The Vanguard Emerges (Maraukian War Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  Young replied for him. “Sure looks that way. Seems Captain Ergo was pulled from retirement a couple of days ago.”

  “Faster than you can then.” He tagged the coordinates and they shot off, hoping now they were reloaded they had a chance to help stem the flood.

  Chapter 40

  SLS Moby

  Indalia Orbit, Otarvi System

  8/3555

  Chen’s eyes never left the plot that showed the mergers and the citadel that they had created.

  There was weapons fire all over the city, plowing into the Maraukians.

  Mono-wire cut the Maraukians as they rushed through the trenches, looking like a river breaking its banks and forming a new stream.

  The surrounding hills around Edani showed the gray apes rushing the city and the kinetic strikes from above.

  The area was large and thousands of the Maraukians had died under the Moby’s fire.

  It was enough to slow but not stop the Maraukians.

  Chen couldn’t move to a better position to see the area better. It would be fifteen minutes until the planet rotated enough before the Moby was able to get a clear line of sight down. Then they would be able to find out what the situation was like in the hills, from how many of the Maraukians were on the way and where they were coming from.

  Chen wanted to punch something. His first thoughts were about Hesra, who had denied him to get supplies. When he had gone to solve the issue himself, he was called a mutineer. The space legion hadn’t done anything but that was because they had their own problems supporting the rest of the forces on the ground.

  Chen’s attention moved to the stadium where the legionnaires were holding out and the last arrival civilians were waiting to get evacuated.

  With a thought, his NIAI showed him the capacity of the freighter shuttles and the number of people on the ground.

  There was no way that they would be able to get out of the stadium with everyone.

  “If only we were able to go down there and help them. What idiot made carriers that aren’t able to go through a planet’s atmosphere?” Chen’s head snapped up as he looked at the Moby.

  The Moby wasn’t a new carrier; she was one of the oldest in the fleet. She had, in fact, been pulled from retirement.

  So wouldn’t that mean…?

  Chen checked the information. He found out that the Moby was indeed able to enter the atmosphere and leave it.

  Chen had a crazy idea and ran it through his NIAI. The idea wasn’t rejected as it started to go through simulations.

  Chen’s interest was captured as he input more information. As a merger, it wasn’t hard for him to complete the information input in mere seconds.

  After just a few minutes, he sent out a message to Taelyon, Travestki, and Carla.

  “Captain?” Carla asked, looking at the plan that he had sent out to them.

  “Helm, guns, can we do it?” Chen said, using the nicknames of Taelyon and Travestki’s stations.

  “Going to be rough. The Moby hasn’t gone through re-entry in a long time.” Taelyon adjusted her controls and opened up a channel to engineering, posing questions to the team there.

  “Well, my people have had a lot of target practice with their mag clamps recently. I say we’re ready,” Travestki said.

  Carla looked as if she was about to burst from all of the issues that she was hearing these three talk about so casually.

  “Helm, plot us a route. Travestki, get your people ready. Liang, connect me with Mark,” Chen said.

  Carla seemed to push away her problems with the plan and just waited to see what would happen.

  “Go.” Mark’s voice was electronic sounding, showing that he was merged currently.

  Chen merged to keep up with his speed. He simply uploaded the direct file to the shared net.

  “Once we became mergers, we already died. What use is there shooting rounds to keep the dead alive when the living need your help?” Mark said.

  Chen had heard some of the mergers talk of how they were “dead.” He hadn’t understood it, but now he did. Other than fighting, the mergers weren’t able to do anything else.

  They couldn’t have children or lead a normal life. Once they became a merger, they became a weapon, trained in war and reborn to only keep others alive and kill Maraukians.

  Chen knew that there was nothing that he could say. He acknowledged Mark’s words and looked to the rest of the crew. “Liang, pass this on to the supply shuttle down there. Let’s hope that they’re as crazy as we are.”

  Chapter 41

  Supply Shuttle Vasalof

  Indalia, Otarvi System

  8/3555

  Liang’s comm came through as Captain Ergo drew nearer the city and the stadium. He punched the line open and Dansk heard every word.

  “Moby to Vasalof. We are entering the planets atmosphere. We will be coming in hot, Captain. Attempting a flyby and mag-lock hook-up, will send in timing and specifics as we calculate them.”

  Ergo knew the maneuver. He’d had it done in space before he retired as his ship’s propulsion failed. But to attempt it inside the atmosphere? Captain Chen, it seemed, was the craziest son of a bitch alive. Then again, Ergo had glanced to the Maraukian horde surrounding the stadium on his way in. Maybe Chen wasn’t the only crazy bastard around. He laughed and Dansk looked his way with a strange smile.

  “Is that even possible?” she asked.

  Ergo thought for a second about telling her the truth, that it could result in both ships colliding or the top of the shuttle being ripped off. But he didn’t. Instead, he forced a smile, and said across the comms to Liang, “Copy that, Liang. Will co-ordinate the landing and manouvre with you on your re-entry.”

  Ergo pushed the privacy button and took it off air around his cabin. Dansk concentrated on her own controls and job while he spoke out of her earshot.

  “Captain Chen, you really believe this is possible?” It was his turn to ask the questions.

  “Chen here, Ergo. I’ll be honest—the risks are high. We get one shot to get you off the ground and out from that horde. If the mag-locks miss and our timing is out, you’re overrun. If the mag-locks connect and we pull you apart, it’s game over too.”

  “We can take the easy option, leave the legionnaires behind, save the citizens?”

  Ergo almost felt the anger surging off the Moby’s captain. “I trust my calculations. I trust my people. Now will you trust me?”

  Ergo swallowed. Why would a man he didn’t know risk his ship and crew without assessing all the risks?

  “Let’s do it. I’ll trust you.”

  Chapter 42

  SLS Moby

  Indalia, Otarvi System

  8/3555

  As Chen and Liang had been talking over comms to the shuttle pilot and his second, Taelyon had taken control of the Moby. They were now angled down toward the planet for atmospheric entry, but to reach the stadium and the shuttle in time would take great co-ordination and timing. At the moment, they were within safe peramaters, but Chen knew they’d push those boundaries if they had too, to get the job done.

  “Seems that the rest of the fleet is blowing up our communications, trying to contact us,” Liang said sarcastically.

  “Let them,” Chen replied. He didn’t have time for Hesra or those who were with him. He felt that there was something wrong with how Hesra was handling things—he wasn’t getting materials because the supply ships needed to check on the regulations for giving the Tenth materials? If he didn’t sense something wrong with this, then he would be a blind fool.

  Chen pressed a button on his chair, broadcasting to all hands. “This is the captain speaking. Prepare to enter the atmosphere. Everyone brace yourselves and secure all loose items!”

  With that, Taelyon adjusted her plot as the Moby started to angle its way down.

  Its engines didn’t need to push that much, rather let it fall into the gravity well.

  The ship started to shake a bit as it entered the atmo
sphere.

  Belts were clicked together as they shot down toward the planet. The ship rattled at an increased pace, the whole ship shuddering as the atmosphere fought against it.

  Metal on metal could be heard bouncing around like a diving board.

  The pressure of gravity increased on the crew as they were forced back into their seats through acceleration.

  “Coming in a little hot. Adjusting trajectory. Time to target, four minutes.” Taelyon was calm as her hands moved over the control console.

  The Moby, a ship that had been left as a memory in the middle of Roma, once again entered a planet’s atmosphere, her hull covered in flames as she tore over the sky of Indalia. Maraukian and legionnaire looked up as they saw that ancient carrier carving its way through the sky.

  “Nose thrust!” Taelyon’s voice shook with the ship’s violent movements.

  The pressure went from forcing them back into their seats to trying to push them out of it. They were caught up by their seat belts as the thrusters on the nose of the Moby fired.

  Thrusters across the ship were working in concert to stop the ship from crashing into the ground below and level off as they shot across the surface of the planet.

  The pressure died off as they were now cruising through the planet’s atmosphere.

  “One failure in the mag clamps. The others are looking good. Target mag clamp is at one hundred percent,” Travestki yelled. “Charles is on standby.”

  “We are stable and flying in atmo,” Taelyon reported as she pored over the information.

  “Sensors are all good. Getting solid readings on the planet below. Passing them to forces on the ground,” Francis said.

  “Comm relays are working fine,” Liang added.

  “Engineering is looking good, too. Some heat damage, but we’re operational.” Carla checked her screens.

  “Let’s see if we can’t hook ourselves a big one,” Chen said.

  Chapter 43

  Edani

  Indalia, Otarvi System

  8/3555

  Rounds hit the bunker that Mark was in.

  He had moved to the second layered defenses within the city. The series of killing corridors ran straight into a bunker at the end before they split apart once again, following the grid system of the city, and drawing them into the center of the city.

  With each layer of defenses Mark moved through, he would get closer to his other mergers and the Maraukians would be forced into more compressed killing corridors.

  The outer corridors were the strongest and they would be the hardest to defeat as one moved farther in. The mergers didn’t have the time to make the defenses all as strong; most of them were strong at key areas, but weak in others. This was just due to the lack of time. Even if the Maraukians roamed around the city wildly, to get to the mergers they would need to get into the trench system once again.

  Mark slapped his arm to his leg. The next ammunition block went into the mag well as he raised his fist and fired with his right, dropping his left gun to the ammunition block and reloading it.

  With his anti-grav systems, Sarah pulled off more ammunition blocks from the stockpile in the corner and slapped it to Mark’s armor.

  The Maraukians were still far down the killing corridor, but it wouldn’t be long until they pushed forward.

  The corridor was filled with mono-wire and had weapons at certain distances to shoot down the corridor.

  Explosives had been held off. If they were to blow up the Maraukians, then they would probably destabilize their defenses.

  Still the lightning missiles were firing off into the sky to get the Maraukians that were coming down the mountains.

  Mark ducked down as a blast of plasma hit his bunker and struck his armor. His armor melted slightly, but it was made of carbon hendral and the heat of the plasma was quickly being converted into energy for Mark.

  He let out a frustrated noise as he looked at the map display in his eye.

  There were mergers on roofs of some still-standing towers; from there, they provided support and rained down hell on the Maraukians.

  They were moving to the lower defenses to support the other Maraukians. Now they were locked in the fight; they didn’t need to know much more than point in the right direction and hold down on that trigger, reload, and repeat.

  Mark saw the Maraukians that were spilling down the mountain passes behind Edani. A few of them turned toward Edani, forcing the mergers to divert some of their forces to make sure that they didn’t get to the mergers’ rear.

  The majority of the Maraukians seemed to have gotten the scent of the legionnaires and the civilians who were escaping. They dropped down to all limbs and took off at a speed that was only comparable to a shuttle.

  Once they got up to speed, then it wouldn’t take long for them to catch up with the legionnaires and the civilians.

  To Mark, it was a sign that he had failed in his duty.

  There was nothing that he could do or any way he could have predicted that this would have happened. It didn’t matter—it was on his watch. The legionnaires had left a bunch of their ammunition and their supplies with the mergers, but all it seemed to do was make it harder for them to defend those with them.

  The diverted artillery and lightning missiles were weakening the Maraukians and buying those pulling back the time that they needed.

  Mark rolled over and stood. His M20s continued to blast at the Maraukians without pause. As he guided his fire across the ranks of the Maraukians, he was able to slow them down considerably. The Maraukians at the fore died, but those behind surged forward, using them as nothing more than bullet magnets, only to die, and the ones behind them moved forward.

  “Just fucking die!” Mark yelled. With no human emotions or fear of death, the Maraukians just advanced—always advanced.

  One of the weapons systems was activated. It started to spit out rounds into the Maraukians’ lower bodies, firing back and forth across the Maraukians.

  A second weapon system was activated as Mark was able to hold them off for some time.

  He ducked, reloading and rushing to another position. As soon as he wasn’t firing, the Maraukians would have the time to advance and the ones behind the leaders could get off a few shots. A few shots from some thirty Maraukians was no small amount.

  Mark stood once again and fired at the Maraukians. Around him, the bunker was being hit by coil gun rounds, plasma and even rockets.

  Mark stayed steady even as the rounds sparked off his armor.

  A plasma round, moving too fast for Mark to react, made it through his window and hit him in the leg, right in the knee joint. Mark gritted his teeth and then turned off the nerves in his leg.

  The nanites were already working to reduce the heat that was starting to spread through Mark’s body and boil him alive.

  The damage was being repaired but Mark was left hobbling.

  Mark never stopped firing, never stopped shooting at them.

  He didn’t even feel the pain as he calmly looked for new targets and brought them down in a hail of silver tracers.

  One moment, they were charging; the next, they had blue holes in them and dropped.

  The beasts that had struck such fear into him collapsed to the ground, nothing more than corpses.

  The first weapons emplacement was reached and broken by the Maraukians as they had broken through the mono-wires that were in the corridor.

  Mark elbowed a control panel to his side.

  Spring-loaded wires jumped up into position, cutting through Maraukians and dropping others that couldn’t stop themselves.

  “Mark, it looks like there are more than we thought. It looks like they joined up with other Maraukian assault barges,” Sarah reported.

  There was nothing Mark could do with this information. “Looks like we’ll be able to take a few more of them with us. What about the legionnaires and the civilians?”

  “They’re holed up in a stadium just three hundred kilometers from us.
It won’t be long until the Maraukians reach them. Even with the artillery and lightning missiles…” She didn’t need to say anything else.

  Mark felt the recoil from his weapons and coldly watched the Maraukians fall down, by mono-wire, hidden weapons systems, or his M20s.

  Chapter 44

  In Transit from Edani to Ducharev

  Indalia, Otarvi System

  8/3555

  Leaving the city behind them had been a hard task between the felled buildings on either side and the debris mountains they had to climb. But there was a clear road out to Ducharev now, and clear meant no enemy in sight. Least for now.

  What bothered Quina were the people they were encountering. Still so many running along with them. Where had their evac been? Why were there still civilians here? It didn’t matter anymore as her duties changed. She needed to get these stragglers off to Ducharev as fast as possible.

  The crying child in Quina’s arms wouldn’t stop no matter what she tried. The legate held on tight and ran alongside her second.

  “Shuttle inbound, ETA two minutes!” Xiao shouted to her, but she could already see and hear that.

  To their left, the senators’ grounds had opened up. Where there was a vast checking system through and into this stadium, her legionnaires had run through it, breaking it apart and giving them a clear path.

  Although the legionnaires could run all the way back to Ducharev, the people they had found were on their last legs and the legionnaires could only carry so many.

  She’d given the order for them to stop, collecting the people and create a pick-up point for the evacuating ships.

  Comms came in from Centurion Rayin and Valez. They were high up on two of the stadium towers, giving covering fire for most of the sector by the sheer sounds of it.

  Quina reached the open field. It was empty bar the last few dozen men and women and what was left of her contubernium.