Betrayal
Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 6
James David Victor
Fairfield Publishing
Copyright © 2019 Fairfield Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.
This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Thank You
1
The fleet raced onward in tight formation, its left flank skirting dangerously close to Skalidion space. Deep inside that space, a squadron of tac boats scanned the area for enemy movement. Surveillance drones surrounded the squadron, extending their sensor range a few more crucial astro units.
As he launched a data drone to relay the latest sensor data back to the fleet, Jack Forge opened the squadron communication channel.
“All boats, report in,” Jack said, initiating an end of watch check on all systems.
Jack’s old friend and Marine brother was the first to respond. Although Jack was the battalion commander, the pair had come up through the ranks together. They were friends, and Sam would normally call Jack by his first name, but only in private. On the squadron channel where all could hear, Sam observed protocol and addressed Jack by his rank.
"Copy, Major. Commander Torent reporting in. All systems green here, sir. Torent out."
Jack looked at the holoimage of the tac boat formation on his flight console and zoomed in on the tac boat that Sam Torent was sitting in, confirming the systems report. Jack had selected the flank surveillance squadron personally and had volunteered for the task himself. Even though he was deep in Skalidion space, Jack felt secure that the Marine teams around him were the best of the Scorpio Battalion, if not the entire fleet. It was about as comfortable as Jack could be, given the circumstances.
The rest of the squadron reported in with only one tac boat reporting a minor maneuvering thruster control error. The squadron was operating effectively, and Jack maintained the heading.
The holoimage of the squadron flickered on the holostage. The eight boats were arranged in line and moved forward as one, holding formation to within a millimeter of their assigned position. Jack's boat sat in the center of the formation, the fixed point that all the other tac boats took their position from.
The port side of the line faced Skalidion space, and they all knew that was the most likely direction from which danger might come. Jack zoomed out the view on his holostage and displayed all data within the squadron’s surveillance sphere.
A slight flicker of a signal on the edge of the sphere caught Jack's attention, and he was immediately on full alert.
"Check port surveillance feed. All tac boats check port-side. Signal detected."
Turning in his seat, Jack called back to his crew, a group of three Marines all selected for their ability to effectively service the tac boat’s weaponry.
"Make ready the guns. Skalidions." Jack turned back to his flight console
It was a guess, a judgment call. Without confirmation from the rest of the squadron, Jack could not be sure that it was the Skalidion, but Jack needed to be ready. Every second would count, if it was.
The signal on the holostage came closer, and Jack reset the resolution. He focused on the far-off signal, still only a tiny reflector in the vast expanse but closing the distance fast.
"Signal confirmed, Major." The voice of Commander Sam Torent crackled over Jack's flight deck communicator.
"Copy that." Jack looked at his holostage and saw the tiny reflector now with a code displayed alongside it. The identification made by all eight tac boats was confirmed. A Skalidion fighter was racing toward the squadron.
“Just one?” Jack said to himself. The Skalidions never came alone.
"All boats, recall all surveillance drones. Prepare to defend. Dispatch data update to the fleet. We have encountered the Skalidion."
Jack's small crew reported all guns ready. The two hail cannon gunners were standing ready at their position on the port and starboard sides of the cramped boat. The high-energy laser operator hung from the top-mounted laser turret, his head and shoulders in the center of the small rear section.
Jack checked all systems on his flight deck. The boat was fully functional and green across the board. All combat systems were ready. The holostage showed the line of tac boats and the single Skalidion fighter closing in, heading directly for the center of the line. On the edge of surveillance range, Jack saw the fighter swarm. A hundred reflectors in a tight formation raced in. The lead Skalidion was soon caught up in the swarm, just one more fighter lost in a hundred-strong swarm bearing down on the small tac boat squadron, determined to destroy anything and everything in their path.
A reply from the fleet flagship came as a text-only message, short and clear.
Deploy kinetic hail curtain defense and withdraw to the fleet.
"All tac boats, orders from the fleet. Port-side hail cannon will deploy kinetic hail curtain. Maximum spread. Set heading back to the fleet and prepare to maneuver at speed."
Jack set the new heading to the fleet several astro units away on the starboard flank of his squadron. The port-side hail gunner called out to Jack that the defensive fire pattern was set.
"All tac boats, fire on my mark and then withdraw to the fleet at maximum speed. Mark."
Immediately, the boat was filled with the dull sound of the cannon firing. Three short blasts and the gunner reported that his rounds were away. Jack turned to the flight deck and activated maneuvering thrusters, spinning the heavy little boat on the spot. He looked to the image on the holostage and confirmed the squadron had rotated ninety degrees, main drive systems firing up and throwing the tac boats across space toward the fleet. With every tac boat underway on their new heading, Jack hit his drive and followed.
The kinetic hail curtain sat within sensor range, and Jack saw the Skalidion swarm racing toward it. Their main green fire weapons flared to life and burned channels through the deadly hail. Many fighters streamed through, but many more collided with the wall and were instantly obliterated.
Ahead of the tac boat squadron, Jack spotted a new group of signals on his holostage. These signals were already accompanied by the Fleet ident codes marking them as a squadron of Blades. The fighter wing was racing in to engage the swarm.
With the swarm clear of the hail curtain, all Jack and his squadron could do was run. The support of the Blades was still several minutes away. Jack looked at the range finder on the holostage and could see clearly that the Skalidions would be on the tail of his squadron before they met up with the Blades. With their tails turned, the tac boat squadron was vulnerable. Their green fire would tear through the drive systems first, and with his drive systems out of commission, the Skalidion fighters would easily overpower his small squadron. It was hopeless.
Unless he turned to fight.
"All tac boats, this is Major Forge. All weapons stand by. We will engage the Skalidion."
Jack shouted over his shoulder to his three-man crew, "Get those guns ready. It's all on you to keep them firing."
Communication from the Blades crackled over Jack’s flight deck communicator.
"Attention
tac boat squadron. This is Commander Scherer of the Orphan Blades. You have orders to return to the fleet. Leave the Skalidions to us, Major Forge. We'll take it from here."
"Negative, Commander,” Jack replied. “They'll be on our tail before you can get here. The only chance I have is to fight. Get here soon. We’ll need all the help we can get."
Jack closed the channel to Scherer and opened one to his squadron.
"On my mark, come about one-eighty. We will have to face them down. Hail curtain, and then prepare high-ex ordnance. High-energy laser on wide beam. Let's try and even out these odds. Stand by to maneuver. Mark."
Jack hit the flight console controls and spun his tac boat on the spot, the inertia field straining and pressing Jack to the side of his flight seat. The instant the tac boat was facing the advancing swarm, he heard the hail cannon activating. The holostage showed the ordnance race ahead. At only a few hundred meters, the hail rounds exploded and threw out the curtain of sparkling kinetic hail. The rounds all detonated within seconds of each other and created a shimmering defensive shield several hundred square kilometers across that hung in space, sparkling and deadly.
The Skalidion fighters had closed in on the tac boats so close that the sudden appearance of the hail curtain took them by surprise. The first dozen Skalidion fighters collided with the defensive curtain, detonating and creating a fiery ball that spread. With a dozen more enemy fighters destroyed, Jack had reduced the odds against them. Now his squadron was only outnumbered ten to one.
The Skalidion fighters further back in the swarm had time to fire up their primary weapons and burned a channel through the hail curtain, but Jack and his squadron were expecting this. The breaches in the curtain were now targeted with hundreds of high-explosive rounds. The hail cannon pounded away, firing at the fighters that slipped through the gaps in the hail curtain.
Jack looked at the holostage and saw the Blades were still too far away to help.
The flicker of the laser assembly firing on wide beam danced across the flight deck. Jack called out his support and encouragement to the laser gunner in the small turret on the topside of the tac boat.
And then the Skalidions opened fire.
The boat on Jack's starboard side took a hit from the green fire. The pilot called out the hits. Jack was surprised to hear any communication from the tac boat, given that Skalidion fire was usually powerful enough to burn through a tac boat and vaporize all inside.
"Forward maneuvering thrusters inoperable." The pilot of the tac boat on Jack's starboard reported the damage. "Losing stability. I'm dropping out formation."
Opening a channel and watching the targeting data streaming in from his own weapons, Jack sent a message to the stricken tac boat.
"Keep firing, Marine. The Blades will be here. Keep fighting. Forge out."
The Skalidion swarm swept in on the tac boat squadron. Jack recognized their tactics. All the boats on Jack's starboard took fire to the forward maneuvering assemblies, so half the squadron began to tumble out of control. Jack could see that the Skalidions were firing to disable rather than kill.
The swarm raced past the tac boats and on toward the incoming Blades. As they closed into weapons range with the Blades, the Skalidions tightened formation. The green fire erupted from the front of the fighters in a tightly-packed salvo. It burned through the center of the Blade squadron, annihilating one of the Blades in an instant. They took evasive action and returned fire. Their forward laser assemblies lit up and accounted for an equal number of Skalidions. The Blades were outnumbered, though. In fact, the remaining Skalidions still vastly outnumbered the tac boats and the Blades combined.
Another tightly-packed salvo from the Skalidion fighters and they turned in a sweeping arc, heading back toward the tac boat squadron. Jack was already turning his boat to give fire. The four tac boats on one flank of the squadron were tumbling, with only the rear maneuvering assemblies and main drive giving them any form of control.
The swarm swept in on the damaged tac boats and fired again. Jack felt sure they would be destroyed on this sortie, but the Skalidion green fire only grazed the boats on the lower port side. Jack knew for sure now that the Skalidions were merely attempting to disable the tac boats. The rear maneuvering assemblies were rendered useless by the Skalidion swarm and left the tac boats tumbling in space.
Quickly running a check on the local star maps, Jack saw that the tumbling tac boats were caught in a gravity well and were slowly being pulled toward a nearby star. Two massive terrestrial planets orbited in the habitable zone around the star. The tac boats were falling toward the outer most of these two.
The Skalidion fighters swept past the tac boat formation, with the trailing fighters colliding lightly with the stricken boats to nudge them further into the gravity well speed their fall.
With the tac boats’ maneuvering capabilities limited, if not completely destroyed, Jack knew they were completely vulnerable to enemy fire. At least planet-side, the four-man Marine crew would stand a chance of survival until the fleet could mount a rescue. The alternative was destruction.
Opening a channel to the four stricken tac boats while also maintaining his battle position, Jack sent his orders.
"Make for that outer terrestrial. Set down and await rescue. If you have the opportunity to give fire to the enemy then don't hesitate, but your priority is to put your boat down and await rescue. Forge out."
The Skalidion fighters arced in again and came racing back toward the remaining tac boats. The last embers of the previous hail cannon curtain were no defense against the swarm still numbering more than sixty individual ships. The gunners fired on the Skalidions as they arced to race back in for the second sortie, and Jack noted with satisfaction that the gunners’ aim was good and half a dozen Skalidion fighters were dispatched before they brought their weapons to bear against the tac boats.
The damaged boats tumbling toward the nearby star system had regained some control and set their heading for the planet. Main drive systems burst to life and flung the boats toward the planet, out of the battle space and toward safety.
Jack watched on the holostage as the Skalidion fighters closed in, and he braced himself for the inevitable onslaught. The Blade squadron was only seconds away from joining the tac boats. Maybe their combined capabilities would be a match for the remaining Skalidions.
The Skalidions laid down a tightly-grouped salvo of green fire and arced away, following the boats falling to the planet.
Jack took evasive action as the green fire salvo raced in. A boat next to Jack took a glancing blow, its outer hull on the lower port side boiling away into space, but a group of Blades coming up on Jack's rear took the brunt of the fire, the billowing, seething mass of bright green pouring over the nose sections of three Blades and vaporizing the hull composite.
The Blade pilots ejected from their fighters moments before they exploded. The pilots in their tactical suits would be protected from the vacuum of space for a short time, and Jack knew they were too small a target for the Skalidion fighters that were moving rapidly across the battle space. Too small to be deliberately targeted, at least.
Jack zoomed in on one of the Blades pilots adrift in space—the leader, Commander Scherer—as a Skalidion fighter closed in.
"Commander Scherer, this is Forge. That Skalidion is coming for you. Hold on, I'm coming."
Jack maneuvered his boat the short distance toward Commander Scherer and watched Scherer with the external sensors as the pilot pulled his pulse pistol off his hip and fired at the incoming enemy. An almost entirely useless act of defiance.
As Jack closed in, he saw the flicker of the laser assembly across the flight deck followed by jubilant shouts from the laser gunner. The Skalidion fighter closing in on Scherer vaporized as a high-energy laser blast connected with its drive system.
Jack stopped the boat meters from Scherer. The external sensors showed that Scherer was maneuvering toward the boat, until finally Scherer gripped hold
of the hull near the boarding ramp.
"De-pressurizing tac boat," Jack shouted back to his crew. "Open boarding ramp, let's get the commander in here."
The main flight of Skalidion fighters were still in pursuit of the stricken boats, but a small group of Skalidions were closing in on the Blade pilots loose in space. Jack watched as one pilot was captured by a series of fine strands that fell from the underside of the Skalidion fighter, catching him up in a tangle of dark fibers. The pilot fired his pulse pistol into the underside of the Skalidion, the pulse rounds ineffectively flickering off the dark green ship.
"They are not trying to kill us," Jack said to himself. The swarm chasing the tac boats to the surface was not pursuing to destroy. They were pursuing to capture.
Looking back, he saw the tac boat boarding ramp open to black space. Commander Scherer pulled himself inside, his pulse pistol still in his hand.
Opening a channel to the remaining tac boats and Blades, Jack gave his orders.
"This is Major Forge. I'm taking command of this mixed squadron. Set heading for that terrestrial giant. Blades engage those Skalidions in pursuit of our tac boats. Let's go and save our people."
2
With the Skalidion swarm shepherding the damaged tac boats to the planet’s surface, Jack and his mixed squadron were able to close on the rear of the swarm. Jack pushed his main drive to its limit and closed the distance still further, eager to take a shot while the swarm was still in deep space.
"All Blades, this is Forge. Move up and engage the Skalidions." Jack watched in satisfaction as the Blades raced past the tac boat squadron and closed in on the Skalidions’ rear. The Blades’ forward lasers flickered to life and took out several Skalidion fighters, their drive sections exploding under the assault.
Betrayal (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 6) Page 1