A World of Hurt

by David Sherman

  "I have a blaster platoon that has actually boarded a starship with a Tweed hull breacher--the third platoon of Company L. I'll suggest to Commander van Winkle that he use that platoon as the point of the spear, and the rest of the company to complete the boarding party. How much time do we have to prepare?"

  The Marines of Company L sat hip-to-haunch in a troop lounge designed to accommodate half their number. They listened intently as Captain Kitchikummi, the battalion operations officer, and Staff Sergeant Nelflare, the operations chief, briefed them on the boarding mission. Most of them had spent enough time on different classes of starship to be able to find their way about fairly easily, but only a few had ever boarded a starship against resistance.

  A trid model of the former Trefalgar rotated to one side of the briefing stage. A miniature Tweed hull breacher was mounted on the model's side, nearer the after compartments than the bow.

  "Third platoon's first objective is to secure the breach head," Kitchikummi said, "so the follow-on platoons can get in to build up strength quickly. First platoon, your objective is main engineering." A section of the trid enlarged and morphed to a cutaway view, showing the entry chamber, the passageways outside it, main engineering, and the route between them. "It's not far, that's why we chose this chamber for entry. The comm shack is adjacent to main engineering; you will secure it as well.

  "Second platoon, you will go by squads to neutralize the main laser and missile mounts." The trid changed again, showing all the weapons points. "You'll have the FIST sapper platoon with you. They'll neutralize the guns.

  "Third platoon, a platoon from K Company will relieve you once first and second platoons have passed through your position. You will then move forward to take CIC--the Combat Information Center--and the bridge. CIC is colocated with the bridge.

  "Captain Conorado will be with third platoon, Lieutenant Humphrey with first platoon, and Lieutenant Rokmonov will command the reaction group from K Company."

  Nelflare then went into the details of coordination between the platoons, and Kitchikummi finished the briefing. "King-class dreadnoughts are double-hulled," he said, "with water and nonvolatile stores between hulls, so you don't need to worry about accidentally punching holes through her skin." He smiled grimly. "That means you can use your blasters on full power if you meet stiff resistance."

  Corporal Kerr flashed back to the Marquis de Rien, the single-hulled ship third platoon had used the Tweed hull breacher to board as she tried to escape them at Avionia. His fire team had taken the bridge, and a stray shot punched a hole through the hull in the fight. Two crewmen died of decompression. That was a mess he'd rather not see repeated.

  Kitchikummi released the platoons so their commanders could give them more detailed instructions.

  The We're Here! fleet maneuvered to cross the Grandar Bay's T again. Commodore Boreland ordered his starship to commence her countermaneuver.

  The THB hung at the end of an umbilical a hundred meters to the aft port side of the Grandar Bay as the mighty starship closed with the King-class dreadnought. The Marines and sailors attached to tethers trailing from the THB couldn't see the King; she was off the starboard bow. The two ships weren't on a collision course, or not quite. Unless one made a course change, they would be no closer than five hundred meters at their nearest approach.

  Led by Chief Petty Officer Young, ten sailors were positioned around the box of the THB, eight of them at its forward edge. Young and Engineering Mate 3rd Resort were at its rear, Resort at the THB's flight controls. The Marines of Company L and the first platoon of K Company were attached to short tethers strung out behind it.

  "Zero two," came a voice into the helmets of everyone outside the starship--the signal that two minutes remained before the maneuver that would fling the THB to the dreadnought. The officers and NCOs repeated the orders a final time and everybody stood ready.

  The voice came back to count down the final seconds, and the Grandar Bay's attitude rockets fired, sending her into a spin along her long axis.

  "Go," Chief Young said. Resort fired the THB's side thrusters, sending it in the same direction as the starship's spin. Centrifical force pushed the THB out to the full length of the umbilical that held it to the starship, the Marines tethered to the THB arcing after it.

  The Grandar Bay and the THB spun slowly at first but quickly increased velocity. The THB swung over the starship, and the King-class dreadnought rose into view broadside, some six hundred meters distant. Chief Young gave a rapid series of commands to Resort. The engineering mate cut the side thrusters and briefly fired the thrusters on the opposite side to neutralize the THB's angular momentum, then he fired a short burst from the main thrusters. The THB headed straight on an intercept course for the dreadnought.

  Vice Admiral Toke nervously cleared her throat. "Admiral, sir?" she said to Admiral of the Starry Heavens Orange. She waited several seconds for the furiously stewing CNO to respond. When he didn't, Toke said, "Sir? We have an anomaly."

  "I heard you the first time," Orange snapped. He blinked, then spun on the task force commander. "What anomaly? Why didn't you bring it to my attention earlier?"

  Toke nervously fingered her collar. "Sir, it just happened. The Grandar Bay fired a new weapon at us."

  "What?" Orange squawked. "Fired on us? At this range? She's too close, she'll be hit by fragments or backwash!" He grabbed handholds and prepared for the impact.

  "Ah, sir? We--We still have a minute before impact."

  Orange stared at Toke in disbelief. "Nonsense, Admiral. Sound the collision alert! A missile should already be here!" He blinked, hearing what he said, and straightened up. "We've been fired on from extreme close range and haven't been hit yet? What are they shooting at us?"

  "I don't know, sir. They--They sort of flung it at us."

  "Flung?"

  "Sir, if you will look..." Toke gestured vaguely toward the vid bank.

  "What am I supposed to be looking at?" Orange demanded, peering at the bank of vids showing local space around the Groovy.

  "Here, sir," an ensign said, pointing at one of the displays. It showed a boxy object with strings of something trailing behind it. The object drifted aft as it grew.

  "Enlarge," Orange demanded when he didn't recognize it. The ensign obeyed. Orange peered more closely, then asked, "What are those things trailing it?" The ensign enlarged the view of the stringers. Orange's eyes popped when they resolved into vacuum-armored figures.

  "Sound general quarters!" he shrieked. "Prepare to repel boarders!"

  "Repel boarders, sir?" Toke croaked.

  "Look at it!" Orange slapped the display. "Those are Confederation Marines. That's a hull breacher and a boarding party!"

  Nobody on the bridge moved for a moment. The We're Here! navy had never run repel-boarder exercises, and nobody knew what to do.

  "Do I have to do everything myself?" Orange shrilled. "Sound general quarters, have the chief of ship break open the weapons locker and issue weapons to the deck crew. Get ready to defend the ship and repel the boarders!"

  The officer-of-the-deck belatedly responded to the first command and sounded the general quarters alarm--needlessly, since the Groovy was already at general quarters.

  The alarm jolted the Groovy's captain out of his shock and he grabbed his comm to order the chief of ship to issue arms to the deck crew. "You heard me, Chief," he snarled when the surprised chief of boat requested clarification. "Issue arms and prepare to repel boarders."

  It hadn't yet occurred to anybody to determine what part of the hull the boarding party was going to breach.

  Resort fired the breaking engines and the THB gently thunked onto the plating of the King's hull less than four meters from its aiming point. The sailors stationed around the THB's forward edge immediately activated the magnets that held it against the hull until the sealant pumped in and took hold.

  "Reel in the boarding party," Chief Young ordered.

  "Reel in the boarding party, aye,
" Resort repeated, and engaged the motors that took up the tethers.

  The first Marine to reach the back of the THB was Ensign Charlie Bass. "We're ready anytime you are, Chief," he said.

  Young checked his instrument panel. It showed some ambers but no reds. Even though he'd never been involved in a hull breaching, he knew time was of the essence in the beginning of a boarding operation. "Open it," he ordered.

  Resort touched the control that slid open the hatch to the interior of the THB, and squeezed through as soon as it was open far enough.

  "Go!" Bass slapped the shoulder of the next Marine in line. Lance Corporal Schultz grasped the edge of the open hatch and propelled himself through, followed immediately by Corporal Claypoole. Between them they held a two and a half meter ram. Bass pointed at the next pair, Corporal Kerr and PFC Summers, and they went through, armed with a second ram.

  Bass turned off his helmet comm and touched helmets with EM2 Resort. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Bass asked the sailor as he guided Sergeant Linsman and Lance Corporal MacIlargie through the hatch.

  "As many times as Chief Young drilled me on this, I better know." He shut and dogged the hatch as soon as MacIlargie was through.

  Bass knew there was nothing more he could do until the Marines inside the THB breached the hull. The next Marine on the tether was Corporal Doyle. Bass touched helmets with him. "This is a lot different from the last time, isn't it?" he said.

  Doyle, pallid face invisible behind the reflective screen of his helmet, nodded, then remembered his nod couldn't be seen. He swallowed and replied, "A lot different, boss." The other time third platoon had used the THB, breaking into the Marquis de Rien when she was attempting to slingshot around a star, fleeing the Marines on the Khe Sanh at Avionia, Doyle was the first Marine into the THB and had operated the burner controls on the inside--which Chief Young was doing this time.

  Young saw that the hatch was secured and the six Marines in the THB with him anchored to the deck by their magnetic boots. He moved the inner hatch lever from side to side to make sure the two halves of the hatch butting against the hull worked, then activated the start sequence.

  Gases flowed at high pressure into mixing chambers, then shot through the ring of valves on the face of the hatch combing and ignited with blue flame. The nozzles swiveled and the tips of the flame touched the hull of the dreadnought. The metal snapped and popped as the cutting flames bit into it. The cutter frame began to turn in a slow circle, and a ring of metal turned red, then white, and began puddling.

  Chief Young kept his attention on his console, watching for the indication that a pinhole would be cut through the burning ring. It came, and he slammed the inner hatch shut, simultaneously cutting the pressure that mixed the burning gases. He turned the valve that pumped atmosphere into the THB. Behind the closed hatch, he heard sizzling and metal cracking, which grew louder as the THB filled with air and began to carry sound waves.

  "Stand steady," he said into his comm, and looked to see that the Marines had firm grips on handholds. He opened the hatch a crack, and water from between the double hulls of the starship shot through. The hatch halves shuddered from the force of the water forcing its way between them, but they held. He eased them farther apart. Water swirled and balled in the chamber, bubbles bouncing off each other, off the bulkheads, off the armored Marines, melding together to form larger bubbles.

  "Stand by for three," he said on his command comm.

  "Standing by, aye," Resort replied, and signaled Bass to make sure his Marines were clear.

  "Three...two...one...mark." Young turned off the air cock to prevent more atmosphere from entering the THB.

  Resort slid the outer hatch open and atmosphere and water boiled out into the vacuum.

  Inside, water continued to shoot through the slit between the inner hatch halves. Now it didn't bounce or bubble, but continued to hose toward the outer hatch. Resort opened the outer hatch farther, and the water flowed faster for a minute or more before it slowed to a trickle.

  "Secure it," Young ordered. He closed the inner hatch at the same time Resort closed the outer, and pumped the chamber full of air again, then reopened the inner hatch.

  Schultz swung his ram back and forward so fast he caught Claypoole off guard and nearly yanked it out of his grip, but Claypoole recovered quickly. The ram slammed into the cracked and weakened circle of hull and shattered it. Kerr and Summers didn't need to use their ram.

  Young turned on a floodlight in the THB's overhead, filling the space between hulls with light. The inner hull was two meters away, through a tangle of struts. He used the extension controls, and the cutting ring slowly telescoped from the inner wall of the THB until it was almost at the first struts. He repressurized the gas flow and reignited the cutters. The cutting ring began turning and the chamber was filled with the sound of cut struts clanging as they fell free. "Stand by with the rams," he ordered when the flames reached the inner hull and began cutting.

  On an order from Kerr, the two pairs of Marines awkwardly walked forward. They stopped when the lead Marines were in the middle of the now empty water storage tank between the hulls. Their balance precarious, they could feel the starship's artificial gravity in the tweenhulls space. The inner hull pinged, snapped, and popped. It glowed red, then white. Threads of ship's atmosphere visibly mixed with the air in the tweenhulls.

  "Now!" Young shouted.

  Schultz and Claypoole, Kerr and Summers, lunged forward and slammed their rams into the circle inside the burned ring. The thin armor shivered, then fell away. The four Marines charged through and dove to the deck, rolling away from the hole they'd just made, dropping the rams and readying their blasters in their shoulders. Linsman and MacIlargie followed on their heels.

  As soon as all six were through, Young closed the inner hatch and Resort opened the outer. Bass sent first squad into the chamber, then waited while the outer hatch closed so the newly created airlock could cycle full of air again and the squad could enter the ship.

  While he waited, Captain Conorado joined him.

  "You're next, Charlie," the company commander said, touching helmets.

  "I should have gone in first."

  "Going first isn't your job. You have to take care of your whole platoon."

  "I know that. Still--"

  He didn't get to say anything more because the hatch reopened and he shoved himself through at the head of the rest of third platoon.

  "Good hunting," Conorado whispered after him.

  The compartment the THB opened into was a berthing space, empty of crew now because everybody was at battle stations. Bass found that the Marines inside had already shed their vacuum suits, but he had to use infra to see them in their chameleon-covered body armor. Sergeant Ratliff was at one of the two hatches that led to the passageway outside the compartment, listening. Corporal Dean and his fire team covered Ratliff and the hatch. Corporals Claypoole and Doyle covered Lance Corporal Schultz, who was at the hatch on the right, ready to fling it open and plunge through to the interior of the starship. Everyone was ready, and first platoon was already filling the compartment.

  "Open them."

  Ratliff and Schultz opened the hatches and dove through, rapidly followed by the Marines covering them. There was no firing.

  Bass ran through the right hatch and found himself in a passageway whose ends seemed to disappear in the distance. It looked long enough to run the entire length of the dreadnought. Closed hatches lined the passageway on both sides at about ten meter intervals. He knelt next to Schultz.

  "Anything?" he asked.

  "Nothing close," Schultz said.

  Bass looked to Claypoole.

  "My motion detector doesn't show anybody but us," he said.

  Bass turned the other way and went to where Ratliff waited with his third fire team. They also had detected nobody nearby or coming their way. He spoke into his platoon circuit: "Secure the next compartments."

  Corporal Kerr raced t
hrough the right hatch, followed by Doyle and Summers. He flattened himself against the bulkhead next to the first hatch on the left, beyond third fire team, and undogged it. He flung it open and tossed in a canister, then slammed it closed.

  Corporal Pasquin led his fire team out the left hatch and did the same in the other direction. After a moment, Kerr reopened the hatch and waited. Nothing. The same with Pasquin.

  "Go," Bass ordered.

  Kerr spun through the hatch and across the compartment it opened into--another empty berthing compartment.

  Summers checked his sniffer when he came through. The knockout gas from the canister Kerr had thrown in had already dispersed.

  "Passage secured," Bass reported as soon as Kerr and Pasquin gave the all clear.

  "First platoon, go," Conorado ordered. First platoon raced out of the entry compartment and headed aft for the passageway that led to Engineering. By then, second platoon was crowding its way through the THB.

  On Bass's command, third platoon's remaining fire teams came through and checked the next compartments up. They were also empty berthing compartments. He continued leapfrogging the fire teams from compartment to compartment until Captain Conorado came to tell him K Company's first platoon was ready to take over.

  "Third platoon, let's head for the bridge."

  They heard the occasional crack-sizzles of blaster fire from second platoon as it took the weapons stations.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Lance Corporal Schultz took the point, sprinting along the passageway toward the bridge. Corporal Claypoole followed; he had trouble keeping up while watching for danger and keeping an eye on his motion detector, so he gave it to Lance Corporal MacIlargie to carry. He figured MacIlargie, as third in line, didn't need to watch his surroundings as carefully. Besides, rank has its privileges.