by Ken Lozito
“I downloaded several programs to your combat suit computer while you were talking,” Lockwood said. “They’re designed for NEIIS computer systems. And yes, I do. That’s why Noah recruited me.”
The new programs appeared on Connor’s internal heads-up display. He would’ve preferred Noah on the other end of the comlink, but Lockwood had proven to be useful over the past few days.
Connor walked over to the power armor and stopped, glancing over at the pale body nearby. There was a shaft of metal sticking out of its side. He looked back at the armor and frowned. He knew that CDF combat suits had anti-tamper technology built in to protect them. After looking for a few seconds, he saw a control panel on the inside forearm. He walked over to the body and examined the creature’s hairless head, looking for any signs that they used neural implants. He couldn’t find any, and he didn’t have time to do a thorough scan. He dragged the body over to the power armor and lifted the creature’s hand. It had long, thick fingers that reminded him of NEIIS physiology, and he wondered what the geneticists back home would make of it. He pressed the creature’s fingertip onto the control panel to bring up the interface. Instead, the panel switched to red, and a NEIIS countdown appeared.
Not good!
Connor spun around and bolted for the door. He’d just passed the threshold when the power armor exploded. He glanced behind him, but the armor was gone. Apparently, it had biometric sensors to prevent what Connor had attempted. Lockwood asked if he was hurt, and Connor told him he was fine.
He ran toward the first adjacent corridor and turned down it. The others were ahead of him in the distance, and Diaz opened a comlink to him.
“I was just about to come back there and get you.”
“I’m fine. Keep going,” Connor replied.
He quickly closed the distance to the others, where he met up with Boseman and the Spec Ops team. A large, open corridor separated them. It had to be one of the main thoroughfares that went throughout the facility.
Captain Boseman put his hand up and told them to wait. “When we return fire, you need to run across.”
Someone running at a fast pace could cross it in three strides. Connor went to the corner and saw that enemy soldiers were closing in on them. They had to get out of there.
The others waited to cross, but they were carrying Carl Flint and the young woman, so they wouldn’t be able to cross quickly enough.
Connor looked at Diaz. “We need to make a wall.”
Diaz nodded. “Right. After you.”
Connor checked his ammunition and increased the explosive round capacity to maximum. He counted down from three and then shot out from the corner, firing his weapon. He moved to the middle of the corridor and Diaz stood next to him. The Spec Ops team on the other side of the corridor did the same, firing their weapons and mowing down the field. The former prisoners raced across, and the enemy began to regroup. They charged forward, heedless of their fallen comrades. Connor grabbed Diaz and pulled him to cover when he saw that the enemy soldiers were closing in on their flank.
Connor pivoted and ran down the main corridor, leaping to one of the adjoining hallways. Diaz was close behind, with an eruption of enemy fire in his wake.
Unable to reach the others, they kept going, and Connor opened a comlink to Boseman. “We’ll circle around to get out the other way. Get those people out of here. I’ll meet you at the extraction point.”
“Understood, sir,” Boseman replied.
The Spec Ops captain was a good man and wasn’t one for wasting time with irrational objections. Connor had almost forgotten what it was like to work with professional soldiers, and it was a refreshing change.
They were soon off the map Connor had received from the recon drones, and he couldn’t find a way back to the others. They’d have to find another way out. The path they were on was taking them away from the fighting and, consequently, the others.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t try one of these other corridors?” Diaz asked.
Connor shook his head and then realized there was no way for Diaz to see that from inside his combat suit. Maybe he was a bit out of practice. “No, this is the way out. This is one of the main corridors, so it will hopefully get us to an exit.”
They came to a set of doors that were already open and slowed down. The Nexstar combat suits weren’t designed for sneaking around. If anyone was inside, they would have heard them coming.
The room was dark, and Connor looked inside. It was empty except for a large wallscreen that was ten meters tall. There were hundreds of small windows on the wallscreen showing different landscapes. Connor stepped inside the room, trying to get a better look. He saw NEIIS symbols above each of the smaller windows. Some of the symbols he recognized—others, he had no idea.
“Mr. Gates,” Lockwood said.
“Are you seeing this?”
“Yes, I am. I don’t recognize all the symbols, but these look like timestamps.”
Connor peered at several of the windows and noticed that the walls of the arch were on each side of every window. “Oh my God,” Connor gasped.
“What? What is it?” Diaz asked.
Connor stepped closer to the wall of screens, peering at the row along the top. “There! Lockwood, do you see that one?”
“The dark one? Yeah, I see it.”
“Do you have that timestamp handy from when we came here?”
Diaz spun and brought his weapon up. “We can’t stay here. We have to go.”
Enemy soldiers entered the room from the same doorway they’d come through earlier. Connor brought his weapon up and fired a few rounds at the enemy and then ran, following Diaz. He heard Lockwood shouting but couldn’t make it out.
The corridor was clear, and they raced toward the door. Diaz shoved the door open, and Connor felt something slam into the center of his back. The combat suit registered a damaged panel, but he was fine.
They were outside, and Connor wasn’t sure where they were. He picked a direction and ran. “We need higher ground,” he said, and they ran toward the nearest building.
They climbed to the roof, and Connor got his first glimpse of the utter destruction that had rained down on the enemy base. Many of the enemy forces had been at the arch when the attack began. He identified the extraction point and then checked the recon drone feeds. There were too many enemy soldiers nearby. They weren’t going to make it out that way.
“We’ve got company!” Diaz shouted and began firing his weapon to the ground below. Connor went to the other side of the building and found soldiers scaling the wall. He fired his weapon, taking them by surprise. Looking up, he saw the combat shuttle reach the extraction point over five hundred meters from their position.
Connor opened a comlink to Boseman. “We’re pinned on the rooftop. Need evac.”
“We have your position. On our way right now,” Boseman said.
Connor shouted for Diaz to get back from the edge of the building. The combat shuttle sped toward them, and Connor saw two thick cables hanging from underneath it.
“Crap,” Diaz said, watching the shuttle approach. “I haven’t done this since… It’s been too damn long.”
Connor kept an eye on the edge of the building, waiting for the enemy soldiers to reach the top. A video feed on his internal heads-up display showed the combat shuttle’s approach.
“Steady,” Connor said. “Jump when I jump, and you’ll be fine. You got this.”
The enemy soldiers reached the top, and Connor and Diaz fired their weapons at them on full auto, depleting their ammunition.
“Jump!”
Connor leaped into the air and engaged the combat suit’s jets, which gave him a burst up to the extraction cables. He grabbed hold of one, but Diaz cried out as he missed the other. Connor reached out with one of his hands and Diaz grabbed it.
“Gotcha.”
Spec Ops soldiers fired their weapons at the enemy on the rooftop, keeping them pinned while Connor and Diaz were hoisted insid
e the combat shuttle. The landing ramp closed.
Connor climbed to his feet, breathing heavily. He heard Diaz doing the same as he regained his feet.
“That’s it. I need to start doing cardio again.”
Connor patted him on the shoulder.
“I owe you one.”
“You saved me from having to tell Victoria what happened to you,” Connor said with a grin and went over to Captain Boseman. “Is there anyone else left on the ground?”
“The other teams are being extracted, but there were losses.”
“How bad?” Connor asked.
“Ten of us, so far. The other team also found several colonists. They were hooked up to some type of machine, but not all of them are accounted for. My medic on the other shuttle is keeping them stable until we can get back to the Vigilant. I’m still getting an accurate headcount.”
It was difficult to lose anyone under his command, but Connor knew it was inevitable. “We can’t leave yet. We need to make an attack run on the arch. We have to disable it.”
“Why?”
“We found something on the base. They track worlds using the archway, and they’re going to figure out where we came from. We have to take it out, now,” Connor said.
Boseman went to the front of the shuttle, ordering the pilot to make another run on the arch. Connor grabbed onto one of the handholds as the shuttle banked to the right, and then he headed toward the front of the shuttle.
The enemy had recovered and was firing what looked like every weapon they could find at the combat shuttle. They had clustered defenses by the arch, which were reoriented to fire on them, too. The combat shuttle’s twin plasma cannons fired, and Connor watched as the walls of the arch were pelted with molten fury. There were scorch marks, but that was it. The arch still had power. They hadn’t been able to do enough damage.
“Aim for the base of the arch and the buildings just outside it,” Connor said.
The pilot angled their approach, and this time their weapons cut right into the surrounding buildings. The arch went dark.
The two combat shuttles left the enemy base behind, going as fast as they could manage. As they reached higher altitudes, Connor got his first glimpse of the desolate landscape. Everywhere he looked, the entire planet seemed like one scorched mess.
Connor looked at Boseman. “Are there any other bases?”
Boseman shook his head. “We didn’t see any on the way to your position. I’m no expert, but I’d say it would be hard to live on this planet, if it’s even possible. What do you think that base was?”
Connor had been wondering the same thing. He kept going over the events in his mind. “The best I can come up with is that this is some kind of forward operating base. I can’t even begin to guess how the archway works. How did the Vigilant come to be here?”
Boseman blew out a long breath and explained how the Vigilant had transitioned between universes. “We were at the planet Sagan in our universe, investigating the NEIIS settlement—partial settlement—when we registered gravitational waves. Lockwood told me earlier that we came here at the same time. Hardly a coincidence.”
“Agreed, but if there was no arch or gateway, I still don’t understand how you got here.”
“You’ll have to ask the scientists on board. They said something about residual effects from a nearby universe, but I agree with you. There has to be more to it.”
“Which also means that the enemy we faced was only a token force, at best. I wonder how many of these bases they have,” Connor said.
“How many universes are there?” Lockwood asked, walking up behind them.
“I don’t know. I’m guessing a lot,” Connor said dryly.
“I’m glad you’re alright. I tried not to distract you after… Well, you know.”
“Were you able to learn anything useful from the video feed, at least?”
“I think, but I’m sure the Vigilant’s computer systems will be able to clear up the images,” Lockwood said.
They flew into the upper atmosphere, and the combat shuttles switched from atmospheric flight mode.
“This doesn’t look good,” the pilot said. “Captain, the Vigilant is under attack.”
39
Connor turned back to the combat shuttle’s main holodisplay. A tidally-locked moon was in the distance, but there were brief flashes off to the side. The Vigilant was on a heading away from the moon. “We need to let them know we’re here. Use tight-beam transmissions instead of a broadcast comlink.”
The pilot glanced at Boseman.
“Do as he says, Jackson,” Boseman said.
The combat shuttles’ sensors were limited, but the Vigilant was moving toward the planet, although not on a direct intercept course with the shuttles.
“They’ve acknowledged our transmission, but that’s it,” Jackson said.
Connor looked at the plot on the main holodisplay and saw new marks appear. “Are those squadrons of Talon-Vs?”
“Yes,” Boseman said. “The enemy ships we encountered used some kind of super combat drone. They were able to penetrate the hull and all the decks between, then come back for more. The point-defense systems struggled to take them out, so Colonel Quinn might’ve deployed the Talon-Vs to assist in defense of the ship.”
Connor nodded and waited a few moments. “They might not be able to respond, then. We’re going to have to chance an intercept course.”
Jackson frowned and glanced at Boseman.
“This is General Gates.”
Jackson’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, General. I had no idea.”
“It’s fine. Officially I’m retired, so you’re right to question anything I say,” Connor said with a half-smile and looked at Boseman. “When we get closer, try to reach the squadron commanders first. They might be able to help us get aboard.” He was guessing, and he didn’t like it. He could assume that the enemy combat drones got their targets from the enemy ships, so the question was how likely the enemy ships were to be able to detect two CDF combat shuttles.
Boseman nodded. “Time to take the ball and run, Jackson. I’ll see if I can get us a couple of gunners.”
The heavy combat shuttles each had a pair of gauss cannons to be used for short-range combat. They were operated by two gunners manning the designated consoles.
The closer they got to the Vigilant, the more they realized that the ship was in a fight for its life. Finally, Connor got his first look at the glowing enemy combat drones that were just a little bit smaller than a Talon-V space fighter.
Diaz joined them at the front of the shuttle. “We’re going to make it.”
Connor arched a brow. “You sound so confident. Care to share your secret with the rest of us?”
Diaz shrugged. “My secret? God loves me. That’s my secret. He loves you, too.”
Boseman grinned. “You hear that, boys? We’ve got ourselves a little something extra to get us through.”
Connor heard several members of the Spec Ops team give a hearty laugh. He missed the camaraderie, and Diaz caught his eye.
“I know that look.”
Connor nodded and turned back to the main holodisplay. About a half-hour later they received a comlink from the Vigilant. They were advised to stay on their present course and not to slow down. Boseman advised him to go strap in. Connor sat down just outside the cockpit next to Lockwood. The young man had his holodisplay up, and he was busy working.
“I think I have something, sir,” Lockwood said.
“What have you got?”
“I was able to extract the set of NEIIS symbols from the image off your combat-suit helmet. What I’m missing is the mechanism to tell the arch to go to this place. It’s too bad you couldn’t grab a piece of their technology that we could use.”
“Sure. Just a communicator lying around. That would be too easy,” Connor replied.
Jackson’s voice boomed over the speakers above. “If you haven’t strapped yourselves in, you need to do so because f
lopping around in my shuttle isn’t going to be fun. And you’ll be cleaning up any mess you make.”
Connor watched as Lockwood checked his straps. Diaz did the same. Connor heard the gauss cannons firing both above and below them, and Lockwood shut down his holoscreen, unable to concentrate on it any longer.
“I keep expecting something to hit us at any moment,” Lockwood said.
“Just hold on, and we’ll be fine,” Connor replied.
He’d been on enough missions to know that there were just some things that were out of his hands. The best thing he could do was not distract the people who were trying to get them where they needed to go. Even knowing all that, Connor still listened to the comlink chatter in the cockpit, and he knew exactly what was going on. The Talon-Vs were doing their utmost to prevent any of the enemy combat drones from reaching them, but there were still some that made it through. The gunners had so far been able to destroy those drones that made it past the space fighters.
The people on the shuttle spoke in hushed tones and waited. Some of them even murmured prayers. The gauss cannons went silent as they reached the aft hangar bay.
“You see? I told you,” Diaz said.
Lockwood looked at them and frowned.
Connor shook his head. “Never mind. I wouldn’t say we’re out of the woods just yet. I need to get to the bridge,” Connor said, and looked at Lockwood. “You’re coming with me.”
They were quickly ushered off the main hangar deck. Medics took the wounded to the medical bay. Connor saw Gordon reunite with his wife, and they followed the medics.
Boseman guided Connor to the bridge. Diaz and Lockwood followed.
40
They were relieved of their weapons. Noah hadn’t intended to shoot anyone, so there was very little point in resisting. He did keep his MPS engaged, and Dash followed his lead. Their heads and faces were concealed by their helmets, which didn’t seem to bother their captors, who clamped a pair of restraints on their wrists and picked them up off the floor. Loud thumps continued to echo from farther away. Then the thumping suddenly stopped.