The Far Bank of the Rubicon (The Pax Imperium Wars: Volume 1) (27 page)

Jonas pulled up, away from the
Indiana
, and brought up the fleet position map on his heads-up. His next target was the troop carrier
Calliope
, which was supposed to be at the far tip of the U. He checked his fuel status. He didn’t have much left, but he ought to be able to get to a fair speed without having to touch his reserve. He had locked on to the vessel with his heads-up and was just starting to accelerate when he saw a massive bloom of fire erupt from the
Calliope
. With a thought, Jonas commanded his display to zoom in on the ship. It lurched and then rolled with the blast, tumbling away and breaking apart. He immediately stopped accelerating.

At about the same moment, Jonas’ heads-up started chirping at him. There was a new group of fighters getting ready to enter the fray on this side of the
Indiana
. Jonas counted the numbers. “Shit!” There were over thirty of them. None of the transports were likely to survive that.

Daxton whispered, “Now what?”

“How many ships do we have with us?”

“Eighteen.”

“What’s their fuel status?”

It took Daxton a few seconds to flip through the readings. “Low or critical.”

Jonas had suspected as much. His jaw tightened. “We need safe harbor, or we are going to get massacred out here. There isn’t much hope going back through that mess on the other side of the
Indiana
, and as I read it, on this side our lines are folding. I don’t see any other choice.” Jonas spun his ship around. “Tell what’s left of Sigma Squadron to prepare for a hostile landing in the docking bay of the
Indiana
.”

“Really?”

“When we flew by, it looked like the bay had been wrenched open by the blast from engineering. Do you have any better ideas? I have no interest in tangling with thirty fighters, do you?”

“No, but…”

“Well, I’m open to suggestions. After all, I have no right to be organizing this party. It should have been someone more senior, but no one stepped up.”

Daxton chuckled. “No one has your name. You get to be in charge whether you know what you’re doing or not, and that’s the problem.”

“Tell me about it. We can debate that later, and I will probably agree with everything you have to say, but for now, we just have to keep our asses alive. So I repeat: do you have any better ideas?”

“No.”

“All right. Tell them to form up on me. We’ll take point again.”

In the interest of seeing where he intended to go, Jonas pivoted his troop transport back toward the
Indiana
and accelerated. It took a moment or two for him to start moving toward the vessel, instead of drifting away from it. When he did finally get moving in the right direction, his fuel level was critical. His craft and the others behind him crawled forward at an achingly slow pace. He used as much fuel as he dared, but he still wasn’t sure that he would make it on board before the fighters tore into him. To keep his mind off things, Jonas sent a message to the lieutenant in charge of the troops he just dropped off. Sigma Squadron executing emergency landing in the
Indiana
docking bay. Request relief at your earliest convenience.

Then he got an idea. “Daxton, why don’t you get back there on the gun. We might be able to make a bit of a dent in their defenses before we run out of ammo.”

“Shit, Jonas. Do you know how long ago it was that I did weapons training on this thing?”

“Yeah. I do. I did it the same time you did. As far as I remember, it was pretty basic—point and shoot. Just try to aim at anything shooting at us, OK?”

Daxton unstrapped and made her way back to the gun.

A few seconds later, Jonas brought his transport into a hard bank around the
Indiana
, using his remaining precious fuel to twist his ship into the hangar deck on the far side. The fighters were already nipping at the back of his formation, and the hard maneuver was designed to help those at the back get clear. He came at the landing bay fast, screaming past the outer marker, and then slammed his thrusters into full reverse. It wasn’t quite a textbook landing. He skidded across the deck, but it was effective. The hangar bay wasn’t as large as the one on the
Constant
, perhaps a couple of hundred meters across. It was mostly empty of vessels at this point, which was a good thing, because Jonas didn’t exactly hit his mark. For half a beat, he stared across the bay at the well-armed enemy positions. Astonished Korpis stared back, surprised by Jonas’ suicidal maneuver. They hadn’t been expecting company. Then all hell broke loose. Jonas’ ship was strafed with automated weapons fire. He unstrapped as fast as he could and got on the floor. He crawled back toward the more armored interior, while Daxton returned fire with the gun, as best she could. Her rounds weren’t really designed to be antipersonnel rounds. They were larger than necessary.

“Daxton!” he yelled into his com. “Slave that gun to your heads-up, and let’s get out of here before they decide to use something bigger!” He spoke none too soon. He had just recovered a weapon and a grenade belt from the locker at the back of the ship when he felt a grenade hit the front of the ship. Luckily it hit down low and was set for regular ordinance. It didn’t penetrate. But nonetheless, the blast lifted the front of the troop carrier off the deck and slammed it down again. Jonas landed on his helmet and immediately heard a disturbing hissing sound. Repair bots stored on the back of the suit quickly activated and crawled up over his head to find the offending leak. It was small and soon cured. Jonas ignored them, got up, and started moving as best he could. He exited the back of the vehicle into a hail of gunfire and the streaks of energy weapons. Looking back years later, he was always surprised that he didn’t get killed right then and there. As he stepped out, there was a gun position just to his left with three Korpis hidden behind barriers. They must not have expected him to emerge from the back hatch of the ship because they weren’t quite ready for him. Jonas managed to take out one with his energy rifle before they could bring their weapons to bear. He had the advantage because he fired first. They instinctively took cover as he ran down the hangar and got behind a shipping container.

Daxton wasn’t so lucky. She didn’t make it down the stairs before her body was sliced cleanly in two by the Korpi nest.

“Fuck!” Jonas yelled when he turned back and saw her at the foot of the stairs.

By this time, three or four other ships had joined him on the hangar deck of the
Indiana
. Another two were coming in, much too close together. At least they had the same idea about using the turret atop their ships for protection. They came in hot, firing wildly at the Korpi positions on the far side of the hangar. It was the Korpi gun nest on this side which worried Jonas the most. He flicked on the cutting torch at the end of his weapon. He didn’t want to see anyone else get cut down. Seeing the back hatch on another ship starting to open, Jonas acted. Screaming in his helmet, he charged the enemy, firing as he went. He managed to keep them under cover until he got into their gun nest, where he fired twice and killed both remaining enemies. Jonas then motioned for the pilot and copilot emerging from the second ship to join him.

Bringing them up on his heads-up, he said, “We’ve got to build a place of safety back here where we can get organized. We don’t need a gravity grenade coming in and taking all of us out. Any ideas?”

The pilot looked back at his ship. Pointing, he said, “I think we could find some kind of cover behind those, don’t you think? Especially if we turned them over.”

Jonas nodded and smirked. “I don’t know if I have any control left over mine. We’ll see. We might just have to blow the legs off her to get her to sit down flat.”

He quickly brought up the control menu for his vessel on his heads-up. He was surprised it even responded after the beating she had taken from the grenade. Jonas heated up the engines. Only four of the twelve worked, and those were barely functional. He looked at the other pilot. “I don’t think mine will work! I don’t have much control.” He examined which engines were working and came up with a wicked idea. “The best bet is for me to get this thing out of the way,” he said.

With that, the shuttle took off across the hangar bay. Skidding across the floor, it slammed itself into one of the enemy positions some hundred meters away. Jonas smiled. The other pilot had more luck. He was able to get his ship airborne and move it in front of their position, then put it down on its side. The pilot from the third shuttle was just trying to get out of his vehicle when he saw what the other pilot had done. It didn’t take him long to follow suit. The fourth pilot didn’t even exit his craft before he turned it on its side and put its armored underbelly between the emerging crews and the enemy. With more ships landing, it wasn’t long before there was a true pitched battle taking place in the hangar.

Unfortunately, the pilots weren’t nearly as well-armed as the enemy. For a while, they couldn’t make any headway. Despite the cover, many of them were cut down by gravity grenades and the two drones the enemy had in place over their piece of the deck. In the end, Jonas was looked to again for leadership. Seeing they had no weapons advantage, Jonas decided to charge the enemy and take them on, hand-to-hand. They were, after all, marines, and on the other side were only sailors. The Prince led the charge. The thirty remaining pilots and copilots charged from behind their stranded vessels, slicing down one enemy after another with their laser bayonets. For the moment, their fury held the day, and the enemy temporarily retreated from the docking bay. A wild cheer went up from the Marines. Jonas quickly quieted them and got them in strong positions near all the entrances. He didn’t think this would be the end.

Then he got on the radio. “
Constant
, this is Captain Athena. Do you read me?” He repeated himself. “
Constant
, this is Captain Athena. Do you read me?”

“Athena, this is
Constant
. Go ahead.”

“
Constant
, I am very happy to report that the pilots of Sigma Squadron own the docking bay on
Indiana
.”

“Say again?”

“The pilots of Sigma Squadron hold the docking bay on the
Indiana
.”

The voice from the
Constant
changed, and Jonas recognized Marquette. “Athena, how the hell did you get there?”

“We needed a safe harbor, sir. When the
Calliope
went up, we had nowhere else to go, and thirty fighters breathing down our necks. It seemed to be the best course of action.”

There was a second of silence from the other end of the line, and then Jonas could have sworn he heard cheers in the background, but Marquette was all business. “Athena, is the docking bay usable?”

Jonas looked back. Despite his ships strewn across the deck, many on their sides, there was room to land still more. “Yes, Sir! There’s room to land on the deck, sir, and I’d be glad to see them. We scared the Korpis off, but I expect them back at any moment.”

This time there was clearly an audible cheer in the background.

“Athena, get that docking bay ready. You will be receiving incoming troops within the next ten minutes. Your backup is on the way. You just might have turned the tide for us today, Athena. Today is a good day to be with the Allies.”

There was a whoop of joy from the pilots scattered around the docking bay.

When the troops arrived, Jonas was there to greet them, standing on top of one of the overturned troop carriers, waving an Athenian flag. Someone snapped a still which quickly got reported to the nets. It became one of the iconic images of the war.

When she heard the news, Anna tried to get back to work. She told herself such things were inevitable after the fall of Apollos. Six months after the Unity took control, the news from Leto was still horrific—riots, starvation, mass killings. Anna worried about the refugees she had known. She worried about Mrs. B, her former neighbor in the apartment where they had lived before Jack got promoted. Few, if any of them, would have had the money to pay the exorbitant costs charged to board the last flights out. The capture of the
Indiana
had been costly. The system had fallen suddenly, with little warning.

Then there was Renatah Ohlson, the woman who saw a spark of promise in her. The woman who had become a mentor and friend. The woman who had defied troops at the palace gates when they had arrived. The woman carried away in chains. Nothing had been heard about her fate in six months, until today.

Anna tried to work. As she stared over and over at the same Allied military attendance report, she tried to go back—to think and live as she had before she had escaped from the Unity. She tried to adopt the fatalistic, laissez-faire attitudes which had so effectively protected her from the traumas caused by living for the will of a corporate state. But years of freedom stood in her way, and she found herself traumatized anew by the events in the capital of the Empire.

Giving up, she left her office. As she crossed the campus of the Ministry of Defense in Olympia, she fought back tears. The ride up the elevator seemed eternal. She knocked on the door sill as she entered the open office.

Jack looked up from the wall screen where he was watching a two-dimensional interrogation video of an Allied military officer. Her skin looked burned and unhappy.

Seeing Anna at the door, Jack paused what he was doing and stood. “What’s wrong?”

Anna shook her head. She couldn’t speak.

Instead, she curled into Jack’s chest as he enveloped her in his arms. She cried onto his dress shirt. “They executed Renatah Ohlson today.”

Jack reached up and pressed the button to close his office door. Then he led Anna to a nearby couch and held her. She laid her head on his shoulder and continued to cry for a few minutes.

To her surprise, Jack cried a little with her. Even after a year of dating him again, she still couldn’t believe this was the same man she had met in a station bar, so long ago. Three months after moving back in with him, she still woke up every morning surprised at how wholeheartedly she could give herself to this man. He had changed so much.