by Terry Mixon
Her plasma rifle smashed most of the equipment in the area she’d fired on, but one of the weapons platforms returned fire. It went with flechettes.
The small metal bits spun her in place and knocked her down. Her armor screamed about a breach in her left arm, but she didn’t feel any pain.
The marines opened fire on the platform and riddled it with holes. It spun in place and crashed to the floor out of action.
Kelsey heaved herself to her feet and unloaded on more of the charging stations with her plasma rifle. “Tiger Actual, Bandar. The AI is reprograming the weapons platforms to fire on us. So much for a hardwired IFF. Engage them with extreme prejudice.”
“Copy. We’re at the fusion plant. We’ll have it shut down shortly.”
“We’re on our way.”
“Negative. Redirect to fusion plant six.”
She didn’t want to leave them without support, but she saw the logic in his order. They had too few people to perform the rescue and take out the fusion plants. “Copy.”
Talbot was looking at her left arm as the team made sure the weapons platforms were out of action. “This looks compromised. Are you hurt?”
The flechette had torn the outer armor along her upper arm. The impact had peeled the metal away, exposing her flesh. Her thankfully undamaged flesh.
“It didn’t even break the skin, but the arm is unprotected now.”
Talbot gestured to the marines. “Come on, boys and girls. You heard the LT. We need to take out the next power plant in line. Kelsey, stay behind us.”
The marines saw several more weapons platforms on the way to the fusion plant, but none of them opened return fire. The fusion plant control room was almost as big as main engineering on Athena had been. And just as complex.
The fusion plant was out in the open, just like the drives were on a ship. Now that they were there, she realized she didn’t have any idea how to shut the damned thing down.
Kelsey opened a channel to Reese. “How do we shut them off?”
He didn’t respond for a moment. “Hang on.”
The general channel came to life. “All teams, Tiger Actual. The fusion plants have a manual shutdown to the rear in a locked panel. You can’t miss the big red—” He went off the air abruptly.
“Reese? Reese!” He didn’t respond. She hoped that only meant something had disabled his communications.
Kelsey ran around the back of the power plant and saw the locked panel. She ripped the cover off and pressed the big red button. The lighting dimmed a little and the plant shut off.
“Fusion plant six offline,” she said on the general channel. “Tiger Actual, status?”
“Tiger Actual is down,” an unfamiliar voice said. “We are heavily engaged.”
She headed for the hatch. “All Tiger teams, this is Bandar. Shut down the power systems and hold position. We are moving to assist the LT. Tiger Four, what is the status of the prisoners?”
“We have them. Estimate three to four hundred souls. Holding tight for evac.”
Dammit. The rest had to be on the planet. “Copy. Other teams, status on shutting down the power supply to the station?”
The other teams called in one by one. Fusion plants one through four were offline, and she’d hit the button on six. That only left plant five. She consulted her internal map. It was on her side of the station. She had to make the hard decision.
“Tiger Two, leave a squad to cover your plant and relieve Tiger Actual. Bandar is diverting to fusion five.”
“Copy.”
Talbot redirected the team without her direction. They made it almost all the way before running into heavy resistance. Humans and weapons platforms held the corridor and almost shot them down before they pulled back.
“Breaking through is going to be a bitch,” Talbot said. “We don’t have enough people. We need reinforcements.”
“Maybe there’s another way.” She consulted her map. “Nope. This is pretty much it.”
Then she noticed they were not so far away from a personnel lock. A quick search found one just past the fusion plant, too. She could travel outside the station.
“I have a plan. I can make it out a lock and get behind them.”
He shook his head. “Your armor is breeched. I’ll send a couple of men.”
“They don’t have thrusters. We left those on the hull when we arrived. I still have my grav assist. I can be there in a minute. It would take you half an hour. Our people don’t have that long. Hold position here.”
He started cussing, which she took to mean he couldn’t argue with her plan.
Kelsey sprinted to the lock and cycled herself out. She expected the cold to burn the exposed portion of her arm, but it didn’t feel any different. Perhaps the lore about freezing in space wasn’t exactly right. Her armor isolated her helmet and she could breathe. Her skinsuit would protect her body for a short while from the ravages of the vacuum.
It took her a moment to orient herself and spotted the other lock with her enhanced vision. There was a massive gash in the hull of the station. It might even mean that the plant wasn’t reachable inside the station.
She launched herself into space and kicked her drive on. It sent her soaring across the gap and to the other lock in less than ninety seconds. The lock allowed her in, thankfully.
Flechettes tore up the bulkhead beside her as soon as she was inside the station. She ducked down and spotted the machines firing at her. She opted for discretion and fired the plasma rifle. It cleared the corridor of machines. And bulkheads, floors, and ceilings. She vaulted the chasm with her grav assist and rolled into the fusion control room.
A number of controlled humans opened fire on her as soon as she appeared, ripping into her armor before she threw herself to the side. No one was happy about the situation, from the way they yelled for her to get out while she could.
Kelsey sprang to her feet and jumped forward with all her might, landing in the midst of a group of defenders. They had no chance to stop her as she sent them tumbling like toys. She reached the emergency shut off and killed the plant. The overhead lights went out and emergency lighting replaced it.
“Fusion five offline,” she said on the general channel as she dove for cover and began stunning the hostile humans. “Status?”
The weapons platforms were still fighting, but the marines were holding out. The only humans in evidence were the ones she was holding off with her neural disruptor. They shot up the fusion plant pretty badly before she took the last of them out.
Her armor was shot. Literally and figuratively. She stayed where she was and waited for Talbot. He finally arrived a few minutes later and rushed to her side.
“Are you hit?”
“Yes, but nothing I can’t handle. The machines are still fighting. We need to find the AI and take it out.”
“The rest of our team is working on finding it. I hope it’s where you saw the machines near fusion three. Come on.”
She let him help her walk. Her left leg was locking at the knee. Thankfully due to the armor, not any real injury. She only had one puncture and that was to the calf on her other leg. Her nanites were working it and the blood loss was minimal, but it made walking a bitch.
“How’s Reese?”
Talbot gave her a look and shook his head. “Plasma strike. He never saw it coming. I’ve assumed tactical command. The officers from New York and Ginnie Dare are gone, too. We’ve lost over half our force.”
The news was like a punch in the gut. He couldn’t be gone just like that, between one word and the next. She shook her head. “No, that can’t be right.”
“I’m sorry. He was a good man and great officer, but he’s dead. We’ll mourn later, but we still have a mission to complete.”
It took them twenty minutes to get to the forces attacking the compartments housing the AI. At least that was what they thought was in there. The combat machines resisting them made it likely.
The other marine teams trickled in to
join them and one by one, the weapons platforms fell. So did the marines.
Kelsey felt like tossing a plasma grenade into the compartment when they finally made it there, but resisted. The AI might have important information, if they could take it intact. And keep it from wiping itself.
She threw a remote in instead. It showed a basic control center with a dozen humans aiming flechette rifles at the hatch. They opened fire as soon as the remote came sailing in, but they missed her hand, thankfully.
There was no wall separating the control room from the AI hardware. It looked pretty much identical to the unit they’d installed on Invincible. Which meant that the emergency power supply was…there!
She fixed the location in her mind and crouched.
Talbot grabbed her. “Are you insane? Stop!”
“The emergency power supply is at the back of the room, but in sight. I’ll get one shot at this. If I miss, the AI might wipe all the data.”
“And if one of those lunatics opens fire, we lose you. No way.”
“It’s a risk,” she admitted. “I’m going to throw myself across the hatch and take a shot. I’m not going inside. Human reaction time is slow when compared to me on panther. Even my one good leg can get me across.” The Old Empire combat drugs sped up her ability to correlate and respond to her surroundings to a degree most people couldn’t grasp. Even people that had seen her fight before.
Her pharmacology unit had already dispensed it just before the fight in the fusion room. She’d have a comparative eternity to fire. The crash when it wore off was going to leave her useless, so she’d better make it count.
She drew her flechette pistol.
“This is madness,” Talbot pleaded. “We’ll rush the room. You can fire as soon as we distract them.”
His concern made her smile. “And then you’d be in my way. Get ready to rush the compartment.”
Kelsey took one breath, aimed at the area where she wanted to fire, and threw herself across the hatchway. Her flechette pistol came to bear on the emergency power supply and she opened fire.
The humans returned fire, but most were late. Not all, unfortunately.
A flechette took her in the right thigh as she flew through the air. Pain exploded across her senses when it penetrated her armor and she landed hard. The marines rushed into the compartment firing neural disruptors. Her leg was on fire.
“You happy now?” Talbot asked, obviously peeved and worried.
“The emergency power unit shorted out and the AI crashed. Yeah, I’m happy.”
“You’re too damned lucky. We still have some live defenders, but I think that situation is under control. Next time, use the grenade.”
The other marine teams were reporting that the weapons platforms were settling to the deck. Without direct control, they were shutting down. This fight was almost over.
Once they knocked out the men and women in the AI compartment, she went over the marines’ status monitors. Their losses had been horrendous. Of three hundred marines, more than sixty-five percent were dead. Many others were injured. Their force had almost failed to take the station.
Kelsey wanted to shut everything out, but they didn’t have time for her to have a meltdown. It would have to wait. “Secure the prisoners,” she said. “I want every virus infected human on this station in restraints before they wake up. Draft some of our freed people to help, if they can. Search every inch of this station.”
She looked up at Talbot. “This armor is wrecked. Help me out of it so I can go see if Breckenridge is among the prisoners.”
“I need to get a bandage on this wound.” He motioned for some of the marines to come over. “Let’s get her out of this armor.”
They stripped her down to her skinsuit and Talbot tore it away from her thigh wound. He slapped a bandage on it and wrapped it tight. “I’d say you need to stay still, but I know that’s not happening. Come on, boys. Let’s carry her to the main cargo bay.”
As humiliating as that was, Kelsey chose not to argue with them. She did insist they strap on her neural disruptor. She wasn’t going anywhere unarmed. With a man on either side, they had no problem carrying her. It wasn’t as though she weighed very much.
The prisoners had been in the main cargo hold, which was empty of any actual cargo. It would’ve made this mission much simpler if they’d breached there.
Several weapons platforms had been guarding the prisoners. The marines had taken them out when they burst in. Unfortunately, some of the prisoners had died in the operation or from injuries sustained in their capture.
A casual glance showed that those present seemed to be officers of one kind or another. The marines had one group under close guard. At the center of them stood Captain Breckenridge.
“Put me down,” she told the marines carrying her. They didn’t argue. She hobbled over to the group.
Breckenridge bristled at her approach. “What is the meaning of this? I gave these marines direct orders and they refuse to obey me.”
“It’s called being under arrest. Wallace Breckenridge, I hereby place you under arrest for treason against the Empire. I’m revoking your command authority. Marines, secure the prisoner.”
The officers around him closed ranks, so she glared at them. “He violated his oaths. Do not make the same mistake. Stand down.”
One at a time, they reluctantly pulled away from their former commanding officer. He glared at Kelsey. “You’re mad! I am a senior Fleet captain! I’ll be a commodore next year! You have no authority over me.”
She drew her neural disruptor and shot him. He collapsed in a heap. “Secure the prisoner and add resisting arrest to the eventual list of charges.”
That had been far more satisfying that she’d imagined. She looked around for Commander Meyer. He wasn’t there.
When the crowd parted and Doctor Guzman forced his way through, she asked him. “Where is Commander Meyer?”
“They took him away with the rest. I don’t know where. Let me look at that wound.”
She shook her head. “I’ll live. Look at the other injured first. We have many wounded marines, some of them serious. Talbot, get the marines back here as soon as possible. The prisoners, too.”
Guzman scowled at her. “Where did you get your medical degree, Doctor?” He held his hand to his ear. “What? No medical degree, you say? Well, then, I guess I’ll take a look for myself.”
She gave in to the inevitable and lay down. The station was reasonably secure. He’d leave her be when the seriously injured began arriving.
They’d completed their part of the operation. Now she had to hope that Jared managed the impossible and secured the system.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Word came in from New York that the station was secure just as Invincible reached the flip point. Jared listened to the battle tally grimly in the relatively cramped operations center. Thank God Kelsey had made it, but they’d lost so many irreplaceable people. The number of dead sat at two hundred and thirteen, including all the marine officers. Including Timothy Reese.
The young lieutenant had been with Jared since he’d accepted command of Athena. His death was a tragedy in every way.
Talbot had assumed command of the marine forces and Kelsey was injured, but alive. Now it was his turn to pull off a win for the team.
Baxter had worked miracles in the last few hours. The battle screen was back up to full strength and they’d restored six missile tubes to action giving them ten. News from Courageous was a little less upbeat. Battle screen at seventy percent and only two additional tubes restored to service for a total of four.
With exceptional luck, they might be able to take out all the enemy ships before the enemy destroyed them. He couldn’t count on that, though. Time to look into plan B.
Since Scott Pond couldn’t flip and the enemy had ignored the crippled battlecruiser, Jared had sent it back to the station by a roundabout course. With operational grav drives and a functioning computer, the vessel migh
t prove useful. He was glad it had survived.
Jared opened a channel to the main cargo bay. One of the scientists brought Doctor Cartwright to the communications unit. “Doctor, I need good news.”
“We believe we have one unit operational. Carl has hacked the controls and we should be able to activate it when the time comes.”
“The time is here. How long will it take you to deploy that thing?”
“Ten minutes. We need to evacuate the bay and get some men in place to eject it once we bleed off the atmosphere. After we flip, of course.”
Jared nodded. “Get ready. We get exactly one chance at this.” He cut the channel and opened a line to Courageous. Graves appeared on his console. “Charlie.”
“Captain. We’re not in as good a shape as I wished we were.”
“We’re not, either. I think we’re going to have to sucker them. Wait until they fire and flip just before the missiles arrive. We drop the flip disruptor on the other side and back off. If it works, great. If not, we shoot them up when they arrive.”
“And if they don’t all take the bait?”
“Then we’re screwed.”
Graves shook his head. “Admiral Yeats is going to ream us. If we live.”
“Something to look forward to. Hold fire and flip on my order.”
“Aye, sir. Courageous out.”
Jared watched the enemy fleet close with them on his implant feed. They had a tight formation and looked determined. They wanted to end this fight.
Well, so did he.
The enemy waited until they were well inside effective range to open fire. Twenty-eight missiles shot toward the two Imperial warships at maximum speed. Sixty seconds to impact.
Jared waited until the last fifteen to order the flip. The enemy launched a second salvo just as he lost sight of them.
“Flip complete,” Zia said. “Main cargo hatch opening.”
Jared waited impatiently for the device to drift free before he moved Invincible away from the flip point. Courageous had already taken up a position outside the flip point.