Jack activated the shutter controls and the door began closing. It came down slowly and smoothly. The debris from the tac boat came bounding forward, the smallest part coming to a skidding halt a few meters from the defensive trench.
Jack checked the tac boat through his field scanner. It was utterly destroyed. He had no time to dwell on the loss of the boat, its pilot, or the vital supplies it was bringing. The Marines would dwell on it enough. They would take it as a sign of their vulnerability, that defeat was only a matter of time. Jack put them to work.
“Sam,” Jack spoke firmly over the company channel. “Take sixth squad and confirm those Chits are dead. Bevan, take your squad and go and see if you can salvage anything from that wreck. Overwatch post, keep a close eye out for any Chitin activity. There might be more out there.”
10
“Forge, report?” Griff sounded annoyed.
Jack walked to the metal stairway that climbed diagonally across the back wall of the entrance hangar. He climbed slowly.
“This is Forge. The tac boat was attacked by ground fire, Major. It’s been destroyed.”
“I can see it’s been destroyed, Commander. I spent valuable time putting that supply drop together.”
Jack took another step up the stairway. “Sorry, sir,” he replied. It was not as if Jack was at fault for the destruction of the tac boat, but he was going to have to live with the consequences. The supply situation had not improved, and although he was sure some part of the tac boat’s cargo could be salvaged, they would still be running dangerously low on supplies.
“I have a squad out searching for any more Chitin soldiers and I have a squad looking to salvage supplies.” Jack waited for an acknowledgement from Griff. Silence.
“Sir,” Jack began cautiously. “Can you arrange another supply drop? We could really use some entrenching tools and some mounted blast lasers. We only have our personal weapons. No heavy weapons.”
“You will make sure the area is clear of enemy before I send in another supply drop. You’ve cost me one tac boat, Forge. I’m not squandering another. Griff out.”
Jack had known Major Griff for a long time and he had never heard the man speak so angrily. He had been a relaxed officer and had dealt with everything the Chits had thrown at him. Jack was worried to hear him so anxious and angry.
He took another few steps up the stairway. He had a good view across the entrance hangar. The first of the salvage from the wreaked tac boat was being brought in to the entrance hangar by Marines from 7th squad.
Jack received a message from Torent.
“Go ahead, Sam,” Jack said. He watched the Marines from 7th squad open a crate. They started pulling out various pieces of sports equipment. The Marines passed the items around in amused disbelief.
“Just made it to the Chitins’ nest, Jack.” Torent reported. “That Blade made a right mess of the Chits here. Not sure how many there were. They are splattered across the surface now.”
Jack watched as two Marines began an impromptu game of football until the squad leader took the ball and sent them back to their position in the defensive line.
Jack walked down the stairs. He couldn’t believe he had been sent a crate of sports equipment. He went to double-check that it wasn’t a bad joke or a bad dream.
“Sam, search the area. See if there are any other Chits hiding out there.”
“Copy that, Jack. Torent out.”
Jack walked across the entrance hangar. The crate was open and showed the contents. Footballs, baseball bats, a box of tennis balls. Jack picked up one tube of the tennis balls. He opened it and tipped the tube upside down. Jack watched in disbelief as the tennis balls fell out. They dropped to the floor, bouncing and rolling away. Jack threw the tube back toward the open crate.
Jack called a Marine over to him. “Get this rubbish cleared away,” he screamed. The Marines sprang into action and moved the crate aside.
Two Marines from 7th squad were carrying another crate toward the entrance. Jack went to meet them. The two Marines placed it down, turning to face Jack as he came over.
“What is it?” Jack asked. The crate was charred on one side and the lid had split open. Jack looked inside. It was filled with virtual reality headsets.
“There’s not much left, sir,” one of the Marines said.
“These were the only two crates intact,” said the second.
Jack picked out one of the headsets. It was a VR entertainment headset. He hurled it against the wall.
“Move this crate out of the way.” Jack turned on his heel and walked toward the small doorway at the far end of the entrance hangar. He opened a channel to Griff.
“Sports equipment?” Jack nearly screamed. “VR headsets?”
“You are going to be there for a long time, Jack,” Griff snapped back. “I sent supplies appropriate to the deployment and the estimated duration.”
“Virtual reality headsets, Harry?” Jack stepped into the rotating door at the back of the hangar and moved into central complex. He pulled off his helmet. “We need ammunition. We need heavy weapons. Please tell me you sent those too.” Jack walked into the small office serving as his operation center.
“I sent you what I could.”
“I need ration blocks, Harry,” Jack implored. “Can you at least send me some of them?”
Jack looked at the holostage. He tapped the controls and opened it out to its furthest range.
“I haven’t got a ship ready for you yet. Maintenance is trying to get a ship patched up for you now. I’ll make sure you get rations. Until then, stop complaining, Forge, and do your kravin job.”
Jack bit his lip. How could he do his job with a collection of sports and entertainment equipment?
“Copy that, sir,” Jack said. “Forge out.”
Jack dropped into the low chair in the corner of the small office. He checked his medical data. His pulse rate was elevated. No doubt due to his quarrel with Harry Griff. Jack rolled his eyes in disbelief. What was Griff thinking sending such irrelevant supplies? Griff should know they needed weapons and ammo. And rations. Something was getting to Major Griff and it had muddled his thinking. Jack considered contacting Captain Pretorius and reporting the strange set of supplies, but Jack knew that the captain had enough to do without getting involved in Marine supply problems.
Jack stood up and went to the holodesk. The display showed the space around Eros and Brecon out to the limit of sensor range. Then at the edge of the display, Jack saw a flicker of a signal. As Jack tried to focus on the weak signal, he saw another flicker, and then another. Soon the edge of the display was a mass of signals. The signals were soon labeled by the holodesk as the information from all the sensor readings in the fleet fed into his small holodesk. A swarm of Chitin ships was coming.
“Torent. Come in, Sam.” Jack watched the holodesk.
“What is it, Jack?” Torent asked.
“Get back, now. Forget the search. We’ve got incoming. Move, Sam. Move.”
Jack watched the holodesk. The latest data showed hundreds of Hydras and Krakens incoming. They were moving fast and heading straight toward Brecon. He picked up his helmet and pulled it on.
“All hands on deck, Marines. We’ve got Chits incoming. Multiple craft. This is it, Marines. Check your ammo and check your power. Get ready for action.”
Jack marched out of his office toward the rotating airlock to the hangar. The Marines of 1st squad were leaving the lounge and heading back to their positions.
“Looks like we were lucky to have a break, sir,” Stone said to Jack in the narrow corridor leading to the hangar.
“Make the most of it, Will,” Jack said as he and Stone stepped aside for 1st squad to hurry past. “I don’t know when you’ll get another.”
Stone nodded and pulled his helmet on. He saluted, then ran after his squad out into the entrance hangar. Jack walked behind. He saw how vulnerable the position was. A hundred-meter-wide front on one side with only pulse rifles to hol
d back a horde of Chits. It would be a tough fight.
“Take cover, Marines,” Jack said as he walked forward.
Sam Torent and 6th squad came jogging in and took up position in the trench. Jack had fought with 6th squad and knew how fierce they were. They had done more fighting than half the squads of Cobra Company combined. 6th had fought on the front line plenty and Jack knew they would fight to the end. But Jack wanted 6th squad to survive the coming battle. It was fondness for his old squad that prompted him and he knew it, and Jack knew it was poor leadership to play favorites, but Jack had an excuse to pull them off the line: he needed more Marines defending the smaller side entrances.
“Torent, get up here with sixth squad.”
Torent replied and immediately clambered out of the trench. 6th squad came running over the smooth ground of the entrance hangar to Jack. They stopped in front of him, looking to him for orders.
“Sam, I want you to support Taku and defend the side entrances.”
“I think Taku can handle it,” Torent said.
“I know he can handle it, but I want extra cover on those entrances.”
“But the line here is a bit thin, Jack,” Torent said. “Cobra could do with seeing some veterans in the line. Why don’t I take sixth into the middle of the line?”
“Why don’t you shut up,” Jack snapped. “Sixth squad will assist fourth and will hold the side entrances to this facility.”
Jack tapped the panel on his sleeve and called up a holoimage of the facility. The wide opening at one side was lit with dozens of small blips, each representing a Marine. Jack pointed out the small side entrances on the other three sides.
“Make sure you cover these entrances. A team of eight should hold off an army of Chits at those small entrances. Copy?”
“If that is your order, sir.” Torent said.
Jack nodded. “Go,” he said. He watched as 6th squad, his squad, ran off to the rotating airlock that led to the inner complex that would in turn lead them to the side entrances. Then, with 6th squad away, Jack turned his attention to the main entrance.
The newly-dug trench in front of the wide hangar door would provide a vital piece of cover. Jack only wished he’d had time and the proper tools to prepare a more significant defense.
Looking out to the surface of Brecon and the black of space, Jack hoped he could stand and hold this position. If this position failed, the Chits would destroy the planetary defense cannon, and the planet of Eros, rising high in the black sky, would be doomed.
A flight of Blades flashed over the surface of Brecon. They headed directly toward the facility and then climbed at the last minute. It was a showy piece of flying, totally unnecessary, but it filled the Marines with energy. They shouted and cheered as the Blades raced vertically away from Brecon’s surface. It was a brash piece of unnecessary flamboyance, but at least Jack and Cobra Company knew they had the Blades with them. The Fleet Starfighter Corps was in this fight too. Jack knew they were going to need them.
It was going to be a long and tough battle.
11
Sarah Reyes slid back under the tac boat’s forward landing strut with a large hammer in her fist as the pilot stood idly by.
“This is a sophisticated machine,” the pilot said. “I’m not sure a hammer is the right tool.”
“You never worked maintenance, did you?” she said as she lined up her shot. “If it doesn’t work, you haven’t used a big enough hammer.”
Reyes hit the articulated joint hard. The dull thump echoing around the Marine hangar deck. She shouted in between thumps.
“You. Will. Fit.”
The joint moved. Reyes relaxed for a moment and then slid back out from under the tac boat.
“There, try it now.”
The pilot looked over to Reyes. He was leaning against a weapons trolley.
“Now, pilot!” Reyes shouted. “I’ve got friends down there who need this stuff.”
The pilot sauntered over to the boarding ramp of the tac boat.
“I won’t get departure clearance now,” he said.
“What? What do you mean? They need these supplies.”
“There’s a wave of Chits incoming,” the pilot said casually, as if it was a shower of rain and not a massed attack by the deadliest enemy they had ever encountered. He showed Reyes the data feed on his handheld holopad. “See?” he said.
Reyes dropped the hammer on to her tool trolley. She opened a channel to Major Griff.
The call went unanswered. Reyes tried again. Nothing.
“He won’t answer you now,” the pilot said. “Maybe we should get to our shelters.”
“You are not going anywhere, do you hear me?” Reyes fixed the pilot with her big, dark eyes. She wiped her oily hands on a dirty cloth and grabbed her diagnostics pad. “Let’s get this thing ready to fly. The moment we are cleared to depart we are getting these supplies down there.”
The pilot shrugged. “Okay.” He leaned against the trolley stacked with pulse rifle ammunition and grenades, tapping away at his holopad.
“Thanks for lending a hand,” Reyes said sarcastically as she connected the diagnostic pad to the tac boat’s internal processor.
The pilot shrugged. “I fly them, not fix them,” he said without looking up.
Captain Pretorius climbed down from his chair and stepped up to the large holostage in the center of his command deck. The Scorpio had been in more than its fair share of engagements, but now Pretorius began to wonder if this might be his last.
“Bring the laser cannon around to support the port-side battery. Load kinetic shot and put a wall in their face. Fire the port-side battery.”
Pretorius watched the incoming Chitin craft flying toward his barrage of high-energy kinetic shot. The planetary defense cannon at the north pole of Brecon was firing, with every blast destroying a Chitin ship. The wave of Krakens and Hydras flew into the wall of kinetic shot blasted into their path by the Scorpio's massive port-side battery.
The incoming Chits took a beating, but still they came.
The scores of Hydras were each supported by the small, highly maneuverable Krakens. They came on undeterred as Krakens and Hydras were eliminated by the massive cannon and the kinetic hail from the Scorpio.
Then they came within range of the Scorpio’s laser cannon.
“Fire at will,” Pretorius said, watching the Chitin craft come ever closer.
The top-mounted laser cannon fired pulses of laser. They struck their targets, smashing chunks of the Chitins’ hulls away.
“Hold steady,” Pretorius said, his calm and commanding voice filling the command deck officers with confidence.
Pretorius watched as the Chitins came ever closer. At the prime moment, he ordered his drive systems to full. The Scorpio moved away to one side of the wave of Chitins and the Aries came out of its shadow to fire its own devastating volley of kinetic hail and laser blasts.
Pretorius watched the Chitins come on. Half the swarm was destroyed, disabled, or damaged, but the other half was still a sizable and deadly force.
The Blades swept in, their forward-mounted laser blasters slicing through the tight Chitin formation as their flank cannons poured high-energy kinetic hail into the oncoming enemy.
“Why aren’t they returning fire?” Griff said. He was standing at the holostage, his hands gripped the edge of the holostage, knuckles white and eyes wide and red.
Pretorius ignored the question. He hoped they held their fire. The Scorpio had been through a lot. Even though she was a tough old ship, she was not invincible. Pretorius did not want to test her.
But the Scorpio was to be tested. A frenzied mass of plasma arcs whipped away from the Hydras and slammed into the Scorpio. The power fluctuated across the ship. The command deck momentarily plunged into darkness, only the holostage giving light.
Pretorius saw Griff push himself away from the holostage just as the Scorpio lurched under the plasma arc barrage.
“Captain. They will
break through.” Griff walked to the command deck weapons locker. He input his security code and pulled open the door. Inside were racks of pulse pistols. Griff took two. He pointed at a nearby command deck officer and instructed him to distribute the rest.
Griff stepped up to the holostage and slid a pulse pistol across to Pretorius and one to Commander Chou. Griff pulled out his own sidearm from the holster on his hip and checked the magazine and the chamber.
“I’ll tour the ship’s defenses.”
Pretorius picked up the pulse pistol and tucked it in the small of his back. He noted Griff had some of his old confidence about him.
The Scorpio took another hit as more plasma arcs slammed into her composite hull. Then the Krakens veered away and headed down to the surface of Brecon. Pretorius opened a channel to Jack Forge on the surface.
“You’ve got incoming, Commander,” Pretorius said. “They will try to disable the cannon. It’s the only way they can deploy their Leviathans.”
“Yes, sir. I agree, sir,” Jack replied. “The cannons are the only things standing in their way.”
“No, Commander,” Pretorius said, gripping the edge of the holostage as the Scorpio lurched violently again under the Chitin plasma arc assault. “You are the only thing in their way. Good luck, Jack.”
12
Taking up a position on the metal stairway at the rear of the hangar gave Jack a view out across the surface of Brecon and an overview of his ground-level Marines. His pulse rifle was slung across his back. It would be ready for him when he needed it, but Jack’s most potent weapon in this engagement would be the Marines of Cobra Company. He would need to wield them as easily as he did his pulse rifle. And Jack knew that if he was forced into the line, it was because the battle was all but lost. One more pulse rifle could do little to sway the course of the battle, but one good commander could.
The Marines in the trench leaned on the forward rampart, their pulse rifles trained on the ground in front of them. Behind the trench, inside the entrance, were the piles of equipment arranged to provide cover and a second firing position. The Marines on the roof level a hundred meters above provided a third firing position. Underequipped though they were, the Chits could expect a brutal reception.
Forged Under Siege Page 6