The opponents slugged it out for an hour before the great station joined the fight. Johnny and Jenny were aboard. The thunder-glove weapon had only been modestly effective, allowing the Marines to take an additional five decks. The shuttles that had delivered the men had all been cleared away. The fight on the station would see the end of one side or the other.
Johnny said, “We can’t get clear shots up or down any of the stairwells. They’re defended too well.”
Mace asked, “What are the black smudges on your battlesuit?”
“It’s from the walls of those stairwells, I’ve had countless rounds impact right beside me. We can’t quite get to them or them to us. The thunder glove worked great for the first three decks. That’s when they began moving their people back about two meters. I just can’t get in a good shot now.”
Jane said, “Can’t you hold that out on a stick or something?”
Johnny frowned. “I built it so only I could shoot it. The glove senses my hand.”
Jasper said, “Well, can’t you cut off your hand and put both on a stick?”
Johnny shook his head. “Har, har. Aren’t you the comedy king. If you had any better ideas, I’d be grateful, though.”
Jasper replied, “Have you tried going outside and up or down?”
Jenny replied, “They’ve tried just about everything. The external guns have been modified and now skim the surface. They pick us off before we get anywhere.”
Jasper said, “I’m guessing they brought more nukes with them?”
Johnny nodded. “Those are of course the last resort. Stark wants this station taken so it can be studied and possibly used in defense of Earth.”
Jasper said, “I know I’ll hate myself for releasing this. I’m sending the data we retrieved from the last station. Maybe his people can figure out a weakness.”
Jeff stood. “Wait… let Gnaga and me have a crack at that. We know that station fairly well, but we haven’t looked at it from an assault perspective. Can you give us a half hour?”
Johnny replied, “We aren’t going anywhere.”
Jasper said, “I’ll gladly hold it.”
The Rogers continued fighting, taking up a figure eight pattern to better assist Hans, Humphrey, and Mace with their weapons fire. Three Karthian cruisers had been taken out of the fight. Jeff met with Gnaga as they conferenced in the remainder of the science and engineering team on Divinia.
Half an hour to the minute, Jeff emerged from their discussions. “We may have a way to move from deck-36 up to deck-12 and down to deck-60. There’s a plasma feed tunnel that runs between the reactor rooms on every eighth deck. You have one on deck-36. When you enter the room—”
Johnny said, “Hold up. I’m heading there now.”
Mace asked, “Can I take it there’s a reason you wouldn’t want to be caught in this tunnel?”
Jeff replied, “If the bulkhead doors are open, anyone would have a clean shot at you from any of the connected decks.”
Mace said, “And if the doors are closed?”
Jeff cleared his throat. “If they’re closed, you have to open them. If Johnny can connect to their system, we believe we can do that from here.”
Johnny said, “I’m at the reactor room.”
Jeff nodded. “Turn to your right and walk to the back wall.”
“If I turn right I’m facing a wall.”
“What do you see if you turn left?”
Johnny looked the other way. “The hallway wall is on my left. About a meter out from that are what I would guess are the reactors. I see four of those. They look about three meters a side and four meters tall. About a meter of floor between each one.”
Jeff said, “Pass through your helmet’s camera feed.”
Seconds later an image appeared on the wall display. “That far wall, down the hallway wall. Go to it.”
Johnny complied. “OK, there.”
“Is there a door on the wall looking to your right? Should be about halfway down.”
Johnny nodded. “I see it.”
Jeff flipped the diagram on his display, matching it to what Johnny was seeing. “Walk down that wall and past the door. The next wall you come to, turn to your right. You should see a console station on the back side of each of those reactors.”
Johnny walked. “OK. Got it.”
“I need you to log into a console for me.”
Johnny chuckled. “And how am I supposed to do that?”
Jeff pulled up an image of the console keyboard. “You see the key with the symbol that looks like a house ?”
Johnny nodded. “Got it.”
“Press that key, then enter the following number sequence…”
“Hit me with it.”
“228933429. When complete, hit the key with the double down arrow.”
Several seconds later, Johnny replied, “I’m in.”
Jeff said, “That’s a wireless interface … according to the data we have. Patch the connection through the comm.”
“Done.”
Jeff typed away on a keyboard. “The door back on the wall… it should now be unlocked. When you open it, you’ll find a switch on the back side. Figure out how to engage that switch. That will show the door as closed if anyone should notice on a console elsewhere. I have a video feed of that tunnel. After that switch is again closed, I’d give it a couple minutes before going in.”
Johnny opened the door, looking down into the tunnel. “I’m not gonna fit through there.”
Jenny stepped up. “I can.”
She pulled a packet from an external pocket on her battlesuit, removing a bandage and several tabs of tape. Using the tape, the door switch was set to the closed position.
“Excellent,” Jeff said. “The alert on the console is off.”
Jenny looked into the tunnel. “I don’t see a ladder. What am I supposed to hold on to?”
“There’s no gravity in the tunnel. You should be able to easily pull yourself in one direction or the other.”
Jenny nodded. “I can do that. If I make it up to deck-12, what’s the plan?”
Jeff shrugged. “Look for a way to get others up there.”
Jenny winced. “Come on, Doc. Give me something. Can I access a console and open doors? Turn off power?”
Johnny said, “How about the gravity thing we used to clear those spider-bugs off the Rogers?”
Jeff stood silent for several seconds. “Genius. When there, find a console. Enter the number as was just done. 228933429. When complete, hit the key with the double down arrow. From there I’ll guide you to the gravity controls.”
Johnny said, “Well, why don’t we just do that here?”
“They have these floors locked out from the main systems. We can control the gravity here, but not elsewhere on the station.”
Jenny leaned into the tunnel going up. “I’ll signal back when I’m there. In the meantime, Johnny, stick your head in and make sure nobody comes into this tunnel from below.”
Jenny began her climb.
The Rogers continued to weave, turn, and fire, all the while taking only minimal damage while making a dent in the Karthian lines. The Stark ships had come in with their boarding parties at the ready. More than a hundred Karthian cruisers were under manual assaults. In a troubling turn of events, fifty of the compromised cruisers exploded all at once, killing the Human Marines that had gone aboard.
Stark came over the comm. “Hardy, the Karthians are using drone ships. We just lost half our assault teams. Have your people scan for bios before boarding any ships. If they’re empty, disable them if you can and move on to another.”
Mace turned to an image of Jasper Collins. “You catch that?”
Jasper nodded. “I did. We’re making adjustments.”
Jenny Taub reached deck-12. “The door is locked.”
Jeff said, “You’ll have to force it. The lock is weak. And remember to disable the switch that shows it as open.”
Jenny pushed on the door. “O
K. It’s bowing. If I can get my boot around I can… too tight a space.”
“Put your shoulder into it,” said Johnny.
“I can’t get leverage. Jeff, what’s behind this tunnel wall on the opposite side from the door?”
Jeff pulled up a diagram. “On that floor… you have piping.”
“The wall of this tunnel is thin. How much space is behind it before we hit the piping?”
Jeff replied, “Quarter of a meter? A foot maybe?”
Jenny backed down the tunnel several meters. “OK. This ain’t gonna be pretty, but I need space.”
A low power plasma round entered the tunnel wall opposite the door. Water sprayed into the tunnel as the force of the concussion that followed pushed Jenny down.
Johnny looked up the tunnel into the chaos. “You OK? What was that?”
Jenny replied, “I needed space to get leverage on that door. Let’s see if I got it.”
The thin tunnel wall had ruptured, and along with it a fist-sized water pipe. The pressurized water sprayed into the tunnel, forming globules before floating off in both directions.
Jenny growled. “I need windshield wipers. Can hardly see a thing.”
Johnny asked, “Can you get back to the door?”
Jenny replied as she grunted. “There now… hold on.”
The lock of the access door gave way. Jenny sprang through the door and flopped onto the floor as water sprayed into the room.
“I’m in.”
Seconds later she was at the console. “Number is in. OK, Doc, I have access.”
Jeff said, “You’ll see a symbol on the top right of the display that resembles tools. Select that. On the next page, the fourth row down … you’ll see an up arrow, a down arrow, and a deck number. Set it to deck-36, then tap the up arrow several times.”
Jenny followed the instructions. “It’s showing the gravitational pull on that deck is changing, but only by hundredths of a point each tap. Will take me a minute to run it all the way up.”
Jeff scratched his chin. “Wait a sec… to the right, you’ll see a symbol with a bunch of stacked bars. Select it and tap until the value displayed stops changing. That should be the increment value.”
Jenny complied. “OK. We’re there.”
Jeff took a deep breath. “Go back to the up arrow and tap once.”
Johnny said, “You’re messing with the gravity on this floor, right? Don’t you think we should test something at maybe halfway first? And we need to let our guys know what’s coming first.”
Jeff nodded. “Sorry, you’re correct. Jenny, bump the increment level down by half.”
Jeff patched into the comm with Stark. “Let your men on the station know that we’re about to conduct a few gravity experiments there and for them to hold tight. If this works we may have a way for them to push forward.”
Stark replied, “Consider it done.”
Jeff said, “Jenny, when the increment is set, tap the up arrow once, followed by the down arrow.”
Jenny followed the request.
Johnny said, “OK, definitely felt that. Began to float off the floor.”
Jeff smiled. “Excellent. Bump the increment to full, set the deck to deck-30 and wait for my command. Stark’s people should be able to storm the deck with their gravity boots on while the Karthians are floating around trying to figure out what happened. As they feed me the all clear, I’ll tell you when to reset deck-30 and move to deck-29. We’ll do this going up until they’ve broken through.”
Word was passed to the Marines and the experiment begun. As expected, the chaos created by the complete lack of gravity gave the Human Marines the advantage they needed. In seconds, every stairwell was crowded with Marines, firing nonstop. Deck-30 was quickly overrun and the gravity restored. Deck-29 followed with deck-28 immediately after. By deck-25 the Karthian defense had folded. Thousands scrambled as the big Humans pushed ever upward. Decks 5 through deck-1 turned into a Karthian bloodbath. The soldiers had no time to surrender and instead fought to the bitter end.
The same strategy saw decks 40 through 66 cleared within another hour. The station was completely under Stark’s control.
Johnny said, “Any way we can arrange for a pick-up?”
Mace replied, “Mr. Hobbs, take us to that station.”
Jeff said, “I’m sending the coordinates to a docking bay on deck-36. We should be there in a moment.”
Jenny nodded. “Be right down.”
Chapter 14
*
Stark came over the comm. “Mr. Hardy, I thank your team for their ingenuity. I’ll have to ask later how you pulled that off, but it worked, so we’ll move on and be happy with the result for now.”
Jasper interrupted. “The other station is on the move. Looks like it’s coming this way with another nine hundred ships.”
Stark said, “I must go. We must prepare to board that station as well.”
Liam said, “We’re in position for pick-up. Miz Taub and Mr. Tretcher are on their way over.”
Mace asked, “What are our numbers looking like?”
Jasper replied, “Our boarding ships are failing. We’ve lost thirty shuttles with their crews and the soldiers aboard them. Only eight have been able to grapple their ships. We’ve also lost twenty-six cruisers and two Collins. Their losses are worse, but not by the numbers we need them to be.”
“At least we have that station out of the fight. How have the microwave stations fared?”
“Good. Four lost. And while they aren’t taking down any ships, they are poking a lot of holes. Those are making our plasma weapons at least marginally effective.”
Johnny and Jenny walked onto the bridge. “Wasn’t too bad. Didn’t even get shot at.”
Mace turned. “Mr. Moskowitz, will they be able to make use of that station and its weapons?”
Jeff nodded. “I don’t see why not. Should I pass that information to Stark?”
Mace replied, “Only if you can give them some insights. They have the same data on that station now. If Stark fails to get his people aboard the other station, we’ll need the one we have to fight against it.”
As the space-battle continued, Malcom Stark sent his ships and shuttles to pick up the Marines who had taken the station. A second assault was planned for the new threat. As the ships approached, a contingent of Karthian ships broke free from the fighting, catching Stark’s shuttles as they docked for the pick-up. The Karthians paid a heavy price, while knocking out most of the shuttles under Stark’s command. There would be no assault of the approaching station.
Mace passed the data Jeff had accumulated on the station’s operation to the Stark team. The smaller defensive weapons could soon be seen firing as crews became familiar with their operation. Minutes later, the great green energy weapon sent a wave of quantum death out into the void of space.
Jasper came over the comm. “That was your doing, wasn’t it?”
Mace nodded. “I didn’t see any other way. That other station will be here shortly. We have to have a way to fight it. We need those men to be effective.”
Jasper scowled. “Should have just nuked it like the last one.”
“We’re doing what we can. Have you managed to straighten out your assaults?”
Jasper stood and paced back and forth. “No. They have countered everything we’ve tried. I’m pulling those forces back. Tired of seeing them getting slaughtered.”
Mace said, “Not that it’s a big help, but we’re rejoining the fight now.”
“They’ve begun targeting the microwave stations as I feared they would. We’ve lost a dozen in the last fifteen minutes. And we’re now at dead even on the ship casualties, down seventy-six total.”
Mace frowned. “That’s a big change.”
Jasper nodded. “We’re making adjustments, but at the moment it’s looking bleak. Especially given the fact that another nine hundred ships will be here shortly.”
“Before, you had said the 50 percent loss level wa
s your cutoff. Does that still hold true?”
Jasper shook his head. “I don’t think we can afford to let the losses go that deep. As soon as those microwave stations are done, we’ll likely be pulling back. Those are all that’s keeping us in this fight.”
“You evacuated a colony to bring those stations here. Can you do that again?”
Jasper frowned. “No. The evacuation is still underway, and those are our smallest colonies. If the Karthians stay together as one large fighting force, when they do attack one of my worlds, we may pull stations from the others forward at that time. I won’t be leaving them unguarded while we fight over a world that has already been abandoned.”
The Rogers swirled, jinked, and spun, weapons firing at any Karthian vessel that came near. Her shields were holding, having not lost a transducer. That changed as four highly charged plasma rounds impacted the forward hull at the same time. The ship jolted, throwing anyone who wasn’t fastened in to the deck or against a forward wall. Three transducers were lost.
Humphrey said, “Mr. Hardy! We have a weak point on decks four and five forward!”
“Mr. Hobbs, try to keep our nose pointed away from any incoming.”
Liam shook his head. “That’s an impossible order, Mr. Hardy.”
“Can those transducers be repaired or replaced?”
“Not while in this torrent of plasma,” said Jeff. “Anyone going out there would be killed by the first strike we encountered.”
Mace frowned. “Mr. Hobbs, take us out of the fight. Jasper, we’re making a jump to Divinia. We need a repair dock for fifteen minutes.”
Jasper replied, “Already full of ships. What do you need?”
“We have three transducers out. All close together.”
Jasper shook his head. “Gonna have to handle those on your own. We have critical repairs going on.”
Mace turned. “Mr. Hobbs, jump us to a neutral point in space where we can effect repairs.”
The Rogers rumbled. “You have to rid us of our tail first, Mr. Hardy. They’re too close.”
Mace armed and fired the green energy weapon. The short distance prevented an evasive maneuver. The Karthian ship slowed and turned away, explosions coming from its sides.
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