Solfleet: The Call of Duty (103 page)

“
This is Vice-Admiral Icarus
Hansen at Mandela Station to Commander Akagi!
” he shouted. “
Be advised,
we are under attack! This station is taking heavy damage! The Lunar and Martian
colonies are...
”

A sudden explosion of thick,
billowing smoke and flaming debris blew Hansen out of the picture as the roar
of the thunderous blast echoed through Akagi’s office.

“Oh shit!” Dylan shouted as he leapt
to his feet.

Hansen returned to the screen a few
seconds later, bleeding heavily from a pair of cuts on his cheek and forehead. “
The
colonies are being bombarded from orbit and there’s a Veshtonn invasion fleet
on its way to Earth! We don’t stand a chance here, Commander! You’ve got to
send Lieutenant Graves on his mission! It’s our only chance of survival! You’ve
got to...
”

The screen flashed white, then went
blank.

“Get him back, Crewman!” Dylan
shouted as he charged the comm-panel.

“
It was a recorded message, sir,
”
Petrakos advised him. “
The signal is gone and the channel isn’t open
anymore.
”

“Keep trying to raise Mandela
Station, Mister Petrakos,” Akagi instructed. “Akagi out.” He closed the
channel.

“Well, that certainly changes
things,” Benny said as Dylan sat back down.

“No it doesn’t,” Akagi contradicted,
shaking his head. “Doesn’t change a damn thing.”

“What do you mean ‘no it doesn’t?’”
Benny asked, bewildered. “You heard the admiral! There’s a full-scale invasion
of Earth underway!”

“The admiral!” Akagi exclaimed. “Captain
Sedelnikov, the admiral has been arrested for disobeying presidential orders
and has obviously escaped from custody! He might even have killed someone to
affect that escape! I’m not doing
anything
based on the frantic and
probably fraudulent orders of a fleeing felon.”

“Was that explosion fraudulent,
Commander?” Dylan asked as he stood up again. “Was the blood on Admiral Hansen’s
face fraudulent?”

“Possibly.”

“Oh, come on! You can’t possibly
believe that...”

“
Comm-room to Commander Akagi,
”
the panel called out again.

Akagi blew his breath out noisily
and thumped the ‘channel open’ button with his knuckle. “What is it now, Mister
Petrakos?” he impatiently asked.

“
Another incoming message from
Earth, sir. It’s the...
”

“If it’s another recording from
Admiral Hansen, I don’t want to...”

“
No, sir! It’s not recorded, and
it’s not from Admiral Hansen. It’s a live message from the president.
”

“The president?”

“
Yes, sir!
”

“Well what the hell are you keeping
her waiting for, Mister Petrakos? Pipe her through!”

“
Yes, sir!
”

This time there was no momentary
silence. The president’s face appeared on the screen immediately. She looked
exhausted and very, very stressed. “
Commander Akagi,
” she began. “
A
Veshtonn invasion fleet has broken through the solar system’s outer defense
perimeter. Europa and Ganymede are gone and the Martian and Lunar colonies have
been virtually annihilated. Mandela Station is breaking up in orbit as I speak
and there’s a very real danger that Earth might soon be overrun. As of this
moment and under my direct authority, you are hereby ordered to disregard my
previous message and permit Lieutenant Graves to proceed through the Portal in
pursuit of his mission. Do you understand?
”

Akagi opened his mouth to respond
but couldn’t seem to find his voice. “I...uh...”

“
I said, do you understand,
Mister Akagi?
” she asked again.

“Yes, ma’am,” he finally answered. “I
understand.”

“
Good. Do it now, Commander, and
may God help us all. Mirriazu Shakhar, President, United Earth Federation.
”

The screen blinked off.

“As I said,” Benny reminded the
commander, “that certainly changes things.”

“Can’t argue with him this time, can
you?” Dylan added.

- - - - - - - - - -

All glory to the Holy
Vul-Khashka-Veshto
,
the sixty-sixth Pod Priest praised with a sneer.

The report from the thirteenth Pod
Priest had been scripture filled with glory. Much of the
Tseirran
demons’
spawning world now burned with the flames of sanctification and soon their
Gateway into the realm of the blessed interlight would fall to that same fate,
as proclaimed and commanded by the High Priesthood itself.

The Blessed once more found
themselves on the verge of cleansing the interlight of yet another evil—another
wicked pestilence that had poisoned and polluted the realm for countless eons,
even before it had begun to spread itself outward into the interlight. And now
the High Priesthood’s final blessing had finally come. The
Zielepchtah
Crusade
was to begin at once by holy commandment. The
Tseirran
demons were to be
eradicated.

All glory to the Holy
Vul-Khashka-Veshto
.

Dylan, Benny, and Commander Akagi
lagged a few meters behind the Security Forces squad’s alpha fire team as they once
again walked through the tunnels toward the Portal—the tunnels that somehow felt
darker and colder than they had before. The squad’s bravo team maintained a
minimum distance of ten meters behind them, bringing up the rear. With Earth’s solar
system under attack, all Solfleet forces everywhere had gone on high alert, and
now that Dylan’s mission had officially been sanctioned by the president—had
been classified as vital to Earth and Coalition security, in fact—Akagi wasn’t
taking any chances with his safety. It was an unexpected reversal on his part, but
to his credit, one that demonstrated his professionalism...at least as far as
Dylan was concerned. Benny, on the other hand, didn’t seem to agree with that
assessment. “Probably worried about how
he’ll
look to the president if
you get killed or wounded and can’t carry out your mission,” he’d whispered to Dylan
as soon as Akagi called his Security Forces commander and requested the squad.

The alpha team leader waved them
forward, and as they turned into the last tunnel Dylan reflected back on the president’s
despondent message. A Veshtonn invasion fleet had broken through. Europa and
Ganymede were gone, she’d told them. The Martian and Lunar colonies had been ‘virtually’
annihilated, whatever that meant. Even Mandela Station had been destroyed, and
the Earth was in danger of being overrun. Tens of millions of human lives had
already been lost.

This was it. This was the end that
Hansen and Royer had warned him was coming—the end of human society and
culture. The end of mankind.

“
Comm-room to Commander Akagi,
”
Crewman Petrakos’ voice called over the comm-link as they approached the
stairs.

Akagi tapped the link on his collar.
“Go ahead.”

“
Sir, we’ve lost contact with the
orbital patrols again.
”

Akagi cursed under his breath, then
asked, “Did they say anything about heading over the horizon?”

“
Affirmative, sir.
”

“All right. Keep trying to raise
them and update me again in a few minutes. Akagi out.”

“Is there a problem, Commander?”
Benny asked as they waited at the bottom of the stairs for the alpha team
leader to signal the all clear.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Akagi
answered. “We sometimes lose contact with the patrols when they head around to
the other side of the planet. We have the best research equipment known to
science at this outpost, but our comm equipment isn’t exactly state of the art,
if you know what I mean. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

The team leader gave the signal, and
as they started up the stairs Dylan asked, “You mean all the patrols headed to
the other side of the planet at the same time?”

“Of course not,” Akagi answered. “That
would leave our outpost wide open.”

“That’s my point.”

“Give my S-F commander a
little
credit,
Lieutenant,” Akagi insisted.

They emerged from the tunnel, and
with a wave of his hand Akagi pointed out that the alpha team members had
fanned out and set up a hasty security perimeter among the scattered boulders. “See
there?” he said. “He and his people know what they’re doing.”

“Then why can’t you make contact
with them?” Benny persisted.

“Not all of the patrols have a
direct link to the comm-center.”

“Why not?”

“I would guess it’s to prevent them
from tying up the main comm-channels with a bunch of needless chatter, Captain,”
Akagi answered somewhat impatiently. “We do need to keep those channels as
clear as possible, you know. But that is only an assumption on my part. I let
my S-F commander handle those things. That’s part of his job.”

“I hope you’re right,” Benny
commented.

As they walked in silence the rest
of the way, each man lost in his own thoughts, Dylan watched the Security
Forces teams operate. The individual soldiers leapfrogged from one source of
cover to the next while moving as a group at the pace he and his fellow
officers had set, maintaining a secure perimeter around them at all times.
Seeing them in action brought back memories of the people he’d served with and
of the worlds he’d visited, and he realized, though certainly not for the first
time, that he still missed it. He missed being a Military Policeman. He
especially missed his Security Forces duties. He missed it more than ever
before. He missed that even more than he missed being a Ranger.
Why
he suddenly
missed it so much he couldn’t say. Perhaps because of what he was about to do.
Yeah, that was probably it.

Life had been so much simpler back
then. Sure, he’d seen his share of danger. He’d seen friends and comrades
killed or wounded in action, some of them under his leadership. But he’d never
had the fate of the entire human race resting on his shoulders before.

They rounded the last huge boulder,
the canine-like head, and made the final right turn.

“Drop the field,” Akagi ordered the
guard. The same corporal was still on duty. “Seems the lieutenant here will be
going through after all.”

“Are you sure this time?” the guard
asked sarcastically as he threw Dylan a dirty look.

“Just drop the goddamn field,
Corporal!” Akagi shouted as he and Dylan approached it.

The guard complied without another
word.

As the Security Forces fanned farther
out and moved to secure the perimeter around the Portal, a sudden explosion
rocked the site, hurling dirt and bits of stone and rubble into the air and
knocking everyone to the ground.

Someone—Dylan felt sure it was one
of the SF troops—screamed at the top of his lungs, “My leg! Oh God! They blew
my fucking leg off!”

Dylan rose to his hands and knees
and spotted the panic-stricken soldier lying on is back, screaming, writhing in
pain and clutching his severed leg’s bloody stub in his hands. He started to stand,
intending to rush to the man’s aid, but then saw that two of his comrades were
already running toward him, so he dropped back to the ground, crawled to some
cover, and stayed put, just as he knew they’d want him to. Just as
he’d
want
his
charges to, were he one of them.

“Lizards!” another of the soldiers
shouted in warning as he fired his weapon to the north and east. His head
exploded a second later, splattering the area around him with blood and brain
tissue, but his finger held the trigger depressed and continued firing even as
his body tumbled down over the rubble he’d been using as cover and fell to the
dirt.

The rest of them opened fire in the
direction he’d been shooting.

The Portal guard scrambled to his
feet and dashed back to his console, but an almost blinding beam of green-white
death stabbed through his chest and out through his back like a spear of
lightning before he could raise the energy field. His torso disintegrated in an
explosion of boiling blood and guts and bone fragments, leaving only his head
and extremities to fall half-burned and lifeless to the ground.

Sirens blared to life all around
them. Dylan broke cover and joined Benny and Akagi as they scrambled toward
more effective protection—Akagi’s precious ruins were all there was—while the
SF troops fought on.

“Those are the air raid alarms!”
Akagi shouted over the din of battle as they jumped over a fallen column—Benny
moved pretty good for a man his age, Dylan noted—and shrank into its shadow as
best they could. “This must be a full scale invasion!”

The security post next to the Portal
exploded, and potentially deadly bits of smoldering plastisteel shrapnel and
transluminum rained down on them.

“I don’t think your patrols just
cruised around the planet!” Benny shouted.

“Neither do I!” Akagi agreed, his
eyes wide with fear. “We’ve got to make it back into the tunnels!”

“That’s a negative, Commander!”
Benny contradicted. “The tunnels won’t be safe under aerial bombardment! Too
much danger of a cave-in. Besides, we’ve got to send Dylan through the Portal
before they destroy it!”

“How the hell are we going to send
him through now?”

A distant but obviously massive
explosion shook the ground beneath them.

A panicked call followed seconds
later. “
X-ray One to Commander Akagi! X-ray One to Commander Akagi! Come in,
Commander!
”

Akagi slapped his comm-link. “Go
ahead!”

“
Commander, we’re under attack!
We’re being bombed from orbit! At least...
”

Another explosion shook the ground
and roared over the comm-link.

“Petrakos!” Akagi shouted.

“
We’re still here, Commander, but
I don’t know for how long! Half the barracks just went up and there’s a plasma
leak in the...
”