*
“How big?” Yamaguchi asked loudly. The crackle grew in his ear followed by a booming explosion. The Major in his arms was nearly weightless. The suit had, thankfully, been smart enough to compensate for the load.
“Fuckin’ big,” Sergeant Hull radioed back through sounds of gunfire. “Quad, anti-armor, this thing’s big, LT.”
“Keep moving, it can’t catch you, blast holes if you have to, Sergeant. Get clear now.” Yamaguchi scanned his display: he was almost out. The dropship was a wreck. Hallways ended in sealed bulkheads with nothing but vacuum on the other side.
More explosions echoed behind him.
“Marines. I’ve got two wounded coming over, we need suits for both,” Yamaguchi called. The Major lolled in his arms with teeth showing white beneath the beginnings of a scraggly beard.
“Lieutenant, what is that?” Captain Grace asked.
Yamaguchi silenced the Navy feed for a moment and keyed up the camera on Sergeant Hull’s suit. The rear camera blinked onto the screen. A mechanical monstrosity ripped through the corridors. Heavy armored arms and legs pulled and ripped as it slammed itself onward.
Shit, he thought, that thing is fast. “Captain, can you punch through the hull?”
Yamaguchi kept moving without waiting for a reply. They dodged around a corner and came through the first point of heavy fighting. The bodies of the Sa’Ami defenders were cast aside with little reverence.
“We can.” Grace paused. “The ship is armored, it might take a few shots.”
His eyes danced on the display. The squads were still scattered, too scattered. If he stopped and tried to regroup the Sa’Ami heavy would hit them. Hard. Most of his platoon was streaming forward near him.
“Second squad, we’re holding the breach. Everyone else to the umbilical and reinforce the Marines,” Yamaguchi ordered. The icons of the suits paused, shifted, and continued towards the exit.
New sounds came across with fresh icons winking on. Red icons. The feeds in his helmet blinked and showed Sa’Ami suits tossing a last ditch effort. He looked down from the display and saw the suit emerge.
The power armor was charred and dark. It raised a blunt boarding driver and tracked onto Bone. The Private never even saw the Sa’Ami step out.
Yamaguchi tossed the Major aside and lunged for the Sa’Ami. The Major landed in a heap behind him and crumbled against the wall.
He powered forward with an animal intensity. The Sa’Ami paused and shifted its head just slightly and tried to pivot the blocky rifle.
Yamaguchi struck him in the chest. The Sa’Ami soldier blasted against the side of the bulkhead. Yamaguchi drove a fist into the neck joint while his other hand ripped the weapon free. The first punch was enough, the neck joint was already cracked. But the Sa’Ami wasn’t alone.
Yamaguchi tucked back and drew his FN rifle. He thrust it around the corner and opened fire. The group inside was caught in a slender maintenance passage with nowhere to go. He didn’t bother looking back in.
“Turtle up! Here they come!” someone called out over the comms.
Yamaguchi ran back and scooped up the Major. “You okay, sir?”
“Leave it to the Army,” Archie growled.
The pair sprinted forward and caught up with Bone. Yamaguchi scanned the display and took in what was happening. The Sa’Ami were pushing through maintenance shafts and trying to cut them off. The fighting was fierce. Icons winked away on his list. “Faster!”
The case clattered behind them as Corporal Shaw kept one hand on the case and the other on his assault shotgun.
“We’re pinned, LT! They’ve got a heavy platform, just came out the side,” Sergeant Hull said.
More icons appeared throughout the ship. The defenders were pushing not to defend, but to delay. Yamaguchi pivoted the display. The heavy strider was moving in and would hit Shaw in under a minute. He jogged the display and highlighted a section of hull.
“Captain, I need a hole, at zone five,” Yamaguchi said. “Sergeant, get ready to head outside.” He turned a corner and saw the Marines in EVA armor waiting. The small squad was sheltered behind boarding shields. It was a very welcome sight.
More Sa’Ami streamed out from a ceiling hatch behind him. The lead Sa’Ami dropped a portable boarding shield and crashed to the floor behind it. The Marines opened fire and helped Yamaguchi with the wounded.
“In ten,” a female voice called from the Malta.
“Sergeant, brace! Everyone get ready to lose atmosphere,” Yamaguchi called out to the platoon. He raised his weapon and snapped off a pair of rounds. The Marines had already torn apart nearly everything that dropped down. The rest of his men were pouring more fire down the hallway.
Behind the line the two wounded were being bundled into the lightweight suits. A slight whistle pierced the room as if a wind was rolling in.
“Umbilical is hit!” a Marine yelled.
Yamaguchi checked his display. Around him nearly all of his squads were in or coming in. He tucked a shoulder against a wall and waited for it.
The Malta fired a round from the mass driver batteries. A green glow erupted from the dropship as the nickel rounds vaporized. A few seconds later another barrage set in and slammed home. Vapor and frost cascaded out of the hole along with featureless debris.
“We’ve got a breach!” Sergeant Hull’s voice was almost frantic.
“Start crossing, people! Hull, get to the pipe and lock on to the top.” Yamaguchi stepped away from the barriers and felt the floor rumble.
The squads surged out of the dropship and into the umbilical. Yamaguchi stood with a hand on the wall and another with his weapon pointed down the hallway. He turned and nodded to the Marines waiting as silent sentinels with knowing eyes scanning the heavier barrels down the hall.
“LT. We’re breaking in one minute,” Captain Grace said.
The icons were behind him. All of his men had surged out of the hull and were either forming a line in the umbilical or scrambling over the scree-debris of the hull.
The Marines folded the shields up and to entered the bright light of the umbilical. Yamaguchi plucked a vector mine from his belt and tuned it to the frontal arc.
The umbilical shook for a moment and he thought it was just his weight. Then he saw it.
The heavy strider was scrambling outside of the hull. It crawled up onto a sheared point of armor and folded out a railgun. A slight orange glow illuminated its back followed by a gout of electric orange fire that shredded into the umbilical.
“We’re blowing it!” an accented voice called out over the comms.
Yamaguchi had enough of a moment to reach up and latch his hand onto the original boarding cable when everything separated from the dropship behind him. Had he waited a second longer he’d be stuck on the dropship.
The Malta began to roll with the umbilical drifting behind spraying out atmosphere and debris. It slung like a slow whip in the zero G. The heavy strider opened up with a rotary cannon. Jets of white gas pulsed around the Sa’Ami strider as the cannon tracked forward and back.
Yamaguchi leaned out and opened fire. His rounds impacted the heavily armored beast doing nothing. He trained his weapon once more and tapped the trigger.
A blast erupted into the strider. Two legs snapped sideways and tumbled into space. The railgun tumbled down and sent a final round parallel with the hull.
Yamaguchi looked at his weapon reverently and then realized the Malta had fired. He felt relieved for a moment until the comms chatter caught up with him.
“Move LT! She’s gonna blow,” Sergeant Hoffman called.
Yamaguchi tossed his weapon aside and turned with one hand locked onto the cable.
The full bulk of the xeno case tumbled through the umbilical like a loose cannon straight for him.
*
The cool sensation of moving air brushed against Abraham’s cheeks. It caught him for a second. He’d become used to the controlled climate of the starship.
The Marines shouted and leveled weapons through the umbilical. Abraham craned his head from side to side and peered inside. Marines, power armor, and two emergency suits were bouncing through the hatch.
Everyone around him was frantic. He wanted to ask someone what to do, he knew they all had things in their heads so they could communicate. One sided conversation was all he caught.
“Abe! Get ready, wounded coming in!” Huron shouted as he stood by the door controls.
Abraham shifted and looked. The tube changed before his eyes as the edges came closer and spiraled. He blinked as the emergency air pack popped open. The apparatus fit over most of his face. Except where his cheeks squeezed out.
The first of the suits came running through and passed by the Marines.
Around him men shouted and yelled. Tension was rising throughout. Abraham felt like he was walking above it, immune to the chatter. He almost smiled as he gently pushed an armored Marine aside and moved into the umbilical.
Further along they were floating, clinging to a line above. Abraham didn’t quite understand why they were floating and not moving until he came out of the ship’s artificial gravity. The Engineers explained it to him, but it didn’t sink in until his legs spun wildly and he smashed into a Marine.
The Marine grappled with Abraham and stopped him from spinning any further. The Marine gaped back as Abraham smiled sheepishly and grasped the cable. He pulled himself forward, hand over hand.
At each person he met he would nod, smile, and say “excuse me,” as he reached around and continued. His goal was a single Marine with two orange and white emergency suits. The Marine was unable to make any forward progress with the suits in his arms.
Abraham stopped his motion and saw nothing but emptiness. It stopped him, a darkness so pure and dense. The cable tightened under his fingers and dug into his joints. The Coriolis force was slinging them outward.
He snapped his head to the Marine. Inside of the suit was a face red with effort and coated in perspiration.
“Take him!” the Marine yelled. The sound was barely audible through the EVA facemask.
Abraham leaned an arm out and wrapped the suit tightly up against him.
He, and the Marine, both paused. Neither seemed exactly sure how to proceed with the suits.
Abraham squeezed the suit and slung it over his shoulder. This didn’t work so he spun himself around and dropped the suit and squeezed it between his legs.
The Marine nodded and did the same. He pulled himself along the line hand over hand. The suit hung limply between the Marine’s legs.
Abraham followed. The suit between his legs squirmed. He snatched glances up along the line and back down to the darkness. A fear grew as he saw himself being sucked out.
The line was cold in his hands. His fingers ached and his joints cracked and bled. The eighty meters he had first sailed through was now laboriously crossed one hand after the next.
What the hell was he doing? This wasn’t something he should have done, it wasn’t even his place to do something like this. He had no idea what he was doing. Everyone around him was coming out and he was going in.
A flash burst out followed by warmth spreading like a spring sun. Shouts and yells called out. The warmth felt strange, he hadn’t even realized his was skin was chilled.
“Move, dammit! We’re closing it up!” Huron shouted.
Abraham gritted his teeth and pulled with one hand over the next. The drop into gravity caught him off guard. He scrambled up, hefted the suit onto his shoulder and sprinted past Huron. He broke through a line of power armor and crashed to the floor.
The airlock hammered shut.
“I’m trying, sir! It won’t release,” Huron yelled.
Abraham assumed Huron was speaking about the umbilical.
A pair of corpsman descended on the suit and broke it open. Inside was a woman with blood streaking down her nostrils. Her eyes rolled up into her skull with nothing but ivory white glaring. Breathing came in spurts. They slapped a patch onto her, pushed her onto a cart, and rushed away.
Abraham stood slowly and looked around. He pulled the mask from his face and drew in a deep breath of warm air. His hands dripped blood, he raised them up and wasn’t sure what to do. Soiling his pants with blood didn’t seem right.
The room was somber. The Marines were tearing down the defenses in silence. The soldiers in power armor stood and faced the hatch, waiting. Huron stood next to the controls staring down at them, as if expecting something.
“Yes, Captain, we’ll get an EVA team out to break it loose.” Huron looked up to the soldiers and shook his head.
Abraham stepped back and made room as they marched out in silence. The Marines stood at attention until the final soldier walked out.
“C’mon, Yoder!” Sergeant Gruber bellowed. “Time to clear this shit.”
Abraham gave a final glance at the soldiers and ran across the room to help the Marines. He paused and looked out the hatch.
Outside the umbilical oscillated. The shimmering wreck of the dropship dimmed into darkness.
*
The Malta pulled away from the glowing hulk of the dropship. A pattern of dim orange icons showed where the dropship was. Wreckage shifted and rolled as chambers let loose atmosphere.
“Keep the overlay on, please, Ms. Lebeau, I’d like to know if any of those pieces are heading our way,” William said. He stood and clasped his hands behind his back. It went well enough, he thought. “Mr. Reed, status please.”
“All systems normal. The blast wasn’t severe enough to cause us any problems.”
William nodded. “Sergeant Gruber, Lieutenant Yamaguchi, to my office please.”
“Uh, sir?” Lebeau looked across the bridge. “The Lieutenant didn’t make it back.”
William took a step and stopped. He looked back to Lebeau. His mouth opened and closed. “Send his Platoon Sergeant then, please.”
Yamaguchi was gone. It took a second for it to set in. There was always that backdrop of loss, he knew it, they all knew it. The mission would carry on. They had a prisoner, and a survivor.
“Uh, Captain?” Lebeau said.
William turned from the edge of the door and looked up at the display. Icons blinked in on the edge of the system. Data tags showed the names of UC ships. The same UC ships that had jumped through earlier.
Damage indicators flared on the ships coming through. Maintenance readouts popped up and disappeared. From a brief glance he could tell the ships coming back were hurt.
“Get Captain Martinez.” William slid back into his chair and keyed up the nav console.
“Yes, sir,” Lebeau said. “The Erebus is broadcasting.”
Broadcasting? William leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “Let’s hear it.”
Lebeau nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Why would they broadcast and not ping us?” Reed asked.
“They must think they don’t have time,” William muttered.
“All UC forces, this is the Erebus. Get clear, rendezvous with the remainder of the fleet at point Delta Charlie. Sa’Ami fleet data to follow. The Fleet is lost.” The voice paused and everything repeated. The tone was sober, mechanical, detached.
“Sir!” Lebeau cried.
Red and orange icons winked into place near the UC ships. More icons appeared. A steady stream began to pop into place. The data tags overwhelmed the grouping.
“Oh my,” Reed said with a cough.
“Get me Martinez.” William traced routes through the nav screen and saw that leaving through the same route as they came was not an option.
“Captain.” Martinez shifted in his seat.
“Captain, I believe you have the command,” William said.
Captain Martinez was the ranking officer, even if missile boats weren’t typically command ships.
“We will go in and stand with the Erebus,” Martinez said.
William furrowed his brow. The orders from the Erebus were otherw
ise. Martinez was definitely in command of the two forlorn ships, but his order was wrong.
“Captain, the Erebus—”
“I know what they said. I estimate if we can assist at the jump point we can all get clear. The show of force will be enough.” Martinez shifted his gaze and focused on a screen next to him.
“I must disagree, Captain, we have our orders.” William felt a pit rising in his stomach. Disobey and leave, even when the Erebus ordered otherwise, or follow and die. He had a prisoner on top of a captive. Information that could prove priceless.
Captain Martinez leaned closer to the camera. The stress was evident in his eyes. An eyelid twitched and his breathing grew quicker. “Captain,” he spat. “We will go in with the Erebus. We make our stand.”
William shook his head. “I will not waste the lives of my crew.” He snapped his eyes to the list of ships that came into system. “Not against those odds. The Erebus is lost.”
The words hung between the two as syllables balanced in space. William knew it. The display showed a fight, already thirty minutes old, just beginning. The Erebus made the blink with Sa’Ami light cruisers chasing. A pair of UC frigates flared away as they withered under the fire. More Sa’Ami cruisers, frigates, and assault ships blinked in.
William knew Martinez was thinking, he hadn’t changed his vector yet. He was still accelerating parallel to the Malta. But what kept him? The old Spanish honor?
“We can blink. It’ll be two systems near K space and we’ll make the rendezvous.”
Martinez stared at something and nodded slowly. He spoke softly, as if grappling the words. “Send me the plot.”
“Lebeau, ship it!” William slapped at the nav console and spun the ship on its axis. The grav drives pushed on the edge of what the compensators could handle.
“I concur, Captain,” Martinez said. He looked at William with a raised chin. “We’ll take the fight to them another time.”
“You can count on it, Captain. I’ll contact you after the blink.” William nodded to Lebeau and the feed dropped.
A single icon peeled away from the main mass and headed in the direction of the Malta. Estimated times of arrival popped up with real time data next to it showing estimated positions. Icons fluttered in two places as the probable positions waited to agree.
Edge of Solace (A Star Too Far) Page 21