by Randy Dyess
“I read you. You’re transmitting, all right. Maybe the problem is on his end?”
“That still doesn’t give him the authority to go sonic over a city.”
“Sergeant Major McCoons, look up,” Private Suki called out.
He was about to yell at her for breaking his fire pattern, but something in her voice made him switch his camera view to point directly overhead. Hundreds of red streaks lit up the atmosphere. “Is that a fleet exercise taking place?” McCoons asked his AI.
“Negative. No fleet exercises are scheduled for this system. Terran fleet is still in the Sol system.”
It took a few minutes before McCoons realized a battle was going on above the planet. “Listen up! We have fleet action occurring in orbit. Dump your suits and arm your weapons. I want a defensive pattern covering this entire rooftop! Chen, put your team in the center of the roof as a ready reserve.”
“Aye, Sergeant Major,” came the reply as McCoons’ assault team broke their hot load pattern and spread out over the rooftop landing zone.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I want everyone prepared for incoming fire or landing attempts. The fleet will need us to help capture any pirate that escapes the battle,” Sergeant Major McCoons told his team as they positioned themselves.
The twenty-five marines of Assault Team One dug in and mentally prepared themselves for possible actions against a pirate raid force.
Chapter 11
The Galaxy-class freighter, Hulk, exited its FTL tunnel over the planet of Candus. Once a month, the Hulk and two other Galaxy-class freighters arrived in the Candus system to deliver supplies and carry the agricultural products of the planet to inner-core worlds.
“Exiting,” the Hulk’s navigator said over the ship’s comm system.
All eyes looked at the main view screen, waiting for the FTL bubble to bleed off and the ship’s systems to come back online. The static on the screen dissipated, and a large object appeared. “What the hell are those things?” Captain Hadley asked his navigator.
“I don’t know, sir. They look like asteroids.”
“There’s no asteroid field over Candus,” Captain Hadley said. “Helm, plot a course around the asteroids—I want this plot in twenty seconds. Comm, hail the planet and find out what’s going on.”
“Aye, Captain,” both officers replied.
“Captain, I can plot a new heading, but were fully-loaded, so it’s going to take twenty minutes to change course,” the helm officer said. Galaxy-class freighters were the largest freighters built by humans: each was over three kilometers long when towing a full load of cargo pods. The massive engines could accelerate the ship fast enough to travel from an FTL endpoint to a floating space port, but they were not maneuverable. Others ship maneuvered away from Galaxy-class freighters—not the other way around.
“Hail the Thor and ask them if they have any information,” Captain Hadley said to his communications officer.
“Already on it, sir. They reported that they don’t know anything, either. The Thor contacted the Ironman and the Ironman didn’t know anything. No one from the planet is answering any of us. I’ll keep trying to raise someone.”
“Captain, whatever those things are, four of them have turned and are coming this way,” the helm officer said.
“What do you mean they turned? How does an asteroid turn?” Captain Hadley asked.
“I don’t know what happened, but four of the objects broke off from the rest of the field and heading toward us. They’ll get to the Thor and Ironman first, but their indicated path has them heading right for us.”
“Are they pirates?” Captain Hadley asked.
“Unknown. There appears to be a Marine drop ship in orbit, as well. Two of the smaller asteroids are chasing it.”
“Contact the drop ship and see if they know anything. Maybe this is some new form of Terran Navy vessel and they are drilling. It would have been nice to know this before we plotted our tunnel.”
“Trying to hail the drop ship,” the comm officer replied. “No answer. Switching to emergency frequencies.”
“Anything?” Captain Hadley asked.
“No response. Do you want me to declare a general distress and send out a relay signal?”
“Not yet, but get one ready. Let’s see if these asteroid things are some new kind of Terran Navy ship.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Captain!” the helm officer yelled. “The two smaller ships are firing some kind of weapon at the drop ship. I see small balls of what could be plasma heading toward the drop ship.”
“Is it a test? First Officer, get on the line to the Navy, the Marines, and anyone else you can think of to find out if this is some drill.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Captain,” the helm officer said, “I don’t know if this is a drill or not, but the drop ship has just fired all drives and is trying to evade. They’re pulling some major gees, if this is only a test.”
“Put the plots on main viewer—I want to see what’s going on.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Comm, keep trying to reach the drop ship or the Navy. I’m not going to spend thousands of credits in fuel changing course if this is some kind of drill.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Navy ships are firing again. The Marine ship is not going to get away from them, this time.”
The bridge crew of the Thor gasped as the small marine ship broke apart. “Was that a target drone?” Captain Hadley asked.
“Unknown. My sensors aren’t good enough to tell. The two small Navy ships have broken off and are heading back to the asteroid field—or Navy fleet, whatever the hell it is.”
“What’s the status of the others heading our way?”
“Based on the range the small one’s showed, two minutes to weapons range on the Ironman.”
No one said anything, but they were all silently hoping this was an unannounced Navy drill and that the four ships would break off their intercept course with the freighter convoy.
“Weapons fire on the Ironman!”
Captain Hadley didn’t reply as he watched the Ironman on the main viewer. He hoped that the strange weapons being used by the asteroid ships were set to pass over the Ironman without causing any damage. He was hoping in vain, though, as the bridge crew watched the Ironman break into pieces.
“Get us out of here!” Captain Hadley shouted.
“Trying, Captain. I’ve input the solution, but we’re straining the thrusters, as it is. We’re just too big.”
“Jettison the pods!”
“Captain?” the First Officer asked. No one ever jettisoned cargo pods. To lose even one pod could mean the end of your career, let alone all of them.
“You heard me: Jettison them now!”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Weapons fire on Thor.”
Captain Hadley could feel the small thumps as the explosive bolts blew and pushed the cargo pods away from the ship. He was hoping the floating pods would distract whoever was attacking them long enough to start their escape.
“Pods free,” the First Officer reported.
“Thor’s breaking up; enemy ships are heading for us. We’ll be in range in three minutes.”
“What’s the status of the new heading? Are we light enough to maneuver?”
Helm Officer McFarlean shook his head and reported, “No, Jim, we’re not.”
“Captain!” the First Officer yelled as the main view screen turned green and the huge freighter started to shake.
*****
After destroying the four human ships in orbit over Candus, eight large spider ships positioned themselves around the planet. Once they were equally spaced over Candus, a blue lightning bolt fired from each of the ships, forming network connection between them. A few minutes later, the network bolts grew brighter as an energy field formed around each of them. Once the energy field grew to encompass all eight ships and the space between, the ships discharged the energ
y field into Candus’ atmosphere.
Sergeant Major McCoons watched the upper atmosphere turn a strange blue. He said nothing as it descended toward the planet, dissolving the clouds. Air transports started falling as the blue enveloped them.
“What’s going on?” Tech Sergeant Chen asked.
“I don’t know, Billy. Whatever it is, it can’t be good.”
Sergeant Major McCoons and his team were powerless to help the people trapped in the air cars, and they were powerless to stop the blue field as it lowered into the city. “Form up! We’re getting out of here,” Sergeant Major McCoons yelled at his team. He started to move, but before he could take one step, his display went dark as his suit powered down. What the hell is happening, he thought. “Report!” he commanded his AI, but nothing happened. His AI was offline, like the rest of the suit. “Anyone able to hear me, report,” he said into his internal comm unit. None of his team members responded.
“Well, that’s just fine,” Sergeant Major McCoons muttered. Hoping it would still work, he moved his chin to the right and pressed the emergency button. The button was brand new, and he had never been able to test it before with the suit powered off. He signed a breath of relief as he felt the helmet’s seam mechanism disengage and his helmet start coming apart.
As McCoons’ helmet finished coming apart and fell to the ground, he looked out over the city. Fire and smoke was rising all around from the fallen air cars and battle debris. The city was soon going to be a mess if emergency services didn’t respond and stop some of the fires. A thin layer of sweat broke out on his forehead as he wondered if their equipment had failed, as well.
The seam mechanism on his right disengaged and the suit began to come apart. Soon, he was able to shake the right arm pieces off and use his right hand to manually unlock his left arm and the rest of his suit. As he was stepping out of his suit, he wondered what could cause the system failures. They were supposed to be hardened to even the strongest EMP blasts. Once free of his suit, McCoons moved toward his team. The emergency button was new, and without comm, he couldn’t instruct the others on how to activate it and get out of their suits.
“Hang on, Alton,” Sergeant Major McCoons said as he reached up and unlocked the back panel of his helmet. He cranked the release lever and watched as the seams started widening. It took two minutes just to release Chen’s helmet, and it would take another twenty to release the rest of him.
“Come on,” Sergeant Major McCoons said, “we have a lot of work to do.”
Over the next three hours, marines were freed from their suits. None of their weapons worked, but Sergeant Major McCoons had them form a defensive fire pattern, anyway. “Listen up,” he shouted. “I don’t know what happened, but we’re marines. Everyone go to your suit and free your knife. We may not have our rifles, but that doesn’t mean we can’t defend ourselves from whoever is doing this.”
The twenty-five marines of Assault Team One dropped to their knees and waited for whatever was coming their way.
*****
“Incoming!”
Sergeant Major McCoons looked up to see green balls falling all over the horizon. “What are those things?” Private Pelter shouted.
Sergeant Major McCoons didn’t know what was happening. Pirates didn’t drop bombs on their targets, because bombs destroyed valuable property. Pirates only attacked defensive systems, and only long enough to damage them. They came and went as fast as they could, and the least amount of damage they did, the better.
“Chen. What are those things?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Sergeant Major. I think they’re plasma balls.”
“What? What the hell is a plasma ball?”
“It’s a theoretical weapon. No one has been able to produce them outside of a lab. I don’t know how they’ve done it—it should be impossible to hold one together for so long.”
“Well, they don’t look theoretical or impossible to me.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Sergeant Major. I’ve never seen any designs for a real weapon—only the results of a few laboratory tests. The tests showed that the plasma would come apart quickly and dissipate, though. There has been nothing about keeping it together.”
“Understood. Listen up, I want everyone to set up your rappelling rope. Stay alert, and if you see one of those things falling on us, shout out and then go.”
“Aye, Sergeant Major,” the entire team shouted before moving back toward their suits to retrieve their ropes.
After the team had set up their rappelling ropes, Sergeant Major McCoons called them into a circle. “If we have to bug out, I want rally point one to be the south entrance to that big green building three blocks west of here.” He waited as each of the team members looked south and fixed on the green building.
“Rally point two is the park twelve blocks west of the green building. Rally point three is the space port. We don’t have communications, so do not stay at a rally point longer than twenty minutes before moving on. Try to team up, but don’t wait for anyone longer than you have to.”
“Aye, Sergeant Major,” the team responded.
“I don’t know what’s coming our way, but do the best you can. I don’t expect any of you to get yourselves killed fighting with only your knives, so find any other weapons you can. Protect the people and yourself if you can, but don’t throw your lives away.”
“Aye, Sergeant Major,” the team responded.
“Sergeant Bleddyn, I want lookouts posted on all sides of this roof. Shout out if you see anything.”
“Aye, Sergeant Major.”
Sergeant Bleddyn assembled four men and set up the lookouts. They didn’t know what to report, as everything they were seeing was strange to them—nothing made sense. The lookouts just stood there, watching, as the green balls of plasma fell into the city. Explosions happened all over the city, and they shouted when they saw building after building explode and collapse.
Sergeant Major McCoons didn’t understand what he was seeing, either. The attackers seemed to be bombing everything; usually, an attack would only take place against defensive positions or strategic locations. Thousands of bombs seemed to be exploding randomly all over the city and some even collided in the air, dispersing their energy. Others fell on the same spot an earlier bomb had landed. They were not very precise, but they were destroying large chunks of the city.
“Not very precise, are they, Sergeant Major?” Sergeant Bleddyn said.
“No. It’s like they are just dropping them out of their ships and letting them land anywhere. I can’t wrap my head around what they are doing. There must be ten thousand bombs targeting this city, alone.”
“Some are falling outside of the city, as well.” Sergeant Bleddyn pointed to the far horizon. “That’s a lot of bombs.”
“Have you ever seen anything like this before?” Sergeant Major McCoons asked.
“No—never even heard about anything close to this before.”
“Me neither,” Sergeant Major McCoons said. “I wonder who they are and why they would be attacking the city, like this.”
“Whoever they are,” Sergeant Bleddyn replied, “They’re making a mess of this place.”
*****
Cindy and Mel heard a boom in the background. “What was that? Was that thunder?” Cindy asked as she looked out the window of the small café.
“I didn’t think we were supposed to have rain today,” Mel replied before going to the window.
“Sure sounds like it,” Cindy said. “We could use a good rain around here. It has been so hot and dry lately.”
Mel didn’t reply as he stood there. Something was sounding alarm bells in his head, but he just couldn’t understand what. He thought he had heard sounds like these before, but he couldn’t place them. He knew it wasn’t thunder, even if it had been raining. “That wasn’t thunder, girl, it was something else. Sounded like an explosion.”
“Fireworks? It’s not a holiday. Why would there be fireworks?”
/>
“Don’t know. I’m going outside to see what’s going on. Stay here.”
“I’m not staying here. If there are fireworks, I want to see them, too,” she said as she put down her data pad. Cindy joined Mel as he made his way out the front door. They looked around for the source of the explosions.
“I can’t see anything from here,” Mel said.
“I can’t, either. Let’s go to the park—we should be able to see from there.”
“Good idea,” Mel said as he started walking toward the small park two blocks away. Dozens of other people had come out of the buildings around the café, and no one knew what had caused the explosions they’d heard.