"Kage, stay behind us as much as possible," Jason said to his small friend, who was now wide-eyed as the reality of going into combat sunk in. "No heroics. Let the three of us clear things since we'll probably need you to either gain entry into the building or access the computers controlling the tether winch."
"No heroics. Got it," Kage agreed quickly.
"Let's move out," Jason said, turning and taking one last, bitter look at the Phoenix. "I'm sorry," he whispered before turning and breaking into a run to catch up to the rest of his team.
The two klick run wasn't enough to wind him, but it did bring all the minute fitting imperfections of his armor into stark relief as the joints rubbed his inner thighs raw and pinched the skin of his elbows. They reached the last building that would conceal them before they reached the small service entrance to the compound and stopped. The sounds of fighting were now muted, which wasn't necessarily a good thing; they had either breached the facility or had killed the security personnel already. The portal through the solid wall that ringed the compound looked formidable. "Any ideas?" He asked.
"I will breach the entry, Captain," Lucky said.
"We'll cover you," Jason agreed as he watched, amazed, as Lucky's eyes began to glow a malevolent red and his weapons began to hum with power. This was the first time he had ever seen the synth in full "combat mode." This should be interesting.
Lucky burst from cover and closed in on the armored door with incredible speed. When he closed to within twenty-five meters he fired two blasts from his shoulder mounted cannons that crushed in and scarred the door, but left it somewhat intact. To the astonishment of his crewmates, who were running behind him, Lucky fired the repulsors in his feet and launched himself into a forward, spinning somersault and hit the door like a cannonball. The door disappeared in a screech of tortured metal and snapping bolts. The others burst through the opening in the wall, weapons raised, as Lucky stood up as if it were nothing. Jason looked over at where the door lay and saw it was reinforced steel nearly an inch thick at the edges. Damn!
"Captain!" Crusher whispered urgently, pointing to the sky. One of the assault boats that had delivered the ground force from the fleet in orbit was coming around the anchor point and heading in their direction. Jason raised his railgun and let the optics feed him ranging data, adjusted his aim, and squeezed off two rounds with a roaring flash. The hypersonic projectiles decimated the spacecraft, tearing the aft drive section completely off and sending in careening into one of the support buildings where it exploded.
"If we survive this," Crusher said, awed, "you're building me one of those."
"I hope to be able to," Jason said. "Let's go, we need to get out of the open." They ran as quickly as they could across the open ground of the compound to the edge of the main building. The tether, a twenty meter wide, five centimeter thick ribbon of an ultra-strong carbon composite, rose from the center of the building until it disappeared into the sky. They made their way along the side until they reached one of the many maintenance entrances that had no external handle. It was fairly flimsy compared to the main security door Lucky had crashed through, so Crusher stepped up and slammed his boot against it near the catch and was rewarded with it bursting inward on its hinges and slamming against the interior wall.
Alarms were blaring inside the building, but there was nobody to greet them. This wasn't really a surprise and was the main reason they had chosen such an out-of-the way place to make their entrance. Taking point, Jason flipped his weapon to close-quarters mode and began a steady, careful pace into the bowels of the anchor point control center. Next came Crusher, then Kage, and lastly Lucky covered the rear of the column. With a layout of the building floating in the upper-right side of his field of view, Jason sped up their pace as they moved to their first objective; a small conference room two levels above the secondary control room.
The massive machinery that controlled the tether was buried deep under the surface of Shorret-3 and anchored into the continental plate itself. The main control center was in a large, glassed-in room located above the primary winch. There was a small, secondary room that also could control primary tether operations in the event of damage to the main center. The trio wanted to make entrance into that room and try to disable the winch mechanism remotely without having to directly engage the forces already in the building.
They would gain access to the unsecured upper levels, which were mostly used for administrative functions, and use explosives to blow their way down the two floors into the room. If they were successful, they would be able to permanently disable the winch before the assault teams rushed their position and took them out.
After having to tear down three more security doors, they found themselves in the conference room in under five minutes from having first entered the building. Jason and Crusher grabbed the heavy table and tossed it into the corner of the room so that it was propped up on its edge. As they began to break out the small breaching charges they would use to try and cut through the floor, a deep, loud grinding sound began to shake the room slightly. They all looked at each other a moment before the significance of that sank in.
"They've begun to reel in the platform," Jason said sickly. "We're out of time."
"Step back please, Captain," Lucky said, coming forward. "In fact, everyone leave the room." He held his right arm out, palm outward, and a small projector of some sort deployed out from his lower forearm. Not needing to be told twice, the other three hustled into the hallway and stood watching as a brilliant green beam shot out of the projector and began cutting through the floor in an explosion of sparks and smoke. A few seconds later the beam stopped and the section of floor sagged slightly, but was held in place due to the angle it had been cut at. Lucky walked over and jumped directly into the middle of the section, disappearing though the floor as the section broke through.
Crusher, without hesitation, jumped through the same section. Jason gestured for Kage to come over and then lowered the Veran through the hole before jumping down himself.
"I wish you'd have mentioned before that you could do that," Jason said.
"My apologies, Captain," Lucky said as he cleared the floor for the next cut that would take them into the control room. "But you and Crusher seem to have such an affinity for using explosives, I didn't want to deny you that." Despite the adrenaline coursing through his system from the imminent danger, Jason had to chuckle.
After the floor had been cut again, the team jumped down one more level and looked around, trying to get an idea as to where to start. On a large monitor that showed a video feed of the winch itself, they could see that the tether was indeed being retracted at a fast clip and was accelerating. Kage wasted no time in approaching one of the terminals and entering a flurry of commands to gain access to the system. Glad I brought him along after all.
While Kage worked, Jason and Crusher took position by the entry to the room while Lucky went back up one level to watch in case anybody stumbled upon their entry method. Since the security measures were designed more to just deny unauthorized access from workers within the facility and not keep out a determined intrusion, it didn't take long for Kage to cut through the layers of pass code protection and gain control of the system.
"I'm going to try to stop the winch and then lock out the main system," Kage reported. "I'm not entirely sure how successful I'll be at that second part if they're actually in the main control center."
"Just do your best," Jason said. There really wasn't a backup plan as their sparse numbers ruled out a direct assault to disable the winch's mechanics. A few minutes later the monotonous grind of the winch stopped as Kage was successful in halting the mechanism. Then he cursed and his four hands flew across the control panels in what Jason assumed was a desperate bid to stop the other side from restarting it.
"I think they know we're here," Kage said.
"How can you tell?" Crusher asked. Kage wordlessly pointed to a security camera in the corner that was aimed at them
. Before they could respond Twingo broke in over the com channel;
"Captain, you've got trouble. Two more boats just landed and troops are rushing into the building you're in; it also looks like they found the door you entered through."
"Fuck," Jason swore quietly. "Showtime boys. Lucky, they found our ingress point, expect some company." He pulled out his sidearm and blasted the camera off its mount. The next few minutes were tense as the silence became almost too much to bear, knowing that in any moment they would be in for the fight of their lives.
The team that followed their entry method made first contact, which was unfortunate for them. Lucky, having heard them on the floors above, had used his repulsors to meet their charge in the hallway outside of the conference room. Jason and Crusher could hear his plasma cannons barking as the surprised troops sporadically attempted to return fire.
A heavy thud against the security door to the control room they were occupying announced the arrival of the team that had come through the main entrance to their position. With the battle being met, all the tensions and nerves left Jason and he stood to one side of the door, waiting for it to inevitably fall.
"Kage!" He barked. "Leave it! Get behind Crusher before they blow the door." For once, the Veran didn't argue as he left the console and gripped his weapon tightly, tucking in behind the big warrior. The thuds continued as whoever was on the other side was trying brute force to batter the door down, but so far it was holding.
"Captain, Doc and I have moved closer. We're going to start engaging the troops on the grounds and provide a bit of a distraction."
"Damn it, Twingo! Hold your position, we don't need a distraction, they already know where we..."
The rest of Jason's sentence was cut off as the door blew inwards from a shaped charge being placed on the outside by the assault team. It flew out of the frame and smashed into the console Kage had just been standing at. As smoke billowed in from the outside Crusher casually tossed a grenade out through the now open doorway. When it exploded, screams and the sound of debris falling met their ears.
Jason and Crusher both crouched and slipped their weapons around the edge of the ragged doorway and opened fire. Crusher's heavy plasma weapon was sending troops sailing back the way they came, often with smoking craters center mass, others missing appendages altogether. Jason, firing in controlled bursts, was having varied success against the well armored soldiers, but he couldn't switch his weapon back to high-velocity without injuring Crusher, who was standing too close.
Once the soldiers in the narrow hallway got over the initial shock of the reception they had received, they regrouped and began to change strategies. They brought up heavy, crew-served weapons and began blasting into the room with such ferocity that they didn't dare look around the corner to return fire. While the heavy bolts were doing nothing but blowing out the back wall of the room, they were keeping Jason and Crusher out of the fight, and they both knew that while the big cannon was chattering in the hallway others were advancing towards them along the edges. When he looked back into the room, Jason's heart sank; the video feed showed they had reactivated the winch, which was inexorably pulling the orbital platform towards the surface at a quickened pace.
The cannon fire from the hallway had began to lull as the weapon began to overheat, but just when Jason was going to risk edging around the corner, he saw the barrel of a weapon entering the room from the other way. Crusher saw it too, and with a snarl, grabbed it and yanked the surprised soldier into the room with them. Before he could even get his feet under him, Crusher caved in his helmet, with his head still in it, with a massive overhand blow. Jason quickly rounded the corner to cover his friend's now-exposed back, but he was running low on ammunition.
He tried to take out the crew operating the large plasma cannon, but they were quicker on the draw than he was. A brilliant bolt hit him directly in the hip as he completed his turn, sending him rolling over backwards and sprawling out onto the floor. From the smell of scorched metal and flesh, he knew it was bad.
"Twingo! No!! Get up! Get up! We've got to move now, they're coming back for..."
The call over the open channel made Jason momentarily forget about his own predicament as he heard Doc's frantic call that had been suddenly cut off. He knew his best friend was most likely dead, probably Doc as well, and he wouldn't be far behind them.
He rolled over and saw Crusher in a heap against the far wall, a huge rent from the plasma cannon had been torn into his armor. The big warrior was stirring, but was out of the fight. Jason tried to rise, but the damage to his right side was too severe and he collapsed again, falling into the doorway as he did. Another two bolts from smaller weapons took him in the left shoulder and chest, knocking him back to the floor. The armor kept him alive, but the pain was excruciating and he knew he didn't have long.
"Kage!" He called as he coughed wetly. "Get out of here! Find Lucky and get out!" Kage ignored him as he kept messing with a panel against the far wall. Jason stared a moment, transfixed as the Veran pulled his weapon and opened fire into the wall once, twice, and then a third time. He reached into the smoking hole and yanked a handle down and held on for dear life. Suddenly, red, strobing lights and loud klaxons erupted from everywhere at once and a horrific rumble shook the entire building. Jason picked his head up and peered down the hallway, seeing that the enemy was also momentarily stunned. With a snarl he grabbed his weapon and flipped it to full velocity and propped himself up as best he could. "Sorry buddy," he wheezed to Kage before squeezing the trigger.
If the soldiers assaulting the room were surprised at the alarms, the hypersonic rounds tearing through their ranks positively shocked them. Jason was dimly aware of Kage screaming in agony from the weapon's muzzle blast and the pressure wave it created, but he kept firing, utterly devastating everything and everyone in the hallway until the trigger clicked and nothing happened. Out of ammo.
Kage was huddled in the corner, blood running from his ears and nose, completely incapacitated from being in front of the railgun when Jason had opened fire. For his own part, Jason's adrenaline had worn off, as had the shock, and he was beginning to realize just how bad of shape he was in. The rumbling in the building had stopped, or at least he thought it had, but he knew there were more of the enemy in the building that would be coming to finish him off. So he wasn't surprised when one of them stood over him, seeming to relish his helplessness as he aimed his weapon right at Jason's head. He closed his eyes, letting his thoughts drift back to her one last time...
Or at least he assumed they would be his last thoughts as he heard a wet crunch and a startled grunt. He opened his eyes and saw the hilt of one of Crusher's bladed weapons sticking out of the chest piece of his would-be killer. Jason wished the asshole didn't have a helmet with a face shield so he could see the surprised look on his face. The soldier let his weapon fall from his hands and then fell over sideways. Jason tried to turn and look at Crusher, but the pain in his chest and the blood loss almost made him pass out from the effort. "Thanks," he forced out instead.
"Anytime... Captain," Crusher said weakly. The sounds of renewed combat in the hallway outside both confused and alarmed Jason, they were all nearly dead... who could they be fighting? Without getting an answer, he let his eyes close and lay back, waiting for the inevitable.
* * * * *
What the fuck... I die and these are the people I have to see first? Jason's head swam as his blurred vision focused on the concerned faces of Captain Kellea Colleren and Commander Bostco. Colleren was saying something and he realized they'd taken his helmet off.
"Are you still with us?" She was asking.
"My crew... Find my crew..." Jason could barely get the words out before coughing up more blood all over his charred chest plate.
"Rest easy, Captain. We'll get your crew," she said, almost gently. Then, not so gently; "Get that fucking medical team in here NOW!!"
Chapter 13
Jason made his way slowly along the g
arden path, enjoying the heat from the Eshquarian sun after being bedridden for nearly a month. He still had a long way to go, but at least he was ambulatory now as the doctors at the capital's sprawling medical campus had worked miracles on his near-dead body. Beside him walked Prime Minister Colleston, having taken a special interest in his recovery since he had been brought there. "So you had no idea what he had done?" The Prime Minister was asking.
"None," Jason answered. "I was already hit, Crusher was down, so I wasn't sure what the tricky little guy was up to until Captain Colleren told me when I woke up on the Diligent."
"I see. Well, Kage's quick thinking saved the lives of millions on Shorret-3, a debt I'm not sure we can ever repay."
"I'm sure I'll think of a way," Jason said with a laugh.
While he didn't know it at the time, during the battle Kage had realized there was an emergency release for the tether hard-wired into each control room, but was behind a locked access panel. He had blown his way into it and yanked the handle down, blowing charges all along the winch's ratchet mechanism. After that, there was nothing actually locking down the tether, so under the inertial force of the planet's rotation the platform simply floated away, pulling the entire length of the tether out of the ground with it.
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