Spoils of War

by Terry Mixon

  Tanaka held up his hand before she could answer. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. Keep your skinny ass next to me. Do you understand?”

  He followed that up with a word that she didn’t understand. Based on her conversations with Fei, she suspected it was a curse word, probably Imperial in origin. She really needed to learn Standard so that she could understand how to correctly interact with the marines.

  “Yes, Sergeant,” she said as she moved up beside him.

  She didn’t try to explain herself. The man was bright enough to figure out why she was there, and none of her answers would matter in any case. The situation was what it was. He’d make do, just as she would.

  The corridors on the ship seemed both taller and broader than the ones aboard the freighter and were filled with the unconscious forms of the crew. None of the marines paid them the slightest mind.

  The squad ignored the lifts as well, taking to the stairs and moving upward in an organized pattern where one group would take up positions covering their advance while the next group passed by them and then took up similar positions in turn.

  It was almost like a game. One with potentially lethal consequences if anyone made a wrong move.

  They exited the stairwell several levels later and began heading down a corridor just like the one they’d been traveling in before. Unfortunately for them, they quickly discovered that not everyone on this deck was unconscious.

  Ahead of them, a dozen men and women dressed in armor somewhat similar to their own raced around the corner and immediately began firing at them. The marines hunkered down and returned fire.

  Sergeant Tanaka pushed One Twenty-Four behind him and also returned fire.

  Ignoring his unspoken admonition, she brought her rifle up and stepped to the side to free herself up to shoot as well. Of course the first squeeze of her trigger failed to do anything because the safety was still engaged.

  Muttering the word that she’d heard Sergeant Tanaka use, she flipped the selector switch to burst mode, put the red dot on one of the enemies, and squeezed the trigger. The rifle fired, and her flechettes struck the man, but she wasn’t sure if her actions caused his death or merely contributed to the carnage of all the other marines that were shooting him.

  She suspected that she should be horrified or frightened but didn’t have time to feel any emotion at all as she mechanically followed the directions that Fei had given her. She’d process what was happening when there was more time.

  One Twenty-Four kept her weapon on burst mode as Fei had taught her and kept switching from target to target as more men and women poured around the corner behind the enemy. How many were there?

  Flechettes flew up and down the corridor. Some of them even struck her torso, the impacts more powerful than she’d anticipated. None of the hits penetrated her armor, and she was able to continue firing.

  When her weapon sounded, she dropped the spent magazine and replaced it with a fresh one, continuing to fire as Fei had trained her to do. In her uneducated opinion, it looked like the marines were winning the fight.

  Then another figure stepped around the corner—one dressed in armor that looked significantly thicker. There wasn’t even a face visible inside the helmet, only flat metal. The weapon this figure carried was also much larger than those everyone else was using.

  A sharp warning from Sergeant Tanaka caused the marines to shift their aim, but their flechettes didn’t seem to be able to penetrate the heavier armor. If this was the fabled powered armor that Fei had told One Twenty-Four about, her weapon wasn’t going to be able to damage it either.

  Several of the marines around her were already throwing grenades, but all she could do was continue firing her rifle. She shifted her aim from the armored form to the weapon it carried. Perhaps that would be vulnerable to attack.

  She held her finger down on the trigger and zeroed in on the bell of the weapon with every flechette she could fire even as it began glowing.

  One Twenty-Four had a moment to wonder if she was about to die before a massive explosion hurled her back and slammed her into the deck, sending her skittering along its surface and into the bulkhead behind them with bone-crushing force.

  She lay there for a moment, stunned. The only thing she could see was her HUD, but she couldn’t make any sense of it.

  Realizing the danger of just lying there, she scrambled to her feet, raised her rifle, and took stock of the situation.

  The corridor in which the armored figure had stood was a blazing wreck, torn apart by the explosion of the grenades. One Twenty-Four had no idea whether she’d disrupted the weapon or not, but that was a question that would have to wait for later.

  Sergeant Tanaka made a quick assessment of all the marines and gestured for them to get moving again.

  He stepped over beside her and gave her a once over. “You don’t look like you’re breached, but you need to stay behind me. This is dangerous. Now replace your empty magazine in case you have to use your rifle again.”

  One Twenty-Four was shocked. The rifle was sounding the tone that indicated an empty weapon, but even though she’d heard it, it hadn’t meant anything to her. She felt like an idiot.

  Without responding, she quickly dropped the magazine and replaced it with another, feeling humiliated. Her lapse could’ve cost someone their life. Perhaps even her own.

  With those thoughts still in her mind, she ran beside Tanaka as they made their way past their dead enemies and arrived at the massive hatch leading into the bridge just a minute later.

  It was wide open, and One Twenty-Four could see that everyone inside was either sprawled in their seats or lay across the consoles. The bridge was much larger than she’d imagined it would be.

  Tanaka gestured toward the hatch, and several marines went around, moving the bodies to the side of the room. They searched them for weapons but otherwise left them jumbled together on the deck.

  “Seal the hatch,” the squad leader said. “Gomez, get into the system and see what’s going on. If there’s organized resistance on this ship, I want to know where they are and how many people we’re talking about.”

  One Twenty-Four was about to follow the marine and see what he did, but Tanaka held out a hand and stopped her.

  “What you did was exceptionally stupid,” he said over a private channel. “You not only put your own life at risk, you endangered every single member of this squad because you’re not trained to be here. Give me your weapons.”

  “No,” One Twenty-Four said flatly. “I’ve used them to defend myself and the marines. I might not be one of you, but I’ll do what you tell me to. Other than disarming myself.”

  The two of them stood there, staring at one another for several seconds, before the squad leader used that word again and turned away.

  One Twenty-Four was more confident than ever that it was a curse word. The idea thrilled her a little bit. She wanted to learn more. To learn them all, no matter the language.

  “Sergeant, we’ve got a problem,” Gomez said, half turned away from the console that he was now sitting at. “It looks like they’ve replaced the computer system with something made in the Singularity. Somebody was able to lock the controls, and I can’t access anything.”

  31

  To Grace’s relief, Na and her marines were the next people through the hatch. She’d been on pins and needles waiting for the Singularity forces to counterattack, but none had come. Whether that actually meant there were none still active aboard the ship or not, she didn’t know.

  “You can’t believe how glad I am to see you,” she told Na once the woman had signaled through her implants that the marines had arrived and Grace had opened the hatch. “That guy over there against the bulkhead is the captain. The ones near him are his senior officers. Secure everyone. I don’t suppose you brought my armor and weapons, did you?”

  Na gestured for one of the marines to lay a large bag on the conference table. “What kind of adjutant would I be if I just let my
commanding officer wander around the battlefield naked?”

  The woman turned and looked at the two marines glowering at Grace from where they sat in the other corner. “Though it seems you didn’t do too badly. Medic, work on the man with the leg wound. Stabilize him, and we’ll post a guard to keep watch over them.”

  “We don’t have time to deal with them right now,” Anders said. “Sew the one guy up and then stun them all.”

  The marines quickly did as instructed, stunning all the prisoners except for the one being worked on by the medic. As soon as he was taken care of, he joined the rest in enforced slumber.

  “What’s the status on the assault?” Grace asked as she finished stripping down, changing into her skinsuit, and donning her armor.

  “Second squad has already seized the bridge,” Na said. “Tanaka said that the computer system is locked down tight. Gomez believes that the Imperial computer has been replaced by a Singularity model. He’s unable to access the system.”

  The noncommissioned officer gestured toward the aft section of the ship. “Third squad is in engineering now. Some of the crew there are still awake, and there are marines in unpowered armor holding part of the compartment. It’s going to be a tough fight, but I think we’ve got the edge, particularly if we reinforce them quickly.”

  Grace shook her head. “If we have conscious marines, our first stop has to be the ship’s armory. If there’s powered armor in there, we’ve got to keep them from getting their hands on it. If it’s in good shape, perhaps we can even use it ourselves.”

  Na nodded. “Second squad ran into someone in powered armor wielding a plasma rifle. They took them out with grenades before they fired, so that turned out well enough, but it could’ve been ugly.”

  The other woman made a face. “I know you don’t need this kind of complication right now, but Andrea ignored my instructions to return to her quarters. Sergeant Tanaka didn’t realize that she was on board his pod before he launched. She’s on the bridge with him now.”

  Grace pinched the bridge of her nose and took three deep breaths only to let them out slowly. Yelling wasn’t going to help. She’d deal with that complication later.

  “Is she okay?”

  Na nodded. “Tanaka said that she was involved in the combat despite his orders to stay behind him. She was knocked around a bit, but her armor held. Until I review the vid feeds from the squads’ helmets, I won’t be certain exactly what happened, but he says that she’s in good shape.

  “He also says that she’s stubborn. He ordered her to hand over her weapons, and she refused. Speaking for myself, I think that kind of backbone from a girl with her background is promising.”

  “Isn’t that the way of the world?” Anders asked. “You want your kids to have a spine right up until the moment they defy you. Now, if we’re finished discussing parenting challenges, I need to get to the bridge.

  “You can take Kyle with you to engineering. That way, we’ll have an officer in each place, and we can try to get this ship under our control. If they end up calling for help, we might have incoming forces from the orbital.”

  Kayden shook his head. “It’s a commercial operation. They won’t have heavy security, and the orbital isn’t equipped to fire on ships.

  “At most, they might’ve noticed your boarding pods and begun calling ships passing through the system for help, though even that’s not likely. Control doesn’t closely monitor ships that are already parked. I learned that as part of my smuggling operations.”

  Grace shook her head, amused. “Sergeant Na, dispatch a fire team with Captain Anders and get him to the bridge. See that Second Squad sends a fire team to meet you.

  “Kayden, you’re with me. Stick toward the back and let us go around corners first. Everyone move out.”

  Moments later, they were all on their way. Grace fell into her usual position inside the squad.

  There were a lot of unconscious people scattered throughout the corridor. The antiboarding weapons had done a good job. Too bad they hadn’t been entirely effective.

  They reached the armory inside marine country several minutes later and surprised a squad-sized group of Singularity marines trying to get some powered armor online.

  Sadly for them, their armorer had locked everything down nice and tight. After all, you wouldn’t want just anyone wandering around the ship in something like that without supervision or orders, right?

  The exchange of fire was short and brutal. None of these marines were armored, so they’d missed a bet trying to get into the powered gear rather than armoring up when they could—a fatal mistake that they didn’t live long enough to regret.

  Grace took a moment to look around the armory and noted that it was an eclectic mix of Imperial and Singularity equipment. The new owners hadn’t gotten rid of any of the Imperial weapons and armor, but they’d brought Singularity weapons and armor to stock it with. That meant that the gear was piled high in places.

  There was one rack for powered armor that was empty. That must’ve belonged to whoever had been fighting Second Squad. She noted that the rack was grouped with the Singularity armor.

  She wondered if she’d be able to unlock the Imperial armor. If she could, that would end this fight quickly. It was worth a try.

  Grace set half the marines to guarding the corridor outside the armory while she attempted to bring one of the Imperial sets of powered armor online. Whoever had stored it—almost certainly the original armorer—had engaged the lockouts, which would’ve prevented the Singularity forces from being able to use any of the systems, but she had the codes. One of the perks of being a platoon leader.

  It only took a few seconds for the armor to come to life at her order. Whoever had been maintaining it had done an excellent job. All systems were green. She wasted no time stripping off the mercenary armor and tossing it into the corner of the armory. This was no time to be neat.

  As soon as she slid inside the powered armor and closed it up, the HUD came to life. She’d chosen a suit that looked to be about her size, and even though it wasn’t fitted for her, it would do.

  It would do damned well.

  Grace detached herself from the rack, grabbed one of the large flechette rifles, and began loading herself up with ammunition and grenades. As soon as she was ready, she took up a position in the corridor and ordered the rest of the squad to armor up.

  She used her codes to remotely activate each set of armor they chose and was pleased to note that all were operational. If the armorer was still alive, she’d be buying him beer for the rest of his life.

  Grace used her armor’s com system to connect with First Squad to get a status. They had the Singularity engineers and marines pinned down in one corner of the large compartment. On the plus side, the enemy wasn’t close to the fusion plants. On the negative side, they were far too near to the flip drive for her comfort.

  Her people were well trained, and everyone was ready to go in less than five minutes. She detached one fire team to hold the armory under Na’s supervision and led the remaining fire team to engineering.

  She met up with Sergeant Emily Kurtz just outside the main hatch. Her people were inside and keeping the enemy pinned down.

  “What’s your status?” Grace asked over a private channel.

  “They’ve got roughly two squads’ worth of marines,” the squad leader said. “They outnumber us, but we’ve got them jammed back into the area around the flip drive. That’s a real concern, because the engineers might be working to sabotage it. If we want to take this ship in operational condition, we can’t let them fry the flip drive.”

  “We’re going to have to hit them hard and fast,” Grace decided. “As soon as they realize that we’ve got powered armor, they’ll know the jig is up. If they’ve got the engineers working on sabotaging the flip drive, they’ll either hurry them up or use their weapons to damage the equipment themselves. We need to make sure they don’t have time to make that happen.

  “I want y
ou to get your people ready to follow us in. My team and I will take out any active threats, but you’re going to have to be ready with stunners to take out anyone working on the equipment.”

  A situation like this was where all the training her platoon had put in paid off in spades. It only took a few seconds to select an appropriate battle plan and send her marines in to engage the enemy. The hatch leading into engineering was big enough to move equipment, so it was more than large enough to handle powered armor.

  Her people went through, immediately racing toward the corner of the room where the defenders were holed up. The enemy was quicker on the uptake than she’d hoped and immediately engaged her people, but they only had flechette rifles. Thankfully, no plasma grenades came arcing out at them.

  The heavy flechettes fired from the large rifles her people carried tore the Singularity marines apart and damaged the equipment behind them. Her people were pros though, so they managed to avoid shooting the flip drive.

  First Squad was right behind them, using stunners to shoot every single engineer they laid eyes on. In less than two minutes, the fight was over, and the enemy was either dead or unconscious.

  With that done, her marines spread out to search engineering for any holdouts. No one would rest easy until they declared the compartment secure.

  Several of the marines in unpowered armor had injuries, but nothing the Singularity marines had possessed was powerful enough to damage her powered armor. The outcome had been inevitable.

  To her untrained eye, the flip drive looked intact. It didn’t seem as if they’d even been messing with it. That was good news.

  Unfortunately, all of the engineering consoles were locked down. Someone—probably down here, since this was where most of the conscious people they’d encountered were—had managed to run the program to deny access to intruders. Without access to the computer, they wouldn’t be able to use any of the ship’s major systems.