Forging a Trap

by James David Victor

  “Sam, pack whatever explosives we have in that Hydra and get ready to push it off our back. Copy?”

  “Copy that, Jack. I think we’ve got a spare antimatter coil. I can rig a detonator on that. That should give you a big bang.”

  Jack checked the approach speed of the Hydras. They were closing fast. The antimatter detonation would be huge and might just wipe out the entire dozen, but he would have to deploy immediately if he wasn’t going to threaten M4 with the blast too.

  “Yes, Sam. Get it rigged and get ready to detach the Hydra. We haven’t got long.”

  Watching the Hydras approach, he wondered what other Chitin ships were lurking just out of sensor range. There were thousands of Chitin ships on the edge of the system. There were more than enough to utterly destroy humanity in one massed attack. Jack guessed the destruction of the three Leviathans at the Battle of Brecon Moon had scared them off, but the Chits wouldn’t stay scared for long. They would find their courage and finish off humanity soon enough. Jack hoped Reyes would have time to prepare the transport ships so the population could sneak past the surrounding Chits and head off to a new system and a new home before the Chitins attacked.

  “I’ve got that coil in position, Jack,” Torent said. “Do you want this detonator on a timer or do you want control?”

  “I’ll take control.” Jack saw the trigger appear on the flight console.

  “You should have the trigger now,” Torent said.

  “Copy that, Sam. Now get your Marines clear of that Hydra and cut it away.”

  Jack turned in his seat and watched as a Marine dropped into the frigate from the Hydra attached on the upper hull. From inside the Hydra, Jack saw a bright flash as Torent activated his electron bayonet and started cutting the Hydra away.

  Torent dropped inside and hung from the upper hull. He looked over to Jack in the cockpit and raised a thumb.

  “It’s free,” he said. “Just need to bump it loose.”

  “Do it,” Jack said.

  Torent nodded and fired his pulse rifle up into the Chitin craft. The force of the pulse rounds pushed the Hydra away. The breach reopened, and Jack saw the black of space appear as the Hydra fell away.

  Jack turned back to the flight console. He altered course and speed and put the floating Chitin Hydra, and its antimatter coil explosive payload, between Frigate M4 and the incoming ships.

  The Hydras were closing in fast and Jack pushed the frigate to its maximum speed. It was faster than the Hydras and began to pull away. Jack watched the point on the holostage where the floating Hydra bomb was and the distance between it and the incoming Chitins. They were heading directly for the rigged Chitin ship. He would take them out with a single blast if they held their course.

  Then a warning signal flashed on the console. The ship’s communicator relayed the alarm to Jack’s meat suit. The frigate was close to a critical failure. The breach in the upper hull had weakened hull strength, and the speed and power provided by the drive section was going to tear the frigate apart.

  There was only one option to prevent tearing the ship in two, and that was to slow the frigate. As soon as Jack reduced speed, the Chitins began to close in. They closed rapidly and began to spread out in a line to close in on the frigate and envelop it on the rear and both the port and starboard flanks.

  The line of Hydras reached the point where the drifting Hydra with its improvised explosives lay. Jack hit the trigger.

  The flash from the detonation flashed into the frigate through the breach in the upper hull. Jack watched on the holostage as four of the pursuing Hydras were eliminated. Another dropped out of formation and appeared to have been damaged by the blast.

  “Get on those blast lasers,” Jack said over the team communicator. “We’ve got Hydras closing fast. Weapons range in twenty seconds. Fire when ready.”

  The flashes of the blast lasers flickered around the central corridor and up into the cockpit. Behind Jack, the Marines manned the blast lasers and poured fire at the Chits closing in on the flanks.

  Jack turned to look along the corridor. With every gun already being used by a Marine, there were four Marines that had nothing to do and they were standing guard over the captive Chitins in their transport crates. They looked nervous but held their pulse rifles eager and ready for battle.

  Jack knew they could do nothing where they were, but maybe they could join the battle. He pointed back to the group.

  “You Marines. Get up through that breach and get in the fight. Clamp on to the outer hull and fire at the Chits.”

  The Marines looked confused for a moment, but then realized they had an opportunity to join the fight instead of standing idle, and they rushed toward the breach. One by one, they scampered through the hole.

  Using an external surveillance feed, Jack could see the four Marines position themselves along the upper hull. They put their pulse rifles to work and fired at the Hydras closing in on the sides.

  A flash in the dark of space told Jack that a Hydra had been destroyed. The gun camera feed informed Jack that the aft starboard blast laser had destroyed another ship.

  But still, the Hydras closed in on two sides. Their plasma arc weapons would be active soon and the frigate would take a beating. Jack couldn’t fight on two fronts. The three Chitins on the port side included the one Hydra that had been damaged by the antimatter coil detonation. It was falling behind. The attack on the starboard side was comprised of three fully functional Hydras, and they would soon be close enough to bring their plasma arc weapons into the fight. That flank was the Chitins’ strongest, and the one Jack needed to defend most urgently. The best way to defend that flank of the frigate was a concentrated attack. The only way out of this situation was to fight.

  “Concentrate all fire on the starboard flank,” Jack said. “Upper and lower turrets, fire to starboard. Marines, turn your fire to starboard.”

  The upper and lower blast lasers rotated toward the Hydras on the starboard flank. They poured their blast laser fire at the incoming ships.

  Then the first plasma arc slammed into the frigate.

  Jack was thrown forward in his seat as the frigate bucked under the attack. Then another came and another as the Hydras attacking the starboard flank struck with their plasma arcs. The blast lasers fired at the Hydras. The Hydras slowed and then held their position in space and lashed the frigate with another volley of plasma arcs.

  The plasma arcs from the two port-side Hydras struck and flickered across the length of the frigate. Jack was jerked sideways as the frigate lurched under the attack, the flashes of the plasma arcs lighting up the interior of the frigate in a flickering orange strobe effect.

  A Hydra attacking the starboard flank exploded under a concentrated fire from the massed blast lasers and four pulse rifles stationed on the upper hull.

  “Maintain the fire. Take out that port-side attack.” Jack altered the frigate’s heading and sent M4 into an arc, pushing it toward the starboard attack and away from the two port-side attackers and the third port-side Chitin limping into range.

  A detonation told Jack that another Hydra had been destroyed. This time, it was one of the port-side attackers. The port-side battery of two blast lasers could only fire in a wide field. The odds were slowly turning in their favor when all Hydras, port and starboard, struck out with their plasma arcs simultaneously.

  The frigate rocked and the lights along the central corridor flickered. The flight console’s primary lighting failed, and the emergency system came to life. Jack diverted power to the drive system and maneuvered closer to the remaining starboard attacker.

  The comm channel burst into life with an excited and unfamiliar voice.

  “Attention, Frigate M4. This is Commander Scherer of the Orphan Blades. We are approaching you head on. Check your fire. We’ve got those Hydras in our sights. Firing now.”

  The stream of fire from the Blades came flashing out of the black. Jack flinched as the laser blasts came racing directly tow
ard him.

  The explosion of the Chitin Hydra on Jack’s port lit up the cockpit in a sudden flash. Then came the rattle of debris hitting the side of the frigate as the Blades raced past. Jack checked their position on the holostage. They appeared as blue points of light on the small flight console holostage. They took up position on the frigate’s rear section, their blast laser pulses targeting the remaining Hydras.

  Another salvo of plasma arcs slammed into the frigate. The lights flickered along the length of the ship, and a power conduit exploded half way along the central corridor.

  “Aft port side blast laser damage,” a Marine serving the weapon reported. “The targeting system is inoperable. I will have to use manual targeting.”

  Jack knew manual targeting would be hopeless against the Hydras. The best the Marine serving the weapon could hope for was a lucky shot, but they were not going to let a blast laser lie idle in a fight. Jack knew that battles were won and lost on matters of luck. He called to the team on the aft port-side blast laser.

  “Pour it on them and take them down.”

  Another pass from the Blades and another Hydra exploded, showering the frigate with debris. The remaining two Hydras fired another salvo of plasma arcs. The drive system failure slowed the frigate to a crawl.

  The Blades raced forward and past the cockpit, their drive flares bright against the black of space. Another Hydra was destroyed, this time by fire from the lower hull blast laser assembly. The cheer from Sam Torent was wildly ecstatic.

  “Got the kravin Chit! Boom! What a blast!”

  The only remaining Hydra was the slow, damaged one. It came under fire from all available weapons. The Marines on the upper hull were firing a stream of pulse rounds that were slamming into the ship, each and every hit creating a small superheated spot on the durable Chitin hull material. The frigate blast lasers were knocking the Hydra back with every hit. The Chitin activated its plasma arc, but the weapon stuttered and a small, overcharged arc formed at the front of the generator. The arc, only a few meters across, contained all the power of the full-length arc and it heated the front of the Hydra to a bright white heat.

  Then the Blades made another pass, in a tight group. A stream of blast laser pulses from the center Blade slammed into the Hydra.

  The Chitin craft’s damaged plasma arc collapsed back onto the Hydra. The destruction of the Hydra was total as the entire craft was vaporized, leaving a glowing, expanding cloud of gas where it had been.

  “Commander Scherer,” Jack said over his channel to the Blades. “Thank you for your assistance.”

  “Chalk up another couple of kills for the Orphan Blades,” Scherer replied in jubilant tones.

  Jack looked out of his cockpit window and saw the Blades in position alongside him. Commander Scherer was giving the thumbs-up signal. The markings on the side of his fighter had been repainted. The designation of the fighter as being part of the Monarch’s squadron had been replaced by a large O. The Blades of the Monarch had been engaged in battle when the Monarch had been destroyed by a Chitin Leviathan at the battle of Eight-Eight-Thirteen. The squadron took the designation of an orphaned squadron and used any and all Fleet craft to dock. Some were housed on the Overlord and others on the Scepter, while the remainder were given space on the destroyers where two or three of the Blades could be housed.

  Commander Scherer pointed forward. “Looks like we’ve got more company,” he said, then gave a casual salute with his fore finger against his flight helmet. “Orphans away. Good luck, Marines.”

  Jack looked at the incoming ship that Scherer had pointed at. Up ahead, coming out of the dark, was a carrier. Jack checked on his holostage. It was the Overlord. A message came in to Jack from the Overlord’s command deck.

  “Attention, Frigate M4. This is the Overlord. We are here to escort you back to Eros. Hold current course and speed. Overlord out.”

  Jack watched the massive ship move over the top of the frigate as the Overlord fighter squadron launched from her flight decks. The carrier was massive. One of its flight decks was easily big enough to house a frigate. Jack wondered for a moment why he wasn’t being ordered to dock, but he understood why. The frigate was quicker than a carrier, and should another attack come, the Overlord was here to hold the Chitins off so Jack could take his vital cargo to the Fleet Command and Control workshops. These live Chits were so precious, so important, that the fleet was willing to risk one of the remaining two carriers for its safe return.

  Activating the frigate’s drive systems and powering down the weapons, Jack readied the frigate for a high-speed return to Eros. The drive had taken damage, but there was enough punch in the system to get Jack home quickly.

  “You Marines topside,” Jack said over his communicator channel, “get back inside.”

  “Look at the size of that carrier,” one of the Marines said, clearly in awe. The carrier was only a few hundred meters above the frigate and was impressive to see so close.

  “You heard that officer,” Sam Torent’s voice came over the channel. “Cut the chatter and get your kravin ass back inside. Copy?”

  “Copy that, Commander Torent,” the reply came.

  “Sam,” Jack said over the team channel. “Check out our cargo.”

  “Copy that, sir,” Torent said. He came back a moment later. “All secure. They are a bit agitated. I can hear them rattling around in there.”

  The report was welcome, and Jack felt a feeling of calm come over him. As the frigate passed underneath the huge carrier, he felt a sense of security. With the Chitin soldiers alive and kicking in their storage crates, it felt like a job well done, but the job was not over yet.

  “All Marines back inside, Major,” Torent reported.

  “Hold on to something, Marines,” Jack said. “I’m going to push this crate to the limit. It might get a bit rough. Hold on.”

  Jack activated the drive system and pushed hard. The hull began to shake. Deflection shielding held the breach steady as Jack pushed more power through the drive. The carrier’s lower hull passed rapidly overhead, and suddenly the frigate was clear and the silver-gray hull of the Overlord was replaced by the deep black void of space.

  Jack was heading home.

  6

  The landing pad at Fleet Command and Control was surrounded by Fleet Intelligence enforcers, fully kitted out in their black meat suits, pulse rifles across their chests. A group of Fleet Intelligence agents and some Fleet officers stood in a small group to one side.

  The sun was high in the sky over Eros, and the shadows were short with clearly defined edges. The shadow of the frigate appeared on the landing pad as Jack maneuvered the craft carefully down to land.

  The enforcers approached the ramp the moment it lowered to the landing pad. They marched to the cargo, pushing the Marines out of the way.

  “Manners cost nothing,” Torent said bitterly as an enforcer pointed him back to his seat.

  Jack looked down into the central corridor. “As you were, Commander Torent,” Jack said calmly. “This is their operation now.”

  Jack watched as the crates containing the captured Chits were pushed along on its hovering pad to the ramp in the frigate’s central corridor that ran down to the landing pad. Jack slid down the handrail of the small ladder from the cockpit and followed the enforcers and the crated Chitins down to the landing pad. A group of maintenance technicians came up the ramp, looking at the damage on the frigate. A flight crew came next. The pilot stood in front of Jack.

  “I’ll relieve you of the frigate now, sir,” the pilot said to Jack.

  “I stand relieved, pilot,” Jack replied. “Take care of her. She’s a good ship.”

  The pilot nodded stiffly and climbed aboard Frigate M4.

  Jack walked across the landing pad toward the group of officers standing at the doorway to the interior of headquarters at the side of the landing pad. One Fleet Intelligence agent stepped away from the group of officers and toward Jack.

  “Major For
ge,” the agent said. “I thought that was you.”

  Jack stood with his meat suit helmet under his arm. Sam Torent and the team of Marines gathered behind him.

  “Agent Visser,” Jack said as coolly as he could.

  Jack felt Visser’s cold eyes staring into him, then she smiled.

  “Why don’t you come and observe the procedure, Major?” Visser said.

  Jack had seen enough of the Chitins, and enough of Visser, for one day, but if he went along, he would have a chance to meet up with Reyes again. Jack nodded.

  “Thank you, Agent Visser. I’d be interested to see that.”

  Visser smiled again. For the agent, it was a dangerous expression, like a wolf grinning at its prey. “Join me when you are ready.”

  Visser turned and walked into the complex through the large doorway at the side of the landing bay. Jack turned to Torent.

  “If you want to wait for me, Sam, we can go back up to the Scorpio when I’m done here,” Jack said. “I’m sure you can find a meal or a bunk here at headquarters.”

  Torent straightened up, his chest puffed out. “No thanks, sir. I think I’ll find a transport and get back to the Scorpio right away. I’ve got some work to do with my company.”

  Jack smiled. “Your company, is it now, Commander?”

  “Cobra is my responsibility now. We can’t all hang out on Eros with Fleet Intelligence. Some of us officers have work to do.”

  Jack nodded. He held out his hand to Torent. The pair shook hands warmly.

  “Then I’ll see you back on the Scorpio,” Jack said.

  “I’ll leave the team down here, sir,” Torent said. “They deserve a chance for some shore leave and they can return with you, if that’s okay with you, sir?”

  Jack nodded. “They are in your company, Sam. It’s up to you.”

  Jack walked away and into the complex. He heard Torent barking orders at the team.