by J. L. Lyon
The door attempted to close, but the admiral’s hand shot forward to stop it, “Easy, boys. This is no different than darkness. Remember, we are the phantoms, not them.” He advanced cautiously onto the floor, and Derek and 301 came close behind. The sound of their boots echoed back to them from unseen places as they walked, exposed and vulnerable, into the unknown.
“Non-toxic,” Derek said, sniffing lightly at the air. “They wanted us in the open.”
“Get ready for the ambush,” McCall whispered.
301 surveyed the mists apprehensively and saw a shadow pass some distance away. He motioned to Derek and McCall, and they all stopped. But as 301 focused his attention on the position of the shadow, he heard a click by his ear—the unmistakable sound of an assault rifle.
With lightning motion 301 pivoted his wrist into a backward swing, and turned with the momentum as Calumnior cut the assault rifle in half. Another quick twist ended the life of the rifle’s owner, all in the time it took him to draw breath and shout, “Get down!”
Gunfire erupted all around them, and the Specters dove out of the way by instinct. But Admiral McCall stood firm, catching several bullets on the flat of his blade while returning fire with his sidearm.
301 rolled to his feet just as the mist shifted and revealed a small squad of the traitors. Their eyes widened at his approach, but they had time for little else before Calumnior fell upon them, slicing through smoke and air before meeting flesh and bone.
A cry from behind rang out just as 301 finished the squad—a shout of victorious rage. 301 turned swiftly, knowing he had no chance to evade the bullet that at any second would be bound for his back. Still, he tried nonetheless. The shot sounded, followed immediately by a sharp clang. 301 lost his balance and hit the floor, surprisingly unwounded.
He looked up to see McCall, Spectral Gladius extended forward where he had blocked the bullet. He fired three shots at 301’s would-be assassin and the man dropped to the floor. After that, the docking bay returned to silence.
The old admiral holstered his smoking sidearm and offered 301 a hand. As he got to his feet the Specter Captain spoke, winded, “Thank you, sir. Where did you learn to fight like that?”
“A tale for another day, perhaps,” McCall smiled, though 301 detected a hint of sadness behind the gesture.
“Where is Blaine?” 301 asked, trying to catch a glimpse of his partner through the smoke, “Derek!”
“Over here,” Derek called. “I found something I think you should see.”
301 hurried in his partner’s general direction and laid eyes on the fearsome scene: several dead Great Army soldiers lay strewn about the floor, rifles still smoking from the firefight. Derek knelt in the very center of the fallen, Exusia glowing fiery white as he studied the lifeless body of Specter Tyrell.
“I didn’t hear the crossing of blades,” McCall said. “What happened?”
“I fought the soldiers—some of them, at least,” Derek shook his head. “But Specter Tyrell and about half these men were already dead. Looks like he got here before we did and tried to fight them alone. He may have saved all of our lives…they were trying to arm that.” He indicated a large cylindrical device nearby that was—thankfully—offline.
“A Scythe-Pulse,” McCall whispered. “That could have brought down the entire building.”
“Some parting gift,” Derek said grimly.
“She hasn’t left yet,” 301 eyed the elegant silhouette of a Halo-4 just a few feet away. “They must have been about to leave when Tyrell delayed them, thus the need to cover the bay in mist. We should search each—”
A loud grating sound cut 301 off. Smoke rushed out as the bay door rose into the ceiling, almost instantly revealing the entire floor. 301 cursed under his breath, “We’re too late.”
A sonic boom erupted from the front of the bay as a Halo-4 shot out of the dock and made a break for the open sky. “Derek!” 301 yelled. “Into the nearest Halo, now! Admiral, I need you to take care of whoever is on the control deck and then signal the Atlantic fleet. We need eyes in that blackout zone. They didn’t go to all this trouble just to cover their escape.”
The admiral nodded, “Don’t trust any ship out there you don’t know, Captain.”
“Understood, sir.” 301 followed Derek into the Halo and slid into the copilot’s seat. The vessel, unfortunately, faced the back of the docking bay. They would have to turn it around before they could go after her—more precious seconds lost. “Hurry, Derek! Fire the engines and go!”
“Right,” Derek said absently as he flipped a few more switches. Then he grabbed the controls and smiled, “Hold on to something.” He pulled back on the lever and the Halo’s engines launched them backward out of the docking bay in a short burst of speed. 301’s grip on the seat tightened as Derek turned the Halo around in free-fall and fired the primary engines, propelling the vessel forward at the head of a long trail of blue exhaust.
Reminding himself it was okay to breathe, 301 shifted his attention to the console to get a lock on the other Halo’s position. She had gotten a head start of several miles, and the chances of them closing the distance before she reached the blackout zone were slim. Still, Derek pushed the Halo to the limit of its speed, trying his best to catch up.
“Just stay close enough to follow her,” 301 said. “I want to know where she lands.”
“You’re the boss…but she may not intend to land anywhere this side of the Atlantic, Captain.”
“No, you heard McCall. Once the hovercraft get about ten miles from shore, they just disappear. That’s where she’s headed. If we can just—” 301 froze mid-sentence. The blip on the screen that represented the other Halo had just disappeared.
“Captain?” Derek asked. “What is it?”
“The vessel,” he said. “It’s gone.”
“What? How? Is she out of range?”
“No,” 301 answered. “It just disappeared.”
“Maybe she crashed.”
“I don’t think so. The admiral said the blackout zone was ten miles out. She disappeared at five miles out. Could she be jamming us?”
“No,” Derek replied. “Not from one Halo to another. It would take a much larger vessel to completely jam us out, maybe more than one.”
“Whatever it is, it’s moving closer to shore.”
At that moment they passed through a dense cloud, and 301 felt a sudden spike of dread. He put a finger to his earphone and tested it. Nothing. “Communications are gone. We must have passed into the blackout zone.”
“All other surveillance is also down,” Derek said. “What is going on?”
They emerged from the cloud, and 301 barely withheld a gasp. There before them in the water were seven battleships, flanking a much larger ship at their center. The low light of early morning had begun its reign over the eastern sky, and what it revealed was chaos. Fire filled the air as Halos fired haphazardly on one another, unable to tell friend from foe. Smoke and ash filled the atmosphere, and the unluckiest of the vessels rained down their destruction into the calm waters of the bay.
“That ship,” Derek said, indicating the eighth vessel in the center. “It’s the Infallible.”
Infallible, the pride of the World System navy and the most powerful ship on the ocean, was one of the reasons Alexander had been able to build his government in the first place. Entire convoys were known to falter before its superior firepower. Seeing it there in the water, arrayed in attack formation, was even more alarming than the hellish battle raging above it.
“If Infallible has been taken…” Derek said, breathless with dread. “We’re in a lot of trouble, Captain.”
“Looks like they plan to assault the shore,” 301 said. “If they make landfall with that jamming system still active, all our technology will be useless: radar, ordinance, communications… It will be a slaughter.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“We need to disable that jamming system.”
“Someth
ing this powerful…it has to be coming from Infallible.”
301 knew what they had to do, but it took a moment for him to quiet his reservations. There would be thousands of personnel on Infallible, and the chances of two men successfully sneaking on board—much less disabling a vital part of the enemy’s plan—were slim.
But we’re not just men, he told himself. We’re Specters.
“Derek…can you get us on that ship?”
His partner flashed a mischievous smile, “I thought you’d never ask.”
Derek turned their Halo into a dive, plunging into the fiery battle below.
-X-
Liz landed her Halo on the deck of the Infallible, where a contingent of white-clad soldiers and Ruling Council loyalists already awaited her arrival. She shut down the primary engines and opened the side hatch, letting in the cold ocean breeze. The leader of the imperial squad came forward and paused, staring behind her in confusion, “You are the only one?”
The disappointment in his voice irked her, but she answered him nonetheless, “Yes. I am the only one who made it from the Spire, Captain.”
He bowed respectfully, “Then all aboard the Infallible await your orders, Chief of Command Aurora.”
The exalted title rang in her ears, a position she knew had not been meant for her. But as she was the only Specter to join the Premier’s coup, there was no one else.
“Thank you, Captain,” she replied. “But our day is not done yet. We must cover the escape of the Ruling Council’s allies and continue up the river for the main attack. Also, I believe I may have been pursued here by other members of Specter. I realize there are Halos flying and shooting everywhere above us, but tell your men to keep a good watch.”
“I will put all our personnel on alert,” the captain nodded.
Liz turned to the shore and gazed upon her former home with disdain, “With any luck, Captain, this war will both begin and end today. Take me to the bridge.”
4
“SHUTTING DOWN PRIMARY ENGINES,” Derek announced. “Boosting auxiliary power.” What little turbulence 301 felt in the cockpit vanished as the Halo coasted lightly toward the aft hull of Infallible. So far, Derek had successfully navigated them through the battle and to the ship without being seen. 301 had always known his partner was skilled, but today he had impressed on an entirely new level.
“I’ve set the Halo in a proximity flight pattern,” Derek said. “It should move with the ship. Also, if we get in a bind the Halo should respond to my wrist communicator to come pick us up. Of course, that will only work if we can disable that jamming system.”
“How are we supposed to find the equipment?” 301 asked. “We don’t have time to search the ship top-to-bottom.”
“The power necessary for a jamming system this sophisticated would be enormous. They must have Solithium generators—lots of them. The only places on the ship that have enough room for what they need would be the main deck and the cargo hold. I didn’t see anything on the main deck during our approach, so my guess would be cargo.”
301 frowned, “A guess is better than nothing, I suppose.”
Derek rose from the pilot chair and made his way to the back of the cockpit, where he knelt before a large black container behind his seat. He opened it and rummaged through the contents. “Flying any higher might give away our location, so we’ll have to find another way to get on the ship.” 301 approached, and Derek tossed two disks to him. “These should work.”
301 caught the disks and examined them: magnetic climbing gear. His heart sank, “You’re not suggesting…”
“What other choice do we have, Captain?” Derek stood, slipping his hands into two disks of his own. “We can’t fly up, so we’ll have to climb.”
301 slid his hands into the grips of the disks and followed Derek into the cabin. His partner stepped up to the hatch and gave him a wary look, “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Derek hit the button on the inner hull and the hatch slid open, allowing them to be pelted by the spray of the sea. Derek reached up above the doorway and used the disk to pull himself outside. A moment later 301 heard his boots pounding on the roof, and for the second time he realized how much he had underestimated Derek’s imaginative prowess. He would not have thought to do this in a million years.
Quieting his fears, 301 latched on to the top of the doorway with his magnetic disk and lifted himself up on top of the Halo. A mountain of grey—no less daunting than Everest—filled his vision, and he approached Infallible slowly. The top of the Halo was slick from the seawater and he nearly slipped several times, but he at last made it down the nose of the hovercraft and latched on desperately to the ship’s hull. Then he began the arduous climb.
He was about halfway up when he made the mistake of looking down, and suddenly felt as though he might be sucked off the side of the ship to fall into oblivion. 301 gritted his teeth and turned his attention back to the climb, blocking out the visions of himself plummeting to a painful death. Focus, 301. Just get on board.
Derek—who had gotten a several-second head start—reached the top first, where he waited for 301 to come up alongside him. 301 breathed out a long sigh of relief as he took hold of the railing, glad the next part of their journey would be of the horizontal variety. A squad of soldiers patrolled the deck not far from them, but they would pass soon. They could pause for a moment to catch their breath, and the way would be clear.
“They’re gearing up for battle,” 301 motioned to the gun turrets lined up and down the sides of the flagship, each manned by at least two gunners. “Looks like they might also have an invasion force.”
“Assuming Sullivan is behind this, he is smarter than I gave him credit for,” Derek said. “This is a genius move. If they fail, they have still proven to the World System that they are a force to be reckoned with. If they succeed, Alexandria will fall today.”
“Then we need to do this quickly,” 301 said. “After this squad passes we’ll have a clear shot at the aft cabin. From there we can find our way to the cargo hold.”
Derek turned his attention to the squad, who at that moment passed right by them. They completed their survey of the aft deck and then continued on toward the front of the ship.
“Go!” At 301’s command the Specters leapt over the railing and onto Infallible, leaving their magnetic disks stuck to the hull behind them. They ran quickly and quietly toward the aft cabin, the white light of their Spectral Gladii igniting just as 301 kicked open the door and rushed inside. Two soldiers guarded the entrance, but Calumnior fell upon them in a fury. By the time Derek shut the door both hostiles were dead.
Derek looked down at the two lifeless soldiers, “A disguise might be a good idea, Captain. We’re bound to pass more soldiers on our way to the cargo hold, and we can’t just kill them all.”
“Agreed,” 301 nodded. They set about removing the white overcoats from their former owners and put them on. While examining a slash that 301’s blade had made in the coat he was to wear, Derek went on, “I don’t see how they plan to fight in these things. Good for show, not for battle.”
“The Premier and the other chief advisors are politicians,” 301 replied, straightening his cuffs. “Are you really surprised?”
“No,” Derek smiled. “I suppose not.”
“Let’s get going. Every minute lost is a minute closer to Alexandria’s defeat.”
-X-
“Chief Aurora,” the captain of Infallible called from the other side of the bridge. “You had better come look at this.”
Liz walked over and stood with the captain at the tactical screen, “What is it?”
“Surveillance is still active outside the jamming radius, and we’ve picked up a group of vessels headed this way,” he circled the few red dots that had appeared, and the screen zoomed in. “Readings indicate the squadron to be composed of seven battleships, five destroyers, and one System-class flagship, the MWRS Detriment.”
“It’s
the World System’s patrol guard,” Liz shook her head. “You’re sure there’s no chance they can detect us?”
“The Blackout device jams every known form of technological surveillance,” the officer replied. “But a soldier with a sharp eye will be able to spot us in just under a couple of minutes. So far I don’t think any Halos have escaped our guns to get back and warn the System that we are at the door, but when the patrol guard sees us that will undoubtedly change.”
“Does a squadron of that size pose a significant threat to the Infallible?”
“Detriment has roughly sixty percent of Infallible’s firepower, but those destroyers tip the balance in their favor. Even with no targeting equipment, we may not be able to make it to shore without sustaining heavier casualties than initially anticipated. Once we’re spotted, every second we wait to turn around increases the chance that the road to the Atlantic will be blocked. If the System’s Atlantic fleet can trap us in the Chesapeake, we’re through.”
“But as long as the Blackout stays operational, we have the advantage.”
“Until they adapt, yes. However…there is another way. The Infallible is equipped with long-range Tetra-torpedoes.”
Liz nodded, “If we attack them now we could cripple the patrol fleet, but that would also alert the System to our presence. The other option is to hold out for the possibility that they won’t see us, but that could end with us facing the patrol fleet and the shore defenses.”
The captain shrugged. “We take a risk either way.”
“I hate wait-and-see tactics, Captain,” Liz said fiercely. “Open torpedo bay doors. Prepare coordinates for three launches, all aimed at the Detriment. Once it is crippled, you may move on to the destroyers. Do not slow our approach.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
At that moment the ship’s XO entered the bridge, an anxious look on his face, “Chief Aurora, we have a problem. Two soldiers were just found dead in the aft cabin, stripped of their overcoats. Their wounds are a combination of melee slashes and burns.”