Lost Marine Boxed Set, page 18
part #1 of Jack Forge, Lost Marine Series
Jack ducked into cover as a stream of bullets slammed into the barrier just by his head. Hawke and the remaining cop looked to Jack.
“You fire left,” Jack said to Hawke. “You fire right.” He pointed at the cop. “Wait for my command.”
Jack stood up and fired a blast, hitting the first Devex in the chest and the second a glancing blow on its helmet. Then Jack let himself fall back as the Devex turned their rapid-fire blasters on him. The rapid stream of energy bullets targeting him from both Devex raced over his falling body, just millimeters from his chest. Before he hit the ground, he called out his command.
“Fire!”
Hawke and the cop stood and fired. Their targets took a sustained blast, their own weapons still targeting Jack as he fell back to the deck.
Jack saw the rounds hit and the Devex fall just before he himself landed on the deck. He scurried forward and chanced a look. The two Devex were down but another one was breaking out of the heavy gravity field.
Jack fired and several shots struck the warrior, knocking it backward, but it was not enough to stop the heavily-armored warrior. The Devex slung its energy weapon and drew a smaller device. It fired and a wave spread out from the device, filling the corridor and creeping forward.
Hawke and the cop broke cover and fired at the Devex. The pulse rounds slowed in the energy wave.
Jack had seen this before. It would incapacitate anyone that the field came into contact with. He added pulse fire of his own to the sustained assault from Hawke and the cop. The pulse rounds eventually disrupted the wave and it shattered, leaving tortured strands of energy slowly dissipating and creating lines of rainbow light in the corridor, like oily traces in water.
The report from the far end of the corridor on Jack’s communicator was cut short.
“They are breaking through! They are—”
Jack called forward some cops that were holding at a section of barricade behind the forward defensive position. They came forward and laid down a sustained volley of pulse pistol fire, allowing Jack to fall back. He withdrew a few steps, taking cover around the curve of the corridor and behind a composite barrier. He checked the holoimage from the surveillance network and checked the other side of this defensive position. The cops were falling back.
The Devex were breaking through.
14
The exit panel on the side of the cruiser opened and the leather-covered wall slid up. A frozen wind laced with ice crystals blew in from the surface of the ice planet.
The ramp slid away noiselessly from the side of the cruiser, down to the snow-covered ground. Beretta pulled his heavy jacket closer to him. His breath vented through the breathing mask and crystallized in the air, creating a tiny cloud of ice crystals that rained to the ground in a sparkling, silver shower.
The civilian transport towered overhead, vanishing in the dark, snow-filled sky. A landing strut four hundred meters away was his target. Beretta activated a wrist-mounted holostage and scanned the surrounding area.
The civilian ship was too large to fit on the small holoimage at this scale and it dominated the image. Behind Beretta, parked on the snow about another four hundred meters away, was the Fleet frigate he’d seen entering the system hours before. The Marine he’d encountered on the first power cell grab was probably a member of its crew.
Beretta knew a Fleet frigate had a dozen strong crew. If the frigate also had a few Marines on board, it was worth giving it a wide berth. He wished he had time to plant a few demolition charges on the outer hull of that Fleet ship, just as insurance should they try and stop him from completing his smash-and-grab. He needed power cells if he was going to make it to a habitable planet.
Beretta had an image in his mind of the planet he was going to settle on—a warm, geologically stable world with no creatures more dangerous than a feral domestic cat. He would park his cruiser near a coast, within walking distance of a beach, and live out his days as if on an extended vacation. An unpopulated planet, a world all his own. He’d need a companion, of course. Maybe he would need to make a trip back to the fleet to find someone willing to share a lifelong beach vacation with him.
“It’s kravin’ freezing,” Crooke said
“Quit your whining,” Beretta said. “Follow me.”
Beretta trudged through the snow toward the civilian transport’s landing strut. The lower section of the transport was far from the action Beretta knew to be taking place in the upper corridors. That was hundreds of meters and dozens of decks above where Beretta needed to be, which was at a small storage locker underneath the drive section, filled with enough power cells for thousands of passengers, more than enough for Beretta and his old friend Lars Crooke.
Reaching the bottom of the landing strut, Beretta began to climb. The secondary access beside each strut was a perfect entry point now that the upper decks were filled with Devex warriors and weapons fire.
Beretta popped open the outer hatch on the underside of the transport’s hull. Lights blinked on and showed the ladder leading up to the inner hatch. His wrist-mounted holostage showed the route to the power cell storage.
“Get up here,” Beretta called out in a harsh whisper, a force of habit after so many clandestine raids on businesses and warehouses back home, in the last days of the war, before the evacuation.
Crooke looked up and shook his head.
“You’ll freeze if you stay out there, you idiot.”
Crooke shook his head. “I’ll wait and take the cells back to the cruiser.”
Beretta turned his back on Crooke. They had known each other since they were boys and that short period in juvenile detention. Beretta liked Crooke better than anyone else alive, but if the fat idiot wanted to freeze to death, he wasn’t going to stop him.
The inner hatch slid open and Beretta climbed up into a service duct. It was warm just to be out of the screaming wind, but the moisture from his breath through the facemask still froze in the air. Beretta checked the map and moved toward the inner door, the power cells only a few bulkheads away.
Jack ran along the corridor. The route to the far side of the defenses took him down to the deck below, under the corridor where the fighting was taking place and up again. The Devex were moving back toward the rear of the transport and had cleared several defensive barriers. Once they cleared the next, they would have multiple access points to the rest of the ship. Jack would have to hold them there, or all was lost.
A message came in from Morton on the command deck.
“Major, the internal sensors show a breach in the lower hull. Someone had entered through a hatch at the rear starboard landing strut. It looks like it’s just a lone individual. Sending the surveillance feeds to you now.”
Jack glanced at the image. A hooded figure in a dark corridor. Jack recognized him immediately—Lou Beretta. The thief was back.
“We can’t hold them,” Hawke said to Jack, fear almost overwhelming him as weapons fire slammed into the corridor wall nearby. Hawke looked to Jack for help.
“We must hold them.” Jack looked at the location of the intruder. He was almost directly—and a short transit pod trip—underneath the fight going on in front of Jack. The corridors below were free from passengers, either none had fallen there or the Devex had cleared them out already. Jack had an idea, but he would need help.
Jack activated the communication system in the lower corridors near the intruder.
“This is Jack Forge. I am talking to you, the person moving in the lower decks. Lou Beretta, respond please.”
Berretta kept walking.
“Those power cells weren’t what you’d hoped for, were they?” Jack said. “I guess you’re looking for a better fit this time.”
Beretta walked on.
“The civilian ones will be compatible, but will they have the sort of power duration you will need? It’s a long way out of Devex space. Maybe I can help you with that. But you know nothing comes without a price, right? I’m not asking for much, but you are in position to help me with a small Devex problem.”
Jack looked at the schematic of the immediate vicinity. The Devex were in danger of breaking out. If they made it into the main ship, they would snatch passengers for some cruel end. If they made it to the drive room, they could permanently disable the ship and pick off their bounty at leisure.
But if Beretta planted power cells primed to overload on the deck below the Devex, an explosion could put an end to their invasion in that part of the ship. The explosion would tear a hole in the middle of the transport, tearing deck composite for several levels of the ship, blocking access and ending the Devex threat to the drive room. He hoped there were no sleeping passengers hidden from the surveillance feeds in that area, and he hoped the detonation wouldn’t breach the outer hull. He hesitated, and then berated himself for the hesitation. He needed to act. He was making a call. It was a risk, but a calculated one. It was a case of succeed or die.
“Major Forge,” Bale said, communicating from the frigate. “I’ve located Beretta’s holostage. He’s using a civilian device. I hacked it easily. I can link you to his holostage.”
“Do it,” Jack said. He lifted his wrist and looked at the image of the thief he’d met just hours before.
“Hi there, Jack,” Beretta said cheerfully. “Changed your mind about joining my crew? A few vacancies have come up all of a sudden.”
“Listen, Beretta. You can help me save these people. Then you can take whatever you want. I’ll even help you load it.”
Beretta activated the small laser cutter and began burning through the hatch over the power cell storage.
“Or I could take whatever I want and save myself. Let me think about your offer for a while.”
Jack clenched his fist. Selfishness had never been a very successful strategy in Jack’s opinion, and it drove him almost to anger to see a man, who appeared in all other respects to be a clever person, take such an idiotic course.
“You can try and go it alone, but you’ll get further with some allies,” Jack said as diplomatically as possible.
“I won’t get anywhere if I am dead, Jack. I might make it into your roll of honor, or I might make it out of here with a stack of power cells and my life ahead of me.” The door popped open in front of Beretta and he deactivated the laser cutter.
“Or I might come down there and drag you to a cell,” Jack said, giving in to his anger.
“Now that sounds like you mean it,” Beretta said. “You do have some emotion in you, don’t you, Jack?”
“Listen, all you need to do is plant some power cells at the locations I’ve sent you. You’ll save the lives of thousands of passengers.”
Beretta grabbed a power cell. He dropped the heavy rectangle block into his bag and then grabbed another.
“What’s the bigger number, Jack? One or a thousand?”
“Will you help?” Jack asked, ignoring the ridiculous question.
“One,” Beretta answered his own question, “when that one is me. Good luck with the Devex. They won’t stop. They will keep coming until they have enslaved every single one of these chumps. If I was you, I’d find a way to get out of here. One last chance to join my crew.” Beretta hesitated. “See you later, Jack. Or not. Probably not.”
Hawke came along the corridor, walking backward and firing as he came. The stream of white energy bullets tore through a cop who had turned to run.
“Major, we can’t hold them any longer. We need to fall back.”
Sam urged the cops forward to the defensive line. Webster was shuffling nervously about, mumbling to himself, glancing nervously toward the sound of gunfire.
“Steady, Webster,” Sam said calmly. “Ready your weapon."
A sudden blast rocked the deck plates, and a concussion wave threw Sam off his feet. A stream of defenders came along the corridor, staggering, crawling, bleeding from their ears, nose, eyes. A shocked and stunned expression was on every face.
Sam knew the effects of a concussion wave. He felt the throbbing in his head and nausea welling up in his stomach. He picked himself up off the deck and felt the pulse pistol in his hand.
Then the Devex fire came and ripped through the retreating defenders. Sam took cover behind a sheet of defensive composite. He readied his pulse pistol.
“Jack,” he said into a private channel. “I’m about to be overrun. We need to protect the command deck. Get us off the surface, Jack. I’ll give you as much time as I can.”
Sam looked up at Webster, and he was surprised to see the timid Marine still holding position. The sounds of heavy footsteps in the corridor beat at Sam’s heart. He activated the electron blade on the end of his pistol and prepared for close-quarters combat.
Lou Beretta dragged his load of power cells to the exit. He looked down the ladder. It was a long drop to the snow-covered surface. The air was filled with billowing snow so thick that Beretta could not see the ground. He looked more closely, hoping to make out the form of Crooke.
“Lars,” Beretta shouted. “Where have you gone? Lars, you scroat.” Beretta started down the ladder, the bag of power cells held clumsily in his grip. He struggled down, adjusting the unwieldy bag as he went. Just before the outer hatch and only halfway to the ground, Beretta lost control of the bag. The bag tipped, opened, and fell. Power cells dropped from the bag, and the whole lot disappeared into the swirling snow.
“Lars,” Beretta shouted, his frustration and anger spilling over. “I swear I will kick your kravin’ ass all up and down this snow-covered planet, you fat, lazy scroat!”
Beretta reached the bottom of the ladder and dropped into the snow. The power cells were scattered around the open bag. Most of the cells were still inside, fortunately. He began to pick up those that had spilled out.
“Lars!” Beretta shouted again. What was the point of having a stupid, fat lummox like Crooke around, Beretta thought, if he had to carry his plunder himself?
Beretta pushed the last cell into the bag and stood up. He spotted a shape in the snow, standing a few meters away.
“Lars?” Beretta said uncertainly.
And then, the wind dropped for a fraction and the snow cleared a little, the shape becoming clearer. It was a tall, rounded shape, covered in white fur. A small head broke the line of the shoulders. Huge arms, massive paws, and in one of the paws, a limp form.
“Lars?” Beretta said softly.
Then the beast came forward, dragging the limp body of Lars Crooke with it. Short legs stepped forward, and a mouth in the fur-covered face opened. After another step, Beretta saw that it wasn’t a mouth but a beak, a short and wide beak, white like the fur save for the blood frozen to it.
The creature dropped onto its upper limbs and bounded forward. Beretta had drawn his pistol and as the first shots were fired, the wind whipped up again. The furry beast was partially lost in the swirling snow. The pulse rounds flashed and lit up the outline of the beast as it came ever closer.
Jack walked backward with his pulse pistol trained on the bend in the corridor. He fired well-aimed rounds at the Devex that came around the bend and into his line of fire.
Captain Morton spoke over Jack’s communicator. “Report from the drive section. We are ready to spin up the reactor. We should have full power in moments. What’s your status, Major?”
Jack took cover around the edge of an adjoining corridor. A line of defenders filled the corridor and fired at the advancing Devex. The warriors soon fell to a hail of pulse fire. Another came and another, and the corridor was filled with Devex dead.
“We are holding—just—but the Devex are past our defenses. They can access the entire ship.” Jack checked the Devex positions on his wrist-mounted holostage. The surveillance feed showed him the location of every Devex, small points of red on the flickering image of the ship.
The enemy had pressed past the defenses and were already moving sleeping passengers back to the Devex ships sitting on the upper hull. The passengers’ bodies levitated in a Devex capture field.
“We have power,” Captain Morton said. “I am initiating takeoff procedures. I’d rather try and run than sit here and get picked off like cattle.”
Then the pulse fire slackened off and finally stopped. Jack took a cautious step forward. The Devex were pulling back and covering their retreat. Jack ducked into cover as a retreating Devex fired a stream of energy bullets at him. Jack checked the surveillance feeds and all across the transport’s upper levels, the Devex were moving back toward their points of entry.
“Looks like they’re falling back.” Hawke was crouched behind Jack looking at the holoimage over Jack’s shoulder.
“For now,” Jack said. “They must have all the captives their raiders can hold. It must be dozens, probably a few hundred passengers taken.”
Jack noticed the Devex recovering their dead, levitating them in the same Devex capture fields. They floated back toward the entry point unaided.
He saw the pile of dead Devex in the corridor seemingly come alive. Their limbs untangled from each other and they began to float away. The cops pressed forward and poured fire in to the dead as they drifted away.
Jack noticed that the Devex warriors were using their dead like a shield for themselves and their captives. The Devex exoskeletons took round after round of pulse fire, the bodies becoming soft as they were pulverized within their armor.
Jack couldn’t let them get away without a fight. “Advance,” he ordered.
Then Bale’s voice spoke over the private channel. Jack heard the anxiety in his voice.
“Major. Sensors detecting movement in the Oort cloud. It’s the Devex warship. They have blasted through the asteroids. Their warship is coming through. I don’t think we have very long.”
Beretta fired at the beast as it came closer, ever closer. The ground shook, and Beretta could hear the grunting with every bounding step the beast took. With the beast in spitting distance, a pulse round to the face finally finished it, dropping it and sending it plowing through the snow, coming to a halt at Beretta’s feet.
