The Legacy of Earth (Mandate Book 2) (31 page)

“What?” Nekel asked, concerned about her troops.

“The abomination, Erün’dem. The Solar colonists. Those who violated my soul!”

“The Protestation revoked the old ways of the Avowed. That name has no meaning any longer,” Nekel said, feeling disturbed at Mikel’s sudden change.

“Nalai chose to remain with me, to share my fate. Her soul is forfeit too! And
they
are to blame!”

“I sympathize, dear friend, but now is not the time for venge—”

“
Now
is the
perfect
time for vengeance!” he shouted from right behind Nekel on the bridge. “And I will see it done by my own hands, not by those of another!”

“Mikel,
no!
”

He fired a handheld EMP charge at point-blank range. A combat suit might have blocked most of the stunning energy but Nekel was in a standard shell. She jolted violently and collapsed on the floor beside the pilot’s seat.

Mikel knelt beside her to check her vitals. “My apologies, dear friend. I will make this up to you.”

Then he ran back to the cargo hold and collapsed in front of a spare combat suit. His vision transferred to the combat suit in an instant and he watched the other shell fall.

A quick diagnostic reported all systems green. He ran to the open cargo bay doors and leaped outward with a full burn of the suit’s jetpack.

Mikel felt the oppressive weight of open space press in on his artificial body as he hurtled through the void between ships. Nekel would be furious, of course. She might do something reckless when she woke, but that couldn’t be helped. Mikel had to focus on the task at hand—reaching the outer shell of the huge Solar ship built by the Harmony colonists.

Mikel crossed dozens of miles without context. His target was clearly visible, dwarfing the smaller cruisers. As he passed by the first ship, he zoomed in on the coordinates of the first two assault teams. They were going in. If they met resistance, it wouldn’t last long. Between the surprise and the effectiveness of the combat suits, the Solars wouldn’t know what hit them.

Mikel adjusted his course up and over the first cruiser, above the second cruiser, and headed toward his target. He’d been burning the thruster hotter than the assault teams since he was coming up behind them and had to slow. The first of each squad acknowledged his greeting as they slowed and landed on the outer hull of the huge ship.

The construction of such a vessel was an impressive feat for a species that had only started exploiting the asteroids and planets in their system two decades ago—not even a generation.

Chapter 31
Exchanging Blows

I grimaced while helping
Jones lift the damaged equipment off of a fallen spacer who was trapped.

“One, two,
three!
” and it was off.

“You okay?” I asked the injured man.

“I think so,” he said, “just give me a minute. Uh, I don’t think anything’s broken. . . .”

Just then, a squad of troopers rounded the corner and stomped past us, trailed by an officer.

“Gentlemen!” he said, pausing. “I could use your help. We’re down three. What do you say, up for some payback? We’re going to Skydock to take back the station.”

I looked at Jones and the third guy.

“Hey, what’s your name, spacer?” Jones asked him.

The man responded by coughing violently and throwing up on the floor.

“Oh man, looks like you might have a concussion there, fella,” Jones said, patting the injured man on the shoulder.

“Yeah, guess so. Didn’t notice a minute ago.”

“You better get to sickbay. Need help getting there?” I said.

“No, no, I’m good, I can make it.”

I looked at the officer. “I’m in. Jones?”

“Count me in too, sir.”

“Alright, consider it an order, gentlemen, in case your CO gets on your case later. This way,” the officer said and trotted down the hall where the troopers had gone a few moments before.

“Sure this is a good idea?” Jones asked while we jogged behind the officer.

“I don’t know!” I said. “But, this guy needs us and it was an order!”

The ship shuddered again.

“Whoa, we’re moving!” Jones said over the sound of a damage control team working on a bulkhead.

“Yeah, feels like it,” I said, “Captain’s gotta be breaking out of the dock to maneuver.”

A desperate voice came on over the ship-wide intercom, “Intruder alert! Intrud—”

We reached the hangar deck behind the squad and trooper officer, whose name we still didn’t know.

“This way, men,” he said, jogging down a flight of stairs to the hangar deck.

Scattered all around the hangar deck were bodies of troopers and “
frigging robot bodies
!” I yelled.

“Yeah, we
know
!” a trooper said. “Whaddya think payback means?”

“But . . . but . . . these robots. Does that mean it’s the AI out there?” I said, sounding as exasperated as I felt.

The troopers stared at me for a moment, not comprehending.

“It must be the AI! These fully prosthetic bodies, we’ve seen them before, on Earth!”

“Beats the shit outta me,” a trooper said.

“It doesn’t matter what they are,” the officer said, “they’re attacking us and we’ve gotta fight back, take the fight to ‘em! Hooyah?”

“Fuckin hooyah!” the squad replied.

The squad stopped at a row of utility lockers and began pulling out weapons and ammo and passing them around. One of the troopers handed me an M66 TAR and gave Jones a single 2011 and handful of mags.

“Sorry, bud, but that’s the last one,” the huge trooper said in a heavy bass voice. “Make the most of it, brother!”

“Uh, right,” Jones said, comparing the handgun to my TAR and frowning.

I held it upright and slapped a mag in, pulled back the bolt, then flipped on the safety.

“Good to go, sir!” I said.

He nodded and ushered all of us to a Beetle that was already powered up. We clambered in and found it already half-full of troopers.

“Make room, ladies and gents, we’re packing heat for a quick delivery!” the officer shouted, and he was answered with bawdy applause.

“Kick some ass!”

“Payback’s a bitch!”

“Alright, we’re green!” the officer yelled at the cockpit. “Go, go, go!”

The Beetle entered the tube and we were quickly launched into open space and facing the Illustrious in the midst of a heavy barrage from the Lexington.

It was absolute pandemonium inside the cramped ship as the troopers cheered the captain.

I still had no idea what was going on. Why were we firing on the Illustrious? But I didn’t want to look like an idiot asking a question all the troopers seemed to know the answer to already. It seemed like we were dodging fire from both directions until I realized the heavy fire was hundreds of yards away from us. Maybe miles. Hard to measure distance out there.

For a split second, I realized we needed to take back the Illustrious, not the Skydock! But, the mission was already underway and I didn’t dare second-guess the man in charge.

Speaking of whom, I finally caught a glance at his name and rank. He wasn’t an officer after all—Gunnery Sergeant Benson. That was pretty high up in the trooper ranks but still enlisted. This was quite an initiative for a non-com. He must have gotten orders from higher up, but it still worried me—leaving my ship in the midst of battle was a serious offense. I had to remember Benson’s name after things were sorted out. Jones could corroborate my story.

Assuming we survived this mess.

Our Beetle flew up and over the top of the Lexington which gave us a birds-eye view of the larger battle. Two Wasps flew by us as fast as bullets, causing the troopers to shout. I needed to get out of this can as soon as possible. Too much human energy in too tight a space.

“There she is,” the pilot said from the cockpit, “Skydock. Looks in good shape. I don’t see any damage.”

While we were all trying to get a good look ahead, a bright white flash hit us from behind. I turned and for a moment, my heart stopped, as it looked like the Lexington had exploded. But, as the brightness faded, we could see it was the Illustrious behind her that was gone.

“Shit,” Benson said, “I hope most of our people got away before she blew.”

“Yeah, sarge, I’ll bet one of our Wasps took out a reactor,” a trooper said.

“So that’s it? The AI took over the Illustrious and started firing on us? We can’t afford losses like that!” I shouted.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Benson said dryly.

“Coming up on Skydock,” the pilot said. We braced ourselves for deceleration as the Beetle flipped 180. For a second there I thought we were doing a combat dock—where the ship comes in hot, clamps on, and blows the hatch inward. But, we slowed hard at the last second and mated with the docking port.

Not ten seconds later, we were all in the main hall of the docking platform, including the pilot. Jones and I stayed out of the way at the rear to let the professionals do their work.

* * * *

Mikel leaped through the opening cut into the outer hull and fell twenty feet to the deck. He marveled at Solar ingenuity, developing artificial gravity already. His people had spent centuries in space before inventing the technology. They have so much potential! It grieved him that his people were now at war with them—
for their own good
.

Most of the ship was configured for transporting cargo. Mikel’s team passed through a large room containing the ship’s reactors which had
measurable
power output even with shielding in place.

“Reading considerable power output here,” one of the soldiers said.

“Affirmative,” Mikel said. “These Solars—
humans
—could not have built the ship. The construction is too precise for a biological. I’m reading tolerances beyond even what we can build and we’ve been at it far longer. This is the work of their construct.”

“The Erün’dem?” a soldier said.

“Yes, by the Avowed. I don’t recognize the honor. Do you?”

The soldier paused a moment, then said, “No, captain. Old habit, that’s all.”

“I am . . . glad. Now is not a good time for political or philosophical disagreements, either way.”

“Agreed!” he said.

“The design of this ship is markedly different from the smaller Solar ships-of-war. There is no central corridor. The central area of this ship is full of empty cargo space, by my scans,” Mikel said.

“Which way, then, captain?”

They had reached a junction in the passage.

“Left, toward the front of the ship. That will take us to the bridge and to the Solars. We will try to take them alive, if possible. Remember, friends, when I tell you, these are different from most other humans. Rational thinkers. We will try to reason with them.”

“As you say, captain.”

The two squads marched down the large corridor toward the front of the ship a mile and a half from their present position.

* * * *

Nekel awoke suddenly with a jolt as her shell reacted to her sudden consciousness. She pushed herself up to a sitting position on the floor, then crawled up into the pilot’s seat.

The ship jolted violently.

“What?” she said aloud. That was a real impact!

Nekel quickly surveyed the ship’s condition while shaking off the rest of the grogginess from the stun effect.

“Mikel, you should have trusted me!”

She channeled her anger and frustration into resolve. She got the ship under control again and brought the nose back around to face the battle. There, closing the gap, was one of the human cruisers, surrounded by a cloud of debris.

There had been two of them—now, only one!

The upgraded sensors on the Lit’l Liza beeped to get her attention. A capacitor build-up on the other ship. It was preparing to fire a weapon!

Nekel hit the throttle but the engines weren’t burning hot yet so there was a slow spool-up delay. She tapped the button again and again with apprehension.

Captain Long stared at the screen showing the familiar little cargo ship.

“That’s the little bastard that hit us at Luna!” the XO said excitedly.

“Charge the MCGL,” the captain ordered.

“Capacitor array already charged, sir!” the tactical officer said. From the corner of his mouth, exchanging a glance with another bridge officer, he nodded.

“Target that little bastard,” the XO ordered.

“Little bastard targeted!
Sir!
”

The captain didn’t take his eyes off the hostile ship.

“FIRE!”

The entire ship vibrated briefly. It was not an overly distracting vibration, but definitely noticeable. The tactical officer, wearing his headset, saw the invisible laser beam streak across the miles and strike the enemy ship.

“Direct hit, sir!”

Nekel winced when the high-powered laser struck the Lit’l Liza. By rights, the original version of the ship should be breaking apart right now. But, the upgrades had given her an edge. Instead of burning right through, the refractive armor plating dispersed most of the laser beam. Some did get through, but not enough to puncture the hull. Not
yet
. Another hit in the same spot probably would do it.

The engines finally kicked in and the Lit’l Liza began to move.

Nekel ran back to the cargo hold, tapped the control to shut the cargo bay doors and pressurize the compartment, then ran down the stairs.

Whew, one combat suit left!

She donned it quickly and then ran back to the bridge.

“Are you sure that was a direct hit, Williamson?” the XO said.

“Absolutely, sir! That ship has some kind of armor. The McGhoul didn’t penetrate it.”

“Holy shit!” Owen whispered from her engineering console.

“Stow it, Owen!” the XO said.

“Prepare another shot, Williamson,” the captain said.

“Aye, sir. McGhoul will be at full charge again in twelve seconds.”

As they watched, the Lit’l Liza began to make speed.

“Looks like she’s heading for Seerva’s ship,” the XO said.

“FIRE!”

The vibration and invisible beam again. This time, they visibly saw the enemy ship get jolted by the impact and begin to spin.

“Another direct hit, sir!”

Nekel braced herself. The impact was devastating. It knocked the ship off course and into a spin and she was thrown to the floor on her back. An alert sounded. Somewhere aft there was a hull breach. She got back into the pilot’s seat and paused for a moment to think. “Okay, I need to distract them long enough to get off the ship.”

Nekel stabilized the ship’s erratic rotation and brought up the armaments. Now she wished she had done a better job improving the ship’s weapons as well as the armor. There just hadn’t been enough time. She accessed the tactical system, which reported four missiles, and they were all still in the green.

She fired all four at once, then sprinted to the cargo hold, exited the ship through the personnel airlock and jetted away as fast as the suit could go.

“We have
incoming!
” Williamson shouted. “Four bogeys headed straight for us!”