by Terry Mixon
According to Na, the Singularity forces had withdrawn from engineering as soon as her people hit their rear lines. They were in the process of reforming to repel her attack, and she knew she couldn’t allow them the time they needed, or there might be none of her people left when this was done.
It was going to be bloody, but they had to break through their defenses fast in order to reduce the number of casualties they were going to suffer. It felt like throwing her friends into the fire—and in a very real sense, it was—but this wasn’t the time for delicate probing.
“Charge!” she ordered as she ran forward.
They fired plasma weapons as they ran, vaporizing sections of the corridor in front of them while a few people laid down a withering hail of flechettes. Neither of those things was quite enough to keep the enemy from returning fire, but it certainly reduced the effectiveness of their response.
Things were going about like she’d expected right up until the moment a plasma grenade bounced at her feet. Without thinking, she kicked it back and turned to dive away. It went off in front of the makeshift barricade and hurled her back down the corridor.
Grace landed hard, spinning and flipping. She skidded to a halt, and her HUD announced that her armor was damaged in numerous places. It was still functional—barely—so she levered herself to her feet and turned to assess what had just happened.
It looked as if she’d managed to get the grenade out of the center of their group, but the forward elements had still suffered. The rear echelon was in the process of pouring through the barricades that the Singularity marines had taken over during their assault on engineering, and the fighting was bloody and brutal.
She tried to run to join the fight, but her right leg failed to function. In fact, she couldn’t feel it at all. A quick check showed that it was injured but that the armor had sealed it up and applied heavy pain medication to numb the wound.
That was what she got for kicking a plasma grenade.
By the time she’d hobbled to the barricades, the remaining marines inside engineering had put in an appearance and added their fire to her people’s, and the fight was over.
The butcher’s bill had been extremely high. Her platoon had started out with forty-one people. They’d lost one of their number with Anne Marie Scott’s death. Now another twenty-eight had joined her in death.
Of the remaining twelve marines, eight of them—including herself—were injured, some of them gravely.
“Uninjured marines, form a perimeter,” Na ordered as she staggered out of engineering. “The rest of you, help me get our injured out of their armor so that the medics can get them to the medical center at once.”
The NCO turned to Grace. “Are we going to have more intruders?”
Grace shook her head and found a comfortable wall to lean against before her leg collapsed. “No. That should be the last of them unless another ship drops in for a visit. My HUD says that Andrea came through uninjured. How bad are you?”
“My back is chewed up pretty good, and at least one flechette got through. The armor slowed it down enough that I’m not dying, but I’m going to have to have my turn getting it pulled out.
“Kyle is dead. He got caught in the crossfire. Kayden is working on the fusion plant now. He had to shut it down, but he thinks he’ll be able to get it back up after he checks it.
“If so, then I suppose we’re going to get away, at least from this system. Then we have to hope that we don’t run into anyone else before we get out of the Singularity.”
That would be about their luck—survive the fight here and then get caught by somebody else before they could get away.
“Let’s hope that he gets the power back online, because Bright Passage isn’t going to be taking us anywhere,” Grace said as she struggled to get her helmet off. “She took a missile, and I’m pretty sure she’s not going to be usable at this point.
“I’d imagine Kayden is glad that the Empire bought it off him, because trying to get insurance to pay for this would be a screaming bitch.”
Andrea came out of engineering at a run. She looked torn about whether to go to Grace or look at Na. After a moment’s indecision, she raced to Grace’s side.
“Where are you hurt? How bad is it?”
“My leg, and I have no idea how bad. I’m leaving the armor on until I get to the medical center because it’s going to keep me from bleeding out.”
The girl looked worried but nodded. “This was the last of them? The fighting is over?”
“For now, at least.” She looked into Andrea’s eyes and smiled. “You really pulled your weight. I’m so proud of you. You’re going to make one hell of a marine when this is all over.”
Personally, Grace was done with the Singularity. It was time to go home.
40
Thankfully, it hadn’t taken Kayden long to restore power to the ship, and six days later, One Twenty-Four stood on the bridge as Gargoyle entered the border system they’d chosen. They’d picked this one because of some of the classified data that she’d helped Corporal Gomez pull out of the computer.
The marine had been severely injured in the fighting but was still able to do his part to get them safely out of the Singularity. Grace and Fei had also been hurt, but to her relief, both had recovered completely.
With her overrides, she’d been able to unlock many—though not all—of the files that Gomez had wanted to see. That had given them a treasure trove of data about the Singularity incursion into Imperial space that had led to the capture of this ship and the destruction of several militia vessels.
More importantly, it had details about which systems inside the Singularity were reinforced and where those reinforcements had come from. That information had led them to this system.
It had also allowed them to strike at all three of the secondary targets that Grace and Captain Anders had mapped out with Kayden Harmon. They had up-to-date records of where ships were going to be that gave them confidence that they could hit those targets and get away cleanly.
In each case, they gave the people in the orbital time to evacuate and blew it up with missiles without even slowing down all that much. It wasn’t as if the targets were going to resist an Imperial heavy cruiser, after all.
This final system was uninhabited and, according to their scanners, unoccupied. If that proved true, they’d make one more flip and be into unaligned space. From there, they’d circle around the fighting that was likely still going on and find another place to cross into the Empire.
One Twenty-Four was worried about Grace, Fei, and the marines. There had been twelve survivors after the boarding action. Four of those injured marines had since died. Of the eight remaining, one still might die.
Grace’s injury had easily been taken care of by some time in the regenerator. The same had been true of Fei’s back injury. Corporal Gomez’s hurts would take longer to mend, but the doctor said that he would eventually make a full recovery.
Injuries and deaths among the crew in engineering had been less onerous, but that didn’t mean that they’d escaped unscathed. Commander Kyle had been hiding behind what he’d likely thought was sufficient cover only to have a heavy flechette punch all the way through it and him.
All of that loss had proven emotionally draining for everyone, including her. She’d taken part in the marine ceremony to remember the fallen, which had been combined with the remembrance for the Fleet personnel that had died and the militia crew as well.
It was a somber affair that had brought her to tears. So many people that she’d known hadn’t survived, and she was still trying to figure out how to deal with that.
Thankfully, today would be the day that they slipped away from her former home. Once they’d done so, the Singularity wouldn’t be able to track them down. Not easily and not in time to intercept them.
By now, she was certain that the Singularity was marshaling what forces it could to hunt for Gargoyle. The commercial orbital near where the battle had taken
place had undoubtedly passed along every bit of information they could, but it would’ve taken time to assemble a force capable of taking on the rogue heavy cruiser.
Bright Passage had proven too damaged to salvage, so they’d dropped it into the gas giant, putting it forever beyond the reach of any human. That also saddened her.
Those thoughts consumed her until they reached the final flip point and the heavy cruiser left the Singularity. She’d forever left her home behind but only after it had rejected her. She was now the enemy of her former people but not yet the friend she wanted to be to the Empire.
Perhaps in time, she’d gain access to the things that her friends took for granted, but she knew that there would be more fighting ahead for her. She’d have to battle to receive recognition as a human being. If she wanted to become an Imperial Marine—which she did—it was going to require intense effort and perseverance.
As soon as the flip was complete and they’d left the Singularity, Fei put a hand on her shoulder and edged her toward the main hatch. “Come, Little One. Let’s leave the rest to their tasks while we look forward to what we need to do next.”
“When will you leave?” One Twenty-Four asked. “I know that you have your career to return to when we get to the Empire. Do we have a month left? Less?”
The woman smiled down at her. “We have much more time than that. I’ve been talking with Grace, and after considering my options, I’ve decided that I’ll be sticking around to help train you.”
One Twenty-Four brightened at the news. “Truly? I’d like that.”
Fei laughed. “You say that now, but by the time I’m finished with you, you’ll be cursing my name.”
“But what about being an Imperial Marine? Are you sure you want to leave something like that behind?”
Fei led her out into the corridor, and they started the walk back to marine country. “I’ll miss some portions of the work, yes, but I think this is a fight worth fighting and that you’re worth fighting for.
“Together, Grace and I are going to make sure that you’re afforded every opportunity that any normal person would have and that you have a chance to become an Imperial Marine.
“You’re going to have a difficult time doing so, but if you’re willing to fight and accept the fact that you’ll be discriminated against every step of the way, you can succeed.
“Things that everyone else takes for granted will be denied to you. Successes that should be earned will turn into failures, because some people will go to great lengths to see that you fail.
“How could I not fight for someone like that? And who knows, perhaps once you’re accepted into the marines, I’ll rejoin. I’m a young woman, after all.”
The thought of that brightened One Twenty-Four’s thoughts. “Then let’s get about it. I’m told that I have a lot of training to catch up on.”
Grace rapped on the hatch and waited. When the hatch slid open, she stepped into the duke’s office.
Much like the briefing room, it was well appointed. The desk was made of the same wood as the conference room table, and the sealed hutches along the walls also matched what was present in that compartment. It was just down the corridor from the briefing room, though they hadn’t known that at the time.
He rose from behind his desk and gestured for her to join him at a pair of chairs at a small table nearby. As soon as she’d sat, he secured a pair of glasses and a bottle of dark-amber liquid from one of the hutches.
“I hope you like single malt, because I think that we both could use a good drink after everything we’ve been through. This is the best I have, which also makes it what we should use to toast your fallen comrades.”
“While I’m not much of a beer person, I won’t turn down a good whiskey.”
And that was true enough. She usually didn’t get into hard liquor, preferring wine, but whiskey would work.
He poured them both two fingers of the amber liquid and took the seat next to her, setting the bottle between them. Without saying a word, he raised his glass in a toast.
Grace tapped the edge of her glass gently against his. “To absent friends.”
They drank, and she marveled at how smooth the alcohol was. Whenever she’d allowed herself to sample one of the various flavors of whiskey, it was never such a pleasant experience. Maybe she was going to have to reevaluate her assessment based on the quality of the booze.
Once they’d settled back into their seats, he gave her a searching look. “How are you doing? After a fight like that and losing so many people, I’m worried about you.”
“It hurts,” she admitted. “To come so far and then be slaughtered at the end guts me. The doctor tells me that we’re almost certainly going to lose Young, so that means we only have seven survivors out of forty-one marines. I lost eighty percent of my people, and there wasn’t a damned thing that I could do about it.”
Fowler nodded. “Even though I command the militia, I’m not a military man. I won’t even pretend to understand how much that hurts. I will say that I can’t imagine how you could have done anything differently, though. Frankly, it’s a miracle that any of you survived. I have difficulty believing that we got away at all.”
Grace sighed and looked away from him. “It’s hard for me to imagine, too. The smart thing for me to do once we get back to the Empire is to talk to a counselor. I’m no longer going to have access to anyone inside the Corps, so I’ll have to find someone on the civilian side who has a clue what I’ve been through.”
“I disagree,” he said firmly. “No matter how they want to play this, you took this injury in service to the Empire, and they’ll damned well let you see someone that has the background to understand who you are and what you’ve been through.
“If they give you any grief at all on this matter, I’ll make it a point to visit the commanding officer on the marine base at DeSantis. I believe I can make him see reason. If not, I can make his life a living hell.”
He sighed and shook his head. “I’ve already spoken with Captain Anders, and he’s set course back for the Empire in a long loop it’s going to take us probably two months to travel. We want to take the most obscure paths that he can find to get there, because your man isn’t going to be able to do anything with either fusion plant.
“With God’s grace, the one we have left will get us where we need to go, but we’re not going to push it. We can’t afford to take that kind of risk. If we run into an enemy warship, they’re going to stomp us.”
“I don’t mind taking it easy for the next couple of months,” she said. “I’ll be happier once we reach the Empire. Now that they’ve had a chance to bring all of the missile batteries online, we should be able to deal with any smaller vessels that consider giving us grief.
“We’ll just hope that we don’t run into anything our size or bigger. Or a swarm of smaller ships. And before you get worried about it, Anders says the chances of us actually encountering a force like that are slim.”
Talking about Anders made her smirk a little. He’d been floored when the duke had knighted him—also as a Knight Commander of the Imperial Order—and then ennobled him as a baron on DeSantis as well. It wasn’t going to keep the man from returning to Fleet to serve, but being Commander Lord Jay Anders, Baron Greenfield would open a hell of a lot of doors.
Once they finished the drink, Fowler offered to pour another, and she accepted. Normally one was her limit, but she felt so tired, and the warmth inside of her weakened her resolve.
“Have you considered what our best option is for protecting Andrea until we have the situation settled, at least initially?” she asked.
“The course we’ve picked is going to take us into the Empire inside the area my militia controls, and we’ll make directly for DeSantis,” he said. “DeSantis is the seat of governmental control for the entire sector, and so my authority extends all the way to the border. No one is going to stop us once we make the crossing.
“Your life is going to be filled with t
urmoil as we get you set up. It’ll take me at least a week to get the lands transferred and make your title an official act. What I did is certainly valid and grants you all of the protections of the peerage, but I’ll be happier once all the T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted.”
She nodded. “And I’d imagine things are going to get worse once I make my official declaration that Andrea is my booty. That’s going to cause a firestorm.”
“It’s something that we can handle. You’re a woman that’s experienced in battle, and this is no different, even if the war is fought with words and political maneuvering. Just understand that your enemies are going to be as skilled with those weapons as you are with powered armor and a flechette rifle. Worse, their attacks will be just as dangerous.
“I’ve got some few skills in those areas myself, and I’ll be able to bring some allies on board to help fight at your side, but this isn’t going to be easy, and it isn’t going to be quick.
“Andrea is twelve now, and it may take until she’s of age to finally win all of the protections and access that we both want for her. Be strong, and remember this is going to be a series of skirmishes. Some we’ll win, and some we’ll lose. As long as we win the war, it’ll all be worth it.”
Grace knew that to be true. She had no idea what the battlefield was going to look like and how she was going to fight on it, but it was going to be unlike anything she’d ever done before. Yet she’d give it the same tenacity that she’d give any other fight. Andrea deserved no less.
“If that’s how long it takes, that’s how long it takes. Na told me that she doesn’t intend to reenlist. She’s going to stay and help train Andrea for what’s coming. Our goal is to teach her everything that we can about the Imperial Marines by the time she’s accepted as a recruit.
“They’re going to be looking for any reason whatsoever to deny her entry or to kick her out if she makes it in, I’m sure of that. Far be it for me to say that the Corps is hidebound, but it is. She’s going to need to already be one of the most skilled people there on day one if she’s going to have a chance.”