Bellator: An Anthology of Warriors of Space & Magic

by A. L Butcher

  “Returning from a five-month tour of the Tandal Empire,” Fitzpatrick said. “They’re scheduled to jump from Tandalaroo to N362, then use a jump point to Narduk.”

  “And if that raider ends up in normal space at the same time as the Queen Sophia, I expect the temptation would be too great to pass up,” LeClair said.

  “How long until we get there?” Rowyn asked.

  “Ten days,” the captain said. “I figure the raider might take as much as twelve days. I know they aren’t faster than we are.”

  Once the ship shifted into hyperspace, there was nothing for Rowyn to do on the bridge, so she shifted her attention to readying her assault troops for action. She ran through possible scenarios with Koskanin and Cosgrove. The lieutenant had exhibited a marked change in attitude and there was no denying his intelligence. She began to believe he had potential.

  The training simulations shifted entirely to armored boardings in hostage situations. Neither she nor Koskanin ever said anything, but she knew he was as frightened as she was. Boarding a strange ship was always risky, but the risks multiplied when civilians were thrown into the equation. The raiders might decide to blow up the passenger ship, or threaten to, while trying to escape.

  LeClair waited until the edge of her safety margin before dropping the Culloden out of hyperspace, deep in the gravity well of the red dwarf at N362. Rowyn was on the bridge. She and her communications team began scanning the system before the static cleared from their screens.

  “Two ships,” Fitzpatrick said. “They’re drifting. It doesn’t appear they’re under power. One is much larger than the other.”

  As the scan data displayed across their screens, it became obvious that the ships were the passenger liner and the raider. The passenger ship dwarfed the pirate vessel.

  “Prepare your men, Major Krasnova,” Captain LeClair said. “ETA with those ships in ninety-two minutes.”

  Rowyn keyed a comm link on her screen. “Koskanin, we have scenario F, ETA in ninety-two minutes. Saddle up.” She bolted off the bridge and down the corridor to the lift that would take her to the level of the armory.

  She emerged from the lift on the armory level stripping out of her uniform. Corporal Jeffries handed her the Kevlar sensor suit as she walked through the armory door and she pulled it on. Stepping into the battle armor, she hooked the sensor suit into the suspension webbing, and then Corporal Jeffries started closing the suit and locking it. Rowyn keyed the armor’s comm and sensor links.

  Koskanin and another soldier walked into the room and inspected her suit, making sure everything was closed up correctly. Two naval armorers helped Jeffries into his suit under Koskanin’s watchful eye, and then the four soldiers walked to the lift that would take them to the bay with the drop ships.

  The plan was to send three squads to the passenger ship under the command of Cosgrove and Koskanin. Rowyn would command Sergeant Wei’s experienced squad in an assault on the raider.

  As they reached the shuttle bay, the ship shook, and Rowyn knew LeClair had deployed the in-system fighters.

  She and Koskanin conducted a final inspection, checking not just the suits but the medical readouts for each soldier. It was important to make sure that the baselines were correct and everyone was fit for combat.

  “We run this just like the drills,” Rowyn addressed her company. “Do your job and trust the soldiers next to you to do their job. No heroes. You know what a hero is, right? A hero is someone who does something so colossally stupid that they’re dead. And rather than tell their next of kin what an idiot they were, we give them a medal.”

  She heard a few chuckles through her comm link. “We have thousands of civilians and maybe a hundred bad guys. So we’re going to have to be careful. Please try not to kill any civilians. I don’t want to deal with all the paperwork, and you don’t want to deal with all the yelling from Captain LeClair. Follow orders, shoot smart, do your job. Any questions?”

  “Major Krasnova?” It was Simmons’s voice. “Is it true that you won the Distinguished Combat Cross on Dansar?”

  Rowyn took a deep breath. “Yes, it’s true. Any more questions? No? Board the ships.”

  Sergeant Wei led his team onto the shuttle. Corporal Simmons was the last to board and stopped, keying a private link to Rowyn. “I’ve been assigned to watch your back, Major. Don’t get too far ahead of me.”

  “Simmons, what does me winning a medal have to do with today’s mission?”

  “I’m just trying to figure out how you did something so colossally stupid as to get dead, and still made it here.”

  Rowin laughed. “Everyone got a medal that day, just for surviving. Let’s make sure we survive today.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Simmons said, “but they don’t give the DCC just for surviving. They give a Valorous Service Award. I know. I have two of them. I was embarrassed to accept them.”

  “It was a lousy situation,” Rowyn said. “Keep your head down, Corporal. I have a feeling we’re walking into one equally lousy.”

  A drop ship was capable of transporting a company of armored infantry and delivering them to multiple combat zones. It could dock with another ship, or if necessary use a magnetic grapple to lock itself to another ship and burn a hole through its outer hull. It could also land on a planet or moon, or drop its passengers through either vacuum or atmosphere from high above the surface.

  The drop ships emerged from the launch bay and each was bracketed by two in-system fighters. As the ship carrying Rowyn’s team closed the gap with the raider, the pirates launched a missile. One of the in-system fighters pulled ahead and loosed a volley of interceptor missiles. As the defensive missiles found their target, a bright red ball of flame boiled into the vacuum and was quickly extinguished.

  The pilots, also encased in battle armor, brought the ship in line with the raider’s main port and locked on. A muffled explosion followed.

  “Airlock blown, Major,” the pilot sent over the command link.

  “Time to move, people,” Rowyn said over the general broadcast channel, then switched to her command link. “Sergeant Wei, you’re in charge. Deploy your men.”

  “First team, to the engine room,” Wei ordered. “Major Rowyn’s team to the bridge. My team, follow me. Heads up, people. Don’t leave any closed doors behind you.”

  “Corporal Dawson, take point,” Rowyn said. “Guang-Chou, drag. Remember your training and walk backward.”

  Her team headed toward the bridge, opening each door they passed and thoroughly searching the room or rooms beyond. The pattern was always the same. Dawson scooted past the door and pointed his weapons at it while Simmons applied an electronic device that unlocked the magnetic door. They crisscrossed into the room, and Rowyn followed them with McIntyre. Guang-Chou stayed at the door, facing back toward the corridor.

  The ship was eerily quiet, the corridors deserted. Fifteen minutes into their exploration, they encountered a man with a boarding gun. Dawson shot him before he could even raise his weapon.

  Rowyn followed the progress of the other two teams on her comm unit. The team assigned to take the engine room encountered little resistance, finding only a single engineer, who immediately surrendered.

  “Engine room secured,” Sergeant Haley reported. “We’re opening all the doors and have taken the drives off line. Power to the bridge and weapons systems are shut down. She’s not going anywhere.”

  “Good work, Haley,” Rowyn replied.

  Wei’s team soon found the cargo hold with the prisoners. “Major Krasnova? We found the kids from Neuesgrünesland.”

  “Are they okay?” Krasnova asked.

  “It appears so,” Wei answered. “The conditions and sanitation aren’t very good, but they don’t appear to have been mistreated. We killed one guard and captured another. Major, there are only ninety-seven kids here. They say some men took three of the girls earlier today.”

  “Acknowledged,” Krasnova replied, then triggered the comm link to her team. “Hea
ds up, people. Wei’s team found the prisoners, but he says three girls were removed earlier today. Be careful who you shoot at.”

  From the cruise ship, Lieutenant Cosgrove reported heavy resistance. The bulk of the raiders were there, using the captured passengers and crew as living shields.

  “The group holding the bridge is trying to negotiate,” Cosgrove told her. “They want us to let them have their ship. They’re saying they’ll start killing the hostages.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Krasnova replied. “Take the engine room and shut off oxygen to the bridge. Let them know that their ship has been taken and disabled. Do you need more manpower?”

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” he replied. “This is a big ship.”

  Rowyn put in a call to Captain LeClair. “Captain, we need additional forces on the passenger ship. We’re encountering heavy resistance and the pirates are threatening to start killing the passengers.”

  “Acknowledged, Major,” LeClair responded. “I can have one hundred armored troops there in an hour.”

  “Thank you,” Rowyn said and signed off.

  A little later, searching through a warren of rooms that appeared to be store rooms, Krasnova’s team was ambushed by three men who fired at them from behind a stack of boxes. Dawson returned fire, while Simmons and Rowyn slid left and right. Flanking their attackers, they opened up with their boarding guns, killing the three pirates.

  After conducting a thorough search of the rooms, they headed back to the corridor.

  “Guang-Chou?” Rowyn asked.

  “No activity, Major,” he answered, sliding back into the corridor, facing back the way they’d come. Dawson and Simmons headed down the way, setting up at the next doorway. Rowyn waited, her attention on the open corridor beyond them.

  Simmons stepped into the open doorway and an object flew past her into the hall.

  “Grenade!” Simmons yelled. She and Dawson dove for the deck in opposite directions, and Guang-Chou also hit the deck. Rowyn stepped back through the doorway into the room they had just vacated.

  There was a soft pop, and Rowyn felt a shiver run through her suit’s systems. Rather than an explosive grenade, the object had emitted an electro-magnetic pulse, intended to disrupt electrical systems. An EMP would short-circuit a battle suit. The suits would recycle, coming back online in less than a minute, but during that time the soldiers inside were helpless.

  Rowyn stepped back into the hallway, seeing three motionless suits of battle armor lying on the deck. Aiming her weapons, she waited for someone to come out of the room ahead. She didn’t have long to wait. A man stepped out, aiming an APEP weapon at her. He was clutching a small blonde girl in a pink dress to his chest.

  Rowyn dove back inside the room behind her, but she was too slow. She felt a blow against the inside of her left elbow, accompanied by a bright flash of light and an explosion.

  Her mind felt foggy and slow. Her suit clamped down on her arm, applying a tourniquet. Needles pierced her skin, injecting pain killers, coagulants and anti-shock drugs. She tried to stand, but her muscles wouldn’t respond. Using her right arm, she managed to push herself into a sitting position.

  A man’s head appeared low in the doorway, cautiously looking into the room. It was her attacker. An evil smile spread across his face and he straightened, stepping into the doorway and raising the APEP weapon. Rowyn fired her boarding gun. Her reactions were very slow, and it discharged five times before she could release the trigger. The man flew backward, disappearing from her sight.

  She scooted forward. Looking out the door, she saw her attacker slumped against the far wall of the corridor. Lying in a pool of blood on the deck between them was the forearm of a suit of battle armor. Koskanin is going to have a problem fixing that, she thought, and started to giggle.

  Someone in a suit of battle armor stepped into the doorway and loomed over her.

  “Major?” she heard Simmons’ voice in her earphones.

  “Simmons? Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay.” Simmons knelt down beside Rowyn. Reaching out, Simmons punched buttons on Rowyn’s suit, bringing up medical readouts on a small screen on her chest. Simmons shouted out on a broadcast channel, “Medivac! Fifth level, immediately!”

  “Dawson and Guang-Chou?” Rowyn asked, struggling to think through the drugs her suit had injected into her. “The little girl?”

  “We’re all okay, thanks to you,” Simmons answered. “Just hang on, Major. We’ll get you out of here.”

  “The suit’s got me. Proceed to your objective, Simmons. If they’re willing to use APEPs on a ship, adjust your tactics. Be careful. Turn your stun guns down to half and hope you don’t hurt any civilians. You won’t do the civvies any good if you buy a farm.”

  “Acknowledged. We’ll take care of it, Major. Just take it easy.”

  Rowyn bit down three times, opening her command channel to Cosgrove and Koskanin. “Sergeant, they’re using APEPs on shipboard. Adjust your tactics.”

  “Acknowledged. You have casualties?”

  “Just one. Damn fool didn’t dodge fast enough.”

  “Watch your back, Major.” Koskanin broke the connection.

  “Simmons, help me stand up.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Major.”

  “Simmons, that’s an order.”

  “Major, I’ve always been kind of lousy at following orders that don’t make any sense. Nighty-night, Major.”

  Simmons leaned forward and punched more buttons on Rowyn’s suit. She felt the bite of another needle and the world went black.

  When Rowyn awoke, she couldn’t figure out where she was. She was in bed, facing a white ceiling. Finally, she realized she was in a hospital. Turning her head to her left, she saw Koskanin sitting in a chair by her bed. She tried to say something, but it felt as though her mouth was glued shut. Only a soft croak came out.

  Koskanin snatched a cup off the table and lifted it to her mouth, pushing the straw between her lips. Cool, wet liquid flooded her mouth. She couldn’t remember anything tasting so good.

  “Is that magic medicine?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

  “Water.”

  “More.”

  He let her drink some more.

  “I guess I’m not dead,” Rowyn said. “I know angels aren’t that ugly.”

  Koskanin chuckled. “That’s what I like about you, Major. Always a kind word for the troops.”

  She gave him a smile. Someone on her other side moved and she turned to see Simmons leaning toward her.

  “Did you capture the objective, Simmons?”

  “Yes, ma’am. We recovered all the kids. Scared, but none of them were hurt.”

  “Thanks. Nice work.” Rowyn paused, trying to remember the scene on the raider ship. “You disobeyed a direct order.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I did,” Simmons said.

  Rowyn managed a soft smile. “Sergeant Koskanin, when you write up her commendation, mention that she’s a bit insubordinate.”

  “I’ll try to find room on the form,” he said with a chuckle. “Sometimes she reminds me of a lieutenant j.g. I once knew.”

  “I think I know who you mean. Maybe we should recommend her for officer training.”

  Simmons gasped and drew back, a horror-filled expression on her face. “You wouldn’t!”

  “Yeah, that’s the way to get even with her,” Rowyn said. Koskanin grinned.

  Rowyn looked down at her left arm. It wasn’t there. Instead, there were white bandages, ending above where her elbow should be.

  She looked up at Koskanin. “Sometimes I have nightmares about getting my arm blown off. Casualties?”

  He nodded. “Two dead, three wounded, including you. We also lost twenty hostages on the passenger ship.”

  “Who?”

  “Private Silva and Lieutenant Cosgrove.”

  “Are they heroes?”

  “Yeah. The pirates started shooting hostages. Cosgrove threw himself
in the way. Took three APEPs, but kept firing back until he hit the deckdeck. Silva bought it assaulting the bridge. They both saved lives.”

  Rowyn squeezed her eyes closed and fought back the tears. Commanders weren’t supposed to cry. She told herself it must be the drugs.

  “How are you feeling?” a man’s voice said from across the room.

  Rowyn opened her eyes and saw a man in white enter the room.

  “A bit lopsided,” she answered.

  “We’ll take care of that,” he answered. “Another week, maybe two, you’ll be healed up enough to fit a prosthesis and you’ll be back on duty.”

  “A prosthesis? Aren’t I going to get a new arm?”

  “In a couple of years,” the doctor said. “We don’t have the facilities on this ship to grow a new one. You’ll have to wait until we get back to Barundar. Now, you need to rest. Everyone, out.”

  “Can I give her these?” a high voice said. Rowny saw a small blonde girl standing in the doorway. Today, she was wearing a blue dress that looked too large for her. She was holding a rather ragged bouquet of flowers.

  Rowyn smiled at her. “Of course, you can. Come on in. What’s your name?”

  “Greta Gustafsen. I picked these from the cruise liner’s garden.” She leaned close and whispered in Rowyn’s ear, “We’re not supposed to pick them, but Corporal Simmons said it was okay this one time.”

  Rowyn found it hard to swallow the lump in her throat and the tears threatened to well up again.

  “Are you okay? Do you hurt?” Greta asked.

  “No, honey. I’m happy that you’re safe.”

  “Corporal Simmons says that we all owe our lives to you. Thank you.” Greta leaned forward and kissed Rowyn on the cheek, then turned and skipped out of the room. Simmons and the doctor followed her.

  Koskanin started to follow them, but Rowyn called out, “Koskanin? I never got a chance to say thank you. By the time I got back on ship from Dansar, they’d already evacuated you.”

  “I got your message,” he said. “It took two years to catch up to me.”

  “Have you ever seen Captain Johnson?”

  “Yeah, I saw him about four years ago. He’s a colonel now, in charge of a regiment. His new legs seem to work just fine.”