by Robert Byers
She pressed her com, “First Lieutenant Watson, I have a mission for you and the ship security forces.”
“Yes, Sir. What can we do for you?” his response was quick.
“Gather your forces, you’re being sent to that cruiser to liberate it and arrest its captain.”
“Yes, Sir. We’ll do you proud.”
The line went dead and she looked back at the Admiral waiting for more orders. She could see the sadistic glee in his smile as he ordered another round of weapons fire on the cruiser, aimed at their weapons bays. He was in a particularly bad mood and she wondered when he would be satisfied. And what would be left of the ship when he was.
—
“Lets go boys, we got ourselves a mission.” Watson made First Lieutenant quickly, and became the head of ship security, which was made up of active Navy personnel just as quickly. Most of them were veterans of at least two tours, and they were on board in case of a mutiny, or if someone committed a crime and needed to be apprehended. While this was their first official war they’d been there for small uprisings on other worlds and for patrol duties with foreign dignitaries when they needed an escort.
His men were always ready for a fight with their stun weapons, but this wasn’t a game they were playing, this was war. It would get bloody before it got better and he couldn’t stand the thought of them not being ready. As he assembled his best he knew this would be the first real combat they’d have seen for years, and had them all head to the armory to get combat ready. Each one would take at least one stun weapon, but the rest would be set for kill, he wouldn’t take any chances with their lives.
Each was dressed in their black skin suits, body armor they affixed themselves and it sealed with the suit to create a firm grip. The armor was lightweight, but the trade off was that it had some weak points where the joints were, it also would stop a plasma round which meant the enemy’s slug throwers were useless unless they hit a joint, but if they had some energy rounds his men were shit out of luck.
They were given rifles and pistols, mags for each, and he made sure to grab a few special things for once they were on board. You never knew when you might need some special toy and get to be the one to give the eggheads their data on how it worked out of a simulation.
Then once all twenty-four were gathered in the hangar bay he sent them to their birds and took a duffel bag with a few goodies in with him as he got himself strapped in. “Our objective is to capture that cruiser’s captain.” He began over their coms as the Sparrowhawks moved from the ship and began their flight towards the enemy ship. Watson knew there would be a couple of Raptors that would come to escort them until they were safely inside the cruiser, it was standard procedure and he took comfort in the fact that they would arrive safely.
“Once we have him we bug out. That’s it, capture him and leave, don’t be a hero and try to take the ship yourself. Lethal force is authorized on anyone and everyone who isn’t the Captain. Any questions?” No one spoke up so he nodded and sat back waiting for the sound of metal on metal to tell him their ride had landed and they could disembark.
He felt the gunship shudder as it affixed itself to the side of the enemy ship, there was a small tube that connected to the side of the ship and would cut a hole in the ship’s hull so they could have a seal and get through to the ship itself. Turnabout was fair play as far as he was concerned.
Watson unclipped his webbing, grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder and walked to the new door, he was holding a heavy piece of steel. The device was cylindrical and about a foot long, he stood a few inches from the hull of the enemy cruiser and pressed a button on the device. It hissed and a solid piece of steel flew forward and connected with the hull like a bomb going off, it flew inward and into the wall across from them, inside the ship. The edges of the hole were still red hot from being sliced with the plasma cutter on the docking hose.
He dropped the device, they jokingly called it the door knocker, and gripped his rifle, it might be close quarters but he didn’t want to risk a shotgun on a starship. Once he was aboard the ship his mates followed suit and they looked up and down the hall as they decided which way to head.
“Auker do you read me?” he asked into his com to the man in charge of the other team of security personnel. It was his second in command who was in charge of them and they were located on the other side of the ship, attempting to clear the ship faster and hopefully get the Captain in their grasp quicker than both squads hitting them from the same side.
Briefly he wondered how the ground assault was going and if they’d made any progress towards capturing the rebel leader. He was third generation military, he served his Emperor faithfully and for the life of him Watson couldn’t understand how someone could see the Imperium as being a bad thing.
“I’m here sir, we’ve boarded successfully and already dropped our first pair of rebels. Do you really think we can do this?”
“It’s not a matter of if I think we can soldier, we were given orders from the Admiral. We will carry those out come hell or high water. Understood?”
“Sir!”
“You have your sections of the ship to go through till we get to the bridge. We’ll hit it from both sides in a pincer formation.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You three are going to stay and guard the ship, we’ll be back with that traitor.” The three men he’d pointed to nodded and saluted as he moved forward towards the bow of the ship, his men followed. All three men he left back kept formation facing both directions to encounter any threat they faced.
The rest of his men stuck close to his six and two of them kept checking behind them to protect the squads back. They moved with purpose, but kept their eyes sharp.
“What do you think they did with our guys sir?” Jay Sutton said, he was one of his newest recruits for the security squad, and the boy never shut up.
“I would assume they killed all of them, or they mutinied the rightful captain of this ship and need to be punished for it. Why do you care?” he knew his attitude wasn’t helpful, but damnit if he couldn’t help but be angry with the kid since he never shut his fucking mouth.
“Just thinking we might have some friends aboard if they were locked in the brig is all.”
They moved through three doorways before turning to their left and encountering a four man squad of rebels. “Stow it for after this is over.” He thought about the duffel, but didn’t want to waste the special weapons on these fools.
They were separated into two pairs and each pair had a thick metal shield in place in front of them, the shields were five foot tall monstrosities that would protect them from most small arms fire. They also had a firing slit that allowed each man to put a muzzle through and fire, it was also a foot thick and three wide. The shields were mainly used to push forward in combat zones and establish beachheads, which meant the ship was most likely supposed to arrive somewhere and fight a ground battle soon, he filed that bit of information away for later.
Each of the rebels opened fire with their autocannons and opened fire on the naval forces. Watson and his forces ducked behind the door frame closest them, aimed their weapons and fired, their slugs slamming into bulkheads and the shields that the rebels used for cover. He hated that it was so unsafe to use a grenade on a ship or he could have them cleared out quickly.
The rebels were cocky and detached the base of their shields, one person moving it forward slowly while the other continued suppression fire at the security forces. At the rate they were moving the rebels would be in front of them in a minute, if not less, and there would be nothing they could do to get through the steel, or to get to cover.
Two of his men began firing wildly, hoping ricochets would end up helping them he guessed. “Aim carefully men.” He tried to call out and aimed as carefully as he could at the gun slits, flipped his selector to burst mode and fired two three round bursts into the slit. One burst caught the gun itself and jerked it sideways, the traitor firing the g
un itself kept holding the trigger down and as it turned two of the security forces caught some of the lead and went down to the floor.
Watson looked at the two men and felt their loss, they were good men, they didn’t deserve to die on a traitor ship. But there was nothing he could do about it now. All he could do now was get the rest of his men out of this mess. He looked at the traitors moving forward and thought they would need a hell of a lot of luck to get out of this.
Chapter 13
Smoke filled the air, fire licked the sides of the headquarters. Tiberius felt inebriated, he really did. This was a new thing for him, to survive an explosion so close to him and while he knew he would probably get back to normal in a few minutes it still made him feel drunk. And everything was muted as if he was near deaf. Tiberius looked around as best he could, but he just saw death and destruction everywhere.
He tried to stand up, dropped to one knee and felt a hand on his shoulder, turning his head he saw Quintus standing behind him. Next to him was Walsh, who had an arm around Quintus’ shoulder and held his stomach and bleeding from what looked like a pretty significant wound.
Tiberius shook his head as he saw Quintus’ head bobbing like he was speaking, but nothing came through his coms. He shook his head and tapped the sides of his helmet and Quintus lifted his faceplate to mouth to him, “Are you hurt anywhere?”
Tiberius shook his head, he didn’t feel any pain, he touched his helmet and pulled it off so he could check his head and ears. Thankfully there was no blood on his hands so they were safe. It was excruciatingly slow, but finally his hearing came back as if someone turned the volume up to eleven. “Gods above. Are you okay Quintus?”
He nodded, “Walsh took some debris to the stomach, I’m not sure where the med kit is but I need one to stop the bleeding for good.”
“He needs to sit down then. Are there any casualties?”
“About a dozen are reported as KIA, a half dozen are wounded. There’s also some more bad news. I talked with Captain Hamilton of Third Squad, he said that they saw a vehicle fleeing the scene after the explosion, he believes that the General was on board and that he’s escaped.”
It was like a shotgun to the stomach as he processed the news, their whole reason for being here fled, they’d failed. “Fuck. Lets get you down and find that kit, we need to worry about you more than that coward.” He said to Walsh and helped sit him down. Pulling his hand away he looked at the blood flowing freely and winced, it was a deep laceration, and would need serious medical treatment to keep him alive. “Keep pressure on it, Quintus lets go.”
He waited till they were out of earshot trying to move as quickly as possible towards one of the birds and hopefully a med kit. “There’s a greater chance he’s not going to make it.”
“We have to try something Tiberius. He saved my life after we jumped out of that window. I was on my back, the wind knocked out of me, and he rolled me out of the way before a brick slammed into the ground where my head was.”
He thought about it for a second, his first bully on the ship had saved his best friend. as they walked and said “All we can do is try, I can’t promise we’ll save him, but we can try like hell to.”
Quintus smiled at him and nodded. It was all he was asking for.
They arrived at the ship, passing wounded and dead alike, the bodies of both their men and the traitors littered the grass, blood pooling around them soaking into the grass. It was a killing field, and it would forever be remembered for this battle. Just as Hadrian had become.
Tiberius opened a small compartment on the side of the gunship and looked at the medical kits that set there, there were three of them and he grabbed each one just in case. Closing the door he passed one to Quintus and said “Lets see if we can work some miracles.”
They walked back to where Walsh sat, he looked even worse for the wear than before. He leaned forward and when they tried to call to him he didn’t respond. Tiberius rushed forward, fearing his friend might be dead already and grasped his shoulder. Walsh looked up at them, his face pale from loss of blood and his helmet now lay discarded on the grass. His jaw was slack and his eyes sunken from the loss.
“Shit. Help me lay him down.” He set the kit down and Quintus helped him lower Walsh to his back on the grass, his arm fell limp and away from the wound and blood ran freely from his wound like water from a sieve.
Looking into the wound Tiberius could see pieces of debris, including a sharp piece of metal from the window frame. Walsh’s eyes began to glaze over and close, Tiberius touched his friend’s face and tried to keep him awake. “He’s lost a lot of blood, we need to work quickly.” He looked at the medical kit and sighed, “Open that and hand me the forceps, pass me some antiseptic also.”
He poured some of the liquid onto the wound and Walsh was so out of it he didn’t even wince, it made Tiberius’ stomach sink, because that shit should have hurt like hell. “Bring me the can of sealant, hold the nozzle here and when I pull this piece out push the tip in and spray. We need to fill his wound to keep him from bleeding out.” Quintus held the nozzle near the wound and Tiberius silently prayed to all the gods above that he didn’t kill his friend.
Tiberius pulled the piece of metal from his friend’s stomach and Walsh grunted only a little bit before he went silent. The hiss of the can filled the air as it’s contents were spilled into his stomach and the foaming material began to seal the lacerations and as Quintus pulled the nozzle hesitantly from his friend’s abdominal cavity and held the nozzle down so the foam continued coming out until it was removed from his body. Once air hit the foam it hardened, creating a seal that would keep out bacteria and other contaminants. As well as keep his insides inside.
Walsh was pale, pale as death, and Tiberius checked his pulse a few times to make sure he was alive. “His pulse is faint, thready, we need to get him back to the bird and get him to a real medic.”
“Those birds aren’t lifting off until we all leave.”
“I can be very persuasive.” He replied as he looked over at another soldier walking among the bodies looking at their dog tags, “Hey sailor! Give me a hand will you?” he called out and the man looked up at him with confusion. “I need a sled so we can get this guy out of here.”
“Everyone needs out of here…this place is death.” He said as he turned and wondered away, they saw blood and something shiny sticking out from the back of his head as he shambled away.
“Ugh, is everyone around here nuts?” he asked Quintus. “Lets get him up and we can try to carry him back.” He tried to lift his friend in a fireman’s carry and heard him groan, but he didn’t stop. Tiberius carried him back to their bird as quickly as possible, dodging the dead. He climbed the ramp and Quintus pulled out a pair of poles that were held together like a scroll from a hidden compartment on the door frame that separated them from the pilots. It opened into a stretcher and he helped Tiberius lay Walsh on the device and clip him in so he wouldn’t roll or fall off. “How many of those do we have on here? And why didn’t I know about it sooner?”
“There’s like five per bird. And probably because you never studied the blueprints for the ships, why?”
Tiberius pulled another one from the wall and looked down at Walsh. “I don’t think he’s going to make it unless you guys leave now, I’m going back for the Captain.” He turned to leave and Quintus called out.
“She’s gone.”
“She might still be alive, she was farther away from the bombs then we were.”
“You saw her get shot multiple times. You saw her stop moving.”
“Then I guess I’ll retrieve her body won’t I?” he was done arguing with his friend and walked from the bird and began running back to the blasted building, he headed towards the balcony when he heard a voice call out, “You can’t go in there!”
He looked back and saw it was the captain of third squad, Blake Hamilton. “I need to find my Captain.”
The man looked back at Tiberius, realized he
wasn’t going to take no for an answer and nodded. “Lets go get her back then.” He jogged towards Tiberius and two of his squadmate's followed. “We need to be careful going in, do you have a stretcher?” Tiberius showed him the poles in his hand and the man nodded. “Good, we’ll need them.”
They walked up the stairs and to the door, carefully they opened it and entered. Dust and smoke filled the air and their helmets were a true lifesaver as they filtered the dust from the air, and would allow them to see in various light spectrum's.
Tiberius turned on the low light filter and led the way towards the last place he’d seen Captain Sidonia. There were creaking sounds on the stairs, and a few of them were gone thanks to fallen pieces of ceiling that went through the steps. As he looked around he found most of the dead on the first floor weren’t moved much, if at all, and he guessed they were far enough from the blast on the second floor.
He saw the captain lying prone and unmoving as he ascended the stairs. Her armor was cracked, her right arm looked broken from how twisted it was, and he saw burns on her faceplate which meant she was close enough to something that’d gone up.
Tiberius’ heart leaped to his throat and his stomach churned seeing her in such a state. It terrified him to think that she was gone because he had so much to learn from her, and because he counted her as a friend. Carefully he made his way to her body and checked for a pulse, praying to the gods above he would find one even when he knew she was well and truly gone. “I’m not getting a pulse.” He told them.
“Then we treat her with dignity and respect by taking her back to the Integrity.” Captain Hamilton said as he motioned for the stretcher and began to open it before gently laying her body onto it. He took the front end where her feet were and Tiberius took the back half where her head was. Both men that followed them took up positions to cover them if someone tried anything and they began the trek to the Sparrowhawk.