Katy stood there kicking the dirt. She’d been all the way around the big pit and looked at a hundred ships in various states of repair: some nearly ruined, some, like Risa’s Greenback, nearly perfect.
Hurley wanted to get the Stingray out next, so Riley got everyone to clear out of the way and moved the big ship hauler back. Katy stood on the edge of the hole where the hauler had been. It had been blocking the light on that end a little and now Katy stared straight down into the hole.
She stared down at a big freighter that’d been nearly torn in half. The designers didn’t think the ship would one day be tossed into a hole. The main storage areas were light and the thing was so long that it was prone to breaking if it was stressed. She threw a clod of dirt on it.
And then she saw something familiar. Through a hole in the freighter’s torn storage bay, she saw the end of a Martin-Huxley upgraded thruster. The only reason she knew it was an MH is because they would use a special type of alacyte that would turn a red color after a few years. But the Argossy had Bently Mark IIs. She threw a clod of dirt at the thruster, but missed.
“Hey Hurley, we got Bently thrusters on the Argossy, right?”
Hurley was trying to get a cable around one of the Stingray’s forward cleats. He stood up and scratched his stomach. “We had Bentley’s but Marco put in the Huxley’s before we left.”
Katy grabbed a cable hanging off the big ship hauler and jumped down into the hole onto the freighter. The whole thing shifted to one side. A loud metal scraping on metal noise reverberated up and Katy had to cling to the cable so she didn’t fall into the freighter’s dark, musty smelling cargo hold. She gingerly stepped over the broken ship a few meters and peered into the hole where she saw the Huxley thruster.
She got down on all fours, one arm holding the cable, and there, nose down, sandwiched between a snarl of broken merchant and Fed military ships, was the Argossy.
“I found it,” she yelled. And Riley, who’d been designated the unofficial guard, shushed her immediately.
Hurley ran over and peered down at Katy. “Can you git back up?”
“Yeah.” He threw down some gloves and she climbed out.
“The Argossy weighs more than any of the typical Fed boats. They dumped her right off the hauler nose down into that mess and she just crushed everything on the way down.”
Pretty soon there were three ships there on the edge of the hole: the Argossy, Hurley’s Stingray and Risa’s Greenback.
“What I don’t get is why aren’t they defending these boats?” said Risa.
“To them they are worthless. They don’t fly. They are just metal. You can’t eat metal,” said Hurley.
“Will they ever fly? That’s the part I ain’t too sure about. I been here a long time and never seen nothing leave this place,” said Riley.
“Jolo said he could get these boats in the air. He’ll make it happen,” said Katy. “Now let’s get them ready. We still gotta find some fuel cells. They’re counting on us.”
Battle Royale
The first black boat appeared out of thin air right above the mall, thirty or so meters from Jolo and his little crew of Federation trained pregnant women. They were armed with the best kinetic weapons Earth had to offer, but now Jolo would find out if they could pull the trigger. It took a certain frame of mind to fire a weapon at another living thing with the intention to kill it, even something as wretched as a BG worm.
Some of the women were admin crew. They’d worked at a computer terminal somewhere in the bowels of some large, Fed military boat. Some had risen up through the ranks, and a few had made it into positions of authority, but only one had been a ground pounder: a large woman three months’ pregnant and starting to show who wanted to be called Mamba. No one knew her real name.
Jolo had sent Risa and anyone else who could fly a ship with Katy.
If it weren’t for the float effect that happened every time the portal opened, they might have all been dead before a single shot was fired. But the black boat, a single-manned fighter designed to do one thing: kill grunts on the ground, fired at the humans and missed low because they all went up about three meters.
It all happened at once. The screaming, the floating, the thick heat and electricity of the energy weapon firing all out right under the fragile human flesh.
Five of ground team, including Greeley, had already gone down the hole to the top of the admin building. The rest came crashing down onto the ice. Jolo landed on his feet and fired a grenade right at the nose of the small fighter. This little boat was deadly against ground forces but there was one worm inside controlling the ship, much like the warrior mechs.
The grenade exploded and the fighter veered off to one side, the worm inside stunned or dead. Mamba followed with several bursts from her M-16, the lead tearing into the alacyte hull making a satisfying sound. The black boat did a flip and skidded across the top upside down, kicking up gray ice, then finally came to a stop fifty meters out.
Jolo looked over at Mamba and she was grinning wildly. The others were still on the ground. Some were crying. “Get up,” yelled Jolo. “More coming. If you can’t fight then run back to the hole and help protect the wild boys.” Jolo was relieved to see Greeley’s green helmet poking up out of the hole. He jumped onto the ice and cursed at the three ground crew running off.
Jolo looked at his force. Twelve guns against the BG. The odds weren’t good. Especially when they were standing on a flat surface with no cover as far as the eye could see.
“Sittin’ ducks, Cap,” said Greeley.
“No time to get everyone down. We gotta fight here,” Jolo said, but he was also thinking about George. This might be the chance they needed. Then he turned to the team, “When we float, try to get a good shot off, then we’ll take cover behind the fallen ship.” Sure enough another black boat popped up and everyone went up again. Luckily, it was just a supply ship. Two grenades and a hundred rounds took it down in a heap. One grenade landed near the team on the ice near Greeley and knocked him on his back. He got up cussing, as everyone ran for the ship. A single BG warrior came out and it, too, went down under heavy fire. Jolo got everyone behind the dead transport.
“Conserve your ammo!” Jolo yelled. The kinetic weapons had done well, but were worthless without bullets. He counted eleven troops, all of them wide eyed and breathing hard, except for Greeley and Mamba.
Now we just need to get George through the portal, thought Jolo. If the boats came one at a time they could hold them off for awhile, or at least until they ran out of lead and grenades.
“You wanna make for the hole again and try for the vault?” said Greeley.
“Let’s hold for now, in case more ships come. Besides, George is coming.”
“Yeah. More o’ them black boats are comin’ too.”
They didn’t have to wait long.
Two Cruisers came through the portal at the same time, but Jolo and the ground team were ready and hit them with everything they had. The big ships came in out of position with no time to react. Jolo and the crew focused on crippling the big ships. Jolo had Greeley and Mamba attack the closest ship’s port engine. Meanwhile Jolo and his crew fired on the positional thrusters.
Several grenades hit the side of the boat, and even though the explosion was impressive and the force of the blast pushed the ship back, once the smoke cleared there was little damage to the thick alacyte hull. Jolo tried the M-16 and was able to penetrate the hull of the nearest boat, but it wasn’t enough to disable it. So he and the team kept hammering the engine and thrusters until it was throwing smoke. By then it had moved off the portal and was limping back to try and escape.
The second ship had been largely protected from the onslaught by the first ship. It cleared out of the danger zone as the smoking ship fought to get over the jump point. Jolo and the team had moved away from the safety of the downed transport and were killing the first Cruiser. The big smoking ship, covered in dents and bullet holes fired its rail guns, but
each burst went wide because the ship couldn’t maneuver.
Through the smoke and noise, Jolo saw George. He was on the other side of the ship and running low to the ground to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet.
Jolo was starting to feel a little more confident. A crippled ship and George just showed up. Good timing.
And then two more Cruisers jumped in.
Jolo pulled everyone back behind the transport. This time one of the ships happened to be in position and fired its ion cannons right at the transport. The blast burned a hole straight through the little ship and took out one of the ground team. There was nothing left. One moment she was there, getting in position to fire her grenade launcher, and the next she was gone. The heat of the cannon ignited the grenade in her launcher and two others were killed.
Another blast came from the big Cruiser, and caught the transport’s fuel cells on fire, so everyone had to move back.
Jolo ran under the Cruiser, Greeley on his heels, and both of them worked the underside of the black boat. Soon, it, too was trying to limp away. The first crippled boat was just about over the portal and George was running full out to meet it.
“Cap’n! We gone stay in this shitstorm?!” yelled Greeley, firing round after round into the rear positional thruster.
There was no time to explain what George was about to do and why it had to be done. Jolo believed it would work but the whole idea had a tinge of desperation to it so he hadn’t said anything to Katy or Greeley. They wouldn’t have gone for it and he didn’t need the extra weight.
Another Cruiser popped in. And Jolo and Greeley floated right up against the underside of the dying Cruiser. They fell back down and Jolo looked up and saw George scrambling back to his feet in the smoke and pounding of the rail guns and grenades. The first wounded Cruiser was over the jump spot and George was close. Jolo ordered everyone to stop shooting so George could have a clear path.
When he was ten meters out George fell onto the ice and slid face down. He lay there unmoving. The crippled, smoking Cruiser disappeared. And when the dust cleared there stood Hazuki and about twenty men with a mix of kinetic and energy weapons.
Jolo and Greeley ran for cover behind what was left of the transport. Hazuki’s men had Jolo and the crew pinned down, bullets were banging against the transport’s hull and every few seconds a giant blast from the Cruiser’s ion cannon tore another hole in the little ship.
Jolo was right next to Greeley but they couldn’t hear each other over the gunfire and the cannon blasts. So Jolo yelled into his wrist comm to Greeley, “We ain’t gonna last unless we get the Argossy in the air. Wait for that Cruiser to get a little closer then hit it with everything you’ve got. It’s got to go down.”
Everyone loaded their launchers and fired on the big ship at the same time. It backed off immediately, the grenades rocking the big ship, acid from an exploded fuel cell raining down on the ice. It was down, but not out of the fight. Jolo had Greeley and Mamba send the last few grenades they had into Hazuki and his men, who’d been trying to stay behind the Cruiser. Jolo fired his last grenade where the fuel cell leak was and there was a giant explosion.
Instantly the ship started limping back to the portal. Jolo ran to George and dragged him back out of harm’s way just in case the big Cruiser fell before it made it to the portal.
Greeley and Mamba were keeping Hazuki busy but they couldn’t hold forever. Jolo turned George over and his heart sank. There was a bullet hole through his head and one in his chest. Jolo pulled George out of the way, fired his last grenade at Hazuki and his men, then unloaded his M-16 into the gaping hole in the Cruiser.
The big ship made it over the portal and Jolo broke into a sprint and dove under the dying Cruiser. Greeley was yelling, “Jolo! Jolo!” And Mamba was backing up, firing her M-16 in short bursts just to keep what remained of Hazuki’s men pinned down.
Jolo slid over the cold ice right up under the wounded BG boat, the shiny black metal dominating his field of vision. There was gunfire and shouting. Greeley’s deep voice muffled by the green helmet. Grenade explosions. And then the sound cut out. And the black ship spread out in all directions to the edge of his vision and beyond, until everything was black. And for a split second his body felt light and his mind became disoriented like when the Argossy made a jump, only this time he couldn’t get a handle on which way was up and which was down. He fell, sideways, into a dark hole where time and feeling and thought were cast up into the wind. And he was a tiny thing, a piece of dust, caught in a giant storm. He fought to hold onto his consciousness, a whispered breath of air, I am Jolo--the thing that held him in place. But it, too, was cast away, then his body, and finally, his mind.
When Hell Breaks Loose
Katy sat in the captain’s chair of the Argossy with Riley manning the weapons array. They’d gone over it several times. If she had to she could use the computer override. She could almost do everything by herself, but it was better to have someone there. The ship was designed to be able to be flown by a crew of one, but a good crew of five was best. As it stood now she’d have to run Riley down to engineering if the shite hit the fan. She needed Koba, but he was baby sitting the wild boys.
Hurley demanded that he pilot the Stingray. And as Katy watched the old man nearly fall trying to get into the tiny cockpit she wondered if this was a good idea. But she wasn’t Jolo and couldn’t change his mind.
The Fed pilot, Risa, seemed competent enough. But Katy wasn’t even sure they’d get off the ground to find out. Up to now they’d only heard gunfire and explosions. Every gunshot sounded like a pop pop pop. Each one made Katy wince, and she prayed none of the bullets found Jolo.
Katy had Hurley swing the Argossy around facing the entrance to the junk pile so she could see if Hazuki came calling. She felt for the blaster at her hip, checked that it had a charge and waited.
Every so often she’d try to spin up the engines. But so far, nothing. She knew they weren’t going to work because the display on the main screen still was throwing a strange error she’d never seen before: Main engine: Offline @3272:34623.433, temp log entry 3238237.34. All the other readings were fine. Other than that, the Argossy thought the engines were perfect. All the checks came back good. Katy pondered the meaning of the message for awhile then remembered that Koba and George had been over it a million times, with far more brain power than she possessed, and hadn’t fixed it. So she just tried to stay calm and ready.
There was a crescendo of explosions and then things got quiet for a few minutes. Hurley opened the canopy on the Stingray and yelled to her.
“You wanna stay? Maybe we should git a gun and go shoot somethin’?”
“We stay,” she said. “Jolo said wait here. We’re no good playing with guns. We belong up there.” She pointed up to the orange sky beyond the ice ceiling.
……
Greeley watched, dumfounded, as Jolo dove under the dying ship like an idiot. Greeley called out, started to run to him, then all at once the ship, and Jolo, were gone. Greeley stood straight up. The rules of time and space had been violated.
He heard a loud noise and was thrown to the ground, a burning, hot point of fire in his left shoulder. He started cussing. Mamba, steady as always, kept firing on Hazuki trying to keep them in check. Greeley got up with his left arm throbbing, and grabbed George by the collar of his jacket and started pulling back. He didn’t realize just how heavy the synth was. He fell back at one point, landing at Mamba’s feet. “We can’t keep this up!” she yelled. “Get back behind the transport!”
Then a Cruiser and two fighters appeared. They just appeared. Greeley let go of George, loaded his last grenade and took out one of the fighters. It was the best he could do in a shite situation.
Mamba grabbed Greeley and pulled him back behind the transport just as Hazuki started peppering them with a large automatic weapon that sprayed about a thousand rounds a minute. The transport was getting torn in half by the onslaught. There were three other fighter
s left at that point besides Greeley and Mamba. “I gotta get George!” yelled Greeley.
“Not dead you won’t,” Mamba yelled right back.
They all huddled behind what remained of the transport. They stayed as low as possible to avoid the lead flying overhead but soon the transport would be gone and then they’d all be dead.
“Save any grenades you got for the black boats!” yelled Greeley.
……
Katy ran down to engineering and checked the fuel cells one last time. Hurley’s encyclopedic knowledge of the ships in the junk pile had proved invaluable. He knew just which dead boats would have the fuel cells for the Argossy and the other two as well. He’d point to an old boat so deep down into the pile that you could only see the nose or the edge of a wing, but he could id it. And then he’d launch in to some long tale of how that boat helped the expansion to the core, or how that boat had failed miserably, or some small moment from his childhood.
Katy ran back up to the bridge and checked the main screen. “Shite.”
The funky error was still there on the screen. She wanted to shoot it with her blaster.
At that point she was ready to grab a gun and run to the surface. Jolo told her not to call on the comm. But she tried anyway and he didn’t respond. A moment later Greeley called in and told her to stay with the ships. “They’ll fly soon,” he said, the noise in the background so loud she could barely hear. They sounded like thrusters. “Y’all git here as soon as you can,” he said.
If Greeley says get here fast, she thought, things must be desperate.
“How is Jolo?” Katy yelled into the comm. But Greeley didn’t reply.
“Katy, look!” said Riley, pointing at the screen.
The error message was gone.
Katy tapped the screen refresh a few times but the message didn’t come back. She pulled up the engine controls and took a deep breath. Up to this point every time she tried to wind them up there was dead silence, even though the computer thought everything was fine.
The Cold Dead Earth (The Jolo Vargas Space Opera Series Book 3) Page 20