by Ken Lozito
There was a squad of CDF soldiers heading toward him. Their commanding officer scanned Noah’s PDA and frowned. “Sir, you’re supposed to be at the main hangar bay. Jade protocol.”
“I’m heading there right now,” Noah said and tried to worm his way past.
The soldier stopped him. He glanced at the collar of her uniform. T. Reynolds was stenciled on the shoulder.
“Not going that way you’re not,” Sergeant Reynolds said.
Noah pressed his lips together. “I’m going to Engineering to make sure my friend gets to the hangar too.”
Sergeant Reynolds frowned. “Is this friend also part of Jade protocol?”
Noah had no idea if Kara was on this special list. “I think so,” he said.
“Then they should already be making their way toward the main hangar. We’ll escort you there,” Sergeant Reynolds said.
The soldiers began ushering him back the way he’d come. “Stop!” Noah shouted. “I’m not going anywhere until I go to Engineering first, which is one floor below this one.”
Sergeant Reynolds shook her head. “My orders are clear,” she said.
“I’m giving you new orders then, Sergeant,” Noah said. Technically he held the rank of captain in the CDF, but he’d never leveraged his rank before. “You can escort me to Engineering and then we can all go to the hangar.”
Sergeant Reynolds’ brows pulled together. “Yes, sir, but we can’t go that way. The area at the end of the corridor has been depressurized.”
“Okay, there’s a maintenance shaft this way,” Noah said.
He led the group of CDF soldiers back the way he’d come and stopped at the maintenance shaft.
Noah took a quick look down. “It’s clear.”
He moved to step inside the shaft, but Sergeant Reynolds stopped him. “Let one of my squad go first. Butch, you’re up.”
One of the CDF soldiers came forward and entered the maintenance shaft first. Another followed. Noah went next, and they quickly climbed down the shaft. Butch waved for him to come through and then told him to wait for the others.
Noah looked impatiently down the corridor. The Engineering tech lab was only a short distance away. He took a few tentative steps in that direction and tried to raise Kara on her comlink, then clenched his teeth together in frustration when she didn’t answer. She was notorious for casting her comlink to the side when she buried herself in her work.
The rest of the CDF squad came down the shaft and they headed toward the Engineering lab. They heard sounds of weapons fire and Noah quickened his pace.
“Any security squads on deck J? Report,” Sergeant Reynolds said on an open channel.
The light flickered overhead and Noah could hear the sounds of the station’s defensive batteries firing into the approaching enemy fleet. They came to the end of the corridor and turned left. The entrance to the tech lab was a short distance away. A group of strange figures stood toward the far end of the corridor.
Noah frowned. Something appeared off about the shape of the figures. He brought up his M11-Hornet and aimed it. The end of the corridor was dark and he could only make out faint silhouettes.
“Sir, I get no transponders at the end of the hallway,” Butch said.
The squad of CDF soldiers readied their weapons. There was a loud screeching noise and a white energy bolt came toward them. Noah scrambled toward the wall and squeezed the trigger. Shots spat out of the M11-Hornet in rapid succession. Noah heard the other CDF soldiers fire their weapons. More white energy bolts came toward them, and one struck Butch in the chest. He crumpled down. The CDF squad kept firing their weapons and Noah saw the dark shapes at the end of the long corridor drop from view.
“Sir, Butch has been stunned,” a soldier said.
“Pick him up,” Sergeant Reynolds said.
Noah raced forward to the tech lab doors and banged his fists on them, then hastily entered his authorization code. The door opened. Kara Roberts sat at a workbench, frantically working at a terminal.
Noah shouted her name. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”
Kara looked over as if surprised to see him. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to get you. We need to get out of here. The station is under attack,” Noah said.
“I know. I just need to finish this first,” Kara said.
Noah ran over and tried to grab her arm. “We don’t have time for this. They’re on the station.”
Kara evaded him and went back to her terminal. “I know. I’ve been picking up their transmissions.”
Noah glanced at the bench and saw the transceiver. He opened one of the overhead cabinets, looking for the portable power supply. He found it and connected it to the transceiver.
“Come on, we’ve got to get to the hangar,” Noah said and grabbed the transceiver.
“Alright, I’m coming,” Kara said and reached out for a few other devices, stuffing them into her pockets.
They left the tech lab, and the CDF squad was waiting outside for them.
“Major Roberts, I have to get you out of here. Jade protocol is in effect,” Sergeant Reynolds said.
Kara frowned, but before she could say anything, Noah said they were ready to go. They went back the way they’d come. Kara glanced around in surprise at the flickering lights and the sound of weapons fire. Sergeant Reynolds led them in a different direction.
“The maintenance shafts are this way,” Noah said.
“I know but the quicker way to the hangar is this way,” Sergeant Reynolds said.
Noah followed the CDF soldiers.
“Titan Station, this is Colonel Douglass. Vemus forces have entered the station and managed to get a foothold on the lower sections. Security forces have established a perimeter. I’m ordering a general evacuation of the base.”
The message ended. Looks like they all needed a way off the station. Sergeant Reynolds quickened her pace and led them into a maintenance tunnel. Once inside, they ran up a ramp and came to the hangar entrance. Noah looked inside the hangar through the window in the door. There was no freighter. CDF personnel were racing toward the shuttles.
“We can’t get out that way. They’ll fill up the shuttles before we can get near them,” Noah said.
Kara held up her PDA and opened a technical readout of the area they were in. “There are escape pods this way, near the end of the hangar.”
“Good enough for me. Let’s go,” Sergeant Reynolds said.
Noah opened the door and heard shouts from the people storming the shuttles. Several shuttles lifted off and sped out of the hangar. They ran along an elevated walkway. The end of the hangar was over two hundred meters away and Noah was breathing heavily by the time they reached it. They entered a maintenance lift, which lowered them to the ground level. Kara ran to an escape pod and began entering her credentials. There was a series of explosions coming from across the hangar. Tall, dark shapes poured out of a smoking hole in the bulkhead. They moved so fast that they seemed to streak toward the mass of CDF personnel clamoring to get on the remaining shuttles.
Noah raised his SMG and fired at the dark shapes. Several of the CDF soldiers with him fired their weapons as well. A couple of the dark shapes went down and then rolled back onto their feet. Noah heard a loud snarling, and several of the Vemus fighters broke away, heading right for him.
Someone grabbed Noah from behind and shoved him into the escape pod. Kara was already inside. Sergeant Reynolds gestured for two of her squad to get inside.
“Not without you, sir,” one soldier said.
Sergeant Reynolds looked at Noah and Kara. “We got this,” she said.
Before Noah could protest, the sergeant slammed her fist on the controls for the escape pod. The doors hissed shut and the pod launched from the station. Noah cried out, but all he could see was a rapidly retreating view of the main hangar. Off to the side was a cigar-shaped ship that had crash-landed near the hangar. There was no way the small CDF squad could hold off that
many.
Noah growled and slammed his fist against the reinforced door. He looked over at Kara, whose eyes were wide with terror. “Why didn’t they come with us? They could have just come inside.”
Kara glanced at him. “I knew the enemy was coming, but I had no idea. I didn’t know.”
An alert appeared on the central control panel. Kara opened the interface. “It’s a broadcast,” she said.
“Escape pods of the Titan Space Station. This is Captain Benson of the cargo ship Chmiel. I’ve included our coordinates in this message. We’re not far from your position. Please input the coordinates into the pod’s guidance systems and you should be able to reach us.”
The message repeated. Noah watched as Kara updated the coordinates. He sat down next to her and strapped himself in. The pod’s engines engaged, and Noah felt a small bit of force as the pod took them to the cargo carrier.
“Thank you for coming to get me,” Kara said.
Noah was snapped out of his thoughts. “You weren’t answering your comlink.”
Kara glanced away guiltily. “I know. It’s a terrible habit.”
“What was so important that you ignored the fact that the station was under attack?” Noah asked.
“The transmissions are under a protocol we don’t use. I was recording them so they could be deciphered. We’ll need them,” Kara said.
Noah looked away. He wanted to ask her why she’d been avoiding him but couldn’t bring himself to do so. He kept seeing those dark shapes on the hangar deck. It was like they were made up of a swirling mass.
Kara opened the holo-interface of her PDA and went to work with the recorded signals. Noah looked at it and then joined her. If he couldn’t be fighting the Vemus on the station, at least he could do this.
20
Connor sat in the command chair on the bridge of the Vigilant. The visco-elastic used in the seat back and cushion contoured perfectly to his body, but there was no getting comfortable for any of them. Engineer Hatly had created a miracle in record time when he and his team managed to reroute power to the main drive pods, restoring their engine capability to half strength. They’d managed to stay ahead of the Vemus fleet for a short while until the enemy fleet as a whole seemed to wake up.
Even with the limited capability of PRADIS, they were able to see that the HADES IV-B missiles had extracted a heavy toll on the Vemus fleet. Kasey Douglass, Connor’s longtime friend, had done his job well. The timed execution of the massive launch of their most powerful missiles, carrying multiple types of warheads, had partially decimated the enemy. They tore into the Vemus fleet, creating a powerful envelope that closed in on them from all sides, squeezing them together. It was a good plan, but it wasn’t enough. There were simply too many Vemus ships, and their armored hulls had proven to be highly resistant to nuclear blasts in the vastness of space. Smaller ships hadn’t had a chance, but the larger ones that were concentrated toward the middle of the Vemus fleet formations had managed to survive. They’d estimated that the Vemus fleet was down at least forty percent.
After the storm of HADES IVs had done their utmost to destroy the enemy fleet, their Talon 5 assault crafts sped toward Titan Space Station. There was no mistaking the enemy’s intentions. The Vemus wanted to take Titan Space Station intact. Connor tried using the Vigilant’s remaining mag-cannons to take out the Talon 5s as they flew by, but they were moving so fast and there were so many of them that they hardly made a dent in their numbers.
Connor shook his head. If the CDF had a hundred heavy cruisers of their own then perhaps they could have mounted a better defense. As it was, he’d lost a large chunk of his crew through damage to the Vigilant alone.
The main holoscreen showed bright flashes as Titan Space Station fought to keep the enemy at bay. The station’s point defense systems, including auto-cannons and particle beams, tore into oncoming Vemus ships.
Connor’s guts were twisted up in knots. He knew better than to order “all ahead” and help the CDF’s first line of defense, but it was hard not to. The soldiers he’d trained were giving their all so the colony could survive, and he couldn’t have been prouder.
He stopped himself from displaying any sign of weakness. He had to remain strong for his crew, but he felt a deep, roiling anger that, if left unchecked, would cause him to make more mistakes.
He should have fought harder for the secondary power station Titan needed. The space station even now was exceeding projected capabilities, and Connor attributed that to the CDF soldiers serving on it alongside Kasey Douglass. Connor thought about Governor Parish and the growing political movement that called into question the validity of an attack ever taking place. They’d had seven years to prepare for this, and there were thousands of lives on Titan Space Station that would pay the price. Connor kept thinking of all the things he could have done differently, given what he now knew—how he could have shifted priorities. It was a brutal rabbit hole to get sucked into, even if it was only in his mind, and Connor fought to pull himself out of it. He needed to stay focused.
He opened up the comms interface on his terminal. At least Titan Space Station still had their communications array working.
“Vigilant, this is Titan actual,” Kasey Douglass said. His voice sounded strange and mildly distracted.
The former Ghost’s face appeared on the screen and Connor stood up. The Command Center was a buzz of activity. Most of the CDF personnel Connor could see were armed. There was a shallow gash on the side of Kasey’s head.
“Situation report,” Connor said.
Kasey leveled his gaze at the camera. “I’ve ordered an evacuation of the station. Those of us who remain are fighting as long as we can.”
Reisman came to stand at Connor’s side.
Kasey saw him. “Hey there, you slippery bastard. You watch out for our CO.”
“I will,” Reisman said, his voice sounding thick.
Connor wanted to tell his friend to run, to get out of there, but the soldier in him knew it was impossible. He knew what Kasey was doing and would have done the same thing himself if he’d been in that position.
Kasey looked over at Connor. “At least it’s not as bad as the Sandy Springs Op.”
“But we got to walk away from that one,” Connor said.
A sad smile appeared on Kasey’s face. “I remember when Malarkey got stuck in the compactor. For a medic, he could curse with the best of them. I’ll say hello when I see him.”
Connor clenched his teeth together. “We both will.”
“Going soft on me, General? I know you’re not religious at all and don’t believe in all that stuff. In fact, I believe you kept calling it superstitious nonsense,” Kasey said.
“I changed my mind. I’ve seen the error of my ways. All is forgiven, right?” Connor said and felt the skin around his eyes tighten. “I wish I could be there with you.”
Kasey glanced away from the camera and Connor heard shouting. “If we had ever developed a transporter, I would gladly teleport myself and my crew over to your ship. Regardless, we beamed the intelligence we gathered to COMCENT on New Earth.”
A wave of bitterness stiffened Connor’s muscles.
“It won’t be long now. Vemus forces are fighting toward the bridge. They’re vulnerable to our weapons, but they’re more interested in capturing us than killing us. Several battleship carriers have continued onward. Do you think you can take care of those for me?” Kasey asked.
“We’ll come up with something,” Connor answered.
“Sir,” Lieutenant LaCroix said, and Connor glanced over at him. “I’m detecting a thermal mass building at the station’s main reactor core.”
Connor looked back at Kasey and stood up straight. “I’ll take it from here, Colonel. You’ve done more than anyone could have asked of you.”
Kasey was about to reply when shouting erupted all around. There were flashes of light. Connor heard the distinct sound of weapons fire before the comms channel was severed.
“Sir, the thermal mass is reaching critical levels. We need to make best speed possible to escape the blast,” Lieutenant LaCroix said.
“Helm, get us out of here,” Connor said bitterly.
The main holoscreen showed a massive swarm of Vemus ships surrounding the station, trading blows. Connor wondered why their forces were putting so much effort into capturing the station rather than destroying it and moving on to New Earth. The tactics they were using proved that they still fought an enemy they didn’t fully understand. In some respects, the Vemus were extremely slow to respond, and in others, like Titan Space Station, they used an overwhelming show of force, as if their ships didn’t matter. Connor frowned and felt like there was something he was missing.
“Ops, I want to know where those Vemus battleship carriers are—”
Connor stopped speaking. A bright flash came from Titan Space Station, and the feed to the main holoscreen cut out. The sensors were blinded. Connor balled his fists and glared at the empty feed, thinking about all those people who had just died.
“Get me their locations,” Connor said, his voice sounding raspy and strained. “Wil, take the con.”
He left the bridge and the two CDF soldiers assigned to be his security detail followed him.
Connor looked back. “I need a few minutes,” he said and gestured to his ready room. The two soldiers stopped just outside the bridge.
Connor opened the door to his room and stepped inside, letting the door shut. The steady hum of the large aquarium cast a warm glow in the dim room.
“Lights,” Connor said.
As the lighting in the room became brighter, Connor saw Sean lying on the floor. Connor gasped and ran over to him. He glanced down at Sean’s hands and saw that they were bound together at the wrists.
“He’s alive,” a cold voice said from behind Connor.
Connor spun and was struck in the head by something hard. He instantly went sprawling face-first to the ground. Pain blossomed on the side of his head where he’d been struck. He moved his hands under his chest and pushed himself over. Standing in front of the aquarium, holding a hand-cannon on him, was Captain Alec Toro.