by Ryk Brown
In all his years, Josh had never felt that he was about to die…until today. Burning bits of rock and debris singed his back. His body dripped with the kind of sweat that only fear can bring. His eyes cringed tightly as he tried to ignore the stinging pain. The time between the sound of energy weapons fire and the impact of plasma bolts against the rocks around them grew shorter. At any moment, the rocks that were protecting them would be overheated and would explode. If that didn’t kill them, the following blasts certainly would.
Josh opened his eyes and found himself looking into Deliza’s. What the hell, he decided and began kissing her passionately. To his surprise, she did not resist.
The ground shook as the pale blue-white light momentarily washed away the ambers of Eralit Seven. A split second later, there was the sound of distant weapons fire. Explosions all around them shook them both to their very souls, after which something swooped over their heads, sending dust swirling in all directions. As they were showered with hot thruster exhaust, a pair of familiar sounding engines filled Josh’s ears.
“Seiiki! Falcon! Do you copy?”
Josh raised himself from their embrace, looking to the sky, and spotted the Falcon’s distinct stern silhouette as it climbed toward the sky. “YES!”
“Falcon, Scott,” the captain called over comms. “How does it look?”
Ensign Lassen looked at the sensor display. Four green triangles surrounded by at least twenty red ones, all of them close by. “Not good, sir. The Dusahn have them surrounded and outnumbered.”
“Can you do anything to help them?”
“We can drop in a line buster, but it’s going to be danger-close, and it’s only going to help them with the bandits downhill of their position. If we try to drop on the uphill ones, it’ll kill our people, as well.”
“Understood,” Nathan replied. “Set up for your attack run, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Copy that.” Ensign Lassen and Lieutenant Teison exchanged worried glances.
“Seiiki, Seiiki. This is Scott!” Josh’s comm-set squawked. The amount of energy weapons fire coming directly at their position had decreased noticeably, now that the Dusahn soldiers had something else to worry about. Unfortunately, it hadn’t stopped completely, and the four of them were still pinned down and taking fire from all sides. “Is that you, Cap’n?”
“Josh, the Falcon is going to drop a line buster between you and the guys downhill of your position.”
“Uh, don’t you think that’s cutting it a little close?” Josh replied as he fired at one of the Dusahn soldiers moving laterally, uphill of their position. Two shots streaked past him to his right, slamming into the tree next to him, cutting it in half and sending the tree falling. Josh’s eyes widened. “LOOK OUT!” he yelled, diving at Deliza and knocking her out of the way. The tree landed on top of him, slamming into the rocks on either side.
“Josh!” Deliza cried, scrambling over to him, frantically digging through the broken branches until she reached him. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Josh replied as weapons fire continued to slam into the rocks around them.
“Josh, it’s your call,” Nathan said over his comm-set.
“Copy, my call!” Josh replied. “LOKI! LIVE ORDNANCE COMING IN! KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!” Josh grabbed Deliza’s hand and pulled. “Get in here,” he ordered as he tapped his comm-set again. “Falcon! Seiiki! Danger-close! Drop on me!”
“Seiiki, Falcon. Copy danger-close, drop on your position. Heads down. Drop in ten.”
“TEN SECONDS, LOKI!” Josh yelled. He pulled Deliza in under the branches, holding her close. “I’ve got you, Princess,” he whispered, closing his eyes tightly as he pulled her against him, and rolled slightly to put his body over hers.
“Go in from the opposite direction, just east of the Falcon’s flight path,” Nathan instructed Lieutenant Haddix. “They’ll drop and jump, big boom, we fly through the shit cloud, and then blast the guys uphill of them. Then hover, and drop us in, so we can clean up the others.” He looked at Jessica. “Sound good?”
“Sounds great.” She replied. “Just remember to bend your knees when you land.”
“Are you sure this suit will work?”
“I’ve jumped from twice the height of those trees down there,” Jessica assured him.
“Five seconds!” Lieutenant Haddix warned.
The Falcon completed its one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, and then jumped the two kilometers to the engagement area. It came out of its jump only a few meters above the ridgeline and released its ordnance a split second after jumping in. The weapon fell away, and the Falcon pitched up and jumped away in a blue-white flash.
The weapon struck the mountainside less than ten meters away from Josh and the others, exploding on impact, erupting into a massive fireball that swept down the mountainside, consuming everything in its path, including the Dusahn soldiers.
Lieutenant Haddix pressed his jump button and suddenly found their ship a few meters away from a fiery cloud, flying straight for it. “Hang on!” he warned, holding firm on his flight control stick.
Nathan and Jessica both swung back inside the Reaper’s utility bay, putting their backs against the forward bulkhead. Fire and smoke suddenly poured into the open sides of the bay, swirling about them. Nathan could feel the intense heat, despite the fact that his Ghatazhak combat suit was doing everything it could to cool him.
The heat only lasted seconds, and then the fire departed the bay as quickly as it had come. He heard the sound of the Reaper’s forward plasma cannons as they fired. He swung back out, hanging out of the side of the Reaper, looking forward as the lieutenant’s plasma cannons pounded the Dusahn forces uphill of his friends.
The firing stopped, and the Reaper pitched upward sharply, its thrusters screaming as it came to a hover just above the trees.
“Go!” the lieutenant ordered.
Nathan glanced to his left, catching a glimpse of Jessica as she let go of the Reaper and fell. He, too, released his grip, falling toward the surface. He tucked his arms in close and kept his feet together to pass through the trees. Branches and leaves brushed at his armor, some of them slapping him hard as he fell. A split second later, he was through the dense canopy of leaves and could see the rocky ground rushing up at him. He spread his feet to shoulder-width and bent his legs, tensing up to prepare for touchdown. When he did, he could feel the assistive undergarment squeeze him, applying pressure in all the right places.
Nathan landed, tucked and rolled to his left, and came up with his weapon ready to fire. The screech of gunfire sounded to his left.
“Contact left,” Jessica announced calmly over his helmet comms, reporting that she had engaged the Dusahn soldiers to the left of the Seiiki crew’s position.
Nathan glanced to his right, but saw nothing but smoke. Red icons suddenly appeared on his tactical visor, and Nathan took aim in their general direction. Squaring up his body to the enemy’s position, he slapped the button on his chest to activate his personal shield and charged forward. Within seconds, he was taking fire, his personal shield flashing red-orange with each weapons impact. “Contact right,” he reported, trying to sound just as calm.
The swirling smoke cleared, and Nathan found himself face-to-face with three Dusahn soldiers, all of them equally stunned. He barreled into the middle soldier, knocking him to the left, shooting the one to the right. He dove forward and rolled, coming up and spinning around just in time for his shield to take three more energy blasts. He dropped to one knee, fired three shots into the chest, neck, and head of the soldier to the right, then two more shots to the abdomen and chest of the guy to the left. The first one dropped immediately, but the second one managed to remain standing and brought his weapon to bear on Nathan. The soldier fired a single shot, causing Nathan’s shield to flash ag
ain. Nathan also fired, this time sending half a dozen shots into his enemy. The Dusahn soldier shook violently as the impacts overloaded his combat armor and found their way into his body. The soldier fell to the right in a smoldering pile atop his dead comrade.
“Clear left,” Jessica reported, again calm.
Nathan looked at the three dead soldiers, then up through the swirling smoke at the treetops, some fifteen meters above him. “Shit.”
“You okay?” Jessica asked over his helmet comms.
“Yeah, I mean, clear right,” Nathan replied. “Josh! Loki!” he called, raising his assault rifle back to ready position and charging back through the smoke toward the green blips on his tactical visor. “You guys still alive?”
“I’ve got Josh and Deliza,” Jessica reported. “They’re a little crispy, but they’re alive.”
Nathan recognized the tree-green blips as Jessica, Josh, and Deliza, and headed toward the remaining two blips, expecting to find Loki and Dalen. Instead, when the smoke cleared, he found Loki and Naralena.
Nathan reached out to take Naralena’s hand, helping her to her feet.
Naralena glanced at him, not recognizing him at first. Then she saw Nathan’s face through the combat visor. “Nathan?” She couldn’t believe her eyes. “Oh, my God!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him.
“It’s good to see you, Naralena,” Nathan said. He pulled away and turned to Loki. “Are you alright?”
“I’ve had better days,” Loki replied.
Nathan looked around, also checking his visor display. “Where’s Dalen?”
“He didn’t make it, Captain,” Loki replied soberly. “I’m sorry.”
A million images flashed through Nathan’s mind. A young man looking for his first real job as a ship’s mechanic. A million jokes, the hearty laughter. The constant arguing between Dalen and Marcus about how to fix the Seiiki. The times when Dalen, Josh, and Connor had gone to bars, hitting on countless women on dozens of worlds. Meeting Dalen’s aunt on Cheraming Four.
“Four Dusahn troop pods just dropped in on the ridgeline,” Ensign Weston called from Reaper Six, interrupting the flood of memories. “They’ll have uphill position on you in two minutes, sir.”
“Time to go,” Nathan told Loki and Naralena. “Reaper Six, can you land?”
“Negative, sir. Not enough room,” the ensign replied.
Nathan lifted his assault rifle. “Everyone get down!” he barked, then opened fire on the nearby trees, cleanly cutting through a half dozen of them, half a meter above the surface. The trees fell, slowly at first, and then accelerated toward the surface. They crashed down in near unison, swirling the smoke about on their way down. Nathan looked around. “How about now?”
“That’ll work,” Lieutenant Haddix replied over comms, almost laughing.
“Jess! Time to go!”
“On our way,” she replied over comms.
“Huddle down,” Nathan instructed as Reaper Six descended into a hover, half a meter above the fallen trees, their thruster wash blasting the surface and spreading out in all directions.
“That’s as close as we can get,” Lieutenant Haddix reported over comms.
“That’ll work,” Nathan replied. “Just hold it steady.”
“Make it quick,” Ensign Weston urged. “Eight bandits are moving down the mountainside toward you. Less than a click away and moving fast.”
“Go!” Nathan instructed Loki and Naralena. “Jess!”
“I heard!” she replied over comms.
Nathan looked to his left, spotting Jessica, Josh, and Deliza running through the smoke toward them.
“Nice outfit!” Josh yelled at Nathan as they approached.
“You broke my ship, Josh!” Nathan replied, smiling.
“Send the bill to Lord Dusahn!” Josh laughed.
Weapons fire came from higher up the mountainside, slamming into the fallen trees around them.
“Get them aboard!” Nathan instructed Josh as he and Jessica both turned to face the incoming fire, reactivating their personal shields as they turned. Weapons fire slammed into their shields, causing them to flash red-orange repeatedly as they both returned fire. The targets were too far away to see through the swirling smoke, but as he moved his weapon around, little red circles would appear momentarily around the red blips that indicated enemy troops. Nice, Nathan thought, lining up his weapon until he got one of the circles to stay on. He pressed and held his trigger, sending a stream of plasma fire at the distant target. A few seconds later, the target disappeared.
“Scott, Falcon,” Lieutenant Teison called over comms. “Shenza Leader reports they have engaged Dusahn octos.”
“Falcon, Scott. Order Shenza Flight to retreat using the evasion algorithm, and get back to base.”
“Understood.”
“Go!” Jessica told Nathan. “I’ll cover you!”
“You first,” Nathan insisted as he continued firing.
“I’m going after Amund!”
“Not without me, you’re not!” Nathan replied. “Reaper Six, you’ve got four aboard! Rotate and pound those troops coming down the mountainside. Nash and I are going after Corporal Amund. Once you kill those bastards, circle the area and be ready to pick us up!”
“Understood,” Lieutenant Haddix replied.
Nathan looked up as he continued firing at the distant targets. Reaper Six yawed quickly around and opened fire, peppering the mountainside uphill from them with plasma fire.
“Let’s move!” Jessica barked, turning to run down the mountainside in the direction of Corporal Amund.
Lieutenant Haddix ceased fire once all the red triangles, representing Dusahn soldiers, disappeared from their tactical display.
“How are you guys doing back there?” Ensign Weston yelled toward the back of the Reaper.
“Where’s Jessica and Nathan?” Deliza yelled back.
“They went after Corporal Amund!”
“Uh-oh,” the lieutenant said as he looked down out the window. A dozen flashes of blue-white light appeared above the trees, one kilometer downhill from them, in the direction of Corporal Amund.
“What’s wrong?” Josh asked over comm-sets.
“Forty-plus men just dropped in on Amund’s position.”
“Captain! You’ve got a butt-load of troops dropping in on you!” Ensign Weston warned over comms.
“Reaper Six! Scott!” Nathan called over comms, energy weapons fire in the background. His voice sounded tense, his breathing heavy and labored. “Get them back to the Aurora!”
“We’re not leaving you behind, sir!” Lieutenant Haddix argued.
“I just gave you an order, Lieutenant!”
“I’ll be happy to face a court-martial later, Captain,” the lieutenant replied. “Falcon! Reaper Six! Attack new ground targets from the North! We’ll attack from the South!”
“Copy that,” Ensign Lassen replied. “Falcon is coming in from the North.”
“Heads up, Captain!” the lieutenant warned. “It’s going to get interesting down there!”
Nathan and Jessica charged forward through the burning forest and the swirling smoke, incoming energy weapons fire lighting up their personal shields as they fired.
“Our shields can’t take more than a few more minutes of this!” Jessica warned.
Nathan said nothing, only continued charging forward and firing at any Dusahn soldier he spotted. A green blip suddenly appeared on his tactical display. “I’ve got him!” Nathan announced.
“Where?” Jessica asked. “I’ve got nothing!”
“Three o’clock; twenty meters!” Nathan replied, veering right as he ran and fired. “He’s surrounded.”
“Combat shuttles inbound!” Ensign Weston anno
unced from Reaper Six.
Lieutenant Teison pressed the jump button on his control stick, jumping the Falcon into position to start their attack run. His targeting screen immediately lit up with multiple targets, all of them surrounding the three green icons. “Holy shit! Riko! Can you kill those bastards without killing our people?”
“No way, Jas.”
Lieutenant Haddix opened fire, sending a steady stream of plasma cannon fire into eight Dusahn troops charging toward Nathan and Jessica from the East.
“Jesus, there’s too many of them!” Ensign Weston exclaimed. “They’re surrounded!”
“Damn it!” the lieutenant cursed, ceasing fire for fear of shooting his own people. “Where are those fucking combat shuttles?”
“They’ll be on us in thirty seconds.”
Nathan and Jessica had slowed their pace, taking the time to fire more accurately as they blasted through the Dusahn line surrounding Corporal Amund.
“AMUND! NASH!” Jessica called over comms. “TWO FRIENDLIES TO THE SOUTH, COMING TO YOU!”
“Challenge!” the corporal barked over comms.
“Whiskey seven, echo tango one seven two five,” Jessica replied.
“Finally!”
Jessica charged forward, Nathan following close behind. They broke through the Dusahn line and, after a few more meters, found themselves kneeling beside the corporal, firing at the thirty-some-odd enemy combatants still out there in the forest.
“Scott! Falcon! The enemy is too close!”
“Drop on us!” Nathan ordered as all three of them fired away relentlessly. “Drop on us, NOW!”