by Shane Black
But here, 100 miles out from a potentially deadly firefight there was one inescapable fact: a Marine captain outranked a Fleet junior lieutenant, and Hawkins had now cashed in her one free screw-up. The look on Cleghorn’s face told her further outbursts were unlikely to be tolerated.
“Yes sir.”
“Outstanding. Rollins, hand me that exterminator.”
A marine corporal who could have easily passed for a starting defensive lineman on any championship-caliber pro football team reached up and dislodged an oversized shotgun from its wall mount and handed it to the captain. He inspected the weapon quickly and cocked it with a satisfying clik-clak sound.
“Captain has the point.”
A rapid-fire series of communications was exchanged between the station’s security systems and the two assault boats. The Exeter, of course, had all the necessary security overrides as it was a Skywatch ship attempting to re-establish contact with a Skywatch survey station. The docking systems aboard Station 19 authorized the approach of the two Marine shock platoons and set the bay doors to external control.
The boats approached very quickly, only applying their counter-thrusters at a range of 200 meters for final approach. They fast-locked into the station’s approach control lanes, immediately overrode all the safety mechanisms and established magnetic contacts with the outside bay assemblies. Five seconds later both ships had soft locks with the station’s hull. The doors breached and twin platoons of power-armored Marines poured into the cargo bay, weapons raised, sweeping the field of fire. Captain Cleghorn was first to touch the deck.
Not a word was spoken. A group of ten streamed right. Another group rapidly covered the distance across the bay to the personnel hatches. Around them were various conveyor assemblies, overhead cranes, loaders and pressurized containers. There was minimal light, but all of the Marines had fully-equipped tac suits with independent helmet lights and a variety of rangefinding options including infra-red, magnetic and scatter-band.
Cleghorn caught movement in one corner of the largest open area and raised his weapon to advance.
“Exeter Marines! Hands where I can see them!”
A tentative burst of weapons fire answered. The sound of energy ricochets echoed in the huge bay. Another burst blasted pieces of the floor in all directions. Cleghorn dove to one side and grunted when his back hit the containers he was now using for cover.
“Hostiles! Look sharp!”
Light strobed as short bursts of energy fire were exchanged. Given the number of obstacles in the room it wasn’t surprising most of the shots hit inanimate objects rather than their targets. Cleghorn heard running footsteps and consulted his tactical map.
“Six targets bearing three one zero!” He scrambled back to his feet and ran to a vantage point behind the barrier of pressure containers. He arrived at the corner of the stack at exactly the right moment.
“Hey!”
One of the intruders turned and pointed his weapon but it was too late.
BOOM!
The twin slugs from Cleghorn’s rail-assisted shotgun blew a foot-wide hole in the intruder’s torso.
clik-clak
He reloaded and moved up to a more aggressive vantage point just in time for one of the load frames to explode in dozens of mangled metal pieces overhead. Another blast of energy streamed past. Rapid-fire bolts sprayed across the open area in front of the Captain. He waited patiently until the enemy power pack drained, then he exploded from cover like a lawman in an old west prairie town.
BOOM!
A cry of pain echoed.
clik-clak
BOOM!
clik-clak
BOOM!
The third intruder’s startled shout faded quickly. Three shots, three neutralized intruders. Cleghorn marched forward, turning his weapon’s barrel skyward and reaching into his bandoleer for a slug pack. He reloaded.
clik-clak
A moment later, another intruder emerged from cover with his weapon pointed the wrong way. He turned an instant too late.
BOOM!
His left leg was vaporized by an exterminator slug.
clik-clak
BOOM!
His gurgling scream was silenced.
The flash of a much heavier weapon drove Cleghorn back into cover. The deck shook with explosions from overloaded concussion rounds.
“Second squad, report!”
“Maximum of eight, sir. Retreating along a two one five and headed for the magneto-lifts.”
“Affirmative. Secure your position and stand by. Comms, what’s the status on intrastation communications?”
“Working on it, sir.”
“Work faster, son. I want to know where the hell the commander is, and I want to know right now.”
Five
“Is he okay?”
“Uh huh.” Echo was putting the finishing touches on Ensign Klivers’ recovery. His condition was now medically “stable” by most criteria.
“I’m glad.” Butterfly said.
“I wish we could talk to Lunar. I bet he’s having so much fun on the big spaceship. It’s been so long since I saw all my friends on Exeter.”
“We could talk to him if I could see the ship,” Butterfly said. “Remember when we talked on the LOS that one time?”
“Uh huh. Rebel was being funny and yelling about stuff. He’s always so serious.”
Commander Hunter was busy monitoring the EM situation with her handheld signals analysis unit, but somewhere in her subconscious she was also listening intently to Echo and Butterfly’s conversation. Something had gotten her attention and she couldn’t shake the feeling this was one conversation she should be part of.
“Tom, listen,” she whispered.
Commander Huggins perked up and watched Jayce Hunter’s raised eyebrows as the two little minibots conversed.
“–yeah. I remember that. When Rebel was running around and trying to hide from the laser net he didn’t know you were watching him from way up in the sky. That’s why I could always find him when we play hide and seek. I think that’s why Acey gave him new engines and stuff, ‘cause he was mad he couldn’t win like before.”
“I don’t get it,” Huggins whispered.
Hunter kept her voice low. “They’re talking about LOS communications. Laser-assisted data networking. Same stuff Skywatch uses for their electronic warfare protocols.”
“Yeah. Same stuff we use for battle conditions.”
“Butterfly knows how to do LOS communications, and so does Lunar.”
It hit Tom in an instant.
“LOS can’t be jammed! All we need now is a window!”
Commander Hunter crouched down by Lieutenant Sutherland.
“How is she doing?”
“Hi Acey!” Echo chirped. “She’s sleepy now, but everyone’s all better.”
“Butterfly, do you remember how to do LOS communications with the other minibots?” Hunter asked.
“Yes I do. It’s really easy once you taught us how.”
“Do you think you could find a port on the opposite side of the station and talk to Lunar for me? And do you think you could relay communications from my designator to the Exeter bridge?”
“Yeah! If Lunar is out in space I can see him and send him messages!”
“Then let’s get started. I need you to fly back to where Rebel and Wave are and find the hatch Lunar used to leave the station. It will have a port in it. Use that port to establish LOS contact with Lunar and set up a comm net with my designator and the Exeter bridge.”
“Okay!”
“Can I go too?” Echo asked plaintively.
“I need you to stay here and take care of my officers,” Hunter replied with a smile. “You’re doing a great job.”
“Awwww,” Echo whined. Then she turned to face the little helicopter.
“I have to go,” Butterfly said.
“I know. Send me a message if you get in trouble and I’ll come help you.” Echo said.
; “Call me if you need help and I’ll come help you too,” Butterfly replied.
The humans watched the two little robots reassure each other with wonder in their eyes. It was very much like watching two best friends on moving day for one of them. Even through her drowsiness, Sutherland was certain they would have hugged each other goodbye if they could.
Finally Butterfly engaged her engines and brought her rotors to flight velocity. She rose quietly from the deck and pivoted towards the exit. Echo followed her to the door and watched her fly away. Then she rolled back to Lieutenant Sutherland’s side and resumed monitoring the two wounded officers’ vital signs.
Hunter noted Echo had quietly activated her wide-spectrum monitoring antenna. She might not have been able to go with her friend, but she was now listening intently on more than sixteen thousand broadcast frequencies for Butterfly’s designator. If the little helicopter shouted, Jayce knew Echo would be there before the sound faded.
Perhaps that’s an even more apt description of the little robot’s namesake, Hunter thought. She switched frequencies on her EM monitoring unit and waited for Butterfly’s signal.
Six
“We’ve got to get out in the open, Skipper,” Colonel Moody said. “In a cramped space like this we can’t use any our advanced weapons capabilities. Even a corridor is better than this airlock.”
“How many, Lieutenant?” Hunter asked as he helped one of the landing party marines fix his environmental controls.
“Now more than 40 confirmed readings, sir,” Zony replied. “I estimate a new creature appears roughly once every 160 seconds.”
“Yili, what if we rigged the environmental controls to re-pressurize the ship with an atmosphere poisonous to the creatures?”
Curtiss shook her head. “That level of environmental control would take an hour to establish and that’s only if I can get to engineering.”
“I doubt we can fight our way that far down, sir, and even if we did, we could get pinned and not be able to get back to the bridge,” Moo added.
“We can fight our way out, sir,” one of the marines said. “Just give me a target.”
“You’ll get your shot, sergeant,” Moo replied.
“What can we do from here, engineer?” Hunter asked.
“I can restart the mains and power up the ship in about 20 minutes if we ignore the checklist, sir. But with respect, where to? We can’t operate all the systems on the Dunkerque without more manpower, and even if we could, we have nowhere to go.”
Hunter’s eyebrow rose, which intrigued the colonel. Then Jason grinned, and Moo could tell he was on to something.
“What about maneuvering?”
“Sure, I guess. If we can get to the bridge and barricade ourselves in there, we can drive around for a while. We can’t use the jump engines without navigational and SRS personnel, though. Sublight is do-able within reason,” Yili replied.
“Reason?” Moo asked.
“Without shields or armor power we don’t want to get going too fast to avoid debris or obstacles.”
“We don’t need to go anywhere,” Hunter said. “We just need to be able to stop.”
“Sir?”
“Our guests don’t have seatbelts, and if we conveniently forget to activate the drive field, they’re going to get a first class education in what it’s like to ride in a moving van during a Mach One slalom event. Let’s get to the bridge. Zony, you keep us out of our guests’ way.” The Captain hefted his weapon and peered out into the loading deck corridor. It was clear in both directions.
“Smartly now.”
Hunter slid up the airlock corridor quietly and took a cover position at the junction with the cross-tunnel that led to the Dunkerque’s magneto-lifts.
“Nothing on this deck, sir,” Zony said quietly over the squad commlink.
“Watch our back, Moo,” Hunter said.
“Affirmative, Skipper.”
Hunter led the column swiftly along the cross-tunnel while Zony kept her local area sensors locked on the creature’s biological profile.
“What about the lifts, Yili?” Hunter asked.
“They have autopower systems, sir. They’ll run off the batteries without any extra work.”
“Outstanding.” Hunter stopped at the airlock deck core structure and looked around with his helmet lights. The ship’s interior was beginning to show signs of condensation. Water vapor in the residual atmosphere was gathering on flat surfaces and cooling to a liquid state as the internal temperature fell. Every boarding party member’s suit was reading the atmospheric pressure at about seven pounds per square inch and air temperature at just over thirty degrees Fahrenheit.
“Lift Four to the bridge. Yili, Moo and Zony first. Marine squad in Lift Three. I’ll follow you up.”
“Sir, I–”
“Understood, colonel. These two are more important. Let’s go.”
The Argent’s senior officers didn’t look convinced, but they followed their orders. In a few moments Lifts Three and Four were on their way to Deck One.
Hunter moved around the core structure to Lift Two and saw that it was operational. He keyed in the universal access code and listened as the pressure door released the seal. He trained his weapon on the lift car as the doors opened, but there was nothing waiting for him except an empty space. He climbed aboard and keyed Deck One.
“I don’t understand where the crew went,” Zony said as the squad occupied the Dunkerque bridge. “If they were forced off the ship, that would be one thing, but how do you get 170 people to involuntarily abandon ship?”
“That’s a very good question. There wasn’t much of a fight, because I haven’t seen a single mark anywhere on this ship,” the colonel said as he directed his squad to take up defensive positions at the two bridge entrances. He keyed his commlink. “Skipper?”
Zony and Yili set to work reactivating the strike cruiser’s systems. The first priority would be to generate a position report and get at least auxiliary power operational. As long as all the control systems were in place, it wouldn’t take long. An entire marine squad guarded the two officers and the bridge while they did their vital work.
“Skipper?” Moo said again. He waited and listened to the silent channel.
Jason Hunter exited Lift Two and quickly made his way up the Deck One center corridor to the bridge entrance.
Deck One was empty.
Seven
An indicator light appeared on Commander Hunter’s EM unit. It signaled contact with Butterfly and the newly established communications network between herself, Butterfly, Lunar, and DSS Exeter. They were still limited by Hunter’s need to use short-range wideband frequencies, but it did give her a voice channel with the Task Force.
“Exeter, Pierce.”
“Afternoon, Commander.”
“Ma’am? You’ve defeated the interference?”
“In a manner of speaking. Patch me through to the Fury bridge.”
“Affirmative. Switching nets.”
A moment passed.
“Fury, Mallory.”
“Lieutenant, I need you to do me a favor.”
“Commander, it’s a relief to hear your voice again. How can Fury help you?”
“Configure the ECCM antenna to all voice capable frequencies north of the data wave on this channel. Wait thirty seconds, then direct maximum power on all frequencies to everything within a mile of my coordinates and maintain broadcasts for sixty seconds. I will re-establish contact then. Hunter out.”
The Commander quickly reconfigured her handheld unit. She utilized her minibot’s op codes to instruct them all to shut down their receivers so as to avoid the destructive signal that was about to be beamed at them.
“Okay, Tom, let’s close that hatch. It’s going to get ugly out there in a minute.”
Huggins helped Commander Hunter bar the records lab door as best he could. Moments after the pressure seal indicators shifted to green, a buzzing sound became audible outside.
&nb
sp; “Echo, shut down your antennas.”
“But I won’t be able to hear Butterfly!”
“It’s okay. I can hear her on this unit. I don’t want your systems to be damaged. The ship is going to send us a really powerful signal in a second.”
“Okay.” Echo didn’t sound convinced.
The buzzing sound increased intensity by several orders of magnitude and the hatch began to vibrate. The lights went out in the outside corridor and flickered in the weapons lab. Finally a thump sounded followed by a bang.
Hunter was watching her EM unit’s timer. The moment it hit 60 seconds, the sound vanished. She keyed her intership channel.
“Hunter to Fury.”
“Fury, Mallory here.”
“Enemy jamming equipment has been neutralized. We’re back on the air, lieutenant. Give me the shock leader’s designator.”
“Stand by, landing party.”
“Saddle, up, commander. I want prisoners.”
Huggins retrieved his weapons and the equipment pack.
“Echo, I need you to clear all combat frequencies, re-establish contact with all minibots and get me a sitrep right away. Go to alert condition three, signals silent.”
“Okay!” The little ambulance re-activated her high-gain antennas and began sending scrambled status response op codes to the rest of the data network. Within moments she had permanent multi-frequency channels with all nine task force ships, the marine shock platoons and four minibots on the same network.
“Not bad for a collection of toys, Commander,” Huggins said as he unlocked the pressure door.
“Not bad at all,” Hunter replied with a grin. The two officers emerged from the records lab and began making their way back up the corridor towards Rebel and Wave’s perimeter.
“I have Captain Cleghorn on priority frequency, Commander.”