Frontiers Saga 10: Liberation (42 page)

“Go! Go! Go!”
the copilot’s voice commanded over the lieutenant’s helmet comms.

The Ghatazhak ran out the back of the shuttle, jumping into the black smoke. Unable to see their landing site below, they trusted that the pilots had placed the shuttle in the proper position. The lieutenant followed them out the door, watching his data display as he jumped. The sensors in his combat helmet quickly scanned the balcony below and displayed a green-line drawing as he fell, allowing him to judge his distance and orientation.

Each man landed on the smoke-filled balcony under complete control, moving quickly and expertly to either direction to make room for the man landing behind him.

“Combat Two departing!” the copilot called as the shuttle began to climb out and make a run for orbit. There were still Jung fighters patrolling the skies of Earth. Space was the safest place for them at the moment.

The lieutenant was the last one down, and he immediately stepped through the balcony doorway to the interior foyer. Red targets appeared on his visor, and he quickly dispatched them: two soldiers coming around the corner on the far side of the room and two civilian technicians with unknown intent. He would take no chances on this day. If it did not wear the uniform of the Ghatazhak, it would die.

“Combat Three departing!” the other combat shuttle reported as it, too, headed for orbit.

“Blue is in,” the lieutenant announced over the comms as he advanced.

“Red is in,”
the other team leader responded.

* * *

“General, enemy troops, the likes of which I have never seen, have somehow entered the building,” the general’s aide reported. “They are descending toward us at an alarming speed.”

The general looked at his aide, genuinely shocked at his report. “How many men?”

“Reports vary: as little as ten or as many as twenty.”

“Twenty men? There are over a thousand men protecting this compound. How did they get past our air support?”

“Without the Jar-Keurog, our tracking abilities are limited. They came in without warning, crashed into the building. In the confusion they…”

“We must stop them,” the general insisted.

“General, they are unstoppable. They fight unlike anyone we have ever faced before. They are ruthless and quick, and…”

“Are you telling me that…”

“We must leave this place, and quickly. The empire must know what has happened here. They must be made aware of that which they might someday face.”

General Bacca’s right eyebrow raised. “I suppose you are correct in that.” The general sighed, resigning himself to his failure to hold the Earth. “Destroy everything. The surface missile bases, the airfields, even the spaceports. We must leave them nothing of value,” the general insisted.

“Yes, sir,” his aide responded. “And the orbital station?”

“Give them five minutes to evacuate, then destroy it as well. It cannot be left for the Terrans to utilize.”

“Of course, sir.”

The general sighed, realizing that he was accepting defeat. “And ready my ship.”

“I have already done so, General,” his aide assured him as he stepped aside to let the general pass.

* * *

“
She is alive,
” Doctor Chen explained over Nathan’s comm-set, “
but she is in grave condition. Besides the injuries sustained on the surface, she was without oxygen for several minutes, and both her decompression and re-compression were quite rapid.
”

“Will she survive?” Nathan asked, remaining stoic.

“
I’m afraid I cannot say at the moment.
”

“What about the nanites?”

“
We have already given the first dose.
”

“Keep me informed,” Nathan told her.

“
Yes, sir.
”

Nathan tapped his headset to end the call.

“Flight reports Combat shuttles Two and Three have departed with Ghatazhak reinforcements,” Naralena announced.

“How are they going to make it back down to the surface without fighter escorts?” Nathan asked.

“The next wave of Ghatazhak are jumping in from orbit,” Naralena explained.

“Captain, I’m picking up a ship that is leaving Earth orbit,” Mister Navashee reported.

“A Jung fighter or a transport?”

“No, sir. Too big for a fighter. About one hundred meters in length… It just went to FTL, sir.”

“Course?”

Mister Navashee turned to face the captain. “Alpha Centauri.”

* * *

Lieutenant Telles marched into the reception area of the governor’s office, an energy weapon in each hand. Blood was splattered across his helmet and body armor, with even more smeared down his left thigh.

There were at least a dozen Jung security personnel waiting for him and his men. The lieutenant raised his weapons as he marched through the door, firing at the enemy troops seeking to take cover behind desks, furniture, and doorways to adjacent offices. As his first two shots left his weapons, the lieutenant dropped to one knee and rolled once. Six Jung energy weapons’ blasts pierced the air where he had stood a split second earlier. Four more shots leapt from his weapons as he came back up from his roll, each of them finding their intended targets. Four more Ghatazhak came in behind him, also dodging, rolling, and firing.

A Jung soldier charged at the lieutenant, swinging his damaged energy rifle at the lieutenant’s head like a club. The lieutenant leaned to his left, allowing the weapon to pass by his head and graze the protective armor on his right bicep. The weapon in the lieutenant’s right hand came up into the belly of the Jung soldier and fired. The soldier’s face froze in pain and horror. The lieutenant pushed him aside, raising his left weapon to fire two more times.

The chaos ended as suddenly as it had begun, and the room was quiet.

“Clear?” the lieutenant ordered.

Each of his men responded in kind until all four had sounded off in response to the lieutenant’s inquiry. He gestured for them to check the side offices. There was more weapons fire—most of it from Ghatazhak weapons—as the surviving members of the lieutenant’s squad dispatched those who had foolishly taken shelter in the adjoining rooms.

The lieutenant stormed into the main office in similar fashion as before, his weapons held high. Again, he fired several times while twisting and contorting his body to evade the rather limited return fire. The weapons fire ceased, and the lieutenant stood motionless, both of his weapons pointed at one man in the center of the room. The sole remaining enemy was tall with light hair that grayed at the temples and was dressed in business attire that had obviously been worn longer than normal this day. He held an older man, bound and gagged, in front of him.

“You fire; I fire; he dies,” the man said.

“Why should I care if the old man dies?” Telles responded, disdain for the man’s cowardly tactics evident in his voice.

“Because the old man is Dayton Scott, President of the North American Union and father of your captain.”

* * *

Nathan entered the main medical treatment room. All the beds were full. Medical personnel were rushing about. Crewmen normally assigned to other areas helped out as much as they could. Even the less seriously injured, those who could still walk and move normally, were helping however they could.

Nathan moved through the treatment room and out the door on the opposite side. In the waiting area, there were dozens more wounded, all waiting for treatment. Like the wounded volunteers he had just seen, their injuries were not life threatening.

Nathan saw Josh and Loki sitting on the deck and leaning up against the bulkhead, both still in their flight suits. Josh appeared unharmed but worn out. Loki was also uninjured. However, he looked far more distressed than his friend.

Josh looked up at his captain as he approached. “I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “I just couldn’t leave her there to die.”

Loki also looked at his captain but said nothing. He didn’t need to; his eyes spoke volumes.

“That’s all right,” Nathan told them. “I probably would have done the same thing had I been in your seat.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” Josh insisted. “That’s why you’re the captain.”

Nathan sighed and sat down on the deck next to Josh. “Maybe that’s why I authorized you to provide her with air support. Did you ever think of that?”

“You mean, you knew that I’d do something stupid and risky?” Josh asked. “That I’d disobey your orders and put the Falcon at risk?”

“Consciously, no.” Nathan sighed again. “Well, maybe I suspected you might.” Nathan thought for a moment before continuing. “One of the hardest things about being in command is having to give orders that you know are impossible or, at the very least, difficult for people to follow. You want them to do as they are told, because only those at the top know the ‘big picture’, but you want your people to make decisions, to act on the spur of the moment and take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. If you had called and asked for permission, as the captain, I would have been forced to say no. Not only that, but the opportunity most likely would have been lost.”

“So you’re saying it’s okay to disobey you?” Josh asked, looking somewhat puzzled.

“No. I’m saying that sometimes you will be forced to make decisions on your own, and at times, those decisions may be contrary to your original orders.” Nathan turned his head and looked at Josh. “Battle does not always afford us the time to discuss our options. More often than not, we must make snap decisions based on very little information. It is one of the many things I have learned since command was passed to me. That, and to eat, sleep, and piss whenever you get a chance.” Nathan smiled.

Josh smiled back. “Yes, sir.”

Nathan looked over at Loki, who was listening to the conversation but had said nothing. “Are you okay, Loki?” Nathan asked.

“I’ll be all right, sir.”

Nathan gazed at Loki. He knew the young man would be fine. Nathan knew that Loki was far stronger than the young man realized, more so than his rambunctious young friend and pilot.

“Captain, Comms,”
Naralena’s voice called over Nathan’s comm-set.

“Go ahead.”

“Flash traffic from Lieutenant Telles. He has captured the Jung capitol in Geneva and has ended the missile launches against surface targets.”

“That’s good news,” Nathan said.

“There’s something else though, sir,”
Naralena continued.
“He has a situation. The lieutenant has encountered a man claiming to be the governor of Earth. He is holding a hostage at gunpoint, threatening to kill him if he is not allowed to depart unharmed. The man insists on speaking with you, sir.”

“Me? Why me?”

“The lieutenant did not say, but the man knew you by your first name.”

“Who is the hostage?”

“The lieutenant says the man claims that the hostage is your father, sir.”

Nathan closed his eyes. A feeling of incredible dread washed over him. He had accepted the fact that his father, and everyone he knew and cared for, were long dead. He had no evidence to support that conclusion, but it had made it easier for him to function. He opened his eyes, turned his head, and looked at Josh again. “Can the Falcon still fly?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I need a pilot, Josh.”

* * *

Nathan entered the reception area to the governor’s office escorted by four Ghatazhak soldiers. “Lieutenant,” he said as he approached.

“Captain.”

“From what I have just seen on the way in, you may have been a bit premature when stating that you had control of the area.”

“I did not say I had complete control over the area,” the lieutenant corrected, “only that I had captured the capitol building and ended the missile launches. There are still at least a thousand Jung troops to deal with in this complex, let alone the rest of the planet. It will take some time to defeat those forces as well.”

“Are we sure the hostage is indeed my father?” Nathan asked.

“I cannot verify his identity,” the lieutenant said. “He does bear some resemblance to the images I have seen of your father, but I believe he has undergone some interrogation involving physical coercion.” The lieutenant removed his helmet, handing it to the captain.

“What’s this for?” Nathan wondered.

“We are similar in size, so it should work for you,” the lieutenant said. “Put it on and look at the visor. It will show you exactly what I saw when I initially entered the next room.”

Nathan placed the lieutenant’s helmet on his own head. A video began to play on the inside of the helmet’s face shield, just as the lieutenant had stated. It was as if Nathan himself were charging into the room, firing weapons, and killing Jung troops. The sound of weapons fire boomed and screeched in his ears. The sound of sizzling flesh invaded him as the weapon seemingly fired by Nathan himself burnt through the flesh and bone of his enemy. The experience was overwhelming, lacking only the smells and the physical sensations of movement. The weapons fire suddenly stopped, and Nathan’s view turned toward the captor and his father. “Oh my God!” Nathan exclaimed, quickly removing the helmet.

“Then it is your father?”

“And my brother, Eli,” Nathan exclaimed. His pulse was racing as thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind. His hands went to his face as he twisted about in confusion and shock. “This can’t be happening,” he exclaimed. “This doesn’t make any…” Nathan’s hands pulled away from his face as his body froze and a realization washed over him. He looked at Lieutenant Telles. “That son of a bitch,” he cursed as he turned and marched toward the door to the governor’s office.

Nathan burst through the doors and marched into the room, unconcerned with his own safety. Lieutenant Telles was in step a half meter behind him and to his right.

“Well, that was faster than I expected,” Eli said as he tightened his grip on his father, holding him up as a shield. “In the neighborhood, were we?”

“Not exactly,” Nathan scowled as he approached. He looked at his father. He was bound and gagged, and he looked like he could barely stand on his own. His eyes, however, were open… open and pleading to Nathan. Pleading for him to do what was right. “What the hell’s going on here, Eli?”

“I’m surprised to admit that I find
myself
somewhat proud of you, little brother.”

“Wish I could say the same,” Nathan retorted. “Are you working for the Jung now?”

“Would you believe me if I told you I was doing this for our people?”

“Probably not,” Nathan replied, “especially while you’re using our father as a personal shield.”

“Ugly, I admit, but it seemed necessary, considering the muscle you’ve hired.”

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Nathan asked. “You told the Jung about the jump drive test. You even got me assigned to the Aurora.”

“Actually, it was our mother’s idea. She has always babied you. I just contacted one of Galiardi’s aides. You might want to ask the admiral about that one, although I wouldn’t believe everything he says. My dealings with that man have proven difficult, to say the least.”