by Ken Lozito
“Jon, is that you?” Brian asked in disbelief.
“We’ve lured them away. This is your chance to get out. Come on, let’s go,” Jon said.
Jon heard someone shouting over the comms channel. They were yelling for Brian to open the door.
“What are you waiting for?” Jon asked.
“Jon, please stop,” Brian said. “It’s not safe for you. Take your team and get out of here.”
“What are you talking about?” Jon asked.
He noticed some movement from the video feed of the heavy turret. The Vemus were making a sweep of the area. Jon and the others reached the end of the line of racks and stopped. He held his AR-71 ready and peered around the corner. The Vemus were gone. They hadn’t left anyone to guard the prisoners. Jon crossed over to the door where Brian waited. The door control panel was broken and charred.
“Stop. We’ve been infected. We can’t go back with you even if we wanted to,” Brian said.
Jon heard more shouting and saw Captain Davis screaming for his brother to open the door.
Brian was pointing a pistol at Captain Davis. “Stay back,” Brian said. “I’ll shoot.”
Another IR channel connected to Jon’s combat armor.
“Walker, your brother is crazy. We’re not infected. Tell him to let us go,” Captain Davis said.
“Brian, you’ve got to calm down. We can figure this out. Come with me,” Jon said.
He heard Lieutenant Chester mention they were running out of time.
Brian turned back toward the window. “Trust me, Jon,” Brian said.
Jon felt as if he were hearing an echo of every time Brian had asked him to trust him. They were only a year apart in age, and no matter what they were doing, his younger brother was always there for him. Even after Jon left, Brian was always there when it counted.
Captain Davis screamed for Jon to open the door.
“Sir, the Vemus are at the turret,” Sergeant Lee said.
“Activate the turret,” Jon ordered.
He looked back through the window, trying to find some sign that the people inside the room were infected.
“You don’t look sick,” Jon said.
Brian swallowed. “We are. We’ve all been exposed. First comes the virus and then the parasite, except it works like nothing we’ve ever seen before. The virus alters the DNA of the host, allowing the parasite in, which takes over the host. It causes genes to express at an astonishing rate—never mind that. We’re already dead.”
Jon felt his throat become thick. “What if you’re wrong?”
Brian glared at him. “Do I tell you how to fly a ship? Shoot a gun? No, because you know what you’re doing. I’m not wrong.”
“How did you even get exposed?” Jon asked.
Brian shook his head. “No time. There’s more, much more I learned about them. Things the CDF can use. They’re like nothing we’ve ever seen.”
An uplink registered with Jon’s combat suit computer using an active comlink. Jon’s eyes widened. The Vemus could detect active comlinks.
“What are you doing? You’ll bring them right to us!” Jon said.
“It’s the only way to transfer the data fast enough. IR bandwidth is too narrow and the transfer will take too long,” Brian said.
Jon slammed his fists against the metallic door. “What if you’re wrong?”
Brian was watching Davis, who looked as if he were about to charge forward, pistol or not. Jon’s gaze narrowed. Where were the salvage team’s weapons? How did they only have a pistol? An alarm appeared on his internal heads-up display. The heavy turret was nearly out of ammunition. The video feed showed a corridor littered with the bodies of Vemus soldiers. There was a moving shadow along the ceiling, and the feed cut out. The heavy turret was offline.
“Captain—” Lieutenant Chester cried.
“I know,” Jon said and looked back at his brother behind the smudgy window. A series of high-pitched whistles and clicks came from the corridor.
“Contact!” Sergeant Lee shouted.
Jon swung his rifle up and fired his weapon at a Vemus soldier. He took cover by the nearest rack, and the rest of the team did the same. They kept the Vemus pinned in the corridor. Dark liquid burst from their bodies. White bolts flew by as the Vemus returned fire.
Jon heard a startled cry from the IR channel and then heard the pistol go off from inside the room. Jon called out for his brother. The door opened, and Brian stumbled out of the room. Jon went to take a step toward him and then stopped. He couldn’t risk it since Brian was infected.
Jon glanced at the grisly mess inside the room. “What have you done?” he said. Brian had killed the surviving members of the salvage team.
“They captured us. Caught us by surprise,” Brian said.
Jon looked at the splatter of blood on Brian’s EVA suit. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and there was a layer of thick black mucus ringed around his neck.
Brian threw his pistol down. “Give me your rifle. I’ll hold them off for as long as I can.”
“Captain, we can’t stay here. We have to leave. Now!” Lieutenant Chester said.
Jon looked over at his team as they continued to lay suppressing fire toward the Vemus.
Brian rushed toward him and tried to grab his rifle. Jon spun away.
“Go, Jon. Get the data to CDF command. The key to stopping them is in there,” Brian said.
Jon gritted his teeth and growled. He turned and fired his weapon at the Vemus. They were clustering in the doorway and were about to charge. A white bolt slammed into the end of the rack and knocked Jon off his feet. Hands grabbed him and he was pulled back. Jon regained his feet and saw that Brian was holding his rifle. Brian roared and then charged the Vemus, firing the AR-71 at full auto.
Jon cried out as his team pulled him away. He heard Brian screaming in rage until he was suddenly cut off.
“He’s gone. We have to go, Captain,” Lieutenant Chester said and took point, leading them away.
Sergeant Lee pushed him forward and Jon followed Lieutenant Chester, stumbling in a half daze. They reached another door and Jon withdrew his pistol. White bolts slammed into the door as it opened. They returned fire and hastened through the exit. There was movement to the right, and Jon fired his weapon. The Vemus charged toward them. Jon and the rest of the team ran away, firing a few rounds before retreating more. They came to the end of the corridor, and an explosive force slammed him against the wall. This place was coming apart. Jon and the others scrambled to their feet and headed for the ship in an all-out run. High-pitched whistles and clicks from the Vemus followed them. Jon glanced behind him and saw the Vemus closing in on them, propelling themselves on all fours and quickly eating up their small lead.
Jon tripped over something and dove to the ground, sliding down the corridor. He heard someone cry out as he quickly regained his feet. Specialist Thoran was sprawled on the ground behind him. He was climbing to his feet when the Vemus reached him. Jon watched in horror as a Vemus grabbed Specialist Thoran and hauled him back into the mass of soldiers as if he weighed nothing at all.
The big Vemus soldier turned back around, and its pointed snout revealed a line of sharp teeth. Jon fired his weapon, hitting it in the chest and muscled shoulders. The Vemus went down and then struggled to rise.
Sergeant Lee grabbed him. “He’s gone. We have to go.”
They turned and ran, heading for the airlock. Jon was the last one inside and they quickly shut the door. Jon looked through the window and saw the Vemus soldier he’d just shot rise to his feet and charge toward the airlock doors.
They ran into the combat shuttle.
“Cover that door,” Jon said and ran toward the cockpit.
The combat shuttle was on standby and quickly came to full power. He heard something slamming against the shuttle’s airlock doors. He disengaged the docking clamps and used the maneuvering thrusters to get away from the wreckage. Outside the shuttle’s windows he saw dark shapes pourin
g out of the airlock into the vacuum. Jon didn’t wait around. He engaged the main engines and sped away. Once they reached a safe distance, he fired a pair of hornet missiles, targeting the wreckage. There was a bright flash as the large chunk was blown apart.
“Captain, we have to follow decontamination protocols,” Corporal Sims called out.
Jon inputted the coordinates for Lunar Base and set the navigation system on auto. It would be slow going since they were in a debris field, but he wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere.
Jon climbed out of the chair and headed to the rear of the shuttle. He heard Sergeant Lee arguing with Corporal Sims.
“Captain, tell him to remain on his own life support. We have to follow emergency decontamination protocols, which now includes the shuttle,” Corporal Sims said.
Jon looked over at Sergeant Lee, who was rocking back and forth, not making eye contact with anyone. He kept muttering about needing to get out of his combat suit.
“Roger, look at me,” Jon said.
Sergeant Lee looked up at him.
“I need you to stay in that suit just a little longer. Can you do that?” Jon asked. His head was pounding and he felt like everything was trying to push its way out, but he tried to appear as calm as he sounded. “Alright. Just sit tight for a moment. We need to make sure we’re not contaminated,” Jon said.
Sergeant Lee gave a slight nod and continued to rock back and forth.
Jon looked back at Corporal Sims. “He’ll be alright. Remind me again what we need to do.”
Corporal Sims swallowed hard. “We need to vent the shuttle for a few minutes. The exposure should take care of anything that might have gotten on our suits.”
Jon nodded. “Lieutenant Chester, prepare to vent the shuttle. Once we’re vented, we’ll open the rear hatch.”
“Yes, Captain,” Lieutenant Chester said and went to the rear of the shuttle.
There was a loud hiss as their atmosphere was sucked out of the shuttle. Auto-tethers attached to the back of their combat suits. Jon knew it was just a precaution, but he wouldn’t want to risk being sucked out of the shuttle without a tether attached.
“Atmosphere vented. Opening the hatch and shutting down the heaters,” Lieutenant Chester said.
The rear hatch opened and the debris field spread out before them. They waited the allotted time for the extreme cold to kill any microorganism they’d been exposed to on the Vemus ship.
Corporal Sims scanned them with the bioscanner. “We’re clear, Captain.”
“Close it up, Lieutenant,” Jon said.
The rear hatch closed and they pressurized the shuttle. The heaters quickly brought the shuttle’s interior up to acceptable temperatures and they were able to get out of their combat suits.
Sergeant Lee came over to him. “I’m sorry, Captain. Not sure what came over me. It was as if everything was closing in on me.”
“It’s fine, Sergeant. You stayed in control and followed orders,” Jon said.
Jon felt his chest clench. Brian was gone. His brother was dead and they’d lost Specialist Thoran.
“We need to talk about what happened, Captain,” Lieutenant Chester said.
Sorrow closed up his throat for a moment and Jon swallowed hard.
“Captain?” Lieutenant Chester asked softly.
“I’m alright. I just need a second, Daron,” Jon said and looked away.
He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead, feeling the stinging behind his eyes. “Damn it, Brian! Why did you have to go on that mission?” he said and looked at the others. “He should have been in the lab, not out on some salvage recon mission.”
Lieutenant Chester regarded him for a moment. “What did he say happened?”
“He said they’d been captured. They were infected,” Jon said.
Lieutenant Chester frowned. “I saw the room. He shot all of them.”
Jon winced, remembering the sight of the dead salvage team members. “He said they were already dead.”
“You knew him best. Could he have just lost it? You know, cracked under the pressure of being captured?” Lieutenant Chester asked.
Jon thought about it and shook his head. “Brian never lost his temper or anything like that. He was strong. He knew what he was doing. He was—”
Jon winced as a wave of grief slammed into him. He forced it back. “He wasn’t crazy.”
“What do we do now?” Corporal Sims asked.
Jon sighed. “We go back to Lunar Base.”
“Empty-handed. We couldn’t even rescue them,” Sergeant Lee said.
“Not empty-handed. Brian learned something while they were on that wreckage. He said it was something we could use to stop the Vemus. We have to get the data he uploaded to my suit back to Lunar Base,” Jon said.
“What’s in the data?” Lieutenant Chester asked.
“I don’t know, but I think it’s time we have a look and see what was worth them dying for, don’t you?” Jon replied.
Chapter Nineteen
Connor sat in the commander’s chair at Phoenix Station’s main Command Center. Despite taking massive amounts of damage, the Vemus Alpha had increased speed after the Colonial Defense Force’s surprise attack. They’d had the high-res optical array focused on the Vemus Alpha ship, and the images showed massive impacts to the colossal ship. Deep chasms were revealed in the exoskeletal hull that hadn’t started to regenerate, but the ship hadn’t altered course either.
Phoenix Station was directly in its path.
“General,” Lieutenant Daniels said. “I have Captains Mason and Saunders from the Bravo and Charlie sub-Command Centers on comms.”
“Put them through to my station, Lieutenant,” Connor replied.
The holoscreen flickered on, and Captain Wade Mason and Captain Evelyn Saunders appeared on his screen.
“Station separation is just about ready. Can you confirm your status?” Connor asked.
“Bravo station is ready for separation from the main, General,” Captain Mason said.
“Charlie station is ready as well, General,” Captain Saunders said.
“Very well. We’ll stay networked for as long as possible so our attacks can be coordinated, but I’m going to level with both of you. At some point it won’t be possible. In that moment, your only mandate is to fire your station’s weapons at the enemy for as long as possible. Is that clear?” Connor asked.
“Yes, General,” the two captains said.
Connor looked at the station sub-commanders on his holoscreen. Beneath the brave facade were two officers as green as anyone else untested in combat. He’d considered reassigning Major Elder to one of the substations but decided to keep him at Phoenix Station Main with him. One went into battle with the army one had.
“This is what we trained for. Remember your training. We have an objective to achieve. It’s as simple as that,” Connor said.
“We won’t let you down, General,” Captain Mason said.
“I know you won’t. Now, the second wave of our attack will begin once we reach our target coordinates. Good luck to you both,” Connor said.
Both captains repeated the sentiment. They knew the stakes and thought they knew what it was going to be like when the end finally came. But Connor had been in enough dangerous situations to know that when death does finally claim you, it’s when you least expect it. He cut the comlink, and the holoscreen powered off.
Phoenix Station was made up of ten large sections. Each of the sections could be self-contained and operate autonomously, though there were only three Command Centers. Connor had decided to break Phoenix Station up into three primary sections, with the central section containing four subsections while the two remaining groups were comprised of three subsections. He thought that the Vemus Alpha having multiple targets would enable the CDF to strike another devastating blow. Over sixty-five percent of the HADES IV-B missiles had reached their target before the Vemus unleashed their countermeasures that took out the command-and-control u
nits. If all the Command Centers were to become inoperable, the burden of engaging the enemy would fall to individual gun-battery commanders.
“At least the wave of Condor missiles is over,” Major Elder said. He sat in the executive officer’s station next to Connor.
“I think they fired them just to give us something to do,” Connor said.
“They fired thousands of missiles at us to occupy us until they could get here to finish the job? I’m not sure I understand those tactics,” Major Elder said.
“Condor missiles are the NA Alliance Military’s design for long-range engagements. Our HADES IV-Bs have better targeting systems,” Connor said.
“Thank god for that,” Major Elder said.
Connor agreed. In addition, their point-defense lasers were able to confuse the Condor missiles’ guidance systems enough that they could disable them completely. Once compromised, the fact that the Condor missiles didn’t retarget reaffirmed Connor’s conclusion that those missiles weren’t the real attack. It had been a bullying tactic by an enemy that knew the superiority of its position and attack force.
“Ops, has there been any detection of the Vemus control signal?” Connor asked.
“Negative, General,” Lieutenant Rawn said.
“Alright,” Connor said. He strongly believed that the Vemus had other ships tucked away in that Alpha, but they hadn’t detected them. “You’re a go to disengage station sections three and eight,” Connor said.
“Confirmed, General. Disengaging sections three and eight,” Lieutenant Rawn said.
Connor looked at the main holoscreen, which showed a live video feed of the locking clamps that held Phoenix Station together. There was a brief flash that simultaneously appeared on all the video feeds.
“Station sections disengaged, General,” Lieutenant Rawn said.
“Acknowledged,” Connor said.
He watched as the maneuvering thrusters pushed the two sections away from them. He glanced over to his left and noted the empty space beside him. It had been nearly fifteen hours since he’d sent Colonel Cross and Major Quinn back to New Earth, but he still found himself looking for Sean. He didn’t regret his decision to put Sean in charge of the CDF ground forces, but he did miss him.