Merkiaari Wars Series: Books 1-3
Page 119
He halted his retreat further back from the front line than he wanted, but even so, he was still vulnerable. They all were. At least the enemy would have to expose themselves for longer to hit him back here.
Someone screamed, and Perry flinched. He lowered the volume of his comm. His men were taking casualties. He couldn’t tell who it had been, but it had been on his command circuit. Not one of Barrass’ men then. He tried to see if anyone was down, but most were lying on the deck already to snipe at the enemy.
“Who was hit?” Perry asked over his all units channel. No one replied. “Sound off damn it! Who screamed?”
“It was Lawson, sir,” Barnes said. “She’s dead.”
Damn them! “Copy.”
He considered ordering a charge. Archaic, but it might work. It should get them closer at least, but he would take losses out in the open like that. More losses. Another shout, but this one turned into curses until Barnes told Grady to shut it down. Only wounded, Perry realised relaxing a little. He was taking too long to decide what to do! The longer he hesitated, the more casualties he would take. What would Appleford have done at this point?
He called up the schematic on his HUD and tried to find a way to flank, but there wasn’t one. This was the only way to their objective. What was left? He considered negotiation again. Trying to talk wasn’t what he wanted to do, especially after Lawson, but it might save lives on his side. He sighed. He figured there was nothing to lose by trying.
“Check fire!” Perry ordered and waited a few seconds for his men to comply. He selected a new channel and his voice boomed from external speakers. “This is Captain Perry, Alliance Marine Corps! Lay down your arms and I guarantee safe conduct to my ship and good treatment.”
“Fuck you!” someone yelled back.
“You cannot win. We have your ship outgunned and my men are taking engineering from your friends as we speak. Lay down your arms.”
This time there was silence. No weapon’s fire could be a good sign, but no talking could mean anything. Maybe they were debating the situation or asking for orders. Not likely asking for orders; they weren’t soldiers, just pirate scum. Maybe they were checking on their buddies in engineering.
“How do we know you won’t just kill us?”
Perry’s eyebrows climbed. That had actually sounded promising. “Because I’m a Marine and I say so!”
More silence and then... “We’re coming out!”
Perry quickly ordered his men to hold fire but to be ready for any tricks. He watched with his rifle up and aimed as nine space suited figures stepped into the open with hands empty and raised.
“Barnes, get them checked for weapons and squared away under guard.
“Aye, sir.”
Perry turned his attention to his objective. The bridge. “Captain Voyce, your situation?”
“Still holding. They’re burning through the hatch.”
“Right. We’ve taken care of the final blocking force. I’ll be with you in less than two minutes.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Voyce said trying for calm but Perry could hear the terror barely contained. “We lost contact with engineering.”
“I know. My men are dealing with that right now. Perry out.”
He turned to find Barnes’ had ordered the raiders to strip. Without their suits they would be less likely to get fractious. The sergeant detailed two squads to hold the prisoners under their guns. More than enough to prevent trouble and more to the point it gave them plenty of men to assault the force attacking the bridge. Thinking about the bridge had Perry advancing to check out the elevator controls. If he’d been them, he would have locked the elevator controls down. He was hoping the raiders hadn’t done so. They’d left a blocking force to perform the same task, so there was a good chance the elevator was still operational.
He jabbed a button and the elevator doors opened. His shoulders sagged in relief. He hadn’t looked forward to climbing the shaft in a suit with the enemy a single button press away from sending the car down to scrape him and his men off the walls. He would have ordered the attempt and been first up, but he was glad it hadn’t come to that.
“Okay, ten men with me into the—” Perry began but Barnes interrupted.
“Recon first, sir. I’m sure you meant me and ten men to recon the situation, didn’t you, sir?”
Perry flushed. “Well, of course. I thought that was a given.”
Barnes didn’t laugh and he had the decency to pretend Perry hadn’t nearly made such a basic error. “Very good, sir,” he turned away and ordered ten men to join him at the elevator. “You heard the Captain. Standard snoop and scoot. Sensors up!” Barnes ordered and entered the car. “Grady, Lipton, you two run the remotes. The rest of you, guard them and watch the take. Frag any hostiles you see...”
Perry watched the doors slide shut and listened in as Barnes assigned the men their jobs. Everything sounded calm and professional, like a training exercise almost. Just another snoop and scoot, no big deal... and then the doors opened.
“Down!” Barnes yelled making Perry jump. “Get him, get him, get him!”
Perry could hear the sound of the AAR hammering, muffled by the sergeant’s helmet. He wanted to ask for a report, he wanted to charge up there, but he didn’t even know if his men had exited the elevator. He punched the call button, and jabbed at it again and again. No response.
Someone screamed in agony.
“Okay, buddy, you’ll be okay,” Lipton said to someone. “They can fix it no sweat. Let me look at it… let me look!”
The someone groaned in pain.
Perry had waited long enough. “Barnes, report!”
“A little busy here, Captain. They—” more sounds of firing. “They were bunched up outside the elevator waiting for us. We’re getting a handle on it... Grady! Grenades now!”
Perry waited for the explosions before replying. “Do you have control of the elevator? Can I send up the next group?” There was no answer. The sounds of combat intensified. “Barnes?”
“Aye, sir. I’m sending Bell back to you. He’s walking wounded. Needs a new hand. I could use some more trigger pullers up here. This is what’s known as a target rich environment!”
Sarcasm. Perry sighed in relief. Sarcasm was good. “Right. Send him down. I’ll expedite those reinforcements.” He had every intention of being one of them himself.
“Copy. He’s coming down.”
Perry waited impatiently for the doors to open, the moment they did he ushered a corpsman forward to help Private Bell. Perry winced when he saw the remains of Bell’s right gauntlet and the red dripping mush pushing through holes where knuckle joints had been. He peered into Bell’s helmet and found a white face with glazed eyes looking back at him. His bots had already dosed him for the pain. He was in shock, but as Barnes’ said, only walking wounded. He would be fine.
Perry ordered two squads to remain behind guarding the prisoners, and the rest into the elevator to back up Barnes. They had to split into three groups. Elevators aboard ships were never intended to carry squads of Marines in hard suits. Perry muscled his way in to join the first group despite some disapproving looks from the men. He needed to see, dammit! How could he make decisions without seeing what was happening? The men didn’t care about that. They cared about keeping him out of danger. Bloody babysitters, the lot of them! Well, this baby had a rifle and knew how to use it.
The doors slid aside and revealed the aftermath of battle. Blood splattered walls, burn scars, and crumpled bodies were everywhere he looked, but a quick check revealed none of the dead wore Marine hardsuits. The distinctive white nanocoated Marine armour would have stood out starkly against so much red. It relieved some of his anxiety, but not all. He could hear the sounds of battle somewhere ahead, pulsers firing in long bursts and the heavy thudding of an AAR. An explosion felt through the deck witnessed grenades still being deployed. The battle was far from over.
Perry waved the men forward and exit
ed the car himself so that he could send it back for another load. The doors slid closed and he advanced behind his Marines as they performed the job they knew so well. Perry stepped over mangled bodies lying on blood drenched decks, trying not to slip in the stuff. The damage to the ship wasn’t too bad, he thought, noting the scarring and an occasional hole in the deck. Certainly nothing that would prevent Voyce getting underway. That was a relief. It wasn’t his priority by any means, but it was a consideration. Warrior would have to guard Astron for however long it took her to get gone. Anything that extended that time would not be welcomed by Captain Colgan.
The sounds of combat intensified as Perry finally reached the front line. Barnes and his men were firing almost in a frenzy, trying to keep the hijackers from organising. It was working. Perry had no need to make any changes. He opened fire himself, as did the men with him. A minute or so later the reinforcements he’d left behind joined in, and the enemy were overwhelmed. Barnes’ AAR fell silent before the end, finally out of ammo but it made no difference to the outcome. Twenty or more men and women lay dead, pirate scum yes, but still people. Perry stared at their remains and swallowed. Just meat now. It made him want to puke, seeing them like this, but he had to maintain composure for the men. He swallowed back the bile, and thanked god no more of his Marines lay amidst the carnage. Seeing faces he knew mixed with that... that abomination would have been too much. Blood and other nasty things ran down walls and dripped from the overhead where arteries had sprayed or explosions had thrown it. He cleared his throat of the thickness that seemed wedged there.
“Okay, good job. Barnes, see if you can get that hatch open. There’s a very frightened merchy captain in there waiting for us. I need to check on engineering.”
“Aye, sir.”
Perry turned away. He needed not to see that blood for a minute. He had another thought and turned back briefly. “Send half the men back to help move the prisoners to our shuttles.”
“Aye, aye,” Barnes replied and started detailing off the men.
Perry nodded and stepped away to a cleaner part of the deck. “Assault Two, report status.”
“Engineering intact and secure, sir. We found Astron’s engineers too. They were being held in one of the generator rooms. I think we killed all the hijackers. None surrendered but I have the men running a security sweep in case we missed one.”
“Casualties?”
Barrass sighed. “Six wounded and two dead. I should have used the AAR sooner but—”
“Don’t second guess yourself now, Paul. There will be time enough for that later during debriefing. I need to contact Warrior and find out how things are going out there. Continue your sweep of engineering, and then expand it. Let’s check out the other decks, just in case. Send your wounded and dead back to the shuttles. I’ll get them to Warrior as soon as I can.”
“Yes, sir. Assault Two out.”
Before Perry could contact the ship, he received an update request through Lieutenant Ricks aboard Warrior. He took a deep breath and prepared to explain how he had lost Major Appleford and six good Marines.
* * *
Sign up for the author’s New Releases mailing list to download your FREE starter library.
Click here to get started: http://www.impulsebooks.co.uk
Operation Breakout (Book 4) is out now!
Other titles by this author
http://www.impulsebooks.co.uk
The Devan Chronicles:
The God Decrees
The Power That Binds
The Warrior Within
Dragon Dawn
Destiny’s Pawn*
The Merkiaari Wars:
Hard Duty
What Price Honour
Operation Oracle
Operation Breakout
Incursion!*
Countermeasures*
No Mercy*
The Shifter Legacies:
Way of the Wolf
Wolf’s Revenge
Wolf’s Justice*
Rune Gate Cycle:
Rune Gate
Chosen
* Forthcoming from Impulse Books UK
About The Author
http://www.impulsebooks.co.uk
Mark E. Cooper lives in a small town in the south of England, where he writes most mornings and evenings. His background is in mechanical engineering where he spent over thirty years working for Ford. He loves reading science fiction, epic fantasy, or urban fantasy and particularly likes strong female characters overcoming dire situations and tough obstacles. He can often be found laughing to himself as he listens to an audiobook on his iPod while typing like a fiend.
His hobbies include Shelby Cobras—he built a Dax replica of the famous car with his best friend in the early 90s—reading, and maintaining his blog. He is now the author of over ten titles written in the genres he loves to read.
To keep in contact with Mark:
Mail list (and claim your free starter library.)
@mark_e_cooper
TSU
Blog
Website
Facebook
Copyright
Published individually by Impulse Books UK as separate titles Hard Duty, What Price Honour, and Operation Oracle
This omnibus edition first published by Impulse Books UK October 2013
PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Box design: Dawn Smith (www.darkdawncreations.com)
Copyright © 2013 by Impulse Books UK LTD
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
A CIP Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-905380-58-9
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Impulse Books UK
Acknowledgements
Special thanks go to Dave Milne, Irene Blackburn, and David J for all their help in making this series better than any one person could alone.
Index
Join Mark's email list for new releases
A word on language and pronunciation
Hard Duty: Merkiaari Wars 1
1 ~ Discovery
2 ~ Memories
3 ~ Undercover
4 ~ Sanctuary
5 ~ Survey
6 ~ New Life
7 ~ Abducted
8 ~ Decisions
9 ~ Checkmate
10 ~ Visitors
Part II
11 ~ Discovered
12 ~ The Next Step
13 ~ Predator and Prey
14 ~ The Chase
15 ~ Gifts
16 ~ Contact
17 ~ Answers
18 ~ Doomsday
19 ~ Desperate Measures
20 ~ Hope
Part III
21 ~ Extermination
22 ~ The Wilderness
23 ~ Going Underground
24 ~ The Keep
25 ~ Rescue
26 ~ Blown
27 ~ A Cry for Help
What Price Honour: Merkiaari Wars 2
1 ~ Marine
2 ~ Night Ops
3 ~ Showdown
4 ~ Assassin
5 ~ Undercover
6 ~ Sergeant Checkpoint
7 ~ Retribution
Part II
8 ~ Testing
9 ~ Harsh Measures
10 ~ Breaking Rules
11 ~ Decision Time
12 ~ Ghosts
13 ~ Snakeholme
14 ~ Simulations
15 ~ SimulationsII
16 ~ The City
17 ~ Activation
Part III
18 ~ Sol
19 ~ Red One Alert
&nbs
p; 20 ~ Mobilisation
21 ~ Rendezvous
22 ~ No Quarter
23 ~ Graduation
24 ~ Going To War
25 ~ Resistance
26 ~ The Markan'deya
27 ~ Trouble at Masaru
28 ~ Sacrifice
29 ~ Charlie Epsilon
30 ~ Aftermath
31 ~ Epilogue
Operation Oracle: Merkiaari Wars 3
1 ~ Miles To Go
2 ~ Masks
3 ~ Another Point of View
4 ~ Promises To Keep
5 ~ An Offer
6 ~ The Blind Hunter
7 ~ Electronic Dreams
Part II
8 ~ Snakeholme
9 ~ Centrum
10 ~ Possibilities
11 ~ A Promise Kept
12 ~ Honour of the Regiment
13 ~ Operation Oracle
Part III
14 ~ Lost World
15 ~ Buried Treasure
16 ~ The Prize
17 ~ Castaways
18 ~ Preparations
19 ~ Preparations II
20 ~ Dagger Thrust
21 ~ Call to Arms
22 ~ Hegemon
23 ~ Epilogue
Extras ~ Sneak Preview
Other titles by this author
About The Author
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Index