by Ryk Brown
Jessica continued to scan the area, using her tactical visor to help detect targets. There were plenty of them, all clustered in the marine barracks at the other end of the gunship yard. For the moment, they were not a threat but they soon would be. Jessica quickly returned to the task at hand. The Alliance Marines were the responsibility of Alpha and Delta teams, not hers.
She glanced over her shoulder, noting that the rest of the passengers were out of the SAR shuttle and ready to move. She then glanced at the time display on her tactical visor. The local time was zero five forty-six thirty.
By the time the first few Alliance Marines exited their barracks onto the porch which opened into the north end of the gunship yard, Commander Kellen and Alpha team were already in position. Tucked tightly against the massive, motorized dollies that the gunships rode on during production and eventual launch, they had a protected, clear line of fire on the unsuspecting marines. To the Ghatazhak’s surprise, the Alliance Marines were better prepared than expected.
The first two marines came out in a low crouch, moving with the confidence and precision that only repetitive training could provide. They exited in pairs; one man low and aiming left, the second one, a step behind the first, not quite as low and aiming right. The first pair moved immediately to the left, staying low enough that the half-wall in front of the barracks left the Ghatazhak little to target.
Within seconds, a half dozen marines had spread out along the half-wall. One marine, obviously an officer, rose slightly to be heard. “You have trespassed on an Alliance installation!” the officer ordered at the top of his lungs. “Drop your weapons and stand down or we will use deadly force!”
Master Sergeant Willem looked at Commander Kellen. “Seriously? Who the hell gives verbal warnings to the enemy before opening fire?”
“Alpha Team, Alpha Actual,” the commander called over his helmet comms. “Stunners only, fire at will.”
“This is your final warn…”
The officer’s words were cut short as a dozen blue stunner beams streaked across the gap between the two forces, one of which struck the officer square in the face. Had he not raised his visor in order to yell out a warning to the enemy, he might not have ended up unconscious at the start of the battle.
The marines, however, were relentless and determined, and their body armor had much to do with that. One after another, the Ghatazhak stunner bolts bounced off the marine’s helmets, visors, and upper body armor. After thirty seconds of stunner barrage, only two marines had fallen; the officer who had shouted the warning and a marine who had stood a little too high while coming out of the barracks and trying to get to the firing line.
“This isn’t working,” Commander Kellen observed.
As the number of marines at the wall doubled, the first group, having realized that their armor was offering them an acceptable level of protection against the invaders, rose and advanced toward the enemy firing positions. Again, in pairs, they advanced, the forward marine holding a blast shield that protected both of them from the midsection down, and the second marine following behind him, firing over the first marine’s head.
Four pairs of marines advanced, firing relentlessly. The lead man of one pair let his shield come off the ground just enough that a stunner shot slipped underneath, striking him in the foot. He did not fall, but the pair did stop their advance.
As more marines reached the wall, more shielded pairs began to advance. A Ghatazhak fell to their energy weapons fire, taking too many simultaneous hits in his abdomen for his body armor to withstand.
“Alpha Blue One is down!” Sergeant Yanna, Alpha Blue squad’s leader reported. “Alpha Blue Two is pulling him back!”
“Alpha Red Leader, Alpha Bravo,” Master Sergeant Willem called as he fired. “Pinch in to the north to cover retreat of Alpha Blue One and Two.”
“Alpha Red Leader, pinching in to the north!” Sergeant Rattan acknowledged.
“Alpha Actual, Delta Actual,” Lieutenant Commander Lazo called. “Marines moving in from between buildings three and four.”
“There’s no gate there,” Commander Kellen replied.
“There is now, sir. We’re taking heavy fire. They’re advancing using shields. These damned stunners are barely slowing them down, Commander.”
“I knew this wasn’t going to fucking work,” Commander Kellen cursed as he tapped his helmet to call up another tactical channel. “Strike Actual, Alpha Actual…”
“Yitzo is down hard!” Corporal Mahado reported. “He’s bleeding out! Alpha Red 3 is down! I’m pulling him…”
“Alpha Red Two is down!” Sergeant Rattan reported. “Alpha Red is ineffective!”
“Fuck this,” Commander Kellen cursed as red plasma bolts slammed into the ground around him and the body of the dolly behind which he was taking cover. “Alpha Actual to Alpha Team. Switch to plasma pulse rifles and shock grenades! Low power! Let’s stop those marines in their tracks!”
“Strike Team, Strike Actual,” General Telles called over comms. “Deadly force is authorized. I repeat, deadly force is authorized.”
Commander Kellen glanced at the time display on the inside of his tactical visor. The local time was zero five forty-eight. It had taken only three minutes for him to decrease his force by two men, possibly four. Stunners had been a bad idea.
Captain Roselle ran from the security building toward the back row of gunships, flanked by two Ghatazhak sergeants dressed as Alliance Marines. Surprisingly, no one took a shot at them. Gil wondered if the real marines took them to be friendlies trying to flank the enemy, or if they were just preoccupied with the enemy directly before them, pinning them down with heavy plasma weapons fire. He didn’t care which…as long as they made it to their gunship.
Gil ran under the nose of the third gunship from the end, bending over slightly to keep from hitting his head as he got to the ventral access hatch. He looked around, first spotting those who had arrived on Robert’s SAR shuttle running for their assigned gunships, and then his XO, Martin, along with Martin’s two Ghatazhak in marine armor, running from the launch control tower to their gunship, as well. Behind him, the Ghatazhak strike teams were exchanging weapons fire with the marines pouring out of their barracks. Blue stunner bolts streaked from the Ghatazhak positions toward the marines while red energy bolts flew in the opposite direction, slamming into the ground and the gunship dollies the Ghatazhak were taking cover behind.
Gil reached up and entered the access code for his particular gunship. The hatch opened, and he headed up the ladder. “Cobra Six is in,” he reported over his comm-set. “Let’s go, boys,” he called to his two Ghatazhak escorts as he continued up the ladder.
“What the hell is going on out there?” Charnelle wondered, her attention no longer focused on Aiden’s performance, instead standing on her toes to try to see what was going on outside. “Is that weapons fire?”
“What?” Kenji asked.
“If you’re trying to distract me, it’s working,” Aiden complained.
“Seriously, Aiden, there’s something going…” She stopped suddenly when she saw several soldiers in flat-black body armor, the likes of which she had never seen, go running past the front of their ship, weapons held high. “Who the hell is…”
“Are we being attacked?” Sari wondered, also straining to see the movement on the ground outside.
“Captain!” Ali called over comms. “Sorry to bother you, sir, but there’s a gunfight going on outside, and soldiers in black armor are running around all over the place!”
Aiden looked at Kenji. “Well, who are they?”
“I have no idea, sir, but they’re kind of scary looking.”
“Holy shit!” Ledge exclaimed. “They’re Ghatazhak, Captain!”
“Are you sure?” Aiden asked in disbelief.
“N
o, but they look just like the pictures I’ve seen of them. And Ali’s right…they’re scary as hell!”
“Captain!” Ali interrupted. “There’s two people trying to get into Cobra Three Eight Two!”
“That’s my ship!” Charnelle yelled, turning to leave.
“Char! Wait!” Aiden warned. “If those are Ghatazhak out there…”
“But…”
“Chief! Break out the small arms!” Aiden ordered as he unbuckled his restraints and started climbing out of the pilot’s seat.
“We don’t have any small arms!” Chief Benetti replied. “We don’t get them until after launch, with the rest of our provisions at the ops platform!”
“Seems like I should have known that, doesn’t it,” Aiden admitted.
“What are we going to do?” Charnelle wondered, a bit panicked. She caught a glimpse of the side view screen behind Kenji as he was climbing out of the copilot’s seat. “Who is that?” she exclaimed, pointing at the view screen.
Kenji turned around just in time to see two men climbing up the ladder to the ventral access hatch.
“Oh shit,” Aiden exclaimed. “Close the hatch, Kenji!”
Kenji moved to activate the hatch motor, but it was too late. He looked at Aiden, “It’s too late.”
“Deadly force is authorized. I repeat, deadly force is authorized,” General Telles instructed over comms.
“I knew it,” Jessica muttered as she pulled out her comm-unit.
“Cobra Five is in,” Martin reported over comm-sets.
“Read me the codes,” Robert said.
“One four seven, two two five, eight one eight,” Jessica finished reading the access code, sent to her by Gil on her comm-unit, to Robert as he punched the code into the gunship’s ventral access hatch control pad. There was a metallic click and the red light on the control pad turned green after which the hatch slid open, disappearing into the hull and revealing a dimly lit vertical tunnel above them.
“Cobra One is in,” Jessica reported over comms. She stayed on the ground, her weapon up, scanning left and right as Robert ascended the ladder and opened the inner hatch at the top of the access tunnel.
“I’m in,” Robert’s voice crackled over her comm-set. One last look around and she started up the ladder, pausing to activate the hatch controls from the inside to close the outer hatch behind her.
“Did he just tell them to use deadly force?” Nathan wondered.
“Yes,” Vladimir confirmed.
“Damn it,” Nathan cursed.
“Why is the outer hatch already open?” Vladimir wondered as he ascended the access tunnel. He stopped at the control pad for the inner hatch at the top of the tunnel. “This one is locked,” he said, pulling out his comm-unit. “Which ship was this?”
“Three Eight Three,” Nathan stated.
“Da, da, da.” He typed in the appropriate access code and the inner hatch above him slid open, revealing a pitch black interior. “That is strange,” he said. “The lights are supposed to come on automatically when the hatch is opened.”
“Hey, as long as the thing flies, that’s all I care about,” Nathan said as he closed the outer hatch underneath him. When he noticed that his friend wasn’t moving, he asked, “What are you, afraid of the dark? Get moving.”
Vladimir continued up into the pitch black airlock compartment, and immediately started feeling his way along the bulkhead, looking for the lighting controls.
Nathan climbed up after him, pulling his sidearm and turning on its targeting light. It was a narrow, white beam that did little to illuminate the entire compartment, but it was better than complete darkness.
“The lights don’t work,” Vladimir announced. “Something’s wrong here.”
Nathan panned his targeting light from side to side when suddenly his light flashed across an angry female face charging toward him.
A bloodcurdling battle cry pierced the relative silence inside the gunship as the woman charged forward in the narrow beam of light. Nathan fired his stunner, striking the woman in the chest, causing her to stumble forward into him. He caught the full force of her weight, and was nearly knocked over, but managed to sidestep and roll her off to the side.
Two more battle cries were heard. Nathan spun around, his light flashing across two more attackers, a male and a female, both young, and both of them doing their best to attack Vladimir. In the flash of his beam light, he saw Vladimir toss the female aside, then punch the skinny young male in the face, knocking him over.
Nathan fired upward, sending three blue stunner bolts bouncing off the overhead and deck, headed aft away from the cockpit, which he preferred to keep undamaged. “Stand down! Or I shoot to kill!” he warned.
The compartment fell silent.
“Who are you?” a voice called from the darkness.
Nathan turned to face the bow of the ship, the direction in which the voice had come from.
Vladimir pulled his weapon, as well, and was pointing aft with the targeting light on. “I’ve got aft.”
“Decide!” Nathan ordered.
“Don’t shoot,” the voice begged.
“Step out where I can see you!” Nathan demanded.
Four young men and a young woman stepped out from either side of the hatch, revealing themselves in the dark cockpit on the other side.
“Turn the lights on,” Nathan instructed.
“Move into the back,” Vladimir instructed the man and woman who had attacked him.
“What about her?” the young woman asked.
“She’ll be fine,” Vladimir insisted. “She’s only stunned.”
Nathan watched as the young man wearing the rank insignia of a sergeant leaned over slowly and activated the lighting. The lights flickered to life, giving Nathan a better look at the five people standing in the cockpit, hands held high, scared looks on their faces. “Four strapping young men and you send in the skinny kid and the little girl, first?” Nathan admonished.
Aiden stood in the cockpit, hands held high, the light from the intruder’s weapon shining in his eyes. “Uh, actually, we sent the chief in first. She’s tougher than all of us.”
“Are you the captain of this gunship?” Nathan asked.
“Uh, yeah.”
“What’s your name?”
“Uh, Walsh. Aiden Walsh. Ensign Aiden Walsh.”
Nathan shined his targeting light in the young man’s face. “Since none of you opened fire on us, I’m guessing you don’t have any weapons. Am I right?”
“Uh, yes, sir,” Aiden replied.
“Jesus, Aiden,” Charnelle said. “What did you tell him that for?”
“He’s going to figure it out eventually, Char,” Aiden insisted.
Nathan turned off the targeting light on his stunner, lowering his weapon a bit. “I’m going to do you all a favor, and let you leave.”
“You are?” Kenji said in disbelief.
“Yes, but do yourselves a favor, and run away from all the shooting,” Nathan urged. “You’ll live longer.”
“What about the chief?” Ali asked from the aft compartment.
“She’s not going to wake up for at least an hour, I’m afraid,” Nathan explained. “So you’re going to have to carry her out.”
“But she’s gotta weigh about…” Ali started.
“We’ll take her,” Aiden promised.
Nathan turned back forward. “Good call, kid.”
Aiden stared at Nathan for a moment. “Oh my God,” he finally exclaimed. He looked at Kenji and Charnelle. “That’s… He’s…” he stuttered. He looked back at Nathan.
“Spit it out, kid,” Nathan said.
“You’re Nathan Scott.”
Yanni stumbled nearly every other step
as he and Josh ran to the next gunship in line, energy weapons fire streaking across the yard. The shots were not aimed at them, but those that missed their targets came flying across the compound, some of them ricocheting off the gunships they were attempting to steal.
“This is insane!” Yanni exclaimed as they huddled under the gunship they were to steal.
“Hurry up and get this thing open,” Josh urged, squatting with his gun out, ready to defend them both.
“Why me?” Yanni wondered, not wanting to move from the little cubby he had found in the front edge of the dolly the gunship sat upon.
“Fine. You take the gun and protect us, and I’ll open the hatch,” Josh suggested.
Yanni wanted nothing to do with any weapons. He took the comm-unit out of his pocket, nearly dropping it as an errant energy bolt streaked past him, slamming into the dirt on the other side of the gunship. “Oh my God!” he exclaimed, moving to enter the access codes for their ship. A moment later, the hatch slid open. “I got it! It’s open!”
“Then go!” Josh urged. “Up the ladder! Quick! Before I get my ass shot off out here!”
“Cobra Four is in,” Loki announced over their comm-sets.
Josh looked around quickly, then headed up the ladder after Yanni. “Cobra Three is in,” he reported over his comm-set as he closed the outer hatch under him.
Delta team switched to plasma pulse rifles and opened fire, sending short staccato bursts of red-orange plasma into the line of advancing marines. The deadly plasma bounced off the enemy’s shields at first, but repeated impacts quickly caused the shields to overheat, making them unusable. Once they were too hot to handle they were cast aside, leaving the pairs of marines defenseless as they scrambled to fall back to the safety of the meter-high barrier wall.