Star Watch (36 page)

He was standing shoulder to shoulder with Billy and Traveler, waiting for the first of the Sahhrain warriors to reach them.

“Damn, they’re fast,” Billy said, spitting out his cigar stub and closing his visor.

Now that they were close enough to clearly see, Jason realized the warriors weren’t actually riding waves of violet light. They were running at incredible speeds—through the assistance of distortion waves. Abruptly, Traveler rushed forward, meeting head on the first of the six approaching warriors. Like a battering ram, his outstretched heavy hammer plowed into the Sahhrain warrior’s face. One down. The warriors abruptly changed course, circling around them. Jason and Billy simultaneously fired their multi-guns at the remaining five. Two immediately sank to the ground and didn’t get back up. The other three, using their enhancement shields to block the shots, sent three violet waves spiraling back at them. Jason found himself catapulted off his feet onto his back. Although his battle suit took the brunt of the blow, his chest hurt all the same. Billy, too, lay sprawled on the ground, while Traveler remained solidly on his feet. He’d resorted to using his multi-gun too and was fending off the three warriors on his own. Jason and Billy quickly scrambled to their feet and rejoined the fight. It took less than a minute before all six Sahhrain warriors lay dead on the ground.

Billy gestured toward Traveler’s battle suit, noting countless blackened streaks. “That’s coming out of your paycheck, soldier.”

Traveler didn’t get Billy’s humor, but he was used to it enough to know when to ignore him. Jason watched his HUD readouts and realized their Sharks weren’t faring well against the Sahhrain.

“Let’s split up, guys,” Jason said. He ran over to a cluster of rocks to gain higher ground. He looked for a reflective breastplate, across the battlefield, and finally spotted it, seventy-five yards away, close to the portal window. He set his phase-shift coordinates and flashed away.

Jason guesstimated there were fifteen Sharks lying dead around the Sahhrain commander; he was the only human wearing an enhancement shield. Currently fighting four Sharks, he easily blocked incoming plasma fire by redirecting their own fire against them via strategically placed ricochets. Ridert spun and leapt and flipped with the ease of a gymnast on steroids.

Jason joined the Star Watch Sharks, watching mutely as they fell to the ground, one by one, as Ridert expertly maneuvered his enhancement shield, both as a defensive aid and as a weapon. Jason watched his movements—looking for an opening—a weakness in the man’s technique. With the four Sharks now out of play, it was now Jason against Ridert. He felt the heat of his multi-gun in his hands as it continued to spew bolts of plasma fire toward his opponent’s head, chest, and legs, then back to his head again. Ridert locked out each shot and was smiling. Jason returned his smile, remembering in that instant that he, too, had an unconventional weapon, no less effective. Actually, it was Rizzo who’d showed him that not-so-easily-found HUD menu setting: where, as long as it was initialized ON, the HUD would track your eye movements. Stare at any one location, with eyes exaggeratedly widened, and you’d automatically be phase-shifted to that location in an instant. Because the locations were all close range, one could phase-shift one hundred times or more before the battle suit’s power would need regenerating. Jason, locking on the HUD’s rapid-eye phase-shift mode, was behind Ridert in a blink. He fired and caught Ridert on his buttock’s left cheek, then phase-shifted away, before Ridert could react, and fired again. This time, Ridert held his shield in position and blocked Jason’s fire, but he was hurt … his movements less fluid. Jason phase-shifted again, this time right into him. Ridert’s mass was transported to the left, but he landed on his feet anyway. He leveled his enhancement shield at Jason and fired off a seemingly endless stream of distortion waves. Jason didn’t have time to contemplate his next phase-shift point before being blasted in his visor. He tried to spin with the force, but once again landed on his back. He waited for the next assault—perhaps for life-ending violet waves to strike his body. But they didn’t come. Ridert was gone.

Within the last thirty seconds, Jason heard multiple hail requests coming in. He also heard the open comms channel become more and more congested—voices of desperate Shark command personnel were flooding in. As he got to his feet he took in the battlefield. One thing stuck out more than anything else—they were losing the battle. The dead were strewn across the landscape to the far ridgeline. Shark bodies outnumbered Sahhrain five to one.

Jason answered Billy’s incoming hail. “Status?”

“Cap … we’re down to four hundred … not sure how the rhinos are faring. We need to fall back.”

Jason was shocked by the sheer number of men and women lost in one day … well over a thousand Allied forces had perished; their situation was quickly becoming dire.

“I agree … have our forces phase-shift at least one hundred miles farther out into the habitat … convey the coordinates to Shark team leaders. Get everyone the hell out of here!”

Jason saw the new phase-shift coordinates projected onto his HUD. In a flurry of white flashes, remaining Star Watch forces phase-shifted away from the battlefield.

* * *

One hundred miles away in an open, flat expanse of nondescript desert, Jason, Billy and Traveler kneeled before Jason’s virtual notebook, looking at the 3D holographic representation of HAB 7.

“We’ll definitely need to phase-shift again; perhaps to the foothills over there, at the far end of the habitat. There are trees for cover and somewhat higher ground within the rocks there,” Billy said, pointing.

Jason looked to see if there were other, better, options. “It’s not enough; we’ll only be forestalling the inevitable. They’ll cut us down there just as easily as they did back at the portal. No … what we need are reinforcements.”

“I suggest we bring in our own attack drones from the
Minian
… and the little ship, the
Charm
… she was designed to pass within a habitat’s portal, and she’s got excellent firepower,” Billy said.

“Agreed … with the added airpower we’d be in better shape. Perhaps pull in another hundred Sharks from the
Minian
as well,” Jason added.

Traveler grunted, “There are more warriors on the nearby Allied vessels … yes?”

Jason nodded. “I’ll contact Gunny … have her coordinate the movements of air and ground reinforcements.” Closing down his notebook, he spat, “Shit! We still have the same problem … getting anything into HAB 170 … as long as it’s bridged to HAB 7. We can’t chance opening up anything into the
Minian
… not with Lord Shakrim lurking around.”

Jason saw icon movements on his HUD. The enemy was on the move. Even without the problem of bridged portals, everything they talked about—bringing in reinforcements and air support—would take time—possibly hours. The Sahhrain warriors had, somehow, detected their location and were now no more than fifteen minutes out.

Noting the icon movements, the other two became quiet. Jason stood and looked around at their remaining assets—four hundred Sharks and about two hundred rhinos. They were in small groups—some on the ground injured, others resting for the upcoming battle. They all looked tired, and beaten as well. Jason couldn’t recall ever being in a similar situation. He wasn’t used to losing, being so completely outmatched.

What it came down to was simple: either continue phase-shifting—hiding from the enemy indefinitely—or stand their ground and attempt to defeat a formidable opponent.

Was he willing to sacrifice himself, his men and the rhinos, to ensure the safety of the
Minian
? The safety of the galaxy? Apparently, Billy and Traveler came to the same conclusion.

“Cap … we always knew this day could come. We’ve had a pretty good run. We’ve kicked ass and lived to boast about it.”

Jason couldn’t argue with Billy’s words.

Traveler said, “This is a most honorable way to die … a worthy opponent. We make a stand … together. I will shed much of their blood before my carcass falls dead on the ground.”

“Christ, Traveler,” Billy said, “can we not talk about dying carcasses just yet?”

Traveler snorted, not replying.

“Let’s get our forces ready. Billy, you’ve got about ten minutes to teach six hundred troops how to use that phase-shifting trick Rizzo taught me … It helped me earlier today … it might help others.” Jason tried to sound upbeat, but as the distant Sahhrain warriors moved closer to their position, he was anything but encouraged.

Chapter 52

Dacci System

SpaceRunner
, Planet Harpaign, Ancient Subterranean Ruins

_________________

It didn’t take long for the
SpaceRunner
to touch down on the planet surface. Boomer remained still, hidden within the secret compartment, and hoped no one would initialize their battle suits yet, as her life-icon would show up on their HUDs, plain as day. When it was safe, she initialized her own battle suit and phase-shifted over to a recently observed higher location where she figured she’d go unnoticed.

In the gray afternoon light, other than the
SpaceRunner
, the
Assailan
t alone remained on the surface. She watched as all five—Dira, Hanna, Rizzo, Bristol, and Leon, bringing up the rear—hurried down the ship’s gangway. One by one, as they initialized their battle suits, they continued heading toward the wide archway below her. By checking her own HUD, Boomer noted planetary interferences were making it impossible to detect anyone else in close proximity.

Boomer lowered her head, while keeping an eye on them, expecting any moment for someone to look up and spot her, sixty-five feet above them. But no one looked up—no one noticed her presence. She waited another full minute, then phase-shifted down to the ground.

At the entrance to the archway, Boomer listened for their sounds but heard nothing. She hurried forward and quickly descended the stairs. By step five hundred her annoyance grew
…
so many stupid steps!

Boomer decided she couldn’t afford to lose them. She hadn’t been down here before, and didn’t have a clue where she was going. They at least had Bristol … he’d be able to figure out where to find the other portal window. She phase-shifted down the stairs, as far as her helmet light reached, then phase-shifted again. Reaching the bottom of the stairway Boomer took in the enormity of the underground cavern. Still not seeing the others she ran forward, down the wide roadway for a while, until forced to phase-shift again.

She landed right behind the others. If the white flash from her phase-shift wasn’t enough to give her presence away, the bright light on her helmet was.

Dira was the first to spin around and look at her. “Boomer? Damn it, Boomer! What do you think you’re doing? Get back to the surface … in fact, get back on the ship … now!”

Boomer looked back at the five angry faces staring down at her, but kept her resolve. “No!”

“I’ll tell your father … you want me to do that?” Dira threatened.

“I don’t care … you don’t know what I know. You don’t know what you’re up against. Dad would be a lot more upset if you all got killed by Lord Shakrim and his warriors.”

Dira, infuriated, continued to stare down at Boomer. Bristol tapped his wrist, reminding her time was ticking by. “I know I’m going to regret this … stay behind me … or, better yet, stay behind Rizzo. You do exactly what you’re told … understand?”

Boomer nodded.

“I’ve got a fix on the first habitat portal down here … it’s beyond some kind of city,” Bristol said.

“Can you phase-shift all of us at once?”

Bristol rolled his eyes at Dira’s apparently stupid question. “Here we go.”

In a flash, they were standing in front of a large, fairly flat wall. Boomer stepped up close, noticing there was an engraved picture on it. “Look, there’s the
Minian
!”

No one shared her excitement. Rizzo and Bristol started searching for something while Dira and Leon watched them.

“What are you doing?” Leon asked.

“Looking for an access panel. They’re usually hidden,” Bristol replied.

“Be faster if we all look for it,” Rizzo added.

While the others concentrated on the wall, Boomer held back. There were recent footprints in the dirt, the majority heading off toward the wall’s left. She followed after them until, looking up, she could see that the wall wasn’t actually solid there—there was an opening.

“Here! It’s over here,” she called, darting forward into what appeared to be another cave chamber. Boomer heard Dira yelling for her to stop, but she rushed forward anyway. “I found it! It’s right here,” she said, running over to the ten-foot by ten-foot-wide window before her.

Bristol ran straight to the small access panel on the left and began entering the code.

Dira grabbed Boomer’s arm and swung her around to face her. “You can’t do that! I’m serious, Boomer. No more running ahead … do you understand?”

“Okay! But we’re running out of time … look at your HUD … if you were right about how much time Ricket’s got to live, he’s got … like … fifteen minutes left!”

Dira glanced over to Leon, then Rizzo, then back to Boomer again. “Just stay close to me.”

Beep Beep Beep!

The six darted across the portal’s threshold and continued up the stone steps at a run. Leon took the lead while Boomer brought up the rear, directly behind Rizzo. They reached the top of the steps and continued running through a narrow passageway. Up ahead, Boomer saw daylight; the last one to exit the passage into habitat 7, she knew the habitat like the back of her hand. After countless hours of training with Capri, then others, for the first time she felt back in her own element.

“There!” Dira yelled, as she rushed toward the distant portal window and Ricket’s body, lying nearby. Hanna and Bristol ran after her as Rizzo and Leon brought up their multi-guns, surveying their surroundings.

“Help me, damn it!” Dira yelled.

Bristol knelt down next to Ricket and gently put his arms beneath his broken body and began to lift him.