Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 2 - Hidden Menace (35 page)

‘We are all leaving now and the first one to complain will not live for long enough to regret it. Now move out people!’

Several of the women were crying silently as they raced over and were given their own weapons. Millene gave Freya a savage grin with her pointy teeth, before nodding and running out of the hold. She called out ‘Silver guards’ in English and then led her own Fenshilla team off towards the flight deck.

The Barede marines took point and the five teams streamed out to the rest of the Fenshilla cruiser. A pitched battle erupted as they encountered the surviving guards racing to the cargo hold. Freya was in Phil’s team as he raced down towards the first main intersection. She noted that two of the team had already been struck by weapons fire from the guards and the commander paused for a moment to ensure both were dead.

Freya heard savage yells coming from the intersection as Phil and three of the biggest men reached the Fenshilla guards. Days of pain and humiliation at the hands of their jailers flooded through her and she added her own yells in a voice she did not recognise.

‘Kill the fuckers! We are not going home and we are going to make these mongrels pay for that!’

One of the guards had lost his rifle and went for a knife and Phil dropped his own rifle in response as he flowed into a fighting crouch. The guard and the engineer circled each other for a moment before the Fenshilla sprang forward. Phil was a blur as he took on the guard with his bare hands and Freya recalled that he was a Krav Maga expert.

Phil’s first kick was a low direct kick to a knee and the guard howled in pain and stopped moving. He then circled to the right and the second kick fractured the guard’s elbow causing the arm to drop. The guard howled again and was changing the knife to his left hand when Phil struck again. The engineer struck the Fenshilla a blow to the throat with his right fist that would have killed a human, but the guard merely staggered back a metre.

Freya led the rest of the team around the crippled guard as Phil moved in with a third kick, this time to the guard’s body. The Fenshilla crumpled to the deck and Phil used the guard’s own knife to cut his throat before rejoining the rest of the team. Freya looked sideways at Phil as he caught up, and she yelled out a terse question over the noise of combat.

‘So the rest of us are advised to shoot the guards as opposed to hand to hand combat?’

Phil fired a covering burst from his laser rifle as another team member raced forward to the next doorway. He looked back at the dead guard for a second or two as he blithely replied.

‘The marines or I would be okay but the rest of you should just shoot the bastards.’

Freya grinned back at him as other team members raced forward. She could hear further fighting from one of the side corridors and she spotted Paul’s team racing forward to secure their own targets. Phil moved forward again and Freya followed him as the team now secured a vertical corridor. In minutes they had filed down a ladder to the lower three levels with minimal opposition.

A pair of shudders ran through the Fenshilla cruiser and Freya was hopeful that Millene and her fellow slaves had fled after capturing two of the docked scout ships.

The teams were approaching the cruiser’s engineering section when the guards counter attacked along their flanks. A series of laser blasts took a toll amongst the unprotected humans and Freya ensured that the dead team members were truly dead.

One of her lieutenants, Louise Sheppard, howled in pain from a leg badly burned by a laser blast as Freya raced up to her. The commander noted that the lieutenant’s leg was torn open and she was rapidly bleeding to death, as from behind them other Fenshilla guards edged forward.

Louise looked at her mangled leg and knew that time was running out as she yelled at Freya.

‘Please commander, just shoot me and go!’

Freya made her mind up instantly and shot Louise in the head, before racing to catch up with the rest of the team. She aimed at a Fenshilla looming out of a side passage, but held her fire as she recognised that the alien was a female slave. The Fenshilla paused and shouted ‘silver guards’ before coming forward. Freya nodded curtly to the guard as she led her forward to rejoin Phil. The commander noted that the Fenshilla slave was carrying a big pack and that it must be heavy.

Freya saw Phil heading back several metres to them, and she led the Fenshilla slave into an open doorway as further weapons fire raced past them. Phil eyed the slave with distrust as he reported on the battle.

‘Commander, the Fenshilla guards are pressing us from the sides and the rear and we cannot go forward. The other teams have also lost several members and they will be joining us once we can get past those doors.’

The Fenshilla opened her pack and handed Phil two small boxes that must have been the jury rigged explosives. She held up ten fingers, pointed to the red switches, and pulled her fingers down before saying one word.

‘Boom…’

Phil thought that was a pretty universal description as he kept his hands well way from the switches. In moments he had handed one of the charges to another engineer and they left their weapons behind before they both raced forward to the closed bulkhead doors. The two engineers looked at each other across the walkway and both spoke in unison.

‘Three, Two, One and fire in the hold….’

Both engineers sprinted for the nearest open doorway and safety as the rest of the hunkered down. A pair of savage explosions rent the air as the makeshift bombs exploded. The humans wasted no time in racing forward as the other teams sprinted down the side passages to join them. Freya escorted the Fenshilla slave forward and noted that she must still have several more explosive devices inside her pack.

Phil kicked an injured Fenshilla guard in the head and raced forward into the engineering section. Paul and Rebecca now rejoined them and Freya provided an update.

‘Our friend here has a pack full of tricks and we are hoping to plant them against at least one of their reactors. The Fenshilla guards are regrouping and coming from all sides.’

Paul nodded impatiently before he curtly replied with an interesting piece of news.

‘We captured two officers and the surgeon general as they were escorting him through the ship. We should leave a message here for the Fenshilla to remember us by…’

Freya got the gist of it quickly as the aliens were forced forward. The remaining women survivors crowded forward with murder in their eyes and the commander also picked up a knife. The three Fenshilla shrieked loudly in terror as the women set about them, and they soon howled in agony as they were dismembered while still alive by their attackers.

Freya quickly added three nasty touches of her own and then led the women forward as Phil came back with more news. He flinched as he looked at the mutilated remains of the Fenshilla officers.

‘We now have access to two of the reactors and we are holding the guards back at the moment.’

Further laser blasts struck the ruined bulkhead behind them and the team quickly moved forward towards the reactors. The Fenshilla slave now followed after looking back at the three dead officers, and a feral gleam of satisfaction came to her eyes.

                                                                     ***

The platoon leader ensured he had covering fire as he moved carefully forward past the ruined bulkhead. The humans had just fled towards the reactors and he now knew they had explosives. He fired his laser rifle down the passageway and ducked into a corner as a series of laser blasts sought him out.

The platoon leader decided that for a new race the humans were impressive in their ground fighting abilities. He had first realised this after he earlier found his older half brother dead after having been fed his own knife. The brother was also a platoon leader and a recognised hand to hand combat expert.

The platoon leader cautiously looked around into the passageway, and noted that apart from smelling really bad, the room did not look right. The area opposite the passageway usually held a spear rack and he noted that only three spears remained. He slowly walked up to the spears and his eyes could not believe what he was now seeing. The heads of the surgeon general and two officers were crudely rammed over spear heads and they had their sexual organs hanging from their mouths.

The platoon leader noted abject looks of terror on the three heads and leaned against the ruined bulkhead for a few moments. Several members of his platoon caught sight of the scene and a few vomited noisily as they moved forward.

The platoon leader quickly crossed to the nearest view screen and sent an urgent video message to the bridge. The commandant looked over behind the platoon leader and blanched as he took in the grisly scene and listened to the dire report.

‘Commandant, the humans have gone berserk and we are unlikely to be able to secure the ship in time as they have powerful explosives.’

The commandant had already decided to abandon ship after he had felt the first powerful explosion on the bridge. The earlier escape of two scout ships had also occupied him as he summoned aid from his other cruisers. He was subdued as he curtly gave the platoon commander his last orders, for the vile images of the dead surgeon general and the two other officers had seared into his mind.

‘We will drop the containment doors for the reactors but that will not delay the humans very long. You will press home your response to the humans at all costs platoon leader.’

The commandant dropped the video link and now calmly led his bridge crew towards the front of the ship and three guarded scout craft. He turned to one of his lieutenants holding a medical pack and asked two sharp questions as they trotted towards the awaiting ships.

‘You have the latest research and tissue samples taken from the humans by the surgeon general with you? The pathology samples from our poisoned guards are also in the pack?’

The lieutenant answered yes to both questions and the commandant again turned his mind back to personal survival as the Fenshilla officers fled to save their own skins.

                                                                     ***

Phil dived clear as an alarm sounded and a bulkhead quickly closed well in front of him. The Fenshilla slave moved forward and handed Phil another explosive device before falling back and hiding inside a doorway. Phil knew that he could not place the bomb and escape, but Freya walked up to him with an idea.

‘It must be a radiation bulkhead and we can use the device like a hand grenade. So stand here, count to four and throw it against the door…’

Phil walked back with Freya as further laser blasts erupted from the survivors guarding the rear of the group. Paul spoke up urgently as he took in the latest toll.

‘We just lost another three defenders and I do not know how long we can hold them…’

Phil merely made a throwing gesture and the rest of the team buried themselves into cover along the passageway. He looked around for a few moments before striking the switch and counting.

‘…three, four – fire in the hold!’

Freya was pinned inside the doorway as Phil jammed himself in behind her to protect them both from the blast. An ear shattering roar split the passageway as the bomb exploded against the bulkhead. Freya realised that both Paul and Phil were shouting at her and she could not hear a thing. She looked over at the radiation bulkhead and realised that it was a shattered ruin before team surged forward. Several of them now had blood flowing from their ears, and Rebecca rejoined them after being forced to shoot two more of their badly wounded team members.

The commander realised that well over half of the survivors were now dead as they entered the smaller passageway outside two of the reactor rooms. Paul was now limping badly, and short breathed gasps of pain and exertion were sprinkled with curses as he moved forward.

‘Oh fuck that really hurts, but not much longer now…’

Phil set up defenders at each end of the passageway as the Fenshilla slave opened her back pack and started handing out the remaining bombs. Freya split the six remaining devices between her and Paul, and pointed out an obvious problem.

‘We need two spotters at the door to each reactor room to count down as the devices are placed.’

Paul nominated Rebecca and another of his marines as he slowly limped towards the closest reactor room before pausing at the entry. Freya then called Phil forward and gave him her final orders. Phil took cover along the side of the passageway as the Fenshilla guards attacked with fierce desperation. A torrent of small weapons fire sounded as Freya repeated her instructions.

‘Hold this passageway at all costs and leave no one injured alive.’

Freya stood at the second entry, and then turned to as many of the survivors as was possible to give them a quick salute and a brief accolade.

‘It has been an honour and a privilege serving with you all....’

The salute was returned by all who were able to do so, and both Paul and Phil also gave her steely nods of approval. Freya entered the most distant reactor room with several survivors and they quickly placed the three explosives against the largest energy conduits they could find.

Rebecca looked around from the doorway and yelled out a message.

‘We are ready when you are Freya.’

Freya yelled out a reply to confirm her team were also ready, for she was sure their hearing had been badly affected.’

Rebecca yelled loudly again from the doorway but did not bother moving as the six switches were activated.

‘….six, five, four, three, two, one…’

Freya was quickly thinking of Tom and her two young daughters, as she has for many nights since they had all been captured. Hopefully Admiral Neilson would defeat the Jerecab and her children would grow up in safety. She was desolate about never seeing them again, but she knew that the Fenshilla commandant needed to be stopped. A blinding flash drove all thoughts from her mind as the powerful explosions detonated in the two reactor rooms and blew apart the last survivors.