Joined In Battle

by Toby Neighbors

  “How’s it going?” Dean asked Chavez.

  “Fine, sir. We’re fed and making progress on the armor.”

  “Good. I don’t know what’s waiting for us back home, but I don’t want to be caught unprepared. We’ve got a lot of civilians on this ship. We need to be locked and loaded as soon as we enter the heliosphere.”

  “Any word from Earth?” Harper asked.

  “Nothing yet. Just the EAM. We should know more soon. So let’s get ready.”

  Dean pulled out his own armor. The inside smelled of sweat and body odor. The outside was covered with dust and grime from Lars. He used an antibacterial spray to sanitize the armor and a high-pressure steam hose to wash everything off. He checked all the plates and pockets, making sure nothing was out of place or damaged. Then he pulled on his TCU and ran a diagnostics test. Every system checked out. Dean slipped out of his utility fatigues and suited up, then saw to his weapons.

  His sidearm hadn’t been fired, but the EMR rifle had been used extensively. He had to check the track to ensure there was no deterioration. Everything seemed in order. He stuffed as many magazines into the pouches in his armor as he could, then snapped the rifle into place on his chest, muzzle down from his left hip and the stock up near his right shoulder.

  “Captain Blaze, please report to the bridge,” Lieutenant Gretzkey said over the ship’s intercom, which included the audio system in Dean’s TCU.

  “Time to find out what all the fuss is about,” Dean said. “There isn’t much room left on the ship, so keep everyone in here, Staff Sergeant. I’ll patch any info I get straight through to the platoon channel.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Chavez said.

  He walked out of the Ready Room and wound his way between the refugees to his console on the bridge. Anders was studying his own displays and didn’t speak. Dean could feel the tension and knew that his presence in full battle rattle wasn’t easing anyone’s concerns. The refugees stared at him openly. The ship’s officers were busy at their consoles, but they too had stolen glances at Dean. They weren’t accustomed to facing dangerous situations, and no one knew what they would encounter once they reached the solar system.

  Dean was barely even settled into his seat when an Emergency Action Message flashed on his TCU view screen. He opened the message and saw generic orders for all EsDef ships to return to Earth orbit and all personnel to prepare for emergency orders. There was still no explanation for the EAM and Dean felt a slight sense of disappointment. He opened the platoon channel but muted it so that his specialists could listen in to the orders being given on the bridge.

  “XO, I want all the refugees moved to the mess hall or REC room,” Anders said. “I know it will be crowded, but the last thing we need is to be tripping over civilians.”

  “Aye, Admiral,” Hines said, leaving his station at the bridge.

  Dean thought it was odd that Anders was giving his executive officer a task that would take him away from the bridge. It was a task that anyone could do, even one of the enlisted crew—but Dean wouldn’t want someone telling him how to run his platoon, so he extended the same courtesy to Anders.

  “Time to Earth orbit?” the Vice Admiral asked.

  “Fifty-seven minutes and forty-nine seconds, sir,” Myers said.

  “Sir, we have a message from Fleet Command,” Lieutenant Gretskey announced.

  “Connect us,” Anders ordered.

  A vid feed opened on Dean’s TCU. He was surprised to see Major Andrew Davis looking back at him. He knew the OWFR commander was seeing every officer on the Hannibal’s bridge, but Dean felt like Major Davis was just inches away, glaring only at him.

  “We’ve got a situation,” Davis said without preamble. “Three Kroll ships have taken up orbit around Cymru in the New Wales system. EsDef sent in an armada, but they haven’t been heard from since. The fleet is gathering here in Sol as a precaution against further invasion, but I have been given special permission by Fleet Admiral Cummings to redirect your ship to the New Wales system. We have to know what is going on there. Vice Admiral Anders, get your ship turned around and find out all you can, then report back here.”

  “Major,” Anders sounded both surprised and a little afraid. “I have a ship full of refugees from the Lars system. We don’t have the resources to leave without dropping them off and resupplying.”

  “Fine, Vice Admiral. Rendezvous with Space Base 03 in orbit around Mars. You can drop off your passengers and resupply there.”

  The message was suddenly cut off. Dean felt odd, as if something was very wrong—but he couldn’t identify it.

  “Lieutenant Myers,” Anders said in a faint-sounding voice. “Bring us to a full stop and reroute to Mars orbit.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Time to station?” Anders asked.

  “Twenty-two minutes, sir,” Myers replied.

  “Very good. I’ll inform the refugees and see to our resupply. Captain Blaze, I trust you can see to the needs of your platoon?”

  “Absolutely,” Dean said.

  “Very good, very good,” the Vice Admiral said, his nervousness showing as he got up from his station and went quickly to his quarters.

  Dean looked around, but everyone was staring at their consoles. He got up, frowning, even though no one could see his face. Something was wrong, and Dean wasn’t sure what it was, exactly. Major Davis was acting strangely, but perhaps it was just the strain of the Kroll invasion. Dean couldn’t help but think that if he hadn’t been shipped out of system, he could have helped somehow. He had more experience with the Kroll than anyone, and he had tried to warn the brass that an invasion was coming. All he could do was watch from the sidelines and hope that when he was finally put in the fight, it wouldn’t be too late.

  Chapter 28

  As soon as Dean walked back into the Ready Room, Staff Sergeant Chavez opened a private channel between the two of them.

  “Something ain’t right, Jefe,” Chavez said. “I ain’t never been sent out from anywhere other than Grooms Lake.”

  “Perhaps it’s just a matter of time,” Dean said. “Stopping at Space Base O3 is faster.”

  “You telling me that another half hour is going to make a difference?” Chavez argued. “No, man, the Major doesn’t want us back home for some reason.”

  “Why on earth wouldn’t he want us back at Grooms Lake?” Dean argued.

  “I don’t know, sir, but I’d bet money something ain’t right.”

  “You think Rear Admiral Chancy is up to something?” Dean asked.

  “Could be. Or maybe its the brass, trying to roll over instead of fight. I don’t know. But I got that feeling my mother used to say was God trying to bring me back to the straight and narrow. You follow?”

  “Yeah, I got a feeling something’s up too,” Dean admitted. “But there’s nothing we can do about it now. I need you to make sure we have a fully resupplied ammunitions depot.”

  “You got it, Jefe. You watch your six.”

  “I will,” Dean said, starting to feel a little paranoid.

  He couldn’t imagine why he would need to watch out for himself. He shouldn’t be in danger from anyone. Even if Rear Admiral Chancy was still out to end his career, Dean wouldn’t be in physical danger.

  The Hannibal docked without incident, and Dean’s platoon was the first to exit the ship. Space Base 03 was an old, modular facility that had originally been used during mankind’s earliest exploration of space. It had once been a primary link between the colony on Mars and Earth, as well as the primary docking point for all spacecraft in the red planet’s vicinity. Those roles had eventually been taken over by larger, more modern space stations, but EsDef still used the old facility as an emergency station. It was mostly just storage of arms, oxygen tanks, and food supplies. It had no artificial gravity, and Dean’s platoon were almost like children as they bounced through the corridors.

  Dean followed them, his mind preoccupied with the possibilities of why they had been ordered to
stop at the old facility. He had expected more information about the invasion of the New Wales system, but other than the Emergency Action Message and Major Davis’s terse explanation, there was no news to be found. Dean had even logged onto the local network that connected all the colonies and space stations in the solar system, but there was nothing about an invasion on any of the news networks. He guessed that it was possible that EsDef considered any word of the invasion to be classified. It made sense that they wouldn’t want news to spread about the Kroll in colony space, but it still seemed out of the ordinary, in Dean’s opinion.

  Not making it back to Space Base 13 was also disappointing on a personal level: Dean had hoped that he might have an opportunity to see Esma again. He knew the odds that she hadn’t been assigned to a ship outside the system were slim, but his heart refused to be practical in matters regarding Esma. Even just thinking about her made his heart soar with excitement. Dean knew he had no business being with someone as beautiful and sophisticated as Captain Esmerelda Dante, and the fact that she had initiated their romance still made him feel as though a huge mistake had been made. Still, no one could fault him for taking advantage of the situation and doing everything in his power to make it work. Unfortunately, stopping short of reaching Earth and the EsDef primary base crushed any hopes he had that he might see the woman of his dreams again anytime soon.

  “Dean,” a familiar voice said, shaking him from his mental reverie.

  “What?” he asked, looking around.

  From a side room a hand shot out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him into a small module that was obviously designed for observation. The room was dark and small but surrounded by thick windows on every side. Dean could see the space station with Mars glowing red just beyond, the Hannibal stuck to the dock, and even a few other ships that seemed to hover in space nearby.

  Dean couldn’t believe his eyes. Not because of the view from the module, but because of who was in the small room with him. Captain Vanessa Parker had one hand and one foot latched onto the specially built handles so that she didn’t float free, and it took Dean a moment to steady himself after being jerked into the room.

  “What is going on?” Dean said.

  “I have a message from Major Davis.”

  “I know, we’re supposed to go to the New Wales system and report back.”

  “No, Dean, that’s what the Hannibal is tasked to do. We know what’s happening in the system. At least, we know that our ships were captured.”

  “The armada was captured?” Dean asked.

  “Every single one. Including the Spartan.”

  Dean’s mind was whirling.

  “You mean, Rear Admiral Chancy’s ship?”

  “The very one,” Parker said. “He was in charge of the armada, and now he’s either captive or dead. But there’s no doubt where his loyalties lie, Dean. If it means he can save himself, he’ll tell the Kroll everything he knows about EsDef and humanity.”

  “Holy shit,” Dean replied.

  “The brass are deadlocked. They know they have to do something, but no one wants to send any resources outside the solar system just in case the Kroll show up here.”

  “I expected as much,” Dean said.

  “But unless we show the Kroll how much fighting humanity will cost them, they’ll chip away at our resources until we have no way to resist their rule.”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “Which is why Major Davis wants you to find a way to destroy the Kroll ships in orbit around Cymru.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Dean said.

  “I am not,” Captain Parker said. “You know how they fight. You have more experience than anyone in EsDef.”

  “Didn't every one of Admiral Chancy’s ships have a platoon of Force Recon on board?”

  “They did.”

  “So how the hell am I supposed to succeed when they were all defeated?”

  “You’ll find a way, I’m sure of that.”

  “This is insane.”

  “This is war, Dean. If we don’t take the fight to the enemy, we’re done for.”

  “I don’t suppose Major Davis has a plan for how I’m supposed to get on the Kroll ships?”

  “Actually, he’s already given those orders to Vice Admiral Anders. His mission is to get as close to Cymru as possible, drop your platoon in the Raptor shuttle, and then bug out.”

  “Meaning I have no support whatsoever,” Dean said. “This is starting to sound like a suicide mission.”

  “There are only a few commanders we can trust, Dean,” Parker said. “This mission is completely off the books. But it’s our only chance to show the Kroll that we won’t just roll over like the Urgglatta. We’ve learned a lot from the refugees your platoon rescued from the Kroll on our diplomatic mission. The most important thing is that the Kroll aren’t coordinated. They aren’t a military force; they’re more like a pride of lions. Many prides, in fact—all of them sharing resources, which they take by force. No one even knows how many ships they have—hundreds at least, maybe thousands. We can’t beat them in a straight-up fight, Dean. We have to hurt them so badly that the thought of fighting us leaves a bad taste in their mouths.”

  “And I suppose Major Davis has a plan for that?”

  “He does, but no one else is willing to put their asses on the line, Dean. It’s entirely up to you. If Anders takes his ship back to Earth, the brass won’t let him leave again. The colonies will be left to fend for themselves, and the Kroll will be left to run free across the galaxy.”

  Dean looked out the window, away from Mars. He could see the sun as a small dot of light, not much bigger than the other stars. Dean didn’t like taking his platoon on a mission that wasn’t backed by the EsDef brass, yet he agreed with everything Parker had said. They needed to strike a blow against the Kroll that was felt all across their empire.

  “What’s his plan?” Dean asked. “If I’m going to risk my platoon, I have to know Major Davis is going to follow through. I have to know our sacrifice will mean something.”

  “Did you know that this facility has a weapons depot?”

  “Well, I assumed,” Dean replied. “We’re restocking ammo.”

  Parker nodded with a knowing smile. “This facility has been stocking weapons for decades. Some things are still around from before EsDef was even established.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Did you know this facility was once armed with nukes?”

  Dean felt a cold knot suddenly form in his stomach. Nuclear weapons were banned on Earth over a century before Dean was born. And when humanity began to spread through the cosmos, it was determined that nuclear weapons were so dangerous to the precious environments that humans needed to live in that WMDs were eventually outlawed altogether.

  “You aren’t serious,” Dean said.

  “Let’s just say that no one cares about Space Base 03 or what’s on it,” Parker went on. “Major Davis has put together an impressive collection of weapons here for just such an occasion. It’s not enough to destroy a planet or wipe out our enemies, but it might be enough to put the fear of God and man into the Kroll.”

  “You want me to take nukes to the New Welsh system?”

  “No, that’s too risky. What we want,” she said as she moved closer to Dean, “what we need, is for you to take control of a Kroll ship. Something that can cross into their space and make a difference in this war.”

  “That’s insane,” Dean said. “We don’t even know how they operate their ships.”

  “But we know they use gravity drives. With the Urgglatta technology you got for us by operating an alien ship, Dean, we now have that same technology. We need you to work your magic again. And if you’re lucky, you might just save some good people in the process.”

  Dean sighed in frustration. He knew the mission was almost impossible. More than anyone, he knew just how deadly the Kroll were and how difficult taking over one of their massive ships would be. Yet he also sa
w the strategic wisdom in the plan Captain Parker was laying out. Nuclear bombs in space had never been practical. The weapons had been tested as mankind began to explore the outer reaches of the solar system. In the hard vacuum of space, the release of energy in a nuclear detonation was a fraction of the destructive power the weapons had on Earth. But if they could get the bombs onto the Kroll ships and detonate them simultaneously, it was possible that humanity could destroy a significant portion of the Kroll fleet while at the same time making war with humanity a prospect that even the Kroll might not want.

  “That’s a bold plan,” Dean finally admitted.

  “It’s also a complex one,” Parker went on. “It hinges on several key elements. The first is having a way into Kroll space. Your mission with the diplomats on the Apache proved that we can’t just go waltzing into their territory. They have technology to anticipate our movements that we are still just trying to understand. If we send our ships in—”

  “They’ll just be captured, but we could place the bombs on our vessels and sacrifice some of our older ships. It would be a perfect way to deliver the bombs.”

  “You don’t think empty war ships would raise red flags?” Parker said. “Think about it, Dean, we almost destroyed the Urgglatta ship you captured because we were afraid it was a weapon. Then we went over it with a fine-tooth comb. Just sending the bombs on empty ships won’t get the job done. Even if we were willing to sacrifice a skeleton crew on each ship, it would raise suspicion. We need a ship that can infiltrate their territory and offer them resources without making them nervous. The only way to do that is with one of their own ships.”

  “So I get to New Wales, take over one of their ships, and fly it back here,” Dean said.

  “No,” Parker said. “They can’t know that we’ve taken over one of their ships.”

  “You mean I have to destroy two more Kroll ships. My god, Parker, I can’t do that. We barely survived the two times we were on their vessels.”

  “Dean, I’m not saying it will be easy. But they have our people, our technology. New Wales won’t be the last we see of them. And the powers that be want to stick their head in the sand and hope the Kroll decide to leave us alone. That tactic has never worked, Dean. You’re a student of history. Isolation is impossible. Appeasement only makes us their slaves. This might be the only shot we’ve got to take the fight to the enemy. You have to get us a ship.”