by Dain White
“Jane, Yak. We are cleared for landing. I will crash the other dropship ahead of our arrival, to help cover your entrance.”
I looked over at Jane. “Ready?”
“You bet. Race you to the bridge?”
“You’re on”, I laughed and pulled my helmet down.
“Be advised, Janis and I have total control over many of the core systems, but there are many manual systems we can’t control.”
“Understood”, I replied. Having both Janis and Emwan working together was incredibly reassuring, I almost felt bad for our enemy. The thought of the colonists they had enslaved, trapped somewhere in the depths of the massive ship filling our forward ports reminded me that the worst we could do, wouldn’t be enough.
The Revenge was huge. In terms of scale, I’ve never been up close and personal with a ship this size, and had never served on one in the service. Capital ships are orbital platforms, built in orbit, designed to be self-sufficient. I thought a million-ton destroyer was a big ship; these were easily ten times as large. It wasn’t as large as the planetoid-sized cargo haulers we saw around Talus, but we were considerably closer to this one.
“Jane, have you ever been on one of these?” I asked softly, floating along the forward screen of the bridge deck.
She pulled herself over to get a better look. “A few times, Yak. The Vice Admiral’s flagship was a capital-class ship; though I am sure it had a completely different internal layout. I don’t really know what to expect when we get in there, to be honest. Maybe Em knows?”
I nodded. “Em, can you load our suits with some sort of map, or schematic?”
“Of course, Yak. Once you enter the ship, you will find that the nearest egress leading to your destination has been highlighted, and will remain so until you pass through to the next section. I will also highlight threats that I am unable to suppress, as well as hostile individuals as I am able.”
Jane spoke up, “Janis, do you know what sort of resistance we will be facing?”
“I do, Jane. In general, you will be facing a cadre of reasonably well-trained and very well-armed mercenaries, some of whom are veterans of multiple low-level glom-sponsored conflicts. A small percentage are service-trained, though many of them washed out, dropped out, or were discharged for various reasons. Almost universally, negative social issues were factors in their development as individuals.
“They sound like real charmers”, I said grimly.
“I believe the term psychopath is appropriate for many of them, Yak. Some are more sociopathic, but most of them share an almost inhuman disregard for life.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from a crew hand-picked by Red Martigan”, Jane added.
The captain called up on comms, “Shorty, how copy, over?”
“Solid copy, Captain”, she replied.
“We’ve ferried everyone to the Archaea and are again on the bottom, as requested by Janis.”
“How did it go?”
“Well, it wasn’t too hard, once they realized we were people, and not some sort of alien invasion. I don’t think they fully understood what you and Yak were, but they seemed pretty relieved when I walked out on deck.”
“I can imagine, sir!” she laughed.
“These folks have gone through a lot, but I told them there’s no reason for them to be exposed, until we know it’s safe for them to return to their colony. If you find survivors on the Revenge, we’re going to get them back to their homes as well, if we can…” he trailed off.
“Agreed, sir”, she replied.
“What is your ETA?”
The hull of the Revenge had grown in the last few moments, filling the forward screens completely. A black opening in the hull lit up and we started our final approach.
“Sir, we’re on final now. Janis and Em can keep you posted; Yak and I will probably be too busy to chat.”
“Understood, Jane, and thanks… take extra good care of Yak, please. We need him reasonably intact, and preferably without serious leaks.”
She laughed. “No promises, sir, but I will sure think about it!”
*****
Jane and I kicked clear of the dropship as it entered the landing bay, dropping soundlessly to the deck below. Ahead of us, in the forward section of the deck, the first dropship was engulfed in flames, wedged into a massive support beam.
In the last moments before it crashed, Emwan had accelerated, mashing it through a series of other ships that were on deck, turning the entire forward section into a mass of twisted metal, hissing steam, arcing electricals, and general mayhem.
It was the perfect cover for our infiltration, not that we were necessarily going for stealth. We couldn’t afford to turn this into a game of cat and mouse while they scanned and nuked the surface, we had to bring the fight to our enemy and move aggressively towards our objective.
With mimetics engaged, Jane and I made our way through the landing bay towards the fire hatch that had locked when the dropship exploded.
“Janis, can you open this door?” I asked, looking at the hardened durasteel. These doors were designed to contain explosions, fires, all sorts of bad things.
“Negative, Yak. These doors are automatic, slaved to a simple circuit. You will have to open them directly.”
“Copy that… Jane, take cover”, I called out.
“Like hell, you take cover”, she replied, first in position as always. I shrugged, and got behind one of the support beams along the side of the bay. So far, no one on deck knew we were here, but I had a feeling this was about to change.
Jane positioned herself behind another beam, and fired her railer. We were both rocked hard by a concussion blast that hammered through the enclosed space – anyone not wearing suits like ours was probably dead from the compression wave, or wished they were.
“Damn!” I called out, as I got my first look at what remained of the door. There wasn’t much… melted fragments and strips of steel, glowing red hot in some places, sparking and white hot in others, flowing across the decks.
“Can I get an OOH-RAH MARINE!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, clearly amped to the max.
“OOOH-RAH!” I hollered back. “Let’s take this beach!”
*****
As we led the colonists out of the crab, and into the Archaea, their faces lit up with the hope that their nightmare was soon over.
Gene really set their mind at ease, though I don’t know how. Maybe he reminded them of people they knew, or maybe he’s just a lovable old guy even through his dour cranky irascible scowl.
Gene led us forward to the wardroom, showed them the showers, the galley, the sickbay, but for a while, all anyone did was use the bathroom and take showers.
It was easy to tell from the extravagance that Janis had taken a turn in the galley with an assembler or two; there was a wide assortment of incredibly delectable little goodies and bits, baked goods and my favorite part, she had filled my biggest urn with an excellent brew.
The colonists wanted to huddle at first, but the quiet, serene atmosphere on the Archaea worked its magic. Before too long, kids were playing on ladders and running around in the rings trying to climb to the tops while their parents smiled.
*****
“Janis, we’re pinned down”, Yak called on comms, as we clawed for cover behind a container that was rapidly coming apart.
“I’m sorry Yak, those are manual turrets, there’s nothing I can do. They have independent power supplies, and are crewed from a sealed compartment.”
“That’s not the good news I was hoping for!” he yelled back, as the turrets continued to pour fire into our position. These were point defense turrets, at least 20mm, probably firing tungsten or depleted uranium rounds. The heavy container we were behind was being shredded into bits.
“Any ideas, Jane?” he yelled over, as I crouched over to the corner of the container to see if there was anything else we could get behind that was more substantial.
I yelled back, “Well,
there doesn’t seem to be anything else to get behind, and their position is pretty well protected as far as I can tell. Do you think our suits can handle it?”
“Are you kidding?” he replied, incredulously.
I shrugged, and considered waving my hand out there to see. Janis built these suits tough; both of us had some nasty score marks already from various hits and ricochets... though, not from anything as substantial as these turrets.
“Don’t do it, Jane”, he begged. “I’ll do it.”
“Don’t be macho, Yak”, I laughed. “I am perfectly capable of getting shot, just as well as you are.”
“It’s not that, Jane… I’m a Marine, this is what we do… this is my job. We can’t risk you, Jane. You are the heart and soul of the Archaea. Without you, we don’t have a main gun, dummy.”
He had a point, but we were rapidly running out of options, regardless. The world was coming apart in a hail of high velocity ordinance. I just hoped the suit’s ability to lock allowed him to absorb the impact, if it didn’t just blast through him.
“I’ll just wave a leg… we’re in null-g half the time anyway, who needs a leg?”
I dropped down to my knees behind the box, and watched him, this big dumb stinky jarhead, speechless at his bravery, his incredible stupidity.
A mighty crack and a sizzling buzz of a very nasty ricochet threw sparks back down the corridor as it howled off downrange.
“Woah!” Yak yelled, and pulled his leg back into cover.
“Are you okay?” I screamed, hands fluttering like crazy birds around his leg, looking for damage.
The fire intensified, sounding like a swarm of furious bees screaming past.
“Hell yeah… it hits hard as hell, but the suit can take it. Hang on, Jane, I can do this”, he said, and leaped out from behind the container. Both turrets tracked full on him, and the air was instantly full of shards and slivers of metal as the rounds spalled into little bits against the suit and scattered through the compartment.
Despite the tremendous beating he was taking, he was still standing, his suit glowing hot, rounds tracing fading lines of fire back and forth across him. He had one leg behind him for support and the suit was locked. I could feel the shove as his emitters worked to keep him from falling over.
“Now… Jane…” he gasped.
I wasted no time. I prairie-dogged up out of cover and reduced the armored compartment between the turrets into molten rubble, slamming us both across the deck and against the far bulkhead from the flashing blast.
“Ka-POW!” I cheered, laughing. This was never going to get old. These suits could really bring the heat. They were precise enough to shoot cups off of the counter, yet we could probably shoot ships out of orbit if we wanted.
“Holy hell, Jane!” he replied, laughing. “Let’s move out, before they realize we’re not dead in here.”
“Roger”, I replied, and moved forward past the flaming ruin of the control bunker. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, but it was trivial in the suit to move, as strong as I was now. As I pulled and bent bars and angle bracing away from the opening, I realized it wasn’t just amplified, my strength was incredibly magnified.
We could probably tunnel our way straight through bulkheads with our bare hands if we needed to, though it wouldn’t be the fastest way to move. I crushed a section of thick pipe, and smiled.
As soon as we had forced a route through the wreckage, we fetched up on either side of another pressure door.
“What’s on the other side?” Yak asked, with a subtle tug on the charging handle to see if it was locked.
I took a quick scan of the map. “It looks like we have yet another corridor, Yak.”
“Don’t they have enough? How many do they need?”
I took a knee laughing, “Ready to knock, Yak?”
“Sure thing… anyone home?” he called out, and punched the hatch at the upper and lower hinge, shoving his fist through the plate like it was made of fresh bread. Immediately, impacts from small arms fire started plinking against the door, as the terrified mercs inside lost what remaining cool they had.
Yak laughed and kicked the hatch down, and it sailed off into the distance of the corridor, whanging and banging off of various bulkheads and skidding to a stop somewhere in the distance in a cloud of sparks.
“Ready?”
“On the right, Yak, cover me”, I called, and hooked in. A few rounds glanced off my suit, but they were hardly noticeable. I scanned four targets behind barricades near the end of the corridor, working a crew-served automatic weapon. I charged and fired, reducing the end of the corridor to a flash of light and fury.
“Cover you? You hardly need—” his words were cut off by a mighty explosion that hurled him off his feet and threw him back through the opening. A hail of kinetics screamed down the corridor through the smoke at the end of the hall, shredding the bulkhead behind me into nothingness.
I leaned out a little bit and scanned the corridor, tracking a heavily armored walker approaching us through the smoke.
“Ouch”, Yak replied from somewhere uncomfortable and significantly downrange.
Since he was alive enough to make jokes, I decided to deal with the walker first and check on him later.
Keeping mostly flat against the wall, I sighted in on the walker and willed it to go away – and was immediately rewarded by a mighty blast that rippled the deck plates and blew back down the corridor, knocking me off my feet and into what remained of the bulkhead. When the smoke cleared, the explosion had warped the corridor completely; the blackened area where the walker had stood bulged grotesquely into the breached compartments and access spaces around the area.
A layer of smoke and haze filled the upper corridor as a fire burned somewhere.
“Clear”, I said unnecessarily.
“Holy cow, Jane… you’re going to flash cook us if you’re not careful”, he said, climbing up through the wreckage we had just carved through, visible through what was left of the shredded bulkhead behind me.
“I know, aren’t they sweet?” I giggled. “Nothing says ‘I Love You’ quite like these babies. Although, that wasn’t even a kiloton… we can hit quite a bit harder.”
I split my view ahead and behind, and kept an eye down the corridor, while watching him pull himself out of the wreckage of the bunker he had been blown into. My head ached at the visual, but I was slowly getting used to it.
“Good to go Jane, rolling up” he said after kicking himself free of a tangle of wiring and lifting off.
“Covering”, I replied.
His mimetics were lit, but as covered with dust and soot as he was, they weren’t doing too much. Not that we had any chance at all of stealth at this point. Red knew we were here, and hopefully, he was afraid.
Yak had reached the end of the corridor, and took a position near what remained of the plasteel barricade. “Covering”, he called out.
“Rolling up”, I replied, and sailed down the corridor. “How’re we looking?” I asked as I came in for a landing on the opposite corner of the next bulkhead.
“Nothing out there that I can see, Jane, but it’s a pretty big place.” He leaned carefully out to check the corners.
“Em, please advise; are there hostiles at our location?”
“Yes, Yak, a significant number of targets are massed ahead of you, they are plotted onscreen to the best of my ability.”
I opened the track and flipped through the targets as fast as I could think… there were an awful lot of them. This section had a galley forward, and on the starboard side, a head. An upper walkway led to the deck above, and a ratway dropped down to the deck below.
“Thanks Em, it looks like they’re set up in a pretty classic post. Not much else you can do in the space. Are you seeing this, Jane?”
“Copy, Yak. It’s a killbox. We need to probably try to avoid any mines, and work our way to the high ground.”
“Think a mine would be enough to kill us?”
I nodded. “A real mine would probably vaporize us, but they’d have to be suicidal to use one in here. I don’t think your standard AP mine would do much to us, but a tank mine would be more than enough to ruin our day.”
“Well, call out if you see one”, he said in a somber voice.
I laughed. “Don’t worry Yak; I won’t let you check out. Captain Smith handed me a direct order, in writing.”
He chuckled, and I continued, “There’s really nothing to worry about anyway… we ought to be able to sneak up on them, Yak. We just need to find some way to tidy up”, I said while thinking back down the corridor for any heads we might have missed.
“Well, that’s the mess, so what we want is in there.”
I nodded, looking around for anything we could use to wipe down our suits.
“Wait a minute, Jane… wait.” He started rubbing his hands across his suit, and suddenly, water poured out of his palms.
“Are you serious?” I said, laughing. “Janis, did you know we would need to do this?”
“It seemed the best solution, Jane. Use sparingly, you only have five liters.”
I went to work on my suit, smiling all the while. Even the worst of the spots cleaned right up, once the regenerative metal had a chance to cook for a while.
“I have a dent”, Yak said sadly.
“Impressive. That was a big hit, Yak. Did it hurt?”
“No, not really, in fact, it felt no worse than taking a pretty bad tumble. I should have been dust, Jane. The suit must be preactive… no other way it would lock like that. The emitters too, they just fire off and absorb the impact… or most of it.”
“Well, that’s good to know. You’re looking pretty much gone now with your halo off.”
“My what…?”
“Your halo…”
A moment of silence, then he replied “So I can be evil now?”
“What?”
“I don’t have my halo?”
“Oh!” I laughed. “That’s how I am able to track you with your mimetics on.”
He laughed. “Jane, I thought… that’s hilarious. You show up for me as a green target. Did you know that you can highlight organs?”