by Rod Carstens
Grogen had set the example of how a captain prepares his crew and fights his ship. Temesgen had tried to live up to her example through the months of training that had led to the ship’s first mission. He wouldn’t be sitting in the chair if it hadn’t been for Grogen. She had given him the recommendation that had gotten him the promotion and his first command. He had tried to thank her when he found out it was her recommendation that had tipped the scales in his favor over more senior officers.
"No need for thanks, Temesgen. You earned every word. I watched you grow from a by the book marionette to a true leader during Rift. Your heroism and commitment to duty earned you your command. I only made sure that the board knew the facts. You’re also one of the few officers in the fleet who has seen ship-to-ship combat and lived to use the experience. I wasn’t doing you a favor. With a command comes responsibilities and decisions that you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life. You earned the right to a command; now don't let me or your shipmates on the Capella down. Show them why the Capella was the best ship in the Navy."
He had tried to live up to her words and example. The Pollux had been in dry dock when the Xotoli had attacked Rift. She had survived the attack, and being in the midst of a complete overhaul meant she was the first of the new Rift Class of destroyers. Since the new carrier class ships would be carrying the fighters, there was no longer a need for the hangar deck or the spaces to support them on the Pollux or other destroyers. She had been completely reconfigured.
Her two five-inch scrams were replaced by ten-inch scrams. All the remaining guns on board had been upgraded to five-inches. She was also equipped with six new chain rails for close in defense. Finally, additional torpedo tubes and storage spaces were added to the destroyer. She almost equaled a cruiser in firepower, but was faster and more maneuverable. She was quite a ship. Zula had overseen every detail of the overhaul and had taken her on her shakedown cruise, where he put his crew and the ship through their paces. She was his ship now, and he had trained the crew in the tradition of Captain Grogen. Every sailor on board knew their job and at least one other job. They knew their ship, and they knew their jobs. They were as ready as they could be for this first mission.
The Pollux, as part of Task Force 53, was to orbit around Von Fleet 703 in support of the Marines’ first raid against the Xotoli. Their mission was to provide a picket with the other destroyer, Castor. The two destroyers had laid secure laser communication satellites in orbit around the planet as well as a circle of sensor pickets at the edge of their communications range. Their job was to make sure no Xotoli ships caught the raiding party or Tarawa by surprise. Once the Marines were back on board the Tarawa, the two destroyers were to level the Von Fleet complex with scram fire.
The cruiser Tokyo held the flag of Captain Grogen, the task force commander. The Tokyo still had a complement of fighters, so in addition to the Pollux and the Castor, there was a combat patrol of fighters flying an orbit further out than the two destroyers. The Tarawa was currently the only ship capable of landing an infantry force in the navy. It was vital that both the Tarawa and the Tokyo were protected at all costs.
"CIC to bridge."
"Go CIC," Zula said.
"Sir, we’re beginning to pick up something from our sensor pickets. It’s too far out for their range. I'd have to put them on active scanning to confirm. As planned, we are to keep them dark. I don't want to start active scanning. If there’s someone out there, it would be like turning on a light."
"And you’re asking for what, Lieutenant?" Zula said.
This was a training moment, and he didn’t want to miss the chance to make a point.
"Sir, it’s not my place to ask, but I wondered if you could request the fighters to take a peek over the sensor horizon?"
"Lieutenant, this is no longer training. If you need something, ask me directly. I may or may not grant your request, but I will never chew your ass for doing your job. I think it’s an excellent idea. We need to know what’s out there. Have comm put me through to the Tokyo."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Zula sure hoped it was an over-eager lieutenant and not the Xotoli. They had enough firepower for a good running fight, but with the Marines on the ground, they wouldn’t be able to leave them. They would be pinned against 703 until the Marines had been extracted.
"Sir, I have the Tokyo."
"Very well. Put them through."
"CC 12, this DD 115."
"Go ahead, 115."
Zula recognized Captain Ririsa Grogen's voice over the communications.
"My CIC is reporting an unknown contact just over the sensor horizon. I’m requesting that the fighter combat patrol take a look over the horizon to determine what the contact is."
"Do you have a firm contact?"
"Negative, but my instinct is that this is a good contact and not a false echo."
There was a pause on the other end of the communication. He knew he was asking her to act on very slim evidence.
"Roger, 115. I’ll send the closest patrol out to the picket sensors. We don't need any surprises. Let me know if you have any other indications.”
Zula hoped he was wrong. If the Xotoli were out there, they would be on top of them very soon. He glanced at the mission clock. They were only a few hours into the mission. The Marines had a long way to go before their mission plan had them being extracted. He had a feeling about that contact, even as vague as it was. He could feel those kaks. He would feel much better if he knew for sure what it was. Zula stood and began to pace. The bridge watch had never seen him do that before.
"CIC, bridge."
"Aye, sir."
"The captain is going to send a combat patrol out there to take a look, but I want you keep trying to run that down. Do everything you can without going live."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Zula walked to the forward panel of the bridge and touched it. The display turned to a window view. He stared out at the Pollux stretched out before him, as if he could see far enough to see the Xotoli before the sensors did.
#
Lieutenant "Steiny Man" Steiner banked his fighter into another of the endless turns he had been making as the fighter cover for the raid. He and the rest of his flight crew had been doing figure eights since the Marines had first inserted. He had chosen to transfer to the Navy from the legion, but that didn’t stop him from thinking about the men and women on the ground. They were all former legionnaires; they wore the same mission cascade of tear tattoos on their faces, even if they were now infantry. He had been listening to the communication between Zula Temesgen and Captain Grogen. Steiner had been on the Capella at Rift and he knew Temesgen well. If Temesgen thought there was something out there, then the captain would be sending someone to check it out.
"CC Twelve to Combat Patrol Four"
"This is Four," Steiner said.
"Roger. There has been a possible contact at 45.897 inbound. Unsure if it’s a positive contact or an echo. We need you to alter your patrol course and check it out."
"Roger, Twelve."
"This is Twelve out."
Steiner was flying an old raptor. The new fighters were too large to be carried on the ships in the task force. He was glad he felt comfortable curled up in a ball, floating in the green oxygenated plasma hooked to his ship through the data port behind his ear. He had fought for many years in these ships, and he still loved them. Now he and the other four members of his patrol were doing nothing while the men and women on the ground were up to their ass in aliens. If his old captain needed a quick check over the sensor horizon, then that’s what she was going to get. Steiner flipped his ship and began a new heading that would take them out to the horizon.
"Honey Badger to Steiny Man, where are we going?"
"We just received revised patrol orders. The Pollux is picking up a faint signal out by the picket line and Captain Grogen has ordered us to go take a quick look."
"Roger, Steiny Man. I’m fucking tired of flying
in circles while those Marines have all the fun," Honey Badger said.
"Be careful what you wish for, Honey Badger. Remember you said the same thing on Rift."
"He's right," Steiny Man replied.
"Oh, well. It was good while it lasted. I've been asleep most of the time," Batman quipped.
"The way you fly, Batman, no one could tell anyway," Smallboy retorted.
Steiner chuckled to himself. The other three pilots were old legionnaires like him and would have his back despite how undisciplined they sounded.
"What’s the new heading, Steiny Man?" Ghost chimed in.
"45.897."
The other four ships fell into line behind Steiny Man's ship toward the new heading.
"We'll go dark and see if we can slip over the horizon and let our passive sensors find us some bad guys, " Steiny Man ordered.
They had done so when the radio crackled.
"Flight to any ship in Patrol Four. I repeat, Flight to any ship in Patrol Four."
"This is Combat Patrol Four," Steiner replied.
"Be advised we are now picking up additional sensor readings. The readings are still too faint to analyze."
"Roger, Flight. We’ll get there soon." Addressing his fellow pilots, Steiner said, “You heard the man. Now everyone kick it in the ass! Let’s get out there and see if we have company."
Steiner and the rest of the patrol increased their speed, pushing the ships and themselves to the limit. It would be a short sprint to the horizon, where they could peek around and see if anything was causing the sensor’s ping.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Xotoli Outpost
Exoplanet 1123.567
Von Fleet Planet 703
1st Marine Raider Battalion
Alpha Company
1st Platoon
The children in the cages stared at the armored Marines. The Marines stared back.
"What in God's name are they?" Hu said without taking his eyes off the children. The images of those children would be etched into his memory for the rest of his life from the sheer horror of what the Xotoli had done to them.
The room was filled with medical equipment, drugs, exam tables, and other medical apparatus Hu couldn’t even begin to recognize. A dead girl, about ten years old, lay on an autopsy table. Her half open eyes stared, unseeing, at the ceiling. She had been split open from the top of her ribcage straight down to the middle to her pelvis for examination. The room looked like a surgical suite in some nightmare of a hospital. No one could move at the sight of the grotesquely deformed children. The sight had frozen them in place. Finally, Nani shook herself out of her shock and radioed the lieutenant.
"LT, you need to get down here now. We need a medic, too."
"What’ve you got?"
"LT the fucking kaks have been experimenting on children."
"Shit. On the way."
Hu continued to stare at the children, it was as if all of the horrible dreams he had been having since Rift had come to life and were staring back at him.
The children were all on their feet now, snarling and making clicking sounds at the Marines. Gras and Bien had turned away and were quiet. Hu was transfixed. One thought kept pushing its way through the reality in front of him. It was the one thing that had been in the back of his mind this whole mission. His family was on a Von Fleet planet just like this one. He had two young sisters the same age as some of the things in front of him. If the Xotoli had taken Von Fleet 69, his sisters could be in room just like this one, being experimented on by the fucking Xotoli. And his parents could be in a pile of bodies, just like the ones he’d encountered at his insertion. His emotions changed so quickly he could hardly keep up with the feelings flashing through him. One moment he wanted to run away, the next he wanted to cry, then all he could think of was revenge.
So far, 69 hadn’t been captured, but it could happen any time. A knot of fear began to form in Hu's stomach. He knew that knot wouldn’t go away until the day he was reunited with his family.
He had known they were in danger out there on a mining planet since Rift, but now he had seen a reality that had become seared into his consciousness. It was all he could do to push his family and the danger they were in down, down, down where it would have to stay if he was to continue. He tried to replace it with something else, a determination to finish this war as soon as possible. It was the only way he could live with the images and the memories of his family.
"What’s going on, Sergeant Nani, that you couldn't...."
The lieutenant stopped in mid-sentence when he saw the children. It took him a long moment before he could react.
"Everyone, bookmark this on your combat log. The scientist types will need to see ... uh. Masa, this is Taro. I need your best hackers down here now."
"This is Masa. Roger. On the way."
#
Corpsman Liya Borges had just loaded the first of the wounded on a medical transport when she received the call to report to the control center. Borges had to dodge incoming fire to make it to the door of the center as the hybrids still held the high ground and were firing on anything that moved. She made her way through bodies in the first room. It was a scene of unbelievable carnage. Unarmored hybrids were torn into pieces. Armored hybrid infantry were locked in a last embrace with Marines as they had fought to the death. The floor was slippery with blood. Other medics were working on the wounded Marines and preparing them for transport. Liya moved quickly through the control center into the server room. She saw several marines standing outside of a door. Their body language was very unusual. She stepped through the door. That’s when she saw the children.
"Oh, no...."
She slowly walked toward the children. Liya hinged her helmet back. She could only stare at the deformed half-human, half-she-didn't-know-what children. She stared at them for a long moment. She could feel their pain; it was in their eyes. Pain and fear. They had no idea what had happened to them. Something else was in control of them. She had seen much as a legion medic over the years, but nothing could’ve prepared her for this. It was one thing to see combat wounds, she was trained for that but she was not trained to find children who had become medical experiments. What kind of creature could do such a thing?
"Oh, you poor babies. What have they done to you?" Liya whispered to them.
Liya moved as close as she dared to the cages and knelt down. None of the children showed any recognition of her human face. Instead they lunged and snarled. The children were no longer human. It wasn’t just a physical change; they were something else.
"It's all right, babies. I'm here now," Liya said softly.
"What are the kaks doing, Borges?" Lieutenant Taro asked.
"Give me a minute."
Liya stood and looked around. She walked over to a cabinet filled with drug vials and syringes. She looked at the labels on a number of the vials. Liya recognized none of the names of the drugs. They were all in Xotoli. They had to be using them on the children. Then she found a cabinet filled with all manner of human drugs, many of which were used in the regeneration of human body parts. They were combining human and Xotoli drugs.
"I think they’re trying to change children directly into hybrid fighters instead of growing them from birth. I have no idea what these drugs are. The labels are in Xotoli, but these are the drugs they use on humans when they regenerate someone. That’s the only reason I can think of to mix the two," Borges said.
"Why?" Taro asked.
Liya turned and stared at the children for a long moment. She felt more sadness than she thought possible. "I don't know, LT. I just don't know. Maybe more infantry, but that’s a guess. Whatever they were trying to do, it wasn't working."
"I'm going to need to bounce this one upstairs." Taro said.
He switched his comm to the company command frequency.
"Taro to Regen."
"Lieutenant you need to see this."
Taro switched his video feed so Regen could see it. Liya couldn't hear t
he rest of the conversation. She waited with the sound of the children growing louder. It was a long time before Taro switched back to the platoons frequency.
"It went all the way up to the Major. She wants us to try to get them back to the ship," Taro said.
No one said a word. Finally Nani said.
"If that is what the Major wants then we've got to do it. I'll give it a try."
"Me too." Hu said.
"I'm in." Liya added.
"Okay," Taro said. "Gras and Bien, you two man the door." Taro leaned out of the door and said. "Retig get in here."
Retig came into the room. He was stopped for a moment by what he saw. Then Taro said.
"Hu, Nani, Retig, and Borges will enter the cage and grab one child. We take it out airlock."
Nani, Hu, and Retig secured their 48's to their chests. Borges buttoned up all of her medical supplies as if she were going to make a drop. Gras and Bien carefully approached the cage door.
"When we open it. Grab the closest one to the door. We'll slam it shut," Gras said.
"Sounds like a plan." Nani said.
Liya and Hu just nodded. Liya was watching the children. The closer they got to the cages the more violently they were throwing themselves around. The tall blond girl with the toddler-like face threw herself at the bars, snarling, drool dripping from her mouth. Her eyes were empty except for the rage to kill.
"Now," Taro ordered.
Gras and Bien jerked the cage door open. The girl had just thrown herself against the door and she fell out of the cage onto the floor. Hu, Nani and Liya jumped on the child. Gras and Bien slammed the door shut. Even in armor Liya could not believe the strength of the child. She was literally strong enough to give three Marines in full armor all they could handle.
"Get her arms!" Nani yelled.
"I'm trying goddamn it." Hu replied.
Liya had her the girls back. She tried to mount her thinking the weight of an armored suit would keep her pinned to the floor. Instead she was able to twist out of Liya's grasp and get on top of Nani. All four of the Marines had been holding back trying to control her without injuring her but it was becoming clear that was not working.