“The Silence,” Thresh said.
“We don’t know what ship was hit,” Boyd said, getting ready to take off. He looked at his covert device hoping to get a message to the Union ships not to fire on him, but the signal was masked by the plasma erupting from the downed Faction ship’s reactor and the high intensity of weapons fire.
“We’ll never make it off the surface on our own,” Thresh said. “We need support.”
“It’s okay,” Boyd said, looking at the dust clouds obscuring the Blades. “I have an idea.”
“The reactor is still a bit cold, but you have enough drive to get us off the surface. Weapons are limited. I’m putting everything I can into the stability shield.”
“Just give me the drive field.” Boyd lifted off the surface to a height of only ten meters. He turned the Fist so the way ahead was clear, not broken by the raiders in the landing zone, but away over the red lake and the horizon of Kalis.
He hit the drive and launched the Fist over the surface at extreme low altitude, which was reckless at best, suicidal at worst.
“The lower hull is taking a beating,” Thresh said. She looked over at the holo-stage that showed the Fist racing over the red lake, red water pulled up behind it and sprayed outward. A massive red plume made the Fist a huge sign to the Union ships overhead.
“What are you doing, Boyd?” Thresh shouted. “Incoming Blades. Get us out of here. Go vertical now!”
“Trust me, Thresh. I want to get us out of here as much as you do. Just wait.”
The far bank of the red lake gave way to more white, rocky desert. The Blades came swooping down at the Fist and chased it, closing in on her tail. A moment before they were in weapons range, the Fist had cleared the lake and was over the rocky surface again. White dust and rocks were whipped up by the drive field and mixed with the red water, creating a rain of pink clay droplets that splattered the Blades. This clogged the spitz gun muzzles and scattered their targeting.
“They are breaking off,” Thresh said.
Boyd couldn’t answer, he was totally focused on the way ahead. The slightest rise in the surface could tear the hull off the bottom of the Fist at this speed. After a few minutes and having practically circumnavigated the moon, he started to climb, edging away from the surface and out into space as the white dust cloud rolled on across the surface of Kalis.
“Cruiser, closing in from starboard,” Thresh said.
The cruiser flickered on the Fist’s holo-stage. It was a huge Union warship designed for the express purpose of capturing or destroying Faction raiders.
“I’m going to send us into the atmosphere. Rig a high-ex hail round and drop it on our tail. We’ll make it look as if we’ve got our entry curve wrong and we’ve been destroyed.”
“If only you had some way to contact them directly, maybe you could just ask them to let us go,” Thresh said coldly.
Boyd focused on his flying. It would be a narrow thing to avoid the cruiser, but her tone made him wonder if she had discovered his secret. All he could do for now was continue with his escape plan. If it came to it, he would have to kill her, but they were all alone aboard the Fist and neither one could crew the ship alone. Engineer and pilot were the thinnest skeleton crew possible. For now, at least, they would have to rely on each other.
“Entering the atmosphere of Extremis.”
The holo-stage showed the release of a hail round that detonated instantly. Boyd powered down the Fist and dropped through the clouds toward a density layer and a fast-moving stream where he could hide the Fist. At a depth of one kilometer, the Fist was snatched up by the high-speed winds and swept along. The Fist would be swept clear around the gas giant over the course of a few days. Enough time to disappear. Enough time to patch her up.
“Rigged for dark running,” he said. “Minimal power only. We should be able to hide out for a while.”
He turned in his chair to look at Thresh, a broad grin on his face. They had escaped the Skarak and the Union.
Thresh was collapsed on the deck.
He ran over to her and scooped her up. She was losing blood from her ankle wound and had a large bruise on the side of her head. She had taken a beating and was out cold.
Boyd carried her to the med-bay through the dark, empty ship.
16
Boyd sat on the bunk in his cabin with the covert device in his hand. A small holo-image of Major Featherstone floated there.
“Kitzov got away.” the major said, “He is as slippery as he is dangerous.”
“Sorry to hear that, sir. I had him in my sights. I should have taken him down.”
“Nothing to be sorry about, Boyd. You got closer than anyone has ever done. And judging by your report, Kitzov won’t forget you in a hurry. You will have a chance to get close to him again. Next time, he won’t be so lucky.”
“I might be running out of luck, sir. I think one of the crew here on the Fist suspects I am communicating with the Union.”
“If you really do suspect anyone, eliminate them. Make it look like an accident, or a dispute. Pirates squabble over plunder all the time, right? Don’t let them discover you. You have to find Kitzov again. It will be easy for you now. I think he likes you.”
Boyd liked Kitzov too. Even though he hated himself for admitting it, even to himself, he understood the lure of the man. He was so charismatic, it was as if he exuded an irresistible appeal. But Boyd was deeply conflicted, because he hated Kitzov. The terrorist leader of the Faction was to blame for the death of his brother, and Boyd would have revenge.
Boyd would get close to Kitzov again, to be sure to affect his capture, but a small part of Boyd just wanted to be near the man again to try and understand why people were so drawn to him.
“Any new intelligence on the Skarak?” Boyd asked.
“The incursion at Kalis was, according to our tactical intelligence, another factfinding mission to try and understand us. We recovered dead Faction bodies that had been walking when the Skarak were in orbit. They’d had their brain tissue altered so that it was almost entirely white brain tissue. They are able to function in a limited way, but there is no higher function. It’s as if the Skarak turned them into biomechanical robots with one function: attack.”
Boyd heard a clattering from along the corridor just outside his cabin.
“Someone’s coming. I’ll check in as soon as I can. Boyd out.”
He deactivated the device and slipped it into his pocket. He stepped out into the corridor and saw Thresh in her medical gown with a med-pack stand lying on the floor next to her.
She looked up at Boyd. Her hair was in her face. Her voice was still weak.
“I heard voices,” she said, trying to stand up.
Boyd ran over and helped her up. He righted the med-pack stand.
“You should rest,” he said, turning her back to the med-bay.
“I thought I was all alone.” Thresh turned back toward the flight deck.
She was not strong, but extremely determined, so Boyd let her have her way.
“It’s just you and me,” he said, leading her to the flight deck. “We are still in the density layer on Extremis. I haven’t tried to restart to reactor yet.”
“Who were you talking to?” she said. She looked up at Boyd, her eyes droopy from medication and sleep.
“My journal.”
Thresh looked ahead and grinned. “You don’t strike me as a journal kind of guy.”
“I’ve been on my own here for days while you’ve been asleep in the med-bay,” Boyd said. He straightened out Thresh’s gown, which had been slipping off her shoulder.
“We need to find Kitzov,” she said. “I know how. I know where he’ll be.”
Boyd nodded. He was going to be led right to Kitzov. He was happy now that he hadn’t had to kill Thresh. He looked down at her shoulder as the gown slipped again. Yes, he was happy she was alive.
“Okay,” Boyd said. “Let’s go and find Kitzov.”
Boyd led her
along the corridor toward her cabin through the dark, cold corridors of the Odium Fist.
He would have Kitzov in his sights again soon, and next time, he would take no chances. Next time, he would fulfill his mission.
Invasion
Blue Star Marine, Book 3
1
The blue giant star appeared as a dim and distant point of light to the Ultimatum as she sat far beyond the boundaries of the Scorpio System. The lone ship, a state-of-the-art Union cruiser, remained locked in position, her power systems running in stealth mode as her surveillance systems ran at extreme range.
She sat and watched.
Captain Brendon Sheen slumped in his command chair—one leg slung over the other, hands behind his head, and a white root sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He looked down at the main holo-stage at the front of the command deck. Still no change after days of sitting and waiting.
Moving his hand from behind his head was the first move Sheen had made in almost an hour. His second-in-command, Commander Jacqueline Briggs, looked up at the sudden movement.
“Jumpy?” Sheen asked, looking down at Briggs with a grin. He moved the root from one side of his mouth to the other. The end was chewed and soggy, just the way he liked it.
Briggs rolled her eyes, shook her head, and looked back to the sensor console readout she had been checking, looking over the shoulder of the sensor operator. She moved along the consoles that were arranged in lines between the command chair and the main holo-stage, her eyes scanning all the displays.
“The Ultimatum is operating at peak efficiency,” Briggs said, walking back along the line of consoles. “She’s in excellent shape following our last service in the orbital base at Terra. The Ultimatum is a match for any cruiser in the fleet. We could run rings around the Goliath or any of the carriers. We’re fully tooled, loaded, and primed.” She walked over to the weapons console. “We are packing a fresh set of mass beam emitters and the redesigned spitz guns fresh from the Reyes Foundation. A loadout of thirteen combat drones.”
Briggs walked back toward Sheen and the command chair overlooking the entire command deck. She stood in front of him, her hands behind her back. “They even say our captain is one of the best.”
Sheen looked down with a grin. He moved the root with his tongue over to the favored left side of his mouth.
“Why do I have the feeling you are about to make a point, Jaks?”
“What are we doing out here, sir?”
Sheen leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. “You know why we’re here, Commander. Or do you have somewhere you’d rather be than sitting here, a billion kilometers out beyond the Sphere, running dark?”
“I’m just saying, the Skarak have only attacked the system twice, and both times, we sent them running away with their scaly tails between whatever it is they have that passes for legs. There has been no sight or sound from them for months. I think they know that if they ever risk coming back, we will just whip them again. And all the time we’re out here, waiting for an attack that may never come, the Faction are busy trying to cut off the Union from the outer system. We should be lighting up the belt, digging out Faction raiders, tearing their drives out, and leaving the terrorist scum to drift through the asteroids like so many dirty snowballs. But no, we are out here, holding still and waiting for an enemy that will never come.” Briggs took a breath before adding, “Sir.”
Sheen smiled. “Ever the philosopher, Jaks.” He stood up and stepped down from his command chair. He held an arm out and put it on Commander Briggs’s shoulder, turning her around and walking her toward the main holo-stage.
“I just think we could be better deployed,” she continued in a more relaxed tone. “We could position a drone out here, not a state-of-the-art cruiser and a first-class crew.”
Sheen tapped the side of the holo-stage and zoomed out the view to show the entire Scorpio System. The blue giant displayed as a point of light at the center of the huge holoimage. Around the center orbited the planets: Proxima, Terra, Glacies, then the belt, the ring of asteroids wrapped around the system in the plane of the ecliptic. Then the gas giants, Supra and Extremis, currently sitting on either side of the Scorpio star, and finally the outer planet, Lastone, the huge terrestrial planet constantly wracked by volcanic activity.
Beyond the planets was the Sphere, a densely-packed area of asteroids that marked the edge of the Scorpio System.
And beyond the Sphere sat the Ultimatum.
“I have heard some say—” Sheen looked around the command deck. “—but not from anyone here, I hope, that we should just let the Faction take the outer system. Let the Skarak pick away at them until they are gone. But the Union is not just the planets Terra and Glacies. The Union is not just the inner system. The Union is all the people of the Scorpio System. The people don’t want us to abandon them to the Faction, or the Skarak. We are the primary authority out here. We are the power. We are the only chance for rule of law for people from the Black Ice mines of the Sphere to the dawn line settlements of Proxima. The Faction is a sickness, and we are the cure. But we still have a duty to those settlements in the Sphere, from the cloud cities of Supra to the moons of Extremis, to defend them from all threats, and that includes the Skarak.”
Sheen zoomed out the image further, the planets falling away. The nearby stars of the region appeared.
“We don’t know where these Skarak come from yet, but they could come from any one of a hundred nearby systems.” Sheen zoomed out further, the holoimage displaying a vast number of stars. “And we’re unlikely to find them if we just go charging off into the void. So, the reason we are here is to spot the Skarak’s approach, next time they come. And I agree with Union tactical intelligence, they will come. It’s just a matter of time. And when they come, I will be happy to be sitting on a full load of combat drones, a fresh set of mass beam emitters, a fully-powered battery of spitz guns, and to have you alongside me, the most pedantic second-in-command in the entire Union fleet.”
“Yes, sir,” Briggs said. She turned and leaned against the holo-stage. “I guess I just got used to a bit more action on our last deployment.”
“If you want to put a complaint in writing, I’ll be sure to hand it over to the admiral personally the next time I see him.”
A single chirp from the sensor console had Sheen and Briggs on full alert before the sound ended. The holo-stage reset, zooming back in on the Ultimatum and displaying a sphere around the cruiser an astro-unit across, the outer edge of the Sphere just grazing the side of the display.
Captain Sheen looked up at the holo-display on the main stage. He turned and walked over to his command chair and climbed up in a single bound.
“It is a signal from the forward sensor drone,” the sensor officer reported, throwing the data to the main holo-stage. The data displaying the signal origin appeared as a short line of text.
Unknown.
“Send all sensor drones forward and make a broad sweep across the area of that signal,” Sheen said.
The sensor alert chirped again as another signal was detected at the edge of sensor range. As the drones moved forward, the sensor range of the Ultimatum was extended and more signals were detected.
“Check that all relays to the weapons and defensive systems are primed,” Briggs said as she walked around the edge of the command deck, checking all operators’ work as she went.
More signals were detected with every passing second, and the light chirp from the sensor console was now a steady stream.
“Focus the entire sensor drone field on the next signal. Put everything on that one point and let’s see if we can get a look at what’s causing it.” Sheen needed to be sure, but he knew just as the rest of the command deck crew did that the only thing it could be was a Skarak ship. No Faction ships would have a reason to operate this far from the system.
The holo-stage lit up with a hazy image from the combined sensor drone data on the edge of its range.
/> “It’s a large signal,” Briggs said. “Huge, and it is moving fast. It’s several astro-units away but will be in range of our onboard sensor assembly in a few minutes.” Briggs turned to Sheen. “Should we bring the reactor online, sir?”
“Negative, Commander,” Sheen replied as he coded a message to Union Fleet Headquarters, tapping away at his command chair armrest. “We need a positive identification before we break cover. If that is the Skarak, they have no idea we are here. I don’t want to tip our hand until I have to. Hold fast, Commander Briggs.”
Sheen turned his gaze toward the main holo-stage and waited. A few seconds later, an updated image was displayed based on a fresh data sweep by the mass of sensor drones.
The signal was unmistakable. A huge Skarak warship. Its forward section bristled with hundreds of stiff, thin, rapier-like structures, the large bulbous main body of the ship behind.
“Shut down the sensor drones. Send them dark. Leave them collecting passive data. We’ll pick them up another time. Bring the Ultimatum about. Thrusters only. Make ready to initiate drive, but we are going to sit tight and stay dark. If they haven’t spotted us, we could get really close and gather vital close-range data scans.”
The holo-stage showed the Ultimatum turn on the spot as the thrusters nudged the huge cruiser around.
“At the speeds we detected using the sensor drones, the Skarak ship will be in range of our onboard sensors in a few minutes,” Briggs said. “I recommend loading all drone tubes with combat drones, Captain.” She looked up at Sheen.
“Agreed, Commander. Activate the drone guidance, but leave the warhead in neutral for now. We’ll select the payload when we have a better idea of what is out there.”
“It’s clearly a warship, a kravin Skarak warship,” Briggs said.
“Calm down, Commander.” Captain Sheen leaned forward.
Blue Star Marine Boxed Set Page 25