed on the Hellcat.
“If he’s still alive, he was at the gate where the fighting was worst,” Lori said.
Connor nodded. “We’re going to get you out. Are you alright here?”
Lori sucked in her bottom lip and nodded.
Connor left them and walked toward the front gates. There were several Field Ops personnel gathered around a man who was lying on the ground. Blake hovered over him. Connor went closer and saw that the man was Damon Mills. He had a deep gash down his thigh from a ryklar claw, and Blake was treating the wound with medipaste to bind it.
Damon Mills looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. “Never thought I’d be happy to see you.”
“What happened here?” Connor asked.
Damon winced as Blake prodded the wound, and he sucked in a shaky breath. “Where are the other ships?”
“There are no other ships. It’s just us,” Connor said.
Mills gritted his teeth and tried to get to his feet. Blake tried to stop him and he scowled at her.
“Somebody, help me up,” Mills said and looked back at Blake. “Go help someone who needs it.”
Blake glanced at Connor and he nodded for her to go.
“I called in an evacuation shortly after we arrived yesterday. Are you saying the compound has no idea we’re in trouble?” Mills asked.
Connor glanced around at the people at the base. They looked exhausted and almost dead on their feet. They kept looking past the perimeter fences as if the ryklars would return at any moment. “Mallory has no idea.”
24
Mills sagged on his feet and Connor helped him down to a sitting position.
“Just rest for a second,” Connor said and opened up a comlink to Diaz. “What’s your status?”
“We’ve got a lot of wounded people here. Deacon is helping. I had Blake on the other side of the base. The fence is in really bad shape. I don’t know how it’s still standing,” Diaz said.
