Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone (27 page)

Exit flew the shuttle around to the front of the asteroid where the crew could see into the shuttle bays. As they got their first look, the flight crew noticed movement. Too much movement.

“
Calvin, Foxy,
” the shuttle’s WSO commed. “
I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news. The good news is that the bay you said to meet you in is open; the two bays below it have their blast doors shut so they would have been a ‘no go.’ The bad news is that it looks like there’s a welcoming party of Drakuls waiting there for you. There are six Drakuls setting up an ambush in the shuttle bay. Want us to do something about them?
”

“
Foxy, Calvin,
” he replied, “
yeah, if you can thin ‘em out for us, that would be helpful. We’ve already got a few casualties, and now we’ve got a bunch of civilians in tow.
”

“
Roger that, sir,
” Foxy replied. “
We’ll take care of them.
”

“Can you tell what they’re doing?”
Exit asked.

“I think they figured out that the platoon is bringing the hostages
to one of the shuttle bays,” Foxy replied, looking at his targeting scope that gave him an enhanced view, “They’re setting up a heavy weapons position to shoot anything that tries to enter the bay from the interior of the asteroid. It probably won’t hurt us, but it’ll make a mess out of the platoon and the hostages if we let them.”

“
How about this?” asked Exit. “Let’s not let them.”

“Sounds good to me,” Foxy replied. “
I’ll bet there’s a force screen that will reflect our laser if we try to shoot them from outside the bay, so we’ll have to go in. The only problem is that we’ll probably lose our stealth when we do. Give me a second to get ready.” He switched his laser system on and brought up the targeting system.

“OK,” Foxy said, “I’m ready when you are.”

“I’m ready,” Exit replied.

Foxy turned on the armament panel that allowed
him to fire. “Master Arm switch is ‘on,’” he said; “the laser is hot.”

“Here we go,” said Exit, maneuvering the shuttle into the bay. As expected, the force screen recognized a shuttle and allowed
it to enter. As they also expected, the ship became visible as it contacted the force screen. Two of the Drakuls happened to be looking when the shuttle became visible; both jumped back in surprise.

“Firing,” said Foxy as he triggered the laser at
one of the Drakuls looking at the shuttle. Developed to defeat incoming anti-ship missiles, the laser was devastating to flesh. The first laser shot hit the Drakul where its right arm joined its body, blowing it off and spinning the creature around. “One down,” commented Foxy, “and
man
, could I get used to doing this!” He missed with the next two shots as the Drakuls ran around looking for cover, but blew apart another enemy soldier with his fourth shot, and then a third Drakul with the shot after that.

The
rest of the Drakuls began firing their laser rifles at the shuttle, but they were not powerful enough to penetrate the ship’s hull. Standing still to shoot at the shuttle also made them excellent targets for return fire.

“That’s
it,” said Foxy as he killed the last one. 40 seconds had gone by since his first shot, and all of the Drakuls were down. All of them were in at least two pieces, if not more.

“
The hangar bay is clear,
” commed Foxy. “
We’re waiting for you in it.
”

“
Copy, thanks,
” Calvin replied, “
We just made it to the airlock and are waiting for the other squad to get here, and then we’ll be on our way.
”

Calvin looked around at the group milling around
in the passageway. Before he could say anything, Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead came out of the control room. It only took two seconds for her to assess the situation, and her face to go purple. “What the hell is going on here?” she yelled. “Who told you to take a nap in the middle of an assault? What, your mommy isn’t here to babysit you, so you all forgot how to be soldiers?
What the hell is all this standing around bullshit?
”

No one wanted to
interrupt her, but it didn’t matter. She had worked herself into a full-fledged rant. “That’ll teach me to take five minutes to get medical attention. See if I ever do
that
again! Zoromski, why haven’t you taken charge of this nightmare? Start earning your fucking sergeant’s pay, damn it! Owens, Stump, Cuillard! Get our alien guests into the control room so they’re out of the way in case the Drakuls show up. Keep them there and get Corporal Lawrence to treat any of them that got shot. I don’t
care
if she knows their anatomy; tell her to fucking figure it out!”

“
Gordons, damn it, stop fighting with each other and get down the hallway to the right. We don’t have any friends in that direction; shoot anything that moves. Hanzo, Patel, go find the Hooolong called Smetlurge and find out where the shuttle bay is. Scout out as far as you can in that direction so we know where we’re going. Westbrook, Buzdar, set up a perimeter 50 meters down the passageway in the center. BTO and Tiny, you’ve got the passageway to the left. Watch out for friendlies; the other squad is coming from that direction, and the captain does NOT want to get hit with a .95 caliber slug. Jones, if you don’t get that damn camera out of my face, I’ll feed you to the fucking Drakuls myself! Now, did I miss anyone? No? Good! Get to work! I, for one, have no intention of dying today, so let’s fucking look alive!”

“
One more-fuck!-wire to connect,
” commed Sergeant Hopper. The Drakuls were pushing in again, and his suit’s nanobots were running full-out trying to repair the continued damage he was taking. He was going to have to go to emergency override to get any more painkillers; the suit said that he had already received his recommended daily allowance in just the last 10 minutes. Even with all of that, the laser burns still hurt. A lot.

He continued to do the best he could to ignore the pain. They needed the cyborg; he had to get it running again.

“
There. That’s got it,
” said Hoppy. “
How do you feel—
” His voice cut out suddenly.

“
I’m good,
” Staff Sergeant Randolph replied. He turned to see three Drakuls coming down the left passage. Two of them had the standard large Drakul laser rifle; one had a weapon with a larger tube that he was reloading. Randolph killed the Drakul carrying the tube with several well placed rounds. The other two Drakuls fried off some more of his combat skin while he killed them. The enemy taken care of, Randolph looked down at Sergeant Hopper and saw that the tubular weapon was some sort of flechette thrower; Hopper had four large metal slivers that protruded from both the front and back of his suit. Two more were stuck in the lower part of Randolph’s left leg, but they were not impinging on anything critical. Randolph was fine; Hopper was dead.

* * * * *

“Hey, Exit,” Foxy said, “do you see that Drakul up there in the window?”
He pointed up to a large window that overlooked the hangar bay.

“I do now,” Exit replied. “That’s gotta be the hangar bay control room. What do you think he’s doing?”

Foxy watched him for another few seconds. “No idea. I’d shoot him, but the laser won’t aim high enough for me to target him.”

“That sucks,” Exit said. “I doubt he’s doing anything to help us.” He saw motion out of the corner of his eye. “Shit! The hangar bay doors are closing!” The aviators looked back up at the window. The Drakul was looking back down at them. When he saw that he had the Terrans’ attention
, he began waving.

“
Calvin, Exit,
” the pilot commed, “
there is a Drakul in the hangar bay control room, and it looks like he just started closing the hangar bay doors. Should we stay in or get out?
”

“
Stay in,
” Calvin replied. “
Give me a second.
” He ran into the airlock control room. “Hey, Smetlurge, are there backup power systems for when the main engines receive battle damage?”

“I don’t understand,” said the Hooolong.

“I’m about to blow the main engines,” said Calvin. “Are there backup systems to provide life support if I do?”

“Yes, of course there are,” Smetlurge said. “It would have been dumb to build something this
large without them.”

“
Master Chief, Lieutenant Commander Hobbs,
” Calvin commed, “
I need you to detonate the explosives on the main engines, right now! All hands, brace for shock and prepare for dark!
”

“
Roger that, sir, I’d be happy to,
” Master Chief replied, ducking a flechette round as he pulled out the remote detonator. “
Going dark in three, two, one, boom.
” He pushed the button, and a massive jolt was felt through the asteroid, knocking several of the aliens and a couple of the Terrans off their feet. They had to pick themselves up in the dark as all of the lights went out. It also got quiet as the life support systems cut out, eliminating the background noise of the air handlers.

After five or six seconds, emergency lighting kicked on in the passageways
, and the sound of air moving could again be heard. “
Exit, Calvin,
” Calvin commed, “
did that kill the doors?
”

“
Yes it did,
” the pilot confirmed. “
The doors are still open far enough for us to get out. The bad news is that the Drakul that was waving at us just left, so I’m guessing it went to go get help. I’d sure appreciate it if you could get here before he comes back.
”

“
Captain, Wraith, I just met up with BTO. We’re at the airlock.
”

“
Great,
” commed Night; “
be right there.
” He jogged up to the front to find Calvin waiting for him.

“Hi
, sir,” said Night. “Funny thing happened on the way to our ride home.”

“No kidding,” Calvin replied. “Did you get everything set up?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Night said. “Thanks for turning out the lights. They were about to pin us down, and it let us break contact. We’ve already lost Hoppy; we need to get moving before they regroup.”

“
Master Chief!
” commed Calvin. “
Get ‘em moving to the hangar bay. You’ve got combat ops. Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead, you’re our shepherd; make sure our guests make it in one group.
”

“
You heard the man,
” Master Chief said, “
let’s get moving. Wraith, you’ve got point with Yokaze. Get us there as quick as you can. Wall, you’re in the middle to provide fire support for the aliens if we get jumped. Randolph, Zoromski and the Gordons, you’ve got rear guard; keep ‘em off us. As the boss would say, the liberal use of high explosives is authorized. Move out!
”

“Shit!” said Exit, and Foxy felt the ship come off the ground. “They’re trying to sneak around behind us.” He spun the shuttle around in time to see three Drakuls setting up a crew-served weapon.

It was the biggest weapon Foxy had ever seen. “Master Arm is on, laser’s hot,” he called. He brought the anti-missile laser to bear, but the Drakuls were faster, and a shot went just over the cockpit glass.

“Holy shit!” Exit said. “That laser
’s huge!
Shoot ‘em! Shoot ‘em now!
”

Foxy fired, hitting the
ammunition bearer in the chest. He blew backward in several pieces. The gun fired again, hitting the poly-glass right in front of Exit. He could see the bolt drilled a hole part of the way through it. “No, shoot the gunner! Shoot the gunner!”

Foxy retargeted and fired, hitting the gunner in the head.
The Drakul fell backward as his head exploded in a spray of blue. The Drakul gun fired again, but its aim was off as the gunner fell backward. The assistant gunner pushed the gunner’s body out of the way and grabbed the firing mechanism, but he was not fast enough; Foxy shot him in the chest. Foxy fired several more times into the gun, hoping to render it inoperable.

As he ceased, they heard a noise from the top of the shuttle. “You don’t suppose there’s one on the roof, do you?” asked Foxy.

“I thought I originally saw four of them,” Exit replied. “How many did you kill?”

“Three. Shit.”

“Yeah, shit,” said Exit. “Flip you for who goes out to try and shoot him off?”

“No,” Foxy replied, “we need you to fly this tub. I’ll go.” He unbuckled his harness and got up to go to the back.

“Wait a sec,” said Exit, “I’ve got an idea. Besides, we need to check out the hole that they almost put in the window.”

Foxy slid back into his seat and began
strapping in as Exit flew the shuttle out of the bay. “I don’t think any of them had suits,” Exit said. “Let’s find out.” As the nose started through the force shield, several yellow lights started blinking on his dashboard. “Must go faster,” he said, feeding in more power. “The bastard must have some sort of cutter or blowtorch; it looks like he just cut some of our steering.”

As the shuttle cleared the force shield, Foxy asked, “So how long do you suppose the Drakul can
last in vacuum?”

“I don’t know,” Exit replied, “but I’m willing to give
it several minutes to find out. I think a human can do it for a minute or so, as long as he doesn’t try to hold his breath.”

“
There’s no telling how long a Drakul can hold its breath,” said Foxy. “I’d give it five minutes, just to be sure.” Exit rolled the craft twice, hoping the centrifugal force would throw it off. “That’ll help, too,” Foxy added.