Scrapyard Ship 3 Space Vengeance (31 page)

They were gaining on him. Up ahead there was nowhere to run. Bristol fumbled for the small key fob-sized remote and pressed the button. A ten-yard-wide void took the place of the hallway and outer bulkhead. Plasma fire flew by inches from his helmet. In one running stride, Bristol leapt into the void. He grimaced.

Chapter 44

Chapter 44

“
Damn it!” Jason was on his feet, furious. “Didn’t I make myself clear? Why the hell is he opening both corridor bulkheads?”

“
Han Di’s not responding to repeated hails, sir,” Seaman Gordon said.

Billy was hailing him.

“
Go for Captain.”

“
You didn’t order the cages to be opened, did you, Cap?”

“
Cages? What are you talking about? No, of course not.”

“
Then we have a problem, Cap,” Billy said, sounding out of breath.

Jason watched as the teams of rhinos, stationed on three levels, and Billy’s SEALs charged forward into the second Dreadnaught. Sure enough, the cage doors on both sides of the main corridor, on each of the eight levels, were open or in the process of opening.

“
Captain, our security team on Han Di’s bridge is not responding. And we’ve got major hostiles coming out of those cages,” Orion said.

Jason took several steps closer to the forward display feeds. “What the hell are those?”

Orion, now also on her feet, zoomed in the forward video feed.

“
Pill bugs. Hundreds of them,” Orion said, making a face and sticking her tongue out. “They’re truly disgusting.”

“
XO, get our pilots prepped, I want our fighters out there providing support for our teams along the corridor.”

“
Aye, Captain, they’re ready to deploy now.”

“
Captain, we have Serapins coming from the third Dreadnaught—more than a thousand of them, and on all levels,” Orion said.

Jason watched the display in shock. This was no accident. It was planned. Granger. Jason wasn’t sure how, but he knew this was the work of Granger.

“
Massive casualties reported, sir,” Orion said. “Pill bugs are squirting that acid shit on our guys. We don’t have a defense against that stuff.”

Paralyzed, Jason continued to watch the inevitable happen. It was a slaughter in process.

Orion pounded a fist down on her station. “Sorry, sir. Hydrogen cannons. No less than ten of them along the corridor have been deployed. They’re targeting our fighters.”

“
Hydrogen?”

“
They’re used for short-range combat. Highly effective, they pummel targets with sub-temperature bursts. Similar to rail munitions, but it melts prior to hitting key hull areas.”

“
Have our fighters target the cannons.”

“
Shields are failing on all fighters, Captain. We don’t have an adequate defense against those things.”

“
Bring the crew back in, at least until we figure out a new plan.”

“
Captain.”

Jason tore his gaze away from the display and found Ricket looking up at him.

“
Captain, I haven’t fully tested it yet, but I think I’ve managed to make it work.”

“
Managed to what?”

“
Start generating stable wormholes—to bring the outpost fleet here.”

“
You have perfect timing, Ricket.” Jason made a fist. “Finally some good news!”

“
Thank you, Captain.”

“
Okay, Orion, which outpost fleet vessel has our largest complement of ground troops?”

Orion checked her console and looked up. “The admiral’s Dreadnaught, the Independence. It has over three thousand Marines, and close to two thousand Army Rangers.”

“
Then that’s the first ship to come over.”

“
That’s not what the admiral specified, Captain. He wanted—”

Jason cut her off with, “Well, things change, Gunny. We need those ground forces and we need them now.”

Perkins shook his head. “How will you get them in here, on board the Meganaught, sir? It would take hours shuttling them in from open space.”

Jason thought for a second. “There’s room for one more Dreadnaught to cluster, right?”

Perkins looked unsure, but Orion nodded.

Ricket said, “Yes, but you’ll need executive command access for that. You’ll need to take back Han Di’s bridge.”

“
That’s right. We need to move fast, everyone. Orion, contact the admiral—let him know what I’m proposing. He won’t disagree, I promise. Have him get his ground forces ready for an assault. XO, I need a special team assembled ASAP in order to take back Han’s bridge. Unfortunately, they’ll be even more ready for us this time.”

“
What team, sir?” Perkins asked.

“
I’ll need Billy, Rizzo, Traveler, and you too, Orion.”

Perkins was flabbergasted. “You’re taking team leaders out of action, sir?”

“
No, I’m not, if you’ll let me finish. Give the order for all teams to fall back. Get as many of them into The Lilly’s—into her holds, whatever. Do it as soon as possible. Shuttle all others into the Mau ships if necessary. Any place safe.”

“
Sir, I don’t see how retreating—”

“
We’ll live to fight another time, XO. And question orders again on my bridge and you’ll be confined to quarters until you’re later brought up on charges. Am I making myself clear?”

“
Aye, Captain,” Perkins replied.

* * *

Traveler, Billy, and Rizzo phase-shifted directly into The Lilly’s mess and joined Orion and Jason. With two fingers to his ear, Jason was on comms to Dira.

Dira said, “Jason, dead bodies are stacked up outside along the hallway. The injured, far more than we can handle, are close to a hundred rhinos and twenty SEALs. What happened out there?”

“
We’ve been outsmarted at every turn. Simply put, they were expecting us.”

“
Jason,” Dira said, hesitating, “is everything okay? The crew, all of us, are scared. Stupid to ask with the world obviously falling in around us, but—”

“
Yes, we’ve had some setbacks, but we’re getting back on track.” There was another pregnant pause. “I have to go—”

“
Yes, of course—me too. Take care of yourself, Jason.”

They clicked off and Jason turned his attention back to his team. Billy and Traveler looked tired and both had multiple bandages covering an assortment of minor injuries over their bodies. Rizzo looked a little better, but he too had a bandage on his left ear.

Orion was passing out fresh multi-guns when Ricket entered the bridge, wearing a battle suit.

Jason said, “You weren’t specified to be on this team, Ricket.”

“
Yes, Captain. But if Han Di refuses to relinquish command-level control, you’ll need me to hack into the Dreadnaught’s systems.”

“
I thought of that, Ricket, but it would only take a second to phase-shift you in once we’ve cleared the area.”

“
Yes, Captain. The strange thing is now that I’m mortal I want to be in the fight. To personally do everything I can to stop the Craing.”

Jason didn’t respond, trying to weigh Ricket’s request with what was best for the fleet. The truth was Ricket was too valuable to put in harm’s way. But hadn’t he chastised him in HAB 12 about the same issue—that time for not fighting?

“
Do your best to stay in one piece. Keep low, and toward the middle of the team. We can’t afford to lose you. Understood?”

“
He can’t get much lower profile than he is, Cap,” Billy said with a smirk.

“
Yes, Captain,” Ricket replied.

Jason saw relief and something else on Ricket’s newly expressive face. Appreciation.

“
All right, everyone, we’ve done this before. I want zero casualties. Stay aware and be prepared to phase-shift at a moment’s notice. They are expecting us, so safeties off.”

All helmet HUDs began counting down for a synchronized phase-shift into the Dreadnaught’s bridge. Jason watched as his team readied their weapons before everything flashed white.

They phase-shifted onto the Dreadnaught’s bridge, only to find it totally deserted. Overhead lighting was dimmed and row after row of console displays were dark. Offline.

“
Captain Reynolds,” came the familiar voice of Commander Han Di.

Jason turned to see the Craing fleet commander’s face on the central bridge display.

“
Did you really think we would make things easy for you?”

Jason had less interest in what the Craing commander had to say than where he might be physically located. Ricket, now seated at a nearby station, moved his fingers quickly over the input device.

“
Captain, this Dreadnaught has been slaved to one of the other Dreadnaughts. Actually, the third one.” Looking up at the console display, Ricket saw Han Di. “He’s on that bridge right now.”

“
How can you tell?”

“
There’s no activity coming from Dreadnaught Two, Captain. Both one and two are slaved.”

Jason turned toward the display again. “I’m coming for you. I’d suggest you hide, Han Di, but you won’t have time.”

Ricket nodded, confirming he had loaded the team’s HUDs with the third Dreadnaught’s bridge coordinates. With that, the assault team phase-shifted together.

* * *

Fifty mutants. It had been a while since Jason had come up against the human-looking Craing soldiers. Encircled by two rows of twenty-five, the inside row were down on one knee, while the outside row stood behind them. They fired as soon as Jason’s assault team arrived.

Jason felt plasma fire hitting his battle suit with such force that staying on his feet was nearly impossible. Immediately, HUD warnings indicated suit integrity failure was imminent. Firing back was not an option, so a quick phase-shift to an alternate location was imperative.

Jason phase-shifted right into the fray, displacing the space of two mutants—turning them to soupy, disconnected body parts—the bloody mess falling to the deck around him.

Traveler was the last to phase-shift, his body already blackened with scorch marks. But he, too, phase-shifted and, like Jason, displaced a number of the encircling mutants. The firefight lasted less than a minute. Confused, and not wearing comparable battle suits, the mutants went down in a dramatic barrage of plasma fire.

Han Di, his red medallion setting him apart from the other officers, stood on the raised officer’s platform at the far end of the bridge. Before Jason could start in his direction, more combatants filed in from several perimeter entrances.

“
Ricket, get on one of those stations.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Billy was at Jason’s side. “Cap, have I mentioned I really hate these little fuckers?”

“
Once or twice,” Jason replied, watching a hundred-plus armed Craing soldiers pile in.

“
I can’t believe it—Craing actually coming to fight their own battle,” Orion said.

Dressed in dark-green battle suits, the small warriors didn’t hesitate to fire. Within moments the bridge was nothing less than chaos.

“
Damn, their suits are pretty good,” Rizzo said, not having much luck taking down a grouping of twenty Craing in front of him. As the Craing steadily moved forward, Rizzo was pushed back. He phase-shifted to a position behind them and fired into their backs. Soon enough, they’d turned and were pushing him back again.

“
Suit’s about had it, Cap,” he said, “and I’m all out of phase-shifts.”