The ground shook, and a dull booming sound rolled through the passageway. That sent the marines running.
Two men approached her from the group of civilian workers. Bergerand and Nix; the pair had been working down here for a week now, and strain and exhaustion showed on their faces. Nix had detached his mechanical arm and attached a Gatling gun limb as a replacement.
Capp eyed the gun. “Retro pirate gear. You do realize you can just pick up a blasted weapon and fire it, right? You don’t need to clip on that goofy looking thing.”
Nix grinned. “Oh, yeah? Can a regular bionic arm do this?”
He held up the gun, twisted his shoulder slightly, and a grenade launcher swung out of the bottom of the barrel. A click as a grenade moved into place.
“Put that down before you kill someone. Anyway, that’s beside the point. You’re a civilian, not a bloody marine. That gun ain’t going to haul supplies, which is your job. That goes for you, too, Bergerand. Lose the guns, find a forklift or something, and get back to work.”
“Nah,” Bergerand said. “We’re in the fight now. Vargus said so.”
“What a load of rubbish,” Capp said. “She didn’t tell you that, ya wanker.”
“Better believe it,” Nix said. “We’re your bodyguards, Capp. Gonna stay by your side until this whole business is over. Guess you’re just that important. Or maybe the captain knows you’ll get yourself killed unless you got babysitters.”
She opened her mouth to order the two idiots out of her sight, but before she could speak, the ground heaved. Capp stumbled into Nix and Bergerand, and the three fell together. She grabbed her gun, climbed to her feet, and opened the com link.
There was so much activity across so many channels—all of which she had access to by virtue of being the second in command of Void Queen—that it took several seconds to filter through the shouting voices and orders to locate the base commander. Rodriguez was ordering his missile batteries to fire, and she had to wait that out before getting his attention. The ground continued to shudder from the pounding it was taking from above.
At last she got him and demanded answers.
“It’s just what it sounds like, Capp,” Rodriguez said. “They’re hitting us hard. Two wolves got below our defenses and are dropping mechanized raiders.” A boom in the background, and a flurry of voices. “Brace yourselves down there. The bastards are breaking through.”
Another boom. Capp’s ears gave a painful pop, and air rushed past her. Marines in pressure suits dove behind their bunkers, while civilians dropped their gear and fled up the tunnel. Capp didn’t have a pressure suit, and had to join the flight or suffocate. As she reached the next airlock, gunfire and explosions rocked the tunnel behind her.
Chapter Twenty
Catarina turned to give orders after the first big clash, and had to catch herself when she found Smythe in the first mate’s chair instead of Henny Capp. Lieutenant Capp was defending Fort Alliance, of course. Lomelí sat at the tech console in Smythe’s place; she spoke to the gunnery and worked the countermeasures through a link with the defense grid.
“Is the striker wing in the launch tubes?”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Good. Get them airborne. Soon as McGowan gives the word, I want Carvalho out there harassing the enemy landing parties.”
Catarina stared at the viewscreen even as the first two star wolves pulled back from the surface of the asteroid under heavy fire. She’d allowed them to approach nearly unchallenged. They’d come in hard and fast, guns pounding. At two miles above the surface, they’d launched salvos of boarding rockets that had sent down at least a hundred raiders, who were now unloading in mech suits. They hopped toward one of the base entrances.
Gunfire erupted from the fixed emplacements around the crater perimeter, but the departing star wolves struck back with pummel guns, and each emplacement got off a shot or two at best before being reduced to rubble. A handful of raiders fell, but the rest reached the largest set of doors, which they demolished with explosives. Excited chatter over the com confirmed that the raiders were inside.
Two more star wolves descended even as the first pair was lifting away. All four wolves let loose with a thundering barrage that obliterated the last of the gun emplacements.
McGowan gave orders to stand by for attack. His three ships stood off a few hundred miles from Void Queen, where Catarina had gathered Pussycat, Orient Tiger, the two Hroom sloops, and a trio of her most heavily armed schooners.
“Course calculated,” Nyb Pim said. The Hroom tapped twice. “Sending data to our ships.”
Catarina had the gunnery on the com. “Barker, stand by for a missile barrage on my mark.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Come on, McGowan,” she murmured. “Give the order. Call the attack.”
There was no better time. Four star wolves still hovered above Fort Alliance; the remaining nine stood unopposed next to Ravelin, pounding away.
That was unexpected. It cut down the number of raiders assaulting the main fortifications, as well as the pressure on the Albion fleet, which had only encountered scattered fire so far. It also left the four star wolves exposed between Fort Alliance and the Albion fleet.
On the other hand, Catarina had been counting on Alliance’s missile emplacements to keep the enemy pinned down. Instead, the batteries had to remain shielded behind bombproofs as the base suffered under the enemy guns. So much effort expended getting those batteries in place, and while they remained protected, they couldn’t be used so long as the enemy kept up its punishing attack.
The four wolves above the asteroid ceased their bombardment. The final two launched boarding rockets.
McGowan shouted orders over the com. “All forces engage!”
Missiles burst from Void Queen and from across the ships of the fleet. The battle cruiser and her escorts moved into action, following the missiles toward the targeted wolves.
Catarina’s striker wing was quick out of the blocks, and the four falcons reached Fort Alliance even before the missiles. Led by Greeves, with Carvalho bringing up the rear, the falcons streaked between the asteroid surface and the star wolves above them. The falcons lashed at the boarding rockets with their pulse cannons, knocking two out of the sky and damaging another.
And now she saw the reason for McGowan’s delay. The star wolves turned their guns on the falcons, and would have surely mowed them down, but they only had an instant before arriving missiles forced them to maneuver and drop countermeasures. That allowed the falcons a second pass, where they inflicted more damage on the landing parties. Boarding rockets exploded and crashed to the surface.
The remaining nine star wolves had been systematically reducing the guns of Ravelin for the last thirty minutes. As soon as the action heated up near the asteroid, they abandoned their position and moved to assault Catarina’s rear, threatening to crush her between two packs of wolves.
McGowan swung his three ships into the void left by Catarina’s charge. His missile frigate unloaded on the enemy, with the other two ships adding their firepower. The attack forced the larger group of star wolves to maneuver and evade. Several slipped away unscathed, but one slower-moving ship remained exposed. Missiles rained down on it.
The affected star wolf turned to hide its damaged deck shield, but McGowan had snapped off a pair of torpedoes, which packed a larger, more punishing explosive. The star wolf fled the battlefield.
Smythe pumped a fist. “That’s right!” He turned to Catarina with a grin. “That’s one down, sir.”
Yes, but only one. McGowan might get off another barrage if his gunnery were quick about it, but then he’d be forced to withdraw and join Void Queen. He didn’t have the firepower to slug it out against so many enemies. Meanwhile, he turned to show his main battery of cannon, which left him more exposed, but also gave the enemy ships pause. They’d already faced the full fury of a cruiser broadside, and knew how hard it could hit. The wolves forced him back toward Void Queen,
even as Catarina faced her first incoming fire.
Taking advantage of her superior range, Catarina had been hurling missiles at the four enemy ships above Fort Alliance. She didn’t have the luxury of McGowan’s missile frigate, but Void Queen had more firepower than Peerless. Combined with the handful of former pirate ships at her side, she got nearly as many missiles into the fight as he did, and against fewer enemies. The barrage forced the four wolves to retreat from the fortress.
Her Hroom sloops of war had held their fire until now, and Catarina told them to unleash their serpentines in support of McGowan. The serpentines flashed past his ships and broke into dozens of corkscrewing bomblets. It was an impressive display of fireworks that slammed into the star wolves, but the enemy ships showed little damage to their shields when the bombardment ended.
Smythe and Lomelí reported that the four wolves attacking Fort Alliance had drawn beyond the range of pummel guns.
“Message Rodriguez,” she ordered. “Time to hit back. Get those missile batteries to the surface.”
There was a long pause after Smythe gave the orders, as Catarina watched her console for the base to launch its attack.
“What the devil is taking them so long?” she asked.
Smythe looked up, face slack with worry. “It’s the raiders, sir. They’ve surrounded the command center and cut off the batteries.”
#
Capp took the call under heavy fire. Six raiders had seized the position ahead of her and were systematically tearing apart a bunker of cut blocks of stone to get at the handful of defenders still alive within. Together with Nix, Bergerand, and a platoon of marines, she’d taken position in a small side room, hidden behind wooden crates filled with rubble that were made to look like goods to loot. It was meant to be an ambush position.
Screams came from the bunker ahead of them as raiders dragged a marine out and used their mech suits to rip off his arms and legs. Another burst of fire from the bunker, and then shouts in a harsh, guttural language.
“Dammit,” one of the marines muttered.
“There are only six,” Nix said. “We can take them.”
“We ain’t gonna take ’em from here, you idiot,” Capp said in a low voice. “Hold your fire, the lot of you.”
Captain Vargus’s voice came over her com link. “Capp, what the devil are you doing down there?”
“Trying to stay alive, what else?” she whispered. “And falling back, like you ordered.”
She peered over the crates, to see the raiders tearing apart the supply dump that had been left for their benefit. These raiders were overpowering but could not pass potential loot without investigating.
“We’ve lost HQ,” Vargus said, “and I need those missiles.”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. I can’t get through. I was hoping you’d tell me.”
Capp muttered an oath. “Rodriguez was under attack last I heard, but he was dug in and holding on. Supported by the heaviest ground guns we’ve got. Lost com with him about twenty minutes ago.”
“How far out are you?” Vargus asked. “I need you to relieve the command center. We’re under heavy fire here, and I need those—”
Vargus shouted instructions to someone else. Probably Smythe, that wanker, sitting in Capp’s chair on the bridge.
Two marines in the tunnel up ahead had apparently kept hidden as the Scandian raiders overran their position. They now broke from the wrecked bunker as a mech tore apart their hiding place, and fled like rats from a nest exposed to the light, running down the hall toward Capp’s position.
The raider who’d exposed them lifted an arm as if to shoot them down, then apparently decided it would be more sport to catch them instead. He clanked in pursuit, each stride taking him closer to the stumbling marines. One marine turned and fired, but his bullets pinged off the enemy’s armor. A mech arm grabbed the man by the shoulder and flung him against the wall. The marine fell, crumpled and motionless. The raider broke into a run after the second marine, who’d nearly reached Capp’s hiding place.
“Take him down!” Capp said.
She rose with her assault rifle and fired on full automatic. Marines rose around her, throwing grenades and firing their guns, even as the escaping man hurled himself over the barricade to safety. Nix shoved the man out of the way, gave a feral scream, and unleashed his Gatling gun. The gunfire was deafening in the enclosed space.
The enemy raider lifted both arms, and his clamp-like hands popped back to reveal gun barrels. He spewed metal at them. Wood slivers and chips of stone sprayed into the air, but the gunfire soon scattered overhead as the defenders drove him back.
A skinny marine, not much older than a kid, leaned over the boxes and tossed a grenade, which went rolling toward the raider, who regained control of his guns at that precise moment. He blasted the kid and nearly sliced him in two.
The grenade detonated. When Capp looked back over, the raider was on his back. One leg twitched, and an arm bent the wrong way. Capp and her companions poured fire into him.
The other five raiders clomped into the fight, guns blazing. But the combined firepower of more than twenty defenders forced them to retreat and take cover in the barricades they’d recently been tearing apart.
“We can’t hold them for long,” the platoon sergeant told Capp, touching his ear. “Sounds like we got more raiders on the way.”
She’d forgotten all about Vargus in the chaos of battle. “You’ve got a link? Can you get the base commander?”
The sergeant cocked his head. “They’re still alive in there, Lieutenant. Raiders have jammed com with the missile crews.”
Capp got the bridge of Void Queen. Smythe answered. “Tell the Cap’n to hold on. The command center is still intact. It’s their system that’s jammed.”
“You’d better hurry,” Smythe said. “We’re taking a pounding from both sides. If you don’t get these wolves off our back we’re dead.”
“Woulda helped if you hadn’t let so many damn mech units land. You getting data from Fort Alliance, mate? Upgrade my base schematic, I need to know what’s overrun and what’s not.”
The incoming fire intensified, and Nix warned that several more raiders had arrived to reinforce the enemy position. Any moment and they’d make a charge. It had taken everything they had to bring down a single raider; they’d never hold off eight or ten.
“Sergeant, set your trigger charges,” Capp said. “The rest of you, toss a couple of grenades, and follow me.”
The alcove where they’d taken position led into a small room with a short ceiling. Strange wiring sticking out of the walls glowed a luminescent blue even after having been abandoned for God knew how long. The ceiling was low and forced them to duck, as was the corridor that exited out the back of the room. That had been a pain in the butt when Capp scouted the location an hour ago, but worked to her advantage now. The mech units stood over seven feet tall and moved slowly when crouching.
Moments later, Capp was leading Nix, Bergerand, and the platoon of marines through the room and down a darkened corridor. Bobbing flashlights guided her way as panting, muttering men and women crowded her in the tight hallway. Explosions behind them indicated that the raiders had set off the trigger charges, and Capp grinned. That should slow ’em down.
She alternated her attention between her hand computer and the com as she moved. Not all of the base had been mapped; the alien tunnel network was extensive, and some areas could only be accessed through empty elevator shafts. According to the base schematic, an alarming portion of what had been mapped was marked either red—enemy controlled—or yellow, for unknown or under assault. They stumbled into one corridor marked green, only to find themselves in a firefight. Capp backtracked.
Meanwhile, she used the com to call all available units. They were to abandon defensive positions and fight their way toward the command center. The only goal now was to relieve the commander and fight off whoever was jamming communications with t
he missile batteries.
The movement toward the command center didn’t proceed without alerting the enemy, who were soon reported to be converging in the same direction. But here the enemy’s lack of information helped Capp’s efforts. When a large group of raiders entered a main tunnel, Capp was able to move three platoons and a couple of heavier antitank-style guns into position to greet them. Charges collapsed part of the tunnel and forced the raiders to spend valuable time heaving rubble out of the way.
Capp was at the head of maybe fifty marines when she finally approached the command module. There, in the corridor ahead of them, roughly a dozen raiders hunkered behind barricades made from demolished Albion bunkers. The heavy blast doors guarding the entrance to the command center were blackened and warped from explosions, but still intact. The shielded gun banks defending it were wrecked, however, and the command center was unable to shoot back as raiders dragged explosive charges up to the doors.
What Capp knew, but the raiders might not, was that another set of doors and more gun emplacements awaited them on the other side. But while the enemy wasn’t yet in position to break in and seize base headquarters, they’d already taken Fort Alliance’s missiles offline. But how?
Dead marines strewed the ground up and down the corridor between Capp and the raiders. A bunker sat in front of her, partially demolished after it had been overrun by enemies. More dead marines lay mangled in and around it.
Most of the enemy’s attention was on the blast doors, and only scattered gunfire challenged her as she ran for the bunker, followed by Nix, Bergerand, and the marines. This brought more concentrated fire, as the enemy apparently realized this was to be no minor skirmish. But by then, Capp was frantically directing her forces to drag stones about and reinforce the bunker. A man cried out and fell, followed by a woman moments later. The enemy gunfire intensified, and she was soon losing people right and left.
Queen of the Void (The Void Queen Trilogy Book 1) Page 20