“It’s dead,” Jack said, stepping around the cage.
“Good,” Torent said. He fired his electron blade and drove it into the Chitin skull.
The familiar smell of burning Chitin exoskeleton took Jack back to the many encounters with the Chitins. Then he spotted a workbench that was a chaotic mess of tools and equipment.
“This is what we are looking for,” Jack said, stepping up to the workbench.
“What? A pile of junk?”
“This is Sarah’s workbench,” Jack said. He stood before it and looked at the piles of equipment from human to Chitin tech.
“How do you know?” Torent said. He looked around at the many dozens of workbenches in the huge workshop.
“Look at the mess,” Jack said. “Only someone as creative and clever as Reyes could work in a mess like this.”
Torent stepped up on the other side of the bench. He slung his pulse rifle over his shoulder and began picking through the equipment.
“What are we going to find here?” Torent said.
“We’ll know it when we see it,” Jack said and began picking up a pile of loose cables, moving them carefully and looking around them.
“Look,” Torent said, picking something out of the debris. “You had a watch like this.”
Jack looked at the black-cased watch Torent was holding up. It was his watch, the watch he had given to Reyes the last time he had been with her. Jack came around the bench and took it from Torent.
Turning it over in his hands and flipping open the case, Jack tried to see the hidden message Reyes had left for him. She had said it was hidden in plain sight. It was obvious to Jack that the message was here. Otherwise, Sarah would not have abandoned the watch. She had left it for Jack to find, and for everyone else to ignore as irrelevant.
“Give me some light here, Sam,” Jack said.
Torent pointed his flashlight at the watch in Jack’s hands. The case had once been silver, but Jack had used it to fix a combat drone. That had saved Jack’s and Sam Torent’s lives. Then Reyes had made the new, black composite case. It looked like it was about to save Jack’s life again.
Jack cracked open the case. The watch mechanism was missing, and a small storage chip was in its place. Jack pulled out the chip.
“If only we had our meat suits, Sam. I could read this data.”
“I know where we can get one,” Torent said.
Jack nodded in agreement. “Go and get it for me,” Jack said. He looked at Reyes’s workbench. “I’ll use Sarah’s workbench. For luck.”
8
Commander Bevan took cover at the corner of a building a kilometer out from the civilian spaceport. The ruined city streets and the dark of night gave her cover to move.
The Chitins had hit the port hard, and Bevan hoped this was not a wasted trip. Squad by squad, she sent her company out into the wide avenue that led to the spaceport.
With the final squad waiting behind her, pressed to the side of the building, she made ready to send them out into the avenue. The squad leader sitting behind her waited for her signal.
“Keep to this side of the avenue. Move to the front of the company and signal when you are in position. Go.”
The squad of Marines ran past Bevan as she crouched on the ground. They turned the corner and ran, keeping as close to the buildings on their right as possible, only stepping away and out into the avenue to avoid piles of debris that had fallen from the floors above.
Bevan took a final look behind her and checked they were not being followed, then got ready to move out into the avenue.
Moving her company forward with squads coming from the rear to the forward position meant her company was advancing slowly, but at least she was maintaining her cover. She had not encountered any ground troops and had avoided the Hydras that periodically flew overhead.
Running around the corner of the building and moving along the building toward the spaceport, Bevan spotted a ship rising from the port, a small civilian ship no bigger than a Fleet corvette. It climbed slowly, but then the noise hit. This was no stealth ascent, it was a desperate bid for freedom.
The Hydras came from the west, rushing up behind Bevan. She flung herself to the ground and pressed herself against a fallen rooftop statue that lay smashed on the sidewalk.
The Hydras sucked the dust up off the street as they raced along the wide avenue at treetop height. They closed in on the civilian craft and opened fire with their spitz cannon before the craft had climbed half a kilometer.
The cannon fire slammed into the hull of the craft, blowing out a huge section with the first hit. The drive of the civilian craft began to whine, and the liftoff began to lose power. The craft started to fall away, its drive system presenting itself to the oncoming Chitin Hydras.
Squad Leader Jarret came scrambling over the piles of debris toward Bevan’s position.
“Take cover,” Bevan said as Jarret came closer.
“We need to engage the Chits. They are attacking that ship. They don’t stand a chance.”
“Take cover, Jarret,” Bevan said.
Bevan stood up to drag Jarret down into cover when a squadron of Blades raced along the avenue, chasing the Hydras. Their forward pulse lasers fired and their flank cannon purred as the squadron of Blades gave fire to the Chitin craft.
One Hydra exploded mid-air and sent a shower of debris clattering along the avenue, the main body of the craft bouncing and tumbling, bashing abandoned ground transports aside.
The civilian craft took another salvo of fire as the Hydras turned toward the night sky and raced away. It toppled and tumbled, its drive systems seemingly out of control. The massive explosion a few seconds later told Bevan that the ship had crashed back to ground, the fireball lighting up the dark night.
The Blades raced on after the Hydras climbing out of view, their cannons sparkling in the dark. The bright explosion of a Hydra burned like a short-lived star in the night.
“At least someone is fighting them,” Jarret said bitterly. He stood up to move.
The flicker of movement in the dark avenue was enough of an indication to Bevan that there were Chitins nearby. Adder had come into contact with the enemy. She grabbed Jarret by his collar and pulled him back. She was small but strong, and she’d had enough of Jarret’s attitude.
“Contact,” Bevan whispered into Jarret’s ear. “The crashed Hydra. Look. Chits.”
The Chitin soldiers in the Hydra brought down by the Blades had survived the crash and were climbing out. They immediately gave fire with their plasma spears. The spears slammed into the walls and ground around Bevan and Jarret. Bevan dropped to the floor, pulling Jarret with her. The flashing of the Chitin’s spears lit up the dark avenue.
Jarret attempted to bring his pulse rifle up to return fire, but Bevan put a hand on the muzzle. Jarret shot her a disdainful look. Bevan pointed across the avenue to a squad in position and another further along that had created a perfect crossfire.
“Stay down,” Bevan said.
And then the Marines around the avenue gave fire. The first pulse round came from the squad on the far side of the street and was immediately joined by a withering hail of fire pouring in from three squads, one on the far side of the avenue, a second further along toward the spaceport, and a third in position on the upper floors of a building on Bevan’s side of the avenue. The storm of pulse rifle fire tore the three Chits apart in seconds, and no sooner had the rifle fire began than it ended. Three dead Chits and absolute silence from the Marines of Adder Company.
Bevan stood up and looked down at Jarret, who was still processing what had just happened.
“When I say cover, you take cover. When I say attack, you attack. If you think I won’t fight them when we must, you are a fool and you don’t know me at all. If you think I won’t shoot you in your little head if you endanger my company again, you are an even bigger fool. Move your squad to the spaceport and secure the entrance.”
Jarret squared off against Bevan.
He glowered down at her. Bevan was young and looked innocent, but her eyes burned with a fierce determination that made Jarret think twice about questioning her again.
“Sir,” he said simply and moved off, keeping to the side of the building and using it as cover.
Bevan watched Jarret running. He was a good Marine and an excellent squad leader, but he was having difficulty following orders. Bevan understood, with chaos all around and the company operating independently, without regular communication with the battalion major, it was easy to see how he was losing his discipline. She would have to make him understand the importance of his compliance if they were to succeed.
Jarret’s squad move along the avenue, and then the last squad moved out of cover and follow them. They moved with skill and purpose, observing the surroundings and constantly checking for danger. Adder Company was lucky to have so many experienced Marines. Even though she was an inexperienced commander, she had to act like a seasoned professional. She would have to make the tough calls when they came. Without her clear thinking, the company wouldn’t survive. The pressure was intense, but Bevan wore it with pride. She moved out of cover and along the avenue, watching Adder Company advance in good order toward the civilian spaceport.
The mass of abandoned ground transports around the spaceport gave excellent cover. A fresh wave of Hydra craft swept overhead as Bevan was poised to enter. Keeping a company of Marines out of sight was challenging and made for slow progress, but Bevan had achieved her first objective. She had made it to the spaceport.
The interior was wrecked. The high clear composite ceilings had been smashed, and the ground of the entrance was littered with debris. The hundreds of discarded luggage cases told its own story of the civilians who had attempted to flee. They had abandoned their luggage in fear and haste. Where the civilians were now was anyone’s guess. There were no bodies in the spaceport entrance, and Bevan hoped the civilians who had come here out of desperation had fled into the city and hopefully taken cover from the Chitins.
Moving through the wreckage of the once bright port’s entrance, Bevan started to fear there would be no space-worthy craft here, only wrecks and dead bodies. She put such thoughts out of her mind. She could only work on one problem at a time. First thing she had to do was check the facility for a spacecraft.
Bevan assembled a small number of Marines with her to act as message runners. She sent her instructions out to the squads—some to hold the entrance, and others to move past the barriers to the landing pad beyond the entrance and the passenger terminal.
She moved slowly and silently past a barrier to the first landing pad.
The transport that sat on the pad looked in good condition apart from the ceiling beam that had fallen and pierced the upper hull. It might be possible to repair that hull, but then Bevan noticed the beam had traveled through the entire body of the craft and was sticking out of the bottom. Conduits and transmission cables dangled out like the guts of some mechanical beast, harpooned and skewered to the spot.
Bevan moved past the transport and saw another. Burned out. It took some time for the company to advance further, picking their way through the broken gantries and walkways. The next pad was empty. Bevan could see beyond the landing pad to the very end of the spaceport. There at the far end, Bevan saw a sight that brought a dangerous and distracting mixture of joy and hope.
The last pad was occupied by a Fleet corvette. A small but powerful gunship designed to support the larger destroyer class craft. The corvette appeared to be trapped under a section of the composite wall of the spaceport that had fallen on it. It was trapped and would have to be freed, but it might still be serviceable. Or corvette could be out of action.
“Only one way to find out,” Bevan said to herself. She waved to a nearby runner and sent word to all squad leaders to converge with stealth and speed on the corvette on landing pad four.
9
Jack sat in the entrance to the workshop wearing the Fleet Intelligence enforcer’s meat suit. The enforcer sat shivering while Jack viewed the data left behind by Reyes.
The Fleet Intelligence meat suit was exactly the same design as the Fleet Marines’ version except for the intimidating black color. Jack had no difficulty loading the chip Reyes had left for him.
The data streamed over the enhanced view. Jack hoped to find a personal message from Reyes in the files, something to tell him of her feelings about him, but there was nothing. Just technical details on how to synthesize the chemical cloak, and the inverted version of the cloak that drove the Chits into a frenzy and set them against each other.
Details on the equipment location, how to prepare and calibrate, how to activate the synthesis process and then when Jack had just about absorbed all the information, a fresh new file opened, and there standing before him was a holographic projection of Sarah Reyes.
She looked exactly as she had when he had last seen her. A quick check of the timestamp on the recording told him that it had in fact been recorded only hours after their last meeting.
“So glad you found the watch. I hoped Fleet Intelligence would overlook it, but I knew you wouldn’t. I wanted to keep it with me to remind me of you. Keep it for me and find me, ok?.”
Jack was glad he was wearing the dark face plate helmet because the sight of Reyes standing before him was bringing a sudden and unexpected wave of emotion.
Jack pulled himself together. He knew a good leader was not an emotionless robot. A good leader needed feelings, and needed to understand them in others, but it was perhaps not a good idea to display them too overtly when in a struggle for survival. The Marines under Jack’s command needed to be able to rely on him, and becoming emotional at the sight of his friend might not be a deal-breaker, but it hardly instilled confidence.
“Fleet Intelligence was so desperate to evacuate Eros that they wouldn’t listen to my plan. I think we can use the cloak to hide the planet, at least make the Chits forget about it. I don’t know how it works exactly, but I know it does. It was the data from your action on belt planetesimal BP13 that gave me the idea. The Chits ignored the drone you sent after it.”
Jack remembered bitterly the actions of BP13. A small team of underperforming Marines had been killed by the Chitin soldiers on that rock, and Jack could do nothing to save them. Then, to make the failure even more bitter, Jack had been promoted.
Emotions turned from joy to bitterness as Jack remembered the Marines who had died on that operation. But here was Reyes telling him that that operation had led to the discovery that had saved most of the population of Eros.
“Jack. You need to synthesize the cloak according to my outline. You then need to deliver it to the atmosphere. Any mass power distribution node will do the job. The detonation of a node will be powerful and clean enough to deliver the cloak to the atmosphere. The cloak will disperse in the low pressure and spread through the atmosphere. The Chits in orbit will ignore the planet and drift away.”
Jack listened to Reyes’s message. There was no downside here, so why hadn’t the Fleet or the civilian government authorized the plan?
“The only drawback, Jack, is the detonation will feedback through the power distribution system and knock out all power planet-wide. You will lose all tech capabilities once the cloak is dispersed. If you can find a ship with its own power source, you could get away. If you can get away, then maybe we can see each other again. Good luck, Jack. See you soon.”
Jack let the recording end. He replayed the technical instructions and gave himself the chance to bring his emotions under control. Then, with a sudden sense of urgency and focus, Jack pulled off the meat suit helmet and looked up at Torent.
“Orders, sir?” Torent asked.
Jack pulled the Fleet Intelligence agent’s pulse pistol out of his waistband and tossed it to Torent.
“Return that to the agent. Ask him and the enforcers if they want to come with us. Get Cobra ready to move, Sam. We’ve got work to do.”
10
; Laidlaw sat in the corner of a burned-out building. The embers of the fire that had ravaged the structure were still warm and warded off the cold night. A squad leader came toward him, his boots crunching on the burned debris underfoot.
“Confirmed, sir,” the squad leader said. “It’s a ground operating base. We count eight Hydras arranged around a central Hydra. The Chits are moving in and out of the Hydras and heading off in squads of three into the surrounding area. They are not traveling far before returning. Any idea what they are doing, sir?”
Laidlaw stood up and looked out of the smashed window.
“No idea, but we should stop them, whatever it is. Pass the word. We move on the Chits right away.”
Laidlaw picked up his pulse rifle and checked the weapon. There was going to be action.
The route to the Chitin Hydras took Laidlaw through a series of wrecked buildings. He climbed over a broken wall into the city street and crossed to the wall of the building opposite. All along the street, Laidlaw saw the shadows of his Marines exiting the buildings on one side and moving as one, crossing the street and taking cover against the wall of the building opposite.
On the other side of this last building was a wide plaza where the Chits had landed their Hydras. Laidlaw held up a hand and instructed his company to hold position. The signal went up and down the street to the entire company.
Laidlaw entered the building through a wide doorway. The door was missing and the frame was smashed. The interior was filled with rubble. The upper floors had been destroyed and had fallen to the ground floor. He picked his way carefully over the wreckage and headed toward the far side of the building.
When on top of the rubble, he found himself at the second floor. A hole in the wall showed him the plaza and the circle of Chitin Hydras.
Looking down at the Hydras from his vantage point, Laidlaw assessed the target. There were too many Chitin soldiers moving about the area for him to take out in one hit. The Hydras would have to be the target.
Forged by War (Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Book 9) Page 4