Prevail (The Pike Chronicles Book 2) (7 page)

The building shuddered, and the sounds of battle thundered in the distance.

“Who do you think they’re fighting?” said Henderson.

“I don’t know, but I’ll take what I can get,” said Kevin, his ribs aching. “How many troopers are armed now?”

“We’ve got eighteen energy weapons, and nine ion blades.”

“That’s good. Enough to take out any resistance we come up on. We can arm the rest as we go.”

“Chief? Have you got any idea how we’re going to get off this ice cube of a planet?”

“We’ll have to find a ship.”

“There’s the orbital defense grid too.”

“Yeah, that’s going to be a challenge. We’ll figure it out.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Henderson was right. Getting off Kerces was going to be tough, but getting past the Kemmar would be tougher.

“I’ve got it, Chief,” said Private Chen, looking up from the Kemmar computer link. “Building schematics. This is the route we take to get out of here.”

Kevin and Henderson walked over to look at the display. There was a floorplan of the station with an escape route already highlighted by Chen.

“Good work, Private,” said Kevin.

“Thanks, Chief.”

The rest of the Marines scanned the display and each committed the map to memory.

“Ok, we know where we’re going. Let’s move out,” said Kevin.

He strode to the door, weapon ready. The rest of the Marines followed. They formed two groups, flanking the door on both sides. They were going to make it. They had to make it. One way or another they were going to get off this rock. Kevin tried hard to believe it.
But the defense grid. How do we get past the defense grid?
The thought tormented him. He couldn’t answer the question, but he had to stay positive. His men couldn’t see any doubt.

Henderson touched a panel on the wall, opening the door. Burke and Daniels checked the corridor and sounded all clear. The rest of the Marines flowed out of the room. They moved steadily down the hallway in the direction of the exit. They held Singh in the middle of the group, ensuring he couldn’t escape.

They didn’t encounter much resistance. A lucky break. It was obvious that most were preoccupied with the larger battle taking place. They reached a junction where the corridor branched left and right. They needed to go left for the exit. The troopers lined up against the wall. Burke swept his weapon slowly around the corner, scanning for any opposition. He was answered with a salvo of red energy bursts, forcing him back behind the wall.

Leaning against the wall he said, “There’s at least four Kemmar back there. They’re wide open. No cover.”

Burke stuck his weapon out and fired a couple of quick bursts.

“A grenade would be nice right now,” said Burke.

Daniels crouched beside Burke and added fire. The shots coming from the Kemmar paused slightly each time Burke and Daniels fired. Patel and Johns took advantage of this and joined in. The fact that the Kemmar had no cover handicapped them. Their fire started to slow, as the Marines picked them off.

Soon there were larger gaps in the rate of return fire. With the four Marines laying down covering fire, Reynolds and Krukov ran into the corridor. Two Kemmar had already been killed and now the charging Marines took out the other two.

“All clear,” said Reynolds. The rest of the Marines came around the corner and rushed down the long corridor. They stripped the Kemmar corpses of their weapons, adding more firepower to their team.

The larger battle raged, louder now as they got closer to the exit. The pain in Kevin’s side got stronger and made him short of breath. He didn’t know who the Kemmar were fighting, but for now he decided that the enemy of his enemy was his friend. He had expected more opposition to their escape. Whoever attacked the prison did them a great favor. Most of the Kemmar they would’ve faced were surely now engaged in the larger battle.

Not surprisingly, they didn’t encounter anymore resistance to their escape. They had almost made it to the exit and Kevin knew the large atrium at the front of the building lay up ahead. The sound of battle was almost deafening. He ordered the Marines to stop their advance, unsure of what they were about to face.

He turned to his men. “Our first objective is escape. Remember that. Whatever we find out there, we take out the Kemmar first.”

All the Marines nodded.

“Daniels, Burke, you’re on recon.”

“Yes, Sir.”

The two Marines crept down the corridor while Kevin and the others waited.

Kevin looked over at Singh who was talking to himself again. What did it take for someone to snap like that? Would that be him one day? Would he see one thing too many? He’d already seen plenty, and he still held it together. Maybe that’s what made him a Marine? He looked at the rest of his men. All were pretty beat up, but none of them looked like they were going to break. He felt privileged to be fighting alongside them.

The sound of boots caught Kevin’s attention. Burke and Daniels were rushing back.

“Looks like at least a hundred Kemmar, half are wearing combat suits,” said Daniels. “They’re dug in behind some barricades. If we attacked we’d have their backs.”

“Who are they fighting?”

“Couldn’t see them, but whoever it is they’re hitting the atrium hard. The Kemmar look like they’re barely hanging on.”

Kevin knew they wouldn’t get a better opportunity. They were outnumbered, but they had the element of surprise.

“Okay, we’re going in,” said Kevin. “Fast and silent. We get behind them and put them in a crossfire.”

“Oorah,” said the Marines in unison.

“We don’t know who they’re fighting. With any luck they’ll appreciate our help. But we need to keep our guard up in case they don’t.”

Kevin looked around, all the men nodded their agreement.

“Hold your fire until we all get in behind them. Move out.”

They crept down the corridor and silently entered the atrium, spreading out behind the Kemmar line. The Kemmar were focused on the enemy in front of them and the roar of the firefight ensured they didn’t hear the Marines. Kevin leveled his weapon and took aim at the back of an enemy skull, held up his hand, and gave the signal to open fire.

The Marines unleashed a storm of red lightning. Almost half the enemy line collapsed under the weight of the attack. The Marines continued to fire relentlessly, their rage insatiable. They first targeted the ones not wearing combat suits, which was easy enough. Now came the hard part. The rest wore armor and the energy fire didn’t drop them as easily. They would have to weaken the suits first before their fire had any effect.

Many Kemmar turned to fire at the Marines now, and quickly picked off several troopers.

“Focus your fire on the ones facing us,” ordered Kevin.

The tactic worked. Many of the Kemmar had to stay focused on the attackers in front of them and couldn’t turn their attention to their rear. The Marines concentrated their fire on the direct threats, weakening their combat suits at an accelerated rate until finally destroying them.

Several of the Marines who didn’t have energy weapons charged towards the fallen Kemmar, seizing their weapons and attacking from the Kemmar flanks.

Confusion swept through the enemy line allowing their attackers to also advance. Moving with speed and ferocity, armored soldiers leaped over the barricade, shredding the Kemmar combat suits with railgun fire. As the line fell apart, more attackers sailed over the barricade and closed with the enemy.

Between the armored attack from the front, and the Marine attack from the rear, the Kemmar didn’t have a chance. The battle soon turned into a mop up, with the armored attackers finishing off what was left.

Kevin had been so focused on the Kemmar that he didn’t pay attention to the attacking force. He was just grateful that they advanced when they did, or he might have lost more men. That gratitude disappeared now that he had a better look at the attackers. It was the insignia on their combat suits that filled his veins with ice. One he had encountered in battle before.

The mark of the Juttari.

Colonel Bast of the Chaanisar leaped over the barricade, into the carnage on the other side. Dead bodies lay all around and his men were adding more to the list, as they killed the last of the Kemmar defenders. Satisfied that the threat had been eliminated, he turned his attention to the Marines. They had surprised him when they entered the battle. He had expected them all to be imprisoned. That they escaped and helped defeat the Kemmar showed their value as warriors.

Scanning their line he identified their leader and stepped toward him. He halted his advance when the leader and the rest of his men pointed their weapons at him. Their hostile stance prompted a similar response from his own men.

“Hold your fire,” said Bast over his suit’s comm system. He wanted to take a less threatening posture and had his suit retract its helmet. He hoped that the Marines would relax when they saw that he was human as well.

He addressed their leader, who still pointed his weapon at him. “I am Colonel Bast of the Chaanisar. We mean you no harm.”

“Bullshit!” said the leader. “You’re the ones who attacked us when we began our mission. You attacked our Captain on Earth and on board our ship.”

“I assure you those were different circumstances. Please, lower your weapons.”

“I assure you that is not going to happen. Take one more step and I’ll burn a hole through your face.”

The reaction prompted a more aggressive posture from his men, and he repeated his order for them to hold their fire. He understood the Marines’ mistrust. He couldn’t blame them for it. But he needed them to listen, so he did something he would have never done before. He ordered his men to lower their weapons. His men obeyed, even though he knew it went against their every instinct.

“There, you see. We are not a threat to you. Now can we all just calm down before someone makes a tragic mistake?”

The Marine commander nodded in agreement, lowered his weapon, and ordered his men to do the same.

“Thank you. May I ask your name?”

“Chief St. Clair.”

“Thank you Chief St. Clair. As I said before, we mean you no harm. In fact we came here to help you.”

“Why would Juttari want to help us?”

“Because we are not Juttari. We are human. Like you.”

“You’re Chaanisar. You’re nothing like us.”

“We were born on Earth, just as you.”

“Until the Juttari took you. Turned you against your own people. Your own families. You’re an abomination.”

“The Juttari did take us. They kidnapped us when we were children. Stole us from our families. Violated us with their technology. Enslaved us with their brain chips. Our every action since then has been forced on us by the Juttari.”

“So? How is this any different?”

Bast smiled. “The Juttari no longer control us. We are finally free.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We have mutinied. The warship that attacked you was under Juttari command. The Juttari on that ship are all dead. The ship is now under our command. Human command.”

Kevin tried to process what he was hearing. “I find that hard to believe. No Chaanisar has ever mutinied.”

“And yet here we are,” said Bast.

“That means nothing. Do you think we went to the trouble of escaping to become Juttari prisoners instead?”

“While your escape today was impressive, how did you plan to leave this planet?”

“That’s not your concern.”

“Chief St. Clair, you cannot escape this planet. There are no ships for you to commandeer. Even if there were, you would never make it past their defense grid.”

Kevin knew the Chaanisar was right, but he didn’t want to admit it.

“You are trapped here until the next Kemmar ship arrives, at which point you will become Kemmar prisoners again. I imagine that hasn’t been a pleasant experience.”

“We’ll take our chances.”

“I offer you freedom. We have a jump system, just like your Hermes did.”

“Technology you stole from us.”

“Technology the Juttari stole from you. Technology we have now captured from the Juttari.”

Part of Kevin wanted to believe Bast’s story. But how could he trust someone who had been his enemy his whole life?

“Look Chief,” said Bast. “You are outnumbered. Outgunned. We are all wearing combat suits. Even without the combat suits the Juttari have augmented us, giving us superior strength and speed. You know this. If we wanted to kill you, you would all be dead. If we wanted to capture you, you would already be our prisoners. The Chaanisar do not play games. We are telling you the truth.”

While Kevin hated to admit it, Bast was right. They were facing overwhelming odds and they both knew it.

“Okay, we’ll come with you on one condition.”

“And that is?”

“We’re not giving up our weapons.”

“Agreed.”

“Make one wrong move and you’ll have a bloodbath on your hands. Outnumbered or not.”

Bast smiled. “I like you, Chief St. Clair.”