Jack watched the Blades fire another salvo and account for another handful of enemy fighters. He leaned on the flight deck, moving closer to the holostage, and considered why the Skalidions were allowing themselves to take the punishment. Surely pursuing the stricken tac boats was secondary to defending themselves against the Blades.
Jack launched a surveillance drone, fearing suddenly that a fresh wave of Skalidion fighters was moving in. However, space was empty for several astro units, filled only by Jack, his mixed squadron, the Skalidion fighters, and the tac boats falling to the planet surface.
The flash on the holostage informed Jack that the first of the damaged boats had entered the massive planet’s thick atmosphere. The nearly out of control tac boat tumbled as friction heated one side, throwing it off balance and presenting a fresh cold face to the friction. The craft heated almost to the point of vaporizing the hull.
Soon enough, all four stricken tac boats were tumbling through the atmosphere, leaving long trails of fire behind them. Communications ceased from the falling boats as they burned ahead, with the remaining Skalidions on their tail.
The Blades slowed their approach and entered the atmosphere cautiously. All sensor readings were scrambled during re-entry, and the Blades were vulnerable. Jack synced his tac boat squadron’s sensors with the Blades’ and boosted their targeting accuracy. The strategy was rewarded with an almost immediate explosion of a Skalidion fighter as the Blades were again able to pick out their targets.
Jack entered the atmosphere behind the Blades, burning trails all around. He zoomed in on the damaged boats and saw they were battling to achieve a safe landing. Drive systems were powered, and their remaining thruster units fought to maneuver the boat into some sort of safe landing orientation.
As the tac boats fell, Jack saw several Skalidion pilots detach from their ships. The short, spindly figures somehow dropped alongside the tac boats maneuvering for a safe landing as they fell the last few kilometers. But still, several dozen Skalidion fighters shepherded the boats to the surface seemingly unaware or unconcerned by the presence of the handful of Blades firing to their rear.
Then the Skalidions turned and fired a salvo of green fire at the Blades on their tail. Jack's heart sank as two Blades erupted into a ball of fire and debris, orange erupting from the fighters’ main drive and mingling with the green that tore through hull and the pilot alike.
Communication from one of the stricken tac boats broke through.
"This is Scorpio Two. Have regained partial thruster control. Landing imminent. Scorpio Two out."
Jack saw the heavy impact on his holostage as Scorpio Two violently touched down. The impact was followed by three others in quick succession, spread out over a small area. The boats had held formation as best they could, and thankfully were on the ground.
Their external sensors fed their readings back to Jack. He could see the Skalidion fighters that had abandoned their ships land on the surface. Gravity here was three times standard, but the Skalidions seemed unimpeded as they ran toward the downed tac boats.
The Blades racing low across the surface fired their flank hail cannons. Ordnance tore up the ground, and the Skalidion pilots running toward the boats exploded violently. The remaining Skalidion fighters engaged the Blades in ship-to-ship combat. The thick atmosphere of the planet slowed the Blades and reduced their maneuverability, but the Skalidion fighters, small and mobile, moved through the thick atmosphere as easily as they did through the vacuum of space.
"This is Forge. All tac boats set down and create a perimeter. All Marines, arm yourselves, and I'll see you on the surface."
The Skalidion fighters hunted down the Blades as Jack prepared to land his craft. He saw one Blade after another succumb to the green fire. A small group of fighters peeled off from the attack on the Blades and circled back to the downed tac boats. The Skalidion pilots detached from their crafts and dropped to the surface.
Combat reports from nerve-shattered Blade pilots filled the communication channels as one after another was destroyed by the pursuing Skalidions.
"This is Forge to all Blades. Break off, climb to orbit. Report tac boat location to the fleet. Get out of here, Blades. I'll take it from here. Forge out."
Jack's tac boat touched down heavily. The boarding ramp immediately began to open, and a fine dust swirled into the interior, clinging to every surface like sticky powder. It even covered Jack's faceplate. He wiped away the dust, leaving smears over, then activated his enhanced data view to help him see past it.
"Keep those guns active," Jack said to his crew as he ran to the boarding ramp. "If those Skalidions move in, we will need your firepower."
Jack ran down the boarding ramp and out of the tac boat. His tactical suit’s stability field alerted him to the high gravity, but his local field kept him from collapsing. The dust on the ground was ankle-deep, thick, and sticky. It clung to his boots as he waded through it as if marching through syrup. Fine particles kicked up by the landing of the tac boats clouded everything in a thick white cloud. Visibility without the enhanced data view was reduced to mere centimeters. Jack swung up his pulse rifle and took a position just outside his boat.
"Attention Major Forge. This is the lead Blade. We have been ordered back to the fleet. All Skalidion fighters have detached from their craft and landed on the surface. We detect thirty-six Skalidions advancing on your position from the planet's magnetic north. Good luck, Marines. Blades out."
Commander Scherer came down the boarding ramp and took a knee next to Jack, his pulse pistol held loosely in his hand. He wiped his hand across his helmet’s faceplate to no effect.
"Nice place you've got here," Commander Scherer said.
"And we've got some neighbors moving in that I'm not too keen to meet," Jack replied. He brought his pulse rifle up to his shoulder and sighted into the distance. The Skalidions were moving in.
The sound of pulse rifle fire started sparsely at first, but by the time Jack fired his first round, the sound was sustained. The laser assembly on the upper hull of Jack's tac boat activated, a beam of high-energy laser lancing out from the assembly. The dust on the surface rose in huge clumps and stuck to the assembly as it fired. The thick white dust scattered the laser from a thin, focused beam to a diffused mass of light that reflected off the swirling dust, creating a wall of orange that was impossible even for the enhanced data view of Jack's tactical suit to penetrate.
"All tac boats, this is Forge. Stand down high-energy laser. All laser gunners grab a pulse rifle and join the ground force."
"Jack, this is Sam." The message came on a private channel.
"Go ahead, Sam." Jack scanned his field of fire, connecting his enhanced data view to the rifle targeting systems.
"I got Skalidions moving in on the west perimeter. Dozens of them. Giving fire now."
Jack saw movement in the thick dust only twenty meters out. A Skalidion, its handheld green fire weapon raised, came running. Jack pulled the trigger on his pulse rifle and let out a short burst. The pulse rounds punched through the dust and veered sharply off target. One round caught the onrushing Skalidion in its right hip and sent it tumbling to one side as it fell.
"There is something wrong with the pulse rifles," Jack heard a Marine calling out over the open channel.
Another Skalidion rushed at Jack. The pulse rounds he fired to slow the attacker veered off course. Jack analyzed the data through his rifle’s targeting system. The planet’s thick electrostatically-charged dust was scattering the pulse rounds through the strong electromagnetic field. He scored a glancing blow on the next Skalidion, knocking it off balance but failing to bring the enemy down. The Skalidion came on, closing in even more.
The Marines’ panicked shouts filled the open channel.
"They have taken Bill!" the Marine repeated his report. "They snatched him in some kind of black net and dragged him a—” The report ended with a scream.
The Skalidion rushing toward Jack was only fiv
e meters out when he saw the black fibers spinning out from the end of the Skalidion’s weapon. He activated his electron bayonet and made ready to dispatch the Skalidion in close combat. The black fibers leaped forward and wrapped around Commander Scherer’s head and shoulders, pulling him to the ground and dragging him through the dust.
Jack rushed forward, slashing out with his fizzing bayonet. The white blade was practically invisible in the swirling white dust, but Jack knew exactly where the tip was and easily sliced through the fibers.
Scherer skidded to a halt, pulling himself to his feet and tearing at the fibers around his upper body, all while aiming with his pistol. Scherer let off a rapid series of shots in the general direction of the Skalidion that had tried to trap him. Jack took two steps forward and lunged with his bayonet, the blade slipping through the Skalidion’s large thorax. He lifted the blade upwards, and it burst out through the upper shoulder of the Skalidion, who fell into the dust. A cloud burst up as the alien disappeared into the ground, covered by the swirling white haze.
Jack grabbed Scherer and pulled him back toward the perimeter. Panicked reports from Marines all around the perimeter came in, and Jack heard more reports of the black fiber nets that were snatching the Marines as they fought.
"All Marines, we are getting out of here. All active tac boats make ready to leave. Fall back to your boats. We leave on my command."
Walking backward toward the open boarding ramp and looking at his wrist-mounted holostage, Jack checked on the progress of all Marines units. Although the swirling dust made it impossible to see his hand in front of his face, the green lines of the holoimage cut through cleanly and Jack could make out the arrangement of tac boats. The Marines were abandoning the crashed craft and falling back to the four functional ones. All Marines were at their boarding ramps in moments.
The Skalidions closed in on all sides.
Falling back to the boarding ramp, Jack let off a sustained blast of covering fire. The pulse rounds swirled off course, some spiraling forward, others arcing up or down to slam into the dusty surface. Jack edged up the boarding ramp and then took a knee and let off another sustained burst. Even though the rounds flew wild, it would surely be enough of a deterrent to the Skalidions advancing on his position.
The medical data from all tactical suits told Jack that of the Marines who had landed on the surface, three were now dead. Six others were in a heightened state of distress, pulse and temperature high, and they were moving away fast, dragged from the tac boat formation by their Skalidion captors. Jack picked out one of the Marines and tapped into the suit’s enhanced data view. What Jack saw through the eyes of his Marine both chilled him and brought him to boiling point. A Skalidion carried the Marine in a thick black web, dragging him through the white dust, moving at speed. The Marine was completely immobilized and could only scream his fear and frustration.
"Jack," Sam Torent said over a private channel. "Have you seen what they are doing? We have to help."
Jack could see exactly what the Skalidions were doing. The entire attack had been designed to take live prisoners. Jack was only aware of the numbers that had been taken, but now he was aware that his friend Sam Torent was not among the dead or the captive, and Jack couldn't help but feel relieved.
"We can't fight them; they have the advantage. We must retreat."
"Don't be so kravin heartless, Jack," Sam said angrily. "We can't let them go. We can save them."
"We can't save them, Sam, and we could lose even more. We need to know why they didn't just try to destroy us. We need to report back to the fleet." Jack activated the boarding ramp and began to close it. Commander Scherer was in the pilot seat. Jack turned to him and gave him a thumbs up and the okay to lift off. "All Marines, head back to the fleet. That is an order."
As the tac boat lifted off, Jack counted the cost of his perimeter patrol. Four the best tac boats in the battalion were lost along with nine of his Marines—three dead, six taken prisoner by the Skalidion.
"We are off the ground," Scherer reported. "Heading to orbit. Visibility low. Sensor readings unreliable. Plotting a course for the fleet."
Jack opened a channel to the squadron and all surviving Marines. "This is Scorpio One. All tac boats make directly for the fleet with all speed. Forge out."
Jack looked at the thick dust still covering his tactical suit. His gloves were covered with it, and it clung defiantly to every surface. That he had lost nine Marines was bad enough, but that he had been surprised by the Skalidions’ attack and their determination to take live prisoners was worse. The Skalidion had lost dozens of fighters for every Marine they had killed or captured. They had paid a heavy price for their reward. They wanted live prisoners, and Jack wanted to know why.
With the fleet still hours away, Jack could only think about what the Skalidion plans were. The sooner he could report this turn of events to the fleet, the sooner the intelligence service could try and unravel the mystery.
A proximity alert sounded from the flight deck. Jack walked a few paces to the deck, climbed up the few steps, and dropped down into the co-pilot seat next to Commander Scherer.
"What is it, Commander?" Jack asked.
"Ship detected, Major." Scherer sent the signal to the holostage and projected it on full resolution.
The ship was unmistakable. Jack had encountered them so many times before that he would recognize one right away. He had been inside and outside of these craft. But why was one here now, sitting directly in his path?
"Receiving a communication," Scherer said.
Jack tapped the controls and sent the communication to the holostage. The image that appeared was both familiar and surprising. A Devex warrior in full exo-armor appeared on the holostage.
And then the Devex spoke.
"Fleet vessels. I demand attention."
Jack looked at the active scans. It was a single Devex raider. A powerful ship to be sure, but no match for four battle-hardened tac boats and their Marine crews.
"We can just punch our way through," Commander Scherer suggested.
Jack shook his head. "Open a channel, Commander. Let's see what this Devex has to say."
Just as Jack opened the return channel, the sensors showed another raider move out of the sensor shadow created by the first. And then a third appeared.
"This is Major Forge of the Fleet Marines. Go ahead, Devex Raider. You have my attention."
And they had Jack's curiosity too. What were these raiders doing so far away from their support, positioning themselves in front of the tac boat squadron? Jack wasn't sure he wanted to know. It was not going to be good news, he was sure of that much.
3
The image of the Devex warrior sitting on Jack's holostage remained motionless as Jack considered the situation. Commander Scherer looked at Jack with a mixture of surprise and amazement.
"It could be a trap," Scherer said.
Jack nodded. He opened a channel to Sam’s tac boat. The image of the Devex warrior shrank away and was replaced with the image of Sam.
"It could be a trap," Sam echoed.
"Whether it's a trap or not, we can't hang around here. We either go back to the fleet right now or we see what this Devex has to say."
"It's your call, Jack," Sam said. "I've got your back. Whatever you decide."
Reopening the channel to the Devex, Jack knew he had to decide.
"How can I assist?" Jack said.
"We have your people."
The Devex had a history of snatching people by the thousands and converting them into the armor-clad Devex warriors, into mindless automata acting under the direction of the Devex. But why were they telling Jack that now?
"How many people do you have? What do you intend to do with them?"
The Devex warrior on the holoimage remained motionless. It may well have been a still holoimage rather than a live transmission from inside the Devex raider. Maybe this was how the Devex were attempting to distract Jack in order to launch the
ir attack on his small yet powerful tac boat squadron.
Jack opened a private channel to Sam Torent and sent him a silent message.
"Launch surveillance drones, Sam. Check the area for other Devex."
The reply came back within moments. Jack knew Sam was on the case. Returning his attention back to the Devex warrior, Jack felt suspicion above all else.
"The Devex will trade the humans to the Skalidion. The Skalidion will allow one of our planetary systems to exist within their territory for the payment of fifty thousand humans."
Jack felt the eyes of Commander Scherer and the rest of his tac boat crew drilling into him. The Devex, not content with transforming humans into their own warriors, now were selling them to the Skalidion. Jack didn't know whether being forced to be a soldier was worse than being forced to be a slave.
Jack had never wanted to be a Marine. He had been forced into service against his will. The Fleet Marines needed recruits, and Jack had been pressed into service. But the Fleet Marine Service had called him to duty to fight for humanity and survival in this distant corner of the galaxy. Some might call it slavery, but Jack had embraced the service. Now Jack called it duty.
"Why are you telling me this?" Jack could not believe what he was hearing. This was either some bizarre trap, or maybe the Devex was simply boasting. Jack had to discover more.
"The Devex are split. Humans are not our enemy. The Skalidion will only destroy. We will help you rescue the fifty thousand humans before the Devex can deliver them to the Skalidion."
"You should have gone to the fleet. My tac boat squadron could barely rescue fifty people, let alone fifty thousand."
"Your fleet is too far away. Devex will be arriving to transport the humans soon. You must defend the humans in their transport until your fleet can arrive."
Jack sat back in his chair. This was extraordinary. The Devex trading humans for land. A Devex coming with intelligence. Jack received a private signal from Sam.
Betrayal (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 6) Page 2