Starflake (T'aafhal Legacy Book 3)

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Starflake (T'aafhal Legacy Book 3) Page 33

by Doug Hoffman


  Grits mined the second tunnel and headed back toward Keti and the main exit on the level below. The second tunnel erupted much like the first. Halting seven meters to Keti's left he knelt and added his fire to hers. To the right he saw the two exits assigned to Brains erupt simultaneously. Brains came jogging up and took up a similar position on Keti's right.

  Back in suit-to-suit range Grits commented, “Show off.”

  “I have certain standards to maintain, mate.”

  “You two shut the fuck up and kill the aliens.”

  SEALs, Station Core

  The three SEALs pounded down the hallway, not noticing the softly glowing crystal walls or the flashes of light that moved like living things within. Up ahead another mustard yellow troll awaited impassively for them to draw closer.

  “Where are these little troglodytes leading us, Chief?”

  “I guess we'll know when we get there. Now shut up and run.”

  The voice of the Tcist sounded inside their helmets.

  “Hurry Earthlings. The Uxoreeza warriors are almost to the antimatter storage chambers.”

  “Can't you do something to slow them down?” Rick asked plaintively.

  “I have closed off several tunnels and tried to mislead them but I cannot prevent them from gaining access. I have only limited control over the station's material configuration. Most of its growth function is an automatic response to damage.”

  “So how did you seal the tunnels?”

  “I had the whooboo damage some of the passageways.”

  “Great, we got team yellow running interference for us,” Bud said sarcastically.

  “Hey, short yellow help is better than no help,” Phil quipped.

  Up ahead one of the aforementioned whooboo disappeared down yet another hallway. The SEALs had lost track of the number of twists and turns they had taken so far. The little yellow guides always seemed to lead them around yet another corner to yet another hallway.

  “Come on boys, faster. We don't stop these chicken bastards all this is for nothing.”

  This time the light at the end of the hallway looked different from the passages they had been racing through. They were within a hundred meters of their destination. Now all they had to do was find the Uxoreeza and keep them from blowing the station and everyone on board it into their constituent atoms.

  Bridge, Peggy Sue

  “Swing wide to port, helmsman. I want to see what damage was done by that explosion we saw on approach.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  The ship passed to the left of the crater that had been the docking port where the Uxoreeza landed. The station's hull material had quickly sealed off the area, preventing further loss of atmosphere, but the crater was impressive and the surrounding minor spires all showed significant damage.

  “Did the aliens do that or did the Marines?” Billy Ray pondered the meaning of the destruction below. “Ice Castle, Peggy Sue. Give me a situation report.”

  “Roger, Peggy Sue. We've managed to close all the breaches in the station perimeter. One larger troop ship docked, but 1st squad repelled the boarders and took it out. Now 1st and 2nd squads are at the base of the Karf spire where the remaining Uxoreeza are trying to spring the gray hostiles and breakout into the station proper.”

  “But the Marines are holding?”

  “Roger, the Marines are holding so far. But there's some bad news. Three of the Jurassic chickens got lose and are somewhere in the station core. I sent the SEALs after them.”

  “Jurassic chickens?”

  “That's what the sailors named them. We had a breach in the Shopping Mall.”

  “Have the SEALs run down the escapees?”

  “I don't know, Sir. I lost communications with them when they entered the station core. The Tcist is helping them hunt the hostiles down but it's not very good at keeping me updated.”

  “Casualties?”

  “The Marines have lost two, missing and assumed KIA. One of the sailors was wounded.”

  Damn, the Captain swore to himself. “The status of the other enemy troop carriers?”

  “The Kestrels took out one on this side of the station, along with a bunch of enemy fighters. Then they moved to the far side and I lost contact. Sensors haven't detected anymore ships docking so they must have gotten the rest of them.”

  “Roger that, Ice Castle. I am moving to the far side of the station to make sure there are no more surprises left.”

  “Interrogative, the status of the enemy fleet?”

  “We have met the enemy and they are ours. Peggy Sue, out.”

  The ship passed by the Karf spire, which gave no sign of the battle raging at its base. Swinging around in a wide arc there were no enemy ships to be seen. Two small craft, enemy fighters, rose toward the Peggy Sue in a forlorn hope.

  “Enemy fighter craft approaching, Captain.”

  “Secondary battery, take them out.”

  “Aye, aye, Sir.”

  X-ray lasers target the two fighters. They flared briefly and were gone. From her sensor station Mizuki called out.

  “Captain, I am detecting the remains of at least one large vessel. Perhaps two given the pattern of debris dispersal.”

  “The missing enemy frigate perhaps?”

  “Readings are consistent with a ship's antimatter store detonating. I cannot tell for sure.”

  “And where are the Kestrels?”

  “I have been hailing them, Captain. There is no reply.”

  The Captain said nothing. His only reaction was the tightening of his grip on the arms of the commander's chair. But underneath his calm demeanor he thought, God in heaven, please don't let her be dead.

  Chapter 40

  Marines, Karf Spire

  Grits looked up and saw a string of large explosions run down the length of the left hand bridge from the central column to the second level round-a-bout. Too big to be 15mm, it could only be fire from Sgt. Aurora's 30mm—hers was the only heavy railgun left since the demise of Inuksuk. The bridge collapsed, showering the chamber floor with crystalline rubble.

  A new wave of Karf swept toward his position, trying to force the way into the main roadway below. In front of the tunnel entrance, like Horatius at the Sublician bridge, stood Keti. That tale was one of the few Grits remembered from school. He even recalled a snippet of verse:

  To every man upon this earth

  Death cometh soon or late.

  And how can man die better

  Than facing fearful odds,

  For the ashes of his fathers,

  And the temples of his Gods.

  Seeing the approaching gray tide he suddenly felt very much like one of Horatius' companions, trapped on the wrong side of the Tiber. From the right Brains called out.

  “We need a barrage of air-burst above the hostiles. Link your tactical comps to coordinate the pattern.”

  Both Keti and Grits complied, their suit computers mapping out a pattern of shell burst locations covering the approach to their shared position. Each of the three Marines received a fire mission, their part of the pattern of destruction. Beeping tones counted down. They raised their left arms and fired.

  The air above the approaching horde of Karf erupted with angry yellow blossoms, four meters above the deck. The exploding 15mm shells sent a hailstorm of shrapnel onto the teeming aliens. The interlocked patterns covered the entire area facing the trio of Marines. Karf died by the score.

  “I'll be buggered,” Brains exclaimed. “That worked just like it did in the training simulations.”

  “Don't feel too smug,” Keti added. “It looks like they are forming up near the elevators to try another charge.”

  “Is this what you'd call an inhuman wave attack?”

  As they watched, the right-hand causeway exploded and collapsed. The Marines' hold on the upper level round-a-bout was now fairly secure, but the situation on the lower level was far from decided.

  “Looks like Aurora is still at it.” Keti stood an
d surveyed the scene before her. “The gray bastards keep coming down from the spire.”

  While she was talking, Grits looked over the edge of the upper round-a-bout and spotted two of the alien invaders. Under cover of the Karf attack they had worked their way around the edge of the chamber and were now in position to strike at Keti. With out a second thought, Grits jumped off the upper level while shouting a warning.

  “Hostiles attacking from the left flank!”

  He landed on the back of the first Uxoreeza sending the raptor like creature sprawling, its weapon flying from its grasp. Grits turned and came off the floor. His left arm knocked the second alien's weapon aside just as it fired. The plasma bolt went wide, impacting on the lip of the roadway opening.

  Too close to use his railguns effectively, Grits acted out of instinct and punched the alien in the head while yanking the plasma rifle out of its hands. The alien fell backward but used its long muscular tail to keep from falling to the floor. Bouncing back it lept at the Marine lashing out with both its legs. Like a rooster in a cockfight, there were long sharp spurs on the inside of each leg just above the ankles.

  The twin spurs scraped across Grits' midsection, leaving visible grooves in the metal-ceramic armor. With the alien literally up in his face, Grits struck back with a right uppercut. While polar bears had long mounted mechanical claws on the gauntlets of their battle armor, there was not as much room on the arms of human Marines. They settled for a single extensible blade—a half meter in length, double edged with a sharp triangular point.

  As Grits delivered the punch to the underside of his opponent's jaw he triggered the blade. It shot forward and locked in position an instant before the power of the blow drove the blade through the alien's armor. It went clear through the alien's skull, its tip just emerging from the top of the Uxoreeza's helmet.

  The impaled Uxoreeza hung from Grits' extended right arm, its legs still kicking, twitching in death. He turned around, trying to fling the dead alien from his blade but the creature would not dislodge. Finally he had to place a foot on his vanquished foe's neck so he could extract the impaling spike. Looking up he saw the second of the two attackers being swung through the air by Keti.

  Finding itself disarmed, the lead Uxoreeza had made a similar leaping attack on Keti, who feinted right and knocked the raptor to the ground. Lying on its back it kicked out again, but the Marine grabbed the offending leg by the ankle. Using both hands, Keti swung the alien around in a circle, leaning back to counterbalance its weight like a hammer thrower at the Scottish Highland Games.

  On the second complete revolution Keti released her attacker, throwing it in a high arc through the air. At the apex of its trajectory it exploded in a bright yellow flash leaving a splatter of flesh, pink mist, and drifting feathers.

  “Wait 'till I say 'pull' next time, luv,” Brains said, standing on the upper level.

  “I think you should come down here, it looks like they are forming up for another charge.”

  “Right you are.” He lept nimbly down to the main floor, joining his comrades. “I don't know about you two, but I'm running short on ammunition.”

  “Yeah, Bubba. I got only a couple hundred flechettes left and a half dozen 15mm.”

  “I have about the same, plus a couple of grenades,” Keti replied. “I don't think that will be enough to stop the next wave.”

  “I think you're right. Looks like we're bloody well fucked.”

  The trio stared at the wave of screaming gray savages converging on their position. Keti broke the silence. “When we are out of ammo back into the mouth of the tunnel, limit the front they can attack us on.”

  More out of helplessness than expectation, Grits called out on the common channel. “This is Grits at the entrance to the main roadway south. We are almost out of ammo and about to be overrun. If y'all got any suggestions we're all ears.”

  “Clear the mouth of the tunnel,” a new voice answered.

  The trio did as they were ordered. An instant later, tracer fire streamed from the roadway entrance slaughtering the approaching Karf.

  “Is that you, LT?” Brains asked.

  “You called for the cavalry, Marine?”

  Railguns blazing, a battle-bot emerged from the entrance. Its heavy railgun sent a torrent of explosive shells into the mass of hostiles at the base of the central column. A string of explosions rose up the glowing shaft of the large freight elevator, blasting the bodies of descending Karf to pieces.

  “Yee-haw! Now that's what I call reinforcements.”

  “Right, mate,” Brains said, “and what do we do when robo-boy runs out of ammo?”

  Bridge, Peggy Sue

  “Peggy Sue, Ice Castle. The Marine's are reporting that they are almost out of ammunition and there are still Karf coming from the spire. I have no way of resupplying them effectively. There could be thousands more of those gray bastards in that spire for all we know.”

  “And the Uxoreeza?” the Captain replied.

  “Maybe a dozen accounted for, its hard to tell. That place is a slaughter house. In a couple of places it has come down to close combat—hand-to-hand with the Jurassic chickens.”

  Billy Ray thought for a few seconds, arriving at a decision. “Ice Castle, tell the Marines to take shelter. We are going to take out the spire.”

  “Aye, aye, Sir. Ice Castle standing by.”

  “Cmdr. Danner, could you please position the ship so we have a clear field of fire on the Karf spire.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.” Bobby already had the ship in motion. In fewer than twenty seconds the Peggy Sue stood off the top spire with no obstructions in the ship's line of fire. “The ship is positioned, Sir.”

  “I want you to walk a line of railgun slugs up the spire, from as close to the base you can get.”

  “Are we trying to demolish it or just kill everything inside of it?” Mizuki asked.

  “You think we can exterminate the inhabitants without totally destroying the structure, Dr. Ogawa?”

  “Hai, Captain. The spire is essentially a tube filled with air. The shockwave from a railgun projectile striking it should kill everything within half a kilometer of the impact point.”

  “OK, so spread the impact points out one every klick or so. Any thing else?”

  “From the SEALs' reconnaissance of the structure we know the top one third contains no inhabited spaces. We need to only target the lower ten kilometers.”

  “Understood, thank you, Mizuki. Bobby, take the bastards out.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  The ship quivered, rose slightly and quivered again. Nine times the firing cycle repeated. The impacts were plainly visible on the side of the spire, shattered crystal splashing outward. The momentum of each round was sufficient to blast corresponding holes on the opposite side of the spire. Inside the transparent spire walls bright angry flames could be seen as the immense kinetic energy of each slug was dispersed in a shockwave of superheated air and vaporized metal.

  A minute later and the Karf were no more, nor were any Uxoreeza who remained in the spire with their underlings. What was left of the spire's atmosphere escaped, carrying with it debris and mutilated dead bodies. The struggle for the Starflake was all but over.

  SEALs, Station Core

  “They approach from the center hallway,” the Tcist informed the three SEALs. The humans stood on a wide balcony from which the station's cache of antimatter eggs could be seen. They were all that stood between the approaching Uxoreeza and the Starflake's destruction.

  “We're playing this kinda close, don't you think?” asked Bud.

  “So don't fuck it up,” Rick replied.

  “How we going to handle this?” asked Phil.

  “Take cover on either side of the doorway. We can't just shoot the hostiles, that might set off whatever explosives they are carrying—and if they are carrying antimatter they're probably already close enough to set the whole place off.”

  “Wait till they emerge and take
them out?”

  “Yeah, simultaneous head shots. We have to assume that a head shot can prevent an involuntary trigger squeeze in these birds, just like with humans.”

  “Right, let's do this.” Bud and Phil moved to opposite sides of the hallway opening. Rick took the same side as Bud, farther in from the opening. All three activated their suit camo, becoming almost invisible. They didn't have long to wait.

  The sound of claws running on hard flooring approached. The first Uxoreeza burst from the doorway and headed straight for the balcony railing twelve meters away. It was immediately followed by a second. When the head of the third alien emerged the SEALs fired.

  Each fired a three round burst, the 5mm flechettes emerging in such rapid succession that the muzzles of their weapons didn't have time to rise from recoil. From less than three meters away and traveling at 4,000 fps, the flechettes cut through the aliens' helmets and shattered their skulls, killing the Uxoreeza instantly.

  Their bodies fell to the floor, forward momentum carrying them toward the balcony. The lead warrior slid to a stop only two meters from the edge.

  “Clear!” each SEAL cried in turn.

  “Search the bodies for explosives,” Rick ordered. Bud and Phil were already moving to check their targets. Phil, who had taken out the middle alien yelled, “I think I got something.”

  Strapped to the dead alien's chest was a bundle. Inside the bundle was a silver container with a glowing display on its side. The symbols on the display were changing.

  “I think this thing is counting down,” Phil said.

  “We need to get it out of here, ASAP!” Bud said.

  “Station. How do we get this bomb out of here?” Rick demanded.

  “Give it to the whooboo,” came the Tcist's reply.

  “What whooboo?” Bud asked, looking around as Phil cut the demolition charge free of the dead Uxoreeza.

  “There!” said Rick, pointing to a yellow troll that appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

  Phil handed the pack to the mustard colored creature and it ran off, clasping the bundle to its chest. It rounded a corner and disappeared.

 

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