Shards [Book Two]

by Peter W Prellwitz

  “Not so loud! You make it sound like we're doing a lot more than rubbing your shoulder!” I rubbed him a little more, feeling his strength, and shifted to both his shoulders. “Mmmmm ... make that shoulders."

  “Ha! Now look who's sounding horny.” He laughed again and twisted, bringing his arm around my waist. He fell back on the blanket, pulling me onto him. I gladly went, bringing my lips to his. He held me close and we kissed.

  Some time later, we were still kissing, me lying down now and him beside me. My head was spinning and spinning and I felt a warm glow all through my body.

  He pulled his lips away and brought his mouth close beside my ear. Brushing my hair, he whispered softly, “I love you, Abigail."

  “I love you, Aaron,” I barely spoke. He lifted his head and we stared into each other's eyes for an eternity. He pulled me back close to him, again lying down and staring up at the stars. I cradled close, my head on his chest, feeling his love and his strength and his soul. With my hand I caressed his strong, handsome face.

  “Have you every thought about emigrating, Abby?” he asked softly.

  “I don't know. Before I talked to Colleen, the sister of a NATech soldier I killed on the New Denver raid, I hadn't thought about it at all. Why?"

  “Well, I've been thinking about it. This war's been going on for over two centuries, and I don't think it's ever going to end. When my time here is up, I'm tempted to chase the ball and leave this mess behind."

  My heart, so full of happiness, ripped in two, and the blood gushed into my stomach, turning into a ball of ice.

  “Leaving?” I said, barely able to form the word.

  “Uh-huh. I don't know if NATech is out there,” he waved his free hand across the sky, “but even if they are, they can't have as much a grip on the other planets as they do here."

  “Oh."

  He propped himself up and looked at me.

  “Hey, Abby, why the tears?"

  I sat up and wiped them away.

  “I—I don't know. Oh, yes I do! I just thought maybe you and I could start becoming closer, and now you want to leave! It's not fair! Aaron, do you really have to go?"

  He took me by my shoulders and pulled me to him. I grabbed onto him, wanting to hold him and hit him at the same time, I was so much in love with him and was so angry at the same time.

  “Abigail,” he said softly. He lightly kissed my forehead. “We're both so new at this, aren't we? It isn't fair, that dogs like us should have to be so unused to just being two people in love. Our chance to have a normal life is denied us because we want others to have that chance. So now, when a normal event in life does come, we are unable to handle it.” His grip on my shoulders increased slightly, as though he feared someone would take me away. “I would never leave without you, Abby. I'm asking you to come with me."

  Dazed, I looked at him.

  “What?"

  “I was wrong when I said earlier that I'd never thought of you as anybody but Abigail Wyeth. For months, I've also been thinking of you as Abigail Ma..” He took a shaky breath. “As Abigail Marks."

  There was a loud roaring in my ears and the stars were all blurry. I felt my body go numb and my strength evaporate.

  “Abigail, will you marry me?"

  So here it was. The greatest commitment a woman could make, and it lay before me now. To forever bind myself to a man. To love him all my life, bear and raise our children, to place myself under his care and authority, to be his faithful and loving wife. Wherever he went, I would follow. We would be partners all our lives, seen as one by God. I would no longer be only Abigail, just as he would no longer be only Aaron. We would be husband and wife, eventually parents, and perhaps one day even grandparents. From the day of our wedding until the day when one would grieve the death of the other, we would be promised to each other. I had wanted marriage since I was a child. As John Wyeth, the ghost of a faded era, I somehow knew it would never be mine. Now, as Abigail Wyeth, it had come.

  Was it too soon? I'd known him for two years. But I was only sixteen and this was just our first date. How much sense did it make for this to happen so fast? Shouldn't there be a longer time? A time to learn about each other, to learn to love each other?

  The answer was clear. It wasn't too soon. We'd been comrades in war. He had held my life in his hands countless times, as I had held his. The years were short, but we had lived a lifetime. As Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “In our youths, our hearts were touched with fire.” And the fire of war had tested our bonds more than anything else could.

  I gazed into Aaron's eyes. An efficient and ruthless soldier in combat, Aaron was a loving and tender person who quietly grieved the violence he wrought. Though we had never expressed our love to each other, it had been there, lying under that cloak of camaraderie. I wasn't sure if I recognized it then. Maybe. But I recognized it now.

  “Yes!” I wept with happiness. “Aaron, yes! I will marry you!"

  We stayed together for a long time that night, talking, making plans, and dreaming dreams that we now suddenly and wonderfully shared. And while we would save ourselves for the blessing of marriage, what we said and what we did in those glorious hours are quite frankly none of your business.

  * * * *

  “FULL ALERT! FULL ALERT! This base is at emergency full alert! Combat conditions now exist inside the parameter, and unconditional lethal response is ordered! FULL ALERT! FULL ALERT! This base is at emergency full alert!..."

  The message continued to repeat. I pulled on my battle jacket and buckled my holster and additional charge packs around my hips. Susie was already dressed and waiting for me. She listened in on her combat headset.

  “What's happened, Susie?"

  She held up a hand, motioning me to silence. Outside our door, even through the still active sound shield, heavy booms could be heard The compound had been breached. I sheathed my boot knife and checked =my gel pack armor. I felt the tingle of the moment spread through my body, as I called my beast.

  As it had done countless times in Ethiopia and more recently in Company A, it roused itself from the depths of my being. It was more than a creature I kept inside myself. It was a part of me, and I was not ashamed of it. With the beast, those under my command would live, and our enemies would die. When it awoke, it sharpened my senses, used my skills to the fullest, and focused my mind on one thing only: successful completion of my mission. It did not control me, nor I it, but we blended together in such completeness that even my friends have said they fear me.

  I heard Susie acknowledge the instructions, and I turned toward her. In my eyes she was now a battle asset, having excellent skills at immediate and short-range killing yet lacking effectiveness at greater distances.

  “Give me the situation, Corporal. Now."

  Susie's eyes widened at my tone, but she complied at once. Despite her greater rank, I was the anchor member of the best team in Company A. In combat, Susie would follow my orders without hesitation, just as I would send her to her death without hesitation if the situation warranted it. I was almost, but not quite, as expendable.

  “The compound has been breached by at least eight cohorts of NATech's elite Xeno forces and elements of their Fifteenth Armored.” That made this a do or die fight. The Fifteenth Armored didn't believe in prisoners. “The breach occurred four minutes ago and is in both the hanger and in the primary mess. Main power is off line, but the backup is under full shielding. Casualties are minor, but there has been no cohesive response as yet. We are to work our way to the armory and join up there if possible."

  I nodded and made for the door. The sounds were louder now, and I could make out individual shots from slug guns. The secondary power plant might have been operational, but ghost doors would have extremely low priority. It was failing. I motioned to Susie to aim to the left. I raised my voice, knowing the shielding would nullify my voice at least a few moments longer.

  “MIKE! Susie and I need to get into the hallway. I need an unhindered explosion
of Corporal's Fantis’ and Sergeant Thawell's ghost doors in eight seconds! Notify them and any personnel in the corridor if needed!"

  “Notification not needed, Abby! Fantis is dead, Thawell has vacated his quarters, and the hallway is occupied by a split NATech squad twelve meters on your right, facing you. Three seconds."

  I called for dark and crouched down. There was a large boom from both sides of the hall. In the same moment, I cut power to our ghost door. I ran into the hall, then rolled to the opposite wall of the corridor, firing as I did.

  There were six of them standing, and an unknown number down. I traversed my prolonged beam across the front two. They screamed and fell. Although I moved the beam too quickly for it to be fatal, they would be incapacitated until I could kill them properly.

  They were all stunned from the nearby door overload, so I seized the moment. My gun would be recharged in three seconds, so I lunged to my feet and charged them. One of them brought up a gun, then jerked back as Susie's shot drilled through his jacket. Two others were reacting now, but it was far too late because the three seconds had passed and I was among them.

  One of the two had a slug gun, so I disabled her first. Slug guns could be fired without recharging, so they were the most dangerous in hand-to-hand. I jerked my gun up hard under her chin, tearing into the jaw muscle and driving the barrel into her mouth. I savagely ripped it free and brought the bloodied weapon around on the second one. I slammed the butt into his temple, then lowered the gun and fired through his throat. He died immediately and I ignored him.

  The woman was fighting her pain and had grabbed onto me. That meant she had dropped her gun. More than three seconds had now passed since I had gone hand-to-hand, and I still had one more functional enemy. I counted on Susie to take care of him and focused on my wounded enemy. A brief thought flickered through my mind that I could find out more about the situation from her, but the thought died immediately. She was NATech Xeno, and the look in her eyes told me she had earned her insignia. I slammed the heels of my hands into her ears, collapsing the sides of her skull, and she died with the thought.

  From the smell of seared flesh, I knew Susie had taken care of the last one. I killed the two I'd wounded, then made sure the ones knocked down from the blast were dead. Two of the three were, and a few moments later, so was the third. I wiped and sheathed my knife, then picked up two slug guns, tossing one to Susie. I would use this in the corridor.

  Susie came up to me. She had the eye of the dog. Bright and ready, and odds didn't exist. I was satisfied. I pointed down the hall toward the hanger. The sounds of a heavy battle echoed up to us.

  “Each wall, slug guns and no mercy. Go get ‘em, Sayonara Susie.” She grinned at her recently acquired nickname and faded to the left wall, her dark skin making her a nearly impossible target in the blackness of the corridor.

  We had apparently been either overlooked or were to be taken care of by the split squad. The latter was most likely. Since NATech had located us, they could probably guess our personnel make-up and base layout, since it was pretty standard throughout Resistance units. Susie had said eight cohorts of NATech Xeno. There were twelve to a cohort, which made ninety-six plus the Fifteenth. What they hadn't counted on was a Company A dog being quartered with a Research corporal who knew combat and thrived in it. Their mistake, our luck, and now nine dead NATech.

  We worked down the corridor quickly, stopping only long enough to inspect each of the quarters as we went. Thawell's was empty, as was Corporal Hansen's. It was beginning to look like we may have had a proper response.

  The Abdihs’ quarters were not empty. Tomah was gone, but his wife Ella lay sprawled on the stone just inside the doorway. She had taken a fearful shot across her abdomen and spine. She had died quickly. We pushed on. The corridor emptied into the hanger only thirty meters further along, with only the men's barracks on our left as the last room to search. A tiny voice buried deep inside my screamed Aaron's name, but now was not the time. My beast savagely told it to stop, and it did. I motioned to Susie on my left to get ready to cover me. She nodded and hefted both the slug gun and her own laser.

  I moved closer to the door, pulling a magpuck from a pouch and setting it to proximity fuse. A shot came from the room and burned the stone behind me. Knowing surprise was the most basic and efficient of weapons, I ran three steps and dove through the doorway, leaping as high as I could. I cleared the doorway, seeing two beams lacing underneath me. They might have been NATech elite, but they weren't too bright. This was a darkened barracks. Why would I go in low? And with energy?

  I saw a couple of dim images and fired the slug gun once. I plummeted down from my high jump, landing squarely on the bunk I knew was in front of me, and twisted off, pulling the trigger three times in rapid succession while rolling over and over I snapped the magpuck at them and threw an arm over my eyes, still =firing.

  The magpuck sensed it was within one meter of a living target and exploded. I heard one scream and fired at it. The scream changed pitch, then choked off. I leapt to my feet to close in for the kill.

  Unneeded. The magpuck had hit one squarely in the face. The soldier may or may not have been a woman. It was difficult to tell from the damage and the dim emergency lighting.

  “Mike! I need a status report!"

  No reply. That meant the backup plant was gone and only battery remained. That also meant the hanger shielding was down and the Fifteenth could begin the heavy assault. It did not mean, however, that Mike couldn't hear me.

  “Mike! Tell Kiki we need the Fifteenth taken out as soon as possible. She'll know what I mean. You help. Kill men's barracks lighting as an affirmative."

  The room plunged into complete darkness, and I made for the doorway. In the moment before I called for dark, I looked at Aaron's bunk. The covers were yanked off and his gear was gone. Good. He was a good fighter.

  I joined Susie in the hallway. She was out of my league and knew it, so she watched my back while I cleaned house. Together we made our way to the hanger.

  We approached the mouth and all but walked into a full fire-fight. We held the edges, with NATech holding the hanger's entrance and center. They were using our hovs as cover and were trying to close. I ducked behind a mound of supplies, praying they contained nothing volatile. I heard a crackling in my headset. It was Thawell.

  “Gimme positions!"

  They reported in two or three at a time. I felt a tinge of pride at the response. At least eighty percent of us were still effective. We might get out of this yet. There was a brief silence, and I spoke.

  “Wyeth and Lendler. Personnel corridor hanger entrance."

  “Wyeth! Careful! They've got a squad of goons in there, watch your—"

  “The corridor is secured, Sergeant,” I said tonelessly.

  “Marks, Grominsky, Williams and Garvey. Armory. The Lieutenant is here, too, but he's hit bad. We're taking the offensive in two minutes, Sergeant."

  My heart fluttered at the sound of Aaron's voice. But again, now wasn't the time.

  “Good. Abdih. Halteman. Merge your companies to the armory. One minute. Wyeth. Lendler. Lay down covering fire, then make for the armory. Two minutes."

  Lay down a covering fire with four pistols? I looked around for additional fire.

  Ten meters to my right, Lena was down, flames slowly rising from her back. Beside her was her plasma rifle, the charged light blinking ready. Good, but not enough. I needed to distract the men behind the hovs. The hulls were too thickly armored to punch through, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. We would need those craft to bug out. If I could only shoot through them, I could ... I had it.

  “Susie! Get ready to fire at the hovs! I'm going to go for Lena's rifle!” She nodded and I spoke again into the headset.

  “Mike! You still there?"

  “Yep! I secured a channel, beaming through NATech's comlink. Kiki said ten minutes is the best she can do. We're trying..."

  “All right. Tell her to do it. I want you to a
ctivate the hovs and slip them into phase mode. Do a cold start and shock the MacDonald's twenty seconds after that."

  “Will do. Fifty seconds, stand by."

  A shot buried itself into the container in front of me, but I ignored it. Susie, crouched beside me, ducked, but then slithered to the edge of our cover and fired around the side. I pulled out my three remaining magpucks and crawled to the other side. I relayed our plan of action back to Thawell. I then holstered my gun and passed the extra slug gun to Susie, who had come back next to me.

  There was a rain of popping sounds from the seven hovercraft as Mike kicked in the ion engines simultaneously. I started a slow count. There was a burst of light from the armory, and I saw lasers tracing their way across the hanger. Eight seconds. I heard Abdih's spine-tingling screech as his men poured from the mess area, splitting into two groups, one to the hovs, one to the armory. Twelve seconds. Halteman followed, focusing his group of twenty or so on the hovs where the bulk of NATech's squads were. Eighteen. I slapped Susie on her ass and smiled quick. She laughed above the booming gunfire and rose to her knees, firing her weapons. Twenty. I jumped to my feet and ran for the rifle.

  I was halfway there when I heard the screams of NATech as they were cut to shreds. Mike would only hold the hovs in phase mode for ten seconds, but that would be more than enough for our people to—...

  There was a brilliant flash and concussion. One of the big guns was firing directly into the hanger! They probably thought their troops were still protected by the hovs, but they were still phasing. NATech was doing more damage to their own cohorts than they were to anyone else.

  Anyone else but me. I was thrown off my feet and slammed against the hanger wall, face first. The side of my face smashed against smooth rock and a warm liquid poured down onto my neck. The back of my jacket popped and thudded as the gel armor absorbed the gunshots. I fell to the ground, using Lena's corpse as the barest of cover. Her rifle lay just within my reach. I stretched out my hand and pulled it close, looking toward the hanger entrance.

  It was filled with NATech shock squads, at least ten. They were charging in, knowing the only way to take out the Third was with full assault. The armory flanked them, though, and the cross fire was vicious.