Star Crusader: Hero of the Alliance

by Michael G. Thomas

  "Sergeant Perkins, from Relentless."

  He took in a breath, and only then did Nate notice that he'd already taken two hits to his armour. One was high, just under the chin and had gouged a pit at the size of an eyeball in the gorget plate. The second was at the shoulder, and had left a series of indentations and marks. The marine seemed to find moving his one arm painful.

  "Nathaniel Lewis, of the..."

  The man smiled.

  "Son, I know who you are."

  He leaned in closer while keeping a careful eye out for their attackers.

  "Nate, where are the others? We were told there were six students here. Your trackers are accurate only to a hundred metres. I need to get you all out of here, and fast."

  Nate considered his question, but only for a second. He'd never met the marine before, and there was always a chance the man was as much a problem as the Byotai mob. More shouting from back inside the station quickly changed his mind. He nodded to the now almost completely closed doorway.

  "Back there, three more."

  The man nodded and reactivated his visor. Nate could see him speaking over his internal communications system as it closed down tightly, sealing him inside his fully enclosed suit of armour. The sound of his voice vanished the second the visor hissed shut. As he watched, a pair of marines rushed to the door, and then slid it open. As they did so, Cassandra and Billy leapt out, swinging the metal tubes. One struck a marine in the arm, but the next marine quickly stopped the second attack.

  "It's okay. They're with us!" Nate shouted.

  It didn't matter, though, both were quickly disarmed, and then Matilda was pulled from the darkness and brought back into the plaza. When Cassandra spotted the wounded Jack, she immediately forgot about the marines and rushed to him, bending down to check his wound.

  "You have to help him."

  The marine next to Nate gave a hand signal, and two of the marines moved back towards the service area already identified by Jack. A third went alongside Cassandra, checked Jack, and placed a small packet on his wound. He yelled in pain and reached out for somebody to help him. Sergeant Perkins rushed in front of the cadets and aimed his carbine once again, three shots in quick succession, each one precise. As he stopped, his left hand slipped down to his flank, and a small flap flipped open. He grabbed a metallic container and threw it over to Cassandra.

  "You've been medically trained?"

  Cassandra nodded quickly.

  "Good. Come with us. As soon as we're out of sight, you can help him with the field dressing. Push it hard, and let the tool do the work."

  The marine looked down at the writhing cadet. The man's helmet was still sealed up, and if he was trying to be conciliatory, it was wasted on the cadets.

  "Son. It will seal the wound for a few hours, but it's gonna hurt like hell. Hang in there."

  "Sarge! New contacts!" yelled one of the other marines.

  Sergeant Perkins leaned to the right around the bulkhead post so that he could get a better look off into the distance. He then lifted his carbine and took aim. The sound of more Byotai was getting louder and louder. There were multiple entrances at the opposite end, and shadows were already dancing about from the bright lights cast further back in the passageways.

  "I see them, multiple contacts, one fifty metres out and closing."

  He glanced back towards Nate.

  "It's time to get out of here. I don't know what's going on, but the station is out of control. If we wait any longer, we might end up permanent residents. Our ships are ready for evac."

  He gave a hand signal to his comrades and then called out over his external speakers.

  "Let's move out. Bring the wounded officers with us."

  With that, the marines moved to follow the first group. They didn't bother using cover and rushed as quickly as they could, the first two covering them. The Byotai officer moved in the same direction, and when he reached Sergeant Perkins, the two spoke in the Byotai language. With the marine's face hidden behind armour, Nate could only hear the synthesised voice.

  What the hell is happening on this station?

  An arm grabbed him, and he moved through the large doorway and into the service corridor. This was well lit, but far less salubrious than the plaza. Sergeant Perkins went to the front as they kept moving further into the station, and the Byotai officer went with him.

  "Is this better?" Cassandra asked.

  Nate hadn't even noticed she was there, right beside him. Rather than answer, he looked back, fearing that his friend might have been left behind. He needn’t have worried; one of the marines was carrying him over his shoulder. Back in the passageway, and nearly thirty metres, away a head appeared. The rearguard marines opened fired, sending sparks flashing. Nate looked back at Cassandra and then ducked, narrowly missing hitting his head on an overhanging beam.

  "They are Alliance. I don't know who else we can trust, right now."

  Sergeant Perkins must have heard them and pointed off into the distance.

  "We're using the back route to avoid the mob. Ten more minutes and we'll be at the customs level. There's another squad waiting there for us."

  Nate nodded, and they continued through the maze of corridors and shafts. They moved far back in the starbase, into areas that didn't even show on his Secpad. As good as the marine's word, they emerged from the final shaft into the long and especially wide customs deck. This was designed much like a smaller plaza, with a customs booth and security gate leading to the docking gantries. Large panes of smoked glass had functioned as security partitions in the past, but now all of them lay smashed or cracked in a hundred places.

  "What happened here?"

  Cassandra’s voice was quieter than normal, but Nate could pick up the nerves and the fear from the way she spoke. None of them were soldiers, and the most violent thing any of them had committed over the last three months was in computer fighter simulations. That was it. They waited at the entry point, a large, triangular doorway and the last piece of cover before moving into the open area. Sergeant Perkins lifted his hand in the classic stop motion.

  "This is it."

  He looked back at the mixed group and seemed pleased to find Jack was moving more freely now. His eyes moved from each of them until stopping in front of Nate.

  "Stay here. I need to check this out."

  Without checking to see if they were listening, he activated his visor, and it hissed back into position, hiding his face entirely from view. The Sergeant then walked out into the open and onto the smashed glass. The broken pieces crunched under his feet as he moved ten metres ahead, and then stopped. He was there for almost ten seconds before looking back.

  "We're clear. Let's go!"

  They came out from cover and made for the Sergeant. Once there, they passed him and ran straight into a terrible scene of carnage. There were at least ten bodies scattered about, and Nate found a young Byotai of perhaps ten or eleven years old. He bent down to see if he was alive, but one of the marines grabbed him.

  "It's too late for him. Protect yourselves and those you know. We don't have the time to do more. Not now."

  The other cadets moved along silently, taking in the bloody scene and dealing with it in their own way. Not one of them showed fear, but there was a clear difference in body language between the marines and the cadets. Two more marines were the only people still present on the customs deck, and both took aim at the group of marines and cadets.

  "Corporal, where's your squad?" Sergeant Perkins asked.

  All of the marines had opened their visors, and the two that had stayed behind were dripping in sweat. As Nate moved closer, he observed the dozens of marks on their armour, and then the four more bodies on the ground behind their position. Three were Byotai and one was human.

  "Sergeant, glad you got back."

  Perkins glanced back at his unit and then to the marine.

  "I've got the six cadets and no casualties. You?"

  With the last word the ton
e in his voice changed. Rex moved up alongside Nate and then pushed closer to the Sergeant. He began to speak, but the Sergeant lifted his hand for him to be quiet while he listened to his exhausted Corporal.

  "One dead, three wounded. I sent them back with the Ambassador and her staff."

  Sergeant Perkins’ expression instantly changed.

  "What? The Mauler has left the starbase?"

  The marine nodded quickly.

  "Yes, Sergeant. We were getting pushed hard trying to hold this position. Thought it better to save some than keep them here."

  "Yeah," agreed the second marine, "and risk losing them all."

  The Corporal looked a little sheepish and nodded to the exposed doorway behind them.

  "The Mauler will be back in three minutes."

  More noise came from the opposite end of the open space and off behind the many shattered glass dividers. Shapes moved, and a single gunshot rang out. It was poorly aimed and struck the wall several metres from Billy's head.

  "Marines, form a defensive perimeter," Sergeant Perkins ordered.

  He looked over to the cadets.

  "Get back behind the desks and wait for the Mauler. Three minutes and we leave. Be ready to run. You'll get one chance for this. Screw around and you can stay behind."

  Nate and Billy ducked down behind a large metal counter. The rest were a short distance away behind a series of large locker units. Long corridors ran the length of the starbase viewing point. Normally, the one side would be completely transparent so that visitors could see out into the open space of the shipyards and docking arms. Long metal safety shutters were now in position, and small flashing red lights served as a constant reminder of the dangerous situation all of them were in.

  In the middle of the safety barrier was a single doorway, and four large articulated bars sealed it. Above the doorway was writing in the odd glyphs of the Byotai. Luckily, all the cadets had been taught the basic warning signs before they even arrived.

  It's the shuttle evacuation dock.

  "What now?" Billy asked.

  He watched Nate looking at the doorway and then placed his hand on his injured flank. He immediately groaned and released his hand. Nate lifted his head a fraction above the desk. From there he had a reasonably good view of the customs area. What remained of the smoked glass dividers gave the space a weird, maze type look. That was when he spotted the mob. He ducked back down and looked to his friend.

  "We do what the marine asked us to do. Stay down and wait for the shuttle."

  Billy said something else, perhaps another question, but his voice was drowned out as the shooting started. This time it was very different, and rather than wild, sporadic fire was careful shooting from Byotai in concealed positions. The six cadets ducked down as glass, masonry, and metal splintered, shattering all around them. A shot hit a marine in the chest, and he staggered backwards, tipping over and crashing through a smoked glass tabletop. Nate watched him fall and started to crawl along the floor to reach him. By the time he was there, Rex had joined him. Three more rounds struck nearby, and then a fourth took a chunk of metal from the ankle of the marine's armour.

  "We have to move him," said Nate.

  "Yeah, come on."

  They grabbed the marine's arms and dragged him. The wounded warrior groaned, and it seemed to take an age as they moved him metre by metre until back to their original position. Once there the marine deactivated his visor and revealed the pale face of a young woman, perhaps twenty or twenty-one years old.

  "Get back! This thing will burn your face off," she said through clenched teeth.

  Rex moved away, but Nate stayed where he was and leaned over the fallen woman. She tried to push him away, but he avoided her hands and moved towards her sternum.

  "I can see it; you've got something embedded in the armour. Let me help."

  He looked around for a tool, but all he could see was the debris from the fight. There was a dead Byotai nearby with a bar still grasped firmly in its hand, presumably something they'd elected to use as a cudgel in the battle. The marine tried to grab at the white hot projectile as it continued to hiss away, every second getting closer to melting through the thermal layer of the armour and to her flesh.

  "I know I've taken a hit, jackass!"

  She tried to pull at it one more time and only succeeded in scorching the fingers of her armoured hand. Several more rounds struck overhead, quickly followed by the meaty staccato sound of multiple L52 carbines opening up.

  "Okay, cadet. Help me get it off."

  Nate slid along the floor and grabbed at the bar. The Byotai must have had a death grip on the thing, and he was forced to put his left foot on its arm to release the piece. Now that it was in his hands, he could see it was actually a small crowbar, probably one of the many tools taken by the mob.

  "Keep them back!" Sergeant Perkins shouted.

  The marine was calm, and his comrades took careful aim, making sure their rounds struck true, without causing excessive casualties. Significantly, more fire came back, but this time the mob was cautious. Rather than rushing headlong, they fanned out, using every piece of cover and trying to outflank the defenders.

  "I've got armoured Byotai marines coming in. Change to maximum power settings. Do not let them get through!"

  Nate was back at the fallen marine, and Rex moved up with a bent piece of metal he'd found from somewhere else.

  "Well, what now?"

  Nate looked at the projectile. The white light was so bright it actually hurt his eyes just to look at the thing. As he leaned in closer, the heat became almost unbearable. Only the advanced multiple layers of the PDS Alpha armour were keeping the marine alive.

  "No idea, just dig and pull."

  Nate pushed his tool up against the super-heated projectile and then pushed down to one side. The metal on metal groaned, but still the object remained jammed in tightly.

  "Come on, you, too."

  Rex shielded his face from the heat and then jammed his piece of metal against the side of the round. The two pushed and twisted until after one herculean effort, the thing popped out and struck the floor. Pale white smoke rose from the penetrated section on the marine's armour, but she was already starting to relax. She reached towards Nate and grabbed his shoulder, pulling herself back up to her feet.

  "My weapon?"

  Rex looked to his left, found the carbine, and grabbed it. Against him, the triple-barrelled gun looked massive. He handed it over, and the marine checked its status and then clipped on a new power pack.

  "Thanks, guys, I owe you."

  She activated her visor, and it clamped shut in a fraction of a second. The woman was as though she'd been jolted by a surge of electricity, and knowing the burning projectile was gone invigorated her into action.

  "Now stay down. It's my turn."

  A small number of shots clattered to the right. The marine rose to her feet, took aim, and fired. This time the weapon was changed to the high power setting. It was something unique to the coilgun, a type of electromagnetic railgun that launched magnetised projectiles from each of the triple barrels. By firing all three together, and with an extended burst of energy, it was capable of unleashing devastating firepower at short to medium ranges.

  "Nate!"

  It was Cassandra's voice. Both Nate and Rex looked back to the direction of the sound. Cassandra had moved slowly along the floor until reaching a knocked over cabinet, and now little more than ten metres from the sealed airlock system.

  "What?"

  He was forced to repeat himself because of the gun battle raging all around them. With every second the Byotai seemed to be gaining ground, but then he saw what Cassandra was so preoccupied with.

  "The door, there's something behind it."

  Even as she said the words, the metal bars began to move. At first it was a short distance, and then all of them pulled outwards, and the door split at the middle. There was enough space for three people to enter side-by-side, but with the
steam still venting out there was no way to see what lay on the other side.

  "Everybody, move to the door, now!" Sergeant Perkins called out.

  The marines moved back, taking it in turns to withdraw while the others emptied their clips in a last, desperate volley. They had switched back to the standard rapid-fire mode, and the guns made a buzzing sound, unleashing magnetised slugs at an incredible rate. The marines couldn't keep this up for long, but they didn't have to. The return fire from the Byotai reduced for a moment, and it was just enough to cover the ground for Nate and the others. The doors finished opening, and in walked a great hulking machine. It moved out from the doorway and kept going until it cleared enough space for everybody to get past. It then stopped, braced itself, and lifted both arms to take aim.

  "Go!"

  The machine spoke in a low, mechanical tone that sounded almost as though it was entirely synthesised. Nate had no idea if it was a human inside or a pre-recorded message triggered as a command. Rex and Cassandra were through the doorway and to the other side of the mist.

  "Nate, come on!" Cassandra cried out.

  The clatter of small arms fire, and the arrival of two thermal projectiles embedded in the wall, quickly pushed Nate along. He glanced at the large fighting machine as he ran past, and then he was through. That was the point at which the machine opened fire. Unlike the marines, this great behemoth didn't bother to find cover. It seemed to want to be a target.

  A Vanguard!

  He would have liked nothing more than to stay back and examine the thing in more detail, but there was no chance of that. The last he saw it was standing at the entrance, its arms raised and blasting away with its weapons. Like the other marines, this much larger model was equipped with a pair of the same weapons on each arm. It was twice the size of a man, and made a whirring sound as it articulated joints and motors moved. The sound of projectiles striking its armour was almost as loud as the gunfire. Most bounced off the curved surfaces, but some managed to breach the layered material, and Jack heard its occupant howl in rage via the external speakers.