Dean wanted to kick himself. He couldn’t believe he had overlooked such an obvious idea. Still, he didn’t want to endanger anyone unnecessarily, and that meant keeping the crew in place until Dean could be sure there were no more threats on the Kroll ship.
“Let me clear the rest of the ship,” Dean said. “Then you can escort everyone down to the nest section.”
“Affirmative, Captain,” Tallgrass said.
Dean hurried back to where his platoon was gathered near the hatch leading to the next corridor. He didn’t like how dispersed his platoon was becoming, but he didn’t have a fix that would allow them to stay together.
“Loggins, tell me you’ve got eyes on that opening.”
“Yes, sir, but nothing to report,” the FAS private said.
“What about the rest of the ship?”
“It’s pretty empty, sir. I’ve got every hatch and bay monitored with MSVs. So far, everything is quiet.”
“Can you get me down to the maintenance section?”
“I’m not sure, Captain. I’m not familiar with anything other than this main corridor.”
“Have you come across any hatches in the floor?”
“Yes, sir, there’s one not far from here, just in a small nook.”
“Take me there,” Dean said. “Landin, join Tallgrass with the captives and make sure no one is in need of medical attention.”
“What about us, Captain?” Wilson asked.
“I doubt you’ll fit down the hatch,” Loggins spoke up. “It’s pretty small.”
“The rookie and I will search the maintenance area,” Dean said.
“Sir, that’s not a good idea. You shouldn’t go off by yourself,” Kliner argued.
“We’ll send the drones, Private,” Dean countered. “You three stay here and stay sharp, understood?”
“Yes, sir!” all three said in unison.
Dean followed Loggins to the hatch. It was a simple, round passageway. There was a small handle that opened the hatch, and metal rungs led down into a dimly lit corridor that ran just beneath the main passageway. Dean had expected the corridor; his platoon had searched one very much the like what he saw below him back when they were in the Alrakis system.
“Use your AAV,” Dean said. “If this is what I think it is, there will be a few hatches leading up to the holding cells and perhaps some cages where they keep the big simian creatures. It all leads back to the nesting corridor.”
“If there’s anything to find, sir, we’ll find it,” Loggins assured him, sending his secondary AAV down into the dimly lit passage.
Both men knelt by the hatch watching the vid feed. Everything was exactly as Dean expected, except they discovered what looked like a garage or workshop. It was essentially a section of the maintenance corridor that opened up wider than the rest. There were tools, mechanical parts, and several of the T-shaped mechanized battle suits Dean’s platoon had fought in the past. There was even a lift that looked like an old-fashioned elevator without the doors, which could move the huge mechs up to the main passage.
“Interesting,” Dean said. “I haven’t seen this before.”
“Looks like a workshop.”
“That’s exactly what it is, Private. The only question is who works in it.”
The answer came a few moments later, and Dean was simply astounded by what he saw. In a small room with bars that looked almost like a jail cell straight out of the Wild West were a group of unmistakable aliens. Dean thought of them as the Grays, but officially they were the Pergantee. They were diminutive bipeds with frail bodies, long arms with three-fingered hands, and short legs. Their skin was gray and reptilian, much like a toad or salamander. They were the dangerous aliens with large heads and bulbous, black eyes that had interfered with the development of mankind on Earth throughout history. From the crash-landing in Roswell, New Mexico, to crop circles and cattle mutilation, the Grays were behind it all. They even occasionally abducted people, although it was never conclusively proven.
EsDef had classified the race of interstellar travelers as hostile, but not expansionist and certainly not militaristic. They simply enjoyed manipulating people and things. Their knowledge of the universe was unknown, since they had no interest in open communication with humans, but their technology was very advanced. Their spacecraft seemed simple, but they were able to manipulate the laws of physics in ways that humans couldn’t understand. It made sense that the Kroll would use the Grays to build their ships, although Dean had never seen the small aliens on a Kroll craft before this.
“What should we do?” Loggins asked.
“Nothing, keep searching. Those bastards are almost as dangerous as the Kroll,” Dean warned.
There was nothing else to find in the ship, so Dean had the FAS private set several MSVs at strategic points throughout the maintenance shaft. He would need to know if the Grays escaped their cages before Dean was ready to deal with them. As soon as Dean returned to the main hatch, he sent for the captives. He explained to Vice Admiral Dole about the maintenance shaft and the aliens being held there.
“That does answer a few questions, but we can’t trust the Grays,” Dole said.
“I agree,” Dean replied. “For now, this ship is secure. I need all of your people to go into the nest section. It should be the safest place for now.”
“What about you?” Dole asked. “Wouldn’t it be better if we could break away from the other ships and escape?”
“Maybe, but those aren’t my orders, sir.”
“Well goddamnit, Captain! I’m changing your orders.”
“You can’t supersede Major Davis, sir. Besides, there could be more humans being held captive on the other ships. We can’t leave without them.”
“And what happens if more of the Kroll come onto the ship while you’re gone?”
“We’ll set the MSVs to detonate if anything but us tries to get on board, sir.”
“Oh beautiful, Recon and their explosives. Let me tell you something about spaceships, Captain. They aren’t built to contain explosions. If you breach the hull with your toys, we’ll all die from exposure to hard vacuum.”
“I’m aware of that, Vice Admiral,” Dean said, beginning to lose patience with the naval officer. “Which is why having you in the nesting corridor is the safest bet. We can seal you in, just in case the MSVs blow a hole in the ship. And your people can continue studying the controls, so that perhaps we can fulfill our mission.”
“Fine, but I want my protest on the record,” Dole snapped.
“As long as my armor gets back home, sir, your protest is noted. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a job to do.”
Chapter 34
“There are two ways this can go wrong,” Dean explained. “The Kroll can attack this ship from either end.”
“I didn’t see any type of controls on the gravity drive,” Harper added. “The engineers and operators are working on it now, but I wouldn’t put my hope in separating the ships any time soon.”
“That leaves us one option,” Dean said. “We take the fight to the enemy.”
“Damn straight,” Adkins replied.
“Better than waiting around all day,” Kliner said.
“We are warriors: we will fight,” Owando added.
“Which ship we hitting first?” Chavez asked.
“That’s the big question,” Dean admitted.
The truth was, he couldn’t be sure what the right decision was. It seemed like a miracle that they had taken the first Kroll vessel so easily. Dean had no doubt that more aliens would attack his platoon soon—or worse yet, sneak past them and attack the crew of the Hasting—but the only way to neutralize that threat was to attack first. He didn’t have the manpower to station guards on both ends of the ship.
“I say we hit the other longship,” Dean went on. “It should be a straightforward fight, and we know what to expect on that vessel. We might even find some help along the way.”
“Roger that,” Harper said.
Dean nodded. He knew his mission and had no trouble pursuing it, but what troubled him was why the Kroll ships were still in the system. They had come to a world without technology, so what was keeping them there? Perhaps they expected more EsDef ships to arrive. Or maybe the trio of ships was nothing more than a distraction while the main force of the Kroll fleet attacked Earth. That thought unsettled Dean, even though he knew there was nothing he could do about it. Even if they were in the Sol system when the Kroll attacked, his one platoon wouldn’t be able to save everyone. They probably wouldn’t even tip the scales one way or another, but it bothered him to think he might be falling for a trap.
“Alright, let’s move out. Endcaps formation. We make our way to the nest corridor on the longship and take out their leaders. Then we’ll reassess.”
“Time to party,” Carter said.
They formed a column with Owando, Adkins, and Teller in the lead, followed closely by Harper and Loggins. Dean was in the middle of the formation, flanked by Chavez and Ghost, and followed by Tallgrass and Landin. The final three HA Specialists, Wilson, Carter, and Kliner, brought up the rear.
It didn’t take long to march the length of the ship. The passage from one vessel to the next looked like a tunnel carved out of soap. The gooey substance that held the Kroll ships together was a dull, gray color, its consistency changing depending on the need.
“Alright, give me eyes on the other side of that passageway,” Dean ordered.
Loggins sent an AAV slowly through the tunnel. Dean was watching the vid feed from the small drone. He didn’t have to see the massed feline aliens to realize they were in trouble—the entire platoon heard the laser blasts that were fired at the AAV.
“Holy shit!” Loggins said, jerking the drone from side to side to avoid the laser fire.
“Drop one warhead!” Dean ordered.
The explosion blew hot gas through the tunnel. The AAV had raced past the pride of feline aliens with their back-mounted lasers. Their inability to take careful aim combined with Loggins’ quick reflexes had kept the drone from being destroyed, but it wasn’t the enemy that bothered Dean. He had expected to face more of the aliens on the Kroll longship. What bothered him were the mechs lined up in the corridor beyond the feline creatures. There were three of the large, T-shaped fighters, their steady-state laser cannons pointed toward the opening where Dean’s platoon would have to emerge if they were going to push into the alien ship.
Even more distressing were the two large simian creatures holding what looked to be Heavy Armor shields. Dean felt a sense of dread rise up inside him. He didn’t know what Rear Admiral Chancy had ordered the Recon platoons to do, but it appeared as if they had been captured so their weapons and armor could be utilized against further EsDef attacks.
“Hit them with everything you’ve got,” Dean ordered.
“Roger,” Loggins said in a tight voice as he sent the drone sailing toward the mechs.
“We’re going in hot,” Dean said. “On my command.”
The vid feed winked out as another explosion rippled through the tunnel and spewed hot gas and smoke onto Dean’s platoon.
“Move!” he shouted.
Running through the tunnel felt like insanity to Dean, but he knew they had to strike fast and move quickly through the Kroll who had been sent to stop them. They ran over the bodies of the feline aliens. Only a few remained alive in the smoke and carnage of the longship. The bulkheads were scorched, and one glass wall had shattered. The passageway was littered with body parts, broken weapons, and debris from the ship itself and from the mechs.
Dean saw with relief that all three T-shaped mechs were down, and the simians had been slain as well. The death toll in the passageway was terrible, and Dean knew he would see it in his mind’s eye for the rest of his life, but he pushed all his emotions down as he moved with his platoon through the battle zone. The smoke was clearing further down the passageway. On Dean’s right, the corridor was lined with metal walls, and on the left were the thick glass walls that line the holding cells.
“What the holy hell is that?” Adkins said.
“My god,” Harper added.
Dean looked down the long corridor as the smoke began to clear and saw a mass of people. They were EsDef naval personnel mostly, still in their utility fatigues. They looked desperate and afraid. Dean thought maybe they had escaped from the shattered glass of the cell near the explosion. He started to call for them to move forward, when two of the steady-state laser cannons fired above their heads.
“Everyone down!” Dean ordered
“Bastards are using the captives as human shields,” Chavez snarled.
“Harper, take out that mech,” Dean ordered.
If not for the sound filtering on their battle helmets, they wouldn’t have been able to hear one another. The captives were screaming. Some had dropped to the ground, huddled in fear. Others ran toward Dean’s platoon. A few had been hit by the lasers, which burned through them. Their bodies lay smoking in the corridor. Dean could only imagine the stench of burned human flesh. He had to shake off the thought as Harper’s AAV hit the mech with a warhead.
“Direct hit!” Chavez said.
The blast knocked many of the unarmored captives to the ground. Some were even injured by the shrapnel caused from the mech blowing apart. Dean wanted to help them, but Owando and the Swede both had heat warnings flashing on Dean’s TCU. And through the madness in front of him, Dean could see more of the feline creatures racing toward them.
“Ghost, Chavez, see if you can take out some of those fighters,” Dean ordered. “Landin, get those captives moving behind our position. You lead them to the nesting corridor on the other ship. Let’s flip this formation before more of those mechs show up.”
The platoon seemed to revolve around Dean. Beside him, his sniper and Close Combat Specialist were firing their weapons. Refugees were streaming past his platoon in a near panic, making the transition of his HA line difficult. Laser fire from the feline aliens was blasting into the captives. It made Dean angry, but there was nothing more he could do until the corridor was clear of non-combatants.
He was just about to give another order when a familiar face raced past him. He would have known her just by the shape of her eyes, or by seeing only one perfect ear, or even the graceful curve of her neck. It was Captain Esmerelda Dante, his love, the woman of his dreams—but she didn’t recognize him in his battle armor. He wanted to call out to her, to take her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be okay, but he knew a battle was not the time or the place to express his love. All he could do for her—all he could do for any of the captives—was ensure that they were rescued by killing the Kroll and the creatures fighting for them.
Dean raised his utility rifle and aimed over the shields of the triplets, who had managed to get to the front of the platoon through the panicked throng of captives to form an overlapping shield wall. Most of the humans between Dean’s platoon and the aliens were either wounded or dead. The feline aliens were rushing forward, moving at speeds that were hard to imagine. They didn’t run in straight lines, but bounded back and forth from the walls to the ceiling and floor, then back again. What was even more distressing was the plate armor they wore over their chests and across the crown of their heads just above their wide-set eyes.
“They’ve got armor,” Ghost said.
“Taken from Recon Specialists,” Dean agreed.
The feline aliens were still vulnerable. Their faces weren’t covered, nor were their legs or hindquarters. Still, it made taking them down more difficult and cost Dean’s platoon more ammunition that he would have liked. Once the captives were out of the way, the three-man HA line at the front of Dean’s column opened fire with their utility cannons. The feline aliens roared in pain as they were ripped to shreds, their bodies falling on top of humans in a macabre display of death.
S
uddenly, the swarm of feline aliens parted, and down the center of the corridor one of the huge, simian creatures charged at Dean’s platoon. It held two of the familiar, rectangular shields worn by the Heavy Armor Specialists in front of it, one in each hand. Dean knew that no amount of weapon fire would penetrate the shields, and if the creature barreled into his platoon, people would die.
“Separate!” Dean ordered. “Get out of its way.”
The Recon platoon split to either side of the passageway. The simian, running behind the shields, didn’t see the platoon’s movements. It dashed past them, and Dean didn’t have to give the order for his specialists to open fire. Their point-blank weapon fire tore the beast apart, just as it was swinging one of the shields at Eleanor Tallgrass. Dean heard Chavez bellow in fury, but it was Adkins who jumped between the defenseless Demolitions Sergeant and the powerful alien. Adkins threw his weight toward the alien, rotating in mid-air so that his own shield took the full force of the creature’s blow. The clash of the titanium-hydrogen alloy shields slapping together was almost as loud as the explosions of the AAV warheads. Adkins was knocked to the floor, and the simian creature staggered back from the rebounding force and was killed by continued close-quarters fire by the other members of the platoon. Before Dean could check on Adkins, who hadn’t risen from the deck, the feline creatures renewed their attack.
Chapter 35
“Reform the line!” Dean shouted. “Endcaps, move!”
Their movements weren’t smooth. The platoon was forced to shoot while they stumbled over the gristly remains of aliens ripped apart by the AAV bombs and slipped in the thick blood of the simian they had just slain. Laser beams flickered past them, sizzling on the walls of the corridor and crackling across the shields of the HA line.
“Adkins is up!” Owando called out.
“Hell of a save, Corporal,” Chavez said. “Gracias, chico!”
“Anytime,” Adkins said.
Dean thought the big HA Specialist sounded a little punchy, but there was no time to worry about him. The aliens were swarming like an Old Testament plague. Dean wanted to join the rest of his platoon in the fight, but instead he reloaded the ammunition for the HA utility cannons from the supplies in his pack.
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