Inherited War 3: Retaliation (27 page)

Snow was just turning with one more empty when it happened. An explosive round fired by the Roche impacted the building she was in, one floor above her. The blast sent the magrifle spinning through the room and knocked all three to the ground. It bounced off the hopper and flipped back into the room to land on top of Snow, pinning her to the ground. She could barely breathe as the full weight of the gun came to rest on her chest. In moments, Green and Crane were there trying to lift the gun off her. Snow saw the ceiling split and a massive slab of steel and concrete fall away from above them. One of the slender pieces of steel reinforcements was still stable and caused the massive piece to swing instead of fall straight down.

It swung into the two Nixa as they attempted to help Snow. It knocked them sprawling then the rest of the roof came down. It pulverized everything not protected; Green and Crane were crushed to death instantly. The gun saved Snow. As the roof fell in on her, it cracked the floor underneath her and she fell a few inches into the sub floor. The sturdy gun barrel blocked everything that fell onto it and made a small rafter for Snow to curl underneath. The shaking and rattling of the partial collapse of the roof continued for a few moments before it subsided.

No more rounds impacted into the building, so whatever had caused the damage had either been destroyed or moved on to other targets. Snow was trapped. The only thing keeping her alive was the barrel of the gun. Unfortunately it didn’t provide much room for her, and she couldn’t see a way out. She had no room to turn or even move. Then, to make matters worse, her helmet began to flicker on and off.

“Damn,” she swore into her helmet. She tried to activate the com function but it wouldn’t respond. After a few flickers, it turned off completely. It reactivated a moment later but with only vision and air functioning. She couldn’t let anyone know she was here. She wished she would have died in the blast. This would be a slow and agonizing way to die. She didn’t give up though. She continued to try and move herself in the hopes of finding a way out or moving some of the rubble to make more room. She was at it for hours and making little headway. She even fell asleep for a while after exhausting herself.

When she woke up, everything was still. The feint vibrations and rumbles from the other positions in the building had stopped. Panic gripped her as she remembered the plan. Retreat, and fall back to the next block of buildings. They were gone. Snow was about to be behind enemy lines. Wait, wasn’t there something else supposed to happen? Her brain was foggy, and she couldn’t remember if there was another part of the plan. She couldn’t focus. She was running out of air or her air filter wasn’t working. Lacking any other options, she began to cry. She had run out of breathable air and was in the throes of hypoxia when the explosives detonated and sent the building tumbling down to the street below.

CHAPTER 15

Cole stood quietly in the huge open hanger. Only one ship was currently parked here,
The Resurrection.
It was a carbon copy of Cole’s first vessel,
The Retribution.
West had piloted it in the battle of the Twin Worlds and now it was Cole’s. He missed his old ship. So much had happened onboard. She had meant his salvation and freedom from the ruthless beings that had abducted him from Earth.

Cole heard the main door to the hanger open and felt the presence of Sky walking up to him and looping her arm through his. She lay her head on his shoulder and held the silence. She could sense memories that were flooding through his brain. She let him enjoy them and bring him back even further from the dark place he had been forced to go by his Esii torturer.

“Ready?” he asked her after a few moments.

“Yes,” she replied. “Do we have a crew and volunteers for the ground mission?”

“Yes, they are on their way,” Cole replied and felt Sky let out a heavy breath. He chuckled a bit. “Worried that they were going to tar and feather me?” He was referring to the community meeting he had held in the hours previous to their departure. All the humans who were able, some of the females were giving birth or had just given birth, held an impromptu town meeting in one of the dining halls. Sky had stayed out of it to give Cole the chance to talk to his people alone. It had gone well, better than well if they were still supporting Cole.

“What did you say to them?” she asked him.

“I was honest. I told them what happened and why I was acting the way I was, and that you and Gavreal pulled me out and killed the consciousness that was inside me. I gave them the option continue to follow me or choose a new leader. They chose to stick with me,” Cole said to her.

“Good, let’s get going then,” Sky said as she walked toward the ship dragging him along by his hand. Cole chuckled as he felt her tug him forward and he began to move his feet to follow. They made their way to the boarding ramp that was lowered and waiting for them. The rest of the crew for the mission was already on board—everyone that is except his old friend.

“West, you ready?” Cole asked as he approached his buddy.

“Ready? You’re kidding me right?” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Wait a second,” he said holding up his hands. “You volunteer me for a mission—a mission to a planet currently under enemy occupation. Give me three other guys and absolutely no information, and then ask if I am ready? Fuck you buddy.” Cole held up his hands, trying to stop his tirade before it really got going.

“First off, there is no definite ground mission. Any plan we come up with you get to ‘go/ no go’ it if you want. Second, you live for this shit and you know it.” They locked stares for a moment and West broke first. A lopsided grin shown on his face as he smacked his hand down onto Cole’s shoulder.

“Ha,” he barked out a laugh. “Just checking to see if you are back to one hundred percent. Let’s roll out.” He reached down, grabbed the small duffle bag at his feet, and preceded them onto the ship.

“You two have the foulest mouths when you talk to each other,” Sky said, her voice pitched low.

“Infantry ma’am, it’s how we communicate. Sky raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at Cole.

“Ahh, I had forgotten about him.” Cole suppressed a smile thinking of one of his old team leaders. “Black used the word “Fuck” instead of periods when he talked.” Cole thought for a moment then continued. “Actually he used it in place of all punctuation and for most of his adjectives. Now that I really think about it, he used it two or three times in every sentence.” West’s laughter echoed down the ramp. “Now he was a NCO that could make a sailor blush.” Sky snorted in derision and stomped up the ramp leaving Cole behind.

Cole shook his head and continued on. He stopped in the cargo bay and looked over their cargo. Leaning up against the left wall of the bay were four large, black rectangles. They measured ten feet from top to bottom, three feet wide and a foot and a half deep. They were matte black and completely smooth.

“Finished the final checks?” Cole spoke into the air.

“Yes, Commander,” the ships AI responded. “All systems in the green and ready for deployment.”

“Good, let’s hope we can use them,” Cole replied.

“What the hell are those?” West asked as he dropped his bag next to the nearest one. His name had been written on the floor next to were his bag landed. “And why the hell does it have my name near it?” Cole held up his finger to silence his friend. He watched the ramp raise then seal shut and didn’t move or speak until he felt the ship lift from the landing bay.

“Those are how you get to the planet when we get there. Their skin absorbs nearly all sensor scans and they are completely self-contained. They get you from low orbit to the ground in under two minutes. There is enough room for one man and his combat load inside.” As he spoke, Cole watched as the color drained from West’s face. “Just like Airborne, except no parachute.” West looked at him with a slack-jawed blank expression. Cole had finally done it—he had shut his friend up.

Cole patted him knowingly on the shoulder, and made his way out of the cargo bay and up into the bridge. He stopped and looked around; he had missed this. Sky was just taking her seat, the one next to his, and was hooking into the ship’s systems. Cole vaulted over the back of his seat and was connecting to the ship before his butt touched the seat. He let his mind flow into the ship’s computer. He prepared to become the ship and was momentarily confused by what he found. He was standing on a virtual bridge, surrounded by the crew that had already linked into the ship.

Cole looked around. This wouldn’t do. Even though everything happened in here at the speed of thought, it was still too slow for Cole. He didn’t want to command the ship; he needed to
be
the ship. Apparently he was the only one who took the ship’s perspective, everyone else liked to play Captain Kirk. He left the VR bridge for those who needed to be grounded in a familiar place and simply became the ship. Everything dropped away and Cole felt the intense cold of space wash over his skin. Sensor feeds from every part of the ship fed directly into his brain as the ship became an extension of his body. When he moved, the ship moved. What the ship could see, he could see. He could feel the presence of the people on board. He knew where everyone was and what they were doing. He grabbed control of the engines from the AI and goosed up the power, rocketing off into the night sky.

He wove in and out of the asteroid belt that his base was hidden on until he cleared it entirely, and then he poured on the speed. It felt good being back in control of a ship, nothing else in the galaxy felt the same. He ran some maneuvers for a few minutes until he felt confident he was comfortable back in command. He leveled her out and began to run the nav coordinates into the warp control. He started the jump countdown and reluctantly disconnected from the ship.

He came back to himself on the bland empty bridge, with Sky’s warm hand resting on top of his. She gave it a gentle squeeze, as if to say she knew how he was feeling. But Cole could see what lay beneath. Very soon, they would be at her home system, one currently being attacked and maybe even had already fallen to their hated enemies. Whatever they found there wasn’t going be good, and they both knew it. Sky’s family could be dead already. Thalo and Jeth could be dead too, and if they were, it was Cole’s fault. He had sent them away. Granted he had been crazy at the time, but he had still done it.

Cole pulled Sky from her chair and maneuvered her around to sit on his lap. His crew did their best to look elsewhere and give them the moment. She sat down and rested her head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her body. She curled up as best she could in his lap and sank into his embrace. The ship warped. Time and distance became twisted as normal space warped around the ship and the ship now free of physics, sped past the speed of light to her destination. It felt like a second and an eternity all at the same time.

Without the slightest sense of motion,
The Resurrection
dropped back into normal space and Cole dropped one hand from his embrace of Sky to the link on his chair. He was once more in control of the ship.

“Did we make it in undetected?” Cole asked the AI as he began his checks on the stealth system that had come on as soon as they had reverted.

“Yes,” Resurrection replied. “We are forty-eight hours outside of the system and there is nothing on my sensors. Stealth is up and functioning at one hundred percent.”

“Good. Good job.” Cole turned his attention to the solar system to his front. They had come out of warped space two days from the Nixa home world but still well within the system itself. He needed a clean entry, because discovery would end the mission cold.

“No more active scanning. Passive sensors and data collection from here on out,” Cole said absently as he adjusted his heading. He turned the ship slightly to the left and aimed her nose at the primary star of the system. He’d decided to come out on the far side of the sun from the planet so it would help shield his entry from the encircling fleet. It added hours to his inbound flight, though. He finished locking in his new heading before breaking his connection with the ship.

Cole sped back into his body and opened his eyes. The crew was looking at him expectantly and Sky had untangled herself from his arm.

“We’ve got some time, two days to be exact, so minimum crew to keep watch for the next twenty-four hours.” Cole rose to his feet and looked at his crew. “Thank you all for volunteering. This means a lot to both of us.” With that he turned and led Sky off the bridge. Sky grabbed his arm as he started down the hallway.

“I’m exhausted,” she explained. “I am going to head to our cabin and turn in. Don’t be long, okay?”

“I just have to check on West and his guys, and see how they like their new rides. I will be right back.” He leaned in and kissed her gently on her lips. She gave him a slight smile that did all different kinds of wonderful things to his imagination. Sky reached out, opened the door to their room, and vanished inside. Cole let out a breath he hadn’t even known he had been holding before turning and heading back down into the cargo area of the ship.