Earth Song: Etude to War (48 page)

“Sorry ma’am,” the sergeant apologized for his men.

“Couldn’t be helped,” she replied, “get your injured man to the rear, pull back the sharpshooters and move up the heavy weapons team right away.

“Yes sir!”

Safe inside their forcefield, the T’Chillen cleared out their casualties and quickly set up the second generator to create an almost impregnable defensive barrier. Minu didn’t bother wasting energy against it. The shimmering wall between her and the armored snakes was all the testament to their technological prowess she needed.

More snakes came slithering in, floating to positions around the circular companionway, including one in much more ornate armor and a helmet sporting additional technology.

There’s my adversary
, she thought, and wondered if it was the cruiser’s captain, or perhaps the commander of their detachment of soldiers. She considered if one day humanity had more ships if they would need to train marines to defend those ships. She took a moment to tap a note into her tablet as she regarded the enemy.

After it regarded the troops setting up, the T’Chillen commander moved all the way to the edge of their defensive field and began examining its opposition. Minu thumbed the enhancement of her open optics and stared back. Its face shield was up and she could clearly see its eye stalks pivoting independently this way and that. It seemed surprised, if that was possible for a snake. Hadn’t it known it was facing humans?

One of its tentacle-like arms moved to a tablet and tapped. To her surprise, a laser swept down the hall and found her, gently moving back and forth in a spread beam. Minu looked at her display. “Incoming transmission.” She clicked the receive icon.

“Who am I addressing,” she spoke formally, knowing the other commander’s translator would render her English into its own native language. Hisses returned immediately which her own translator made understandable.

“I am Asa-Oto Saala, swarm commander for the cruiser Baashta. Who is this?”

“Honorable T’Chillen, I am Minu Groves, Chosen of the Tog, and commander of the soldiers defending this vessel.”

“You are the human followers of the Tog.”

“We are.”

“Where are the Rasa masters of this vessel?”

Minu paused, unsure exactly how to respond to that. She knew the status of the Rasa was a mystery at that time. After the T’Chillen had destroyed their home leasehold and other colonies, they were largely considered extinct.

While a few here and there were probably spotted as they moved with the humans, she was certain news of their colony near Bellatrix was a complete secret. Why would they think the Ibeen was a Rasa ship? Did they think the Kaatan was theirs as well?

“There are no Rasa on this vessel,” Minu replied, going with the vaguest option.

“You humans have been making a nuisance of yourselves as mercenaries for the lower species for a few years now,” hissed the reply, making Minu’s face turn red in answer. She was glad the alien couldn’t read her body language. “If you are working for the Rasa, this is a mistake. They are forsaken and to be hunted anywhere they are found without repercussion.”

“We are aware of that.” Vague was working so far.

“You risk being included in that vendetta.”

“I am aware of Concordian law, noble T’Chillen, and know of no such risk.” Silence was her answer for several moments. She knew the snake was pumping her for information and simultaneously stalling while its troops set up. She was willing to play that game. “Are you going to offer terms?”

“If you wish. Surrender the remains of this vessel. Your soldiers are sacrificed, of course. Yourself as a Chosen, and any other official Chosen will be offered to your patron to pay bounty if they wish.”

Sacrificed, Minu translated as either spaced, simply executed, or a serpentine snack. She was the only Chosen on board.

If they’d offered for all of them, she might have entered negotiations as her own delaying tactic. In this case, she knew the alien commander had no intention of letting anyone out of this alive. It knew Minu was outgunned, outmanned, and had no means of retreat, and meant to press that advantage to the fullest. The snakes’ tactics were usually straightforward, and brutally efficient.

“I don’t think so.”

“Humans are a strange species, if insignificant.” Minu seethed. “Some of your technology shows prowess though,” it admitted as it glanced at two technicians towing one of the dead soldiers away. “Perhaps were you to supply us with examples of this energy weapon.”

“Perhaps you will stop wasting my time.”

It turned around and regarded her with both eyestalks, memorizing her every detail. Minu remembered how the kloth had looked at her during the Trials, right before it tried to eat her, and suppressed a shiver.

“As you will, Chosen. Farewell.” And with no further ado, it spoke orders to other soldiers, turned, and expertly bounced in zero gravity down then up and out of the Ibeen, leaving its soldiers to finish the task.

She secretly longed to nail it right then and there…but a battle was all timing. Sacrifice that timing and you could lose the battle, so she waited.

A minute later, the enemy was finishing their setup and she saw no more reason to wait. “Sergeant, commence your firing.”

Chapter 54

May 12th, 534 AE

Unidentified Star System, Contested Territory, Galactic Frontier

The platoon deployed with a heavy weapons squad, six large beamcasters operated by a twelve-man fire team. Four of those weapons survived, with enough experienced Rangers to operate them. On command, all four began pumping burst after burst into the enemy forcefield.

Unlike energy shields, forcefields were not transparent to the shock rifles. Though the newer weapons could overload one, it would take many more shots of the more efficient laser/plasma hybrids. The beamcasters’ brute force particle accelerator beams just poured out megajoules of energy over and over again.

Each blast from the big guns delivered the equivalent of twenty shock rifles’ beams. When Minu had developed the shock rifles, she compared them to a scalpel, while the beamcasters were more like an ax. But sometimes you needed an ax.

The only way to defeat a forcefield was by overpowering it. Its series of tiny projectors sent out areas of strong force to repel any attack except some frequencies of light. The heavy beamcaster teams were trained to concentrate power on one of those projections, striving to overload the emitter and thus breach the shield.

The sharpshooters, redeployed now by the doorway to the cargo module, stood ready to instantly spring into action should the field be breached.

Of course it was a hopeless attack, and Minu was well aware of that. She’d seen the second field activated. Even if her weapons breached the first (possible if they gave her enough time), they’d then have to breach the second overlapping field.

The snakes could just deactivate the first shield, replace the burned out emitter, and bring it back up inside the first field. Her attack would appear to show either ignorance, or desperation. Minu would be happy with the results of either assumption. The T’Chillen didn’t cooperate.

“They’re not preparing to advance,” the sergeant surmised at the same time as she did. Minu could see a pair of T’Chillen technicians had entered the companionway, and were examining the engineering bay door that she’d been blocked from opening by Pip.

“Damn them,” she cursed and slapped the bulkhead. They were willing to ignore the human soldiers and breach into Pip’s area first. They probably figured they could just vent the rest of the ship to space once inside, thereby dealing with Minu and her men without a single additional lost soldier.

This was likely a correct assumption, and it was not typical behavior for the aggressive reptiles, as she’d studied their tactics and history. She’d guessed they were boarding to salvage technology, and that was why the cruiser hadn’t simply shot them full of beam weapons at range.

Minu needed to make them deal with her first. “We have to breach that shield, sergeant.” The man looked at her tactical control tablet but she shook her head. Not yet.

“We’ll see what we can do, ma’am. All Rangers, weapons hot!” he barked and immediately every soldier brought up whatever gun they were armed with. “Heavy weapons lead fire, commence when ready!”

Following the timing of the heavy beamcasters, every other weapon began firing as fast as they could between the bigger guns’ bursts. Minu brought up her own shock rifle and joined in. The screaming zaps and whines of the guns were almost deafening, and surprisingly effective. The first forcefield failed in seconds.

“Keep it up men!” the sergeant yelled his encouragement as the first continued. Inside the enemies shield, the operators looked up in alarm as the second defensive field began taking fire. They were forced to immediately drop the first field and begin to frantically isolate and replace the burned out emitter. The T’Chillen soldiers were looking at each other and eyeing the furiously glowing forcefield generators with trepidation.

Minu was about to order a reduction in the rate of fire when the first Rangers’ shock rifles went dry and the shooting reduced as they frantically swapped out power packs. If her real goal was had been to breach both shields, she’d have coordinated a more balanced volley firing scheme. In this case her tactic was less subtle, and more psychological.

“Come on, you alien bastards,” she silently cursed. “The nasty monkeys are going to break down your walls.”

The snake left in command watched for a few seconds and decided it wasn’t worth the risk. It hissed and gestured with both serpentine arms and dozens of soldiers lined up right behind the shield.

“Come on,” Minu whispered as more soldiers slithered into the ship. There was almost no more room in the crowded companionway. She nodded, then activated the control.

Hidden under the floor near the end of the companionway were the three heavy shield generators the Ranger squad had remaining after their battle on Planet K. Unlike the forcefield, shields didn’t repel energy, they absorbed it. At least until they reached capacity, then the downside manifested.

Activated right next to the enemies’ forcefield generators, the shields encountered the high energy generators of the forcefield and instantly began sucking them dry. Forcefields and shields could work together to form a nearly undefeatable defense, but that required careful coordination. The T’Chillen operators, confused by the sudden power drain, punched up their remaining forcefield as high as it would go, dumping vast amounts of energy into the shield capacitors… until they could hold no more.

“Boom,” Minu said a split second before all three shields exploded like a bomb.

The forcefield generator contained the blast, just like it would have kept it out, and amplified the shockwave. A hundred atmospheres of pressure rebounded off the shield in the quarter second before the blast destroyed the forcefield generator, turning the companionway into a slaughterhouse.

The Rangers all dove for cover as the forcefield died and the dissipating blast wave tore at them. The energy was largely spent though, and no-one was hurt. A cheer went up from the men and the sergeant laughed, shaking his head.

“You are one brutally creative woman, ma’am,” he said and slapped a hand on her shoulder.

“That might be the best compliment I’ve heard all day, Sergeant. Have the men fall back to the— ”

She was cut off by the bone chilling sound of rushing air.

“Shit, it breached the hull. Respirators!” she barked and slid the half mask over her mouth and nose, flicking the control at her waist to activate the air supply. “Fall back!” she ordered, he voice muffled by the plastic mask.

As the sergeant began waving at men, and making sure they were all ready for the depressurization, the first T’Chillen stuck its head through the hatch and stared at the carnage. Minu snapped up her shock rifle and killed it with a shot through the neck. Bright red blood fountained to become gently floating spheres as the snake writhed in zero gravity. A second later, T’Chillen flooded through en masse.

“Guess Mr. Saala doesn’t appreciate your improv,” the sergeant quipped as half the men began a merciless rain of fire to cover the rest.

“No sense of humor,” Minu agreed, firing steadily at the advancing alien horde. How many fucking snakes did that damn ship hold? She remembered Lilith telling her that it was about a kilometer long. Probably a shitload of snakes, but so many soldiers? Her idea of marines moved up a notch in future planning.

“Pip, I know you can hear me, we are FUBAR out here. They’re going to overrun us in seconds!”

“Get into the cargo bay,” he replied, surprising her enough that a beamcaster almost took her head off.

“If we retreat we’ll have nowhere left to retreat.”

“You have to trust me.”

“Do I, now?”

“Fine, then this is your only chance to survive, take it or leave it.”

Still more snakes were appearing, but now the rearmost were lightly armed and armored, perhaps ship security personnel. She thought about fighting it out for a second, maybe then leading a boarding action against the cruiser!

“Minu, please… I can help.”

The tone of his voice spoke of the situation, and of a need. Was it a need to save himself or to make up for his lack of will earlier? She didn’t know, the radio wasn’t conveying any of the emotions in his voice. There’d been little enough of those since his injury, anyway.

Snap decisions were becoming a habit that she dearly loathed. Her eyes were starting to sting and her ears popped painfully as the air pressure continued to fall precipitously.

“Retreat into the cargo module!” she yelled.

The sergeant shot her a worried look.

“Do it, now!”

“Everyone back, fast!” he yelled and the Rangers retreated. The T’Chillen paused, and used the reduced fire to set up a much smaller forcefield. They knew the humans were on the run, and that Saala was preserving his surviving forces for the last attack on the cargo module. Minu had cost him dearly, but victory was still his.

In less than a minute, that last injured Ranger was floated through the doorway, which irised close with a hiss that cut off the sound of escaping air. Emergency mechanisms in the sphere released stored oxygen and returned pressure to almost normal.

“Okay Pip, we’re in.”

“Good,” he said, and they were all slammed against the floor of the cargo module.

Explosive bolts detonated and micro thrusters fired, propelling the spherical module away from the remains of the ship.

“Pip, what the fuck are you doing?!” she yelled, pinned against the padded bulkhead by the acceleration. It only lasted a few seconds before disappearing and throwing them back into free fall.

“Pip!” Suddenly panicked, she activated her virtual battlefield and found it still displayed the ship in details, including showing her own cargo module arcing away. It even rendered an estimation of the T’Chillen cruiser docked with the engineering section.

They were jarred a little, this way and that as attitude jets fired, controlling its trajectory. This was a planned course, she realized. He hadn’t just ejected them.

“I had to do it, Minu.”

“Why, I don’t understand?”

“Lilith won’t be here in time. If you’d fought hard enough, the T’Chillen would have just quit, undocked and killed you all. They’d already targeted the ship with weapons.”

“Aren’t they just going to blow us up now?”

“They can’t; the remains of the Ibeen are blocking their fire. They’ll want to get in here first to get the ship’s secrets. Then they’ll come after you.”

“You’re not going to let them get in there, are you?” It wasn’t really a question, and she feared she knew the answer.

“No.”

In the engineering bay, Pip ended the transmission and turned to the controls. He’d carefully re-crafted the program he’d written while only half aware of his panicked flight from the CIC. He’d also written a subroutine to the engineering program. But he wasn’t quite ready to initiate that yet.

“Lilith,” he called on their shared quantum channel.

“Yes Pip, I’ve been listening, and seen what you have done with the computer here.”

“Then you know what I’m going to do?”

“Yes.”

“You aren’t going to argue with me?” he asked.

“No,” she said quietly.

“In some ways, you aren’t your mother’s daughter.”

“I believe I love my mother, but she tends to be overly emotional.” Pip smiled.

“Tell Leonard I love him.”

“If you wish.”

Pip nodded and cut the connection. He could hear the sounds of charges being placed against the engineering bay door, only a meter away. There was no soft wall to cushion the blast like in the companionway; it would smash into where he floated.

He took a deep breath, leaned back, and pressed the initiator icon.

Minu was about to yell into her mike once more when the virtual battlefield in her left eye distorted. She glanced down at the computer tablet in confusion until the device figured out how to interpret the new data. The remains of the Ibeen and the docked T’Chillen ship became an expanding ball of debris propelled outward by the detonation of the cargo transport’s FTL drives.

“Oh Pip,” she whispered as tears began to form over her eyes.