The image of Captain Pretorius appeared on the holostage. The holoimage flickered, and Jack saw flames licking along the side of the command deck. Captain Pretorius was clearly sweating. He had unbuttoned his collar and was bleeding from a wound on his face. He still managed a quick smile for Jack.
"Jack my boy. I don't have much time right now. I hope this isn't a social call."
"Captain," Jack said quickly, "the Devex must return to formation. I have Riya Henson with me. She was converted into a Devex warrior. She has some connection to the Devex fleet. I need to get in close. Tanaka won't take my call. I need permission, sir."
"I can't authorize that, Jack..."
The holoimage flickered and dropped out for a moment. When Pretorius came back, black smoke was billowing into the command deck. "I trust your judgment, Jack. Do what you think you must. Good luck. Scorpio out."
Jack hit the main drive and threw the boat toward the Devex fleet that was reaching the edge of the nebula. Several astro units away, Jack detected the nest asteroid. It was alone and vulnerable. It was a perfect target of opportunity. Jack could understand why the Devex had sacrificed the alliance and the entire human fleet in order to take down this central command unit of the Skalidion forces. It was almost too easy.
As the tac boat closed in on the Devex fleet, Jack turned to Riya.
"Let me know as soon you have contact," Jack said.
Riya nodded. "I can hear them. They will hear me soon."
"If you can slow them down," Sam said, "that would be a help. We are getting pretty close to that nest asteroid."
Jack zoomed in the holoimage onto the nest asteroid. For such an important part of the Skalidion force, it seemed extremely unlikely that it would be undefended. Zooming in closer, Jack could make out the movement of fighters on its surface. Maybe a hundred at most. Clearly not enough to defend the asteroid against even the smallest of fleet attack ships. A corvette with tac boat support could severely cripple if not destroy this central point of the Skalidion force.
"They can hear me," Riya said. "They are convinced they can end the battle by destroying the asteroid. They have more than enough firepower. I hear them. They say the battle will be over in minutes."
"They are just sitting ducks." Sam placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder and patted it heavily, clearly excited that the battle was nearly at an end.
But Jack sensed the danger. The Skalidion were extremely numerous, extremely powerful. They were also intelligent and devious. Leaving their command center so exposed seemed highly unlikely. Jack launched the tac boat’s full complement of surveillance drones and sent them in all directions.
"Charge up the laser assembly, Sam. If we have any ordnance for the hail cannon, get that loaded too."
"We don't need to get too close, Jack," Sam said. "The Devex will be more than a match for that nest."
"Bring everything to battle condition now," Jack said as he loaded all available surveillance data into the holostage. "Look at our position, Sam. The Skalidion has split our force. Maybe they knew they couldn't take us down as a combined fleet. But if they kill us one piece at a time…"
And then Jack spotted what he feared, what he suspected. With the surveillance drones only one astro unit out from the tac boat, he detected the edge of the new, larger, more deadly Skalidion swarm. Holding position on the edge of sensor range, the fighter swarm was clearly much larger than the one battling the fleet in the nebula.
"They suckered the Devex into attack. Now here comes the counter." Jack opened a channel to Tanaka. The channel to the flagship opened, and Jack was surprised to see Admiral Henson looking out of the holostage at him. The admiral's angry face was inset on the holostage below the image of the vast Skalidion swarm now bearing down on the Devex.
"You get my daughter back here this instant, Forge. You get back here now and I'll consider not having you on a court-martial and then shot."
"Admiral, listen please, relaying new data to you now. There is a new Skalidion swarm, larger than the one attacking the fleet right now. It has just come into sensor range. The Devex fleet is under attack. You need to order the fleet to withdraw. Admiral, we can't win."
The image of Admiral Henson looked aside, clearly studying the new data. When he looked back out of the holoimage at Jack, he was clearly concerned.
"I'll instruct group to withdraw," Henson said, his voice failing. "Please, Major, bring my daughter back home now."
The new Skalidion swarm filled the sky on the port side of the tac boat and covered a vast swathe of space. It was about to envelop the entire Devex fleet and the lone tac boat that was catching up.
"I am bringing the boat about," Jack said. "And get ready on the weapons control, Sam. We might have to battle our way out of here"
Phisrid watched the battle in the nebula. Her builders were moving in on the destroyed craft. The other ships were fighting tenaciously. She admired the fighting spirit of this new fleet. They had destroyed a vast number of her advanced fighter swarm and were steadily destroying what remained. But she had drawn out the Devex.
Phisrid had been battling the Devex since she was a young sub-queen. She knew they would attack the nest, that it would be too attractive for them to ignore, and now she had drawn them away from their new allies. She would smash them, devour them, adding their matter to her own, and she would grow. The fleet in the nebula was different, strange, but she would destroy them in time.
With victory only moments away, Phisrid sent the pheromone signal to the nest pilots and moved her asteroid closer to the nebula. This marked the new edge of her nation. She had advanced deeper into Devex territory than any other swarm queen. She felt strong. She snatched up a nearby nurse drone and devoured it, savoring every crunch as she watched her massive fighter swarm close in for their victory.
The main body of the Skalidion swarm slammed into the nearest Devex warship, tearing through its outer hull and bursting out the other side, huge balls of Skalidion green fire vaporizing the outer hull and bursting out along with the swarm of fighters.
The Devex warships turned in every direction, attempting to scatter and flee from the sudden Skalidion attack. But it was too late, they were doomed, every one of them taking masses of green fire. Their drive sections erupted as the Skalidions concentrated their attacks.
Jack hit the main drive on the tac boat and headed directly back to the nebula, but he was cut off by a small group of Skalidion fighters that had wrapped around the far end of the Devex fleet. They moved in on a collision course, blasting out bursts of green fire toward the tac boat.
"Deploying kinetic hail," Sam said. "Forward laser assembly firing."
"We can't escape that way," Jack said. He put the boat into some extreme maneuvers, twisting this way and that, evading the incoming fire. He moved the tac boat in the same jerky manner as the Skalidion fighters, evading their attacks. "Plotting an escape route now."
The green fire that slammed into the tac boat ripped away the port-side hail cannon. The force of the weapons hit spun the boat off course. Jack fought to stabilize the flight, but the green fire burned over the hull, creating a new jet as the composite burned away into space.
Jack stabilized the tac boat and set it moving forward, its main drive on maximum output. A second burst of green fire slammed into the rear of the boat and pitched it forward. It tumbled over the forward section, the drive spluttering and sending it further off course.
The smoke from the burning hull filled the interior of the small boat, black acrid smoke cutting visibility in an instant. The only thing Jack could see without the use of his tactical suit’s enhanced data view were the red lights all over the flight console. Every system showed some level of failure. The tac boat spun again as another burst of Skalidion green fire slammed into the outer hull.
The forward section took heavy fire as Jack fought to stabilize the tumbling craft, but he knew the boat was lost. At that moment, the forward section was ripped away. Flight deck and holos
tage were all torn away. Jack remained in his flight seat, but before him was nothing but empty space.
And that space was filled with green fire pouring in on the scattering Devex warships, all of them taking heavy damage, every one of them giving fire in all directions. Millions of points of white energy flickered across space with many of them destroying Skalidion fighters, too many of them missing their targets, too many Skalidion fighters even for the Devex to counter.
The destruction of a Devex warship suddenly dominated the view. It exploded, sheet-like planes of white energy erupting in all directions, slicing through the Devex hull and illuminating the battle. Its debris flew into the next nearest warship, the collision burning and lighting up the side of the Devex warship as the hull vaporized in the collision.
"Abandon the tac boat," Jack said. "With me. Stay together. Let's go."
Jack grabbed hold of Sam's wrist and pulled him toward the open, exposed front of the boat. He reached out with his other hand and grabbed Riya's exo-armor. He pulled them both toward the open front and leaped out into space.
Activating his thrusters, Jack pushed himself further away from the boat. A Skalidion fighter raced in, a blast of green fire from its forward weapons assembly burning past Jack and into the open front section of the tac boat. The drive assembly was destroyed, and the reactor exploded.
Debris flew outward and raced past Jack and his companions. He threw everything into his thruster and powered away. Sam and Riya fired up their suit thruster units, and the three gripped each other and flew deeper into the Skalidion attack on the scattering Devex.
One warship had managed to come completely about and was heading directly toward Jack, the vast ship accelerating, growing bigger as it came forward. Jack could see the flickering green fire over the hull as the Skalidion fighters swept in, pouring their deadly weapons onto the fleeing target.
Jack's tactical suit picked up a distant transmission from the fleet in the nebula. A high-energy all ships transmission signaling full retreat, with one ship ordered to the rear guard to protect the retreat. The message was barely audible, but Jack understood. And the one ship ordered to hold and protect the retreat was the Scorpio.
"Get me inside that warship," Riya said.
"They are getting torn apart," Sam said. "We need to head back to the fleet."
"The fleet is in full retreat," Jack said. "And we are on suit thruster power alone. It'll take us months to get back to the nebula." Jack knew that by spreading out by a few hundred meters, the three of them could generate a strong enough distress signal to alert the fleet to their position. A rescue tac boat might be their only chance of survival.
"Get me inside that Devex warship," Riya said. "Get me in there before the Skalidions destroy it entirely. They still have power. They have a matter transport unit. I've used it before. I can get us back to the fleet instantly. Get me in there now!"
Jack was already heading toward the oncoming warship before Riya had finished talking. Sam was also throwing his thruster power forward, and soon, the three of them were closing in on the massive Devex warship even as it took more fire from the huge Skalidion swarm.
The warship’s forward section was bigger than any ship in the fleet. Hanging in space just beyond the hull, Jack truly realized how massive it was. He reached out with his suit’s grav field and connected with the oncoming hull. The three of them settled down feet first onto the forward hull.
Jack drew his pulse pistol and fired up the electron blade. He cut into the outer hull, creating an opening, and Sam joined in. Riya tapped Jack and pointed along the hull.
"There's an access hatch there," Riya said. The access panel popped open. "I'm still part of the Devex consciousness in this suit. I know the way to the matter transport pad. The nearest one is not far away."
Jack followed Riya as she ran toward the opening just ahead. Jack followed her inside, with Sam hot on his heels.
Jack had been inside a Devex warship before, but he was still amazed at the scale. The access panel brought them out into a long corridor that ran the length of the starboard side and connected many subcommand rooms together. Riya ran along the corridor until she reached an opening that looked down on a vast assembly area. At the front of the area was the matter transport pad.
Riya leaped over the side and dropped down the huge vertical wall. Jack and Sam followed. They used their suit thrusters and grav fields to push them closer to the matter transport pad. Touching down a few meters short, Jack, Sam, and Riya grabbed hold of each other and ran up onto the pad.
Looking at Sam, Jack wondered what a matter transport would feel like. He hoped he would be happy to tell the tale. He hoped it wouldn't scatter his atoms throughout the Skalidion swarm. He hoped Riya Henson's targeting was good enough that he wouldn't be thrown into the hull of the Scorpio. But Jack had no way of knowing where he was going to end up. He was entirely in the hands of Riya Henson.
"Activating matter transport now," Riya said. "Targeting nearest fleet vessel."
A blast of green fire came tearing through the wall alongside the assembly area. A Skalidion fighter came racing in, the sleek lines like an arrowhead. It fired another blast across the space and into the opposite wall. The green fire slammed into the wall, exploding and throwing out shards of debris. The fighter leaped forward to the center of the assembly area. Jack could see the full length of the Skalidion fighter, and a new ball of green fire was growing at the forward weapons assembly. Tt was fired at the already smoking, melting wall.
It seemed the Skalidion was going to race away deeper into the warship, pouring its fire into the interior and burning it from the inside out, but it stopped, slowly turned, and pointed its forward weapon directly at the matter transport pad—at Riya Henson, Sam Torent, and Jack Forge.
The building green fire on the front of the fighter grew to the size of a tac boat, then the colors seem to fade. The sharp edges of the assembly area, and the Skalidion fighter hovering there, blurred away. All diffused into a hazy wall of color that faded to dull gray, white, and then black.
Jack woke. All noise was muted, but it was growing in volume and becoming clearer by the second. He opened his eyes. He could see nothing. Realizing his tactical suit helmet had lost power, he unclipped it and pulled it off. The sounds became familiar—the sounds of boots on deck plates. The sounds of Marines readying their weapons.
Climbing up off the floor onto his hands and knees, Jack held up a hand in surrender.
"Hold your fire. Jack Forge. Major Forge. Where are we?"
"You are on the command deck of the Scorpio," Captain Pretorius said. He stepped forward and grabbed Jack by his arm, lifting him to his feet.
Jack looked up. The captain’s face was streaked with dirt and sweat, and there was a small med-pack covering the wound on his face. Jack attempted to stand unaided. He and steadied himself against a nearby console.
"We have to get out of here, Captain. The Devex have lost. The Skalidions are everywhere."
"We are in retreat, Jack. We’re heading deeper into Devex space. The Skalidions are holding in the nebula. If it wasn't for you, we would never have known they were coming."
Sam Torent was lying on the deck, Riya Henson next to him. The Marine guards were all pointing their pulse rifles at Riya Henson, covered as she was in the Devex exo-armor.
"Stand down, Marines." Jack staggered toward the group of Marines standing over her. "That is Riya Henson. Contact the admiral. Tell him his daughter is safe."
"I'll do that, Jack," Pretorius said. "But you do something for me. Get yourself down to the medical bay. That is an order. You copy?"
Jack picked Riya Henson off the deck. He staggered with her and Sam toward the command deck exit. He knew the way to the medical bay. He knew every inch of the ship. She had taken a beating, but it was still the same old ship he remembered.
"Copy that, Captain." And Jack staggered onward. He forced himself forward, one foot in front of the other, one more step, jus
t one more step. Jack had made it home. He would make it to the med-bay. He already felt better being aboard the Scorpio.
Jack woke up on a medical bunk feeling alert, fit, and healthy. He swung his feet over the side and dropped down onto the cold deck. He looked down at his bare feet. He was wearing his Marine PT gear. He had no shoes. He didn't wait to find any. He wanted to see Riya Henson.
The maintenance workshop was guarded by a pair of Fleet Intelligence enforcers. As Jack approached, he expected some argument before they would let him through. He had no time for politics now. But both enforcers drew back their pulse rifles, pointing them to the ceiling, and stepped aside.
Jack acknowledged them as he stepped through the workshop door.
Inside, in a pool of light, was Riya Henson. She was still fully covered in the exo-armor. Standing at her side was Sarah Reyes, and on her other side was Admiral Henson. Sarah looked over at Jack and smiled.
"You’re just in time, Jack," Sarah said. "I think we are just about to get this helmet off." Sarah turned to Riya Henson, her face still hidden behind the faceplate.
Sarah Reyes lifted a small device and held it to Riya's neck. Wispy black strands reached out from the device, strands that reminded Jack of Sam's Mech hand. The strands poured out and worked their way through the Devex exo-armor. Sarah Reyes left the device in place and twisted the helmet. It slid up.
Jack held his breath.
The helmet came away. Riya Henson's hair fell over her shoulders. She blinked in the light. Her father placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Jack? Jack, is that you?" Riya said.
Jack nodded. "It's good to finally see you, Ms. Henson."
The admiral looked at Jack and smiled. "I owe you a great debt. If there's anything I can do, if there is anything you need…"
Jack nodded. "A little sleep. And then I'd like to get back to duty."
The admiral stepped toward Jack. "Is there anything in particular that you would like to do? Any job you want."
Alliance (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 5) Page 11