Jack Forge, Lost Marine Boxed Set

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 1

1

Commander Gerat Bale gripped the arms of his command chair, barely holding himself in place as the frigate rocked under another salvo from the Mech attack ships. A shower of sparks from a ruptured transfer node rained down over the deck just in front of him.

“Deactivate that node,” Bale shouted as another energy pulse from the attack ships slammed into the upper hull. “Reroute all power to the upper laser assembly.”

The frigate rocked violently again as another blast slammed into the hull.

“Return fire, krav it!” Bale leaned forward in his chair and shouted the orders down to the only officer operating the command deck, running between consoles. “What are you waiting for?”

“Rerouting power, Commander.” Lieutenant Ellen Ripa gripped the console in front of her as the frigate lurched again. “Power transfer matrix fused.” She dashed to another console, staggering as the ship lurched another time. “The upper laser assembly is offline.” She slammed her hands down onto the console. “Port-side hail cannon down to ten percent load.”

Commander Bale climbed down from his command chair. He dashed to the navigation console, gripping the console as the frigate took another heavy blow. “Calculating a retreat heading. I’m getting us out of here.”

Chief Harry Stone staggered into the command deck, sweat and dirt on his hands and face.

“The primary drive injectors are failing,” Stone said.

“Drive injectors failing?” Ripa asked sarcastically. “The whole kravin’ boat is failing.”

“Focus on your job, Lieutenant,” Bale snapped. “We need to throw every last flicker of power into the drive systems and try to escape.” Bale steadied himself against the navigation console as another blast rocked the frigate, sparks scattering across the command deck all around him.

Stone picked his way across the deck and stood next to Bale, elbowing the commander aside. He accessed the thruster controls. “Activating thrusters. Bringing her about. Stand by hail cannon.”

“Cannon ready to fire, Chief,” Ripa said, her hands dancing over the controls. She loaded the last high-ex into the central cannon and kinetic hail to the forward and aft cannons.

“Did you hear what I said, Chief?” Bale shouted over the noise. “We can’t win. But we can run.”

“We’ve run before and they just keep finding us.” Stone pushed Bale away from the navigation console and back toward the command chair. “We need to destroy them. It’s our only hope. Get ready to open fire.”

The frigate lurched violently to starboard as another blast from the Mechs slammed into the hull. Another node ruptured and showered more sparks across the command deck.

Commander Bale crossed the deck back to his chair. He pulled himself up and activated the holostage on the chair armrest. The image of the attacking ships flickered on the small holostage. The lead ship twisted this way and that as the frigate opened fire. The high-ex rounds detonated and flung the Mech attack ship sideways, presenting the port side of the lead ship where the kinetic hail struck. The ship broke apart, spilling debris—fluids and gases—as it tumbled, creating a new, tiny, short-lived nebula.

“The lead Mech attack ship is destroyed. Maintain the fire.” Stone turned to Bale. “I need to get back to the drive room before the reactor drops offline. Keep firing, Commander. We won’t last much longer if we don’t destroy them all now. Are you listening to me, Bale?”

Bale glowered at Stone. A blast from the remaining attackers sent Stone staggering. He just barely kept his feet as he ran toward the command deck exit, out onto the main deck and back toward the drive room.

Bale climbed out of his seat and joined Ripa at the weapons console. Yellow and red system alert lights were lit up all across the console. The offensive capabilities of his boat were reduced to practically zero, but maybe the chief was right; the Mech attack ships kept on coming and maybe fighting them off was their only hope for survival.

“Rear hail cannon ammunition feed jammed, sir,” Ripa said, her voice quivering. “Hull stability field failing. Artificial gravity failing.”

“That’s it,” Bale said. “We’re getting out of here. Throw all power into the main drive.”

“If we accelerate with the artificial gravity failing, we’ll be thrown about like rats in a barrel.” Ripa grabbed hold of the console.

“Drive to full,” Bale shouted. “Brace. Brace.”

2

Jack Forge forced his aching muscles onward as he climbed the gentle slope. The gravity on the planet was only slightly stronger than the artificial gravity on board the corvette, but it was beginning to take its toll. The feeling of solid ground beneath his feet was strange, as was the vast open sky above him. Having spent weeks cramped inside his small corvette, the vast open space was both welcome and disconcerting.

The hill was covered in blue, wispy vegetation, very much like the short grasses of his old home. The blue had also been strange at first, but after only a few hours, it looked as natural as any other color.

Sam Torent dropped to the ground, his legs quivering from the slow march up the blue hills.

“Hold up, Jack,” Sam said, breathing heavily in the thin air. “Take a break.”

Jack dropped down next to Sam. He broke out a canteen of water and handed it over.

Sam took a deep drink. Jack could see the effort was becoming too much for his friend. The thin air and hunger conspired to turn what had first looked to be a gentle walk into an extreme and exhausting climb.

“How are you holding up?” Sam took another deep drink from the canteen, then put the cap back on. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his Fleet Marine jacket.

“I’ll live,” Jack replied.

Sam stood up. “Do you need to rest, or should we continue?”

Standing was difficult. Jack moved first to all fours and propped himself up on his hands and knees, preparing himself to rise and carry on with the walk. The blue grass beneath his hands felt like the softest fur. It was tempting to lie down and rest on the soft ground. But this was no pleasure trip. They were there out of necessity. He pushed himself off the ground and stood up.

Looking up the hill, Jack guessed there were still a few hundred meters to go to the target destination: a large pond on the top of the hill. In the valley below, Jack could see a herd of large tripedal creatures moving toward the corvette. They moved slowly with a strange hopping gait. The animals were huge and made the corvette look small as they moved around it. They showed no interest in the spacecraft, though. Their only concern was to graze the soft blue grass, eating as they continued their slow procession across the valley floor.

“Maybe we should have positioned the corvette over the pond,” Sam said through heaving breaths. “We could have scooped up a sample without all of this effort.”

Jack breathed heavily. “Aren’t you enjoying the view?” he asked with a smirk.

Sam turned and looked down at the corvette. “I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t so tired. I can’t believe how out of shape I am.”

Jack pressed on up the hill. “Not much further. Let’s keep going.”

The top of the hill flattened out into a wide circle, at the center of which was a pond of thick blue slime. Jack kneeled next to the pond and dropped in a small drone.

The drone analyzed the slime and confirmed what the remote scans had reported.

The pond was a nutrient-rich soup. It was raw, currently smelling rotten and looking deeply unpleasant, but after some processing, Jack knew it would yield a ration block equally as nutritious as the Marine ration blocks they had been eating for the last few weeks.

“Why don’t we just take one of those three-legged cow things and make some burgers?” Sam asked, looking down at the herd moving across the valley below. “That looks like a year’s worth of meals on just one of those things.”

“How much burger do you think we can carry?” Jack checked through the drone data again. “We know this goop has everything the body needs, and we can carry a lot of it. We don’t know if those things are even edible. Do you really want to kill one only to find out it tastes worse than this goop?”

Sam held his field scanner up and watched the herd. He spotted one creature at the back walking slowly, limping on its rear limb. The back end of the creature was lower to the ground than the others of the herd, and it was clearly struggling.

“What about that one?” Sam said. “It’s injured. I don’t know how life works on this planet, but if the normal rules apply, that one will be eaten by something sooner or later. Why don’t we put it out of its misery and try a steak?”

Jack shook his head. “No. We can’t store it, and I’m not killing that massive beast just so we can eat a tiny slice of it. We’ll stick to the plan. Pump up some of this goop and get on our way. This isn’t a hunting expedition, Sam, just a quick pitstop. We grab the goop and go. Agreed?”

Sam put his field scanner away. “Agreed,” Sam replied gloomily. “So let’s get that pumping gear up here and collect the goop. I can’t wait to see what processed blue slime tastes like.”

“Anything tastes better than hunger.” Jack lay on the ground, the soft blue grass again inviting him to sleep. He tapped his wrist-mounted control panel. A drone came out of the corvette in the valley below, trailing a fine, flexible tube. It flew up the hill quickly and brought the end of the tube to Jack.

The drone settled on the grass and fed the hose into the pond. Tapping away on his control panel, Jack activated the drone’s toxin filter. He calibrated the device to screen out the toxins that had been identified by the initial scan and then set the drone into action. The goop began to move down the tube to the storage tank on the corvette.

Sitting down and looking at the herd below, Sam began to grumble to himself.

“What?” Jack said, leaning back on the grass.

“I’d kill for a burger. Nothing but nutrient bars to eat. And now we’ve got alien goop nutrient bars to look forward to.”

The sounds of the herd drifted up the hill on the thin air. They made a low rumbling noise that was almost constant in pitch and volume. It was continuous and seemed to be made by every member of the herd.

A sudden change in the sound drew Jack’s attention. He picked up his field scanner and looked down at the herd. Their low rumbling call was now being made in short bursts, and the herd seemed to be moving faster. The one limping member of the herd was falling further behind while the rest moved off at a faster pace. It was still a lumbering, plodding motion, but there was urgency in their movement, and in their call.

“Looks like the corvette has them spooked,” Sam said. “Maybe the sound of the storage tank filling up with this blue goop surprised them.”

Scanning the valley, Jack wondered if maybe there was some other reason for the change in the herd’s behavior. Then, at the far end of valley, he saw dark shapes moving over the blue-covered valley floor.

He zoomed in on one of the dark shapes. It was about the size of a wolf, covered in short black and blue hair. It had a wide mouth set in a wide flat head and a single black eye that covered the top and the sides of the head. The creature leapt forward with a bounding motion similar to a running dog.

The front legs of the wolf were muscular like that of a massive ape with wide paws that were armed with one huge curved claw. It scuffed up the dirt as it bound toward the herd. The rear leg was short and powerful, and it launched the beast forward, covering several meters in a single bound, the large front legs taking the weight of the landing.

Jack set his field scanner to count the number of wolves in the pack.

“Let’s get ready to move.” Jack tucked away his field scanner and drew his pulse pistol. He checked the power and readied the weapon to fire. “Arm yourself, Sam.”

Sam pulled out his pulse pistol. He held it in his right armpit, under the short remains of his upper right arm, while he checked the weapon with his left hand.

Jack looked over to Sam, concerned about his friend.

“Do you need me to do that for you, Sam?”

Sam flipped the pulse pistol around in his one hand and set the weapon ready to fire before flipping it again and catching it by the handle. He took experimental aim and then looked to Jack.

“I’ve got it. I can still handle a pulse pistol, Jack.” Then Sam looked down the hill. “If those hounds attack us, are we allowed to kill them?”

Jack didn’t answer. He tapped the controls on his wrist. The drone pump had nearly filled the corvette’s storage tank. Deciding it was enough, Jack deactivated the pump operation and sent the drone back down the hill. The hose wound back into the corvette rapidly with the drone following high above the ground.

Sam stood up. “Ready?”

Jack remained seated on the soft blue grass and looked down into the valley. “Just wait. If that pack moves off, it’ll be easier for us. Let’s see what they do.”

The pack was focused on the herd and particularly the individual falling behind. The pack began to spread out in a wide arc. They moved fast and had already reached the corvette. They raced past it, disinterested in the boat parked in their blue valley. The pack closed in on the limping three-legged cow. The rest of the herd had moved off and were barely visible at the far end of the wide valley.

The pack of wolf-like creatures moved in, and the cow turned to face them. It dropped its head low to the ground, the wide, boney skull aimed forward in defense.

The first wolf to leap was knocked aside by a wide sweep of the cow’s head. The second was also sent flying, but the third latched on, its wide, tooth-filled mouth clamping down on the bony skull. Then another jumped and clamped on. Soon, six or more of the wolves were hanging onto the wide bony head of the enormous beast.

Then the attack came from the side as the rest of the pack rushed in. They leaped at the side of the cow, their hooked claws ripping into the cow’s flesh.

The kill was mercifully quick. The cow fell as its sides were slashed from top to bottom on both sides by a dozen leaping wolves. The innards of the beast spilled out to form a glistening slick on the soft blue grass.

Then the pack descended in a frenzy of slashing and biting. The biggest of the wolves moved in on the huge carcass while the smaller members of the pack fought over the spilled guts that glistened under the massive blue sun above.

“They get burger,” Sam said. He sat down heavily next to Jack. “And they’re blocking the way back to the corvette. We have to sit and watch them eat while we sit here hungry?” He checked his aim again, pointing his pulse pistol at the wolves.

“I think we had better stay still and be quiet, Sam,” Jack said. “I hope those wolves move off after they’ve eaten. Shouldn’t be too long at the rate they are tearing into that cow.”

The arrival of a few spiraling shapes in the sky caught Jack’s attention. The hovering shapes of flying creatures with the same tripedal form appeared in the sky. The vulture-like creatures were being attracted by the kill. The wings were huge and swept back like a reverse delta wing, wide at the front and tapering to the single rear limb. Jack looked up with his field scanner. The bird’s head was squat but streamlined to a sharp point. A single dark eye wrapped over the head. The tips of the wings were armed with a small claw, a vestige of what might have once been a huge and dangerous weapon. The rear of the wing was tipped with a larger single claw.

The first of the vultures began to land on the upper hull of the corvette, one perching on the laser emitter. They all looked down at the feeding frenzy below. Others landed on the valley floor, out of reach of the feasting wolves.

The drone was returning to the corvette’s topside as the last of the hose was drawn inside. As the hatch opened for the drone to enter, the vultures leaped away in surprise. The wolves on the ground looked away from their meal momentarily, then returned to the carcass.

On the fringes of the kill, the smaller wolves were trying to muscle in but were being bullied off by the larger wolves that were in some cases more than twice as large. The larger wolves’ heads were soaked in the glistening fluids oozing from the dead cow. They kicked back with their rear limb and held back the push from the more numerous, smaller members of the pack.

Jack watched the scene below. Although the creatures were strange, the behavior was all too familiar. He began to wonder if the wolves would set up camp at the kill for as long as it took them to strip every last morsel of edible flesh from the massive creature. He began to realize the wolves could be resting underneath the corvette for hours, maybe even days. And in that time, there was always the danger that he and Sam would be discovered.

Looking through his field scanner again, he realized that that time had already come. A smaller wolf, about the size of a large dog, was walking up the hill. It moved slowly, its head low to the ground. Jack had the clear impression that the single dark eye that covered the top of the wolf’s head was pointing at him and Sam. However the wolf saw the world, Jack was sure it was registering them as a potential meal. It came on, leaping forward with a slow and lazy gait.

The wolf had taken no more than a few steps when it let out a shrill bark. The larger wolves at the kill turned and looked but returned to their feeding frenzy. The many smaller wolves, however, did not, and they turned and slowly hopped forward to come alongside the first wolf and spread out in a wide arc.

The line of wolves at the base of the hill was now a dozen wolves long. They all had their heads close to the ground. They chirped their sharp bark and moved slowly as one, hopping forward a short distance every second or two.

“We need to get out of here,” Jack said. He tapped the face of his wrist-mounted control panel and fired up the corvette’s drive.

The sudden noise and vibration of the corvette caused the vultures to leap into the air. The wolves at the feast were undisturbed and continued to feed, but the line of smaller wolves continued forward in their strange, coordinated hopping.

Then as the corvette lifted off, the entire line of wolves began to move more rapidly. They gained speed with each hopping leap, always maintaining the line of the arc as they advanced.

“I think you’re right,” Sam said, “as usual.” He stood and aimed down the hill with his pistol. “I wish I had my rifle. I could take them all out from here.”

Jack stood, his pistol held loosely at his side. “Let’s not kill any unless we have to, Sam.”

As Jack and Sam watched the corvette turn in the air and begin to head toward them, Jack realized the wolves would be on top of them before the corvette arrived.

3

“Fall back, Sam,” Jack said. He began to move around the side of the hilltop slime pond. He started to jog, and once Sam was running, Jack moved to a fast run.

The top of the hill wasn’t much wider than the blue pond. Jack and Sam cleared it in a few moments. It was a short run, but the thin air and the slightly heavier gravity made it a struggle. Jack’s chest felt like it was filled with fire, his bones caked in lead.

The far side of the hill sloped down at the same gentle angle as the side they had just climbed. As Sam began to run down the hill, Jack turned. The pack of wolf-like creatures was leaping up over the top of the hill and around the pond. The corvette was in the sky just behind. The ship would easily beat the wolves over distance, but the wolves were quicker off the mark, and they had a head start. Jack turned and ran down the hill after Sam. He shouted instructions to the corvette into his wrist-mounted control panel.

“Open the boarding ramp and position it in front of Sam Torent.”

The beep on the panel confirmed that the ship had received and was acting on the order. The corvette moved over Jack’s head. The boarding ramp on the underside dropped down. The corvette positioned itself in front of Sam, who jumped onto the boarding ramp and collapsed to the deck.

The snarling of the pack behind him told Jack that the wolves were almost on top of him. He looked to the corvette only a few meters away. Sam was sitting on the boarding ramp. He was holding a pulse rifle in his one hand and balancing the muzzle on his knee.

The flash startled Jack as Sam fired. The round fizzed through the air next to Jack’s ear. He ran toward the boarding ramp and heard the pulse round slam into a target just behind his right shoulder. Then Sam fired again. Every shot worryingly close, every shot connecting with a target just behind Jack.

“Hurry!” Sam called and fired again.

Jack could hear the footfalls of the wolves behind him. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and he could almost feel the warm breath of the creatures behind him.

With only a few more strides to the ramp, Jack spoke an order into his control panel.

“Lift off on my mark,” Jack said. He reached the ramp and jumped up onto it, his legs hanging off the edge. Grabbing for any handhold, he shouted at his wrist. “Mark!”

Sam let loose with a burst of automatic fire. He moved the pulse rifle with calm ease, unleashing a stream of deadly pulse fire.

Grabbing hold of Sam’s left ankle, he pulled himself further up the ramp. Then, Jack turned to see the wolves leaping forward. The corvette climbed up from the ground, but still the wolves leapt, narrowly missing their target and falling back to the blue grass slopes.

Jack stood on wobbly legs and hit the panel on the bulkhead that closed the boarding ramp. It closed with a thump as Jack staggered toward the flight deck.

“Thank you,” he called back to Sam, who was still sitting on the boarding ramp, pulse rifle in his lap.

“Sure,” Sam replied, breathing heavily and setting the rifle to safe mode. “But next time, let’s just try the burger, yeah?”

Jack staggered to the flight deck and sent the corvette hurtling into orbit.

“As soon as we catch up with the fleet, you can eat whatever you like. For now, let’s start processing that nutrient fluid,” Jack said. “I’m half-starved.”

Jack looked at the scene below on the flight deck holostage. The wide blue valley fell away. The wolves feasting on the dead cow were shrinking then vanishing in the blue. Away in the distance, the herd of massive cows was heading out of the valley onto a wide plain. And on the horizon, Jack spotted a circle of low structures made from the same blue grass that covered the valley and the plains. Wisps of smoke rising from the center of the collection of structures showed a large central firepit. He zoomed in the active scanner. The round structures were also surrounded by a defensive ditch. A village. He wondered what it would be like to meet these people of the blue grass plains, an intelligent yet primitive people, but it was his own people that he really wanted to meet. And they were still far away, somewhere in the depths of space.

There was a lot of space to cover before Jack would be back with his own people.

“Only a pitstop,” Jack repeated as the wide plains fell away, revealing the curve of the planet and the black of space. He set the corvette on a heading away from the planet and activated the interstellar drive systems. He accessed the status of the nutrient-processing apparatus. The sooner the blue goop was processed, the sooner he and Sam could eat.

The flight deck of the corvette had become home for Jack. The craft was small enough for them to operate without a full crew, but not so small that they couldn’t find personal space and save themselves from becoming too annoyed with each other. Even though they had been friends for a long time, had lived and fought next to each other for more time than either of them cared to remember, they had never before been trapped together inside a single small boat for weeks on end.

It was necessary for Jack to spend long periods at the flight controls, but he chose to spend even longer there than necessary. The pilot’s chair was comfortable, and it was a place away from Sam.

Sam had set up a small camp at the rear of the corvette, near the drive room access. It was only a few meters away from the flight deck but removed enough to create personal space. A number of emergency blankets hung from the corvette’s upper hull that reached down to the deck. Jack disliked the untidy appearance of the hanging blankets, but this corvette was not equipped with private bunks and it was Sam’s only private space. Jack tolerated it. He had not commented on it, although he was sure Sam knew him well enough to know it irritated him.

Jack had not once in the last few weeks looked behind the curtain. Sam was a hero of the Fleet Marine Service, he had fought bravely in the Chitin War and had saved countless lives, putting himself in danger on an almost daily basis. He had given his commitment, his energy, and even his right arm to the service. Jack could let Sam have his curtain of privacy. He had earned at least that much.

And so the pair raced across the vast emptiness of space in pursuit of the fleet.

Jack checked the status of the drone net. The dozen drones were positioned around the corvette at a distance of ten thousand kilometers. The network created a detector that was practically planet-sized. Although it could not detect any significant detail, it could detect large bodies at several lightyears’ distance. The active drives of all the ships of the fleet would show up as a single fuzzy blip on the active scanner when they were close enough.

And speed was the key. Jack had chased after the fleet and had initially only been a day or two behind. But events had conspired against him, and he had dropped off the pace. The fleet was now far out of sensor range. They followed using any hint of a signal, or any sign along the way: a distortion in spacetime left by an adjustment in a drive reactor, either a massive acceleration or deceleration, a drive assembly reset or an energy weapon discharge. Bread crumbs dropped in the black of space.

It had not helped matters that Jack had stopped the corvette to perform an emergency repair on the life support system. There was little point in the corvette catching up with the fleet only to present the desiccated corpses of two Fleet Marine officers.

And then there had been the diversion to the blue star system. With supplies running low, it had been a necessary diversion, and a terrible gamble. The bioscans had shown high levels of life on the planet, but that did not mean there would be food there. The nutrient ponds had been a lucky find. A quick pitstop, and now they were back on the trail of the fleet.

“Hey, Jack,” Sam called up to the flight deck. “It looks as if the processor has finished its operation. Do you want to try this?”

From the tone of Sam’s voice, Jack guessed it was not the most appealing-looking meal, but he had been waiting anxiously for this. The nutrient soup from the blue grass planet would be their main source of food for the foreseeable future. It passed all the requirements for the processor to create replacement nutrient bars. Now it was time to see if they were palatable. Jack stood up out of his chair.

“Coming down,” Jack said. He slid down the handrails of the short set of steps to the gun deck that ran the length of the ship. Sam was sitting at the table, an upturned equipment locker in the middle of the gun deck that served as their mess hall, their meeting room, and their social area.

Sam dropped two of the blue nutrient bars on the table. They were the same shape and size as the familiar Marine ration blocks. Jack looked at the bar. It seemed to shimmer with an oily sheen under the dim lights of the gun deck. How Jack wished he could have one of those old, dark, sticky ration blocks now.

The supply of ration blocks was dangerously low. They had only a few days’ supply left. The discovery of the blue star system and the nutrient pond was literally a lifesaver. And now here they were, looking at the slimy blue block that would keep them alive.

Sam looked at Jack. His nose wrinkled in displeasure.

“Do you want me to try first?” Jack asked.

Sam shrugged, his face distorted with apprehension of the nasty taste to come.

Jack scooped up the bar and took a bite. There was no alternative and the blue nutrient blocks would have to be eaten, whether they were enjoyable or not.

The first sensation Jack felt was the bar’s texture. It was similar to thick gelatin but was slippery as if it had a covering of mineral oil. It tasted bland at first and then a strong aftertaste of chemicals suddenly burned Jack’s mouth.

Sam looked at Jack with horror and pity as Jack distorted his face as he chewed. He forced the bite of blue down.

“Not bad,” he said unconvincingly.

Sam picked up his block of blue and nibbled. He shrugged and chewed and took another bite.

Jack took another bite. He chewed once or twice and then swallowed the lifesaving nutrients in a single slippery mass.

“What do you think?” Jack asked.

“Not bad at all.” Sam held the block of blue at arm’s length and moved it under the lights. The oily slick shimmered. “Tastes like apples.”

“Apples?” Jack said with incredulity. “What kind of apples have you been eating?”

Sam laughed. “Don’t you like it?”

Taking another bite and forcing down the foul mess, Jack shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess.” Jack knew Sam could see right through the lie.

“I’ve tasted worse,” Sam said happily.

“Where?” Jack asked in disbelief. He dropped the bar onto the makeshift table. It landed with a wet slap.

“Prison,” Sam said, then took a big bite of the blue and chewed it up gleefully.

Jack looked at him, his mouth open in surprise. He knew a lot about his friend’s nefarious past before the two had met at Marine training, but he hadn’t realized his most trusted friend in the entire Fleet Marie Service had actually served time.

Sam looked at Jack and his surprised expression. He spoke with a mouthful of chewed-up slimy blue.

“What?”

Jack picked up the blue bar and took another bite. “Prison?” he asked. “I thought you joined up to avoid a cell.”

Sam shifted in his seat and leaned toward Jack.

“I had a short detention for fight. I punched a cop,” Sam replied quietly. “I’d been out for a few weeks. I was trying to get away from some old friends, make a new start, and I got caught dodging payment on a cross-continent transport loop. Only a misdemeanor. But, with violence against police on my record, I was in deep. And the war was getting bad by then. My lawyer, some crusty old scroat, told me to expect heavy time. The judge said I could choose to take a tour in the service instead. They were desperate to push kids like me into the front line of that war. I chose the Marines instead of more time in prison. It seemed like a good deal, really. I didn’t know what war was like back then. If I’d known, maybe I’d have taken a cell.”

Sometimes, Jack could remember nothing of the hardship and brutality of that long and bitter war. Sometimes, he could remember every horrible detail, recall every round of pulse rifle he had ever fired. Every enemy he had ever killed. Every moment of close combat with the fizzing electron bayonet burning on the end of his pulse rifle. And, worst of all, he could remember the faces of every Marine who had died under his command.

Jack took a big bite of the slimy blue bar. The chemical tang was bearable and less overpowering now after a few bites. He swallowed the bite and dropped the bar back on the table.

“One thing you can say for the new rations,” Jack said. “It should last a while, because I don’t think we are going to rush to eat it all.”

A beep from the flight deck was a welcome distraction.

“Drone network has detected something,” Jack said.

“You need me?” Sam asked.

Jack nodded. “Sure, I could use a hand.”

Jack looked at the endcap over Sam’s right arm stump with the black composite tendrils dangling.

Sam stood up, seemingly not noticing Jack’s poor choice of words. He licked the blue slime off his fingers and walked toward the flight deck.

Jack followed Sam up the short stairway to the flight deck. He hoped the drones had good news.

4

On the flight deck, the aftertaste of the blue bars in their mouths, Jack and Sam searched for the source of the signal that had interrupted their meal.

Jack routed the signal through the processor. There was a small reflector at around fifteen billion kilometers away off to the corvette’s port side.

“The fleet?” Sam asked hopefully.

“No. A single ship. It’s small,” Jack said. “But it created a big energy spike, big enough for the drone net to detect it.”

“It’s really far off, Jack.” Sam looked out of the small forward view screen at the deep black. Somewhere in front of them was the fleet. “We will fall even further behind the fleet if we go scooting off to investigate every little blip and energy spike.”

“It might be nothing,” Jack said. “I won’t change course just out of curiosity. Focus the drone net on that signal. Direct active scanners to narrow field. Let’s see if we can’t get a bit of an image.”

Jack worked the controls and sent the drone network racing off. He brought them closer together—the detection field would be much smaller, but the resolution would be increased dramatically. The arrangement was of no use in trying to locate the distant fleet, but it would allow Jack to look at a small area.

With the drones redeployed, Jack focused the active scan at the center point of the drone network. He took a snapshot of the point. A dim, fuzzy image appeared on the holostage. A long bright reflector in the black of space set to one side of the holostage.

“A rogue asteroid?” Sam asked as he leaned closer to the image.

Jack set the image capture to place the object at the center. He narrowed the drone network and activated the scan again.

The reflector appeared again, fuzzy and faint. This time, it was on the other side of the holostage.

“Boy, it must be traveling pretty fast to move across the image like that,” Sam said.

“Correcting for speed,” Jack said. His hands danced over the controls. “Tightening up the drone network. Focusing active scanner. Capturing image now.”

The image that appeared was still faint and fuzzy, but even at the limit of the equipment’s capabilities, the image was clear enough for Jack and Sam to identify it with near certainty.

“A frigate,” Jack said. “A Fleet frigate.” Jack jumped up and punched the air above his head. “Yes, another boat. And they must be powered, or they would never be traveling at that rate.”

Then the detector chirped again as another signal was detected.

“It’s that energy spike again,” Jack said. He had set the detector system at its finest, most detailed resolution. There was only one way to get a better look.

“I’m going to move us in for a closer look,” Jack said. “Adjusting heading. Setting intercept course.”

Sam stood up in frustration. “They are probably on the trail of the fleet too. Let’s just hold our heading, Jack. We can meet up with them when we all catch up with the fleet.”

“We have been out here alone for so long, Sam. It would be good to team up with another crew. And we could share out some of the sticky blue. Less for us to eat.”

Sam nodded glumly and leaned heavily on the back of the copilot chair.

Jack adjusted the ship’s heading and set the drive to accelerate toward the frigate.

Sam focused the active scanners as they approached. Every second brought them closer and made the resolutions clearer and sharper.

The scanners detected another energy spike from the frigate.

“Again?” Jack said. “Maybe they have an issue with their drive system? Set the scanner to capture an image if they show another energy spike.”

Sam set the scanners and sat back. Jack had a feeling he wouldn’t have to wait long for the image to come back. He also got the odd impression that he knew what he was heading into.

The scanners beeped and reported the spike. The image appeared on the holostage and showed a large, bright flash off the frigate’s upper hull.

With a simple look, Jack and Sam told each other that they both suspected the cause of the flash. A sudden seriousness settled on the flight deck.

“We should be close enough to get a live feed from the frigate location,” Jack said. “Put it up on the holostage, Sam.”

Sam transferred the active scanner data to the holostage. Although the image was fuzzy, it was a live image from the frigate’s location. The boat was traveling at speed. Then another bright flash appeared over the frigate’s upper hull. And then another.

“Weapons fire,” Jack said. He pushed the corvette to its limits.

“They’re not returning fire,” Sam said. “Recommend we set condition one, Jack. Battle stations. Copy?”

Jack brought the corvette’s laser assembly online and spun up the generator.

“Copy that, Sam. Ready the hail cannon.”

“Hail cannon active. Cannon number three is not responding to targeting commands. I can service it manually,” Sam said.

“I thought I’d fixed that tracking sensor,” Jack said as his hands moved across the control panel, bringing the corvette to battle readiness. He could see the rear starboard cannon showing a fault in the targeting systems. “Forget it. Deactivate cannon three and route power to the laser assembly.” Jack watched the distance finder count down as they moved closer to the frigate.

“We will be in communications range in a moment,” Jack said. “Stand by to open a channel.”

Jack focused the drone network on the origin of the previous energy discharge. Adjusting for speed, he focused on the spot where the weapons fire was coming from. And the moment the scanner was on target, Jack took an image and put it on the holostage.

A number of small craft were in pursuit. They were dark craft, the shape of a flattened sphere and seemingly elongated to the rear. Weapons fire reflected off their rounded edges. One craft was in the process of firing its forward energy weapon, the front of the craft glowing as a bolt of energy was launched at its target.

“What are they?” Sam said. “They’re definitely not Fleet ships.”

“No, they are not,” Jack said. “Moving into combat range. Retrieve the drones, Sam.”

Jack switched to close-range active scans and brought the frigate up on the holostage. Another bolt of white energy exploded over the upper hull. The flight deck reported that the corvette was approaching attack position.

“All drones recovered,” Sam said. He looked at the image of the frigate under fire from the unknown attackers.

“We’re moving into position,” Jack said. “Stand by combat stations, Sam. Get ready for action.”

5

The explosion that ripped through the command deck of the frigate threw Commander Bale into Lieutenant Ripa, and the pair slammed into the console behind them. Bale clambered to his hands and knees and crawled to his chair. If his boat was going down, he would go down in his command chair.

He had only been in command of Frigate M-9 for a few months and had somehow managed to stay out of combat during the final weeks of the Chitin War. Ironic, he thought, that after a successful evacuation, he should come under attack in deep space.

“Hail cannons all operational,” Stone’s voice came over Bale’s communicator. “But the drive is taking all the power. There’s not enough power to deliver volley fire. I’ve set the cannons to independent fire controls. They’ll fire on any Mech ship that comes in its targeting range.”

Bale leaned back in his chair. He looked down at Ellen Ripa lying face-down on the deck. The trickle of blood running down the side of her head had formed a small glistening pool beneath her. He noticed a drop rise from the pool and drift upward, a small stream of blood drifting across the command deck to a point on the upper panels. Bale watched as the blood was sucked between two panels, telling him that somewhere behind the paneling was a hull breach.

“Transfer any available power to the—” Bale began before another blast from the Mechs slammed into the damaged frigate. A blast from a console sent a piece of debris flying. It struck Bale a glancing blow on the head. A wave of nausea hit before darkness finally came.

“Come in, Frigate M-9,” Jack tried to contact the command deck again. “No response, Sam. Their drive system is erratic. No activity on their laser assembly. Detecting intermittent hail cannon fire. And they are still taking a pounding.”

“Our hail cannon are loaded, charged and ready to fire. Waiting for your order, Jack.” Sam stood in the center of the gun deck, within reaching distance of all the corvette’s guns.

Jack turned and looked down at Sam. The weapons crew for a corvette was supposed to be five strong—one for each hail cannon and one for the laser. A flight crew of two and a chief of the boat completed the standard crew complement. Jack’s little corvette had a flight crew of one and a gun crew of a one. Neither were Fleet personnel. They were both Fleet Marines simply doing the best they could.

Sam stood ready, the short tendrils of composite hanging from the cap over the remains of his right arm seeming to move like fat black tentacles. Those composite threads were once his connection to his hated cybernetic prosthetic. Sam had given enough. Jack had given enough. But now the pair were about to go into someone else’s fight, a fight that appeared already lost. A fight they didn’t need to enter.

“Coming into weapons’ range,” Sam said.

Jack looked at the attackers, the four remaining flattened spheres, their forward energy weapons firing in synchronized bursts. They moved in closer to the stricken frigate, each firing a blast of seething white energy. The blasts came in regular beats, every one slamming into the upper hull of Frigate M-9.

The corvette’s communicator burst into life.

“Attention incoming corvette. This is the chief of Frigate M-9. The Mechs are weakest at the focus of their main weapon. Hit them there if you can. I am losing atmosphere. Life support failing. Hull stability field, gone. Power will be offline in moments. I’ll keep firing until then. Chief Stone out.”

Jack looked back at Sam, who was waiting casually in the middle of the gun deck.

“Did you hear that?” Jack said.

Sam nodded nonchalantly.

Jack admired Sam’s calmness under pressure as he turned back to the flight console.

“Set cannon to fire on the enemy,” Jack said. He called up a holoimage of the Mech attack ships and highlighted the point at the front of the craft where the energy pulse originated. “Target this area.” Jack sent the holoimage to the targeting systems and distributed it to the hail cannon.

Sam moved along the gun deck. “Targeting coordinates received,” he called out.

“Hold on to something, Sam,” Jack said. “Combat speed. Full power to the maneuvering thrusters. All secondary systems to minimal power. This is going to get rough, old friend.”

Grabbing hold of a handrail with his single hand, Sam steadied himself as best he could. “We only know it rough, Jack. Ready when you are.”

“Entering weapons range. Let’s try and draw some of the attackers’ fire before they destroy that frigate. Weapons ready. Engaging the enemy now.”

The corvette swooped in from above on the frigate’s starboard side. The port-side battery fired a salvo of kinetic hail. The attacking craft on the starboard side of their formation exploded instantly. Jack hit the retro thrusters and flipped the corvette over on its nose. The port battery fired again and scored another direct hit on the central attack ship.

The port-side battery went into recovery mode, cooling and recalibrating for the next shot. The process would take several crucial seconds. To maintain the attack intensity, Jack would have to fire the starboard cannon.

With the corvette in reverse orientation, Jack hit the main drive and halted the ship, its nose only meters from the frigate’s port side. He fired the thrusters to rotate the corvette about the long axis, flipping the boat in an instant and presenting the starboard side to the remaining two Mechs.

“Number one cannon firing now,” Sam said as the single functional starboard cannon fired.

Jack watched as another Mech attack ship was destroyed.

Then the return fire hit.

Energy blasts from the remaining Mech slammed into the corvette. Jack saw the flash of an explosion from the gun deck light up the flight deck.

“Sam!” Jack called out.

“I’m okay. We just lost the number one cannon coolant pump. It’s firing again.”

Jack saw the red emergency light appear on the flight console as the starboard cannon fired and instantly overheated.

“Shutting down starboard battery,” Jack said. He rolled the corvette again and brought the port-side battery back into action. The drive systems pushed the ship forward, flying across the axis of the frigate. Jack could see gases pouring out of a gash on the upper hull.

“Port side firing,” Sam called up.

Jack saw the final Mech take a hit. The targeting system was off by a fraction and the Mech was struck to the side of the main weapon. The craft tumbled and then turned on the spot before racing away, leaping instantly to high speed and disappearing in a flash. Jack watched the disappearing ship on his holostage. He looked at the data readings pour in, every recordable piece of information about the craft streaming into the data core. And after only a few seconds, it was out of sensor range.

Maneuvering the corvette over the upper hull of the frigate, Jack opened a channel to the command deck. “Attention, Frigate M-9. This is Major Jack Forge, Fleet Marines. Please respond.”

Jack waited only a few seconds before taking control. The crew aboard the frigate was unresponsive and the boat was unpowered.

“I’m extending our hull stability field around the frigate. Should stop it from disintegrating when the docking clamps latch on. Initiating soft dock,” Jack called out as he worked. “Interfacing with frigate’s computer now. Sam, can you get in that tactical suit and go and check their hull? Activate a couple of drones to help you. See if you can’t patch that breach before they lose all their air. I’ll board the frigate and secure all systems.”

Jack extended the corvette’s soft dock tunnel toward the frigate’s docking hatch. The frigate’s computer gave the corvette full access, and Jack established the dock. He jumped out of his chair and slid down the handrails to the gun deck. Sam was dragging the tactical suit out of its closet. He tossed a med-kit to Jack as he approached.

“There’s likely injuries over there,” Sam said and slipped his leg into the suit.

“You need help putting that on?” Jack asked, watching Sam struggling with the familiar old Marine tactical suit.

Sam glowered at Jack. “I’ve only lost one of my arms, Jack. I can put this thing on in my sleep.”

Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “Get that breach patched. I’m boarding the frigate now.”

Jack walked to the docking hatch access ladder halfway along the gun deck. He climbed down toward the hatch not knowing what to expect, but that was nothing new. He had become accustomed to being on the back foot.

He pulled open the hatch and dropped through the tunnel to the upper hull of the corvette. He tapped his wrist-mounted control panel and sent the access codes to the frigate’s hatch control. It popped open. Jack pulled it, the low pressure inside making the hatch difficult to open. It finally came away with a hissing rush of air.

Jack climbed down into darkness.

6

The upper deck of the frigate was easily the size of the gun deck on the corvette. It was dark, empty, and quiet. Jack switched on the flashlight panel on the front of his jacket, which gave him enough light to see the stairway to the frigate’s main deck below.

The only sound anywhere aboard the frigate was coming from the command deck situated at the forward section of the main deck. The beeps of the consoles reported failed systems throughout the craft. The flickering of warning lights drew Jack along through the dark.

The command deck was scattered with debris from smashed consoles and ruptured power nodes. Jack saw the silhouette of a figure slumped in the command chair and rushed over. He saw the insignia of a Fleet commander on the lapel, the name ‘Bale’ on the jacket.

Jack attached a med-pack to the commander’s neck. The data readouts showed the commander was unconscious, injured but stable. Jack set the med-pack to administer emergency first aid.

“Let’s find a stretcher and get you to your med-bay, Commander,” Jack said quietly.

Bale opened his eyes suddenly and grabbed Jack by the arm. The injured man had a powerful grip. Jack stepped back, startled by the commander’s sudden recovery.

“Commander Bale?” Jack asked.

Bale closed his eyes and nodded.

“I’m Jack Forge. Where is your crew, Commander?”

“Only three of us.” Bale spoke slowly and with difficulty. “We’ve been under attack for days. Help me up, Major. I need to check my boat.”

Jack helped Bale to his feet. They moved to the operations console in front of the central holostage. Jack wiped a scatter of debris off the console and powered it up.

“Main power has failed. We are dead in the void.” Bale’s legs crumpled under him and he held himself up against the console.

“It’s okay, Commander,” Jack said, steadying Bale. “We’ve docked. We are patching a breach on the upper hull. We will begin power transfer as soon as possible. But first, I need to check on the rest of your crew.”

Bale grabbed Jack by the collar. “Take me to the med-bay now,” he hissed in Jack’s ear.

Jack nodded uncertainly. “Okay, Commander,” he said, then helped Commander Bale off the command deck.

Walking along the main deck to the stairway down, Jack could see that the frigate was in a terrible condition. The boat was much larger than Jack’s corvette, was much better equipped, and better armed. But if, as the commander said, there was only a crew of three, it would be impossible to fully man every system.

The med-bay was powered with its own power supply, and the light that spilled out from it was welcome. The air inside was stale and cold. Jack laid Bale on one of the bunks at the side of the bay.

“Hold on here, Commander,” Jack said. “I’ll be back soon.”

Bale gripped Jack’s sleeve. “Med-pack. Administer a med-pack, now.”

“I already have,” Jack said. He was beginning to become concerned that the commander had little to no thought or concern for his crew.

“Another,” Bale said. He pointed to a cabinet at the side of the med-bay. His head fell back onto the thinly-padded bunk. The med-pack still functioning on his neck read that Bale was unconscious again.

“Not now, Commander,” Jack said gently. He removed the commander’s hand from his sleeve and laid it on the bunk. A system console at the side of the med-bay was active. Jack stepped over and accessed the frigate’s main computer.

“Locate crew,” Jack said.

The interface showed the locations of two persons. There was one still on the command deck and another at the rear of the main deck just outside the drive room. The closest was the person on the command deck. Jack grabbed a med-pack from the cabinet Bale had indicated and rushed off into the dark.

While the frigate was much larger than the corvette, it was still a relatively small craft. Even in the dark, Jack quickly found his way back to the command deck. He had spent plenty of time aboard destroyer-class vessels. Those were huge. The frigate-class vessel was only three decks. It was heavily armed for a small craft and was designed to serve as a support vessel and gun platform. The frigates were built to be tough enough to accompany destroyers into battle. They needed to be powerful boats.

The corvette on the other hand, although not very much smaller than the frigate, was designed for armed reconnaissance. The corvette was built for speed and maneuverability, where the frigate was built to crash into a fight alongside its bigger destroyer-class brother and deliver additional, powerful assault capabilities.

The frigate ably augmented the huge firepower of the destroyers, but it was designed to do that with a crew of twelve. An officer with a rank of commander led the crew and operated together with a two-person flight crew. An eight-person gun crew made up the bulk and manned the two laser turrets and the two banks of three hail cannons. A chief of the boat managed systems and drive capabilities and completed the crew.

Jack realized how difficult it must have been for a crew of three to manage the frigate while under attack. It was a miracle that they had survived the assault at all.

Jack searched the command deck and found a body, face-down on the deck in front of a side console. He turned the body and was looking into the dirty face of a young woman. Blood soaked her hair and had dried on her face. Jack attached the med-pack to her neck, and the readings came back as critical. He set the package to administer what aid it could. The package told Jack that the patient needed immediate transfer to a Fleet medical facility.

That meant a medical suite on a destroyer or a carrier. The frigate med-bay and automated med-packs were the best Jack could provide for the fallen officer. The insignia and nametag told Jack this was Lieutenant Ripa.

Jack’s communicator alerted him to an incoming message from Sam as he tried to lift the lieutenant.

“Jack. Hull breach repaired. It’s fine work, even though I did it singlehandedly. It would be good if we had a chief who could check my work.”

“Singlehandedly?” Jack replied with a smile as he picked up the lieutenant and wrapped an arm around her waist.

“You know what I mean,” Sam replied. “Heading back inside now.”

Jack took the weight of Lieutenant Ripa. Her head drooped forward. As he moved her toward the command deck exit, he noticed a silhouette filling the dark doorway.

7

“I’m Chief Stone,” the silhouette challenged. “This is my boat. Who are you?”

Jack looked at the man in the doorway. His uniform was in tatters and he was bleeding from a wound on his chest. The blood soaked through his dirty shirt.

“I’m Jack Forge,” Jack said. “Fleet Marines. You’re injured, Chief. You need to sit down.” He carried Ripa, her body limp.

Stone slumped against the edge of the command deck entrance. He held his arm uncomfortably. Jack saw the line of his arm through the shirt. It was clearly broken.

Jack activated his communicator. “Sam, I need you over here as soon as possible.”

“On my way, Jack,” Sam replied.

“This is my boat,” Stone repeated as he slid down the door frame.

“Just sit tight, Chief,” Jack said. “I’ll be back for you in a moment.”

The dark corridor felt longer now that Jack was carrying the limp body of Lieutenant Ripa. He could feel her heart beating against him, but it seemed erratic and weak. Jack moved as quickly and carefully as possible, taking Ripa to the med-bay.

“I’m crossing over to the frigate now.” Sam’s voice over the communicator gave Jack a burst of energy and he carried Ripa down the last few steps to the lower deck. The med-bay was now only a few steps away.

“Get to the command deck, Sam,” Jack said over his communicator. “The chief of this boat collapsed in the doorway. Bring him down to the med-bay on the lower deck.”

“I am with him now,” Sam replied a moment later.

Jack heard the sudden yell of pain echo through the corridors followed by some incoherent cursing. Jack realized Sam was hauling the chief to his feet.

“Careful with him, Sam” Jack said.

“I think he’s got a broken arm,” Sam replied. “I tried to grab him by it. He’s out cold now.”

“Bring him down here. Let’s get him hooked up to a med-pack and then we can take a look at this ship.”

Jack laid Ripa down on one of the medical bunks. He pulled out a fresh med-pack from the cabinet and activated it. He pressed it to Ripa’s neck and then waited a few anxious moments for the diagnosis. The diagnosis flashed on the package’s display and showed that Lieutenant Ripa was concussed. The package administered a series of meds and then advised another package be applied to her lower left ribcage.

Tearing away Ripa’s shirt, Jack saw the large red and blue bruise on her lower left side. He held the med-pack over the site and watched the fine threads reaching out from the pack to the bruised skin. The threads took hold and the med-pack pulled itself into position.

Jack stepped back. There was little more he could do. If the med-packs couldn’t save this crew, then there was no hope for them. The nearest fully-equipped medical facility with medical drones was with the fleet. He was working hard to identify the fleet’s location and to catch up, but he was sure he was several days behind them, at best. That distance was only increasing the longer he stayed here, adrift in deep space. This crew needed a lot of luck if they were going to recover from their beating.

Sam appeared at the door. He was holding up Chief Stone, who had apparently regained consciousness. Neither looked satisfied with the situation.

“Put me down, carefully,” Stone said tersely.

Sam walked over to one of the remaining medical bunks and let Stone climb onto it himself. “You’re welcome,” Sam said. He turned to Jack. “Anyone else you want me to drag in here?”

Jack shook his head. He carried a med-pack over to Stone and held it to the broken arm. The package positioned itself around the broken bone and tightened. Stone winced as the package pulled tight, but the painkillers took effect almost instantly and left Stone looking drowsy as he examined his injured arm.

“Where the krav did you come from?” Stone said. “I thought we were the only ones out here.”

“Apart from your attackers,” Jack said. “Who are they?”

Stone moved his arm about, testing it, then winced in pain. “Mechs,” he said, cradling his arm. “They hit us a few days ago. They haven’t stopped since. Good thing you showed up. I thought we were finished. What are you doing out here anyway?”

“We’re trying to catch up with the fleet,” Jack said.

Stone laughed with a single grunt. “Good luck with that. We dropped out of formation just hours after the evacuation. We lost active scanners for a few hours and when I got them back online, we were out of touch. We’ve been searching for them since.”

Jack nodded. “We picked up a signal a few days ago. That put me back on their trail. I had to stop for a supply run, and I lost them again. We are a bit beaten up, to be honest. How are you holding up?”

“Well enough.” Stone twisted on the bunk. “We’ve lost a lot of systems. This boat hasn’t had a proper service for over a year. I’ve been trying to patch it together as we go.”

“It looks like a good boat. I’ve flown in worse, for sure,” Jack said.

Stone tried to sit up, moving awkwardly. Jack put a hand on his shoulder and held him on the bunk.

“Don’t get up, Chief. You need to rest.”

“Did we finish them off?”

Jack nodded. “Your attackers were destroyed. One fled.”

“Then they’ll be back. We need to move, and I need to get back to work. I’ve nearly finished. I need to finish before they come back.” Stone suddenly became alert, his eyes wild. “Krav it, how long have I been out?”

“Not long, half an hour.”

Stone let Jack press him back to the bunk. “I need to get to work. We will be sitting ducks like this. We have to get our weapons systems online.”

Jack nodded and looked down at the drowsy chief. “Sam, get a power transfer conduit set up and let’s get some power in here. I’ll check the weapons. We stand a better chance if we stick together. Chief, let that arm mend and sit back for an hour. I’ll need you soon.”

The movement in the next bunk caught Jack’s eyes. Commander Bale was stirring but still heavily sedated. He mumbled to himself, his head lolling back and forth.

“Get us out of here. Drive. Drive.”

Jack checked the med-pack. The commander was stable, but he still required rest. He checked Lieutenant Ripa. She was in an induced coma, but her ribs were already mending. Jack walked back to Stone.

“The crew is out of action, Chief. I’ll assume command for now and get this boat ready for a fight. We will be a stationary target, so it is vital we have every gun ready for action. My only order to you now is to rest. You won’t be able to fully heal before I need you all on your feet, but every minute will help. Let the med-packs do their job. Do you understand?”

Chief Stone nodded and fell back to the bunk. His eyes flickered as he struggled to keep them open.

“Good,” Jack said. “I’ll call you when I need you.”

The command deck of the frigate was much larger than the cramped two-man flight deck of the corvette, but it essentially had the same layout. The corvette and the frigate were both Fleet support vessels built for speed and maneuverability. The corvette had the edge in terms of speed and maneuverability, but the frigate was the more powerful in terms of offensive ability.

The frigate boasted two laser assemblies, one upper and one lower. It had a rear hail cannon and two batteries of three cannons each, giving it three more than the corvette, as well as an extra laser. The drive systems were comparable, active scanning ability virtually identical. The one thing that currently set the two boats apart was that the frigate had been under near-constant attack for many days. Its power systems had failed, and half its hail cannons were offline.

Jack climbed into the command chair, tapping the console on the armrest. The command interface was offline. He jumped down and went to the operations console. It too was dark and unresponsive.

The communicator was on an open channel to Sam. He could hear Sam grunting and puffing as he struggled with something.

“How’s that power transfer couple coming along, Sam?”

“Kravin’ heavy,” Sam said.

Jack heard Sam’s voice from the corridor just outside the command deck. A large conduit at his feet. The dark cable stretched away down the dark corridor.

“Where do you want this?” Sam said, picking up the loose end of the conduit.

Jack waved Sam over to him, then kneeled on the cold deck and opened the floor panel at the base of the operations console. Together, they dragged the heavy conduit over to the open panel.

Jack pulled a bit of slack to him and connected the power conduit. The standby lights on the operations console lit up. He stood in front of it and accessed the main command interface.

The lights in the command deck came on and all the consoles that were still functional flashed and came into standby mode. Sam crossed to the laser control console.

“Both of the lasers are burned out,” Sam said. “Might get some use out of them with a bit of a service, but they won’t be firing today.”

Jack checked the boat’s inventory. The frigate was low on ammunition, low on supplies in general. There were a number of hand-weapons listed in the inventory: pulse pistols and pulse rifles. He saw the frigate also had a set of Fleet-issue extreme environment suits, similar in many ways to the Fleet Marine tactical suits. He hoped the commander would let him take one. He would ask as soon as Bale had recovered enough. The frigate only had a few ration blocks, a week’s supply at most.

“They really were on their last legs,” Jack said. “Hope we’ve got enough of the blue goop for everyone.”

“All hail cannons are serviceable. If only we had a gun team,” Sam said as he wiped some debris from the hail cannon console.

“We’ll have to control the weapons centrally,” Jack said. “They have managed this long. If we can get them underway, and with us in support, we should be able to put up a fight.”

Jack climbed back into the command chair. The command interface was powered up, so he activated the small holostage. He called up an image of the two ships, the corvette sitting above the frigate, a soft dock tunnel running between the two.

Jack tapped into the corvette’s systems and launched the drones. “Maybe we can get a bit of an early warning on the next attack,” he said.

“Jack?” Sam asked in a soft tone that worried Jack.

“Yes?” Jack replied

“What are we doing here? Let’s go. Let’s get out of here.”

Jack stopped what he was doing and looked at Sam. He had never known Sam to walk away from a fight before.

“We can’t leave them in this condition, Sam.”

“This boat is sunk,” Sam said, looking around at the smashed command deck. “I say we strip what we can and get out of here.”

“But—” Jack began.

“We’ve lost time and energy on this boat. We are losing power every moment we are hooked up to this wreck. Let’s take the crew, for sure, but let’s dump this pile of trash and get back to chasing the fleet. We’re dead out here on our own. We need to catch up.”

Jack nodded. “I know what you’re saying, Sam, but we can’t all live on the corvette for an extended period of time. We’ll end up killing each other. And this is a good boat.” Jack looked around at the mess. “They have a med-bay. They have the extra firepower. We stand a much better chance of finding the fleet if we work together.”

“If they recover from their injuries and if we survive another attack.”

“Not worried, are you, Sam? A short time away from combat and you’ve lost your nerve?”

“Krav you, Jack,” Sam said with venom.

Jack laughed. “So you do still have some fight in you?” He dropped down from the command chair.

“I’ll take you on, singlehanded,” Sam said, and he brandished his one fist at Jack.

“I fear you with one arm more than any other man with both of theirs,” Jack said. “See what you can do with the laser assemblies. If we can get even one of them working, it would be helpful.”

Jack tapped away at the command interface and accessed the drive system.

“There is something wrong here,” Jack said out loud, speaking to himself. “The power configuration looks screwy. I don’t know what’s going on, and I can’t make any sense out of it. The command interface won’t let me run a diagnostic. It must have taken some damage. I hope we can get it straightened out or we might have to abandon this boat after all.”

Sam grunted and pored over the data on the upper laser assembly. “You talking to me?” he muttered darkly.

Jack smiled to himself. It was good to be busy and focused. Too long the pair had drifted through space, and a lack of urgency had let them drift apart and into their own separate worlds. Jack was happy to be working again.

“There is something odd about this drive configuration,” Jack repeated, looking at the readout in front of him. “Their chief must have rigged some temporary system bypass. I can’t make sense of it. I’m heading down to the drive room.” Jack pushed himself away from the console. He heard Sam muttering to himself. “Sam, did you hear me?”

“Yes,” Sam said with mock bitterness. “That is all I can hear, you talking to yourself. Go. Don’t get lost.”

Jack left Sam muttering and tapping away at the weapons console and headed back along the main deck to the drive room.

8

Bale climbed off his bunk and staggered to the medical supply cabinet. He rummaged through the few supplies and found a stim pack. He jabbed the pack into his arm. The sudden burst of mental energy was strange and powerful. It left him feeling slightly dizzy with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hesitated, thinking he might vomit, and then, with the sickness subsiding and the dizziness passing, he stepped over to Lieutenant Ripa and jabbed a fresh stim pack into her arm.

Ripa sat up with a suddenness that surprised and amused Bale. She scurried backward along her bunk and pressed up against the bulkhead behind her. She drew her legs up to her chest. Her wild expression turned to pain as she felt the injury to her ribs.

“Control yourself, Lieutenant,” Bale said, grabbing her upper arm. “I need you calm, do you read me?”

Ripa nodded. She sat on the edge of the bunk, her toes touching the deck. She looked around the med-bay, feeling nausea welling upside her, rising with every slight movement of her head. The stim pack was flooding her brain with dopamine, adrenalin, and a suite of other neurotransmitters. She was reacting badly to the sudden boost. She collapsed forward, off the bunk and down to the hard deck. Supporting herself on hands and knees, she vomited.

Bale shook his head in disgust. He grabbed a water pack and shoved it at Ripa.

“How did we get here?” Ripa said. “I thought those Mechs had us for sure.”

Bale jammed a stim pack into Chief Stone’s arm and stepped away.

Stone woke with a start. He carefully touched his arm at the site of the fracture. “My arm. They fixed it? Are they still here?”

“Who?” Ripa asked.

“A couple of Marines,” Stone said. He moved across the med-bay to the open doorway and looked along the corridor cautiously. “They said they would patch us up.”

Bale took a drink from a water pack. He stopped drinking, gasping. “What are a couple of Marines doing out here?”

Bale looked at Ripa. The lieutenant wrapped her arms around herself.

“Maybe the Marines can help us,” Ripa said. “Maybe they can stop these Mech ships from attacking us.”

Stone turned around and hushed Ripa with a stern look. “Yes,” he said. “I’m sure they can.”

Stone moved away from the doorway and back into the med-bay. He activated a console set into one of the bench-tops that surrounded the room. His engineering code gave him access to the surveillance feed. He selected the command deck.

The holoimage showed someone tapping away at the laser console. The surveillance systems identified the person from their Fleet identity code and displayed his name on the image. Fleet Marine Commander Sam Torent. Stone cycled through the feeds until he located the second Marine, Major Jack Forge. Jack was kneeling at a control panel outside the drive room, trying to get the door to open.

“He’s trying to access the drive room,” Stone said.

Bale looked at Stone. For the last week, the drive room had been off limits. At first, Bale had thought nothing of it—the drive room was the chief’s domain, after all—but it soon started to annoy Bale. This was his boat, he was in command—nowhere should be off limits. Bale had decided to ignore the fact that Stone had kept the drive room on lockdown and focused on his work on the command deck. Stone was a vital member of the small crew, and Bale had let the chief keep the drive room to himself as recognition of his importance to the boat. Although the truth gnawed at Bale like a distant, barely perceptible and thoroughly irritating noise he would never admit—Bale was afraid of the grizzled old engineer.

Stone crept out of the med-bay and into the lower deck corridor. A short way along was a small weapons locker. Stone pulled open the locker. Inside was a pistol rack. He picked one of the pulse pistols off the rack. He checked the power cell and then slipped the weapon into his waistband. Then he grabbed two more and returned to the med-bay.

Entering the med-bay, Stone handed one of the small, black pistols to Bale. Bale looked at the chief skeptically as he took the pistol.

Stone handed the last to Ripa. She took it from Stone, checked it, and then slipped it in the pocket of her jacket.

Drawing his pistol from his waistband, Stone stepped back out into the corridor. He glanced back at Bale and Ripa. “Okay,” he said, “let’s go and meet our rescuers.”

Jack tried again to get the drive room access hatch to open. Again, he failed. The door control sparked and crackled. Jack pulled his hand away. He sensed someone standing behind him and looked around to see Chief Stone standing in the corridor.

“What are you doing up, Chief?” Jack asked, turning back to the control panel. “You should be resting.”

“Command deck, now.” Stone’s voice was stern.

Jack turned and looked up at the chief. He noticed the pistol, set ready to fire.

“This door won’t open,” Jack said calmly. “We need to get your drive up and running.” Jack looked back at the door panel. “We’ve got an energy transfer active. You should be able to restart your reactor now.”

“Later,” Stone said darkly.

Jack turned and looked up at the chief, concerned by the pistol and the threatening tone. He stood up.

Stone held his arm out and showed Jack the way.

“How’s the arm?” Jack asked as he stepped away from the closed drive room door.

“Good. Let’s go. I will deal with the drive system later.”

Jack started walking along the main deck. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”

The main deck was long and wide. Jack could see the command deck entrance at the end of the corridor. And there waiting for him, with a pistol tucked in the front of his waistband, was Commander Bale.

Jack walked in. Sam was sitting casually against a broken console, his left hand toying with the short composite strands that protruded from the cap that covered the end of what remained of his right arm.

“You okay?” Jack asked to Sam.

Sam nodded briskly.

“Names?” Stone said with a threatening tone.

“Jack Forge and Sam Torent. We were with the Fleet Marines, Scorpio Battalion. Monarch Group. We saw you were in distress.”

“You are flying a Fleet corvette.” Stone was strutting about the command deck. “What are a couple of Marines doing in command of a Fleet vessel?”

“Saving your kravin’ neck,” Sam said forcefully.

Jack calmed Sam with a gentle wave of his hand. “Commander,” Jack began, looking over to Bale, “I think we’ve got our lines crossed here.”

“I just want you to be clear about who is in command here, Marine,” Stone said.

“Who do you think is in command, Chief?” Jack asked.

Stone pointed his pistol toward Bale. “Commander Gerat Bale. He has command.”

“You don’t have to listen to this, Jack.” Sam said. Turning on Bale, he added, “Jack outranks you, Commander. He’s a major in the Fleet Marines and a hero of the Chitin War. Jack is in command here.”

“Not if he’s in a Fleet vessel, he’s not.” Stone stepped in front of Sam. “In this situation, superiority goes to the more powerful craft and the one with a Fleet officer commanding. That is Commander Bale, Marine. Our two boats now constitute a flotilla, and Bale has authority over both ships. If you want to check the Fleet articles, please do, but time is short, and I would rather we work on getting underway. If you are going to have a problem with that, Marine—” Stone fixed Sam with a fierce look. “—then I will have you restrained.”

Jack looked over to Sam and calmed him again with a light wave. Jack could see the fire in Sam, and it was rising fast. “Commander Torent is one of the best Marines I have ever served with and he will not be a problem. Isn’t that right, Sam?”

Sam nodded stiffly. “Copy that, Jack.”

Turning back to Bale, Jack spoke gently. “If we are going to succeed here, we will need Sam. We will all have to work together. Commander,” Jack said with a calming tone, “we have the same objective and we are just trying to help.”

Jack looked at Lieutenant Ripa. She was quivering.

“I think your lieutenant could do with a sit-down, Commander,” Jack said. “She’s got a broken rib.”

“She’s just fine. You are just fine, aren’t you, Lieutenant?” Stone said casually.

“She doesn’t look fine,” Sam said.

“I say she is fine,” Stone said again. “Now, this is how it’s going to work. As chief of the boat, I will survey your corvette and assess its status. Meanwhile, you Marines will stay here on the command deck with the commander and the lieutenant. Clear?” Stone glowered at Bale.

Bale nodded and avoided Jack’s quizzical stare.

“Is that your order, Commander?” Jack asked, looking at Bale.

Bale avoided Jack’s stare. He glanced briefly toward Stone. “Yes, Major. That is my order. Chief Stone will survey your boat. My ship is now the command vessel of our little flotilla. Once we have finished the power transfer, we will get under way and you can follow me back to the fleet. Clear?”

Bale finished with a glance toward Stone.

“We can work together, Commander,” Jack said calmly.

“Yes, we can, if you will follow my orders.”

Jack looked at Sam. He was furious. Jack nodded slowly.

“We will comply. I think we both want the same thing, Commander. We want to get back to the fleet. We can do that best if we work together. You will have my cooperation. Okay?” Jack said.

Ripa slumped against the console next to her. Jack took a step toward her, eager to offer support.

“I think we should take her back to the med-bay, Commander,” Jack said.

“Commander?” Sam said sarcastically. “He has a fleet all of his own now.” Sam took a step toward Bale. “Doesn’t that make you an admiral?”

Jack saw Bale rise to the insulting tone. He stepped in between the pair. “Stand down, Sam,” Jack ordered.

Stone smiled a thin, mirthless smile. “I hope you Marines can fight as well as you talk,” Stone said, looking Sam up and down.

Jack nodded at Stone. “You can count on us to do our part.”

Stone nodded. “With your permission, Commander,” Stone said, “I’ll begin my survey of your new vessel.”

Bale nodded, and then he found his voice. “Yes, Chief. Begin your survey.”

“And you will entertain our guests here,” Stone added.

Bale climbed up into the command chair. Stone backed out of the command deck and sealed the door behind him.

9

After an hour of sitting around the command deck trying unsuccessfully to engage with Commander Bale, Stone returned and sent Jack and Sam back to the corvette. It was good to be back on the corvette. Jack went straight to the flight deck. Sam was furious.

“That scroat pulled down my dividing wall,” he said. He kicked the blankets on the floor that had previously been hanging across the gun deck. “I can’t believe you let him come in here, Jack.” Sam pulled open the ration store. Only two blue bars remained. Sam roared in fury. “They just robbed us. They are nothing but pirates. I’m going over there right now and get those blue rations back.”

“Negative, Sam,” Jack said as he worked at the flight deck. He deployed his drones in a surveillance net spread out in a ring a hundred thousand kilometers in each direction. “I don’t want either of us over there again. Command has failed on that boat, Sam. It’s toxic. But we can’t abandon them either. Just get those guns ready. We need every available gun ready for action. If what they say is correct, those Mechs will be here again.”

“Why help them?” Sam said, still furious.

“They’ve got all the rations now,” Jack said. “Unless you want to go back to that blue valley, we had better stick with them.”

“For now,” Sam said.

“Until we get back to the fleet,” Jack corrected, “and then we will probably be posted to a destroyer and we won’t have to mix with frigate crews again.”

The console alerted them that the drone net had detected a flight of five Mech attack ships. They were in the same formation as the last group and were all the same type, a flattened sphere with a wide, flat leading edge. They were racing in at speed from above and astern.

“Mechs,” Jack said. “I’m recalling the drones and alerting Commander Bale now.”

Jack opened a channel to the frigate. “Incoming Mech attack ships, Commander. Distance and location are a little over one hundred thousand kilometers above and astern.”

Jack moved his hands to the drive and navigation panels on the flight deck, ready to input the speed and heading as instructed by the frigate.

“Copy that, Forge,” Bale said. “Hold position and wait for my order to fire.”

“Did I just hear that scroat correctly?” Sam said. “Hold position? Why don’t we just get out of here, Jack?”

“Steady, Sam,” Jack said. “It’s better if we concentrate our fire. There are only five of them. We should be able to finish them off pretty quickly. They don’t have the capabilities of our little fleet.”

Jack watched the active scanner readout. He activated the holostage on the flight console. The incoming targets were closing fast. Although Jack thought it was strange decision to hold position and not attempt some sort of tactical maneuver, he did as he was instructed.

And then the first round struck.

The corvette lurched as the rounds struck home, slamming into the upper hull. And then the second and third blasts struck.

“They are evading our hail cannon fire, Jack,” Sam said. “Out of range of our laser. Bring us about so I can give them a salvo of kinetic hail.”

Jack hovered over the maneuvering thrusters. It seemed so obvious that both boats should turn and give fire, but Jack was operating in a combined strategy. An unexpected maneuver could spoil Bale’s attack plan.

“For krav’s sake, Jack,” Sam said as another series of blasts struck the hull.

Jack looked at the frigate on the holostage. It was not taking any fire and was turning to present its starboard hail cannon to the oncoming Mechs.

“He’s getting ready to fire,” Jack said. Another series of blasts struck the upper hull, causing the power to fluctuate across the flight console.

“I’ve been ready to fire for some time,” Sam shouted. “If you could just get us in position.”

Jack watched the image of Bale’s frigate on the holostage. The upper laser assembly fired a blast of energy that slammed into the lead Mech attack ship. The target boat burst open and spun off course, spewing fire and gas into the void of space.

Another round of fire from the Mech attack ships slammed into the hull of the corvette. The flight console lit up with orange warning lights and a red malfunction alert for one of the maneuvering thrusters.

Jack opened a channel to Bale.

“This is Forge. I am maneuvering to position to return fire. Acknowledge.”

Jack watched the holostage and listened for the reply. The channel remained silent.

Bale leaned forward in his command chair and looked at the image of the Mech attack ships converging on the smaller corvette. He watched and waited.

“Major Forge is requesting permission to maneuver, sir,” Ripa said.

Bale ignored her and watched the holostage and the damaged Mech attack ship spinning out of control. The ship exploded.

“Commander,” Ripa said. “Forge is on the line again. He wants to return fire.”

Bale stared at the holostage. The Mechs were swooping in on Jack’s Corvette, ignoring the frigate entirely.

The holoimage of Chief Stone appeared on the holostage, inset on the lower right of the display, the Mech attack on the Jack and Sam playing out above him in flickering holographic lights.

“Engaging the drive,” Stone said. Then his image disappeared.

Ripa moved to the drive console as it gave a drive activation alert.

“He’s routed drive and navigation to the drive room consoles.” Ripa turned to Bale. Her voice full of surprise and anger. “We’re moving away at high speed. We’re leaving them behind.”

“Just do it, Jack,” Sam shouted to the flight deck, but Jack was already activating the maneuvering thrusters. He brought the port-side battery around for a salvo.

“Fire when ready, Sam,” Jack said. He watched the second Mech attack ship explode on the holostage and as the debris and gas expanded around the remains, Jack saw the frigate moving away.

“Firing again,” Sam said.

Jack heard the quiet thump of the hail cannon discharging a mass of hail and then the cheer from Sam as another target was destroyed.

The remaining Mech ships moved in on the corvette and fired. Then Jack saw the rear section of the frigate light up as the drive systems were pushed to full power.

Sam cheered again as he destroyed another Mech attack ship, leaving only one remaining.

The remaining Mech ship held its position and fired at the corvette. A conduit along the gun deck ruptured, a red warning light appearing on the flight console.

“Sam, are you alright?”

“I’m okay. Firing on the final target.”

Jack watched as the remaining Mech ship was destroyed with a blast of kinetic hail from the cannon.

“What the krav is wrong with Bale?” Sam said, climbing up the steps to the flight deck. He dropped into his seat at the console and deployed the drone net. “I said, what’s wrong with that guy? We could have taken out those Mechs without taking any damage.”

Jack watched as the frigate powered away, putting distance between the site of the battle and the corvette.

Sam stood up in fury as the frigate raced away, fists clenching. “What the krav is Bale up to, Jack?”

“I don’t know, but I think we might have to take command of this little fleet.”

“Copy that, Jack,” Sam said.

“Try and get him in the targeting scanners of the hail cannon as soon as you can.”

Jack opened a channel to the frigate’s command deck. “Bale, this is Forge. Do you want to tell me where you are going?”

Bale looked at the image of the corvette on the holostage. It was venting gas from a small fracture on the upper hull.

“Major Forge on the line again, sir,” Ripa said. “He wants a status report.”

Ignoring Ripa, Bale sat in his command char and watched the image of Jack’s corvette shrinking to a distant speck, lost in the dark.

“Commander,” Ripa said. “We can’t leave them.”

Stone stepped onto the command deck. “Not your concern, Lieutenant.”

“I think it is,” Ripa said. She felt the nervous energy from confronting the chief. “We are going back for them, right now.”

Stone stepped close to Ripa. She could smell the sweat and drive room dust on him. “Request a change of course from your commander,” Stone said with calm menace.

Ripa looked over to Bale. He avoided her gaze.

“We need to get back to the fleet. Hold course and speed, Lieutenant.” Bale tapped the controls on his armrest and avoided looking at Ripa.

“Commander,” Ripa pleaded.

“You heard the commander,” Stone said, moving his face close to Ripa’s.

Bale looked up to the holostage and the holoimage of the frigate in the black of space, the distant star field spectrum shifting as the frigate raced on. He stared at the holoimage and avoided Ripa’s eyes.

Stone stepped away from Ripa and walked off the command deck. “Keep me informed, Commander. I’ll be in my cabin.”

Bale stood up and stepped down from his command chair. He walked up to the flight console. The course was already laid in, a course that would take them to the fleet’s last-known location.

Bale looked around the command deck. He knew he was in command in name only. He walked to the entrance to the command deck and looked out at the main deck. Chief Stone was walking away.

“Sir,” Ripa said in a harsh whisper. “We can’t let the chief take control.”

Bale nodded. “He just fixes the boat, Lieutenant,” Bale said. “I am in command here.” He climbed up into his command chair and felt dizzy and sick with worry as he thought of Chief Stone.

Jack watched in surprise as the frigate leaped away. It vanished into the far distance with a flash. The frigate was a fast and maneuverable craft, but it was no match for the corvette’s speed.

“Bale really did just run out on us. Let’s go and get some answers,” Jack said.

“Yeah, and our blue rations.”

Jack couldn’t understand the logic in abandoning a second craft. Together, they would have had a much better chance of locating the fleet. He activated the corvette’s drive and prepared to follow Bale.

“Drive systems unresponsive,” Jack said. “Maneuvering thrusters only. And we’ve got a minor hull breach on the upper hull.” Jack leaned back in his chair.

“He’s getting away,” Sam said, trying to keep a scanner lock on the receding frigate.

“No, Sam,” Jack said with a heavy breath. “He has gotten away. We can’t follow him. Not yet.”

“When I get my hands on him…” Sam said. He punched the bulkhead.

“Calm down, Sam. One thing at a time. First, I’ll go and see what the problem is with our drive. You get a drone prepped and get it to patch that hull fracture. Let’s get this old boat up and running. Then we can get after Bale.”

“And they took all the blue rations,” Sam said again.

Jack climbed down from the flight deck. “Lots of reasons to catch up with him, but we won’t be going anywhere if we have no drive and a compromised outer hull. Get your head in the game, Sam. Okay?”

Sam nodded. “Sure. Prepping a drone now. Locating the fracture. We’ll be patched up in no time.”

Jack walked the gun deck to the rear section, toward the drive room access hatch. He needed to get the corvette going, but he suspected this was no coincidental malfunction. This was sabotage. The only person who could have done it was Chief Stone. And from what Jack knew of Stone’s ability, it might well be a clever piece of work. He began to wonder if he would ever be able to get the corvette’s main drive active, but he pushed the negative thoughts out of his mind.

“One thing at a time, Jack,” he said to himself as he stepped up to the drive room hatch. He pressed the control panel to open the hatch. It remained shut.

Jack bit his lip. Before he could fix whatever Stone had done to the drive, he would have to work out what he had done to the hatch opening circuits.

“It’s a small fracture, Jack,” Sam called back from the flight deck. “The drones can handle it. Should have it patched in no time. We are losing pressure, though. It might get a bit uncomfortable, but we shouldn’t suffocate.”

“Ahh, well,” Jack said to himself. “That is some good news.”

Jack pulled the control panel away from the bulkhead and started to work the problem.

“One thing at a time,” Jack repeated to himself but already in the back of his mind, he was seething and planning revenge.

10

The acceleration was almost too much for the frigate’s inertial buffer to overcome. Ripa felt the strain on her damaged ribcage. She bent over, clutching her broken rib as it struggled to cope with the forces pressing against it.

Bale held on to the armrests of his chair and steadied himself. He was not going to let Ripa see him looking weak or in any way uncomfortable with the experience. He watched the star field on the central holostage. The image flickered as ship-wide power fluctuated with the extreme acceleration putting a strain on all systems. The stars projected on the holostage quivered and all were showing the blue shift effect as the frigate raced forward.

“The superstructure can’t take it,” Ripa said. She moved uncomfortably from the navigation console to the engineering console and checked the cohesion of the hull stability field.

“The ship can handle it, Ripa,” Bale said. “You need to handle it, or you need to get off my deck.”

Stone walked onto the command deck. He appeared unaffected by the fluctuating strength of the inertial buffer.

“We should have told them what we were doing,” Ripa said. “We shouldn’t have left them. What if they get back to the fleet? He’ll put in a report to Fleet Intelligence for sure. They were Marines, for krav’s sake, and he was a major.”

“A major,” Stone laughed with a humorless grunt. “And that was his battalion, I suppose, a one-armed grunt. Not much of a force.”

“Nevertheless, it was wrong to leave them.”

“My responsibility is to this ship. Those Marines are only there to assist and support the fleet. Their job is to die for us. So, I’m not sorry that I asked them to stand in front of an enemy and hold them off so we could get away.”

“But we didn’t ask them, did we? We tricked them.” Ripa held her ribs.

Stone walked over to Ripa and grabbed her by the arm. “You need to take it easy, Lieutenant.”

Ripa shrugged Stone off. “Get your hands off me, Chief,” she spat. “You will respect chain of command or—”

“Or what?” Stone said, taking her arm again.

Ripa looked up at Bale. “Commander, you need to do something.”

“Yes,” Stone said, looking up at Bale with a threatening glare. “You need to take the lieutenant to the med-bay. I think she needs a rest.”

Jack sat on the deck in front of the drive room door. He recognized the work of Chief Stone. It was clear that the chief had performed the sabotage and had blocked the door to prevent Jack from solving the problems quickly. The man was clearly a talented engineer, but this work had been rushed and he was able to bypass it.

The circuits in Jack’s hand sparked and crackled as he reset the central node. The door slid open.

The drive room of the corvette covered the entire aft section of the boat, from the upper hull to the lower hull. The reactor housing began just a step inside the access hatch and filled the space back to the drive assembly faceplate. A narrow walkway along each side of the housing gave access to the drive systems. It was cramped and dark, but Jack could see—from the light on the gun deck behind him—that a side panel was missing from the reactor housing. It was the access panel to the main power distributer.

Jack moved along the narrow walkway alongside the reactor housing. The faintest hum from the reactor vibrating through the floor. As he approached the missing panel, he saw something pressed into the housing at the power distributer node. Jack activated the flashlight embedded on his jacket and took another cautious step forward.

“Sam,” Jack called out as he saw what was lying there. “Sam, get down here, and bring a pulse rifle.”

Jack kneeled and looked at the body lying next to the distributer. It was propped up against the machinery, strapped to it to prevent it from toppling forward. Jack didn’t like to make assumptions, but he was pretty sure that this was a Mech.

The head was large and oval, like a sideways football, and completely free of any features or surface marks. It was a uniform dull gray. The head sat atop a small central mass that appeared mechanical in nature. It was coated with a thick, fleshy slime and appeared to be leaking a small dribble of thick, white fluid.

Attached to the small central mass were three upper limbs. The left limb was large and bulky. It looked like a length of knotted metal cables. At the end, the hand was a club-like fist with many fine gray threads protruding in all directions. The threads were fifty centimeters long and hung like hair from the club-fist.

The right arm was the same knotted metal cables on the upper section, but the lower section was a large barrel-type structure. It had block-like attachments around it and a small oval plate that was the same gray as the head. It was angled back toward the head and appeared to be some sort of visual interface, a view screen of some kind. It looked to Jack as if the right arm was weaponized.

A third smaller limb hung underneath the right, weaponized arm. It was smooth and gray like the head and splayed out into three strands at the end. It appeared to be a kind of gripping hand, and it looked to be organic.

The two legs that splayed out underneath the Mech were long, multi-jointed, and symmetrical. They were made of the same knotted cable-like material as the arms, and in places were coated with cover plates of a gray metallic material.

A light flashed on the weapon arm of the Mech and a dribble of white slime pulsed out of the central mass. Jack was sure he heard a clicking noise from the head.

“Sam,” Jack called out, stepping away.

“I’m here, Jack.” Sam handed Jack a pulse pistol. “The weapons locker was empty. Bale must have taken… What the krav is that?”

Jack stepped back. “It’s a Mech, I think.”

“What’s it doing here?” Sam said,

“A present, from Stone no doubt.”

Sam moved forward, lighting the way with the flashlight on the end of his pulse pistol. He pressed past Jack to get a better look.

“Take it easy, Sam,” Jack said. “Don’t get too close. It’s probably dangerous.”

“It looks dead,” Sam said, studying the strange creature.

“I don’t think it is dead. It’s not healthy, though.”

“So, let’s get it off the boat and get out of here. Hey, do you think that’s why their attack ships were firing at us, because of this thing?”

Jack nodded. The thought had occurred to him.

“It’s possible, Sam. It looks like Bale had this planted here knowing it would draw their fire when they attacked. It gave him the opportunity to escape.”

Sam squatted in front of the Mech. He picked up the left upper limb with the muzzle of his pistol and looked at the fine threads extending from the club-fist.

“Don’t touch it, Sam. We don’t know anything about it.”

At that moment, the fibers hanging from the club-fist moved suddenly and shot out toward the cap covering the end of Sam’s vestigial right limb. The Mech’s fibers touched the black flexible composite rods that used to connect Sam’s prosthetic arm to his nervous system.

Sam collapsed to a sitting position on the deck.

“I can hear it,” he said with an exhausted tone.

Jack looked in shock. He reached out and grabbed Sam, pulling him back.

“No, Jack,” Sam said. “It’s okay. I can hear it. The connections for my prosthetic arm are linked directly to my nervous system. It’s how I am able to control my prosthetic arm. The Mech is using them to interface directly with my mind. It’s bizarre. I know what it’s like to be a Mech. This unit is close to total power depletion. Stone was experimenting on it. He has another. The Mechs were trying to free us. Stone realized we must have a location beacon and that was how we were able to find him. Stone thinks he has deactivated the beacon from the Mech he has on his craft. We will find him.”

“What do you mean, we?” Jack asked. “Sam, is that you?”

Sam looked at Jack, tears in his eyes. “He experimented on me. It was torture. I must free the other. We must help, Jack.”

Sam was staring at the smooth, gray head of the Mech. “It needs power, Jack. Its people will be back soon, and it will rejoin them.”

Jack hesitated.

“The pulse pistol power cell,” Sam said. “Place it on its head.”

Jack shook his head. “I am not powering up this thing. They were just attacking us.”

“It won’t be enough power to fully restore it, Jack,” Sam said. He was speaking in a monotone that was strange to Jack.

“Good,” Jack said. “I don’t want it at full strength.”

“But the only power it’s getting is from this human. Sam will expire soon.”

Jack looked at Sam. His eyes were rolling back in his head and he was turning a dangerous shade of pale.

“Quick, Jack. Sam is dying. Just place a power cell on the head. I’ll do the rest.”

Jack tucked his pistol in his waistband and picked up Sam’s pistol off the deck. He unclipped the power cell. He drew his pistol and then held the power cell against the Mech’s gray head.

The power cell was pulled from Jack’s grip and absorbed into the head. The gray head was suddenly alive with color, ripples of light deep within the dull gray. And then the Mech stood up. It stood over two meters tall and loomed over Jack. Moving backward swiftly and swinging up the pulse pistol just as swiftly, Jack made ready to fire. The Mech brought up its huge weaponized arm and pointed it at Jack.

“Don’t shoot,” Sam shouted, suddenly alert. He stood up, still attached to the Mech’s left arm.

Jack and the Mech hesitated. Then a large dribble of white pus spluttered out of the Mech’s central mass. The Mech collapsed to the deck.

Sam stood over the Mech. “Its people will know what to do for it.”

“People?” Jack said.

“I don’t know. Mech people. It is speaking to me, Jack, but I can only understand it in my own language. I can’t understand its language. ‘People’ is the closest I can come up with.”

“Does it mean us harm? Will it try and kill us?”

“No. It thinks I am Mech. They won’t attack me. They do want Stone, though. He’s been torturing them for weeks, dissecting them. He found the location beacon just before we turned up. He ripped it out. He’s a butcher, Jack. They want their Mech back. They want Stone too. Mech revenge is just like any other type of revenge, Jack. It’s horrible, single-minded, and deadly. We don’t want to be in their way.”

“We’ll see about that.” Jack looked at the collapsed Mech.

“Thank you, Jack,” Sam said in that dull monotone. “Return me when my people come and you will be unharmed. Then we will deal with Stone.”

11

Moving the Mech out of the drive room was easier than Jack thought it would be. It was light, given its size. Jack realized that Stone could have easily moved the creature by himself. He laid the Mech out in the gun deck, and Sam sat next to it, the pair still joined by the enmeshed fibers protruding from each other’s arms.

Jack looked down at Sam. “Can you detach yourself?”

Sam looked up at Jack in a dreamlike state. “I’ll release him when my people come.”

Jack tapped his wrist panel and sent instructions to the flight console. He sent an instruction for a silent alert when the Mechs returned. They would release Sam or many more of these Mechs would experience total power depletion before Jack had finished with them.

He returned to the drive room. There was still the job of reconnecting and reconfiguring the drive systems. The corvette had been functioning perfectly well before Stone had messed things up. Jack knew he could restore full power to the drive, given enough time. He would need to work quickly, though, if he was going to deal with the Mechs when they returned.

“Hang tough, Sam,” Jack said, and he left the pair lying in the middle of the gun deck.

The drive reactor wasn’t difficult to put right. Jack could see how Chief Stone had bypassed the power distribution. It was relatively easy for Jack to restore full power.

Jack was impressed by Stone’s work, reprehensible as it was. The chief had a real talent for his job. Pity, Jack thought, that he was missing any ethical boundaries.

The silent alert on Jack’s communicator informed him that Mech attack ships were approaching. Jack tapped the wrist-mounted control panel and accessed an image of the incoming boats. Again, there were five Mech attack ships in the familiar formation. They would be in weapons range in moments.

Jack climbed out of the drive room and sealed the door. He sent instructions to the flight deck to power the drive. Walking across the gun deck to the steps up to the flight deck, he kicked Sam’s boot.

“Sam. Wake up. Mechs incoming.”

Sam looked up at Jack with a distant expression. He still spoke in the strange monotone.

“I will leave through the airlock,” he said.

“You are not going anywhere,” Jack said, then, wondering if he was in fact talking to the Mech itself, he corrected, “Sam is not going anywhere. You are free to go.” Jack pointed to the ladder down to the airlock hatch.

The Mech stood up and dragged Sam to his feet. It moved with a lurching gait. It stumbled and steadied itself against the side of the gun deck before taking another stride to the airlock access, dragging Sam like a limp doll.

Jack stood his ground. “Let Sam go.” Jack drew his pistol and pointed it at the large, shimmering head. The colors in the head changed to a shimmering red, and the Mech took a lunging step forward. Jack withdrew a step but kept the weapon trained at the center of the head.

“Once I am aboard my ship, you can have Sam Torent back,” Sam said.

“Just dock and walk across. No need for Sam to go anywhere.”

“We will not dock with your boat. I will travel across the space between our vessels and enter my own ship. Then I will send Sam Torent back.”

The realization of what the Mech was saying stunned Jack.

“No,” Jack said. “You’ll kill him. He can’t go out into deep space like this.”

The Mech pulled Sam to him and picked him up off the deck. The tendrils held Sam by the stump of his right arm. Sam dangled, his eyes moving around in a strange, wide-eyed gaze.

“Sam Torent will die. Humans are weak. But you will go free for saving me.”

“Sam will not die. He’s helping you. Release him and I will get you back to your ship.”

“I will go now.”

The Mech reached out to the airlock panel with its small secondary arm, the jelly-like fingers reaching to the panel.

Jack knew he needed to act fast. He sent a signal from his communicator with a thought and instructed the flight deck to uncouple the interior door servos. As the Mech touched the panel, the display turned red, indicating the airlock was locked shut.

“Open the door, Jack.” The voice came from Sam, but it was not Jack’s old friend.

“How long will that power cell in your fat, gray head last?” Jack said, taking a step forward, pistol aimed. “Not as long as it will take you to get that airlock open, I bet.”

“It is likely that you will die too.”

“It is certain that you will die if you don’t release Sam now.”

Sam fell to the floor as the Mech released its grip on him. Sam lay unconscious. Jack looked at the large oval head of the Mech. The dull gray flickered with a sparkling red and purple. Jack sent a message from his communicator to the flight deck to reinstate servo control. The panel lit up green. The Mech’s fingers on its small left arm ran over the panel. The inner hatch slid open. Jack took a step back, pistol still aimed.

“Go,” Jack said.

The Mech dropped into the airlock. Jack stepped forward and touched the panel, the inner hatch sliding shut.

Jack kneeled next to Sam and checked his breathing. It was shallow but steady. He ran to the flight deck, jumping up the few steps, and dropped into his seat. With a few swift moves, Jack set the corvette moving.

As the corvette accelerated away, he called up an image of the Mech attack ships on the flight deck holostage. They came to a halt around the Mech floating in space. One of the ships maneuvered over the Mech and took it inside. Then all five fell into formation and moved off at high speed before disappearing in a flash.

Jack heard noise from the gun deck. Sam was staggering along toward the flight deck.

“Well, that was weird,” he said.

“What do you remember?” Jack said.

“Everything,” Sam said as he climbed the steps unsteadily. “They are strange beings. Their biological parts have been almost entirely replaced with tech. They have been traveling for eons, repairing and replacing their bodies. They are nomadic. They are just traveling through this region of the galaxy. One of them was damaged and picked up by Stone. They won’t leave without all their people.”

“Leave none behind?” Jack said.

Sam nodded, “But it’s not duty for them, it’s engineering. They will find Stone. They must, and I know what they’ll do with him. I’ve seen their thoughts. I wouldn’t want to be Stone when they finally catch up with him.”

“Speaking of Stone… He’s got all our rations.”

“And most of our equipment. Do we go after them?” Sam identified the last-known position of Bale’s frigate and began to enter a pursuit course.

“No, Sam,” Jack said with a heavy heart. “We can manage. We can find supplies. We should try and get back to the fleet as quickly as possible. Once we’re back at the fleet, we’ll make sure the authorities know what he did.”

Sam sat back in the chair. “Stone has a Mech on board the frigate, right? And it’s probably being experimented on by Stone as we speak. Are we going to let him get away with that?”

Jack shook his head. “It’s not our fight, Sam. Set course for the fleet’s last-known position.”

“I knew things,” Sam said in a strange voice. “Things I never thought of before. They are fading now, like a dream. I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. I was a Mech. They are old, Jack. Each unit is hundreds and hundreds of years old. They have a combined knowledge. They share a central cognitive system. It’s efficient. I knew everything.”

Sam began to shudder. His eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped in the chair. Jack turned to him as Sam began to convulse and froth at the mouth. He twisted in his chair and collapsed.

Jack held Sam by his shoulders and shouted at him.

“Sam! Sam, what’s wrong? What’s the matter? Sam?”

Jack dropped back into his seat. There was only one way he could help Sam and he knew it. He set a pursuit course and activated the drive system, sending the corvette accelerating across empty space following the group of Mech attack ships. The nearest medical supplies were on the frigate. Sam needed those now.

12

The flight of five Mech attack ships closed in on the frigate from aft. Bale opened a channel to Stone.

“I need you on the command deck, Chief,” Bale said. “The Mechs are back.”

The ships were traveling at near top speed and closed in on Bale’s boat as he tried to stay ahead. Once in range of the frigate’s laser assembly, the attack ships quickly changed course and evaded the laser fire directed at them.

Bale watched them evading his fire on his command chair armrest holostage. The image was replaced by Stone.

“Mechs?” Stone said, shaking his head. “It can’t be. How did they find us?”

“They always find us. Just because they got hold of Forge didn’t mean they were going to forget about us, does it?” Bale said. He looked at the main holostage. “Target the lead Mech,” Bale shouted. “For krav’s sake, Ripa, hit one of them.”

Lieutenant Ripa refocused the targeting sensor and fired again. The lead ship detonated as the laser struck the center of its forward energy weapon.

Bale punched the air as the ship exploded. Ripa scanned for the next target. She had become an expert in targeting the Mech attack ships over the last several days. Each time they were attacked, she had operated the targeting systems. She knew their tactics and understood their maneuvering capabilities. She could only guess at the number of ships she had destroyed since they first came under attack by the Mechs.

The first encounter had been shortly after they had responded to a strange signal from a small dwarf planet on the fringes of a star system. Stone had entered the ship and had spent ages in there. She knew he had transferred something to the drive room through the lower access hatch. She had brought it to Bale’s attention, but the commander was reluctant to challenge Stone. She had slowly put the facts together. It was following that encounter that the chief had sealed off the drive room, and that the Mechs had started to appear. Ripa knew she would have to eventually stand up to the chief if her commander couldn’t. She pushed the thought aside. A blast from a Mech attack ship struck the upper hull.

“Shoot the kravin’ Mechs, Ripa,” Bale shouted. “Take them down.”

Ripa fired again and destroyed another ship. She waited for the next Mech attack ship to take the lead position before firing the laser again. The third Mech was destroyed.

The blasts from the attack ships slammed into the hull and threw Ripa forward. She felt herself lift off the floor as the gravity field weakened suddenly.

“There are five more Mechs closing in,” Ripa said, looking at her wide-field scanner as she pulled herself back down to the deck. The gravity generator kicked in and she dropped, her knees almost buckling.

“Command deck, this is Stone.” Chief Stone’s image appeared on the holostage from his position in the drive room. “It’s going to get bumpy. The grav generator is fluctuating. I need to shut it off and reset the system. Another hit could throw the calibration out, and we’ll either be floating free or pinned to the walls. I’m returning drive and navigation to the command deck.”

Bale accessed the controls from his command chair armrest. He should never have been denied access to them in the first place, but this was not the time to get angry with Stone. He put the wide scanner view on the central holostage. Another flight of five Mechs were moving in from below.

“They are going to be in firing range in a few moments,” Ripa shouted as she targeted and destroyed the fourth Mech. A blast of energy from the remaining Mech slammed into the hull and rocked the frigate.

She returned fire and hit the final Mech with the laser. The Mech slowed and dropped from the pursuit, dead in the void.

“Throw everything into the drive,” Bale said. “We have to stay ahead of this next group.”

“That last Mech wasn’t destroyed,” Ripa said. “The laser focusing loop is losing power. I need to take it offline or we’ll lose the upper assembly.”

“Maintain the fire, Ripa,” Bale ordered.

“I can’t,” Ripa said, turning and shouting up to Bale on his command chair. “If I use the upper assembly and the loop goes, we will not only lose the upper assembly but half the upper hull as well. The laser is out of commission.”

Bale opened a channel to Stone. “Chief, drop what you are doing and fix the laser loop something.”

“Do you mean the focusing loop, Commander?” Stone replied with a patronizing tone.

“Just fix it, Chief.” Bale felt himself lift off the seat and then fall back with a thump.

“Negative on that request, Commander,” Stone said. “The grav generator is drifting. I need to shut it down.”

“So do it and then fix my laser,” Bale said, looking at the Mech attack ships closing in.

“It’s not as easy as that,” Stone growled back. “This is a grav generator. There is no off-switch. This is going to take time, and if I don’t get it done in time, you might find out what it’s like to experience the force of a few dozen gravities. It’ll be the last thing you ever experience.”

Bale thumped his armrest. “We still got the lower laser assembly, right?”

Ripa glanced over her shoulder and then back to the weapons console. She was bringing the hail cannon online and transferring the power from the laser to the midsection guns.

“No, sir,” Ripa said. “The loop is a single unit for both laser emitters. It runs at the generator hub level.”

“Who came up with that stupid idea?” Bale said.

“Not me.” Ripa worked to transfer ordnance from the magazine to the midsection guns. “I am not responsible for laser ordnance architecture.”

“I thought you were some kind of weapons expert, and you can’t get the lasers to fire?”

“Show me a weapons officer who could get them to fire without destroying the boat. They were not designed for this kind of abuse. They have been running on an intermittent stream of dirty power. They’ve been taken offline and repowered krav knows how many times. They haven’t had a service since krav knows when. Do you realize how bad all that is for them? Well, it’s bad, very bad. I told you to let me run a basic service on them.”

“Told me? I’m in command of this ship. You don’t tell me anything, Ripa. Is that clear?”

And then the first blast from the lead Mech in the second wave struck.

Bale drifted forward out of his seat as the gravity generator was deactivated. He grabbed hold of the armrest and pulled himself back to the chair.

Ripa hooked her feet under the side of the weapons console. She targeted the lead ship.

“Transfer navigational control to the targeting systems. I need to move the boat to get a bead on the Mechs.”

Bale transferred control to Ripa with a rising level of frustration. He gripped his chair and watched as Ripa flung the frigate around like an attack fighter, aiming at the Mechs and firing the hail cannon.

“Gravity offline,” Chief Stone’s voice came over the command deck communicator. “I’ll take a look at the loop now.”

Bale felt redundant. He tried to remain seated in his chair, gripping the armrests and holding himself in place. Another blast from the Mechs nearly flung him out of the seat. He opened the wide-range scanner and looked at the surrounding space.

A rogue asteroid field up ahead and off the upper port side caught Bale’s eye.

“There,” he said. “We head there and hide out. Transferring navigational control back to command.”

Ripa fired a blast from the starboard-side midsection cannon as Bale turned the frigate. The blast of kinetic hail struck the Mech a glancing blow and sent it tumbling off course. She pressed her lips tightly together as she noted that her targeting solution for the next Mech was lost as Bale maneuvered the boat to a new heading.

The Mechs fired a rolling wave of energy blasts that struck the same spot on the upper hull.

“Fire at the Mechs,” Bale said. “Finish them.”

Ripa transferred the kinetic hail load in the midsection cannon and loaded a series of high-ex detonation shells. She loaded one to the port and one to the starboard. Then with the frigate’s course stable and the Mechs arranged behind them, she released the shells. They drifted away from the frigate and were left behind. Once clear, Ripa detonated them. The blast filled the space between the frigate and the pursuing Mechs.

Through the growing orange cloud of fire and energy left by the shells came the Mechs. Ripa noted one was losing power and tumbling off course, and a second exploded, but the third came on.

“Hit them again,” Bale said.

“Loop fixed,” Stone said. “You’ve got three, maybe four shots and then I’m taking it offline.”

Ripa was already targeting the remaining Mech. She fired the laser and struck the Mech in the center of its primary weapon. The Mech vanished, transformed into a billowing cloud of fire.

“That’s it,” Ripa said, directing her communications to the chief. “Take the laser offline, Chief. Good work getting that loop fixed. How did you do it?”

“Let’s just say it’s not in the operating manual. Laser-focusing loop offline. I’ll need to strip it before we can use it again.”

Ripa saw the next flight of five Mechs moving in directly astern.

“A fresh wave of attack ships,” she said. “They’ll be on us in a few minutes.” Ripa held onto the console with one hand and let herself drift, free from gravity, and relax for just a moment. In a short time, she would be fighting for her life again, managing two batteries of hail cannon, a limited stock of ammunition, and an ineffectual commander.

“We will be hidden in a few minutes,” Bale said. “Heading into a rogue asteroid field. It’s big enough for us to hide. Can you hide us from the Mechs, Chief?”

Ripa looked at the asteroid field. It looked strange, but then, all rogue asteroid fields were strange. Asteroids were phenomena associated with star systems, usually found in bands or spherical clouds around a host star. Rogue fields drifted through interstellar space, ejected by their host star. This field was too densely packed and was moving too slowly to be a typical rogue field. That was good news for the frigate—it would make it easier to hide.

“Going dark,” Chief Stone reported. “Shutting down nonessential power systems now. Ripa, take command-end systems offline. Commander,” Stone went on, “Lieutenant Ripa is going to need access to your chair.”

Ripa looked back at Bale. She knew that in order to run dark, she would have to deactivate certain systems. Most could be done from the consoles across the command deck, but it was easier to do it all centrally from the command chair. She knew, and Stone knew, that Bale did not have the technical expertise to shut down the command-end systems.

Bale drifted off his chair and pushed himself toward the central holostage. He ignored Ripa as she moved herself to his seat. Bale pulled up the image of the rogue field on the holostage and stared into the mass. Soon, his frigate would be hidden in the field and he would have his crew fix up all the systems and get them back on track to the fleet.

Chief Stone reported in. “All done back here. I’ll be in the drive room.”

Bale floated over the holostage, looking down on the image of the asteroid field.

“All systems down,” Ripa said from her position in the command chair. “The boat is dark. Entering the rogue field now.”

13

Jack detected the Mechs’ weapons fire and knew he was on Bale’s trail. At that point, the trail went dark. Jack turned to Sam sitting next to him. Sam was slouched in the seat, his head lolling to one side. The stream of froth pouring out of his mouth had stopped, but his eyes were rolled back in his head and it was horrible to watch.

“Bale has gone dark. He’s hiding from the Mechs.”

Jack scanned the surroundings for any sign of Bale. Not far from the point where the frigate had gone dark was a rogue asteroid field. It was moving away from Jack, all parts of the field drifting together in a slowly moving mass.

“I bet he’s in there,” Jack said. “He’s hiding from the Mechs. It’s worth checking out. What do you think?”

Sam grunted and sputtered a dribble of foam. The response was unintelligible, but at least it confirmed that Sam was conscious and could understand, even if he could not make himself understood.

Of all the injuries Jack had seen suffered by Marines under his command, this had to be one of the most terrifying. He had seen his Marines killed in combat, he’d even seen Sam lose his right arm, but for all the terrible injuries, Jack could not shake the thought of the injury suffered by Sam right now. To lose use of your limbs was terrible enough, but to lose the use of your mind was truly the worst that could happen.

And Sam wasn’t just a Marine under Jack’s command. He was a friend. They had served together through a long, brutal war. Jack had come to know, trust, and rely on Sam. He was going to do whatever he could to get Sam the help he needed.

The nearest help was on Bale’s frigate. If Jack had to shoot the frigate down and scoop up a med-pack from the wreckage, he would not hesitate. Jack would kill a dozen scroats like Bale and Stone to save his friend.

The ship came closer to the asteroid field, and he quickly noticed this was no asteroid field. At a distance, it looked like a rogue field, but up close, Jack could see it was the debris field left over from a space battle. The larger asteroids were burned-out hulks of smashed spacecraft and drifting through the huge hulks were smaller pieces of debris, all the remnants of a battle.

Jack focused the active scanner on one of the larger fragments, a piece of debris many times larger than his corvette. The return scan shocked Jack.

“It’s the Overlord.” Jack fell back in his chair, mouth open. “Sam. It’s the fleet, well, what’s left of it. That chunk of composite is a section of the carrier Overlord. What happened?”

14

Jack was stunned. Thousands of people dead. Perhaps the entire fleet. Had anyone survived? That single thought drove Jack forward.

He frantically started to search for any communications or data-storage devices in the debris. “If we can find some ships’ logs or any combat communications, we might be able to work out what happened.”

Next, Jack scanned the debris all around and found another huge section of the Overlord. He identified one of the drive reactors. It was completely unpowered, and its temperature was barely above absolute zero, but a fraction of residual heat remained in the center of the core.

Jack ran an analysis of the residual heat and calculated the time since the reactor had shut down.

“This battlefield is weeks old.” Jack analyzed the movement in the field and calculated the origin of the debris field. Adding in the time since the Overlord’s reactor shut down, he was able to identify an estimate on the fleet’s last-known position.

“Krav it, Sam, we were way off track. Not that it matters now if the fleet has been destroyed.”

The corvette moved slowly through the debris field. Jack ran scans and collected data on every fragment bigger than a fist. The data poured in. He screened for information on the ships that were laying here in pieces. The data came in slowly.

“The Leo,” Jack said as the scanner identified a section of the hull from the destroyer Leo, a ship from the Scepter Carrier Group. Then came the Capricorn, identified by an identity code on one of its kinetic hail cannons floating amongst the debris, still connected to a section of hull.

Then a crewman from the Sagittarius, identified by his personal Fleet identity code, was detected floating in the void.

“The Capricorn and the Sagittarius, Sam,” Jack said in horror. “That’s all the destroyers from the Overlord group, and the Overlord itself. What the krav happened, Sam…” Jack scanned through the incoming markers. Various parts of the carrier Overlord and the destroyers Leo, Capricorn, and Sagittarius made up the bulk of the debris. Jack moved deeper into the field. He was scanning and looking for a signal he hoped would not come.

Sam grunted something. Jack turned. He guessed he understood that Sam was thinking the same thing.

“No, Sam,” Jack said. “Nothing from the Scorpio.”

The Scorpio was Jack’s home destroyer. He had been posted to the Scorpio Fleet Marine Battalion as a raw recruit. After several months of brutal war, he had been promoted to major and battalion commander. He still held out hope that he would one day set foot back on that old destroyer.

Then Jack saw a signal from the debris that made his heart sink still deeper.

“It’s a civilian transport, Sam.”

The hunk of debris was one of the larger pieces in the field. It was the forward section of an enormous civilian transport, one of the hundreds of vessels used to transport the planetary population away from danger and off to a new home out in the stars.

“One civilian transport in the debris by the looks of it, Sam,” Jack said. He knew Sam could not respond, but Jack needed to share this shocking information with someone.

“Well, the good news is I can’t find any pieces of the Scorpio. Nothing from the Aquarius or the Canis. No signs of the Scepter either.”

Then Jack spotted a signal that was not from any Fleet vessel. It was a section of hull that he could not identify.

“What have we got here,” Jack said. He moved in closer to the unknown debris.

“I’m not familiar with this material,” Jack said. “Extremely high density. This is not from a Fleet vessel. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before. I know there were rumors that Fleet Intelligence was working on a new hull design, but I don’t think anything had been built.”

A message flashed up on the console. The ship’s data recorder from the Leo had been detected on the far side of the debris field. Jack maneuvered toward the device.

“Maybe now we can get some answers.”

Sam gurgled something and shifted in his seat.

“I think we should be able to find some medical supplies too, maybe a few tactical suits and some pulse rifles if we’re lucky. Hold on, Sam. Hold on.”

With gravity restored, Bale sat firmly in his command chair. He felt heavier somehow, maybe the chief had recalibrated the gravity incorrectly, but Bale wasn’t going to challenge him about it. Bale looked at the passive scan viewer and watched Jack’s corvette moving through the debris field. He rubbed his chin and took another bite of the foul blue ration block they had taken from the Marines.

“His active scanners are online,” Ripa said. “He’s sweeping the field in a standard search pattern.”

“He’s searching for us,” Bale said, leaning forward. “Not enough we have to hide from the Mechs now we are hiding from the Marines too. Now I’m worried about staying in this debris field so long.”

“Maybe we should contact him?” she asked, looking up to the main holostage.

“Who?” Bale said, half-turning. “Oh, him,” he added. “No. Do nothing. He’ll never find us in this mess if we maintain our position.”

“Maybe he can help?”

“Help how?”

Ripa tipped her head back toward the rear of the boat, toward the drive room, toward Stone.

Bale swallowed nervously. He shook his head. “We’ll catch up with the fleet soon,” he said. “Maintain silent running status. As long as we stay dark, we’re hidden. As soon as he moves off, we’ll resume our course to the fleet.”

Ripa watched the image of the corvette moving slowly through the field. He was scanning in wide sweeps and making no attempt to hide his position. Ripa wondered if Jack Forge even knew that the frigate was floating in the debris.

She knew Forge was short on supplies. He was probably searching the debris just as they had, looking for anything useful in the junk. Somehow, she didn’t think he was hiding from the Mechs.

A large piece of composite material floated across the view presented on the holostage. The huge piece of debris rotated slowly as it drifted. Ripa looked at the massive piece of debris, and then as it turned, it presented a new image, an interior section of hull. Strapped to the side of the piece were small objects that drew her attention. She could barely make them out. She focused the passive scanners at the point and increased the image.

The sight of people floating dead in space shocked her at first. They were moving along with the section of debris. Ripa realized the fragment was a Fleet craft, and the people floating along with it were its crew.

Ripa focused the scanners on another nearby fragment. She looked closely and saw the charred lettering, the bold white code S-2. Ripa knew immediately it was the designation for a frigate originally assigned to the Scepter Carrier Group.

She had expected to find bodies in the debris but was surprised nevertheless to see them so clearly. The surveillance console reported a fresh signal. Ripa focused on the source.

Half-expecting to find Jack Forge’s corvette moving to intercept, Ripa was at first relieved to see the small points of energy emissions moving through the debris. It was not Forge.

“Someone still has power,” she said to herself. “Maybe a few people have survived in tactical suits.”

The image resolved and showed a number of people moving toward the frigate.

“But how do you know we are here?” she said to herself, watching the small points of energy.

She zoomed in the view to get a closer look. There was a group of individuals wearing what looked like tactical suits moving toward them. She zoomed in closer on the group. The sight was more startling than seeing all the dead crew floating along with the debris.

“Commander,” Ripa said. “Are you seeing this?”

“What now?” Bale replied, leaning forward in his chair.

“It’s not Forge,” Ripa replied. “This debris field is not completely dead. We have a small group of individuals moving toward us. They look like shipwrecked crew adrift in space.”

“How can they detect us? Are we still dark?” Bale said.

“Yes, sir. All power systems are in silent mode. We are dark, sir.” Ripa hesitated. She couldn’t believe what she was about to say. “Sir. They are not human.”

Ripa felt a tingle of nervousness as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching the command deck. Stone burst in. He took position next to Ripa at the surveillance console and began to access all the scanner data.

Bale climbed down from the command chair and walked toward the main holostage, captivated by the image. There were three individuals moving directly toward the frigate. Small thrusters at the rear of their suits propelled them along.

“Give me a closer look,” Bale said.

Stone was customizing the scanners. Ripa watched as the chief bypassed systems and rerouted the scanners through the laser targeting. The image instantly became much clearer.

The three individuals were not wearing Fleet tactical suits. The build was much bulkier. Chief Stone flashed a scale up next to the image.

“Is that correct?” Ripa said in disbelief.

Stone nodded and reset the scanners to their original configuration and reset the targeting scanners.

“They are almost three meters tall,” Ripa said.

Stone nodded. “Get ready to bring the frigate back to active status. We’re getting out of here.”

Bale was staring at the holoimage in a daze. “I agree, Chief,” Bale said.

“I’m glad. What would I do without your agreement?” Stone said derisively. He pushed himself off the surveillance console and moved to the drive console. “Stand by the weapons console, Ripa,” Stone said and took up position.

Bale pursed his lips. He knew it had been a mixed fortune finding a stranded chief before fleeing from the final battle of the Chitin War. Sure, he could keep the boat running, but Bale knew the old hand would be a threat to his authority. The most important thing for Bale was to reconnect with the fleet as soon as possible before Stone took over completely.

Ripa was compliant. She had been one of the original flight crew aboard the frigate before Bale had taken command, and she had initially respected his authority. Stone never had.

“Activate the boat, Lieutenant,” Bale said, sitting back into his command chair. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Reactor back online,” Stone said. “Directing all power to the drive.”

“Activating the main targeting scanner,” Ripa said. “Auxiliary scanners standing by.”

A beeping alarm on Bale’s armrest drew his attention. He tapped at the control panel and tried to deactivate it.

Stone came rushing over. Ripa looked up at Bale, the blood draining from her face.

Leaning over Bale, Stone tapped the control panel on the armrest of the command chair. “Intruder,” Stone said. “Upper docking hatch.”

Ripa looked nervously at the image of the three tall beings heading for the boat. “One must have come from another direction.”

“Arm yourself,” Stone said. He ran to the command deck entrance and closed the doors. The heavy door locked in place in a fraction of a second, but not before they all heard movement from the upper deck. Someone or something was aboard.

15

The first item Jack brought into the corvette was a crate identified as medical supplies. The drones brought it to the forward supply hatch and dropped the crate in the small airlock before moving off to join the rest of the drones searching for usable items.

He pulled the crate out of the airlock and into the lower deck. He closed the inner hatch and tore the crate open.

The med-packs were all intact and neatly arranged. There were enough for a company of Marines. Jack grabbed a few and ran up the short stairway to the gun deck and then to the flight deck.

He tore open the pack and applied it to Sam’s neck. The readout on the panel showed Sam was physically in good shape. Then a list of red lines reported on his neurological condition. Sam was in neurological shock from a massive cognitive overload. It was similar to the effects of extreme stress and advanced dementia. The pack also reported that Sam had a missing right arm.

Jack laughed. “Sam, it says you are in neural shock, and—brace yourself, old friend—it says you’ve lost your arm.”

Sam gurgled, and his head lolled about. Jack could only guess what obscenities he was trying to articulate. Jack patted him on the shoulder.

“Not sure about the arm, but we can fix up your aching head.”

The medical pack reported the prognosis. Sam would be out of action for several days. The pack requested a second pack be applied to the base of Sam’s neck. Jack tore another one open and held it in position. Fine tendrils threaded out and into Sam’s spine, beginning the treatment immediately.

Jack watched as Sam slipped into a deep, medically-induced sleep. He patted him on the shoulder again. “You’ll be alright soon,” Jack said.

Dropping into his seat and checking the progress of the drones, he saw one returning with a large crate. It was a tactical suit. The designation was for the enforcer division of Fleet Intelligence. Jack had always thought the enforcer tactical suit was too showy with its matte black exterior. It was no different than the Fleet Marine tactical suit and had all the same systems. The only difference was the color. Jack was sure that was designed to intimidate.

He knew the tactical suit crate would not fit through the small service hatch. He would have to climb down to the main airlock on the lower hull. Jack closed his eyes. He was tired and the thought of climbing down made him even more tired. Sam was snoring quietly next to him, slumped sideways in the copilot’s chair. The readouts on the med-packs blinked calmly as they treated Sam.

Jack grabbed a med-pack from the flight console and tore it open. He rolled up his sleeve and applied it to his forearm. The medical diagnostics ran quickly. Jack was in good health but was fatigued.

“Didn’t need a med-pack to tell me that,” Jack chuckled. He input his Fleet Marine officer override code into the small pack and instructed it to administer a stim shot.

Suddenly, the flight deck and the flight console became brighter and sharper. Jack was aware of every minor noise throughout the corvette. The drone was approaching the main hatch with the tactical suit. Another drone further away reported locating pulse rifle power cells. Jack instructed the drone to recover them.

“Now all we need is a pulse rifle and we’re all set,” he said, jumping out of his chair. He patted Sam on the shoulder. “Keep an eye on things up here. I’m going to pull in that tactical suit.”

And just before Jack could slide down the handrails to the gun deck below, another drone reported its find: a ship’s data recorder.

Jack paused. Waited. The signal was confirmed. It was the Leo’s data recorder. Here would be a record of the events that led to the creation of this debris field. Before Jack checked out his new suit, he had to know what had happened. He sent the drone with the data recorder to the service hatch.

Within moments, the data recorder was in his hands. Jack carried it carefully to the flight deck and set it on the holostage. The data connected with the corvette’s systems, and Jack had all the information at his fingertips.

He searched for weapons discharge. A large group of data points in a short period of less than an hour. He selected the time from an hour before the first weapons discharge and looked at the data.

There was too much to take in. Every ship of the fleet was networked and shared data with all other ships in the vicinity. Every point of data was recorded. From navigational changes to drive operation, from internal communication to ship-to-ship communications, every last microwatt of power usage to every internal hatch activation, everything was there.

“Show me the first contact with a non-Fleet vessel.” Jack watched the holostage. The image appeared in a moment. A ship had been identified by the corvette and frigate outriders. It was huge and moved toward the fleet at high speed.

“Identify the ship,” Jack said.

The text flashed up under the image. Devex Warship.

“Who are the Devex?” Jack asked.

The data recorder responded to the question with a stream of text and a holoimage of an individual. The individual was clad in a heavy full-body suit. It reminded Jack of the tactical suit he was used to wearing—a multi-use suit offering protection against extreme environments, including the vacuum of space, and against attacks by energy and kinetic weapons.

From the design of the suit, Jack could see that the Devex were an upright bilateral biped. The image showed a Devex walking through a Fleet vessel, upright on two legs. Its upper limbs that extended from the top of the torso were short and they held a long piece of equipment that Jack knew instinctively was a weapon. They were tall, and the accompanying text stated the Devex to be three meters in height. They were broad at the shoulders and had a heavy central mass. They were huge.

Jack sat back and looked at the giant. The image showed the Devex warrior’s face on the image scanner. It raised its large weapon and fired a blinding flash at the scanner.

Jack sat back and rubbed his chin. These Devex had attacked and infiltrated the Fleet vessels.

“Show me communication attempts from all ships to the incoming Devex craft.”

The data recorder flashed up several files of transmissions from all Fleet boats. Jack spotted a name he recognized at the top of one file—the transmission logs from a familiar destroyer. The Scorpio. Jack tapped the holofile and opened the logs.

The first communication directed at the incoming warship was a standard greeting.

Jack scrolled back through the communication logs. He found a vocal communication from the captain of the Scorpio to the admiral aboard the command carrier, the Overlord.

Jack accessed the playback of the communication. He heard the familiar and welcome sound of Captain Pretorius.

“The Scorpio stands ready to engage the incoming vessel in the vanguard. We are at full fighting strength. All batteries report ready, sir.”

Jack leaned forward. He had not found any wreckage of the Scorpio. Maybe his old friend and mentor, Pretorius, had been the first to the battle, and the first to fall.

“Negative, Scorpio,” the voice of Admiral Henson from the Overlord came in reply. “Hold position. Protect the civilian fleet.”

Jack looked at the deployment logs for the fleet. All ships were instructed to deploy any fighters they had docked. He saw the details of the fighter wing. All active Blades were rapidly deployed.

The next communication directed at the incoming Devex warship was from the admiral himself. Jack listened to the man’s proud and firm voice as he spoke to the unknown.

“We welcome contact with you, but we will protect ourselves if threatened. Slow your advance. And send a representative craft to meet us.”

Jack knew the result already. The debris of battle lay all around him.

“Show me the first weapons exchange.”

The holostage showed a wide-angle view of the entire fleet. The massive Devex ship broke into three smaller, but still massive, ships. Three huge black slabs, completely dark, each larger than a Fleet carrier, bigger even than the massive, city-sized civilian transports, moved in toward the fleet.

Jack watched with his breath caught in his chest. He waited for the first weapons fire, expecting it to come from the massive Devex ship.

The Devex ship continued to approach the fleet. The central of the three Devex ships maneuvered over the upper hull of one of the civilian ships. Huge clamping arms began to extend out of the dark slab and wrap slowly, inexorably, around the hull of the civilian transport. Only then did the fleet open fire.

The order went out from the command carrier and instantly, all Fleet vessels opened fire. Hail cannon flickered on the image as literally tons of ordnance poured onto the Devex’s black hull. Then all laser emitters in range of the massive Devex craft lit up. Beams appeared instantaneously between the attacker and the Devex target.

The eruptions of fire on the surface of the Devex warship shrouded it from all sensors for a moment. Then it reappeared. The surface sparkled as hundreds of tiny guns fired streams of tiny white energy pips.

The white energy raked the command carrier on its upper hull amidships.

The Overlord erupted in flames as the white fire peppered the upper hull. A brief pause, and then a second wave of fire poured onto the carrier. Jack watched in horror as the second wave burst out of the lower hull of the massive ship a moment before the Overlord broke apart.

Bale took cover behind his command chair, his pulse pistol quivering in his hands. He had never fired at an enemy face-to-face. His only action in the Chitin War had been to strafe an asteroid from thirty thousand kilometers away. Now he was going to come face-to-face with an enemy. The door to the command deck glowed as it was heated from the opposite side.

“Four of them in the main deck outside,” Ripa reported.

Bale looked back and saw the holoimage from the gun deck. The four attackers were so big, they could not stand upright in the main deck. Three knelt and one stooped. All were firing an energy beam at the command deck door, which was glowing and melting away in huge globs of molten composite. The heat on the inside of the door was becoming unbearable. Bale moved back. The air was beginning to burn, and Bale was choking on the heat.

Taking position next to Stone behind a console, Bale pointed his pistol at the door.

“Do something,” Bale said. He grabbed the chief by the shoulder and shook him. “Do something now, Chief!”

Stone shrugged Bale off and steadied his aim. “I am doing something. I’m preparing to defend the command deck. Get ready to kill the intruders, Commander.”

“They’ve stopped firing their energy beams at the door,” Ripa said. She moved around the console and took aim.

Bale stood up. “Yes.” He punched the air. “Too tough for you, eh?” Bale shouted in triumph. “Now, get off my boat.”

Stone pulled Bale down. “Take cover,” he said.

And then the door began to crumple before erupting in a shower of molten composite.

The pulse pistol rounds rang out as Stone and Ripa fired into the smoke-filled cavity that had once been the command deck door.

“Fire your weapon, Commander!” Stone shouted as he shot more pulse rounds into the smoke.

The return fire from the attackers came as a slow-moving wave of energy that sent the smoke cloud billowing inward. The shimmering wave of energy came forward slowly. It spread to fill the space around it and moved forward. It struck Bale and Stone and knocked them down as if they were puppets with their strings cut. The pair collapsed silently to the floor.

Ripa walked back as the wave of energy crept on. She fired another blast. The pulse rounds rippled through the energy wave, slowing with a flash and dissipating in the advancing, shimmering wave.

Ripa fired until the last. A moment before the energy wave connected with her body, she saw the figure of a huge armor-clad warrior moving awkwardly through the melted door that was far too small for it.

Then there was the briefest moment of extreme fear and panic as the energy wave struck and engulfed the young lieutenant.

Jack watched the replay of the battle with the Devex warships. The assault on the first warship continued. It took an assault from the entire fleet and then succumbed to the intense, focused laser barrage. The Devex warship suddenly erupted at the point where over a dozen laser beams had targeted. The warship began to rapidly break apart, destroying the civilian transport in the process.

The fire from the supporting Devex warships slammed into the nearest attacker, which was the Leo. Its forward section was smashed to pieces by the rapid streams of white energy.

The remaining Devex warships moved toward another civilian transport and clamped on with huge grappling arms. The captain of the civilian transport ship reported he had intruders.

Jack checked the image. A giant Devex warrior strode along the corridors of one of the city-sized civilian transports.

The battle continued for a few moments until the group captain of the Scepter took command of the fleet. Jack listened to the message sent to all ships.

“This is Tanaka. I am taking command of the fleet. All ships, withdraw at once. All destroyers, create a running rearguard and protect the fleet. Tanaka out. Good luck.”

Jack felt sick in his stomach. He realized it could be the effects of the stim wearing off or it could be that he had just witnessed a devastating attack on the fleet he had been trying to catch up with.

The holoimage showed the fleet moving off. The one civilian transport trapped by the massive Devex warship burned its drive to the max to escape, then the transport’s engines fell cold.

“Show me the civilian transport command deck.” Jack tapped the image of the captured transport.

The bridge was in chaos. Consoles were erupting in sparks. Some officers were dashing about, while others were lying across the deck. Some were bringing small arms from a weapons locker, pulse pistols distributed to all who would take one.

Jack watched the captain of the transport. He sat in his command chair at the center of the huge command deck. He appeared relaxed. He was tapping away at the consoles on the armrest of his chair.

“Show me the entry point for the intruders.”

The data recording showed Jack that there were multiple entry points. Devex warriors marched into the corridors through entrances that had been smashed through the civilian ship’s hull by the grappling arms. And walking against the flow of Devex warriors was a line of civilians, bound in chains and being led and dragged by Devex warriors. Captive. Enslaved.

Then the image from the corridor ended. Jack wound the data stream back and checked the last data entries from the command deck.

The civilian transport had been set to destruct.

“Was the ship lost with all passengers and crew?” Jack asked the data log.

The reply was strange and horrific. Hundreds of the passengers had been taken from the ship before it had been destroyed.

Jack watched the data stream fade as the surviving fleet moved off and stopped transmitting their data to the Leo’s data core. The last Jack could see, the fleet was racing away while a Devex warship captured another civilian transport.

“So, they didn’t all perish,” Jack said, feeling sick.

“Not. Good,” Sam said with effort.

“Who, you or the battle?” Jack asked.

But the effort of speaking was too much for Sam, and he fell back into a deep sleep.

The drones reported the recovery of rations and weapons and power cells. It was a good amount of salvage, and Jack might have been excited and pleased by it had he not known the cost. The debris and the salvage were the remains of a brutal battle. These Devex warriors were a hostile enemy. The fleet had hoped to find a new home, free from conflict and danger, but it seemed they had found more of the same, if not worse.

Jack signaled for the drones to return with their salvage and began to get the corvette ready to move.

Then a bright signal lit up in the debris as a drive system powered up nearby. Jack felt his heart beat hard at his chest. If the Devex were nearby, he would stand little to no chance. His only hope was to run, or be captured, or destroy himself.

But the signal was not Devex. It was Fleet. Jack felt his spirits lift.

“Someone survived,” Jack said and scanned the target. Then Jack discovered it was, in fact, the frigate of Commander Bale, engines lighting up and racing away from the debris field.

“Bale,” Jack said. “He must have been watching us searching around, afraid to move. Now he’s running.” Jack waited while the drones brought their supplies to the service hatch and the main hatch. He waited for the drones to dock in their housings on the outer hull, then he put the corvette in pursuit.

16

Bale woke slumped against the side hull on the main deck. He was bound hand and foot. Across from him was Stone, unconscious and similarly bound. Lieutenant Ripa was sitting next to the chief. She was white as a sheet, but there was a steely resolve in her reddened eyes.

Bale looked at his bound hands and wriggled to free himself. Ripa made a sharp sound to draw his attention. Bale looked up. Ripa tipped her head sideways and indicated the massive warrior sitting nearby.

Even sitting, the massive being filled the main deck. It was clad in a dark metallic-looking armor that was flexible and seemed to move freely. The weapon sitting across the giant’s knees was made of the same metal as the armor.

Bale looked back along the main deck to the command deck. Three of the giants were moving through the space that suddenly looked much smaller than ever before. The three were tapping away at the consoles. A large device sat on the command chair with cables running out from it, connecting it with the navigation and drive consoles. One of the three giants was taking the weapons control console apart, preparing the connection of the cables to the system.

“What are you doing?” Bale shouted.

Ripa shook her head. She shushed Bale and tipped her head toward Stone next to her. She whispered, barely making a sound, encouraging Bale to lipread as much as listen.

“That one zapped the chief when he tried to speak.”

Stone stirred at the sound of his name. He looked around woozily.

“What do they want with us?” Bale asked, looking around at their hopeless situation.

Stone shrugged. “Food,” he suggested with a devilish smile.

“They don’t need us to run the boat,” Ripa said. “They seem to have that under control.”

“Why do they need a boat at all?” Bale asked.

“Maybe theirs was destroyed in that battle.”

“Speaking of battle,” Ripa said. “What about the Mechs?”

“They are no longer our concern,” Stone said.

“How do you mean?” Bale asked.

“I think they are going to be more interested in Forge than us. But maybe they can actually help us.”

Bale held up his bound hands. “I’m not going to be much help to anyone sitting here.”

Ripa nodded and looked at Stone. “How?” Ripa asked.

The chief slid down the wall and lay on the deck. “The sensors run behind this panel. If I can work on it without them seeing, maybe we can create a diversion.”

“Like what?” Bale asked.

“I can create a sensor ghost. They will think a group of Mechs are out there.” Stone started pulling at a small access panel.

“And what good will that do?” Bale spoke too loudly. The Devex warrior in the corridor looked over, his face hidden behind a heavy faceplate.

Stone removed the cover. “It will give us opportunity. It’s up to us what we do with it.”

Jack moved closer to the frigate. Running silent at high speed was a challenge. Maneuvering into position to traverse between boats was even harder.

“Nearly in position. Are you sure you can handle it, Sam?” Jack looked at Sam in the copilot’s chair.

“You’ve done the hard work,” Sam said. He was slurring and still clearly suffering from the effects of the Mech connection. “All you have to do now is go over there and kick Commander Bale’s kravin’ ass. That’ll be the easiest thing you’ve done in weeks.”

“It’s not Bale I’m worried about,” Jack said. “Stone is the problem on that boat. He’s the one I need to stop.”

“So just shoot the scroat,” Sam said.

“Easy, Sam,” Jack said, his hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I’ve got this.”

Jack climbed out of his seat and slid down the handrail to the gun deck. Waiting for him by the main airlock was the black Fleet Intelligence tactical suit. It had been a long time since Jack had climbed into one of these. There had been a time when he had practically lived in one.

The suit went on easily. It was unused. Jack had previously set it to run all first-use checks. As he pulled the helmet on, he saw a green box on the heads-up display informing him the suit was fully operational.

Jack grabbed two pulse pistols and clipped them to the hip holsters. The frigate would be too cramped for him to use a pulse rifle, so wielding a pair of pistols was the better choice.

Jack connected the helmet communicator to the corvette’s flight console for Sam to keep tabs on the operation.

“As soon as I have control of the boat, you activate the hard dock and connect the tunnel. We won’t need to run dark once I have command.”

Jack slid down the ladder and landed on the outer hatch. He closed the inner hatch behind him and activated the release.

Black space opened underneath him, and he quickly spotted the frigate. Jack dropped toward the hull. He activated the suit’s maneuvering thrusters and gently lowered himself to it.

The best way to enter the frigate was via a secondary service hatch on the underside. Jack began to walk around the hull, moving quietly so as not to alert the crew inside. As he walked down the starboard side, he saw the large scorch mark on the hull. It appeared as if the hull had been peeled away and then replaced. Torn and then resealed. He accessed the suit’s material analysis sensors and scanned the section, then moved on and let the suit run its analysis. He thought the frigate had taken a hit from the Mechs in the latest attack and assumed that was the resulting damage.

Moving down to the lower hull, Jack found the secondary service hatch. The Fleet Intelligence tactical suit had Fleet vessel security overrides. Jack sent the codes to the hatch and it popped open. Dust and grit flew outward, blown into the vacuum of space. Jack slipped inside the service hatch, which barely had enough room for him to move in. Once inside, cramped in the bulky tactical suit, he closed the hatch behind him.

Jack scanned through the inner hatch for signs of movement. The inner hatch came out at the rear store of the lower deck, just next to the med-bay.

He came to the rear access ladder that would take him up to the main deck. Jack would be visible to anyone looking out of the command deck once he came up to the main level. He moved up cautiously, scanning the deck. The images that came back were fuzzy but showed four people on the main deck, sitting on the deck about halfway along. And one of those bodies was much larger than the others.

Jack ran a second scan—a Fleet identity code scan. Three of the bodies were identified by the scan. Commander Gerat Bale. Chief Harry Stone. Lieutenant Ellen Ripa. Their service records were available. He made a mental note to go through their records when he had the chance. The more pressing concern, however, was who was flying the boat and what was the unidentified huge body sitting on the main deck.

He instinctively knew it had to be a Devex warrior. The dimensions were similar to those reported in the Fleet records.

Jack made a second, boat-wide scan. He wasn’t going to reveal himself until he had a fuller picture. He needed to know if there were any more of these Devex warriors on board.

He drew a pulse pistol with his right hand and climbed up the last steps.

As Jack peered over the top of the ladder, he could see along the deck. A seated Devex was filling the middle of the main deck. Around the sides, Jack could see Bale’s crew sitting and tied up.

Ripa noticed Jack’s head peeking up from the lower deck. She looked stunned for a moment, not knowing what was coming next. Jack lifted his pistol and held it up to show he was not going to shoot her. He pointed at the Devex and aimed the pistol.

Then Jack heard Sam’s voice over his helmet communicator, slurred and exhausted.

“Jack. We’ve got company. Mechs.”

And then the first rounds struck the frigate.

The prisoners in the main deck tumbled about as the Mech blasts struck the upper hull. The Devex guarding the frigate’s crew stood up, stooping to fit under the ceiling of the main deck. The warrior walked to the command deck. Jack saw the three other Devex warriors moving awkwardly about the command deck. They staggered as another Mech round hit.

Jack took his chance in the confusion and ran back to the drive room hatch. He tapped the controls. Stone hadn’t locked it down this time, clearly not expecting visitors. The hatch opened, and Jack stepped in.

Jack immediately saw the Mech. It was strapped to a bench. Cables were running from an auxiliary power supply to the Mech. Jack glanced at the readout on the auxiliary supply. It was maintaining a low power within the Mech, keeping the creature sedated so Stone could perform his work.

It might have been bloody work, but the only organic fluids present here was the white pus covering the Mech’s central body mass and the weaponized arm.

A selection of tools and equipment lay on a second bench next to the Mech. The sight was a cruel cross between a mechanic’s workshop and a butcher’s block. Jack stepped forward cautiously.

“I’m here to free you,” Jack said. He noted the damage to the weapon arm. Perhaps Stone had been trying to understand the system but had given no regard to the being it was attached to. He grabbed a cable attached via a strange metallic-looking gel to the Mech’s neck area.

Jack pulled and the cable came away with a spurt of white pus.

Instantly, the gray head flashed bright orange and red. The waves shimmered over its surface and deep within. The Mech stood up in one swift, smooth movement. It ripped the remaining cables free and took a lurching step forward. It aimed at Jack with its weapon arm.

Jack reached up and grabbed the weapon, pointing it away from him. The Mech lashed out with its left arm and caught Jack with a stinging blow to the side of the head. Jack fell away, and he watched the Mech burst out of the drive room, moving in a strange, awkward gait.

Outside the drive room, Jack could see Bale’s crew scurry along the deck at the sudden appearance of the Mech. And further along the main deck, the Devex in the command deck paused, staring back at it, seemingly stunned and rooted to the spot.

The Devex warriors reached for their weapons, but the Mech was quicker. Its integrated weapon arm fired a blast of pulsing energy into the command deck. One Devex fell backward. A stream of tiny white energy points fired from the Devex weapons hissed along the main deck and slammed into the Mech. The gangly creature fell back. It landed at the ladder to the lower deck and quickly made its way down, head first, its gangly legs trailing behind it.

Jack tossed a pulse pistol to Ripa. “Hold them off,” he shouted.

Ripa grabbed the pistol as it flew toward her then quickly took aim and fired. The pulse round struck a Devex in the faceplate and sent it staggering backwards.

Jack dropped down the ladder to the lower deck to take some cover from the Devex on the command deck, and to check where the Mech had gone.

“Jack,” Sam’s voice was still unclear but getting stronger. “A Mech just exited the lower airlock. It’s being picked up by a Mech ship. They are withdrawing. Wow, they are fast. Gone. Is that weapons fire I hear?”

“We’ve got Devex warriors aboard. They have the command deck. Get away, Sam. If I can secure the boat, I’ll follow you. But if I can’t secure the boat, well, there’s no sense in us both dying.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Sam said. “Docking now. I’m coming over.”

“Krav it, Sam, you can hardly walk.”

“But I can fire a pulse pistol. I’m heading over. Don’t die.”

Jack poked his head above deck level to check the Devex and saw it advancing out of the command deck. Bale’s crew lay on the deck, twitching in their bonds, clearly the victims of some neural disrupter weapon. A Devex aimed at Jack with a small device. A wave ripped out from it, moving slowly. Jack let himself drop back down to the lower deck.

There was only one way to go. Jack ran to the med-bay. A Devex pressed its upper body down through the aft access and aimed its weapon at Jack. The stream of white energy raked the clear composite panels around the med-bay. The window shattered and fell in tiny fragments as Jack dove for cover. He popped up and took aim. His shot struck the Devex in the faceplate. Its head jerked backward, but it quickly recovered and fired another stream of energy that wrecked the med-bay, showering Jack in sparks of fire and fragments of broken composite.

Taking cover from the raking fire, Jack checked the status of the outer airlock hatch on his wrist-mounted control. As suspected, the Mech had fled and left it open to space. As the Devex warrior fired another burst that tore the med-bay up more, Jack braced himself and then opened the inner hatch.

The sudden blast of wind sucked the massive Devex warrior down through the access from the main deck, down to the lower deck, and toward the open hatch. The huge creature slid over the open hatch and sealed it with its huge body. One of its arms waved about frantically, the other trapped under its body. The huge Devex rifle lay at its side. Jack watched the creature struggle against the pressure from the air inside the boat, pressing it toward the empty void outside.

Jack jumped up and ran toward the forward end of the lower deck. He clambered up the ladder and came out near the command deck. A Devex warrior was looking down the ladder at the rear end of the main deck, seeing its comrade stuck fast to the open hatch. Jack rushed the massive Devex, leaping past the fallen and unconscious Bale. He activated the pulse pistol’s electron blade and thrust it into the neck area of the Devex. The massive body fell to the deck, its shoulders stopping it from falling fully through the access to the lower deck.

A wind suddenly leapt up and blew Jack down the ladder to the lower deck. He knew the Devex pinned to the open airlock had finally been blown out into space. Jack gripped the ladder and sent an instruction from his wrist panel to seal the airlock. The moment he closed it, an energy pulse slammed into him and flung him toward the drive room.

As he fell, Jack saw the two remaining Devex warriors on the command deck taking cover at either side of the destroyed doorway and giving fire. His HUD reported a system failure and warned that the armor on the left upper quarter was breached, the single blast from the Devex warrior’s massive weapon almost crippling the suit’s defensive capabilities. Jack took cover behind the massive Devex warrior dead at his feet, its head stuck down through the ladder access. He fired back at the Devex on the command deck. The pulse pistol rounds slammed into the door frame, many grazing the edge of the entrance. Several more went long, past the Devex and into the command deck, slamming into the forward bulkhead.

“Jack,” Sam said over Jack’s helmet communicator. “I’m on the upper deck.”

“Can you access the command deck from where you are without coming down to the main deck?” Jack said. “The Devex have good cover. We need to get on their rear flank. Can you find a way in?”

“I don’t know. I’m a Marine, not a Fleet engineer.”

“Yes, he can,” a weak voice sounded from the crumpled form of Chief Stone.

Jack returned fire, then looked at Stone.

“Through the forward hail cannon service hatch.”

“Did you hear that, Sam?” Jack asked as he fired another burst of pulse fire.

“Already on it.”

“He needs to cut away the lower inner cover, and then he can drop into the command deck just behind the communication console.”

Jack fired and kept the Devex totally focused on him.

“Nearly there,” Sam said.

Jack saw the sparks fall into the command deck as Sam cut his way in. One of the Devex spotted it too.

The massive warrior turned and fired at the area where Sam was cutting through.

“Sam! Report, Marine. Sam!”

The second Devex also turned and fired.

The channel was quiet. Jack was up on his feet and running down the main deck. He scooped up Ripa’s fallen pulse pistol as he ran. He activated the electron blades as he came within a couple of steps of the command deck. He crossed his arms across his chest as he came to the opening. And just as the massive Devex turned and brought their huge rifles around, Jack uncrossed his arms and sliced outwards with both fizzing electron blades.

The Devex warriors crumpled as the blades sliced clean through their armor. Jack paused. He watched as the two massive bodies fell limp. Purple ooze leaked out from the armor. Jack waited a moment longer and then, satisfied the two were down, he deactivated the blades.

Jack hurried to the panel where Sam had been attempting entry. He clamped the two pistols onto the tactical suit holsters. The Devex energy blasts had peppered the panel. He accessed the suit’s scanner to look behind the panel, but the suit reported the scanner ability was offline. Jack pulled the panel away. Sam was bundled up in the small space behind the panel, blood pouring from his upper right shoulder.

“They got me,” he said. “What is it about my right arm that it keeps getting hit?”

Jack pulled Sam out and propped him up against the base of the central holostage. “What arm?” Jack said dryly.

Sam slid down to the deck as he laughed. Jack pulled an emergency med-pack from the small of his back and pressed it to the wound on Sam’s shoulder. The pack knitted in and reported a deep but cauterized impact wound. Sam would need full medical treatment and recovery time.

Jack laid Sam down on the debris-strewn deck. “We got enough med-packs, but you’ll have to wait for a full med-facility with drones and nurses for you to torment. Don’t die. Copy?”

17

After only a few hours, Jack had the command deck of the frigate looking like a functioning Fleet vessel. After a ration block and a sip of water, he felt like a functioning Marine officer again. And after applying med-packs to every surviving limb on Sam’s body, he looked almost able to stand.

“Okay, listen up.” Jack sat in the command chair looking down at Bale and his crew. “With two boats, we stand a much better chance of finding the fleet. Lieutenant Ripa, you and Bale will take the corvette. Fly in formation. With all our drones deployed at maximum range, we should pick up the fleet quickly. Chief Stone. You will stay on the frigate with me and Sam. Clear?”

Stone looked up at Jack, his chin jutting forward and his fist tightening.

“Who says you are in charge?”

“I do.” Sam stood up from the side of the command chair. He looked like he had been thrown against a wall and beaten half to death. He took a faltering step forward. “You want to discuss it?”

Jack climbed down and held Sam steady.

“Sit down, Sam, before you fall.” Jack moved Sam to the footrest of the command chair and let him rest.

“I’m not discussing anything with you. This is my boat.” Stone said, striding forward.

Jack looked up and saw the flying fist. He fended the blow off with a sweeping left arm and then struck forward with thumping right jab.

Stone moved backwards, light on his feet for a big man, his fist raised in a practiced boxer’s stance.

Jack moved forward. He was unsteady but determined.

Stone moved in and threw a jab. Jack avoided the blow, moving his head to the left, and then stuck a body blow with a swinging right.

Stone staggered back, holding his aching ribs. He stepped back in between Ripa and Bale.

“Take him down,” Stone said, pointing them forward.

Ripa stepped forward. She looked Jack in the eye and dropped her gaze to the deck. She turned and faced Bale, then stepped over to stand next to Jack.

“Just tell me what you want me to do, Major.”

Then Bale, head bowed, walked forward. He stood behind Jack.

“You are not in charge any more, Harry,” Bale said, a quiver in his voice.

Jack lowered and unclenched his fists.

“Set course for the fleet’s last-known location and prepare to get underway.”

Stone and Jack stood, glowering at each other. The air between them grew cold. Ripa stepped over to the navigation console. She spotted a signal on the sensor console as she walked, then rushed to check the signal.

“Incoming ships,” Ripa said, her voice quivering. “Mechs.”

The first rounds slammed into the unmanned corvette. The little ship bucked under the assault until, with its back broken, it fell apart. The rector erupted and engulfed the little boat in a billowing fireball. The shockwave struck the side of the frigate. Power fluctuated across the grid, and the lights went out.

“Intruders. We have intruders at the upper airlock.” Ripa was talking fast but clear.

Jack activated his jacket’s flashlight. He looked out of the command deck along the dark main deck. In the shadows, he saw several figures. They moved forward in an awkward gait that Jack recognized. He drew his pulse pistol and took a knee.

Sam ran alongside Jack. “Don’t shoot, Jack. They don’t want us, only Stone. They want Stone.” Sam’s tone shifted to something strangely hypnotic. “Revenge. We call it revenge.”

“Don’t let them near me,” Stone said. “Get me a weapon. Bale, do what I tell you. Get me a weapon. Kill the intruders!”

The figures in the dark tunnel of the main deck raised their weapon arms. There was a hum and a flicker of light as their weapons charged.

“We are surrounded,” Ripa said. Mech ships on all sides.

“Hurt one and you hurt all,” Sam said. “We cannot forget the pain he gave us. We must return the pain to him. Give us Stone.”

The figures came closer.

“No,” Jack said. “You can’t have him. We will deal with him under our own laws.”

The Mechs moved slowly and stepped onto the command deck.

“You have no law for us,” Sam said. “We will deliver justice for his crime.”

Jack looked at Sam. His eyes rolled back, and his head dropped to one side.

“Tell them to back off, Sam.”

“Don’t get in my way, Jack,” Sam said in that strange monotone. “Your pulse pistol will not cause us any significant damage, not enough to stop us taking Stone.”

The Mechs walked onto the command deck. Stone shuffled back until he bumped into the holostage. The Mechs moved past Jack and Sam, ignored Ripa and Bale, and closed in on Stone.

“Get them away from me,” Stone said. He raised his fists.

“What will they do with him?” Jack asked.

“Nothing pleasant. It will be long and painful. They will make him suffer for centuries to come. He may never be allowed to die. They will take his consciousness and transfer it to a more robust body where he can experience his justice for as long as the Mechs desire. They will learn about pain and teach him about suffering.”

“Get off me, you freaks!” Stone rushed forward and swung a punch at the nearest Mech. The Mech raised its arm with the ball-like fist. The fine tendrils that surrounded the hand caught Stone’s fist.

Stone collapsed to the floor. He grabbed his right wrist and the tendril spread over his fist. He yelled in pain until tears burst from his eyes. Another Mech stepped in and wrapped Stone’s left hand in a fibrous mesh. The two pulled Stone up and began to drag him.

Stone’s shouts of pain and fear sent shivers down Jack’s spine. He had heard Marines cry out in battle but never with such a piteous sound as this. The pain and fear were palpable.

“Stop them, Sam,” Jack said.

“Justice has begun,” Sam said.

“Revenge is not justice.” Jack stood up and aimed his pulse pistol at a Mech holding Stone. Instantly, the Mechs in the corridor of the main deck and the two Mechs on the command deck activated their right arm weapons.

Sam stood and placed himself in front of Jack. “Don’t shoot,” Sam said.

Jack slowly lowered the pistol. He watched the pistol move away from the Mech body and down to Stone, hanging, yelling, his eyes wild and afraid.

Three rounds were fired. Jack was lost in silence as he pulled the trigger. The pulse rounds struck Stone in the chest. A round each for heart and lungs. The yelling stopped. Jack lowered his pistol to his side.

The Mechs dropped Stone to the deck. One took a stride toward Jack and grabbed him around the throat with its secondary right arm, the flesh-like tentacles tightening. Jack felt his windpipe close. He gasped for air. Sam grabbed the Mech’s arm and pulled it.

The Mech turned its wide, gray head toward Sam and released Jack. Jack clutched his throat, gasping for air. The Mech took hold of Sam’s right upper arm and wrapped it in the tendrils from its ball-like fist. The tendrils surrounded the end-cap over his stump. Sam flinched and struggled, then fell away. He collapsed on to the deck next to Jack.

Jack touched his neck and heaved for air, every breath hard and welcome. The Mechs drifted off the command deck, out onto the dark main deck. Their shadows moved away and up the access to the upper deck.

“Activity on the upper airlock,” Ripa said. “Airlock sealed.”

Bale rushed over to a console, slipping on the blood flowing out of Stone’s chest. He grabbed the console edge and tapped the controls. The holostage lit up and showed the frigate surrounded by Mech ships. The Mech ships raced away in various directions, leaving the frigate and the burning hull of the corvette alone in the deep, dark cold of space.

Jack sat in the command chair and looked down at the holostage, which showed the frigate in the massive black void of open space. He called out to Ripa.

“Lieutenant. Deploy all drones at a three hundred thousand kilometers perimeter about the boat.”

“Copy that, sir,” Ripa said.

“Sensors at maximum range,” Bale said from the sensors console.

Jack looked at Sam at the drive console. “Do we have power, Sam?”

“You got it. Ready to go, Jack.”

Jack looked down at the command deck. It still showed signs of damage. It was a tough boat. He just hoped it would get them to safety before it fell apart.

Jack tapped the armrest of his command chair and sent his coordinates to the navigational console. Sam activated the drive. The frigate moved off, reaching full speed. He opened a communication channel and sent a message out to anyone who might be listening for them.

“This is Frigate M-9 to the fleet. If you receive this, send rendezvous coordinates. For now, we’ll do our best to find you. Forge out.”

Rescue

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 2

1

The hull of the frigate vibrated violently. Consoles around the command deck threatened to fly loose of their housings as the frigate bucked like a wild animal while racing across the interstellar void. Spacetime in front of the frigate compressed into a dense point just short of a singularity and pulled the ship forward at terrific speed. The ship’s wake of tortured spacetime eddies did nothing to slow or deter the pursuers; they were steadily catching up. Jack Forge leaned forward in his command chair and looked at the holoimage showing his frigate surging through space as well as the pursuing ships, hot on their heels. Knowing they would not fire on his frigate brought no ease. Jack knew the Devex raiders were not there to destroy his frigate, they were there to capture him and his crew alive.

“Slow the ship, Major.” Commander Gerat Bale looked at Jack in the command chair, his face screwed up in fear. “The hull can’t take it. You’re going to get us all killed.”

“Focus on your job, Mr. Bale,” Jack said calmly as he saw the holoimage of the Devex raiders drawing a fraction closer. “Keep those sensors tuned. I don’t want us colliding with any rogue interstellar objects.”

“The frigate’s reactor is close to failsafe shutdown,” Ripa reported, her voice quivering. She moved from the navigation to the engineering console, losing her step and falling as the ship lurched. She fell toward Sam Torent, who was staggering onto the command deck.

“What’s our weapons status, Sam?” Jack asked as he checked the reactor condition.

“All guns ready. I’ll service them from the central weapons console. We really need a few more bodies in this crew if we want to service all these guns to peak efficiency.”

“We are nowhere near a recruiting office, Sam, so we’ll just have to make do for now,” Jack quipped.

“It’ll be okay,” Sam said, walking unsteadily toward the console. “We haven’t got much in the way of ammunition anyway, so our guns will be useless soon.”

The frigate creaked as the ship was pulled violently to port, a distortion forming in the gravity channel as the reactor power fluctuated. The slight change of course at full speed pushed the hull almost to the point of catastrophic failure.

“You are going to tear the frigate apart,” Bale complained loudly. “Let me try and communicate with them again. Maybe we can cut a deal.”

“The Devex are not interested in talking to us. We’ve seen what they want. Prisoners. Standby on the weapons console, Sam,” Jack said calmly. “The first raider will be in weapons’ range in a moment.”

Sam leaned against the weapons console trying to maintain his balance on the rattling deck as he aimed the upper laser assembly with his single arm. With the drones recalled, the sensor range was limited. He adjusted the targeting sensors and sacrificed resolution for range as he searched out his first target. The Devex raiders were big enough for Sam to hit at this resolution. He could put a lancing beam from the laser assembly straight through a raider, he just couldn’t target any specific areas of their ships.

“A new signal,” Bale reported the instant he spotted the blurry, indistinct signal.

“What is it?” Jack said.

Bale turned from his console and looked up at Jack. “Whatever it is, it’s right in our way. It’s cutting off our escape route.”

Jack had always known there was no escape. The Devex raiders had matched their every move for almost a day. Even at full power, the frigate was only able to delay the inevitable. The Devex would catch them sooner or later.

“Look to your console, Mr. Bale,” Jack said calmly to the man who was clearly not used to receiving orders, “and tell me what exactly is blocking our way.” He gripped the armrests of the command chair as the ship shook violently all around him.

Bale checked his sensors and then turned back. “Devex,” Bale reported. “It’s another squadron of raiders. Dead ahead and moving in fast.”

The vibrations running up Jack’s arms and spine brought a feeling of nausea that sat deep in his stomach. He felt the fear of failure creeping up on him along with the urge to vomit. He had failed to avoid the Devex. He had gotten his ship and crew in the jaws of a trap. He had put them in a situation that they might never escape from. On top of that, his ship was flying itself apart and he didn’t have enough ammunition to stand and fight off the threat. Jack pushed doubt from his mind—doubt was a leader’s greatest enemy. He was still in command, of the crew, the ship, and himself. He hadn’t lost yet, and he wasn’t going to lose to fear and doubt. He plotted a course adjustment, determined not to get caught in the raiders’ pincer move.

“Lieutenant Ripa,” Jack shouted as a heavy vibration threatened to throw him from his command chair, “input course correction.”

“We won’t make the turn at this speed unless we can smooth the fluctuations in the main reactor,” Ripa said. “We’ll lose the outer hull, or the drive assembly could shear off. We will throw the ship out of the gravity channel for sure. It’ll collapse the ship in an instant. We’ll be crushed.”

Lieutenant Ellen Ripa’s voice quivered. Jack knew it could be partly due to the vibrations that tortured the frigate’s command deck, but it could also be a heavy dose of fear. He knew she was young and inexperienced, and it was a near-impossible challenge to overcome fear. Every young officer had to face that challenge at some point, but Ripa had had to face it as part of a small crew, lost and alone in deep space. Nervousness was as much a part of her tremulous tones as the vibrating ship. But Jack knew she was right. The maneuver would be suicide.

He canceled the course adjustment with a few taps of the armrest command controls. “Copy that, Lieutenant. Maintain heading.”

Jack tapped the control panel again and checked the condition of the reactor. The core reaction was exceeding acceptable variance every few seconds and was close to failure. The reactor housing could only withstand so much variability in the reaction and was reaching its peak tolerance.

The Devex raiders in front and behind were spreading out and cutting off all lines of escape. The frigate’s upper and lower laser assembly, and two batteries of kinetic hail cannons, could smash a Devex raider. The raiders were determined but cautious. They were closing in but holding just beyond weapons’ range. Jack knew they were waiting for their prey to tire and come to a halt, which would happen soon, and then they would close in. Jack would fight, but there were too many to fight off. The end was drawing closer. Capture, or death, was becoming ever more inevitable.

“Maybe we should surrender,” Bale said, throwing his arms in the air.

Sam looked at Bale with utter contempt, then turned to Jack in the command chair. “Surrender is not an option, Jack. I don’t want them to take me alive. Krav knows what they do with their captives, and I don’t want to find out.”

Jack looked at Sam. He shared his friend’s fear of captivity from the Devex.

He looked at the holostage and the positions of the Devex raiders that were close to surrounding the frigate.

“Can you plot any sort of firing pattern to take on all these ships, Sam?” Jack said.

“We can take one or two,” Sam said.

Commander Bale shouted across the rattling noise of the command deck, “A new signal, just coming into range. An Oort cloud of a star system.” Bale turned to Jack. “It’s super dense for an Oort cloud. We could lose them in the asteroids, if we can make it there.”

“Send coordinates to the navigation systems now,” Jack said.

Bale complied quickly. Jack sent the coordinates to the main holostage and threw up the image of the star system. Far below the frigate, a distant system showed up as an indistinct blur, obscured in part by a dense Oort cloud of orbiting asteroids surrounding it. The unusually dense cloud would make a perfect place to evade the Devex. And it might buy Jack time. At this point, delaying the inevitable sounded like a win.

“Good find, Mr. Bale,” Jack said. “We will make it before the Devex raiders trap us, and we’ll hide from them in there. But we’ll have to shut down all power and go completely dark if we hope to hide. We’ll be defenseless if they find us.”

“How can we change heading, Jack?” Sam said almost too casually, as if his life was not on the line. “We’ll destroy the ship.”

“I’m going to disengage the reactor from the drive assembly. I can only hold it for a few seconds before I’ll have to reengage it. We can change heading with thrusters only and then I’ll throw the power back into the drive.”

“But the Devex will be on us in a second if we cut the drive.” Bale complained

“They will, but they might not be able to react in time and should over-shoot us by hundreds of kilometers. Let’s just hope they don’t collide with us when we stop. Just be sure to give Ripa the sensor readings on that Oort cloud so she can set the new heading.”

Jack called out to Ripa as he prepared the bold maneuver. “You ready for this, Lieutenant?” He saw her nod. She was already focused on the thruster commands at her console. “Stand by to adjust heading for the Oort cloud the moment I cut the power.”

The sudden power cut sent the ship tumbling out of control, and it twisted and pitched as it fell through space. With the reactor offline, power to the gravity generator was cut. Jack felt himself floating free.

“Thrusters responding,” Ripa shouted. She sounded terrified but still focused on her job.

“Devex closing in fast!” Bale called out. “They’ve overshot us. They are slowing and turning. Now moving in. They’ll be on us in a few seconds!”

This was a risky operation, and they all knew it. Jack consoled himself with the knowledge that if it went wrong, he probably wouldn’t know about it. The reactor failure would vaporize him, the frigate, and probably a few of the Devex raiders too.

“Heading reset,” Ripa shouted. “Kick on the reactor, sir.”

Jack hit the drive engage tab on the command chair armrest. The inertia buffers and artificial gravity kicked in a nanosecond before the drive reengaged. Jack was pinned back in his command chair the moment the drive assembly threw the frigate forward.

Sam sounded unusually nervous as he reported their situation. “Breach in the outer hull. Integrity field can’t draw enough power from the reactor. We’ll lose the ship if we don’t divert power from the drive. The consoles are practically shaking themselves free already. Not sure the ship can take any more.”

“The Devex raiders will be on top of us if we don’t push it,” Jack said. He jumped down from his command chair, landing awkwardly on the vibrating deck. “We have to make it that Oort cloud.”

“Where are you going?” Sam called out.

Jack staggered toward the exit.

“I’m going to cover our escape.”

Jack ran off the command deck and out onto the main deck, through the wide corridor to the hail cannon service stations on either side of the wide deck, which were loaded and ready to fire. He reached the ladder down to the lower deck, slid down, and landed heavily again. His ankle twisted and nearly hit the ground as it gave way under his weight. He pulled himself upright and pushed the pain from his mind as he continued on toward the ordnance cache. The walls of the corridor appeared to shudder and vibrate as all the reactor’s power was drawn into the drive systems, hurling the frigate across space toward the Oort cloud.

“I’m going to rig a high-ex warhead to act as a space mine,” Jack said over the crew communicator channel. The lights were dim and flickering on the lower deck as the power was drained to the drive. “Let me know when we’re in cover.”

Jack slid open the ordnance cache. The racks of ammunition for the hail cannon were running low. The frigate was never meant to operate alone for such a length of time. The empty shelves struck a note of dread for Jack. So far, they had been lucky to avoid contact with the Devex. With supplies running low, any contact could be their last.

The sound of the lower laser assembly startled Jack. Then he heard Sam calling out the shot.

“Devex in range of lower assembly. That’s one less raider. Lancing beam cut straight through, forward to aft.”

Then Jack felt his hairs stand on end as the laser assembly discharged again, this time accompanied by the sound of the laser assembly failing mid-shot. Sam’s voice, filled with frustration, came over the crew communication channel again.

“Krav it! Laser main power ring fused. Laser out of action.”

Jack carefully pulled a high-ex warhead off the rack. It was heavy for its size. Jack carefully set it down on the deck, though the vibrating worried him. If the warhead detonated now, it would be the end of a long and difficult road for him. He had always hoped he could eventually settle on a new world, but for now, he was racing through space hoping to escape with his life.

In the last few weeks, Jack had been so busy he had barely thought of his future, but when fleeting thoughts had occurred to him, it was still of finding a way out of the constant threat of hostile space, to link up with the fleet, and then to find a place to settle and call home. If this warhead detonated, it would be the end. The thought was grim. Jack took a calming breath and hunched over the device. He carefully opened the warhead’s control panel.

And then the vibration stopped.

Jack froze. The ship had been vibrating for hours in their frantic escape. The sudden disappearance of the vibration made Jack think for a fraction of a second that the warhead had detonated, and he was dead. The realization that the very thought meant he still lived welled up in Jack with relief and humor. He laughed.

“Approaching the Oort cloud outer edge,” Ripa’s voice came over Jack’s communicator. She sounded calmer than she had been for hours. “I’ve cut all power to the drive assembly. It’s too dense to navigate at speed. Proceeding with thrusters only.”

“Copy that.” Jack tapped away at the detonation circuits. He rigged the warhead to detonate on his command and carried it to the lower airlock and placed it inside. The small window in the inner hatch let Jack see the warhead drift out into space.

“What I wouldn’t give for just one combat drone right about now,” Jack said to himself. He pushed himself to his feet. A shooting pain in his ankle reminding him of his awkward fall down the ladder. He limped back to the ladder and climbed up to the main deck.

Sam’s voice came over Jack’s communicator, and he heard it echoing through the corridors from the command deck.

“Jack. Jack, you need to get up here. You have to see this.”

Jack could sense the nervousness in Sam’s tone. Jack moved quickly, hobbling on his painful ankle. Sam was not one to become nervous easily. The fact he was shouting and uneasy made Jack uneasy.

He ran for the command deck, ignoring the discomfort in his ankle.

Sam climbed down from the command chair when Jack walked onto the deck. Bale was standing at the main holostage. The image of the frigate was projected in a mass of asteroids. At full zoom, the ship was a tiny point of light. Behind them, just beyond the Oort cloud, was the squadron of Devex raiders that had been pursuing them and had nearly trapped them. The Devex had slowed and were holding position. And there, another new signal. Far below Jack and his frigate, there was a massive Devex warship, holding position just outside the Oort cloud on the system’s ecliptic plane.

“We’re on passive scanners only, Major Forge. Those Devex are searching for us,” Bale said, leaning heavily on the side off the holostage. “We’re not out of this yet.”

Jack would like to think they were out of danger, but the Devex would not give up easily. Still… an entire warship, for one frigate and a crew of four? It seemed unlikely to Jack that the warship was here for them.

“And here’s something else too,” Sam said. He pointed at a planet on the holostage, the fourth planet out from the star, a little larger, and much colder, than Jack’s former home planet that humanity had abandoned. Jack noticed the holotag displayed next to the planet, a Fleet code transmitted to any and all Fleet ships that would pass the system.

On the surface of that planet was a ship.

Jack climbed up into his command chair and tapped the holoimage projected above the armrest. He accessed the code. The full information came streaming over the small holostage. He transferred it to the main holostage. The image of the star system and its dense surrounding Oort cloud vanished and was replaced by an image of a city-sized ship.

“It’s a civilian transport ship,” Jack said.

“They don’t know we are here,” Sam said. “Should I contact them?”

Jack returned the holoimage to the tactical display showing the positions of his frigate and the Devex raiders holding position outside the Oort cloud.

“Negative, Sam.” Jack held his hand to his chin and studied the situation.

“We should just ignore them?” Bale said calmly as he pushed himself away from the holostage and walked toward the sensor console. “We need to fix up the frigate and get away from those Devex raiders.”

“We can’t just ignore them,” Jack said heavily. “We might be able to help.”

“How can one frigate with only four officers help a civilian transport?” Bale said. “They might have thirty thousand people on board.”

“We won’t know how many people are down there or how we can help unless we try and find out. I’m sure that Devex warship will be only too eager to go and take a look.”

Bale called out, “The Devex raiders are moving into the Oort cloud.”

“Lieutenant Ripa, stand by for evasive maneuvers,” Jack said. “Sam, plot a firing pattern for the hail cannon. Wait for my order to fire.”

Sam and Lieutenant Ripa confirmed they understood the order.

“Mr. Bale,” Jack said, “start mapping a route through these rocks.”

“Sensor range to maximum,” Bale said. “The Devex warship is powering its primary weapon. They are preparing to fire.”

Jack watched the Devex warship on his armrest holostage. A single blast from that ship was enough to cripple a Fleet destroyer. A frigate could not hope to withstand the power of the massive energy weapon. He expected the killer blow to land any moment. Jack saw the energy discharge from the massive warship, but to his relief, Jack saw that the weapon had targeted an asteroid. The massive rock was destroyed in a fraction of a second, reduced to a cloud of subatomic particles.

“Warship weapon recharging,” Sam said. “Looks like it’ll take ages.”

“Sensor readings show another area where an Oort cloud object has been destroyed. It looks like…” Bale tapped his console. “They are clearing a path through the cloud.”

Jack looked at the data from Bale’s analysis and threw it up onto the holostage. The warship was inching into the cloud. The massive boulders of rock and metal were too dense and moving too fast for the warship to safely navigate. Instead, it was blasting its way through the barrier and creeping into the system.

But why, Jack wondered. And he answered the question the moment he asked it of himself. The civilian transport contained thousands of passengers. That was the warship’s target. That was why it was blasting its way into the system. That was why it was here.

“Major Forge,” Bale called. “Devex raiders. They are moving toward the Oort cloud. I think they’ve located us!”

Jack shifted in his chair. They had evaded the raiders for days, and this particular pursuit had been going on for hours. He had won a little respite, but the Devex had him outmanned, outmaneuvered, and outgunned. And now they were moving in for the kill.

2

Jack watched the raiders closing in on his position amidst the rocks of the dense cloud. The movement at that point in the cloud was fairly rapid. They orbited the parent star at a lazy pace around the ecliptic plane but moved more rapidly over the star’s poles. Here at about forty-five degrees north of the ecliptic, the rocks moved at pace. Jack kept his frigate moving through the asteroids all around with a light touch of thruster jets and use of the faint gravitational fields around the larger of the asteroids. He swung through the cloud in gentle arcs.

“Devex raiders approaching the outer edge of the Oort cloud,” Sam called out.

Jack had half an eye on the massive holoimage displayed over the holostage in the center of the command deck. He also had a finger hovering over the drive panel on the armrest of his chair.

“Course through the asteroids set,” Ripa said. “I’ve allowed for the motion of the asteroids. We will have a clear run through.”

“Good work, Lieutenant,” Jack said. “Stand by to activate drive. On my command.”

Jack watched the Devex raiders swoop into the asteroids. The sleek craft were totally different in shape and size than the massive Devex warships. The raiders were streamlined, making them suitable for operation within planetary atmospheres, while the massive warships were shaped like towering blocks reminiscent of a high-rise city tower. They were dark and featureless, almost invisible in the black of space.

The raiders were slightly larger than Jack’s frigate and most certainly contained more crew. The Devex were known to have captured people with the massive warships and the raiders. A massive warship was probably well-suited to the task of capturing the thousands of people aboard a civilian transport ship, but for a small ship like the frigate, the raiders were more than adequate.

Jack watched the sleek raiders swooping in and around the asteroids. They moved in closer to the mine they had positioned on the sunward side of a small asteroid.

“Stand by,” Jack said. He waited for the opportune moment, and then, judging the time to be right, he played his hand.

“Power to the drive. Go!”

Jack watched the power readout on his armrest holostage as the frigate jumped to high speed. The power from the reactor surged through the frigate’s systems. The main holostage dimmed slightly as the surge robbed power from secondary systems. However, the holostage clearly showed their sudden and rapid movement though the asteroids. And with a close eye on the location of the pursuing Devex, Jack sent the detonation order to the high-ex warhead hidden amongst the tumbling chunks of metal, rock, and ice.

The detonation created a blue and green sphere of destructive energy the size of a small moon. It grew to full size in a fraction of a second and held its shape, a shimmering and seething mass of energy that engulfed the surrounding asteroids and the Devex raiders swooping in toward Jack.

“Got them!” Bale said. He brought his fist down on the console in triumph.

Jack watched carefully as the glowing sphere began to cool. Out of the sphere came a Devex raider. It had been thrown off its axis and was tumbling forward, but it was still under power and moving in on Jack.

“Sensors,” Jack spoke on the open channel. “Report.”

“One raider on sensors here, Major,” Bale said. “It’s veering off course.”

“Entering field of fire for the starboard battery,” Sam called out. “Opening fire.”

Jack leaned forward and watched the image on the central holostage. A blast of kinetic hail from the frigate’s starboard battery slammed into the Devex raider’s lower hull as it banked and turned away from the pursuit. The debris of the other raiders came tumbling out of the now-dissipated sphere of energy from the space mine.

The fragments of kinetic hail each created small superheated spots over the raider’s hull and pushed the raider further off balance, sending it tumbling nose over tail and into an asteroid. It collided and embedded itself on the surface. A shower of rock fragments thrown up by the impact drifted away from the asteroid and joined the swirling mass of the Oort cloud.

Jack watched intently as the raider’s drive flickered and then fell dark.

The debris rippled out from the site of the detonation. Rock fragments, pushed to even higher speed and in new directions, came pouring through the narrow empty spaces between the swift-moving asteroids, racing toward the frigate as it darted away, narrowly avoiding the asteroids in its path.

With their escape masked by the detonation, Jack cut main power.

“Going dark. Reactor to standby. Keep us on course, Lieutenant.”

And then the downed Devex raider exploded. The ship vaporized, the blast pushing the asteroid slightly off its course around the parent star, which it had held for millennia. A billowing cloud of energy from the destroyed Devex raider expanded out from the explosion, smashing into nearby asteroids, boiling the surface dust off the nearest to reveal the solid rock and metal of the main asteroid body.

The blast front raced on through the asteroids, sweeping across and around more asteroids, throwing a huge cloud of dust and grit before it. It drew closer to the rear of the frigate as the craft moved away, relying on momentum alone.

Jack watched the progress on the central holostage. They were nearing the inner, sunward edge of the Oort cloud. He switched the view on the holostage to show the way ahead.

The rocks in front of the frigate thinned out and finally the way ahead was clear, revealing dark open space and the distant sun at the center of the spinning sphere of asteroids. Jack looked at the star at the center of the system. The fourth planet lay ahead of Jack’s frigate, which was now drifting, unpowered, toward the small, cold world and the downed civilian transport.

Jack sat back in his chair as a measure of relief washed over him. He resisted the feeling, knowing they were far from safe. This was only momentary.

“Check the Devex positions.”

“Devex warship is holding position,” Bale reported, his hands moving across the sensor console. “Warship is firing again. It’s drilling its way through the Oort cloud.” Bale turned and looked at Jack. “We need to get away. A group of raiders are moving in to check the debris field on the Oort cloud.” Bale looked back to his console. “It looks like a standard search pattern. They are looking for us.”

In the weeks since his last encounter with the Devex, Jack had managed to avoid them. He cursed his luck running into them again, but at least he had given them the slip for now. With the pursuing Devex raiders destroyed, Jack hoped they could avoid them, at least until he could make some running repairs on the battered frigate, but it was not likely. The civilian transport ship was surely attracting the attention of the Devex. He wished he could ignore it, but duty demanded he at least attempt to offer assistance.

“Maintain silent running. Hold course for the fourth planet. Ripa, set down next to that civilian ship. We can organize repairs for the frigate, and I’ll board the transport and check the situation.”

The civilian ships were vast, city-sized vessels that had been used to evacuate the population from the now-distant world of Eros. Jack put the image of the civilian craft up on the main holostage. He leaned forward and looked at it.

“No power readings from the ship,” Jack said.

“Did they crash?” Bale asked.

“It doesn’t look like it.” Jack scanned the vessel. “Its hull appears to be intact. Maybe they are hiding, just like us.”

“Maybe they’re all dead,” Bale said.

Jack ignored Bale. “Linking to the transport’s internal sensors. Checking the internal environment.”

The readings that came back were unusual. The atmosphere was present and at a standard pressure, but the mix of gases contained a trace substance that the sensors recorded as Dox vapor.

“There is something in the air.” Jack ran a thermal image scan. The bodies of the passengers and crew were all identified, alive and scattered about the ship.

“They are all in there,” Bale said. “Looks like the ship is full.”

“Slowing for orbital insertion,” Ripa said as she worked at the flight console. “Thrusters only. I’ll try and put us down gently.”

Jack watched the holoimage of the planet surface growing closer.

“Fifty meters,” Ripa called out. “Deploying landing struts. Twenty meters. We’re landing now. Civilian transport off our starboard side.”

The frigate hit the planet surface hard. A power conduit along the main deck ruptured. The squeal of stressed hull composite filled the command deck.

Jack flinched and waited for the hull to collapse. Then the squealing in the hull composite died away, replaced by the gentle beep and chirp of warnings and the heavy beating of Jack’s heart.

“There is a rupture in landing strut system,” Bale said. “Minor damage only. I’m isolating the system and shutting it down.”

“I’ve put the frigate down as close to the transport as I can,” Ripa said as she powered down the thrusters.

Jack climbed down from his chair. “I’ll prepare to board the ship and assess the situation over there. Commander Bale, I want you to take charge here. Run a full damage assessment. Patch the frigate as best you can and get her ready to fly. We might need to get out of here in a hurry.”

Sam stepped away from his console.

“You can’t go alone,” Sam said. “It could be dangerous over there.”

Jack nodded. “Sam, you’re with me. Let’s get suited up.” Jack marched off the command deck and headed to the equipment store on the upper deck.

They wasted no time climbing into their extreme environment tactical suits. These suits were so familiar to Jack and Sam that they were able to pull them on and have them sealed, powered, and ready to go in moments. The procedure was a distant memory, but both acted almost on autopilot. Jack checked Sam’s suit and then turned for Sam to check his. Jack felt the pat on his shoulder from Sam telling him he was ready for action. They were both prepared for the extreme environment of the planet surface and whatever danger they may face on the civilian transport.

Jack reached into the storage locker and pulled out two pulse pistols. He handed one to Sam and slapped the other against his thigh, where it was wrapped instantly in the suit’s sidearm holster.

“Follow me,” Jack said, then slid down the first ladder to the main deck and down the second to the lower deck, where he opened the inner hatch of the lower airlock.

A moment later, Jack dropped down from airlock onto the planet surface. Sam landed a moment later. The wind was light, but it brought a flurry of snow and ice in billowing gusts. Visibility was practically zero. The dark shape of the frigate stood out from the blizzard, and next to the frigate was the outer hull of the civilian craft. It towered into the dark, snow-filled sky and stretched away to Jack’s left and right, disappearing into the darkness.

“Right behind you, Jack,” Sam said.

Jack walked carefully through the snow, which nearly blinded him. The fine snow slid over his suit and faceplate, though it was thin on the hard ground and barely came up over Jack’s boots.

The image enhancer on his helmet display showed him the outline of a massive landing strut and an access point to the civilian craft.

He approached the strut and Jack sent a Fleet entry request to the transport. A control panel lit up the instant Jack sent the request. He tapped the control and a light came on from above and lit the ground around Jack in a bright white light. The sound of a motor told Jack that a ramp was being deployed. The steep ramp with steps came down to ground next to him.

Just as Jack took hold of the handrail, he saw a dark shape in the snow. The shape was large and moving fast. It was silhouetted by the landing lights from the frigate only a few meters away. Jack felt his heart in his throat. His hand went to his pulse pistol on his hip.

Then the helmet visor identified Sam running toward him. The data overlay displayed his name and rank. Jack relaxed. He waited for Sam to join him.

“Slow down, Sam,” Jack said on their channel.

“I don’t want to be out here any longer than necessary,” Sam replied. “I can’t see a thing. There could be anything out here.”

Jack smiled to himself. He had enjoyed the short walk to the transport. The feeling of solid ground and natural gravity was a welcome relief. The air was breathable but extremely cold. Jack could have been at a ski resort. He enjoyed the snow. He had grown up in wide prairies with constant year-round warm weather, and a blast of cold had always been a welcome change. For a moment, Jack missed home, but it wasn’t his home anymore. Most of humanity was searching for a new planet to call home now. Jack knew if he ever caught up with the fleet and made it to their new home, he would probably choose a warm climate like the one he had known as a boy.

Sam stepped up to the base of the stairway into the transport.

“Do you want me to go first?” Sam said.

“No, Sam. I’ll take point. Stay close on my six. Copy?”

“Copy that, Major,” Sam said, then chuckled. “Guess we’re still Marines, even if we are the last ones.”

Jack smiled to himself. He had never wanted to be a Marine, but after being pressed to the service, it had quickly taken over his life. Now it was the only way he knew how to act. And in an uncertain situation like his current one, it made sense to proceed in the manner he’d come to know so well.

“Okay, Commander,” Jack said with a smile. “Follow me.”

Jack walked up the stairway to the access port on the side of the massive ship. The door slid open, causing a dusting of snow to fall off the side of the ship. Jack stepped inside, his visor display showing him the way through the dark.

Once inside, Jack found an internal transit channel and a pod that would take him up from the secondary access to the main body of the transport. Jack stepped inside. Sam joined him.

“There should be lights in this entrance,” Sam said. “Something’s not right.”

“Agreed. We proceed with caution. Okay?”

Sam nodded and replied, “Okay.”

The transit pod door closed and then opened a moment later, having taken Jack and Sam up to a large lobby area. Low lighting filled the lobby, which was several stories high. Huge walkways ran around the side of the room on several floors. It was all transparent composite walls and smooth floors.

And, scattered over every square meter of floor, on every level, Jack could see the fallen, slumped bodies of the passengers.

3

“Are they dead?” Sam asked.

Jack stepped over to a young woman holding an infant boy. Jack scanned them. The result showed they were in a deep sleep.

“Not dead.” Jack stepped over to the next body, a fallen old man. He ran the scan again. “They are all asleep, kind of.”

“How…” Sam was looking around the lobby, his head turning this way and that as he tried to take in the entire scene.

Jack ran an environmental scan. His environment suit captured a sample of the air and tested it.

“The air,” Jack said. “It’s laced with Dox vapor. It’s a powerful soporific of some kind. Everyone here is in a chemically-induced coma.”

Jack walked over to a pillar at the center of the lobby, pulling the cover off a panel there. He tapped into the main data stream. The ship was reporting itself to be fully powered. Only environmental controls were offline.

Jack stepped away from the panel. He spotted a uniformed person nearby and scanned for a Fleet identification. The reading came back that the young man was a civilian and merchant fleet junior deck officer. Jack scanned other bodies lying nearby. Most were civilian, their personal histories coming back with job titles from across the spectrum, all now without jobs until they landed at their new home planet. A person lying nearby was a multichannel entertainment designer. She lay next to an agricultural equipment engineer. The entertainment designer’s clothes suggested she had previously held a respected and glamorous position, while the young man laying not two meters from her wore the rough clothes of a land machine worker. Jack guessed which one would be the first to find a job on the new home world, and which would be more important for establishing a new civilization.

“Can you find a way to return the air to the correct levels? Can you filter out this Dox vapor?” Sam asked, looking over Jack’s shoulder at the young officer on the ground.

“Not from here,” Jack replied. He picked up the cover panel and carefully replaced it over the exposed circuits. “We need to get to an environmental control panel. There are small sub-units throughout a ship this size, but the main controls will be on the command deck,” Jack said. “We can restore environmental norms from there.”

Jack sent a request for access to the ship’s systems. The request was granted, his Fleet Marine command codes still letting him bypass several layers of security. He called up a map of the ship, and it was released to his enhanced data view. The route to the command deck was laid out.

As a serving Fleet Marine major, he still had clearance codes that gave him access to many ship systems. He hoped he could gain access to the command deck.

“Okay, Sam. Follow me.”

They walked to the internal transit pod, stepping over sleeping passengers. The pod took Jack and Sam to the upper forward section of the massive ship in moments, moving swiftly and silently. The doors slid open to a bright, white corridor with smooth walls.

The walk along the gently curving corridor to the command deck took Jack and Sam past more fallen, sleeping passengers and Fleet officers.

Jack stepped up to the command deck doors and ran his security codes. The door slid open.

The command deck was large, but no more than a destroyer’s command deck, which Jack knew well. The layout was virtually the same, a raised command chair overlooking banks of consoles all arranged around a central holostage.

The lights on the walls were at a low level and filled the space with a sickly glow. The consoles were all powered down. The captain was slumped in his command chair. Various command deck officers were either lying at the foot of a console or slumped over them.

Jack looked up at the captain.

“See if you can adjust the environmental controls,” Jack said. He checked the captain’s vitals. Captain Jez Morton, a former bulk haulage transport captain, no doubt more used to transporting inert lumps of rock and metal around than passengers.

“No problem, Jack,” Sam said as he stepped over to the environmental control console. He slid the slumped officer gently down to the deck. “We should have all the passengers and crew up and about before long.”

“No,” Jack said suddenly. He turned away from the captain and stepped up alongside Sam, stepping over the officer on the deck. “Can we restore the environment to the command deck only?”

“What, and leave everyone else asleep?” Sam asked in surprise.

“Yes. Let’s speak to the captain first. Can we do it?”

“Sure. Should only take a moment. I’ll isolate the command deck environment from the rest of the ship.”

Jack watched the environmental readings on his wrist-mounted holostage as Sam reset the controls. The levels of Dox vapor fell, and a standard oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere was restored. Once the air levels read as standard, Jack removed his helmet.

The air in the restored atmosphere smelled dry and fresh. The air on the frigate was becoming filled with the stink of the four-person crew with limited access to washroom facilities.

Sam also unclipped his helmet and took a cautious breath.

“The air is fine,” Jack said. Then he looked up at Captain Morton in his command chair. The captain was stirring slightly, his eyelids flickering. His fingers began to twitch. Suddenly, he opened his eyes. They were wide with fear and surprise. He stood up, then lurched to one side. He grabbed his command chair for support and stumbled toward Jack.

Jack grabbed hold of the captain and steadied him. The captain looked Jack in the eye.

“Get out! Get out! They’re going to kill us all! Get out!”

4

“Captain!” Jack gripped the wild man by his shoulders. “Get a hold of yourself! You’ve been in an induced coma. How did you end up here?”

The captain’s eyes were red and bloodshot, tears coating the reddened eyeballs. He looked around frantically.

“We were attacked. Huge soldiers. They boarded. I don’t remember much after that.”

“Devex?” Jack said, trying to catch Captain Morton’s wild eyes again.

Morton’s gaze snapped back on to Jack’s. He nodded wildly.

“Yes! Devex! Those beasts. It was them.” Morton leaned against his command chair. “I was in the center of the fleet formation when they attacked us the first time. Their massive warship came at the fleet. The Overlord engaged them along with a few destroyers and some support ships. The Blades engaged their raiders. The fleet threw everything at them. We got away. We watched the data streaming in. It was horrible. All those ships, lost.”

“Is that when you fell out of formation?” Jack asked.

“No. We ran with the remainder of the fleet. The Overlord held them off and we ran. I would have fought them. But I couldn’t fight. This is a civilian ship. I don’t have any weapons. We just ran. Then once we were clear, we had power distribution problems and dropped out of formation. We settled down on this planet. My engineering team was working on the problem… We nearly had it fixed and then they came. Krav it, we were only a few hours from rejoining the fleet.”

“Do you know where the fleet is?” Jack asked excitedly, all other thoughts secondary. He had tried for weeks to locate the fleet. Maybe his search was nearing the end.

“The fleet is running to clear Devex space. We were told to make repairs and rendezvous with the fleet when we get back underway. I thought we’d be hidden from the Devex down here. Some Mechs came in system. I tried to contact them for help. They didn’t even enter orbit. And then, the Devex found us. And then… And then…” The captain became agitated again. Jack gripped him by the shoulders and fixed him with a stare, forcing the captain to regain composure.

“The fleet, Captain. Where is the fleet?”

“I have the rendezvous coordinates here somewhere.” The captain climbed up into his command chair and started tapping on his armrest console.

Jack felt a sudden surge of excitement. This was the closest he had been to the fleet since the last days of the Chitin War.

“Yes. They haven’t completely abandoned us,” Morton said, “but then they didn’t know the Devex would find and attack us.”

Others around the command deck were waking and climbing up off the floor. Command deck officers were groaning, some vomiting as the Dox vapor left their system.

“Who are you?” Captain Morton said groggily. “Where did you come from?”

“Major Jack Forge. Fleet Marines. This is Commander Sam Torent.”

“Have you come in force? You’ll need an army to fight off those soldiers.”

“No, Captain, just me and my colleague,” Jack said, indicating Sam. “Not much of an army, but I will offer assistance as I can.”

Sam was at the engineering console. He called over.

“Jack, the reactor looks in good condition.”

“There is a problem with the power distribution,” the captain said, “but I can bypass some of the main power nodes and have this ship in space in a few hours, a day at the most.”

“Sooner would be better, sir,” Jack said. “We are deep in Devex space. They appear to be rounding people up for some reason. Enslaving any they can capture alive. We have to get back into space and meet up with the fleet.”

The captain smiled at Jack. “I think the first thing we should do is wake up all the passengers.”

Jack shook his head. “The people are all unconscious. If we wake them now, we’ll have thousands of frightened people running all over the ship.”

“I think they’ll be grateful to be awake,” Morton said. “Wake them now. I’ll address them and inform them of our situation.”

“I think it’s best to leave everyone where they are and focus on fixing the ship,” Jack appealed to Morton.

The captain looked at Jack and shook his head. “This ship is not under martial law, Major. You don’t give orders here. This ship is under my command, my authority, and I will make the decisions about what is best.”

Jack turned to the captain. “Sir, this is your ship. You do have authority here. But you must attempt to return to the fleet immediately. We need to get out of here as soon as possible. There is a reason you were all left asleep. There is a Devex warship nearby. They are coming back.”

The captain looked at Jack and then Sam. Morton nodded and said. “We repair the ship and rendezvous with the fleet.”

Jack nodded. “Can you handle the job, Sam?”

“No problem, Jack. I can handle it.”

Captain Morton stood up again, still a little unsteady on his feet. “I know the ship better than anyone. I used to fix my own haulage vessel before they put me in command of this kravin’ flying city. And…I could use the change of scenery.”

“No, Captain, I think it’s best if you remain on the command deck,” Jack said.

“My command crew can handle the deck without me watching over them,” Morton said. “And I know these drive systems better than anyone else currently conscious on this ship. I’ll accompany Commander Torent to the drive room, unless you want to impose martial law and have me confined to the command deck, Major?”

Jack glanced at Sam and gave a look that asked for Sam’s opinion. A simple glance between old friends and frontline brothers-in-arms conveyed the message of a hundred words. Sam shrugged. It was a slight, almost imperceptible gesture lost to those standing around the command deck, but a gesture that Sam would accept Jack’s decision, whatever it was.

“Very well,” Jack said. “Get this ship running, Captain.”

Morton walked toward a side locker on the command deck. It popped open in response to Morton’s command code, transferred from his ID chip. Morton pulled out an oxygen mask that he secured over his nose and mouth. Then he took a set of protective glasses and slid them on. After a quick adjustment of breather and glasses, Morton reached into the locker and drew out a pulse pistol and holster. He slung the holster strap over his shoulder and slammed the locker shut.

As Sam left the command deck, following the captain, Jack spotted a young Marine on the deck climbing to his feet. Jack ran his ID. He was a squad leader from the Leo battalion, Tim Hawke.

Hawke spotted Jack and came to attention unsteadily. He gripped a console for support.

“At ease, Hawke,” Jack said.

“Sir. Yes, sir.”

“Who is the senior Marine aboard, Hawke?”

“Me, sir,” Hawke hesitated. “But not anymore, not now you are here. Permission to speak, sir.”

“Go ahead, Hawke,” Jack said.

“You are Major Forge, aren’t you, sir? I mean, you are the Major Forge?”

Jack felt the eyes of several officers turn on him, but he ignored the curious looks from the command officers and stepped forward to help the young Marine before he lost his balance.

“Yes, Hawke, I’m Major Jack Forge. What are you doing here? Were you part of the evacuation?”

“No, sir. I’m here with 8th Squad of Leo Battalion, posted here as security, sir.” Hawke turned away from Jack and vomited over the cold deck.

“One squad?” Jack asked incredulously. “One squad to provide security for an entire civilian transport?”

“Yes, sir,” Hawke said, turning back to Jack, looking pale and tired. “But we are not even at full strength, not anymore,” Hawke said apologetically.

“How many Marines are aboard?”

“Six, sir, including me. We were scattered all over the ship when the Devex attacked. I’d posted units at major corridor junctions.”

“Good work, Marine. You used your resources well.” He looked around the command deck. Officers were shivering in the cold and attempting to power up their consoles.

“We studied your defense of the Scorpio at training camp, sir. I just copied your plan, but we were too few.”

“Well, you’ve got two more Marines aboard now, Hawke,” Jack said.

Then Jack heard Lieutenant Ellen Ripa on a private channel.

“Major Forge, sir. Have you seen this? A ship. I just detected it. It’s heading toward our location now. It’s moving fast.”

5

Jack moved about the command deck looking for any functional console to check the approach of the ship.

“Is it Devex?” Jack said on the private channel with Ripa.

“No, Sir,” Ripa replied. “It’s not Fleet either. It’s a cruiser. Some rich person’s private ship.”

A command deck officer called Jack over. His console was coming to life, panels blinking on and off. Then as power was fully restored, it lit up.

Jack instructed the officer to direct a sensor at the incoming ship. It raced over the surface of the planet at a suicidally low altitude, throwing up a whirlwind of dusty snow behind it.

“Can anyone open a channel to that ship?” Jack called out. Jack walked over to the communications console. The officer there was working the console but was still half-asleep and looked like he would collapse at any moment. He looked at Jack and simply shook his head.

Jack looked at the readout. The ship was ignoring the communication.

“Jack,” Bale’s voice came over the private channel heard only by Jack. “My scanners show that the approaching ship is unarmed.”

Jack ran to the tactical console. He checked the defensive systems of the civilian transport. There were no weapons, only the hull integrity field designed to protect against rogue asteroid impacts in deep space. It might be powerful enough to deflect some attacks, certainly a ramming attack from the incoming cruiser.

“It’s bearing down right on top of the transport. It’s ignoring all my attempts to communicate. It looks hostile to me. We can get a shot at it with the frigate’s port battery.”

Jack walked over to the command chair and picked up his helmet. “Negative. They can’t damage us. The civilian cruiser has a massive hull integrity field. It could withstand being rammed by that racer. Don’t engage it. A ship like that might not have our level of sensor nodes. It’s possible it hasn’t picked up our frigate next to this massive transport. If we are undetected, I’d like to keep it that way. I’m going to meet whoever they are.”

Jack walked toward the command deck exit. “Send out a surveillance drone and stay alert for any other ships entering the system. Let me know if anything else decides to join us. And watch out for the Devex. I just know they are going to be coming along some time soon.”

Jack closed the channel. He turned now to Squad Leader Tim Hawke.

“I am going to meet this visitor. If you must, you will defend the command deck. That is an order. I know you have it in you, Hawke.”

Hawke saluted Jack. Jack returned the salute and left the command deck.

The corridors were dark, and the faceplate enhanced data showed Jack the way. The ship was coming in to land on the upper hull of the civilian ship. Jack located the nearest transit and climbed into the waiting pod. The door slid shut. Jack felt the sudden movement as the pod accelerated upward. He used his suit’s stability field to steady himself.

The pod came to a sudden stop, and Jack felt himself grow lighter for a moment in the sudden deceleration. The door slid open and Jack looked along a dark corridor. He checked the map on his data overlay to find he was on the uppermost deck of the huge ship just meters from where the private cruiser was touching down.

A hatch just ahead was clearly the intended point of entry. Jack ran toward it. He pulled his pulse pistol off his hip and held it at his side. He didn’t want to greet the visitor with pulse pistol fire, but there was something suspicious about the silent approach. Jack thought that the communications systems might be malfunctioning aboard the sleek cruiser, but it might be something more sinister.

“The ship has landed on the upper hull of the transport,” Bale reported.

Jack scanned the area above, but his suit’s scanners couldn’t penetrate the transport’s hull. He watched the hatch for signs of movement.

Then the hatch opened. It fell inwards with a thump and a cold, snow-flecked wind came flying into the low-pressure environment of the transport ship.

Jack took a combat stance, left leg forward. Pistol in his right hand cupped with his left, ready to be raised if needed.

Then a small device dropped in through the hatch in the ceiling.

Jack instantly knew what it was and turned to run away.

The detonation slammed into Jack the moment he turned, and the blast threw him along the dark corridor. He landed heavily. His data overlay flickered as the suit’s power systems reset. The concussion grenade had delivered a heavy punch and momentarily disrupted his suit’s power. The medical readout showed he had sustained no injuries but a mild concussion that was already being treated.

Jack rolled and pressed himself off the deck, rising onto his hands and knees. Before he could stand, he was violently pushed back to the deck. He rolled over and looked up at an industrial handheld laser cutter pointed at his chest. The tip of the cutter was fizzing and ready for work.

He looked past the cutter to the face of the person holding it. It was a face covered with stubble, dark goggles over the eyes and a breathing mask covering the nose and mouth. A large, fur-lined hood covered the head.

“Drop it,” the voice said from behind the breathing mask, barely audible over the howling wind. The laser cutter moved a fraction closer.

6

Jack let go of his pistol and slid it away. He suspected the cutter would burn through his tactical suit and chest cavity more easily than the rock and metal it was designed to cut. He was sure he could get a round off before the assailant could press the cutter forward, but the shot would kill the man, and the cutting blade would be still deadly in a dead man’s hands. Should he topple forward, Jack would be run through as the man fell forward. He thought it was best to play along, at least for now.

“Okay. Okay,” Jack said. He held his hands out to the sides and showed he was surrendering to the man in the mask. “No one needs to get hurt, right?”

“No one needs to get dead,” the man said.

Jack scanned for identification using the suit’s scanners. The neural interface recognized Jack’s instructions and in an instant, the hooded man’s information flashed up on the enhanced display inside of Jack’s helmet.

The man was an asteroid mining contractor named Lou Beretta. The file Jack had was incomplete, but a fractured resume showed that Beretta had worked for years transporting ore from the asteroid mines to the home world before the Chitin War. There was a period of incarceration for trafficking, followed by a long period where there was no data. Beretta had apparently left his profession and gone underground. Jack guessed he had taken control of the cruiser some time toward the end of the war and used it to escape. Now he was looking out for himself.

“You were in the mining industry, right?”

“You scanning my ID, soldier?”

Jack pointed at the mining tool, the blade a few centimeters from Jack’s chest.

“Just a guess. I’m Jack Forge. A Marine.”

“I didn’t expect to find any soldiers here. I thought everyone was sleeping.”

“You knew they were all unconscious? What do you know about that? Do you know how it happened?” Jack asked.

“A soldier and a detective. You are a man of many skills, Jack.”

Jack raised himself up off the floor a fraction.

The laser cutter moved closer a fraction. “Oh, no you don’t, soldier,” Beretta said. “Just stay where you are. I didn’t come here to kill anyone, but I will if I have to.”

The man kicked Jack’s pistol back with his heel and stepped back. “I’m just doing what I can to survive.” He stooped and picked up the pulse pistol.

“I can help you,” Jack said. “You’ll stand a much better chance of surviving with some people around to help out.”

The man laughed and took another step back. “Look around you, Jack. There must be twenty thousand people on this transport. They weren’t exactly stronger together, were they? They got knocked out easily enough. The Devex will be back to scoop them up before long. I’ve seen it before. They knock out the ship and wait for the big ships to come along. Have you seen the size of those things?”

“Yes,” Jack said calmly. “I saw data from their first raid on the fleet.”

The man stepped back again, laughing a single humorless grunt. “The fleet. Makes it sound like we are all in it together.” The man looked up to the open hatch and let out a shrill whistle. “Don’t fool yourself, Jack. That fleet is falling apart. Selfishness and greed will always win out in the end. You have to admire the Devex. They really know how to work together.”

A second man dropped through the open hatch and landed next to Beretta.

“Who’s that, Lou?” the second man said.

Beretta handed the pistol to the big man. “Get to work.”

The big man aimed the pulse pistol at Jack. Jack knew the suit would protect him from one or two poorly-aimed shots, but he braced himself to get away.

“You want me to take care of him?” the big man asked.

“No,” Beretta said. “I’ll watch him. Go and get what we came for. Go.”

Then another person dropped in, a short, stocky, nasty-looking man. He looked down at Jack. Then he glanced at the man with the fur-lined hood.

“Get to work,” Beretta said with menace. The stocky man took another look at Jack and then ran off, the big man following into the dark corridor.

Beretta stepped forward. “Now you just hold still, Jack. We are gonna help ourselves to a few items to help us on our way and then you’ll be free to sit around on this cattle cart until the Devex arrive to scoop you all up. But if I were you, I’d try and get away from here as quickly as possible. Do you know what those Devex are doing with all these people they snatch?”

“No,” Jack said. Maybe, he thought, this pirate knew. Jack was keen to know for himself.

“No, me neither,” Beretta said, “and that’s what kravin’ terrifies me.”

The snowy wind continued to blow in through the open hatch. Jack checked the vital signs on the masked man in front of him. He was beginning to show signs of cold. The heavy coat was able to protect him from the extreme cold outside but not indefinitely.

“You were an asteroid miner, right?” Jack said.

The man grunted with annoyance. “That chip was a requirement for any off-world miner. I hated taking it, and I hate it now. Scan me again and I’ll burn your head off.”

“Don’t do that,” Jack said. “I like my head where it is.” Jack propped himself up on his elbows, still lying down and looking up at Beretta. “You were a hard-working man back before the Chitin War, right? You’re no pirate.”

The two men returned from of the dark moving a small hover-loader in front of them. Jack scanned the pile. Rations and power cells from a supply hold. A cable dropped in through the hatch and the pair attached the loader. They climbed onto the loader themselves and started moving up through the open hatch.

“Looking after yourself is not piracy, Jack. It is simply good sense,” Beretta said. “Staying here and trying to help these people is not good sense. You strike me as a clever guy. Why not come with me, now. I got room for one more.”

Beretta stood back and showed Jack the way to the open hatch.

“You got some skills, I bet. I could use a good hand in my crew. The offer is closing fast.” Beretta stepped back and stood under the open hatch. Snow and wind blowing around him.

“We can’t leave these people to the Devex,” Jack said. “If we work together, I think we can save them.”

“Save yourself, Jack,” Beretta said. Another cable dropped in through the opening and Beretta grabbed hold. “Good to meet you. Don’t get killed.”

Beretta was pulled up through the opening. Jack jumped to his feet and ran to the open hatch, looking up. Only dark sky above with snow blowing through the sky. Then Jack saw the light from the cruiser’s drive system flash through the snow-filled dark.

Jack jumped up and tapped the ladder release. A ladder dropped down and gave Jack access to the open hatch. He climbed up and saw the drive assembly of Beretta’s ship roaring away.

He grabbed the open hatch and pulled it closed. The hatch lock was burned out, cut away by the mining cutter. It would not make a seal. With the hatch in place as well as he could get it, Jack dropped down. The air still rushed in through the narrow gap and created a shrieking whistle that was ear-shatteringly loud. Jack’s tactical suit filtered out the shrill frequency as he made his way back to the command deck.

As he stepped into the transit pod, his communicator received a message from Tim Hawke on the command deck.

“What is it, Mr. Hawke?” Jack asked as seconds later, he stepped back out of the pod into a public lobby and transit hub. The people lying around on the deck were stirring, shivering, and some were clambering up to their hands and knees.

“There is a breach in the hull somewhere. Air is rushing in. It’s diluted the Dox vapor throughout the ship. People are waking up.”

“Copy that, Mr. Hawke. See if you can contact any of your squad. Have them form up outside the command deck. Copy.”

“Copy that, sir.”

Then Jack heard a low rumbling noise. It grew louder by the moment, and it was coming closer. Jack stepped away from the transit pod and looked along a wide corridor where people were stirring from their induced coma. A rush of people came pouring along the corridor, shouting as they came. Some were waving batons and clubs.

Jack had seen panic on the faces of civilians before. It was worrying and dangerous for a mob to be afraid and angry. Without discipline to hold them in check, they could become extremely dangerous, especially in a delicate environment like a deep space transport ship.

He checked the environment readout on his data overlay. The Dox vapor had been diluted by the fresh air rushing in from outside. The sleeping civilians were waking, and they were scared and angry.

The mob rushed toward Jack. He turned to the transit pod door and pressed for it to open. There was no way he was staying here to confront a mob of club-wielding civilians.

And then the power went out. Jack turned to face the oncoming mob. They were lit up by the enhanced data view on his helmet visor. The sudden loss of power made them scared and confused, but at least it slowed their approach for a moment.

“This is Sam,” Jack heard over his communicator. “Sorry about that. Just a minor glitch while I reroute around the main distribution nodes. Should have power back up in a moment.”

“No,” Jack said, “keep the lights off!”

But it was too late, and Sam was too quick. The lights came up to full intensity and the briefly-stunned crowd came to life again—angry, snarling life. One man with a pool cue looked at Jack with fury. He rushed at Jack, his mouth wide open, bellowing a war cry filled with anger and fear.

7

The fat end of the stick came down on Jack, the heavy blow delivered by the wild man at the head of the mob. His eyes were red and fierce. Jack recognized the huge amount of fear backed up behind the wall of anger. Jack raised his arm and the cue stick snapped over his forearm. The enhanced data recorded the impact. No damage.

“Hold,” Jack shouted. He used his helmet’s amplifier to increase the volume of his voice and address the crowd.

The mob closed in, more frightened and angry men and women armed with a variety of clubs and batons, mostly domestic implements now repurposed as rudimentary weapons. They fought to get forward, to close in on Jack and add their weight to the attack. The blows rained down. His tactical suit recorded every impact from the blunt objects. The faces of the crowd pressed in on Jack, and he was forced back against the closed transit channel door.

Jack fended off the blows, his tactical suit easily absorbing all the force the mob could deliver. He shouted again, but the mob was wild. This was becoming tiresome. Jack had more important things to do than stand here facing a mob. He had to save them.

The tactical suit’s thruster was an obvious choice for escape, but the exhaust jets would burn and choke many in the crowd. It could even kill an unprotected civilian. Jack calmly adjusted the local gravity field around his suit and made himself extremely light. He dodged the next blow and pushed himself off the deck with both feet. He rose above the mob.

Hovering just out of arm’s reach of the clawing mob, Jack looked at the hate-filled faces as they reached up to drag him down. He kept just out of reach.

Jack opened a channel to the Captain Morton. “Captain. Your passengers are awake. They are afraid and are rioting down here.”

“Major Forge, I’ve got you on the surveillance feed up here. I don’t have any security personnel to offer assistance. Can you hold position for now?”

Jack rolled his eyes. He didn’t have time to hover over an angry mob. “Captain, can you seal all internal hatchway covers and doors? Let’s at least kettle this riot until we can restore some calm.”

Jack waited for a reply. It came in the form of a closing hatchway off the lobby. The mob turned from Jack and rushed to the closed doorway. Handheld mêlée weapons were now directed against the door.

Jack used a short burst from his thruster to push himself to the lobby’s high ceiling. He accessed the transport ship layout data and searched for a route out of the lobby and back to the command deck. A maintenance access hatch for the transit channel was his best chance. He maneuvered himself over to the cover and removed it. Once inside, he levitated up to the command deck level.

As he passed each level, Jack could hear more raised voices beyond the access doors. People were waking up all over the ship and were in a state of fear. If he opened any transit channel access with no pod in place, he had no doubt that many civilians would fall into the channel, pressed by their panicking fellows.

Jack eventually made it to the command deck level. A transit pod would have made the trip in seconds. He was slower, relying as he was on his suit’s thrusters, but he had made it. There was no sound from behind the door. Jack scanned through the composite and confirmed the corridor was clear.

Jack opened the transit channel door and stepped out. He reset his suit’s gravity field and felt the weight of local natural gravity take hold. He took a few steps to become accustomed to it then walked over to the command deck door and it opened.

The command deck officers were busy working at their consoles. The image of Captain Morton was on the holostage projected from the drive room to holostages all over the ship. He began speaking, and Jack realized he was addressing the ship.

“Attention all passengers. This is the captain. I am here to assure you that all is well.”

“All is not well,” Jack muttered to himself. “They are rioting all over the ship.”

“I know you have many concerns and many valid questions that you need answered. But let me assure you that we are safe.”

“We are not safe,” Jack said, striding toward the holostage.

“Ship systems are currently being repaired and will soon be restored to provide you with security and comfort.”

Jack shook his head. Morton was not just a ship’s captain, he was a politician, and he was running off a series of promises based on what the people wanted to hear rather than any facts.

Morton finished his address with a few promises of immediate action. Jack opened a channel to the captain.

Jack had seen enough of battle to know fear. He had felt it in himself and seen it on the faces of his fellow Marines. But the Fleet Marine Service was a disciplined force and the Marines were trained to manage their fear. The passengers were not a trained and disciplined force, they could not handle the fear they were feeling, and it was exploding in a wave of uncontrolled anger and violence.

“Captain,” Jack said as Morton’s image reappeared on the holostage, speaking now only to Jack. “We need to get the civilians under control. They are going to hurt themselves or damage the ship. The best thing we can do is knock them all out again,” Jack said.

“Now just wait a moment,” Morton said with a condescending tone. “This is a civilian ship. I have authority here.”

“These people don’t know what’s going on,” Jack responded. “They are afraid, and it is safer for everyone if we just send them back to sleep. We need to seal the hatch on the upper hull and then pump in some kind of soporific. That is the best and easiest way to restore calm.”

“You are talking about assaulting thousands of innocent civilians. I won’t allow it. I will restore calm. Once they know I am back in charge of this ship, they will calm down. They will listen to me.”

Jack tapped a panel on the side of the holostage, selecting a surveillance feed at random. The holostage was suddenly filled with images from a wide corridor along a row of personal cabins. The doors were all flung open and people were rushing about, frantically trying to find a way out.

Jack sent the feed to the captain’s location. “Look,” Jack said. He selected another feed almost at random. The same scene was playing out, people in fear and panic. “They know the ship was attacked. They know they were knocked out. Now they think they are in mortal danger and they don’t know what to do about it. It’s chaos.” Jack walked over to the command chair. “Send them back to sleep so we can save them.”

Jack climbed up into the command chair and opened a channel to the frigate.

“Ripa. Bale. Get a drone up to the transport’s upper hull. There’s a hatch that needs to be sealed.”

Ripa replied immediately, “Copy that, sir. Drone away. We’re almost done over here, sir. All damage has been…” Ripa hesitated to say repaired. “Let’s just say we are as ready for action as we’re going to be, sir. Ripa out.”

Jack accessed the control panel on the chair. “I don’t know how well this will work. I really need a medical officer to authorize this… Pumping soporific into the air supply.”

“Some might say this is an assault on our civil liberties, Major Forge,” Morton said.

“If we make it back to the fleet alive, you can report me,” Jack said. He watched the environmental controls show the change in air chemistry as a soporific was slowly introduced to all levels and all sections except the drive room and the command deck.

Jack tapped the armrest console. The civilian transport command system was almost identical to the system Jack was familiar with. He accessed storeroom information and checked the supplies that had been raided by Beretta. He sent the information to Morton.

“The group who forced their way in, the pirates— They took several power cells and ration supplies. Is that going to be a problem?”

“That could be a problem,” Morton said. “For them,” he added with a smirk. “They were configured for this transport, coded to our systems. Not sure it’ll suit a private craft, not without extensive modification and a few clever hacks. They might have been better off if they’d snatched the civilian cabin power cells, lower power but compatible with any system.”

“Then they might be back for more,” Jack said. “We need to get underway before they return. Next time, they might take something we are relying on. How soon can we get off the ground, Captain?” Jack asked. “My frigate is ready to escort you back to the fleet.”

“We might be some time, Major,” Morton said. “The drive system is not responding. It looks like there is a problem with the reactor. It wasn’t apparent while the power distribution was malfunctioning.”

“How long?” Jack repeated. He accessed the ship’s sensors and projected a system-wide image on the holostage. Danger was nearby and could arrive at any moment.

“I’m working as fast as I can,” Morton said. “But we’re not leaving any time soon.”

8

Jack watched over the environmental controls as the soporific was pumped into the air supply. Within moments of the concentration reaching critical level, the passengers began to slow, stumble, and collapse. The surveillances feeds showed an eerie sight. In places where the people had gathered, the floor was covered with bodies. The images of a deserted ship in the areas that had been vacant were even more eerie.

Jack plotted the route to the drive room of the massive civilian ship and transferred the route to his wrist-mounted holostage. The holographic arrow over the 3-D map of the immediate area pointed the way.

Announcing to the command deck crew that he was going to the drive room, Jack stepped through the sliding double doors and out into the ship.

Most of the corridors were empty. Turning a corner into a public area, the sight of dozens of people collapsed to the deck was disconcerting. Jack stopped to adjust the position of a woman who had ended up in an uncomfortable-looking position. A few steps along, Jack came to a transit pod.

Stepping inside, the pod door closed behind him. The pod’s movement was barely perceptible, even though it was moving at tremendous speed. He arrived at the aft section of the massive ship in moments. The transit pod door slid open and Jack stepped out into an industrial-looking area.

Sam was waiting a few meters away.

“I think we’ve found the problem, Jack,” Sam said. “But the fix is not so easy. This way.”

Jack fell in step alongside Sam, who was looking at his upper right arm. The black composite tendrils that had once connected his cybernetic arm were twitching.

“Is that you making them do that, Sam?” Jack asked, watching the thick tendrils squirm like a knot of snakes.

“No,” Sam said, perplexed, “and I’m sure they are getting longer too.”

Jack took another look. He could not see for certain that they were looking any longer than usual. “You want to get it checked out?” Jack asked. “There is a med facility on this ship. Fully equipped. Med drones, the lot. Go and check yourself.”

Sam shook his head. “No,” he said, still looking at the remains of his cybernetic prosthetic. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Let’s get to work.”

Jack nodded. He agreed, for now, but if Sam started to look like he was having some sort of reaction, or his arm’s endcap was malfunctioning, he would order his old friend to the med facility and have the drones examine him. He suspected that Sam was reluctant to visit a med facility because he would possibly be given a new cybernetic arm. The prosthetics had always given Sam a bad time. Jack knew he found them to be uncomfortable and irritating. Sam had always preferred to remove the arm at any opportunity. Now that there was no cybernetic arm available, no one, not even Jack, could insist he attach it. Sam managed just fine with the one arm, but Jack knew that the moment they returned to the fleet, the Marine authorities would insist on Sam having a new arm attached. Jack didn’t see why Sam should have to suffer that any sooner than necessary.

“Okay, Sam,” Jack said. “But if having one arm starts to impede your performance, I will have to insist you get down the med facility and have the drones check you over. I might even rouse a doctor. There must be one on this ship somewhere.”

Captain Morton was standing at the primary maintenance console. It was alive with blinking red lights all across the wide panel. Jack stepped up and began to switch them off, from least vital system moving up to the most important until he found the single biggest problem. A fused reactor couple and drive assembly shunt.

“That’s the problem alright,” Morton said. “That and a hundred other minor problems. It all adds up to a week in drydock with a full engineering team and then we’ll be good to go.”

“We can bypass some of these safety protocols,” Jack said, “and we can deactivate others. Most of these minor problems can be ignored. Others we can run in parallel with some other systems.”

Morton checked Jack’s assessment. “There is no way we can let this ship take off like that. We would have to circumvent a dozen safety systems. It is not just against regulation,” Morton said, “it is criminally negligent. We could all die.”

The fleet ships had all been in a battered and sorry state toward the end of the long and bitter Chitin War. Jack had become accustomed to fixing and mending and making do. He was not surprised to hear this civilian captain take a different view. Too often, the civilian ships were grounded for the slightest system error, while the military had to fight on. Jack had feared Morton would refuse to attempt take off without having fully functioning systems across the board. His fears were realized. He had to insist the ship would take off regardless of the captain’s reservations. The lives of the passengers were at stake.

Jack stepped away from the panel. “Yes,” he conceded. “It will be dangerous to run the ship in this condition, but we will certainly all be lost if we stay here on the planet. I don’t want to act without your agreement, Captain, but we are in mortal danger. Every moment we lose brings that danger closer. Let’s assemble an engineering team and get to work,” Jack said.

Morton folded his arms and looked at the console. “Even if I agreed to deactivating all safeties, we are still dead in the void, Major. This is not just a simple patch-up job here,” Morton said. “The fused reactor coupling will have to be replaced and reconfigured to the drive assembly shunt. We will need replacement parts.” Morton turned to Jack. “We could strip out the frigate. The reactor coupling is practically identical.”

Sam looked at Jack but said nothing. Jack looked at the console in front of him. It might be easier to strip the frigate, but it was a big job moving that much hardware. And the frigate was the only ship in the system that could fight. Jack would not reduce his fighting strength without very good cause.

“I worked maintenance on a Fleet destroyer. I can repair the fused coupling. I’ve done it before on Marine tac boats. Practically the same design, just smaller. A good maintenance team should be able to get it done. Do you have a workshop, Captain?”

Morton nodded as he flicked through the damage reports of all minor systems. “Yes. We have a workshop and a maintenance team. They’ll be asleep somewhere because you knocked them all out. We’ll have to find them, wake them, and put them to work. I’ll get the command crew to assist.”

Jack was already tapping away at his wrist-mounted holostage. He selected the crew list and selected the maintenance team. He found the locations of the members of the unconscious maintenance team scattered about the ship. He sent the information to Squad Leader Hawke on the command deck and opened a communication channel.

“Hawke here,” the young Marine responded as his image appeared on Jack’s wrist.

“Muster your team and locate these individuals. Escort them to the workshop in the aft section. On the double, Squad Leader.”

Hawke responded positively to the order, a job to take his mind off the boredom of doing nothing.

Then Bale’s voice came over Jack’s communicator, distressed and garbling his words.

“Just calm down, Mr. Bale,” Jack said. “Say again.”

“A group of Devex raiders have been detected. They are heading directly for the planet, directly for the civilian transport.” Bale became agitated, clearly afraid. “They are coming for us.”

9

Jack watched the approaching Devex raiders on his wrist-mounted holostage. They had already entered the upper atmosphere and were heading directly for the upper hull of the transport and one of the many entry points there.

“Sam, you keep a handle on things down here. I’m going to hold off these Devex.”

Sam grabbed Jack’s arm as he turned to leave. “Jack,” Sam said. “You can’t go alone. You haven’t even got a weapon.”

Captain Morton unclipped his pulse pistol and handed it to Jack. “I can take charge down here, Major.”

Sam drew his pistol and nodded at Jack. “Ready?” he asked.

Jack looked at Sam and then the captain. He trusted Sam to get the work done on the drive more than he trusted the captain. The captain was too cautious. If this transport ship was to survive, there would be some risks. Jack knew Sam would judge the risk and get the ship running. But Jack trusted Sam in a battle more than any other Marine alive, and battle was fast approaching.

“Okay,” Jack said. “Get this ship ready to fly, Captain. Nothing pretty, we just need to get moving. Sam, you’re with me.”

Jack ran along the smooth, curved corridors and took up a position near a central transit channel. He was ready to move quickly to intercept the raiders when they boarded.

“It’s a bad idea, Jack,” Sam said. “We can’t fight them off alone.”

“You didn’t say anything in the drive room.” Jack checked his pistol. It was a Fleet pistol, very similar to the Fleet Marine weapon he was used to. Only difference was this pistol did not have an electron blade. He would have to manage without it. He hoped he wouldn’t get that close to this enemy.

“I didn’t say anything in the drive room because if I told you it was a losing battle, I knew you would insist on going alone.”

“Maybe I should have. What’s the good of us both dying?”

“It’s a bad idea,” Sam said again. “Who’s going to protect this ship if we fail?”

Jack watched the raiders approach. They were already in the inner system and moving in on the ice planet fast.

“There is only us,” Jack said. “So, we had better not fail.”

The sound of footsteps in the corridor caught Jack’s attention. It was the sound of a squad of Marines moving quickly on a tactical advance into battle. Squad Leader Hawke came around the corner followed by five Marines in full Marine tactical suits, pulse rifles across their chests. The equipment looked battered and worn, but clean. Hawke had not let his squad stand idle. They had clearly used their time productively.

“Hawke. You had orders,” Jack said, standing in front of Hawke as the squad came to a halt.

“Sir. Yes, sir. All engineering personal have been woken and moved to the drive room. The captain has taken charge and is directing the repairs.”

Sam leaned over to Jack and spoke quietly in his ear. “We need to protect the maintenance team, Jack. If the drive room is taken…”

Sam didn’t need to finish. Jack understood that getting the ship mobile was the best way to win. If they lost control of the drive room, they would surely fail.

But Jack also needed to repel the Devex warriors when they boarded. The thought of them moving through the ship snatching sleeping passengers was horrible. Jack checked the locations of the main entry points on the upper hull. He checked the location of the sleeping civilians. There was a concentration of civilians near a forward entry point. Jack showed Sam and Hawke the image on his wrist-mounted holostage.

“That’s where the Devex will enter. That’s where they’ll go to snatch their captives, where the life signs are most concentrated.”

Sam nodded. “So, what are we going to do?”

Jack zoomed out and selected an image of the entire ship. It was enormous and impossible for a handful of Marines to defend. He had to make a decision.

“Sam, you take two Marines and protect the drive room. Defend the repair crew. I’ll hold here and move to repel the Devex when they board. Okay?”

Sam nodded. He stepped over to the squad of Marines. “I am Commander Torent,” Sam introduced himself. “Company commander of the Scorpio Battalion. Now it’s my good luck to have a chance to fight side by side with you.” Sam reached out with the stump of his right arm and jabbed the two lucky Marines in the chest.

Sam turned to Hawke. “With your permission, of course, Squad Leader,” Sam said with a mischievous grin.

Hawke nodded and then repeated the order to the two selected Marines.

“With me, Marines,” Sam said and ran off. He called over his shoulder as he went. “Good luck, Jacky. Don’t get killed.”

Jack shouted back. “Try not to lose any more limbs or I’ll start to think that you are trying to get out of the service a little piece at a time.”

Jack turned to Hawke and the remaining Marines. They seemed surprised to hear two senior Marines talk to each other in such a familiar manner. Jack realized he had been alone with Sam and away from the rest of his battalion for such a long time, and because he and Sam were such old friends and brothers-in-arms, they might have become a little too familiar.

A gentle beep from his wrist-mounted holostage alerted him to the Devex raiders’ proximity. He called up an image relayed from the ship’s passive sensors. The three Devex raiders were slowing their descent and maneuvering to land. They would be on top of the transport in moments.

Jack watched patiently. He glanced up at the squad. The data on his helmet display showed the life-signs of the small squad. Their pulse rates were elevated. All, including Hawke, were showing signs of stress and anxiety. He did a quick service check on them. All were fresh from the training base, their only active service included supervising the boarding of civilians onto this transport during the evacuation, and the action against the Devex raiders when they first boarded the ship, which they had comprehensively lost. Now they were fewer, and their fear greater. Jack checked the data on the squad’s encounter with the Devex. It had been brief and bloody. The Devex had killed the few Marines they had encountered, captured the civilians nearby, and laced the ship’s air with the Dox vapor. Hawke’s small squad hadn’t really stood a chance against a hostile, well-equipped, and determined enemy.

“Listen up, Squad,” Jack said, deactivating the image of the approaching Devex. “You are on home ground here. You know the lay of the land, so I’ll be following your lead when we move. We need to move to intercept with speed. When we encounter the enemy, we will engage with all force. The Devex are a powerful enemy, and they are coming. You are well aware of their capabilities. They won’t be a surprise to you this time. We know what to expect of them. You are ready, and we are going to stop them. Copy?”

The squad all responded in the affirmative, but Jack could hear they were still nervous. He knew they needed focus, but the thought of a fight left them feeling uncertain and afraid.

“Equipment check. Double-time, Marines!” Jack barked. The squad hesitated for a fraction of a second.

Hawke found his voice and called out, “You heard the major. Equipment check.”

Before Hawke had finished speaking, the three Marines were checking their tactical suits, hands moving down their suits from helmet over their chests and down to hips in a regimented pattern, checking it over. Then they checked the backs of the suit of the Marine next to them, signaling the check complete with a heavy pat on the shoulder. Once all suits were checked, they checked their pulse rifles. And as the last part of the standard procedure for an equipment check, the Marines fired up their electron bayonets. The white fizzing blade, a meter long, burst into life at the end of their rifles. Then the Marines deactivated the bayonets and came to attention.

Jack was satisfied that at least the small squad was well drilled. He turned to Hawke.

“You keep your squad on top of their drills, Squad Leader.”

“Yes, sir,” Hawke said. His voice failed to deliver the words with confidence.

“You will be happy that you kept your equipment in good order, make no mistake.” Jack received a final alert from his holostage. He held up his arm and displayed the image. The Devex warriors were exiting their raiders and moving toward an upper service hatch.

“There they are. Combat spacing. Move, move, move!”

He watched as Hawke led his pitifully small three-man squad into battle against a dozen Devex warriors. The only positive that he could find was that the Devex were probably expecting all occupants of the ship to be in a coma. They were surely not expecting resistance this time.

Jack drew his pulse pistol out of his holster and fell in step behind the Marines.

The transit pod brought the squad within earshot of the Devex warriors. The fall of their heavy boots filled the corridor. Jack noticed the heart rate of his squad leap as the shadows of Devex fell along the corridor.

He silently directed the squad to take cover along the corridor. One team of two Marines at the end of an adjoining corridor, a second two-person team, including Hawke, took cover in an open doorway to a luxury passenger compartment. Jack held back, taking cover around the gentle curve in the corridor.

He sent a message to each Marine, heard only by the recipients on their helmet communication circuits.

“Ready to fire. Pour it on them when they come in sight. We’ll hit them hard and drive them back. Stand by.”

The first Devex warrior came into view. He stooped to fit in the corridor, his three-meter height hampering his ability to move freely. Jack couldn’t help but feel in awe of the massive warrior. Its exoskeleton, much like a Marine tactical suit, was impressive, along with its massive rapid-fire blaster.

The Devex opened fire. A stream of tiny white dots of energy raked the corridor. The energy bullets came fizzing from the blaster and slammed into the composite of the corridor and exploded, throwing chucks of material out from the walls

“Open fire!” Jack said. He pressed himself against the side of the corridor.

The Marines in the open corridor let loose with a few pulse rounds. The familiar sound of the Fleet Marine’s primary weapon filled Jack with a hundred memories. He fought back those memories, since few of them were good. Rifle fire was too often accompanied by shouts of fear and pain. Jack put fear from his mind and urged his Marines into action.

“Maintain the fire!” Jack called.

The Devex warrior dropped to the deck, and a second warrior came lumbering behind. The two Devex delivered a sustained stream of white energy bullets onto the open doorway where Hawke was taking cover.

The stream of burning energy from the Devex blasters came with a high-pitched fizzing, and with each hit, the corridor walls and doorframe erupted with burning explosions. The Devex maintained a steady stream, tearing chunks out of the corridor and pouring fear into the small squad of Marines.

The two Marines at the end of the adjoining corridor broke cover and ran back toward Jack. Jack, alert to the deadly danger, dropped and rolled across the corridor to give him a line of sight on the two Devex. He gave covering fire with his pulse pistol, striking the stooped Devex in the faceplate. The Devex head jerked back as the pulse round struck.

The prone Devex turned his blaster on the retreating Marines. They were both flung toward Jack as the energy bullets slammed into their backs. Both fell dead. Their time of death transmitted automatically from their tactical suits to Jack’s.

The prone Devex propped himself up on his elbows and turned his blaster toward Jack. Jack rolled aside and found just enough cover around the slight bend. The bullets tore into the deck plating at Jack’s elbow. He scurried back and pressed himself close to the edge of the corridor.

“Pulse grenade out!”

Jack heard Hawke’s call. He heard the telltale sound of a grenade hitting the deck.

The Marine stationed with Hawke came running back along the corridor in a disorderly retreat. He was running for his life.

“Cover!” Jack said, the instruction intended for the fleeing Marine. Checking his enhanced display, Jack discovered that the Marine was several meters back along the corridor already and steadily retreating, his bio signs off the chart, fear and stress flooding his system with a chemical cocktail that was difficult for even a seasoned Marine to endure, and clearly too much for a novice.

The blast from the pulse grenade ripped along the corridor. Jack braced himself and leaned into the residual blast wave. He risked a glance around the bend of the corridor. At that point, Hawke came running toward Jack. Out of the clouds of dust thrown up from the pulse grenade came the minute white energy bullets from the Devex blasters. They raked the walls of the corridor, exploding and tearing chunks of smooth composite out of the corridor and leaving charred, rough marks and smoldering scars.

“Take cover!” Jack said and directed Hawke to a nearby doorway.

“Where’s Webster?” Hawke said as he took cover across from Jack.

“He lost it and ran.”

“Not Webster!” Hawke lamented. “He was always so tough.”

Jack fired at the dark shape in the white dust that filled the corridor. “Open fire. Heavy fire. Hold them back.”

“We can’t hold them!” Hawke said.

A stream with energy bullets zipped past close to Jack’s head. The flash of the white bullets, brighter than a neutron star, flooded his helmet, the flare shielding not reacting in time to completely protect Jack’s vision. The brightness flashed across his eyes, temporarily blinding him on the right side. He returned fire, knowing that a few centimeters more and he would have had his helmet blasted away, a good deal of his skull and brain along with it.

“Pulse grenade out!” Hawke called and stepped into the corridor, grenade primed and ready to toss.

A stream of white energy cut across Hawke’s right shoulder, tearing a chunk out of the suit. Hawke toppled to one side, his legs crumpling under him. The grenade tumbled from his hand and his fingers uncurled.

Acting on instinct, Jack reached for the falling grenade and tossed it toward the Devex. He checked Hawke’s life signs. The young Marine was alive but falling into shock.

“Fall back, Hawke!” Jack shouted. He grabbed Hawke and turned to run. The stream of energy bullets slammed into the deck, walls, and ceiling all around them. Every bullet was almost too small to measure, each one burning fiercely, every one slamming into the composite and smashing out chucks with a deafening explosion. And each one mercifully missed Jack and Hawke.

The grenade detonated. The stream of pursuing bullets stopped, for a moment.

10

Jack strode onto the command deck, Hawke and Webster close behind. The doors slid shut behind them, closing with a dull thud as he pulled off his helmet.

Captain Morton was standing at the central holostage. He looked up at Jack.

“The Devex have taken one hundred and fifty passengers. Their ships lifted off a moment ago.”

Jack placed his helmet on a console. “I thought you were supervising the work at the drive section.”

“The maintenance team can handle the repair. I’d rather not watch, to be honest. I still think repairs are a bad idea. I still think it’ll kill us all.”

“It’s a robust piece of hardware. It’ll take more abuse than you know, Captain.”

“That’s what the maintenance guys said,” Morton replied. “I hope you are right.”

Morton turned to the holostage. The image showed the section that had just been cleared out by the Devex. “What do they want with these people?” Morton asked, looking at the holoimage, his shoulders slumped.

“Can you track the raiders?” Jack asked, instead of speculating, as he stepped up to the holostage.

Morton tapped a few controls and showed the three raiders racing away from the planet. They moved at high speed toward the distant Oort cloud that surrounded the system. They moved away at forty-five degrees to the ecliptic.

“Is that the direction they came from?” Jack asked.

Morton nodded. “I’ve traced their movements and searched for residual traces of their drive. Since they first put us all to sleep, they have made six trips, each one to and from the same location. Every time, three Devex raiders come, and they take around one hundred and fifty passengers.”

“I know where they’re taking them,” Jack said. “We spotted a Devex warship outside the Oort cloud. The cloud is too dense for it to move through. They are creating a path through the cloud so they can come and scoop everyone up, but they are sending the raiders to start collecting their prize.”

Morton turned away from the holostage and looked up at his command chair. “They have been on board many times while we we’ve all been asleep, before you arrived.”

“And they will be back,” Jack said as he tapped the holostage and called up an image of the civilian transport. “Now they know we are awake, more will come next time. They aren’t going to leave this ship alone until it is emptied of passengers or destroyed.”

Jack marked the locations on the upper hull where the largest entrances were. “I think we should run as soon as we can, but if we can’t get away before the next raid, I think we should fight. I don’t want them snatching any more civilians.”

Hawke was standing to one side of the command deck, Webster crumpled on the floor at his feet. Hawke shouted, “We can’t fight them. They’re too strong. We just got our kravin’ asses kicked, again. I just lost two more of my squad. How are we going to fight them?”

Jack stepped away from the holostage and walked over to Hawke. He spoke softly in Hawke’s ear. “When you address an officer, you say ‘sir’.”

Hawke’s head dropped. “Sir. Yes, sir,” he said quietly.

“You are a Marine, Squad Leader. You will fight and maybe you will die, and so will your Marines. We are here to protect these people and that obligation does not disappear because we are outnumbered. Copy?”

“Copy that, sir.”

“Now get on that passenger list and find every ex-military, every cop, anyone with weapons training. When you find them, go and wake them. If we are going to hold back the Devex, we are going to need volunteers for a militia force. Do you copy, Hawke?”

“Yes, sir,” Hawke said.

Morton stepped over to Jack. He looked hesitant. “I volunteer, Major,” Morton said. “It’s my duty to protect my passengers. I should be the first to volunteer for your militia.”

Jack realized his voice had been rising and saw the entire command deck crew looking at him, nervous and uncertain. He felt a rush of embarrassment that he let his emotions get away from him, but he was feeling frustrated and guilty for the loss of two Marines and a hundred and fifty civilians.

Jack put his hand on Morton’s shoulder. “No, Captain. You are needed here. As soon as the drive repairs are complete, you need to get us to that Oort cloud as fast as possible. I can’t have you in a running battle with the Devex when you will be needed here.”

Morton nodded. “I’ll break out the small arms. The command deck crew will be ready to defend the deck.”

“Good. Keep the scanners active. We need to know when the Devex are coming back.”

Jack surveyed the command deck as an officer opened a locker and distributed pulse pistols to the other dozen deck officers. Hawke was at a console, the nerve-shattered Webster standing at his side.

Jack stepped over to Hawke. “Progress?” he asked.

“We have a hundred and thirty cops on board. An entire precinct was evacuated on this ship.”

Jack looked at Hawke, studying the young Marine’s mood. He seemed composed and focused on his task. Webster looked calmer but was distracted.

“And you, Marine?” Jack said. “How are you holding up?”

Webster looked nervously at Jack. His eyes were red from tears, his face pale from fear.

“I ran, sir,” he said weakly. His lip quivered. “I was afraid.”

Jack fixed Webster with a firm stare. “We are all afraid, Webster,” he said.

The sound of his own name gave the Marine a jolt of confidence. He nodded, and Jack thought he saw some color return to the young man’s gaunt cheeks.

“Everyone on here is afraid.” Jack cast his arm about the command deck. The officers were prepping their pulse pistols and getting on with their jobs at the various consoles around the deck.

“Go with Hawke and wake those cops. You need to look confident when you do that. Can you do that, Marine?”

Webster nodded.

Jack turned to Hawke. “Ask the cops for assistance. If I know cops, they’ll be ready to help. Give them each a pulse weapon and oversee some fire practice. Be quick, though, we don’t know how long before the Devex will be back.”

Jack grabbed his helmet off the console where he’d left it and stepped over to the command deck doors. “Captain Morton, I’ll go and check on the repair work. Call me the instant anything happens.”

Jack pulled on the helmet and stepped out into the quiet corridor as the door slid shut behind him.

Opening a private channel, Jack took a few steps into the dark corridor. “Sam,” Jack said.

The channel opened and Jack heard the sounds of the repair work in the drive room. “Yeah. What is it, Jack?”

Jack walked with more confidence. “How are the repairs?”

“Progressing. How’s the Devex?”

“Not good. I’m coming to the drive section. See you soon.”

With the ventilation shut off to prevent the soporific filtering into the drive room, the air was becoming hot and heavy. The teams worked in their underclothes, sweat dripping from them as they fought to replace a huge part of the main drive.

Jack pulled off his helmet as Sam stepped over. His sleeves tied around his waist. His body dirty and sweaty.

“You’re out of uniform, Marine,” Jack said.

Sam pushed Jack out of sight of the maintenance team. He waited until he was out of earshot before his smile turned to a frown. “I am guarding this section, but I might as well lend a hand too. If the Devex break in, I’ll kill them all, but I’m not standing around waiting for that to happen. I am working. But what is your excuse? What are you doing here, Jack?”

Jack looked at the floor. “Two Marines got killed, Sam.”

Sam fixed Jack with a firm stare and then softened. “Hard luck. We’ve lost people before, Jack, people we knew. Why you so bothered about these?”

“And the Devex took a hundred and fifty passengers.”

“Hard luck for them too. Good luck for the rest that are here. We will save the rest. Right?” Sam pushed Jack hard.

“But it was my call, Sam. I took those Marines. It’s my fault they are dead.”

Sam pushed Jack again. “It’s the kravin’ Devex’s fault they are dead, Jacky. You didn’t shoot them.”

“I might as well have.”

Sam shoved Jack one more time. “Stow that kravin’ talk, Marine. Copy?”

Jack clenched his fist and tapped it against the bulkhead.

“I should have known more about my team. I didn’t know if they were ready for it.”

“No one is ready for an encounter with an enemy like this, Jack. We’ve faced battle a dozen times. Have you ever felt ready for it?”

Jack shook his head. Every time Jack faced danger, he felt afraid. He prepared the best he could, but no preparation was enough once the weapons fire began, once Marines started to fall.

“They were Marines, Jack. You took them to battle. They died. End of story.”

“It’s not the end of the story, Sam. The Devex will be back. We’ve got to fight them off again. I’ve told Hawke to wake a bunch of cops. They are not Marines. What if I get it wrong again, Sam?”

Sam shoved Jack in the shoulder. “So, you get it wrong. People will die. Hard luck for them, and hard luck for you. You are a Marine officer, Jack. We don’t follow you because you always make the right call, you just make the call. We follow you because you can formulate the plan. Half of all battle plans fail, right? Of course, they do, or else both sides would win every time. Maybe you are overdue a failure. Maybe you need to learn to accept failure before you can win.”

“You know how to cheer a guy up, Sam.”

Sam shoved Jack again. “I shouldn’t have to cheer up. You’re the kravin’ boss. So, boss the kravin’ situation or stand down and let someone else make the call. But I’ll tell you this: they won’t be as a good a tactician as you. So if you’ve lost your nerve, you need to stand aside and let someone else call the shots. We can’t have you second-guessing your every move. We’ll be sure to fail if you can’t make decisions, good or bad. You copy, Major?”

“Copy that,” Jack said with a weak smile. “Thanks, Sam.”

Sam looked Jack up and down and saw Jack was standing a bit taller. “Was it bad?” he finally asked.

“The Devex?” Jack asked. “Yeah. They came in hard. Took two of my Marines down fast. One Marine ran. I only just got away. I should have stayed and fought.”

“But you made the decision to fall back. A tactical retreat, right? And here you are, ready to smash them next time.” Sam punched Jack in the shoulder.

Jack nodded.

Sam stepped next to Jack and leaned against the bulkhead. He pulled a hydration pack out of his pocket and took a sip before handing it to Jack.

“Cops?” Sam said with mocking incredulity.

“Yeah, a whole precinct is aboard. Over a hundred.”

Sam shook his head disapprovingly. “I don’t have a good record with cops.” He held out his right arm. The composite tendrils hanging from the endcap were still twitching. “They keep doing that,” Sam changed the subject. “I used to be able to control them, even pick things up, but right now, they seem to have come alive. Maybe it’s this air.”

Jack looked. The composite tendrils were there to connect Sam to his cybernetic arm as a nerve and neural interface. Now they seemed longer and even a bit fatter than before.

“Does it hurt?” Jack asked.

“No, it doesn’t hurt, but you’ve got bigger things to think about than the remains of my old prosthetic.”

Jack pushed himself off the bulkhead. “Get that drive up and running. If we can get away before the Devex come back, so much the better.”

Sam pocketed the hydration pack and pushed himself away from the bulkhead. “Lead them, Jack. Get us out of here. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

The captain’s voice came over the communicator. Sam looked at Jack.

“Major Forge. Devex raiders detected crossing the Oort cloud. They are heading back into the system. A dozen raiders in total. They are on a direct course to us.”

“Copy that, Captain,” Jack said with a strong, steady voice. “Keep me informed.” Then Jack opened a channel to Squad Leader Hawke. “Hawke, you got those cops awake yet?”

“We’re in a cargo hold on fifth deck.” Hawke’s voice was lost under the sound of pulse rifle fire.

“Hold there. I’m on my way to you now.”

Jack paused and patted Sam on the shoulder. “They’ll hang you for striking an officer,” Jack said.

Sam punched Jack in the chest then patted him on the side of the head. “You’ll have to get us out of here first, Jack.”

Jack smiled. He turned and ran from the drive section, pulling on his helmet and checking the fastest route to the cargo hold where his hastily-formed militia was waiting.

11

Lou Beretta sat in the cockpit of his cruiser. Feet up on the console, hands tucked behind his head. He watched the scenes on his flight console’s small holostage.

“What’s the plan, Lou?” Lars Crooke stood behind Beretta, hovering uncertainly.

“Watch,” Beretta said. “And wait.”

The holostage showed the six Devex raiders swooping in toward the inner system. Beretta hadn’t calculated their heading, but it seemed clear. They were heading for the civilian transport on the surface of the ice planet.

“We need those power cells, Lou,” Crooke said, his inaccurate speech was almost childlike, but the deep voice was clearly that of a grown man.

“You need to take it easy.” Beretta shifted his weight in the seat. “Go and grab me a drink.”

“You want water, Lou?” Crooke asked, jabbing his fat thumb over his shoulder toward the untidy galley to the rear of the small cockpit.

“No. There are still a few bottles of Amber. Bring me one of those.”

Beretta brushed some dirt off the leather armrest. The pilot’s chair and everything in the cruiser was the best. He was proud of his ship, but his crew was making it untidy. He had never had such a high-end ship before, and he wanted to keep it clean for as long as possible.

Crooke returned with the squat, square bottle of Amber. He handed it to Beretta.

“You want a glass, Lou?”

Beretta took the bottle. He held it up to the light coming from the flight console. He swirled the rich liquid around the bottle, the liquor sticking to the sides and running back to the bottom in thick fingers.

“You touched this, Lars?” Beretta said.

“No, Lou. I never touched nothing.”

Beretta twisted in his seat. “You drink this?” he said.

“No, Lou,” Crooke’s voice becoming lighter and slower.

Beretta fixed Crooke with a stare then suddenly twisted back into his seat, feet up. “Good. I need you alert. Okay?”

“Yes, boss,” Crooke said.

“What are those guys doing back there?”

Crooke glanced over his shoulder. Beretta looked at their reflections in the shiny console. Snatch and Darran were standing in the plush, white leather-covered saloon. They were talking quietly. Beretta didn’t like the look of these criminals talking quietly together.

“They want to know if we are going back for those power cells now.”

Beretta stood up out of his seat and squared off against the big man’s chest. Crooke stood head and shoulders above Beretta, and he was almost twice as wide across the chest. Beretta stepped close to Crooke. The big man stepped back.

“We will go when I say we go.” Beretta spoke with a sharp and pointed tone, every word a dagger. He reached up and clasped the back of Crooke’s neck. Beretta smiled. “Relax, Lars. There’s no rush. Let’s go and put their concerns to rest. You with me?”

“Always, Lou,” Crooke said.

Beretta let his hand slide away from Crooke’s neck and stepped into the saloon of the cruiser where Snatch and Darran were talking.

A luxury cruiser of this kind hardly needed a crew to run it, but it needed a few determined thieves to steal it, even during the chaos at the end of the Chitin War. The cockpit could be managed by one person. The onboard AI could handle most of the piloting and navigation. Microdrones could take care of routine maintenance and even semi-major repairs. Beretta would not have left Crooke behind during the evacuation. Snatch and Darran were distant associates and had just been in the right place at the right time when Beretta had made his move for the cruiser. They had been helpful in securing the craft.

The saloon was a shambles. The silver covers torn from ration blocks lay strewn about the place, along with discarded clothing on the white leather sofa and chairs. The mess caused by the small group was too much for the small team of microdrones to keep up with. If there had been a full complement of drones, it might have helped matters, but in the first hours aboard, Darran and Snatch had used a few for target practice, calling them out to clean up minor spills and then smashing them with an autographed bat they had found in a display case in the saloon.

When Beretta had first set foot in this saloon, it was the most luxurious sight he’d ever seen. After years in asteroid mining camps and backstreets, and a few stretches in custody, Beretta had become accustomed to basic living. But the clean, plush interior of the cruiser was a new world only seen on VR entertainment feeds. The previous owner would surely have been dismayed to see his luxury pleasure craft in such a sorry state.

“You guys really need to learn to clean up your trash,” Beretta said.

Bill Snatch spat on the floor and glowered at Beretta. “What you going to do about the power cells, Lou?” A dribble of spit hung off his stubbled chin and refused to drop. “We better go in and grab some cells that kravin’ work, and you can do the heavy lifting this time.” Snatch’s voice rose in volume the angrier he became.

“Yeah.” The small, stocky Tal Darran stepped in front of Snatch. “You can go on your own this time. And you better get it right, Lou. I’ve had enough of skulking around in deep space. I want to catch up with the fleet so I can grab me some high and some…company.”

Beretta picked up the bat. There were few swingers who could go by a single name and the simple ‘Al’ on the bat told everyone who the bat had once belonged to. The previous owner of the cruiser must have been exceptionally rich to afford such a trophy for his ship. The cord around the bat’s handle was worn and polished with the famous swinger’s sweat. Beretta felt the harsh thread under his palm.

“We can’t wait any longer,” Snatch said. “These Devex are going to strip that transport clean. It was your call to grab those power cells. A bad call, Lou. You better make it right.”

“Yeah,” Beretta said. “I will put things right.”

Beretta swung the bat one-handed in a wide arc that connected with a sickening crunch to Snatch’s chin. The big man staggered back, gripping his smashed jaw bone.

The pulse pistol shot rang out and Darran collapsed to the deck, clutching his guts in pain. Lars Crooke stepped over to the crumpled body of Darran, the pulse pistol held at his side. He watched Darran squirm for a moment and then delivered another pulse round to the back of Darran’s head.

Beretta had not liked or trusted either Snatch or Darran. This was all for the best. A lifetime of backstreet dealing had taught Beretta many things, and no matter how many times Beretta heard about pacts and oaths and codes, he knew one thing for sure: there was no such thing as honor among thieves.

Snatch staggered backwards, one hand on his broken jaw, the other held up to ward off Beretta, who came forward slowly, twirling the bat in circles and kicking some trash aside.

“Who makes the calls?” Beretta said.

“You do,” Snatch said through his broken jaw.

Beretta grabbed the bat two-handed and brought it around in a wide swing. The bat connected with Snatch’s head and knocked the man to the plush carpeted deck.

“That’s right,” Beretta said, throwing the bat onto a leather sofa.

Crooke stepped over to Snatch and fired a round into the unconscious man’s head.

“Clean up that trash.” Beretta pointed in the general direction of the saloon as he walked back to the cockpit. “Dump it out the airlock.”

Crooke grabbed Snatch by an arm and dragged him away. Beretta saw the smear of blood left behind on the white fur carpet. He threw his hands in the air.

“My rug. Lars, I swear I will airlock your fat ass if you keep messing up my cruiser.”

“Sorry, Lou,” Crooke said, an innocent look on his face. Then Crooke’s face twisted in a bitter grimace. “He ain’t going to make a mess no more, Lou.” Crooke’s voice rose in volume as he spoke and ended with a strange giggle that was almost childlike but for its dark edge.

“Guess not,” Beretta said. Back in the cockpit, he dropped into the captain’s chair and took a deep swig from the bottle. The Amber was sharp and sweet, and it sent a shiver down his spine. He watched the Devex raiders move in on the ice planet and the civilian transport.

“Hey, Lars. Get up here.”

Crooke came over, his heavy footsteps thudding over the thick carpets.

“Those Devex are going in force this time. I bet that Marine gave them a fight.” Beretta took a drink and handed the bottle to Crooke.

“We’re not stupid enough to get into a fight, are we, Lou?” Crooke took a swig and finished the bottle. He pulled off with a gasp.

“No, we aren’t,” Beretta said. “Those Devex are only after the passengers. Those Marines are going to be busy with the Devex. So, let’s go and help ourselves to some power cells while they’re both busy. Yeah?”

Crooke laughed.

“Go and get ready. We’ll go in quietly once the Devex are on board. We’ll land away from the raiders and sneak in, grab some power cells while they are busy killing each other, and get out of this system. Is that plan good enough for you?”

Crooke laughed. “I don’t know.”

Beretta laughed. He reached out and snatched the bottle back. He saw it was empty.

“Krav it, Lars. You finished it.”

Crooke laughed. “Yeah. It’s horrible.”

“Yeah,” Beretta agreed. He threw the bottle over his shoulder and back to the saloon, where it fell amongst the trash and the dead. “I would kill for a beer.”

12

Jack sat against a pillar in a wide-open public area near the center of the ship. Sleeping passengers were all around him. The holoimage from his wrist-mounted holostage was projected on the deck and showed the civilian transport and approaching Devex raiders.

The militia had been split into three teams to cover the three main entrances on the upper hull. Jack posted Hawke and the two Marines to each team of cops. Jack held back to direct the defense and swoop in on any area that needed support. Sam Torent and the nervous Webster completed Jack’s three-man reaction force.

Sam was looking at his arm, the missing one. He lifted the upper arm and watched the composite tendrils as they moved.

“Are you sure that’s alright?” Jack said.

“I don’t know, Jack. It doesn’t hurt. It feels better than ever, really. But it’s growing.”

Jack looked away from the holoimage. “It’s what? Growing? How?”

Sam held the arm out for Jack to see. The black composite that had once connected to Sam’s hated cybernetic arm were much thicker. There was a dull gray material apparently growing over the tendrils. Near the endcap, the mechanical cap that covered Sam’s flesh and bone stump, the tendrils had clumped together with the material.

Jack recognized the material, it was similar to the metal that covered the head and bodies of the Mechs.

Sam moved his arm about to look at it from all sides. “It’s where that Mech grabbed me when we encountered them. I think I’m growing a Mech arm.”

Jack felt his mouth fall open. “Is that…” Jack hesitated. “Is that good?”

Sam shrugged. “Feels good. Hope I don’t strangle myself with it.”

Jack laughed a nervous, slightly frightened laugh. The Mechs had good reason to distrust Jack and Sam. And for all their close contact with the Mechs, they remained an unknown species, a powerful and potentially dangerous species. Jack had more than enough reason to be wary and suspicious of them.

He looked back to the holoimage. The Devex were only a few minutes away.

“Game time, Sam.” Jack opened a channel to the Marines posted with the cops. “Devex approaching. Stand by to activate the first stage of our plan.”

The passengers had been moved from the entrance points, but there had only been time to move them a few dozen meters behind the cop’s defensive line. If the Devex burst through the defensive line, it wouldn’t matter if the passengers were a hundred meters away. The aliens only seemed to be interested in one thing: taking prisoners. They would kill anyone who stood in their way. Jack knew they were fighting for the lives of everyone on board.

The Devex ships touched down on the upper hull. Jack spoke on an open channel to the entire defense force.

“Hold them back. The longer you stand your ground, the better the chance that the Devex will withdraw. We need time before the ship can escape the planet. Give us the time. Front ranks, standby to activate defensive measures. Good luck.”

Webster paced in front of Jack and Sam. Then the sounds of battle came over Jack’s open channel. The Devex at the aft entry point had dropped into the upper corridors.

Webster looked at the holoimage. The red points indicated weapons fire. The tiny dots flashed in a small area that represented a narrow corridor.

“Take it easy, Webster,” Sam advised.

The aft section was under Hawke’s. The young squad leader’s voice came over Jack’s communicator.

“Devex have breached the hull and are entering in force. Activating localized gravity increase.”

The sounds of pulse fire filled the background. Among it, Jack could hear the telltale fizzing and popping of the Devex energy bullets raking the walls of the corridor.

“It’s working,” Hawke said. “The deck plates are at maximum gravity. The Devex are trapped. They are stuck.”

Sam leaned in toward the projection. “Pour the fire on them Hawke,” Sam said quietly. “Give them a wall of fire.”

Beretta watched the sensor readings on the flight console. The Devex had landed on the transport. Energy readings from just inside the hull looked to his untrained eye to be weapons fire. He activated the cruiser’s drive and set a course.

“Okay, we’re moving in. Lars, you ready?” Beretta turned in his seat

Crooke was reclining in the saloon, his feet up on the sofa and a virtual reality hood over his eyes. Beretta grabbed an empty bottle from under his seat and threw it at Crooke. It flew, tumbling end over end, and cracked Crooke on the back of his head.

Crooke pulled the hood from his face and rubbed his head. He turned to look at Beretta, a heartbroken expression on his big face.

“What’d you do that for?”

“Get ready, you lazy, scroat,” Beretta said. He turned back to the flight console. “We are going in. There is a nice quiet spot on the lower section right by the civilian-grade power cells.”

“But you said the military ones were better,” Crooke said, sitting up on the sofa.

“Yes, but they weren’t compatible, were they?”

Crooke gave Beretta a blank stare.

“They didn’t fit,” Beretta explained.

Crooke grinned. “So we get the right ones this time, Lou?”

Beretta nodded, feeling a little irritated that his old friend was reminding him of his earlier mistake, a mistake that had cost Snatch and Darran their lives, in a roundabout manner.

“Yes, Lars, we’ll get the right ones this time. And we can get in and out, and no one will even know we were there.”

Jack zoomed in on the central entrance and the courageous defensive effort. The images on the holodisplay showed Devex warriors dropping into the upper corridors. The high gravity field on the deck plates slowed the Devex to a crawl, some literally so, and they came scrabbling forward on all fours, partly to move their massive three-meter-tall frames through the corridor, partly to press themselves forward in the high gravity field.

The cops were in cover behind hastily-built barricades. Sections of composite erected across the width of the corridor gave enough room for three or four defenders to take cover. They fired their pulse pistols at the approaching Devex.

The report from the forward section was delivered by a worried Marine.

“Major Forge. Forward defense station here. The Devex have nearly cleared the grav traps. Our weapons are having little effect. We are going to fall back.”

“Negative, Marine. Hold,” Jack spoke calmly and firmly. If the Marine and his team of cops fell back, then the Devex would move in and begin snatching the sleeping passengers. They had to hold them back a little longer. “Concentrate your fire on the closest Devex. Its fallen body will make it more difficult for those behind to advance.”

The frightened Marine replied in the affirmative.

Webster was still pacing and drifting further away from Jack and Sam. Sam spotted the Marine’s nervous and subtle withdrawal. He jumped to his feet and marched over to the man.

“Fall in, Marine,” Sam shouted. “Stand at attention. You may move when I tell you to move. Copy?”

“Sir. Yes, sir,” Webster said uncertainly.

A communication from the drive room flashed on Jack’s communicator.

“The drive components are all repaired,” an engineer reported. “Assembling the drive now. We’ll be powering up the reactor in a matter of minutes.”

Jack zoomed out on the deck in front of him and focused on the aft section. The Devex were held by the grav trap and had stopped entering through that way. The middle section was holding well. The defenders on one flank had fallen back to their second positions, but the enemy assault was faltering. Jack spotted the Devex warriors in the mid section returning to their craft.

The forward entrance was not fairing so well. The Devex were pressing in greater numbers at the forward flank, the local gravity field strength not holding as strong as at the rear. Jack was worried that if the Devex broke through at that location, the command deck might become their primary target.

Jack rubbed his chin. “Sam,” Jack called.

Sam hurried over to Jack, leaving Webster standing at attention. “What is it, Jack?”

“Take Webster and move to this location.” Jack indicated the forward position. “Hold them back. We can’t let them break through here.”

Jack looked at Webster. The Marine was going pale. Sam jogged over to him.

“Fall in, Marine. Tactical advance, on the double. You know what that means, Marine. Draw your weapon and follow me. Keep up or you will discover I am more terrifying than the kravin’ enemy. Do you get me, Webster?”

Webster shouted his reply and there was even a hint of confidence in the tremulous voice.

Jack watched Sam run to the nearest transit pod, Webster in close formation behind. Sam gave Jack a casual salute as he stepped in the open pod, then the door closed, and he was gone.

Jack looked back to the holoimage in front of him. He zoomed in on the rear section. The Devex from the midsection attack were lifting off in their ships, and Jack allowed himself a moment of elation. He had beaten them back. But then the first raider to take off merely drifted back toward the rear section of the civilian transport and landed with the raiders already there.

Jack called up the locations of all the passengers. He noticed the concentration of passengers near the aft section, a few decks down from the upper corridors.

Jack opened a channel to Hawke.

“Hawke. Status.”

“We’re holding them back, but only just. They hit us with some wave blast, and it knocked out my front rank. Trying to disorientate them by oscillating the grav field from the deck to the ceiling plates.”

Jack got to his feet. “That’s good thinking, Hawke. You must hold them. There are more on the way. I’m sending reinforcements.”

“Reinforcements? That’s great news. Thank you, Major. How many?”

“One,” Jack said as ran to the nearest transit pod. “Me.”

13

Jack stepped out of the transit pod onto the upper level to the sounds of weapons fire. The smell of charred composite filled the corridor as he moved cautiously toward the sounds of battle. He came to a line of cops, all with pulse pistols and breathing masks, all giving nervous glances around the bend toward the approaching Devex.

The cops turned and aimed their pistols at Jack as he stepped into view. He pressed himself to the wall and just out of sight of the cops just in time. A hail of pulse rounds came along the corridor.

“Hold your fire. I’m a Marine. I’m coming out.”

Jack stepped away from the wall. He could see just around the bend. The cops were still aiming. Jack held up his hand and took a step forward. He walked over to the team, confident they would not shoot at him again.

He walked past the team and toward the front line of the defense. A composite barrier across the corridor at chest height stood between him and the Devex. The gravity trap was working and held the Devex like they were wading through thick mud. They still came forward, though, pressing their way through the high gravity, moving in slow motion, their massive energy weapons firing streams of white as they went.

Jack took cover next to Hawke. A cop lay dead next to him and two others were alternating between firing and taking cover. One stood and fired a few times before dropping while the second stood and fired.

The first Devex warrior cleared the grav trap. He stood and took a long step forward, his rapid-fire blaster pouring a stream of bullets. The stream ripped through the head and shoulders of the cop who was standing, sending him flying back along the corridor.

Hawke leaped up and fired a blast from his pulse rifle. The rounds struck the Devex in the faceplate. The warrior toppled backward, firing as he went. The white energy bullets flew in a stream along the corridor walls to the ceiling. The weapon continued to fire as it fell from the warrior’s grip, falling silent at its dead owner’s side.

Behind the fallen Devex warrior came another bursting free of the gravity trap and moving more freely. Then another.

Jack glanced over the barrier. The two Devex filled the corridor. Their bulk made it difficult to move but they came on, two abreast, firing as they came.

Jack ducked into cover as a stream of bullets slammed into the barrier just by his head. Hawke and the remaining cop looked to Jack.

“You fire left,” Jack said to Hawke. “You fire right.” He pointed at the cop. “Wait for my command.”

Jack stood up and fired a blast, hitting the first Devex in the chest and the second a glancing blow on its helmet. Then Jack let himself fall back as the Devex turned their rapid-fire blasters on him. The rapid stream of energy bullets targeting him from both Devex raced over his falling body, just millimeters from his chest. Before he hit the ground, he called out his command.

“Fire!”

Hawke and the cop stood and fired. Their targets took a sustained blast, their own weapons still targeting Jack as he fell back to the deck.

Jack saw the rounds hit and the Devex fall just before he himself landed on the deck. He scurried forward and chanced a look. The two Devex were down but another one was breaking out of the heavy gravity field.

Jack fired and several shots struck the warrior, knocking it backward, but it was not enough to stop the heavily-armored warrior. The Devex slung its energy weapon and drew a smaller device. It fired and a wave spread out from the device, filling the corridor and creeping forward.

Hawke and the cop broke cover and fired at the Devex. The pulse rounds slowed in the energy wave.

Jack had seen this before. It would incapacitate anyone that the field came into contact with. He added pulse fire of his own to the sustained assault from Hawke and the cop. The pulse rounds eventually disrupted the wave and it shattered, leaving tortured strands of energy slowly dissipating and creating lines of rainbow light in the corridor, like oily traces in water.

The report from the far end of the corridor on Jack’s communicator was cut short.

“They are breaking through! They are—”

Jack called forward some cops that were holding at a section of barricade behind the forward defensive position. They came forward and laid down a sustained volley of pulse pistol fire, allowing Jack to fall back. He withdrew a few steps, taking cover around the curve of the corridor and behind a composite barrier. He checked the holoimage from the surveillance network and checked the other side of this defensive position. The cops were falling back.

The Devex were breaking through.

14

The exit panel on the side of the cruiser opened and the leather-covered wall slid up. A frozen wind laced with ice crystals blew in from the surface of the ice planet.

The ramp slid away noiselessly from the side of the cruiser, down to the snow-covered ground. Beretta pulled his heavy jacket closer to him. His breath vented through the breathing mask and crystallized in the air, creating a tiny cloud of ice crystals that rained to the ground in a sparkling, silver shower.

The civilian transport towered overhead, vanishing in the dark, snow-filled sky. A landing strut four hundred meters away was his target. Beretta activated a wrist-mounted holostage and scanned the surrounding area.

The civilian ship was too large to fit on the small holoimage at this scale and it dominated the image. Behind Beretta, parked on the snow about another four hundred meters away, was the Fleet frigate he’d seen entering the system hours before. The Marine he’d encountered on the first power cell grab was probably a member of its crew.

Beretta knew a Fleet frigate had a dozen strong crew. If the frigate also had a few Marines on board, it was worth giving it a wide berth. He wished he had time to plant a few demolition charges on the outer hull of that Fleet ship, just as insurance should they try and stop him from completing his smash-and-grab. He needed power cells if he was going to make it to a habitable planet.

Beretta had an image in his mind of the planet he was going to settle on—a warm, geologically stable world with no creatures more dangerous than a feral domestic cat. He would park his cruiser near a coast, within walking distance of a beach, and live out his days as if on an extended vacation. An unpopulated planet, a world all his own. He’d need a companion, of course. Maybe he would need to make a trip back to the fleet to find someone willing to share a lifelong beach vacation with him.

“It’s kravin’ freezing,” Crooke said

“Quit your whining,” Beretta said. “Follow me.”

Beretta trudged through the snow toward the civilian transport’s landing strut. The lower section of the transport was far from the action Beretta knew to be taking place in the upper corridors. That was hundreds of meters and dozens of decks above where Beretta needed to be, which was at a small storage locker underneath the drive section, filled with enough power cells for thousands of passengers, more than enough for Beretta and his old friend Lars Crooke.

Reaching the bottom of the landing strut, Beretta began to climb. The secondary access beside each strut was a perfect entry point now that the upper decks were filled with Devex warriors and weapons fire.

Beretta popped open the outer hatch on the underside of the transport’s hull. Lights blinked on and showed the ladder leading up to the inner hatch. His wrist-mounted holostage showed the route to the power cell storage.

“Get up here,” Beretta called out in a harsh whisper, a force of habit after so many clandestine raids on businesses and warehouses back home, in the last days of the war, before the evacuation.

Crooke looked up and shook his head.

“You’ll freeze if you stay out there, you idiot.”

Crooke shook his head. “I’ll wait and take the cells back to the cruiser.”

Beretta turned his back on Crooke. They had known each other since they were boys and that short period in juvenile detention. Beretta liked Crooke better than anyone else alive, but if the fat idiot wanted to freeze to death, he wasn’t going to stop him.

The inner hatch slid open and Beretta climbed up into a service duct. It was warm just to be out of the screaming wind, but the moisture from his breath through the facemask still froze in the air. Beretta checked the map and moved toward the inner door, the power cells only a few bulkheads away.

Jack ran along the corridor. The route to the far side of the defenses took him down to the deck below, under the corridor where the fighting was taking place and up again. The Devex were moving back toward the rear of the transport and had cleared several defensive barriers. Once they cleared the next, they would have multiple access points to the rest of the ship. Jack would have to hold them there, or all was lost.

A message came in from Morton on the command deck.

“Major, the internal sensors show a breach in the lower hull. Someone had entered through a hatch at the rear starboard landing strut. It looks like it’s just a lone individual. Sending the surveillance feeds to you now.”

Jack glanced at the image. A hooded figure in a dark corridor. Jack recognized him immediately—Lou Beretta. The thief was back.

“We can’t hold them,” Hawke said to Jack, fear almost overwhelming him as weapons fire slammed into the corridor wall nearby. Hawke looked to Jack for help.

“We must hold them.” Jack looked at the location of the intruder. He was almost directly—and a short transit pod trip—underneath the fight going on in front of Jack. The corridors below were free from passengers, either none had fallen there or the Devex had cleared them out already. Jack had an idea, but he would need help.

Jack activated the communication system in the lower corridors near the intruder.

“This is Jack Forge. I am talking to you, the person moving in the lower decks. Lou Beretta, respond please.”

Berretta kept walking.

“Those power cells weren’t what you’d hoped for, were they?” Jack said. “I guess you’re looking for a better fit this time.”

Beretta walked on.

“The civilian ones will be compatible, but will they have the sort of power duration you will need? It’s a long way out of Devex space. Maybe I can help you with that. But you know nothing comes without a price, right? I’m not asking for much, but you are in position to help me with a small Devex problem.”

Jack looked at the schematic of the immediate vicinity. The Devex were in danger of breaking out. If they made it into the main ship, they would snatch passengers for some cruel end. If they made it to the drive room, they could permanently disable the ship and pick off their bounty at leisure.

But if Beretta planted power cells primed to overload on the deck below the Devex, an explosion could put an end to their invasion in that part of the ship. The explosion would tear a hole in the middle of the transport, tearing deck composite for several levels of the ship, blocking access and ending the Devex threat to the drive room. He hoped there were no sleeping passengers hidden from the surveillance feeds in that area, and he hoped the detonation wouldn’t breach the outer hull. He hesitated, and then berated himself for the hesitation. He needed to act. He was making a call. It was a risk, but a calculated one. It was a case of succeed or die.

“Major Forge,” Bale said, communicating from the frigate. “I’ve located Beretta’s holostage. He’s using a civilian device. I hacked it easily. I can link you to his holostage.”

“Do it,” Jack said. He lifted his wrist and looked at the image of the thief he’d met just hours before.

“Hi there, Jack,” Beretta said cheerfully. “Changed your mind about joining my crew? A few vacancies have come up all of a sudden.”

“Listen, Beretta. You can help me save these people. Then you can take whatever you want. I’ll even help you load it.”

Beretta activated the small laser cutter and began burning through the hatch over the power cell storage.

“Or I could take whatever I want and save myself. Let me think about your offer for a while.”

Jack clenched his fist. Selfishness had never been a very successful strategy in Jack’s opinion, and it drove him almost to anger to see a man, who appeared in all other respects to be a clever person, take such an idiotic course.

“You can try and go it alone, but you’ll get further with some allies,” Jack said as diplomatically as possible.

“I won’t get anywhere if I am dead, Jack. I might make it into your roll of honor, or I might make it out of here with a stack of power cells and my life ahead of me.” The door popped open in front of Beretta and he deactivated the laser cutter.

“Or I might come down there and drag you to a cell,” Jack said, giving in to his anger.

“Now that sounds like you mean it,” Beretta said. “You do have some emotion in you, don’t you, Jack?”

“Listen, all you need to do is plant some power cells at the locations I’ve sent you. You’ll save the lives of thousands of passengers.”

Beretta grabbed a power cell. He dropped the heavy rectangle block into his bag and then grabbed another.

“What’s the bigger number, Jack? One or a thousand?”

“Will you help?” Jack asked, ignoring the ridiculous question.

“One,” Beretta answered his own question, “when that one is me. Good luck with the Devex. They won’t stop. They will keep coming until they have enslaved every single one of these chumps. If I was you, I’d find a way to get out of here. One last chance to join my crew.” Beretta hesitated. “See you later, Jack. Or not. Probably not.”

Hawke came along the corridor, walking backward and firing as he came. The stream of white energy bullets tore through a cop who had turned to run.

“Major, we can’t hold them any longer. We need to fall back.”

Sam urged the cops forward to the defensive line. Webster was shuffling nervously about, mumbling to himself, glancing nervously toward the sound of gunfire.

“Steady, Webster,” Sam said calmly. “Ready your weapon.”

A sudden blast rocked the deck plates, and a concussion wave threw Sam off his feet. A stream of defenders came along the corridor, staggering, crawling, bleeding from their ears, nose, eyes. A shocked and stunned expression was on every face.

Sam knew the effects of a concussion wave. He felt the throbbing in his head and nausea welling up in his stomach. He picked himself up off the deck and felt the pulse pistol in his hand.

Then the Devex fire came and ripped through the retreating defenders. Sam took cover behind a sheet of defensive composite. He readied his pulse pistol.

“Jack,” he said into a private channel. “I’m about to be overrun. We need to protect the command deck. Get us off the surface, Jack. I’ll give you as much time as I can.”

Sam looked up at Webster, and he was surprised to see the timid Marine still holding position. The sounds of heavy footsteps in the corridor beat at Sam’s heart. He activated the electron blade on the end of his pistol and prepared for close-quarters combat.

Lou Beretta dragged his load of power cells to the exit. He looked down the ladder. It was a long drop to the snow-covered surface. The air was filled with billowing snow so thick that Beretta could not see the ground. He looked more closely, hoping to make out the form of Crooke.

“Lars,” Beretta shouted. “Where have you gone? Lars, you scroat.” Beretta started down the ladder, the bag of power cells held clumsily in his grip. He struggled down, adjusting the unwieldy bag as he went. Just before the outer hatch and only halfway to the ground, Beretta lost control of the bag. The bag tipped, opened, and fell. Power cells dropped from the bag, and the whole lot disappeared into the swirling snow.

“Lars,” Beretta shouted, his frustration and anger spilling over. “I swear I will kick your kravin’ ass all up and down this snow-covered planet, you fat, lazy scroat!”

Beretta reached the bottom of the ladder and dropped into the snow. The power cells were scattered around the open bag. Most of the cells were still inside, fortunately. He began to pick up those that had spilled out.

“Lars!” Beretta shouted again. What was the point of having a stupid, fat lummox like Crooke around, Beretta thought, if he had to carry his plunder himself?

Beretta pushed the last cell into the bag and stood up. He spotted a shape in the snow, standing a few meters away.

“Lars?” Beretta said uncertainly.

And then, the wind dropped for a fraction and the snow cleared a little, the shape becoming clearer. It was a tall, rounded shape, covered in white fur. A small head broke the line of the shoulders. Huge arms, massive paws, and in one of the paws, a limp form.

“Lars?” Beretta said softly.

Then the beast came forward, dragging the limp body of Lars Crooke with it. Short legs stepped forward, and a mouth in the fur-covered face opened. After another step, Beretta saw that it wasn’t a mouth but a beak, a short and wide beak, white like the fur save for the blood frozen to it.

The creature dropped onto its upper limbs and bounded forward. Beretta had drawn his pistol and as the first shots were fired, the wind whipped up again. The furry beast was partially lost in the swirling snow. The pulse rounds flashed and lit up the outline of the beast as it came ever closer.

Jack walked backward with his pulse pistol trained on the bend in the corridor. He fired well-aimed rounds at the Devex that came around the bend and into his line of fire.

Captain Morton spoke over Jack’s communicator. “Report from the drive section. We are ready to spin up the reactor. We should have full power in moments. What’s your status, Major?”

Jack took cover around the edge of an adjoining corridor. A line of defenders filled the corridor and fired at the advancing Devex. The warriors soon fell to a hail of pulse fire. Another came and another, and the corridor was filled with Devex dead.

“We are holding—just—but the Devex are past our defenses. They can access the entire ship.” Jack checked the Devex positions on his wrist-mounted holostage. The surveillance feed showed him the location of every Devex, small points of red on the flickering image of the ship.

The enemy had pressed past the defenses and were already moving sleeping passengers back to the Devex ships sitting on the upper hull. The passengers’ bodies levitated in a Devex capture field.

“We have power,” Captain Morton said. “I am initiating takeoff procedures. I’d rather try and run than sit here and get picked off like cattle.”

Then the pulse fire slackened off and finally stopped. Jack took a cautious step forward. The Devex were pulling back and covering their retreat. Jack ducked into cover as a retreating Devex fired a stream of energy bullets at him. Jack checked the surveillance feeds and all across the transport’s upper levels, the Devex were moving back toward their points of entry.

“Looks like they’re falling back.” Hawke was crouched behind Jack looking at the holoimage over Jack’s shoulder.

“For now,” Jack said. “They must have all the captives their raiders can hold. It must be dozens, probably a few hundred passengers taken.”

Jack noticed the Devex recovering their dead, levitating them in the same Devex capture fields. They floated back toward the entry point unaided.

He saw the pile of dead Devex in the corridor seemingly come alive. Their limbs untangled from each other and they began to float away. The cops pressed forward and poured fire in to the dead as they drifted away.

Jack noticed that the Devex warriors were using their dead like a shield for themselves and their captives. The Devex exoskeletons took round after round of pulse fire, the bodies becoming soft as they were pulverized within their armor.

Jack couldn’t let them get away without a fight. “Advance,” he ordered.

Then Bale’s voice spoke over the private channel. Jack heard the anxiety in his voice.

“Major. Sensors detecting movement in the Oort cloud. It’s the Devex warship. They have blasted through the asteroids. Their warship is coming through. I don’t think we have very long.”

Beretta fired at the beast as it came closer, ever closer. The ground shook, and Beretta could hear the grunting with every bounding step the beast took. With the beast in spitting distance, a pulse round to the face finally finished it, dropping it and sending it plowing through the snow, coming to a halt at Beretta’s feet.

The beast let out one last grunt and then quivered. Beretta poured another round of pulse fire into it, then looking around for Crooke, he realized the horrible truth.

Bloodstains on the snow led Beretta away from the landing strut of the civilian transport. In the billowing snow, he found his friend, face up, his jacket ripped from his body, slash marks from the snow beast’s beak on his chest. Beretta dropped next to Crooke. The left shoulder was crushed, and the arm was almost completely severed.

Then Crooke gasped.

“Lars,” Beretta said excitedly.

Crookes eyes flickered. “Lou. A bear. It got me.”

“I know, Lars. Take it easy. I got it. it’s dead.”

“Did we get the cells?”

“Yeah, we got the cells. We got plenty.”

“It’s cold, Lou. Very cold.”

Crooke shuddered, and his body convulsed before going stiff. The snow settled onto the blood on his bare chest. Beretta wiped the snow away and revealed the chest, ripped open, ribs bared, flesh and blood, and a stilled heart.

Beretta stood up. He checked the surrounding area with a glance, then ran to grab the bag of power cells.

Sam risked a look. The Devex warriors were falling back. He crept forward along the corridor and checked. The few dead Devex were floating, and in between the floating bodies Sam could see the Devex retreating.

Webster became wild and started shouting. He stepped forward, growing confident and crazed with every step. “Yeah, get off my ship!”

“Take it easy, Webster,” Sam said.

Webster fired up his electron bayonet and began to stride along the corridor toward the retreating Devex.

Sam called again. “Stand down, Marine!”

Webster let out a wild cry and charged forward. He slashed at the floating bodies, the electron blade slicing through the exoskeleton and the Devex inside with ease. The body parts floated independently, spilling gore as they went.

“Webster, get in line! Fall in, Marine!”

Webster pressed on, jabbing and slicing. Sam saw him disappear through the floating dead.

“Krav it all, Webster,” Sam said, and he ran after the wild Marine, Webster’s battle cry ringing out.

Pushing through the floating body parts of the dead Devex, Sam saw Webster attacking a massive Devex warrior. The Devex warrior struggled to avoid the thrusting and slashing of the long electron bayonet, and it fell as it raised its massive rapid-fire blaster, ill-suited for close-combat in a confined space.

Webster dropped the Devex with a thrust to the faceplate. Sam watched the Devex crumple to the deck, revealing a pair of warriors standing just behind. They filled the corridor, their blasters raised and aimed at Webster. They poured a stream of white energy bullets, the tiny, white, deadly points of energy. They tore into Webster mid-stride.

Webster fell. The electron blade sliced into the deck plate before it deactivated, the pulse rifle recognizing that the Marine who held it had fallen.

Sam fired at the pair of Devex, scoring a direct hit on one at the shoulder. The pair fell back, the dead Devex floating up and creating a shield that blocked Sam’s fire.

“Sam,” Jack’s voice came over Sam’s communicator. “The captain is preparing for takeoff. Follow the Devex. Make sure the access points are sealed before we get into orbit. It looks like they are leaving. Don’t put yourself in any unnecessary danger. Copy?”

Sam looked down at Webster’s body. A group of defenders moved up cautiously.

“Copy that, Jack.” Then Sam urged the defenders after the retreating Devex.

15

Jack entered the command deck to find the officers busy at their consoles. Captain Morton sat in the command chair looking down at the main holostage.

Jack looked at the holoimage. The planet was at the center of the image, with a point of light indicating the civilian transport, rising into space. At the edge of the image, the Devex warship was moving through the Oort cloud, blasting a few small asteroids that still lay in its path and throwing debris in all directions like a deadly shower of rock and ice. The small points heading to the warship were the Devex raiders, returning from their latest raid on the civilian transport.

“Guess the warship is here to take over the prisoner grab,” Jack said.

“I saw these warships in action before,” Morton said, “when they attacked the fleet. They captured civilian transports, clamping on with huge grappling arms. They can pour hundreds of Devex warriors into the captured ship. They’re coming to finish the job their raiders began. They’ll end it all in one big hit.”

“They are not going to hit us, Captain. We’re getting out of here.”

Jack stepped aside and opened a channel to Bale on the frigate.

“Get the frigate off the planet, Commander,” Jack said. “Take up position off the starboard side of the transport. That’ll put you between the civilian ship and the Devex warship. Copy.”

Bale replied with a simple acknowledgement of the order. Jack knew it was impossible to expect a Fleet frigate, even a well-stocked and fully-armed one, to hold off a massive Devex warship. It wouldn’t even slow an assault, but the Fleet needed to be in between the civilians and danger. Jack knew that Ripa could pilot the frigate, but with only Bale left to crew the guns, it would not be able to put up any sort of challenge for the warship.

Sam came into the command deck. He nodded to Jack and then reported to the captain.

“All Devex are off your ship, sir.”

Morton tapped at his armrest control panel. “Not for long, I fear.”

Jack stepped over to the holostage. He adjusted the image to show the Devex warship and the transport. The warship was on an intercept course. Jack had seen data from the Devex attack on the fleet. The warships clamped onto the transports like a massive spider gripping its prey, then scores of Devex warriors poured in through the clamping arms that had punched through the hull, seizing and taking prisoners.

Jack wondered again what purpose the Devex could have with humans. The Devex clearly possessed advanced technology, surely they had drones or automated servants for menial tasks. Why would they need slaves?

It was a horrible question, and there could be no pleasant answer. The Devex killed to secure their prize. They weren’t taking the humans away for a life of luxury. Only servitude, or possibly death, awaited the captives. Jack entertained the thought that the Devex might use the humans as entertainment of some kind. Probably death was the most pleasant end for those captured by the Devex. Jack hoped he would never live to learn what their purpose was.

Captain Morton called out to his navigation officer to plot a course through the Oort cloud. Jack checked the cloud directly ahead. The dense mass of asteroids was moving at incredible speed. Most Oort cloud formations drifted lazily around the star. Some strange phenomena in this system caused the Oort cloud to wheel about as fast as an innermost planet. It would be a challenge to move a massive ship like the civilian transport through it while trying to avoid collisions. It would be much harder for the much bigger Devex warship. Even blasting its way through would slow its pursuit, maybe long enough for the transport to escape.

“Captain,” Jack called over his shoulder. “I’ll send my frigate ahead and clear a path for the transport.”

Jack opened a channel to Ripa and Bale on the frigate. “Follow these coordinates. Try and clear a path for the transport. Nothing too big so the Devex can’t follow us easily.”

Jack zoomed out. He spotted one other ship in the system, moving away at high speed. Jack tried to identify the ship. It wasn’t Devex. It had to be Beretta’s ship. Jack opened a communication channel to the ship and broadcast to those inside.

“Beretta?” Jack said. “Don’t try and go it alone. You will be better off sticking with us. You won’t make it far on your own. This is Devex space, hostile space. If they find you, they will take you captive.”

The channel crackled in silence for a few moments.

“I’ve always managed on my own before,” Beretta said.

“Is that the thief?” Morton asked. He climbed out of his command chair and put the channel on the holostage.

Beretta appeared on the display, life-sized as if he was on the command deck himself. He was sitting, relaxed and reclined, a bottle of Amber in his hand.

“Bring back the power cells and I’ll not press any charges,” Morton said.

Beretta tipped his head back and looked at the ceiling of his cockpit.

“I don’t think you’ll be pressing anything. The Devex will be on top of your ship before you can make it to the Oort cloud. I can see you are trying to get away. I wish you good luck, just as long as it doesn’t get in the way of my escape. You see, the Devex are following all those juicy life-signs on your ship. They will hardly notice me all on my own. If I formed up with you, I’d probably get captured too. I think I’ll take my chances on my own.”

“You selfish little rat…” Captain Morton leaned toward the holoimage.

Jack turned his back on the image. Maybe Beretta was right—the Devex were pursuing the juiciest target in the system. As the captain traded insults with Beretta, Jack deactivated the channel. He walked over to the command chair and climbed up.

“What are you doing, Major?”

“I’m going to transfer all our passengers over to Beretta’s ship.”

“What?” Morton walked over and stood looking up at Jack.

Jack tapped a few controls on the command chair armrest before jumping down. He ran to the environmental console. “We can copy the database of bio-readings from the sleeping passengers and the crew. Then…” Jack ran to the communications console. “We can send them over to Beretta’s ship. If we run them remotely through his environmental systems…” Jack turned to the captain. “In the Fleet, we are able to run almost completely dark, no power output, completely invisible. Can your ship do that?”

Morton nodded. “Yes, but we are heading toward the Oort cloud. If I power down, we’ll run into something.”

“Trust me, Captain. The crew on the frigate can get us through. Stand by to transfer life-signs to Beretta’s ship.” Jack opened a channel to Bale. “I’m going to be pulling some maneuvers over here, Mr. Bale. You have to get in front of the transport and stay there. I can’t give you my heading, so you’ll have to work the problem on the fly. And when we get to that Oort cloud, we’ll be unable to maneuver. You’ll have to make sure there is nothing in the way. Copy?”

“Copy that, sir,” Bale replied. “Upper and lower laser assembly fully functional, but we probably only have a few shots. Hail cannon loaded and fully powered, both batteries. We’ll get through. Lieutenant Ripa is already matching your course and speed, sir. We’ll watch for your moves. Bale out.”

“Okay, Captain Morton,” Jack called out over the command deck. “Plot an intercept course with Beretta’s ship. I want us to cut across his drive section no more than fifty meters out. Can you do that?”

“I’ll pilot the ship myself, Major. I’ll put us right on top of his drive assembly.”

The positive response from the captain gave Jack confidence that his plan would work. The captain joined the officer at the navigational console and got to work. Jack walked over to the holostage and watched the ships in the image. He held his hands behind his back to stop himself from fidgeting nervously as he watched the plan unfold, hoping that it would work.

The Devex warship was closing in on the transport. The transport was moving to intercept Beretta’s ship. The transport was only a few minutes away from cutting across Beretta’s wake.

Sam stepped over to Jack and stood close to his old friend. “You going to make Beretta a target?” Sam said quietly. “The Devex will be after him. Are you happy setting all those Devex after that one man?”

Jack mumbled to himself, his hands gripped firmly behind his back. “What’s the bigger number, Sam?” Jack asked. “One or twenty thousand?”

“One, if the one is me,” Sam said.

“And if the one is Beretta?” Jack asked.

Sam nodded and watched the trajectories of the ships.

“He won’t be able to defend himself.”

“No,” Jack said. “But if he is as devious as I think he is, he will find a way out of it.”

“And if he can’t?”

The transport moved within fifty meters of Beretta’s wake when Beretta hit the drive, punching it up another thirty percent. The ship pulled away from the course the transport was on.

“Now,” Jack said. “Transmit data.”

“Transmission underway,” the communication officer called out. “Fifty percent complete. A few more seconds… Done.”

“Cut all power,” Jack said. “Go dark, immediately.” He marched around the command deck watching all the officers powering down their systems. In a moment, it was done.

“We are dark, Major,” Captain Morton said. He moved from one console to another, checking the work. A Fleet ship could go dark in an instant. A civilian crew took a bit longer, but Jack was pleased with how quickly they managed it. After all their trials in the last couple of hours, the command deck officers had performed excellently.

“Confirmed,” Morton said. “The ship is dark.”

Now there was nothing Jack could do but watch. The holostage showed the transport racing away on momentum alone toward the wall of spinning rocks that was the inner face of the system’s Oort cloud. Beretta’s ship racing away at ninety degrees to the transport’s heading. And the Devex warship, moving in on the point where the two ships had crossed paths.

Jack zoomed in on the Devex warship. It held its course.

“Hey, Jack,” Beretta’s voice came over Jack’s communicator. “Were you trying to ram me? That’s not very nice of you. But you should have known a big old bus couldn’t get close to a racer like my little ship.”

Jack wanted to respond, to send a warning to Beretta, but a signal to Beretta’s ship would give away the civilian transport ship’s position to the Devex.

Jack spoke quietly to himself. “Sorry, Beretta. Good luck.”

“Approaching the Oort cloud now.” Captain Morton climbed up into his command chair. He put the forward view on the holostage. A wall of spinning rocks lay ahead. The frigate, tiny compared to the civilian transport, was thousands of meters ahead with its drive systems powered.

Jack watched the point ahead of the frigate as it approached the Oort cloud. The rocks appeared to be nudged aside as the frigate moved closer. A narrow gap in the spinning rocks opened just enough for the transport to squeeze through.

“Plotting the route ahead, passive scanners only,” Morton said. “Looks clear. We might just sneak through. It’ll take a while at this speed, though.”

Jack called up the view of Beretta’s ship on the holostage. The ship was arcing away at speed, the Devex warship curving to match him.

Jack watched and willed Beretta to escape.

“Thank you, Major,” Captain Morton said. “You did it. You saved us all.”

The command deck erupted in a cheer that the captain quickly silenced.

“Thank you, Captain,” Jack replied. But inside, Jack knew he had lost many civilians and set up another as bait to lure the Devex away. Jack didn’t feel like a hero. He felt like he had failed.

Sam patted Jack on the back.

“Good work, Jack.”

“Couldn’t have done it without you, or Beretta,” Jack said.

“No need to thank him,” Sam said. “He’d sell his last friend for a slice of pie. It was him or us. I’d choose us any day.”

Jack watched the image on the holostage flicker away as the Devex warship and its target, Beretta’s cruiser, drifted out of passive scanner range.

“We’re not out of this yet,” Jack said. “The fleet is still a long way off. But if we work together—” Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “—we will make it.”

Beretta yelled in frustration as he realized that the Devex were in pursuit of his ship. He pushed the drive to its max.

“You kravin’ scroat, Forge!” he yelled as he worked the flight console. He aimed the ship at the nearby moon of an outer gas giant and threw the cruiser into a dive.

16

Jack finished checking Sam’s suit and then patted his friend on the shoulder. Sam checked Jack’s suit and delivered a heavy pat of his own. Jack turned to Captain Morton.

“Permission to leave your ship, Captain?” Jack said.

“You are welcome to stay aboard, Major. We’ve got all the home comforts here, and you’ll be my guest for the rest of the journey. I’d be pleased to have some experienced Marines on board.”

Jack smiled to himself. He held a hand out toward Hawke, who was standing at Morton’s side.

“You have an experienced Marine aboard, Captain. Squad Leader Hawke is one of the best Marines I’ve served with.”

Hawke stood a few centimeters taller and swelled with pride. He saluted Jack smartly.

“It is an honor to have served with you, sir,” Hawke said.

Sam stepped over and shook Hawke’s hand. “The honor is ours. You make sure you keep those cops in line.”

Jack opened the inner hatch to the airlock. The frigate was holding position a few dozen meters away. From the outside, the little frigate looked battered and bruised, and incredibly small. But Jack knew it was where he needed to be.

Sam stepped into the airlock alongside Jack and pulled the hatch closed behind him.

“Who’d want to give up a military frigate for all the leisure and pleasure amenities on this transport?” Sam asked sarcastically.

“Long way to go, Sam, and we’ve got work to do. Evacuating atmosphere from the airlock.” Jack hit the control and the air began to drain away, a high-pitched squeal indicating that the last of the air was drained.

Jack opened the outer hatch and stepped toward the edge. Black space all around and ahead of the frigate and an open airlock, waiting for Jack to cross the void between the ships.

“With me, Sam.” Jack stepped out into the void, his suit’s thruster jets nudging him toward the frigate. “Let’s go.”

Escape

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 3

1

Sitting in the command chair and looking down at the image on the main holostage, Jack Forge had an overview of his two-ship flotilla—his frigate and the civilian transport—as they moved across the interstellar void. The frigate was positioned a few kilometers above the civilian transport’s upper hull, a small guardian to the massive civilian vessel.

All was well, relatively speaking. Jack was relaxed for the first time in what seemed like forever; the two-ship flotilla moved easily across the wide expanse; and speed was constant, power distribution performing well. Although the gravity drive was pulling his ships across spacetime at almost unimaginable speeds, the two craft looked stationary, adrift in the black of the void.

The frigate’s drive was functioning at eighty percent efficiency, an impressive number given the beating the little ship had taken. Even though the civilian transport was operating at peak efficiency, its drive was running at low power, only two of its multi-core reactors currently delivering power to the drive systems. At this speed, the frigate could easily hold formation. The two lost ships were doing everything they could to find and catch up to the fleet.

The heading was straight and true, but the fleet rendezvous position was still many lightyears away. Relaxed as he was, he grew more anxious the closer they got. He had been lost for so long and endured so much, it was hard to believe he was so close to rejoining the fleet.

After having been cut off from the fleet and the Fleet Marine service, following the evacuation of Eros, Jack had fought and worked tirelessly to find them. Now that he was so close he felt even more nervous that it might be snatched away, that he might be lost indefinitely, adrift among the stars.

Jack shifted his position in his command chair as the holoimage flickered on the main holostage. The image of the massive civilian transport and the relatively tiny fleet frigate above cut out for a moment before flickering back with jagged lines of a distorted hologram scarring the image. The empty black space around the ships churned with holoshadows.

The holoimage flickered again, the image disappearing for another fraction of a second. With all the action the little ship had seen, Jack was not surprised the systems were getting a little worn out.

“Mr. Bale, check the emitters and the scanner feed to the holostage,” Jack said to Commander Gerat Bale, standing at the sensor console. He was wearing a pair of holospecs and possibly using some recreational program. He took the specs away and set them on the console.

The image flickered again, disappearing before returning with a poor-quality image. Bale ambled over to the central holostage, shaking his head in frustration.

“Surprised anything still works on this ship,” Bale said. “Sooner we get back to the fleet…” Bale let the sentence trail off as he leaned heavily onto the holostage control console. He tapped a few controls and shook his head again as he tried to fix the image.

“Minor course correction from the civilian transport, sir,” Lieutenant Ripa said. She looked up at Jack. “No confirmation from the transport command deck.”

Tapping a few controls on his small armrest holostage, Jack checked the flotilla’s heading. The data displayed in a holoimage just above the armrest. Jack confirmed that the civilian transport had shifted heading slightly. It was not a crime by any means, but Captain Morton aboard the transport usually informed Jack of such maneuvers.

“Match course and speed, Lieutenant,” Jack said. He tapped the armrest control and an image of Captain Morton appeared on the main holostage. It flickered and disappeared as Bale adjusted the settings, attempting to restore the image to its best quality.

“Captain,” Jack greeted Morton.

“How can I help you, Major?” Morton replied.

“You changed course. Everything okay over there?”

Morton looked mildly surprised. “I didn’t order any adjustments.” He tapped away at his own command chair armrest. “Oh, yes. One arc second to port. Maybe a minor asymmetry in the drive. It can sometimes happen when running on a partial core reactor. I’ll check it out. Everything else okay, Major?”

“Yes, just making sure everything was okay. Forge out.”

“The civilian transport has reset its heading, sir,” Ripa said.

“Match her again,” Jack said and leaned back in his chair.

That was the most action Jack had seen in days. He was grateful for the lack of danger, but the monotony of the long-distance flight was becoming tedious. The minor course adjustment just reminded him of how bored he was. Jack climbed down from the command chair and stepped over to the main holostage at the front of the deck.

Having given up trying to restore the image from the control panel, Commander Bale was now sitting on the deck and removing a panel from the base of the holostage so he could access the internal circuitry.

“There is an image display problem,” Bale said. The image flickered again, and the transport and frigate vanished entirely for several seconds before appearing again, the image scarred by poor projection accuracy.

“Let’s take it offline and run a full system diagnostic,” Jack said.

“What? Everything?” Bale said with a sigh.

“Everything, Mr. Bale,” Jack said gently. “From the primary scanner inputs to the secondary holoimage stability matrix.”

Bale rolled his eyes before nodding agreement. “I’ll have to deactivate it for a moment and then reinitialize before I can run the diagnostic.”

Jack knew that Bale just wanted to coast back to the fleet and play holoadventures to pass the time. He was bored and frustrated too, but he knew that during slack times, concentration was even more important. It was too easy to become lazy and distracted when there was little to do. And that made them vulnerable. It was much easier to remain focused when there was a lot to think about, when battle rang in the ears, and danger closed in on all sides. Jack knew from bitter experience that the life of a Marine consisted of long periods of boredom followed by sudden moments of frantic action and complete terror.

Bale shut off the power supply and the image on the holostage vanished.

“It’ll take a few minutes, but we should know the problem by then,” Bale said. “But if you want my best guess, the sensor suite needs a service. Bet some of the nodes need replacing too.”

Jack nodded. The frigate had performed beyond all expectations and was well overdue for a full service. The holostage was a vital tool for the command deck, displaying sensor data as a large 3-D image above the round holostage. With the sensor drones deployed at their maximum range, they could detect a fist-sized object at over a hundred million kilometers away. The holostage could display the image and allow the command deck operator to zoom in and rotate the image. It was a living, evolving map of the surrounding space. It could also display any number of images or data files in the frigate’s main data core. It was the main communication interface providing face-to-face communications with other ships, too.

The holostage was a standard piece of kit. Jack could make it to the rendezvous without it, but he wanted to hand over the ship in as good of condition as he could.

Bale reactivated the holostage. The image of the two ships appeared clean and crisp for a moment and then flickered repeatedly.

“Sir,” Ripa said. “The civilian transport has just made another course adjustment. Three seconds of arc to starboard.”

Jack looked up at the flickering holoimage.

“Turn off that mess of an image, Mr. Bale. Lieutenant Ripa, match the civilian transport’s course and speed.”

Jack walked over to the command chair. As he stepped up, Ripa called out, her voice edged with concern.

“Transport is changing course again, sir. One minute of arc to starboard.”

“Match her, Lieutenant,” Jack said. He opened a channel to Captain Morton on his command chair holostage. The small image above the armrest was flickering and barely watchable.

“Major Forge, we’ve got navigational and sensor issues across the ship.”

“Same here,” Jack said. “We need to scan the surrounding space for any phenomena that might be throwing us off course and interfering with our scanner data.”

No sooner had Jack finished speaking than a sudden collision threw him forward violently. The command chair’s stability field activated just in time and held Jack in place.

“I’ve got it,” Bale said, gripping the sensor console. “Sensor drones show a gravitational anomaly and high-energy particle waves.”

Another collision. Jack felt himself drift in a sudden moment of freefall and then fall back heavily into his chair. Ripa had been knocked off her feet, but she was clambering back up and reaching for her console.

“We’ve run into a massive gamma ray burst,” Bale called out. “Spacetime turbulence is off the chart! What could have caused such a phenomenon? Must be a high-speed collision of a couple of black holes.”

The ship lurched again.

“High-energy particles are frying our sensors. We’ve lost several sensor drones, but I’ve got a pretty good map of the burst.” Bale looked up to Jack. “Sending the data to your command chair now.”

Jack looked at the flickering holoimage data on his armrest. A beam of high-energy subatomic particles with associated turbulence was streaming across space like a raging river of tortured spacetime. It was racing to the frigate from high above on the port side.

The frigate lurched again. Jack heard the shouts of pain from the main deck behind him. Sam Torent had been taking a timeout in a crew bunk. He was now awake and in pain. Jack couldn’t deal with Sam right now, but he knew Sam could take care of himself.

“We have to get across the burst,” Jack said. “We’ll ride it downstream and make for the far side. Lieutenant Ripa, take control, manual piloting. Try and ride the ripples.”

The frigate lurched again. Again, Sam Torent cried out. The cries were prolonged and sustained. Jack had to check on his friend.

“Mr. Bale, send all sensor data to the navigation console,” Jack said, climbing down from his command chair, stumbling as the frigate shook violently. “Recall the sensor drones. We don’t want to lose any more. Use onboard sensors only and find us a smooth path through the spacetime eddies. Assist the lieutenant if you can.”

Jack staggered across the command deck to the exit.

“Sync all our data with Captain Morton. Tell him to follow us down the gamma ray burst. I’m going to check on Commander Torent. You have the command deck, Mr. Bale.”

Jack heard the anguished cries of his old friend. He had never heard Sam cry out in such distress before. They had been through a long and bitter war, they had been attacked by wild animals, beaten by aggressive aliens, but Sam had never before cried out in such pain and torment.

He staggered off the command deck. A collision with another spacetime eddy threw Jack from one side of the corridor to the other. The grav field fluctuated in strength, pulling Jack to the deck and then releasing him, sending him adrift like a helium-filled balloon before restoring the gravity field and pulling him back down again. Jack crawled, floated, and rebounded along the corridor, drawn to the tortured cries of his old friend.

The crew bunk was set in a recess along the side of the main deck, an area reserved for the hail cannon crew to operate. It had been converted into a crew bunk to provide a little privacy. The rough blanket that hung was drifting upward and outward as gravity failed again. Jack saw Sam in his bunk. He was face down, his left arm hanging over the side of the bunk.

As he approached, Jack could see the sweat all over Sam’s bare back, glistening beads that drifted upward as the frigate hit another pocket of spacetime turbulence. Sam looked up at him, his face contorted in pain.

“What is it, Sam?” Jack said.

Sam rolled over onto his back and held up his right arm.

Since Sam had lost his cybernetic arm, all that remained had been the endcap over his residual limb, with the composite neural-cyber connective tendrils hanging uselessly. But after an encounter with a mechanical species of aliens, the Mechs, the tendrils had seemed to grow longer. Now there could be no doubt.

The arm had grown. The neural-cyber composite tendrils were becoming more like the gray sinews of a Mech arm. They were now almost an arm’s length, and they were writhing and thrashing around. The strands appeared metallic, but just like the Mechs, they also had a strange, flesh-like quality.

The frigate lurched again in the spacetime turbulence. Jack saw the gray Mech tendrils grow in another surge as the frigate was bathed in rush of high-energy particles.

Sam grabbed his upper right arm, just above the old endcap that connected him to his old, hated, cybernetic prosthetic. He gripped the arm, trying to squeeze off the pain that wracked his body.

Jack put a hand in Sam’s shoulder. Sam looked up at him in pain and fear. The ship rocked again, and Sam yelled again. The gray tendrils straightened out and grew in another surge. Sam looked at his Mech arm as it grew another fraction.

Sam looked up at Jack, his eyes red with fear.

2

“Hold on, Sam,” Jack said, pressing him back down to the sweat-soaked bunk. “You need a med-pack. I’ll get one now. Just hold on, I’ll be as quick as I can.”

Another quake hit the ship as Jack ran to the stairway down to the lower deck. The med-bay on the lower deck was well equipped. It was fortunate that Jack and his small crew had not needed to use the facilities too frequently.

Jack staggered into the med-bay. He opened a cabinet and pulled out a few med-packs. One should be enough, but he wasn’t taking any chances with the safety of his friend. He grabbed as many as he could carry and then dashed out of the med-bay, a haul of med-packs in his arms and the sound of Sam’s pained cries echoing through the frigate, drawing Jack on as quickly as he could go.

Back at the bunk, Jack tore a pack open. Sam looked longingly at it, knowing it would at least bring pain relief.

Jack held the pack above Sam’s arm. The med-pack let out its mass of fine tendrils from the bottom. He moved it into position over Sam’s arm but wasn’t sure where to apply it. He decided on the joint between Sam’s own arm and the rapidly growing gray tendrils of Mech tissue.

“Major, this is Ripa,” Ripa’s voice came over Jack’s personal communicator. “We are entering the central part of the gamma ray burst. Turbulence is lower, but the particle stream is about to get even higher.”

“Proceed,” Jack said.

And then Sam shouted with renewed distress. The arm grew several centimeters in a single surge and the tendrils became fuller and fatter. As the growth surge subsided, the tendrils threaded around each other before unraveling and growing in another burst.

Sam yelled in agony. His body bucked in pain and he almost threw himself from the bunk. Jack pushed him back down and slapped the med-pack onto his arm.

The fine tendrils from the med-pack were deflected by the gray Mech tissue. A dull gray strand of Mech tissue grew out from Sam’s arm around the place where his bicep would be. The tendrils grabbed the med-pack out of Jack’s hand, wrapping around it in a tightening coil and crushing it before dropping the broken device to the deck. With the med-pack gone, the tendril merged back with the others and joined in their wild thrashing.

Jack and Sam watched in horror as the thickening strands began to form the shape of a human arm, formed from the dull Mech tendrils that increasingly took on the appearance of gray, metallic flesh.

Sam looked at his arm and yelled as a hand formed. He looked up at Jack helplessly. Jack tore open another med-pack and slapped it onto the back of Sam’s neck. The tendrils from the base of the pack found their way to Sam’s neck, burrowing into to his skin and pulling tight.

Sam fell to the bunk in a state of induced sleep. The Mech arm fell still. Jack hoped his old friend wasn’t still experiencing the pain and fear in his unconscious state. For now, he appeared to be calm.

The frigate lurched again. Jack felt himself pulled to the deck as gravity fluctuated wildly. They were through the central beam of the burst and out into the surrounding turbulent spacetime.

Strapping Sam into the bunk, Jack glanced at the gray Mech flesh arm with a mixture of suspicion and horror as it twitched and writhed. With Sam secured and unconscious, Jack headed back to the command deck.

“Is Sam okay?” Ripa said as Jack stepped up to the command chair.

“He is sedated,” Jack said. “Get us through this and back on track as quickly as possible. We need to take Sam to the medical facility on the civilian transport.”

The spacetime turbulence suddenly died away, now little more than a rumble that could have been overlooked under normal circumstances.

The image over the holostage was clear now. It showed the two ships, blown off course by the gamma ray burst and spacetime turbulence. They were converging and resuming their course to the rendezvous coordinates. The burst stream had thrown them almost a lightyear off course.

Jack opened a channel to Captain Morton.

“How are your people, Captain?” Jack said.

“We’ve got a lot of frightened civilians over here, Major. They thought we were under attack by the Devex again. Fortunately, there’s only a few minor injuries. Nothing we can’t handle. Looking forward to getting back to the fleet. We’re a bit off course, but we shouldn’t be delayed by too long. How are your people?”

“One serious case here, Captain. I’ll need access to your best medical facilities. I’ll bring him myself once we’re back in formation.”

Morton shook his head slightly. It was barely noticeable, but Jack could tell Morton was not happy.

“A problem, Captain?” Jack said.

“I’d be happier with you in command of the frigate. I know you have a skeleton crew as it is, and if the Devex attack…” Morton trailed off.

“If the Devex attack, one frigate is not going to hold them off. Our best hope is to reconnect with the fleet as soon as possible.”

“Yes,” Morton agreed, “and we should be back with the fleet very soon. I’ll send over any medical supplies you need for your injured man. That should be sufficient until you can get him to a fleet medical facility.”

“I don’t know if Commander Torent will survive that long without the best medical care we are able to provide. Your med-bay, med drones, and doctors are far better than a stack of med-packs.” Jack took a breath. “Permission to come aboard, Captain.”

Morton fidgeted in his seat. Jack could read his hesitance.

“Is there a problem, Captain?”

“I have a surveillance link with your ship, Major. I’ve seen what happened to Commander Torent. I don’t know if he should be allowed over here.” Captain Morton leaned in closer to his holostage. “What is happening to his arm, Major?”

Jack leaned closer to his holostage. Although the two ships were still hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart, Jack and Morton were nose-to-nose.

“You are spying on a military craft?” Jack said. “We are under constant threat of attack and you are spying on my ship. That might be considered a treasonous act, Captain.”

“Take it up with Fleet Intelligence when we get back to the fleet. If they order me to take Commander Torent then I will. But until then…”

Jack had heard enough and spoke over Morton, cutting him off mid-sentence.

“Prepare to receive me and Commander Torent at the airlock nearest to your best medical facility. You had better open when I knock, Captain. We’ve been friendly until now. Let’s not fall out.”

Morton stiffened. “I’ll take the patient, Major, but my records will show that I did so against my express concerns for the safety of my passengers.”

“Noted,” Jack said. He deactivated the call. Stepping down from the command chair, he walked over to Commander Bale.

“Mr. Bale, find out how Captain Morton is spying on us and stop him.”

Bale nodded, but before he could reply, Jack had marched off the deck.

Jack hauled two tactical suits up to the bunk where Sam was still mercifully asleep, and he began to dress Sam in the suit. His right arm was fully formed from the Mech tissue now, though it appeared to be completely lifeless. Jack slid the suit over the arm, trying to avoid touching it himself. With Sam fully suited, helmet in place, Jack climbed into his own suit.

The tactical suits were the fastest means of traveling between the two ships. Jack used his command codes to take control of Sam’s suit, set his gravity field to zero level, and carried his weightless body toward the lower airlock, down the steps to the lower deck, and down to the lower airlock.

Drifting out into space was always exhilarating. Jack had never traversed the void for recreational purposes, though. It was usually in response to some hostile action. He wasn’t going out because of an attack this time, but it was still dire.

During the Mechs’ first encounter with Sam Torent, they had linked to his mechanical endcap, a black composite band around his severed upper arm that housed the dark composite tendrils that linked Sam’s neural systems to his cybernetic arm, a junction between hardware and human. The Mechs had probed it briefly during their final encounter.

Jack remembered the attack. At the time, it had appeared the Mechs were merely interested in the device. Soon after, when the black composite tendrils had grown and taken on the Mech’s gray color, Jack realized that Sam had been infected somehow. The violent energy of the gamma ray burst had simply activated it and pushed it into a phase of sudden, aggressive growth.

He was used to making difficult choices. As a Marine, he had been told what to do, but as an officer it had been his responsibility to make life and death choices, to give orders, and to live with the consequences. Jack had decided the best course of action now was to take Sam to the medical facilities on the civilian transport. Jack hated not knowing what was going to happen to his friend, but he had to trust he was making the right choice.

The civilian transport filled Jack’s view. He was drifting slowly toward an opening in the massive hull, the city-sized craft dominating Jack’s view. Behind him was the frigate, a powerful warship in its own right but nothing like the size of the civilian transport. Jack risked a glance back at the frigate. It was receding fast, a glinting speck lost in the sea of the endless void.

A message came over Jack’s tactical suit helmet communicator. Jack opened the channel. The voice of Bale sounded clear and close. Jack looked back at the distant frigate.

“Yes, go ahead, Mr. Bale,” Jack said.

“Major, I’ve redeployed the sensor drones to their maximum range. I’m detecting something moving in on our position.”

“Can you be more specific?” Jack asked.

“It could be a sensor shadow. It might be that the gamma ray burst has thrown my sensor calibration right out, but…”

“What is it, Commander?” Jack pressed, but in his gut, he knew.

“A number of objects approaching at speed. They’ll be on top of us in under an hour.”

Jack looked at the airlock racing closer. He adjusted his suit’s gravity field and reached out to the hull. His grav field connected with the transport’s hull and he drew Sam and himself slowly and carefully toward the opening, maneuvering them both safely inside.

“Keep a close eye on those objects and inform me when you have a clear signal. Copy?”

“I’ve just received a fresh data stream from the drone net, Major. Sensor reading is conclusive.” Bale’s voice was muted, afraid. “It is a Devex warship.”

Jack looked up at the frigate above him as the civilian transport’s outer airlock door closed.

“Get the frigate ready for combat, Mr. Bale. Stand by for my orders.”

3

As the pressure in the airlock increased with a high-pitched whine, Jack moved to the inner door. He jabbed at the release panel until the door finally slid open. A crewman was waiting inside.

Jack walked Sam out of the airlock and over to the crewman.

“Take him to the med-bay. Make sure he gets there safely.” Jack fixed the crewman with a hard stare. The crewman nodded emphatically and hooked Sam’s left arm over his shoulder, walking him along the curving white corridor.

“I need to get back to my ship,” Jack said and stepped back inside the airlock. He sealed the inner door behind him. Walking across the airlock, Jack looked out through the small porthole in the outer hatch. The frigate was falling behind and slipping from view.

“Commander Bale. You are not holding position. Report,” Jack said into his suit’s communicator.

Bale’s voice was angry and flustered. “The transport is pulling away. She must have spotted the Devex and she’s running. We can’t keep up. The frigate is at breaking point. I’ll burn out the main reactor if I push any harder.”

Jack watched as the frigate slipped further behind, out of Jack’s limited view. He considered briefly contacting Captain Morton and telling him to slow down, to maintain the formation, but he realized he did not have authority over Morton’s ship, and what’s more, the captain was clearly running for his life. Jack would never be able to convince the captain while fear was in charge.

“Commander Bale,” Jack said as he turned away from the outer airlock hatch. “Get out of danger. Run. Hide. Just don’t get caught. Get back to the fleet if you can. I’ll remain on the transport.”

“But, Major,” Bale said, “the transport can’t outrun the Devex ships. The transport will surely be captured. We can’t prevent it, but if you leave now, I can collect you from space.”

“Negative, Commander,” Jack said. He sealed the inner airlock behind him. “Sam needs medical attention. He has to stay here. I’ll remain on board and organize the defense over here. Get clear. Stay safe. The frigate is yours, Commander Bale. Forge out.”

Jack ran along the corridor and caught up with the crewman carrying Sam.

“Hurry it up there, Crewman,” Jack said. “There is a Devex ship approaching fast and it will be on us in no time. We will need Commander Torent up on his feet if we hope to survive an attack.”

The medical bay was almost as large as the main deck on the frigate. It was long and divided by clear composite partitions. A short, human-shaped drone with a white composite shell and friendly synthetic face came down the central aisle and looked up at Jack.

“Bring the patient this way,” the medical drone said in a friendly voice and then turned to lead the way.

A second medical drone joined them at the bunk, and the drones began to remove Sam’s tactical suit and deposit it carefully on a nearby unit. Once undressed, a series of straps deployed across the bunk to hold Sam in place. One long probe from a drone was slid into Sam’s ear, another in his mouth. A probe pierced Sam’s arm and drew blood.

Jack watched the medical drones perform the swift procedure. One of the drones removed the med-pack from Sam’s neck.

Sam woke immediately, his eyes wide and frantic. He began jerking and thrashing about, constrained by the straps across his body.

“It’s okay, Sam,” Jack said, touching Sam’s shoulder.

Sam turned and stared as Jack. His eyes were dull and gray, yet they burned with an intensity that Jack had seldom seen in him.

Then the straps snapped. Sam reached out to Jack with his Mech right arm, perfectly formed from the gray tissue. The fingers gripped Jack around the throat. A drone reached for Sam’s right arm, to restrain him and free Jack from the crushing grip.

Sam’s forearm seemed to unravel, and a series of fine gray strands erupted from the surface. They reached out and wrapped themselves around the drone’s arm. The drone lost power, the synthetic face going limp and even more lifeless. Then the strands threaded into the drone.

Jack grabbed Sam’s Mech wrist. He managed to speak. “Sam. It’s me. It’s Jack.”

The threads were whipping out of Sam’s arm and enveloping the drone’s arm. The second drone scuttled back. A containment wall came crashing down around the small bay containing Jack, Sam, and the disabled medical drone.

“Sam,” Jack pleaded again.

Sam looked from Jack to the drone. The threads pulled out of the drone and merged seamlessly back into Sam’s Mech arm. They left the medical drone unpowered, its head lolling to one side. Then Sam turned his fierce gaze on Jack. The fine threads spun out from the wrist and headed toward Jack’s face. Jack felt the tips of the threads skate over his skin, touching his eyes, inside his nostrils. They were cold and hard, even though they were fine as a strand of spider web.

Jack pulled and loosened Sam’s grip enough to speak without impediment.

“Commander Torent,” Jack shouted. “Stand down, Marine. That is an order.”

The hand around Jack’s throat slackened. Jack pulled it away and gasped for breath. Sam’s arm hovered just within reach, the pair contained in the isolation bay.

“Stand down, Marine,” Jack said as he massaged his throat. “Do you copy?”

Sam spoke. He sounded confused.

“Jack? Jack? Where are we?”

“I said do you copy, Marine? Answer the question.”

“Yes, sir,” Sam said. “Stand down, sir. Copy that.”

Sam looked around, confused. Jack leaned against the composite wall.

“At ease, Sam,” Jack said, eying his old friend with a hint of fear.

“What happened?” Sam held his gray arm up and studied it, clenching and unclenching his new gray, Mech fist, turning the wrist, bending the elbow. Fear and wonder on his face. “What’s this?” He looked at Jack with fear and anxiety. “What happened? What’s going on?”

Jack didn’t know where to begin, and then he heard the beat of boots in the med-bay. Jack turned to see Marine Squad Leader Hawke and a small squad of militia running in. Hawke slowed as he spotted Jack.

The containment walls of clear composite were tough and reached from deck to ceiling, but Jack could hear Hawke’s voice through them.

“Major Forge?” he said in surprise and confusion. “There are reports of an attack in the medical bay.”

Jack nodded toward Sam, sitting up on the medical bunk, studying his new right arm.

“Commander Torent had a bad reaction to his…” Jack hesitated. “His new cybernetic arm. He hasn’t had one for a while.”

Hawke pointed at the medical drone, deactivated and slumped against the containment wall on the far side of the med bunk.

Jack glanced over his shoulder. The drone had been deactivated by the gray threads from Sam’s arm. Jack looked at Sam. He appeared calm, if a little confused, and was still studying his arm.

Jack turned back to Hawke. “Guess some of the equipment is not at its best,” Jack said with a shrug. He tapped on the composite with his knuckles. “What do we have to do to get this removed, Hawke?”

Hawke looked uneasy. He didn’t want to disobey a superior officer, and one who he held so much respect and admiration for, but he also didn’t want to release Sam, a man who had just destroyed a medical drone.

Jack read the young Marine. He guessed the reason for his hesitation. A sharp order might snap him out of his indecision, Jack thought, but he decided to try a different, softer approach.

“He’s okay,” Jack said, nodding to Sam. “I can vouch for him and I will guarantee his conduct. Now do you want to remove this containment so we can deal with the real problem?”

Hawke nodded. He contacted the command deck and spoke to the security officer there.

“You can release the containment shell in the med-bay. It’s Major Forge. It’s just a misunderstanding.”

The walls retracted, drawn back up into the ceiling. The deactivated med drone fell over as the composite wall was removed.

Stepping toward Hawke, Jack opened a channel to the captain on the command deck.

“This is Forge. How long do we have?”

Captain Morton sounded flustered. He was a civilian captain, not used to combat situations. He was doing his best, but Jack could hear the tension in his voice.

“The Devex are closing fast, Major. We don’t have long.”

Jack gestured at Hawke and told him to wait. He walked over to Sam, still sitting up on the side of the bunk.

“And the frigate?” Jack asked Morton.

“The frigate has disappeared from our sensors. I think it has been destroyed. We are defenseless.”

Jack guessed Bale had followed his orders and had switched to silent running so the little frigate could remain hidden from the Devex.

“We’re not quite as defenseless as you think, Captain.” Jack looked at Hawke, the young squad leader, with a knowing smile. “We have some experienced Marines on board. Permission to join you on your command deck, Captain?” Jack said.

“Whatever you think is best. We are relying on you now, Major. You are the only thing standing between us and the Devex. Morton out.”

Jack slapped Sam hard on the shoulder.

“Sam,” Jack said firmly.

Sam looked away from his arm to Jack and then back to his arm again.

“Commander Torent,” Jack said more firmly. “Get up. Suit up and fall in. Do you copy?”

Sam looked at Jack in a daze.

“I said, do you copy, Marine?”

Sam seemed to wake from his reverie. “Yes. I heard you, Jack. Get up.” He looked at his arm again. The gray hand and fingers moved as naturally as a human arm.

“I gave you an order,” Jack shouted.

Sam was off the bunk. He stood before Jack at attention. “Yes, sir. Suit up and fall in, sir. Yes, sir.”

Jack nodded, then patted Sam on the shoulder. “Hurry, Sam,” he said more softly. “We don’t have much time.”

4

The command deck was a buzz of activity, and Jack could feel the tension coming from all the command deck officers. Captain Morton was in front of the central holostage looking at an image of the pursuing Devex warship.

The warship sat in the center of a squadron of a dozen Devex Raiders. The massive warship dominated the holoimage. Captain Morton stared at it, transfixed.

Jack walked over to the holostage and stood next to the captain.

“How long before they get here?” Jack asked casually.

Morton’s head dropped for a moment. He picked it up and looked at Jack. He shook his head slightly and then looked back at the image. The huge black slab of a Devex warship with the sleek raiders like tiny flies around a huge beast was an ominous sight. Jack and Morton both knew what it meant.

“I’m trying to outrun them,” Morton said.

“We can’t outrun them, Captain. We need to prepare.” Jack tapped the controls on the side of the holostage. The image zoomed out and showed the Devex warship on the tail of the civilian transport. The transport ship was bigger, but with no offensive ability, it was at the warship’s mercy. Jack had encountered the Devex enough times to know that there would be no mercy.

The distance between the two ships was less than a million kilometers and shortening by the second.

“Have you seen these Devex warships in action, Captain?” Jack asked. He tapped the controls and called up a set of data taken from the first Devex attack on the fleet.

“Yes. I was in the fleet when they first attacked.” The captain stared blankly at the holoimage. “They clamp on,” he said in a distant voice. “They deploy those boarding arms and puncture the sides of a ship.”

Jack called up the sensor data from a civilian transport that had been attacked during the fleet’s first encounter with the Devex. The holoimage showed the civilian transport with the Devex warship above. Huge arms extended out from the side of the black warship, arcing around to puncture the side of the transport. A dozen arms gripped the ship below.

“Show internal sensor reports from the transport,” Jack said.

The holostage showed the data from the transport. The arms punctured the ship’s hull at intervals all along the sides of the ship.

Jack tapped on the holoimage at one point where the Devex warship had clamped on. The smooth white corridor of the civilian transport was smashed, and a dark opening was there at the end of the puncture arms. And through the arms came a stream of Devex warriors.

“It’s how they both trap a ship and get their warriors aboard.” Jack pointed at the structure. “It’s ingenious, really.”

It was not the first time Jack had watched this hologram data from the previous attack. He watched again now, hoping to find some weakness in the Devex attack. They were a powerful enemy. Jack was facing an impossible challenge.

Out from the puncture arms came the Devex warriors armed with the massive, rapid-fire blasters they preferred. They poured a stream of energy bullets in all directions along the corridor, swiftly taking down the small Marine response that had rushed to counter the threat.

Captain Morton watched in horror before turning away.

“This is how they will attack,” Jack said. “We can’t hold them. We need to draw them in and fight them deep inside the ship. Maybe then we can outflank them. We might have a chance.”

“I’ve ordered all able-bodied men and women to the armory,” Captain Morton said. “We will fight them off.”

Jack canceled the data stream and returned to the image of the pursuing warship. In the few moments Jack had been making his defense plans, the Devex had closed in another few hundred thousand kilometers.

Jack looked back at Sam and Hawke with the small squad of militia, all former cops. It was a small force. It was all they had. It would have to be enough.

“I don’t think you should be arming civilians at this time.” Jack said.

“What, and leave them defenseless?” Morton said.

“All you will do is put lethal weapons in the hands of a hoard of frightened and untrained civilians. They will be a danger to themselves and others. Better they withdraw to the inner sections of the ship and let the professionals do their job.”

Jack zoomed in on a few of the larger areas of the massive civilian transport looking for a place big enough to move the civilians and keep them safe.

“The central arena,” Hawke said, stepping up next to Jack and tapping the controls to show the central arena. It was big and centrally located. “It is the largest single space on the transport. And it’s deep in the center of the transport.”

“But it won’t hold everyone,” Morton said. “And what are they going to do in there? Sit and wait for your little group of militia to get wiped out?”

“Don’t underestimate our ability, Captain,” Hawke said. “The militia is trained and ready to defend this ship. And we have Major Forge in command. The major has faced tougher enemies than a single Devex warship.” He turned and gave Jack a hopeful look.

Jack maintained his stony expression. He didn’t feel as confident as the young squad leader, but he wasn’t going to shatter Hawke’s confidence by revealing his uncertainty. A confident Marine could overcome huge odds. It was a powerful ally. Jack wasn’t sure, on this occasion, if confidence would be enough, though.

Morton laughed. “A few retired cops and a handful of Marines. Don’t misunderstand me, Hawke,” Morton said, “I don’t doubt your resolve, or your ability, but the Devex are coming in numbers. You will be lucky to hold them for even ten minutes.”

Morton looked at Jack as if for confirmation of this doom-laden prediction.

Jack could not disagree. It was a hopeless situation.

“If I have your agreement, Captain, I will start making preparations for the defense of the ship.” Jack said.

Morton waved dismissively. “Do whatever you can, Major.”

“Okay, first, we stop arming civilians. The militia is in enough danger without having to worry about a frightened civilian taking a shot at them. Next, order as many people as possible to the central arena. Everyone else is to remain in their quarters. Seal all the doors and sit tight. I’ll need the run of the corridors if I’m going to hold off this attack.”

Sam wandered over to the holostage and stood next to Jack. He could sense Sam was distant, dreamlike, not quite his usual focused self, but Jack was pleased to have his old comrade by his side. He had fought with Sam on more occasions than either of them cared to count. If there was one person on board this transport he could trust, it was Sam Torent. Even a half-asleep Sam Torent was a better military asset than any dozen of the militia.

“I’ll need a couple dozen high-yield explosive charges. Demolition, seismic charges, whatever you have on board,” Jack went on, “and I’ll need a dozen volunteers.”

“What are you planning, Major?” Morton asked. He pushed himself away from the holostage and stared at Jack. “I won’t have you strapping bombs to my people.”

“Calm yourself, Captain,” Jack said. “That’s really not my style. I’m not saying it won’t be dangerous, but I’d like as many of us to come out of this alive as possible. Now, Captain, do you have ordnance of any kind?”

“Power cells. That’s all I can suggest. Set them to overload and they can pack a punch.” Morton looked at Jack, still suspicious.

“Big enough to destroy those Devex puncture arms?” Jack asked.

Captain Morton looked back to the holostage. He selected the data from the first Devex attack and selected the internal sensor data from one of the captured civilian transports. He focused in on one of the puncture arms where it had burst through the hull. The data from the internal scans gave details of the entrance diameter and an estimation of the Devex material strength.

“We should be able to blast the puncture arms,” Morton said, turning to Jack with a slight smile. “Maybe take two power cells for each arm just to be sure, and I reckon they’ll destroy those puncture arms.”

Jack nodded and clasped a hand on Morton’s shoulder. “If we can cripple those arms after they deploy them, I think we have a chance to save the ship, and your passengers. With a good plan and accurate execution, we can overcome the odds.”

Morton nodded. He turned to the holostage and zoomed out to show the Devex warship clamped brutally to the civilian transport.

“I knew the captain of that ship from before the evacuation,” Morton said. “We worked the outer system haulage runs for a couple of years. It was monotonous and dull work, running in convoy, a few civilian captains, each with a few million tons of asteroids. But he was always such fun. Happy. A real joker. Kept the lot of us entertained.” Morton watched as the data recording played out until the transport began to explode from the inside, pushing the warship away as the blast slammed into the Devex shields.

“We lost a lot of ships in that attack, and a lot of people too,” Morton said as he canceled the data playback with a sigh. He returned the holostage to show the current data of the Devex warship closing in on his ship.

“I don’t know why the Devex are attacking us,” Morton said. “I don’t know why they are snatching civilians, but I for sure don’t want to find out firsthand. If you fail, and if it comes to it, Major, I will make sure I go down with my ship.”

Jack nodded. “I understand, Captain. I’ll do my best to make sure it doesn’t come to that.”

5

Jack sat in a corridor near the outer hull of the civilian transport. A couple of power cells hooked onto his Marine tactical suit. A pulse pistol in his hand. A small group of militiamen stood around the corridor talking quietly, nervously.

The entire militia force was suited up. Some were in Marine tactical suits from Hawke’s supply, others were in civilian fleet suits designed primarily for extravehicular activity. Others wore maintenance units, for use inside or outside the ship in any hazardous or deadly environment. However, no environment would be deadlier than these corridors the moment the Devex arrived.

Even though the basic maintenance suits lacked the functionality of the tactical suits, they were useful enough. They would keep the wearer safe from the vacuum of space, and that was Jack’s primary concern. If his plan worked, the transport would be left with a dozen gaping holes along its sides. Anyone not sealed in their quarters, or in the central arena, would be blown out into space. If any of the militia were lost to the void, at least they would be protected for a short time while they awaited rescue. If one could be mounted.

Jack checked his team. He had no time to get to know them, but they were a determined and brave group. He couldn’t access their vital signs—the basic suits weren’t equipped with the bioscanners of the Marine tactical suit—but Jack didn’t need scanners to know these brave men were afraid. Only a fool would have been anything other than afraid before a battle.

Checking the positions of the Devex ships on his wrist-mounted holostage, Jack could see the Devex warship moving into position above the transport. The Devex ship was matching every move of the massive civilian transport as Captain Morton did what he could to evade the attacking ship, to buy a little more time, and to hold off the inevitable.

Jack checked in with his militia team leaders, stationed along both sides of the transport. Hawke led one group, one was led by a retired police lieutenant, others by police sergeants, and the rest were led by regular cops, elected by their own group to lead.

Jack would have preferred Marine officers—or even Fleet officers—to lead the groups, but he had to trust and hope that the best leaders for each of the small teams were in place. These teams all waited to take on the most powerful enemy any of them had ever encountered. The teams all needed strong and fearless leaders who would hold their groups together for as long as possible if the plan was going to work.

It was all about the plan and executing it quickly.

The team nearest Jack’s own was led by Sam Torent, though Jack had concerns about Sam’s current ability to lead effectively. His old friend was only just out of the medical bay, and he was dealing with the growth of a Mech arm. Jack would have had no hesitation in trusting Sam before, but now, with so much changed in such a short time, Jack had a doubt. But he had little choice.

He opened a private communication channel to Sam.

“Standing by, sir,” Sam said.

“You going to stick to formalities, are you, old friend?” Jack said.

Sam chuckled. “You all set?”

“Yeah. Not long now.”

“Copy that, Jack,” Sam said. “It’ll be over soon, and we can kick back with a couple of beers.”

“When this is over, I think we all deserve a bottle of Amber, at the least.”

Sam chuckled again.

“The arm?” Jack said. He left the question hanging.

“Strange,” Sam replied. “Feels…almost normal.”

Jack found it was his turn to have a chuckle. “There is one thing that arm isn’t, Sam, and that is normal. It’s a Mech arm. You’re a cyborg, Sam.”

“Cyborg Sam,” Sam said. “Sounds like an action hero. I’m a kravin hero, Jack.”

“You sure are,” Jack laughed. Then, with a more serious and sober tone, he added, “If this thing goes badly…”

“Ever known a situation like this to go well?”

“Just make sure you get away, get back to the frigate. Bale is not far away, I assume. I ordered him to go dark and run silent. If you have to abandon the civilian transport, send out a distress call and I’m sure he’ll pick you up.”

“And I suppose you’ll be the first to abandon ship if the plan fails, right?” Sam said

Jack said nothing. He would not give up on this fight. He was in it to the bitter end, whatever end that might be.

“Thought as much,” Sam said. “If you aren’t going to run, I sure as krav won’t. Don’t think I could stand to be stuck on that frigate with Bale in charge, anyway.”

“You’d choose death over that?” Jack said.

“I’d never choose it, Jack, but to be honest, I can’t believe we’ve lived this long. Everything we’ve been through. We’ve been on borrowed time for too long. Maybe this is the end of the line for you and me, Jack.”

“And just when you got your arm back too,” Jack said with a dry chuckle.

“And it’s a good arm. It’ll probably survive even after we’ve all been blown to bits, or worse.”

Jack felt a creeping sensation of dread, one he hadn’t felt since his first encounters with a hostile enemy at the end of his training. He’d hardly had time to think about the danger from one moment to the next, his time as a Marine had been so fast and relentless. He had fought more battles than he could remember. He’d made friends, and enemies, he’d climbed the ranks from a Marine recruit to an officer and lost Marines under his command, and he’d had a rough time of it. But now, here in the calm before the most one-sided battle he’d faced, he had a moment to remember it all.

He wished he could forget.

The communicator came alive with the frightened but determined voice of Captain Morton.

“I can’t evade them any longer! The Devex warship is extending its puncture arms. They’ll be breaching our outer hull any moment!”

Jack checked the surveillance feed on his wrist-mounted holostage. The puncture arms were extending from the massive Devex warship, arcing around and lining up along the sides of the civilian transport beneath it. Like a giant spider catching its prey. The arms held position, poised to strike, and then they stabbed inward suddenly and gripped their prey in a deadly embrace.

The creaking of the hull as the puncture arms took a solid grip filled Jack’s ears. His suit filtered out the deafening noise, but he felt the massive vibrations of the ship quake through his boots. Jack stood ready.

A few meters ahead, the wall of the corridor exploded inward as the Devex puncture arm burst in. The black Devex material melted over the smooth white composite of the civilian transport corridor, flowing out like liquid metal before fixing in place and making a seal. A new black oval entrance was formed.

The Devex were here.

6

The new opening in the side of the white corridor led down the center of the huge puncture arm that had pierced the side of the civilian transport, locking it in place and giving access for the Devex warriors to storm aboard. The sound of boots echoing along the dark entrance heralded their approach.

Jack had encountered them before. Massive warriors three meters tall, heavy exoskeleton armor of drab silver over their enormous frames, and a helmet faceplate, completely opaque with a narrow horizontal slit presumably at eye level. There was one drawback for the massive Devex warriors attacking the civilian transport: their massive size made it difficult for them to move along the corridors.

Jack called his team to order. It was time to put his plan into action. It was time to fight off the Devex attack.

“Stand ready to activate gravity traps. Remember the markings along the corridor. Don’t get caught yourself. Hold the line until the signal to withdraw. Here they come! Weapons ready!”

The first Devex to charge in hit the gravity trap and collapsed to the deck. The localized gravity field pinned the warrior, but Jack noticed immediately that this warrior was not the expected three-meter-tall giant. It was closer to human size.

Jack opened fire, his pulse rounds slamming into the Devex exoskeleton at close range. It was impossible to miss. The Devex armor soaked up the damage as Jack’s squad poured fire and fury onto the trapped warrior, the armor glowing white hot as it absorbed the punishment from the pulse rounds.

And then another Devex came, and another, all hitting the gravity trap and collapsing to the deck. They came forward, crawling on elbows and knees. The forward Devex, the one taking much of the defensive fire, raised its blaster and a stream of fierce white energy bullets raked the corridor.

A defender was snatched back by the stream of bullets, thrown along the corridor. Jack half-expected a med report to flash up on his suit’s HUD, but the militiaman who had just been hit was wearing a maintenance suit. Jack glanced at the fallen man and saw him staggering back to his feet. The suit had a burning scorch mark on the upper chest. It had taken a hit. It wouldn’t stand many.

The first attacking Devex finally succumbed to the punishment it was taking and slumped to the ground under a hail of fire. Its body began to slide along the deck in a jerky motion until it reached the puncture entrance. Once free from the gravity trap, the body lifted and floated away back along the Devex puncture arm.

The body hung in the air briefly before being pulled away. It looked almost human. Jack opened fire on the next nearest Devex crawling along the deck. They came in numbers, slowed by the gravity trap, but pressed forward by the Devex coming behind.

Jack saw a three-meter-tall Devex step out of the arm. It kneeled in the corridor and looked toward Jack’s defensive line and then the other way, into the undefended corridor. More human-sized Devex came and pressed into the gravity trap, where they received concentrated fire from the small group of defenders.

Jack noticed a militiaman step forward as he fired round after round from his pulse pistol into a Devex crawling along the deck. The frustration in the man was clear. The Devex were taking everything the team was throwing at them. And still they came.

Another Devex fell still. Then another. Once the Devex fell, their bodies drifted back to the puncture arm and were pulled away. But still more came. The corridor was filled with crawling Devex warriors, and behind them all kneeled the giant Devex, pushing the smaller warriors forward into the gravity trap and the storm of pulse pistol fire.

They were going to break through. It was inevitable. Jack knew he couldn’t hold them, but that wasn’t his plan.

A Devex warrior on the deck came another centimeter closer to the edge of the high gravity field. Jack knew it was time to move his plan to the next stage.

“Fall back,” Jack shouted. He repeated the order, but the team was already running. “Move to second position.”

Jack was on his feet. He saw the Devex warrior reach the edge of the gravity trap just as he turned to run. The jolt in his upper left shoulder threw him forward and he staggered, slightly off balance. His suit reported the energy bullet strike. A stream of bullets raked the corridor alongside him, hitting the outside of the gentle curve of the walls as he ran around the bend and into cover.

He was relieved and proud to see the militia standing at the second position. A barricade erected across the corridor at waist height would provide some cover. A second gravity trap would slow the Devex advance.

“You know what to do?” Jack said to his team.

They nodded as one. A portly old sergeant spoke up in a gruff city accent.

“We’ll hold them as long as possible. Then we’ll fall back to final position. I’ll be the last to leave.”

Jack nodded. He felt as if a speech was in order, but the white energy bullets came fizzing along the corridor and struck a militiaman in the chest.

They responded by taking cover and returning fire. The gravity trap was activated. Jack glanced at the fallen militiaman. He gave Jack a weary thumbs-up and moved to join his team.

Jack hated to leave these poorly-trained, poorly-equipped militiamen to do the hard work, but he needed to move to the next stage of his plan. That meant he had to abandon them. It was the only hope for any of them. As much as he hated it, he needed to move. After a final blast from his pulse pistol in support of his team, Jack turned and ran.

The sounds of the Devex blasters and pulse pistol fire echoed along the corridor. Jack came to the internal transit channel access. He opened the control panel and sent a maintenance override code to the transit system. The pod was sent away along the channel and the channel access opened. Jack adjusted his suit’s gravity field and then stepped into the dark, empty channel.

A map on his wrist-mounted holostage showed him the way with a red arrow on a dark green outline of the surrounding transit system. He followed the fastest path to the puncture arm where his team was fighting off the Devex invaders.

Now he was on the attack.

The suit’s gravity field moved him swiftly and silently along the channel until he was in a space just above the corridor where the Devex were entering into the ship. Jack readied a power cell and then checked the status of the other teams.

The holoimage showed the red dots where the other volunteers were, all armed with power cells set to overload. Jack was in position. Hawke was in position on the far side of the ship. Several others were proceeding toward their positions. The plan was working.

Sam Torent was not in position. Jack opened a silent channel to Sam.

“Progress, Sam?”

“The grav trap is failing intermittently. I haven’t been able to hold them. I’ve lost half my team. We are about to be overrun.”

Jack understood Sam’s reluctance to leave a team that was taking a beating, but the plan had to work as a whole.

“Leave them, Sam. We have to hit the puncture arms in a coordinated strike or this is not going to work. Leave your team and proceed with the plan. Copy.”

“Copy that, Jack.”

On silent communication, he could not gauge Sam’s tone but if Jack knew Sam at all, he guessed he would not leave until he had at least tried to balance the odds and give his team a chance.

“Proceed on task now, Sam. That in an order.”

Jack checked Sam’s marker. He was moving. He was getting into position. The others all sent their ready status to Jack. He would initiate the attack so that it would be a combined effort and hit the Devex all at once.

Sam was nearing his attack position. Jack set his first power cell to overload and made ready to deploy the device.

Then Captain Morton’s voice burst over Jack’s communicator.

“Environmental controls detect Devex Dox vapor entering the ship. I’m sealing off the command deck. Good luck, Major.”

The Devex appeared intent on capturing the civilians alive. They would all be unconscious in moments. It did not interfere with Jack’s plan and he initiated his attack.

Pulling up the panel below him, Jack looked down into the corridor at the site of the Devex puncture entrance, where a massive Devex warrior was kneeling. Jack was in the perfect spot. Smaller Devex warriors were marching in twos and then splitting, one heading left, the other right, flooding into the ship in a steady stream.

Jack dropped the power cell into the corridor and closed the panel. He heard the clatter of energy bullets on the panel. The superheated spots where the bullets hit were slowly burning through the composite material.

And then the power cell detonated.

The panel was flung upward, turning end over end. He jerked away as the panel narrowly missed him. The blast wave knocked him back, but his suit’s stability field kicked in and held him steady.

The panel fell back down with a clatter. Jack moved it aside and aimed his pulse pistol into the corridor.

The massive Devex was lying on the corridor deck, smaller Devex warriors around it. Jack was unsure if they were simply stunned, but then he noticed they were already being lifted off the deck by an unseen force and were drifting back along the puncture arm. A sure sign to Jack that these Devex had been overcome by the blast. The Devex always collected their dead.

Jack dropped down into the corridor. The smooth white walls were peppered with dark debris. More Devex were floating back along the puncture arms. Jack’s enhanced view showed him Devex lying in the corridor, but more were marching forward with their rapid-fire blasters raised.

He took cover behind a floating Devex as it was drawn into the dark corridor and followed it into the puncture arm. The walls were dark and rough. The ceiling was three meters above him and was large enough for two of the three-meter-tall Devex warriors to walk side by side. The floor had a sticky texture and it kept his feet on the ground as he walked. No gravity field in the puncture arm, just the tacky grip surface.

Then the Devex fire came on in a stream of the small but powerful white energy bullets fired by the advancing warriors. The bullets slammed into the massive Devex that Jack was taking cover behind. He walked a few steps into the corridor, then broke cover and popped up over the floating Devex and opened fire. His pulse pistol rounds slammed into the faceplate of the short, lead Devex. The pulse round forced its head back and knocked it off balance. Jack ducked back into the cover of the floating Devex just as a stream of fizzing energy bullets poured toward him.

Six meters into the black Devex puncture arm, Jack set the power cells. The overload was primed, so he would only have a few seconds to clear the area. He dropped the cells and they drifted in front of him. The local gravity was zero. Jack pressed the power cells against the floating Devex warrior and turned.

The white walls of the civilian transport lay ahead. He made to run, but his feet stuck on the tacky flooring and slowed him. He activated a maneuvering thruster on his suit and pushed himself forward. More dead Devex were drifting back into the puncture arm from the transport corridor. They came one by one, an indication that the defense was still holding and the Devex were fighting for every centimeter of ground.

Jack came to the opening and stepped back into the transport. A civilian came drifting along the corridor. The Devex had already started snatching civilians and sending them back toward the massive Devex warship, carried by the same energy field they used to retrieve their fallen.

He ran to the floating civilian, a young woman with a pregnant belly, and pushed the woman back away from the Devex puncture arm and along the white corridor. The energy field drawing her to the Devex ship was strong, but Jack pushed his suit’s thruster harder. He was not only running for his life, he was trying to save as many lives on the transport as possible. But right now he had to save these two lives, a woman and her unborn child, lives that were completely in his hands. It turned the abstract notion of saving the civilians into a tangible one.

Throughout the Chitin War, Jack had known he was fighting for the people on his home planet, to save them from a determined and merciless enemy. But it had always been abstract. They were distant, and most of the time it was easy to forget them. He had fought his hardest for the man next to him, and so often that man had been Sam Torent. But now, alone, with a power cell set to explode any moment in the dark Devex puncture arm behind him, Jack held the reason he fought in his arms.

Pressing further along the white corridor, Jack saw a steady stream of civilians drifting toward the puncture arm, fallen Devex among them. All floating in that lazy way that appeared so peaceful and so disturbing at the same time.

Jack felt the seconds slice away. He pushed his thrusters to their max and grabbed as many of the floating civilians as he could—an old man here, a young boy there—but he could not grab them all. Time was up.

The detonation roared along the corridor, blown out of the puncture arm like a shot from a cannon. It slammed into the opposite corridor wall and smashed the white composite panels to bits. The blast raced in all directions. Jack was flung violently forward, and he lost grip of the old man, keeping the pregnant woman and young boy, only just, in his grasp.

His suit’s stability field kept Jack orientated as he was thrown forward. The blast raced around him, and he was engulfed in a cloud of dust.

As the blast settled, Jack fell to the deck. He laid the two he had rescued in a small cabin to the side of the corridor and turned back to the site of the blast. He crouched and advanced back toward the Devex puncture arm entrance. He activated his electron blade, raised his pistol, and walked into the billowing dust thrown up by the power cell detonation.

7

The dust adhered to Jack’s tactical suit as he walked into the cloud. The bodies of fallen Devex, and the bodies of civilians too, lay on the deck. He stumbled forward, his helmet’s enhanced view showing him the way. He approached the corner of the Devex puncture arm.

Jack looked inside. The wide corridor of the puncture arm was intact. Jack ran to the site of the explosion and checked the walls of the arm. The suit’s scanners analyzed the walls. There was no damage. The arm should have been smashed apart by the blast, cut away from the civilian transport.

Frustration welled up in Jack and he plunged his pistol’s electron blade into the wall. The short blade slid easily into the dark material. As he withdrew the blade, the walls closed up easily.

Jack saw movement in the dark distance along the corridor. The Devex were marching toward the transport again. He grabbed a stun grenade off his hip and tossed it along the corridor. It would at least cover his retreat.

Their attack had failed. His plan to smash the Devex puncture arms had failed. Now he could only retreat.

“All squads, report.” Jack dashed back out of the puncture arm into the corridors of the transport, past the limp, sleeping bodies of civilians floating toward the puncture arms, carried by some Devex energy field.

The reports came in from all over the ship. The explosives had failed. Several squads did not report in at all. Jack knew they were lost—the explosions at those locations had possibly not even happened, or, just as likely, they had taken the team along with it.

“Hawke here, sir.”

Jack felt his spirits rise a little to hear the young squad leader’s voice, even though Hawke sounded anxious.

“Detonation in the puncture arm failed. I’m moving to the drive room. I’ll try and keep the power on as long as I can.”

“Copy that, Hawke,” Jack said. “All other militia teams, fall back to the last defensive position.”

“It’s no good, Jack,” Sam said over a private communication channel directly to Jack. Both knew no one could hear. “We can’t hold them. We should evacuate to the frigate.”

Jack ran along the corridor toward the final position, a defensive area deep in the center of the ship: the central arena.

“We can’t evacuate all these people to the frigate, Sam,” Jack said, but he knew what Sam meant.

“We can take Hawke, he’s a good kid,” Sam said. “Maybe some of the militia. They’ve got suits and can survive outside the ship while we wait for the frigate to pick us up. Everyone else is lost, Jack.”

“Not yet,” Jack said. He turned a corner. Two short Devex were walking along the corridor, their backs to Jack.

Jack ran at the two Devex. They weren’t much taller than Jack himself.

Jack ran up to the one on his left. He held his right arm across his chest, the electron blade fizzing on the end of his pulse pistol. He brought the blade around in a wide arc and sliced through the back of the Devex warrior’s exo-armor at the base of the helmet.

The Devex fell forward, face down on the deck. The second Devex was turning as the blade came around in the same arc and sliced across the faceplate. The blade traveled through the front of the helmet, slicing a line through both the helmet and whatever the Devex had for a head.

The Devex warrior fell to its knees and toppled forward. Jack continued his run along the corridor. Long leaping strides, light and silent in his heavy duty Marine tactical suit

“Meet me at the final defensive position, Sam,” Jack said. “We can still fight these Devex bastards off before they take everyone.”

“I’m already on my way, Jack,” Sam said. “Watch out for the Devex. They are everywhere. You might run into some.”

Jack carried on at a quick pace. “Copy that, Sam. I’ll see you in the last stand.”

Captain Morton dashed from one console to the next. The internal sensors were being blocked slowly as the Devex moved into the ship. They had entered in force through every one of the puncture arms that had smashed through the outer hull.

The civilians were succumbing to the Dox vapor. Only members of the militia and those in environment suits were not falling to it. The command deck was sealed and on its own power.

The detonations had been detected and the puncture arms were still in place. Morton knew the plan to shake the Devex free had failed.

He heard sounds from beyond the command deck door. Silence fell over the command deck.

Morton climbed up into his command chair. He checked the surveillance feed from the other side of the command deck door. A Devex warrior was attempting to open it. It would take them some time to break the door’s lock. Morton hoped that the major, the famous Jack Forge, could snatch victory from this disaster.

“Break out the small arms,” Morton said. “Everyone take a pulse pistol and be ready to defend the command deck.”

Morton tapped the control panel on his armrest, where a small panel slid aside. A pulse pistol was inside. Morton drew it out and checked the weapon. Satisfied it was primed, charged, and ready to fire, he stepped down from his chair and faced the command deck door.

The Devex were attempting to break in. Morton was going to defend his command deck to the last. There was no other choice.

Jack ran around the corner toward the last defensive position, the last stand. A pair of militiamen were crouched behind a hastily-erected barricade, a forward observation post watching for the Devex that would surely come. They tensed as Jack came around the curve of the corridor and clumsily presented their pulse pistols.

“Hold your fire,” Jack said, ducking aside. “It’s Major Forge.” Jack risked a glance, peeping around the curve. The two militiamen were aiming their weapons still. Jack called to them again.

“I’m coming out.”

Jack walked out in front of the pair looking over the panel of dark composite that lay across the corridor. A double door behind them led into the central arena. A space for theatre, holoadventure, sports or civil meetings. It was now to be the site of their last stand.

Jack stepped over the barricade. He gave both militiamen a friendly pat on the back.

“We don’t have long. Hold here. Good work.” Jack walked past the frightened but determined men of the militia and into the arena.

The civilians that had managed to make it there were all asleep, rendered unconscious by the Dox vapor. The few militiamen with functioning environment suits were joined by a few civilians with improvised breathing apparatuses. One, a doctor wearing a clear breathing mask and dragging an oxygen tank with him, was checking the sleeping civilians.

Jack walked over to the doctor.

“When they get here, stay out of the way, okay, Doctor. Assemble your team and be ready to offer assistance to any militia who need attention. Okay?”

The doctor looked at Jack. He was calm and relaxed, with a hint of a smile.

“How are you feeling, Marine?” the doctor asked. He grabbed Jack’s arm and tapped at the sleeve panel. He read the biosigns, then he looked at Jack with a degree of concern.

“I’m fine, Doctor. Thank you. How are you feeling?” Jack looked at the relaxed, carefree expression with suspicion.

“I’m just fine. I took a few meds just to take the edge off the fear. Think I may have overdone it a bit.” The doctor let out an involuntary laugh. “I definitely overdid the meds a bit, but I can still perform my duties, better than if I was soiling my pants in fear.” The doctor pulled a small med-pack from his pocket. “Do you need a little dose of something to take the edge off?”

“No,” Jack said, pushing the med-pack back toward the doctor. “I’m just fine.”

“You are not fine, Marine,” the doctor said, slipping the pack back into his pocket. “You are tired. You are under stress. I would suggest a week off and some rest and relaxation, but since I can’t prescribe that, I’ll have to suggest you instruct your suit to apply a stim shot for the fatigue or a sedative for the stress.”

Jack nodded at the doctor. “Thank you. But I had better keep a clear head if I can.”

Jack heard someone run up behind him. The doctor looked to the newcomer. Jack saw it was Sam.

“It’s the Marine with the Mech arm,” the doctor said, stepping up to Sam. He grabbed Sam’s wrist and checked the tactical suit’s readout.

“That new arm of yours had us all quite intrigued—” The doctor checked the readout and confirmed Sam’s name. “—Commander Torent. If we get out of this, I’d like to study your new arm if I can?”

Sam sent a private communication the Jack.

“They are moving in fast. We will be cut off if we don’t get away now.”

Jack spoke up.

“I am not leaving these people to die, Sam,” Jack said. He realized his harsh tone too late.

The smile fell from the doctor’s face for a moment. Jack thought he saw beyond the doctor’s med-induced calm to the underlying, well-contained panic. It rose to the surface briefly before the doctor suppressed it again.

The doctor looked at Sam.

“You are extremely tired. The effects of suddenly developing that mechanical arm, no doubt. Take a stim shot and try not to exert yourself too much.”

The doctor nodded a farewell and then went to check a sleeping civilian lying on the thinly-padded floor nearby. He dragged his oxygen bottle with him. Jack saw the pressure gauge. It was nearly empty. The doctor would soon be taken by the vapor too.

“Call Commander Bale,” Sam said. “Have him target the puncture arms with the laser assembly on the frigate. Maybe the detonations from the power cells have weakened them enough that a blast from the frigate’s laser…”

Sam trailed off as he saw Jack shake his head slowly in disagreement.

“The instant Bale shows himself he’ll be attacked. The warship has a squadron of raiders in support. Bale wouldn’t last five minutes on his own.”

“That frigate could take out a dozen raiders, no problem,” Sam said.

“Yes, maybe, with a full crew and fully armed. We are on our own. If we don’t defend this ship, then all is lost.”

The sound of pulse pistol fire from a doorway caught both Jack and Sam’s attention. A militiaman ran across to support the fight at the door. He fell back almost instantly as a stream of white energy bullets blasted into his chest.

Jack looked for the doctor to instruct him to assist the fallen man, but the doctor was slumped on the floor, his mask still on and attached to the empty oxygen bottle.

“Hold them,” Jack said. He waved another militiaman over to the fight at the small entrance through the short, narrow corridor.

He called up an image of the arena on his wrist-mounted holostage. There were dozens of doors on multiple levels, all leading into the central arena. Even with most of them mechanically sealed, Jack realized he could never hold the Devex off for long.

A Devex warrior stepped into the arena from a corridor on the far side from Jack and pointed a device at the sleeping civilians. They began to levitate and drift away. Jack ran at the Devex, pistol aimed and firing. He struck the Devex with a number of well-aimed shots to the helmet, the Devex head jerking this way and that as the helmet took the hits. The Devex holstered the small levitation device and swung up the blaster that was slung across its back, but Jack rained shots in on the Devex and finally delivered a telling shot that dropped the enemy.

The shouts from the militia filled the arena. Flashes of light in Jack’s peripheral vision came from the Devex blasters, energy bullets tearing through the dark area.

A second Devex stepped in behind the one he had just dropped. Jack moved and fired. The rapid-fire blaster poured a deadly stream of energy bullets at him. He leaped, his suit letting him climb over twenty meters toward the high arena roof. He maintained his aim and fired down at the Devex, every hit landing on the upturned faceplate.

The Devex toppled backwards as Jack came down from his leaping arc. Another Devex came in, blaster aimed. He activated his thruster jet and powered toward the floor. With his electron blade held out in front of him, he dropped as if in a ten-G field and landed on the Devex, the blade slicing through the helmet and into the Devex skull within. Jack’s suit cushioned his landing and saved him from a couple of shattered ankles. He landed on his knee, one hand on the deck with his pulse pistol at his side, the electron blade fizzing and ready for work.

As the next Devex came in, Jack looked up and brought his pistol to bear. The Devex aimed a small device that Jack had seen once before.

A shimmering, circular concussion wave burst out of the end of the device, and it spread out into a widening wave that drifted forward. Jack moved away from the wave, firing at the Devex on the other side of it. The pulse rounds struck the wave and sent thick ripples out from the contact point. The pulse rounds slowed and struck the Devex with next to no force.

After twenty pulse rounds ripped through the concussion wave, it lost cohesion and was gone. Jack kept up the fire. The Devex activated a second concussion wave that shimmered and spread out. Jack walked backward, firing as he went, the pulse rounds hitting the second wave until it too dissipated.

Jack glanced over his shoulder for an escape. Sam was there, backing away from a concussion wave creeping forward from the other direction.

Sam grabbed hold of Jack.

“No arguments, Jack,” Sam said. He activated his suit’s thrusters and pulled Jack upward.

Jack flew up to the high arena ceiling and looked down. The waves were corralling the militia that were moving away from them. Then, trapped in a shrinking space, the wave contacted the first militiaman. He fell in a quivering heap, and then another fell, and within a few seconds, the remaining militia were lying on the deck.

He looked up. The lighting rig above the arena was a maze of walkways and cables. Sam pulled Jack up into the tangle. A small access hatch in the upper ceiling was just a few meters away.

“You did your best, Jack,” Sam said. “But it’s no good us getting caught.”

Jack looked at the small access hatch and sliced at the seal with his electron blade. The entire cover fell away, and he pushed Sam into the small recess behind. Below, the Devex were targeting the sleeping people with levitation devices and sending them floating away. Jack saw a Devex pull the clear breathing mask from the doctor and throw it aside. Then, the doctor was targeted with the levitation device and he too floated away, out of the arena.

A Devex suddenly looked up at Jack as he maneuvered himself toward the small hatch. The warrior aimed his concussion field device at Jack and launched a shimmering wave.

Jack pressed himself in behind Sam, into a narrow crawl space, with no idea how to proceed, sure only that he and Sam were the only conscious humans left on the entire civilian transport ship.

8

Jack and Sam scrambled through the narrow crawlspace to a small hatch that opened out into an empty corridor. The silence was as worrying as the noise of battle. The silence indicated that the fight was over. The ship had been lost. The civilians were being taken. Only Jack and Sam remained as an offensive force.

Kneeling in the corridor on the outside of the gentle curve, Jack dispatched a couple of microdrones from his tactical suit and they flew off along the corridor in both directions, sending back scanner data on the surroundings. He activated his wrist-mounted holostage and fed in the data from the microdrone. The image showed that the corridor was empty.

Jack opened a private communication channel to Hawke. The young squad leader had been heading to the drive room in the transport’s aft section. He was the only Marine defending the drive room.

Hawke did not respond.

Jack opened a channel to the command deck. Captain Morton answered. His holoimage was shaky, but Jack thought he looked pale.

“Captain. Status?”

“We’ve lost main power. The drive room has been taken. The command deck is secure, for now, but we’ve got a dozen Devex trying to cut through the command deck door.”

“Can you hold them, Captain?” Jack asked quietly.

Captain Morton held up his pulse pistol for Jack to see. “We’ve got nothing to do up here but hold until we get main power back. I’ve got an auto-sentry gun up here. I never thought I’d be forced to use it. We’ll hold them off as long as we can.”

“Good,” Jack said. “I’ll retake the drive room.” Jack spoke with a confidence he did not feel. There could be a thousand Devex between him and the drive room.

“Then what?” Morton said.

“Let’s get main power back first,” Jack said, “then we’ll plan the next step. Agreed?”

Captain Morton nodded and gave Jack a clumsy salute, but the thought was there.

“Good luck, Major.”

The holomap on Sam’s wrist showed a small lobby up ahead with a stairway up and down and several corridors leading off. The bodies of civilians were floating along the corridors, converging from the decks above and below and streaming off in a sedate river of unconscious humans.

Then, coming into the sensor field of the microdrone, came two Devex. They stood in the lobby as the bodies floated past and away toward the nearest puncture arm and into the belly of the Devex warship.

Alerted to the presence of the microdrone, both Devex raised their rapid-fire blasters and took aim. Their blaster fire smashed the microdrone and the data feed was lost.

“We have to move,” Jack said.

He indicated the corridor away from the two Devex. Sam released a microdrone and sent it ahead. Jack moved off at a light jog, Sam on his heels, their pulse pistols in their hands.

Sam grabbed Jack by the arm and stopped him. The pair took a knee. Sam showed the holomap on his wrist to Jack.

Two more Devex were advancing on their position, heading straight toward them, hidden for now around the curve of the corridor.

Jack pointed at a doorway on the outside of the curving corridor nearby. He instructed Sam to take up position there and then he indicated that he would hold at the current point, in cover and out of sight around the curve.

Sam recognized the tactic. The Devex would walk into a crossfire.

Sam moved quickly. The door was shut tight. He moved his fingers over the seal, and then Sam felt the fingers of his right hand begin to unravel into fine strands of Mech tissue. Quickly, he removed his glove to let them loose. They were so thin they could slip through the seal. The door popped open a fraction and he forced the fingers of his left hand into the gap. He pulled with both hands and the door came open easily. Sam slipped inside, into a dark cabin.

Jack tapped into the microdrone feed just in time to see the two advancing Devex open fire on it.

The two Devex were the smaller kind, not the over-sized giants that struggled with the corridors of the civilian ships. These two were both less than two meters tall. The dull metallic exoskeleton armor was just as formidable, though, and the massive rapid-fire blasters looked just as deadly.

The sound of the Devex footsteps came into earshot, their heavy boots thudding on the soft decks. Jack could see Sam in the shadows of the open cabin across the corridor. He made a series of hand signals informing Sam how the ambush would happen. Jack would give away his position and fire first. Then it would be Sam’s turn to join the attack.

Jack peered around the bend in the corridor. He judged his timing perfectly.

Stepping across the curve in the corridor, Jack appeared to come from nowhere. He fired a shot into the faceplate of one of the Devex. The pulse round jerked the Devex’s head back, but the warrior hardly even broke its stride. It raised its large rapid-fire blaster.

Stepping back to the inside of the curve, Jack found cover the instant that the white energy bullets raked the corridor.

Hearing Sam open fire was Jack’s signal. He moved out of cover again and rolled out along the floor, appearing on the ground in front of the two Devex. One was turning to fire on Sam at their rear, but the long rapid-fire blaster was difficult to swing around in the corridor.

Jack fired a series of rounds into the Devex that was still approaching. He saw Sam dash out of cover and drive his electron blade into its helmet. The warrior dropped. Sam walked over the body of the fallen Devex and attacked the second.

Jack stopped firing for fear of hitting his friend with a stray pulse round. He rolled back into cover just as Sam dropped the second with his thrusting electron blade.

Jack got up to his feet and went to join Sam, who was standing over the fallen Devex. He deactivated the blade and looked up at Jack.

“How many more do you think there are?”

Jack stepped over the fallen. “Too many. We can’t defeat them all, Sam.”

“We can try,” Sam said.

“We will,” Jack replied and headed off the way the Devex had come. “We need to advance to the drive room and secure the area.” Jack released a microdrone and sent it along the path to the nearest transit channel access.

The nearest hatch was only a few dozen meters away, and the drone showed that the area was clear. Jack and Sam activated their suits’ gravity fields and stepped into the dark transit channel. The channel took them directly to the drive room, the hatch opening at the main entrance.

Jack and Sam came out slashing with their electron blades and dropped the two Devex standing at the entrance. Jack sent the microdrone inside. There was a pair of Devex walking along the main corridor heading between two of the reactor cores. Unconscious people littered the deck. Jack spotted the fallen form of young Hawke. His suit was transmitting his status, and Jack’s suit received the stream. Hawke was unconscious, but his suit was intact. Felled not by the Dox vapor but by the Devex concussion wave.

The Devex came closer, as seen on Jack’s wrist-mounted holostage. Jack and Sam looked around and found cover. They exchanged a glance. Both knew how to proceed. They ducked into the shadowy areas nearby and waited.

Jack watched the approaching Devex on his holoimage. He held up a hand for Sam to see, the signal to hold and wait. When the Devex were within striking distance, he gave the signal to attack.

Jack stepped out of cover within arm’s reach of the Devex warrior. The electron blade sliced cleanly through the dull gray exoskeleton at the chest. It went limp and slid off the blade, collapsing to the floor.

The second Devex was raising its massive rapid-fire blaster, the huge weapon unsuitable for the tight confines of the drive room. Sam stepped out alongside the Devex and brought his blade down on the its left arm. The arm fell, severed. The blaster, unsupported at the barrel, fell. The one-armed Devex turned on Sam.

Jack’s blade slid easily into the base of its helmet, and the warrior fell toward Sam.

Sam pushed the dead Devex aside. He stared at the arm on the deck, bright red blood flowing out of it. Sam looked at his right arm. He had lost it long ago, but the trauma had never faded. He had made light of his cybernetic arm, playing up the fact that he hated it and that he would rather go with no arm than the painful prosthetic, but the neural connections felt cold on his brain. Every slight twitch, voluntary or otherwise, created stabbing pains behind his eyes. As a Marine, he had been dutybound to wear it. It was part of his uniform as a serving Marine. He could not take it off in action any more than he would be allowed to abandon his pulse weapon or remove his rank insignia.

The new arm was different. Sam looked at the arm, wrapped now in a tactical suit. The arm was foreign, and it felt different than his own arm. It was not uncomfortable, not painful. It felt quite comfortable, but it was not natural.

Sam flexed his fingers experimentally. The arm was powerful, much more so than his human-made cybernetic arm. But it was alien. The Mech technology was closer to biology than machine, and the strands that weaved together to form his arm were so fine they felt more like a liquid metal. The arm was strong, and Sam knew its strength.

“Sam,” Jack said, patting him on the shoulder. “You okay there, buddy?”

Sam looked at Jack.

“It’s not my arm, Jack. What have the Mechs done to me?”

“We can talk about it,” Jack said, “but not now. We have to keep moving. We need to restore power and then find a way to get up to the command deck. Copy?”

“But my arm. It’s strange. I can feel it. It does what I want it to do, but what if it chooses to do its own thing?”

Jack had sympathy for his friend. Sam had given so much in the long war, and even now he was fighting to save thousands of people who would never thank him, or even know the efforts he had made. But he could not let Sam sink into melancholy.

“I’m sure it’s fascinating, Sam,” he said, “but you’ll have to wait until we are clear before you get too philosophical about it.”

“But, Jack…” Sam began.

“Not now, Sam. We’ve got work to do. We are probably the only force left on this massive ship and we need to do what we can to fight off these Devex. So stow your personal problems, fall in, and get ready to move out. Do you copy?”

Sam felt the sudden introspective depression lift at the sound of an order. He pulled himself together in a moment.

“Yes, sir. Copy that. Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “Let’s move.”

He lifted his arm to take a look at the wrist-mounted holostage to find the next step, the main power coupling to the command deck.

The main coupling for the twin reactors was only a few meters ahead, but the small console was dark, the power relay systems deactivated. Jack could see how simply it could be reconnected.

“Cover me, Sam,” Jack said. He ran to the console and accessed the main power distribution node.

The power supply to the command deck remained dark.

Jack contacted the captain.

“I’ve activated the main power node but nothing’s happening.”

“You’ve connected two cores.” The captain sounded afraid. “It’ll take a bit of time to activate the system. The more reactors you reconnect the faster it’ll happen.”

Jack heard a sudden burst of pulse pistol fire over the communication channel, and then the fiery purring of an automatic sentry gun.

“Captain, report,” Jack said.

“The Devex. They’ve cracked opened the command deck doors. Emergency locks holding.”

“I’m on my way to you now. We should have power by the time I get to you. Hold them, Captain, hold them off.”

Jack turned away from the small console and headed back along the platform between the two reactor cores. He crouched at the far end and looked for the nearest transit channel access. He lifted his wrist to check his holomap.

In the moment he lifted his arm, he spotted movement in the shadows up ahead. Sam was already raising his pulse pistol. Jack dropped to one knee and took aim.

The shimmering wave that came creeping forward was mesmerizing. Jack had seen them before and knew what it was. The Devex warrior behind it was distorted by the shimmering wave. In their hand was the small concussion device.

“This way,” Jack said and turned to run in the opposite direction, away from the concussion wave moving toward him.

They ran a few steps along the reactor cores, only to see a second concussion wave and the shimmering form of the Devex who had fired it.

Jack looked up. The reactor cores curved out to the forward bulkhead, closing together a few meters above. There was no vertical escape. Sam was already accessing drive room schematics. A conduit that ran under the heading between every core was perfect for them to escape by.

“Here,” Jack said, pointing at the access hatch to the conduit. He ran toward the slow-moving concussion wave, stopping a few meters short and just above the conduit access. He grabbed the hatch and pulled. It didn’t move.

Sam grabbed with his Mech arm. The hatch came away along with a section of the deck plate.

And the moment Jack prepared to jump into the conduit the concussion wave struck.

The violent shaking filled his gut with a deep nausea. His head throbbed close to bursting out of his eyes and nose. And then with a final surge of violent pain, Jack fell.

9

Jack woke up feeling like he’d been beaten on the head with the butt of a pulse rifle. He felt the cold, hard floor against his skin, and echoing sounds of crying and angry shouting were all around. He opened his eyes and peered into the dark, but a wave of dizziness stopped him from getting to his feet.

The cold, dry air on his skin made him realize one thing: He was no longer wearing his tactical suit. He clambered up onto all fours.

The darkness was suddenly lit by a distant light that blinked on for a few moments. Jack looked, bleary-eyed to the light just as it blinked off. The fearful cries died as the light faded away to be replaced by the low background whimpering punctuated by sudden shouts.

He climbed to his feet, arms out to keep his balance. The darkness was lit again by a light from behind. Jack turned and looked to the light. His eyes, accustomed to the darkness, were now blinded by the sudden bright light that struck down from the ceiling high above. And as he blinked at the light, he saw dark shapes in the beam. Then the light went out and he was in darkness again.

Taking a faltering step forward, Jack’s foot struck something soft and heavy. He looked down as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark that was actually extremely low light. On the ground at his feet was a body. A fat, partially-clothed body.

A light blinked on to Jack’s right—a harsh white light that lit up the ground. Jack could see other bodies lying on the floor. He knelt down next to the fat body in front of him. A man in his early twenties, but overfed. Jack checked for a pulse.

The man was alive but asleep. He tried to rouse him with a shake. Nothing.

The far light blinked off again. Again, Jack heard the wailing and crying die away. He stood up and looked around. There seemed to be no boundary to the dark space, only the floor, the hard and cold floor littered with bodies of sleeping naked or partially-clothed men and women.

A light blinked on far in the distance. Jack shielded his eyes but looked at it, trying to judge the distance. It seemed to be a hundred meters away, at least the full length of a sports field.

Jack peered into the bright shaft of light. The dark shapes were small but looked like bodies falling upward, tumbling chaotically with arms and legs flailing and hands reaching and grasping.

Then the light went out again.

He looked above him. The ceiling was lost in the darkness. Jack saw a light come on just behind him. He turned and saw people standing, others sitting, many lying, all sobbing and staring upward into the light.

Then the wailing peaked as six people within the shaft of light lifted off the floor and drifted upward. They tumbled as they thrashed about, reaching and screaming.

Then the light was gone, and so were the people who’d been within it. A low level of sobbing remained.

Jack checked himself. He had no equipment on him, no weapon, and no boots, and the cold ground stung his bare feet. He wore only his pants and an undershirt.

He walked toward the area where the light had just come on. He walked into the darkness, careful not to trip over or kick any of the prone, sleeping bodies on the cold deck.

After another moment, a light blinked on far ahead. Jack had been walking straight forward for a minute, but the beam of light that appeared was still many meters away. He walked toward the light and the dark shapes of people falling upward in the shaft of cold white light. He began to get a sense of the space he was in. As the light blinked off, he continued to walk, determined to find the edge. He knew there had to be an edge. And at that edge would be a way out.

Jack saw a light blink on far behind him. He turned and looked. The shaft of light was harsh and white, but smaller, and the bodies mere specks. From the size of the bodies being lifted in the beam, Jack judged it to be around five hundred meters away. The light blinked off and Jack carried on his walk to find the edge.

A woman standing in front of Jack was staring upward. She had been crying, tear tracks glistening on her cheeks. She was shivering. Although the floor was cold, the air was not. She was not shivering from the cold. Jack guessed she was in shock. He touched her shoulder softly.

The woman fell away shrieking in fear and distress. Jack went over to her as she scurried away, clambering over sleeping bodies.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Jack said as he followed the woman, but she stared at him in fear, tearing her eyes away from him to glance upward.

Then the light burst upon her and others sitting and standing in the area. A half-dozen bodies were drawn into the light, pulled against their will by some unseen force. All those being pulled were grabbing at the fallen, wailing their fear, all pulled up into the beam of light.

Jack watched as the wailing woman was pulled up. The beam of light was emanating from an opening high above. The bodies tumbled upward into the bright white space inside the circular opening. Then, with all bodies drawn inside, the light went out and all was dark again.

Blinking and temporarily blinded by the bright light, Jack staggered forward, rubbing his eyes as they quickly readjusted to the dimness.

Another light came on and Jack saw the dark shadows fall across the floor as a light far behind him flashed on. A distant wailing as the bodies were drawn upward. He focused on the dark shadows in front of him, preserving his low-light sight. The distant light blinked off. Jack walked on, stepping over the bodies laid out over every square meter of floor.

Jack began to count. It seemed as if the lights were blinking on at regular intervals. Always six people were drawn upward, but only the conscious. The sleeping were left, presumably until they woke and then would be available to the light, drawn up to some unknown end.

He pushed the thought from his mind that he might be taken at any time. He was trapped in this vast, dark storage area. He was trapped, for now.

A line of people before him were all sitting on the floor, all looking toward him as he picked his way through the bodies. Jack realized they all had their backs to the outer edge.

He stepped up, hand out. He touched the wall. It was cold and dark like the floor.

On the ground in front of Jack was an old man. He looked up at Jack.

“They don’t take us from the edge,” the man said, pointing up.

Jack looked along the length of the wall. Huddled against it were people stretching out in both directions.

“How long have you been here?” Jack asked, looking along the wall.

“Don’t know. Couple of hours, I guess. My wife always said I had a good body clock. Could tell you when an hour had passed, dead on every time. Well, maybe a few minutes out. I’ve been here for so long that I’ve lost track of time. How long have you been here?”

Jack thought for a moment. He had no idea. “I haven’t been awake very long. Twenty minutes maybe. Don’t know how long I was asleep.”

“Not very long,” the man said. “They don’t stay asleep for long.”

“But all these sleeping people,” Jack said.

The old man pointed upward. “They don’t take the sleeping ones. But they know who’s asleep and who is pretending.”

A light flashed on nearby on Jack’s left. He shielded his eyes. He couldn’t shield his ears from the anguished and terrified cries of those caught in its grasp.

“The lights come on every three or four minutes,” Jack said.

The man on the ground nodded. He pulled his knees closer to him and shivered.

“Any pattern to the lights?” Jack asked.

The man shook his head. “They come on all over.” The old man pointed into the dark. “It seems random to me, but I bet it’s not. They know what they’re doing.”

Jack rubbed his hand along the wall and walked off to his right, moving clockwise around the massive, dark space.

“I’m going to find a way out,” Jack said and walked off.

Another man sitting against the wall nearby laughed a single, humorless grunt. “There’s no way out, except…” The man pointed up.

Just then a light came on nearby and the screaming and wailing grew until the light blinked out and a soft piteous whimpering replaced it.

“I’m not accepting that,” Jack said. “I’m a Marine, I’m on my feet and I’m fighting. I’m not going to stop until I get out of here, one way or another.”

“A Marine,” the man laughed. “Another one. Fat lot of good you were when they attacked. Now you’ve been taken too. Not so tough, eh, Marine?”

Jack ignored the insult, but he couldn’t ignore the news of another Marine.

“The other Marine?” Jack said. “Where did he go?”

The man snorted a sarcastic laugh. “No one is going anywhere,” he said.

He grabbed the man’s collar and pulled him up off the floor, anger welling up inside.

“Where did the Marine go?” Jack pressed his nose close to the man.

The man tried to push him away, but Jack had him in a firm grip. The man relaxed and avoided his stare.

“He went that way,” the man said, pointing into the dark along the outer wall.

Jack released his grip on the man and let him slip down the wall and back to the deck. He walked off in the direction the man had pointed. Jack knew he stood a better chance of escaping if he had an ally, and if that ally was a Marine, so much the better.

The wall was a press of people all the way along—many sitting, some standing, all nervously looking upward or glancing to the distant lights that came on every few minutes, lights that showed the bodies floating up and out of the dark space.

Jack moved swiftly along looking for the Marine. There were only two possible people it could be: Squad Leader Hawke that Jack had last seen unconscious on the deck of the drive room, or his old friend and strongest ally, Commander Sam Torent.

Moving quickly and skirting the edge of the massive space, Jack saw a person walking along the line of the wall up ahead. He was scanning the wall, up and down, searching for something.

Jack would recognize that person anywhere, just from the way they moved, deliberate and steady.

“Sam,” Jack called out.

Up ahead, the person stopped and turned. Jack instantly saw the frame he knew so well. It was Sam, dressed in Marine pants and a torn shirt.

Jack ran over to Sam.

“Jack, you old scroat. I knew I’d find you.” Sam walked toward Jack, pressing the people standing in his way aside.

Jack walked over. The dark seemed a bit lighter now that he knew he had company and an ally. He knew that finding a way out was just a matter of time now that he had a fellow Marine with him.

He reached out to shake Sam by the hand and saw the dark gray hand reach out toward him, the arm built from the Mech tissue. Jack hesitated. The rest of the man was his old friend, but this alien limb was not. It had grabbed him around the throat recently and he wasn’t sure how it would react to him now. He looked up at Sam, hesitant.

Sam saw the reluctance in Jack’s eye and couldn’t hide his disappointment that his old friend didn’t quite trust him enough to shake him by the hand.

He stepped up next to Sam and patted him heartily on the shoulder. He covered his suspicions of the Mech arm with a smile and a confident greeting.

“Found you,” Jack said. “Good. Now we can get out of here.”

And then the light burst around them.

10

Jack felt the tug of some invisible force pulling him upward. He reached out to steady himself and inadvertently grabbed Sam by the Mech arm. The arm was warm like flesh, but hard like steel. Jack steadied himself and floated upward. Around him and Sam, another four people floated up, two men and two women. They struggled and tumbled and wailed as they were drawn up.

The youngest of the men was little more than a boy. Tall and afraid, he twisted and reached out for something to hold. He grabbed the ankle of one of the women. She had short hair and flesh-colored underwear, and she kicked out in fear as the boy caught her leg. She freed herself from the boy’s grip and tumbled away, rolling head over heels, her arms flailing.

The other man and woman were holding on to each other, hand in hand. They were wrinkled and gray, but still fit and alert. They smiled at each other as they floated upward. The look was one of young love that had lived for many years. They were both crying and smiling, eyes fixed on each other.

Jack looked up, the opening in the dark ceiling awash with bright white light. It was impossible to see any structures, any shape, just the fierce white light. He floated up and was surrounded in light as impenetrable as the dark below. Jack looked toward Sam, but his old friend looked nervous and waved his left arm about in circles to hold his balance, falling upward head first as if standing.

Then the six passed through the circle of white and were above a dark circle looking down at the holding area they had just come from. The sounds of wailing from below were cut off suddenly as the circle closed and all was white.

Jack’s head hit the ceiling hard, and then he collapsed to the ground. He took a moment to orientate himself. The white space seemed to be as big as the dark space below, but Jack soon found he could touch a wall. It was white and practically invisible in the harsh light all around.

In a moment, Jack saw an apparatus imbedded in the wall opposite. A squared frame with rounded corners. Fine needle-like points came out of the side of the frame and pointed in toward the center, marking out a roughly humanoid shape of a head, torso, arms, and legs.

No sooner had Jack seen the apparatus than the short-haired woman was pulled toward it. She shrieked as she was lifted from the floor. Her arms were stretched out to her sides, her legs slightly apart and below her. She drifted toward the apparatus.

Once in position within the frame, the needles began to move and suddenly her right arm was clad in a piece of dull gray metal. A gauntlet was thrust over her hand. The needles twitched and danced around the arm as the first part of the Devex exoskeleton was put in place.

The left arm was clad a moment later, then her legs, followed by a chest plate. The needles moved quickly and once all other parts were attached, a helmet came down over the head of the shrieking woman.

As soon as the helmet was in place, the shrieking stopped, and the woman dropped to the ground, released from the frame. A Devex rapid-fire blaster slid out from the side of the apparatus and she gripped the weapon. The needles pulled aside. A rounded, oval hatch opened in front of the woman and she marched out into the dark beyond.

The hatch closed, and in that instant the boy was lifted into a standing position. His arms pulled out from his body, his legs slightly apart. He floated directly toward the apparatus with its twitching needles. Once within the outline formed by the needles, the Devex armor was again applied. Arms, legs, torso, and finally, the helmet lowered into place.

It all happened so fast Jack could barely keep up, but he knew his time would come very soon, unless he could find a way out.

With the helmet in place, the boy dropped to the floor, gripped his Devex blaster, and marched through the open oval.

The old man was pulled from his wife and he called out his love and promises that they would be alright. The woman ran for her husband but hit an invisible barrier. She fell back, recoiling from the collision.

The armor was applied to her man, he dropped to the ground and took the weapon. The old man was now a Devex warrior, and he marched off through the dark oval.

Then the woman was carried forward.

Jack turned to Sam. Time was running out for them both.

“We rush the apparatus. Smash it. Ready?” Jack said.

Sam nodded.

The pair ran forward. Both hit an invisible barrier. They pushed against it as the armor was applied to the woman. With the helmet lowered into place and the new Devex warrior marching off, Jack felt the barrier give way. He rushed at the apparatus, determined to break and smash any part of it he could lay his hands on. But then he ran into another invisible barrier and fell back clutching his smashed nose. Blood dripped down his hand. The blood splattered on the pristine white floor in deep red explosions. The blood soaked away into the white floor, vanishing without a trace.

Jack looked to the apparatus and saw Sam drifting toward it with his arms out to his sides.

The Devex armor clamped down on his right arm. Jack watched in horror and then surprise as the armor fell away. Sam’s arm was a thrashing mass of gray fibers. Some gripped the needles that moved in to knit the right arm gauntlet into place. The gray fibers that had been Sam’s arm pulled the needle away from the apparatus.

And Sam’s right arm was free. He reached over and pulled away the armor plates being applied to his left arm and threw them to the floor.

Sam’s Mech arm reformed into the human shape and he punched the frame that was just within his reach. The frame shook. He grabbed it and pulled. The ridged frame buckled as Sam pulled and pushed and twisted in a frenzy. He dropped to the ground as the leg plates were moved into position. Sam punched them aside and then reached up for the helmet. He grabbed it out of the air and brought it down hard on to the white deck at his feet, smashing it before tossing it aside.

Then the blaster slid out for him to take. He grabbed it and turned to Jack.

“Want to get out of here?” he said.

Jack moved forward carefully so as not to run into an invisible barrier again. He joined Sam in the broken frame of the Devex creator machine.

The dark oval opened.

“You’re on point, Sam,” Jack said.

Sam moved quickly, Jack on his heels. They crouched low and looked into the darkness, not knowing what they would encounter, but determined not to go down without a fight.

11

Stepping out of the dark oval, Jack found himself in a cavernous space looking at an army of Devex warriors. The Devex stood in formation, rank upon rank of warriors all facing a towering white wall at the far end of the space. Dark ribs curved up the sides of the cavern, arching overhead a hundred meters above. Dark oval entrances like the one Jack had just stepped through sat between the ribs, and every few minutes a Devex warrior marched out and joined the masses.

Jack and Sam crouched against the nearest dark rib and hid. The rib separated the dark oval entrance Jack and Sam had just stepped through from the ovals on either side. Out of an adjacent oval came a freshly-armored warrior, a captive from the civilian transport now transformed into a Devex fighting unit.

Jack felt himself tense for action as the Devex marched past. Sam brought the blaster around, ready to give fire.

Realizing there was no immediate danger, Jack placed his hand over Sam’s weapon and pushed the barrel down. The Devex was ignoring them. There was no need to attract attention with a blast of weapon fire.

“They are ignoring us,” Jack said. He glanced over his shoulder to the dark oval they had walked through. No Devex were coming from that direction. With the warrior armor apparatus smashed, Jack guessed the production line at that location was out of action. At least for now, no Devex would be coming from there.

Another Devex warrior walked out of the adjacent oval and took its place in the ranks. Jack did a quick head count. He divided the massed rank into four squares and counted a line of one of the squares. A quick piece of mental math and Jack came up with a rough estimate.

“I make it just over four thousand Devex warriors,” Jack whispered to Sam, “and more arriving all the time.”

“And they are all human-sized, none of the giants here,” Sam added.

Jack nodded. It suggested that these Devex were all former passengers of the civilian transport. More Devex warriors marched out and joined the ranks. A dozen fresh Devex every few minutes.

“They’re creating an army,” Sam said.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed, “making it out of captured people. They haven’t processed everyone from the civilian transport yet. We can still try and save some of the civilians.” Jack scanned the huge square of fresh Devex warriors. “None of them resist once that helmet goes on,” Jack said, rubbing his chin. “I’d like to get my hands on one of those helmets and investigate it.”

“So you want to stick around?” Sam said.

Jack got ready to move. “Not a chance. We need to get out of here.”

He looked around the space. There were no obvious exits but at the far end, where all the Devex warriors were facing, there was a bright light at the bottom of the towering white wall.

“I guess we head that way,” Jack said.

“What about the four thousand Devex warriors in our way?” Sam said, rolling his eyes.

Jack stood up. He climbed over the dark rib he was crouching against and stood in front of the adjacent dark oval. After a few seconds of nervous waiting, the oval slid open. Out of the bright light inside came a fresh Devex. It marched straight toward Jack. Jack stepped aside to give just enough room for the Devex to walk past.

Completely ignored by the Devex, Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

“They are not fully activated,” Jack said.

“What about them?” Sam pointed at a pair of three-meter-tall Devex soldiers walking along the lines of the newly-created human Devex.

Jack crouched into cover. “Where did they come from?” Jack asked.

“They came from the light at the far end.” Sam pointed to the white, bright wall in front of the massed ranks of Devex.

“We are Marines, we go forward. We’ll try and escape through there.” Jack got ready to move and gave a hand signal for Sam to follow before he led the way into the rows of Devex warriors.

Sam moved into the adjacent row and the pair moved off, low and fast, keeping an eye on the two massive Devex warriors patrolling the lines.

Jack glanced up at the faceplates of the Devex warriors. Their armor was glinting in the low light. Even though it was a dull gray, it was clean and light shimmered on its edges.

The dark slit across the faceplate gave away no sign that the armor-clad warrior was watching or aware of anything going on around them. Certainly none that Jack looked at gave any indication that they had noticed him or Sam. They stood rigid, in a position of attention. Motionless. Emotionless. Waiting.

Jack made a hand signal that Sam spotted right away. The Devex warriors on patrol were crossing the rows at about halfway into the formation. Jack waved his hand down. Sam and Jack crouched behind the legs of a Devex and watched the patrol cross in front of them a few rows ahead.

With the immediate danger past, Jack waved Sam ahead. He watched for any sign that the patrolling Devex had spotted the movement, but they were moving behind the standing Devex and out of sight.

After a nervous few minutes, the pair reached the front of the formation. The bright light pouring out from under the massive white wall obscured any view beyond it. Jack squinted and tried to adjust to the bright light.

The open space between the front rank of the Devex and the opening under the wall ahead was roughly twenty meters across and a hundred meters wide. The moment Jack moved they would surely be spotted. He looked over to Sam, who was watching Jack intently and waiting for the order to move. He glanced back at the two massive Devex patrolling the lines. They had their backs to them but were nearing the far end of the formation. Jack guessed they would turn and walk back any moment.

And at that moment, the Devex formation moved. In perfect synchronization, every warrior took a step forward, then another, and they marched forward, toward the wide opening at the bottom of the massive white wall.

Jack gave the signal for Sam to move. Keeping low and matching the formation, they moved toward the opening in the glowing white wall.

The space beyond the wall opened out into an even larger area where several formations of Devex warriors were forming up—thousands of Devex, including the three-meter-tall warriors Jack had first encountered. There were more of the human-sized Devex joining the formation.

At the side of the area, Jack saw lines of Devex Raiders—the sleek spacecraft often in support of the massive warships. And alongside the line of raiders were smaller fighters, they looked to be single-cockpit craft.

Jack pointed at the smaller craft alongside the holding area.

Sam nodded.

The pair moved sideways through the formation toward their means of escape.

The Devex Raiders were large, but the huge space dwarfed them. Once up close, Jack noticed how truly massive they were. Big enough to accommodate a crew of up to a dozen of the massive three-meter-tall Devex warriors. The raiders were easily as big as Jack’s frigate.

A massive flash at the front of the warrior formation caught Jack’s eye. The flash died away, and the formation marched forward, a block of a hundred Devex stepping to the front of the formation. Jack felt the low humming and rising tension, then the flash again. When it cleared, the hundred Devex were gone.

“Did they just vaporize those warriors?” Sam said. “Why would they go to all this trouble to suit up these captives and then blast them? These Devex are twisted.”

The Devex marched forward. Another hundred warriors marched ahead of the massed rank and stopped. Then came the flash of light that made Jack look away for fear of being blinded. The tingling of his hairs standing on end sent a shiver down his spine.

The warriors vanished. Another hundred stepped up.

“I don’t think they’re vaporizing them, Sam,” Jack said. “Why go to all this trouble to capture these people only to destroy them? Maybe it’s some kind of matter transport. They are sending these new warriors somewhere.” Jack looked around at the surroundings. It was more industrial than military.

“You know what this place is?” Jack said.

“A Devex warship,” Sam replied, “and we are not welcome here.”

“This is no warship, Sam. It a factory. A production facility. A Devex warrior factory.”

The matter transport flashed again and another group of a hundred warriors marched forward.

“Where are they sending them?” Sam looked suddenly at Jack, worry on his face. “Don’t tell me, you think we should find out? I don’t think that’s a great idea, Jack.”

Jack smiled. Just like Sam to read his mind and find the worst. “Maybe we should investigate, but who knows what’s on the other end of that transport? If we were suited up, it might be an idea. We don’t know if a Marine tactical suit would protect us from whatever is on the other side. I’m sure a tank top and pants wouldn’t be suitable. I don’t even have boots. We’d struggle to deal with a sharp frost.”

Jack tried to ignore the regular flashes from the front of the formation and looked to the raider, their only realistic means of escape. The boarding ramp on the undercarriage of the raider was in the lowered position. A Devex warrior marched back and forth in front of the craft, passing the base of the boarding ramp. The lines of Devex moved around Sam and Jack. Jack looked at the space he would have to cover to gain access to the ship.

Sam held up his blaster. Jack understood his plan—to rush in shooting—but he hoped a subtler plan would work.

“We try and stay out of its field of view,” Jack said. “We wait until it turns to its left and we’ll approach it from behind.”

“We won’t stand a chance,” Sam said. “I say we take the guard down and rush in.”

Jack shook his head. He waved at the lines of Devex warriors all around, ignoring the two of them sitting in the lines.

“They are ignoring us for now. If we start shooting, they might decide to pay us some attention. The last thing we want now is their attention. It will surely be over for us then, old friend.”

Sam shook his head. “So you want to just walk over there and take the raider? It’s not the craziest plan you’ve ever come up with.”

“Really?” Jack said. “Remind me of a plan that was crazier.”

“Okay,” Sam conceded. “It is the craziest. So, do you want to go first or should I?”

“We go together.” Jack stood up. The lines of warriors marched forward. Jack timed his step. He called out his order to Sam.

The pair stepped out of the formation and marched directly toward the raider and the Devex warrior marching in front of it. Sam was looking up and around, studying the huge space.

“Eyes front, Sam,” Jack said. He marched with a confidence that he didn’t feel. Every step took him closer to the massive warrior, every step bringing him closer to capture and death, or worse.

The Devex warrior reached the end of its short patrol pattern and was just about to turn around. Jack hadn’t expected to get this far. The fact that the Devex had ignored them suggested they were in some programmed pattern, but he was sure the guard at the base of the raider was aware.

With only a few steps to go and increasingly uncertain of how to proceed, Jack whispered to Sam marching along on his left.

“Hurry, Sam. Before that Devex guard turns around. Up the ramp. Let’s hope we can fly this thing.”

Sam handed the blaster over to Jack. It was surprisingly light for a weapon of its size and power.

Sam moved suddenly and dashed toward the guard.

“What are you doing?” Jack hissed.

Stepping up behind the Devex, Sam reached up and grabbed it by the upper arm. Sam’s Mech hand began to unravel. The fingers became a series of fine gray threads, then the hand and the wrist followed. The threads were so fine they appeared as a mist. Jack stepped onto the Devex Raider boarding ramp and took a knee. He swung up the massive blaster to cover Sam.

“What are you doing?” Jack said again in a harsh whisper.

“Seeing if I can learn how to fly this ship,” Sam said.

The Devex warrior collapsed to the deck. Sam’s hand reformed into the familiar human shape. Jack looked at the gray metallic hand. It was as if Sam wore a skintight glove, but Jack knew Sam’s right hand, his entire right arm, was no longer human. Sam was some sort of Mech hybrid.

Sam grabbed the blaster from the fallen warrior and moved quickly to join Jack on the ramp.

“It’s clear,” Sam said, pointing up the ramp. “No Devex inside. Do you want to get out of here?”

Jack took one last visual sweep of the massive Devex formation before turning and running into the ship.

The interior was completely unlit. Jack could barely see his hand in front of his face. He followed Sam, who appeared to have no trouble finding his way around the ship.

The flight deck was large but had only two seats, clearly designed for the giant Devex.

Sam held his hand over the flight console, and it unraveled into a mass of metallic threads. The threads slipped under the flight console cover.

The deck lit up—buttons and control panels flashed on all around the flight deck.

“Closing her up. Ready for departure,” Sam said.

The view screen in front of them showed the marching hoard of Devex warriors. Then the raider began to move. The view rotated.

“Bringing her about,” Sam said.

The view turned away from the center of the hangar to face the side bulkhead. A small hatch cover slid aside, and the raider began to move into a long tunnel. Lights around the tunnel began to move past rapidly, gaining speed.

“You know what you’re doing?” Jack said.

“No,” Sam replied. “This is all automated. Think I’ll have control once we are out of the ship.”

The view changed suddenly, and the flashing lights of the tunnel were replaced by the dark, deep void of space.

“We can’t leave all those people in there,” Jack said.

“They aren’t people anymore, Jack. They are Devex now. There is nothing we can do for them.”

The view changed as the ship swooped around. The screen showed that the warship was still clamped on to the civilian transport, the dark puncture arms jabbed in through the outer hull at regular intervals along both sides. Even now, Jack knew, civilians were being taken along those puncture arms, away to be transformed into Devex warriors.

“But we can save the people still inside the transport,” Jack said.

“I knew you’d want to try,” Sam said.

“Good, so put us on top of the transport near the command deck and let’s get back inside.”

Sam appeared in a trance, his hand meshed with the Devex flight console.

“Raiders launching from the warship. Fighters too,” Sam said. “I’m getting us out of here.”

“No, Sam. We have to board the transport. We must attempt to retake the ship.”

But Sam didn’t seem to be listening, and the raider was accelerating away from the Devex ships and the civilian transport. Jack grabbed Sam by the shoulder.

“Sam, do you hear me? Return us to the transport. Now.”

12

Jack shook Sam hard and called for him to turn the raider around. Sam pushed him into the chair next to his, and Jack fell into the seat. The large seat straps deployed automatically. They just about held Jack in place as the ship evaded the pursuing Devex.

Sam gripped the flight console with his left hand while his right remained threaded into the console.

Jack reached over and he grabbed Sam’s arm.

“Stop, Sam! We won’t get anywhere on our own in this Devex Raider. We’ll be lost forever,” Jack said. He looked up at the display on the big view screen in front of the flight console showing the raiders swooping away from the massive warship. Jack looked intently, certain they were about to chase them down and attack them, but the raiders held position around the massive Devex ship.

The screen showed the way ahead on the main image. Nothing but black space. The rear view showed the Devex ship clamped onto the civilian transport, the puncture arms still in place. At the rate the Devex were converting the passengers into warriors, there still had to be many thousands of civilians left on the transport.

“Stop,” Jack pleaded, gripping Sam hard. “We need to get back to the transport. We can help save the people!”

The stolen craft accelerated onward, leaving the warship and the civilian transport far behind.

“We can’t save them, Jack,” Sam said. “I’ve had that Devex equipment on my body. If it wasn’t for the Mech tissue, I’d be a Devex warrior myself, and so would you, probably already through that matter transport device, fighting for the Devex somewhere out there. We are getting out of here.”

“Contact Bale on the frigate! Together we can save those people!”

Sam turned and looked at Jack sternly.

“You have to think about what’s good for us for a change, Jack. We’ve fought so hard. You have to accept that we have lost. We must save ourselves.”

“We are Marines, Sam. We are still standing. We will not abandon those people. We have to fight on! Turn us around!”

“Look at us, Jack,” Sam said. “No gear. Armed only with a couple of blasters. How long do you think we’ll survive back there? We are lucky to have gotten away with our lives.”

Jack looked at his tattered clothes. He was ill-prepared for a fight. He was starting to feel the cold overcome him. But he couldn’t give up. He tapped at the flight panel randomly, trying to find a control that he could figure out, anything to stop Sam taking them further into deep space.

“You can’t operate the raider, Jack,” Sam said. “I have control.”

Jack looked at the rear view inset in the view screen.

“If we run now,” Jack said, slumping back into the massive chair, “we will never find the fleet. We’ll be lost forever. Do you understand, Sam?”

“It’s for the best, Jack,” Sam said. “We’ve survived without anyone else before. We can do it again.”

Jack watched the image of the civilian transport falling further behind, growing smaller by the second.

“Surviving is not the same as living, Sam,” Jack said. “Take us back. We need to help them, and they can help us.”

Feeling ignored, Jack turned to Sam and gripped him again. “You have to stop running. It’s not easy, but we have to head back. We are Marines, Sam. We have to help them. We can’t leave them there.”

Jack looked at Sam, imploring him, hoping he’d understand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the civilian craft stop falling away. The raider’s acceleration slowed, and the ship came to a halt.

Jack heaved a sigh of relief. “Good choice, Sam. Now turn us around.”

“We’re trapped,” Sam said.

“Trapped?” Jack asked. He looked at the screen showing views from all around the ship. Apart from the distant civilian transport and the Devex ship clamped on top, all around was black, empty space. Even the few pursuing raiders had turned away.

Then Jack spotted the image on the view screen. A massive ship coming into visual range.

Jack recognized the shape instantly. A Fleet destroyer. Jack touched the view screen as if he could touch the ship. The fleet. He’d found the fleet. The view zoomed in as a response to Jack’s light touch and showed the front section of the destroyer moving toward them. The lettering on the port side bow of the massive ship gave Jack a thrill of excitement and a moment of emotion that was almost too much to hold in.

“The Scorpio,” Jack said as he fell back into the chair.

“They are launching fighters,” Sam said. “Blades and tac boats.”

“Send them a message,” Jack said. “Tell them who we are.”

“Accessing communication,” Sam said. “I can’t find a vocal communication channel.”

Jack looked at the fighters swooping out from the Scorpio and climbing up to meet them.

“How close are they, Sam?” Jack asked.

Sam looked up at the screen just as the lead Blade opened fire. A series of bright orange flashes streaked across space. The laser blasts slammed into the front of the raider.

Jack was thrown about in his seat, gripping the loose straps to stop himself being flung onto the flight console.

“Get us out of here!” Jack said.

“They are cutting off our escape routes. There is no way out. We’re trapped.”

Jack looked at the view screen—the Devex warship and its squadrons of raiders and fighters, the Scorpio with its squadrons of tac boats and Blades. There remained only a narrow channel for escape that was shrinking by the second.

“I’ll try and get us out of the crossfire,” Sam said.

Another round of blasts struck the raider and jostled Jack in his seat. Sam remained entangled with the console, his Mech tissue unthreading up to his elbow and into the flight console.

“No,” Jack said excitedly. “I know what to do. Bring us about. Show me the targeting and fire controls on this thing, Sam. I’ve got a better idea.”

The flight console lit up in a few select places. Sam pointed at the lights.

“Targeting systems,” Sam said. Then he pointed at a side view on the main screen. “You can see the targeted area here.” Sam pointed again at the console. “That’s the fire control.”

Jack started to select targets. The controls responded quickly to his touch.

“Move us toward the Scorpio. Evade the fire from the Blades but put us right in front of the bow section of the Scorpio.”

Sam sent the raider on a wild ride, avoiding the incoming Blades. The ship took a few heavy hits and a few glancing blows from the Blades. A power system ruptured behind Jack. A shower of sparks and a sudden venting of gas did nothing to distract him from his task.

Sam moved the ship as lightly as a feather

“I’ll get us into position. And I’ll try and stop us getting blown out of the void. If one of the Scorpio’s lasers gets us…” Sam trailed off. He threw the ship to one side and then another as he moved in toward the Scorpio. “I just hope you know what you are doing.”

“Don’t I always?” Jack asked. He targeted the front of the Scorpio and laid in his fire pattern.

Captain Pretorius stood in his position in front of the holostage on his command deck. He watched the fighters swooped in to engage the Devex Raiders. He watched the range indicator fall as he closed in on the Devex warship clamped on to the civilian transport. He would be in range with his main laser assembly in moments.

Pretorius felt the gaze of Fleet Intelligence Agent Mallet burning into him. She was scrutinizing every aspect of the operation. Pretorius tried not to let it distract him.

The range finder hit zero. Pretorius gave the order to fire. All forward laser assemblies lit up and delivered a high-energy beam to the upper hull of the Devex warship.

Pretorius saw the Devex shield absorb the blast with little more than a flicker.

“Activate all high-energy laser emitters,” Pretorius said. “Target the warship and fire when ready.”

Commander Chou pointed at the image of the Devex Raider on the holostage. It was heading directly toward the Scorpio.

“I see it, Mr. Chou,” Pretorius said. “We’ve never seen them do that before. Let’s be sure and put them off doing it again. Forward hail cannon battery, prepare to open fire on that raider. Give them a blast of high-density kinetic hail and shred them.”

Pretorius saw the raider open fire, but the energy bullets detonated in open space between the raider and the bow of the Scorpio.

The detonation pattern lit up briefly. Only a fraction of a second. Pretorius spotted something in his subconscious. He tapped the panel on the side of the holostage and selected the data recorder. He scrolled back and searched for the moment the energy bullets detonated.

The weapons officer called out the forward battery was ready to fire. Mr. Chou raised his arm, about to carry out the captain’s order to open fire on the raider. A full load of kinetic hail ready to fly into the lone raider and tear it apart.

“Hold fire!” Pretorius said. “Hold fire on the forward hail cannon!”

“What are you doing, Captain?” Agent Mallet asked gently, her soft tones belying her cold-hearted nature.

“I need to check this raider,” Pretorius said. “What was that fire pattern?”

Pretorius noticed Mallet tip her head to one side as she assessed the captain’s actions.

The image on the side on the main view of the holostage showed the raider and the pattern of fire lit up in between it and the Scorpio. The pattern was clear. A single word.

Jack.

“I don’t believe it,” Pretorius said with a smile. He shook his head in disbelief. “Send a light signal to that raider,” Pretorius said. “Message to read: ‘say again.’ Send it now.”

Pretorius watched the live feed on the holostage, and again the raider fired a stream of white energy bullets detonating in space and flashing for a moment. Pretorius did not need to read it a second time.

“Send a squadron of Blades to that raider. Do not engage, is that clear? And open a hangar. Let’s bring that raider in.”

“Hold there, Mr. Chou,” Agent Mallet said. “You cannot bring a hostile enemy craft into your hanger, Captain.”

“I understand your concern, but I give the orders on my command deck, Agent Mallet.” Pretorius turned to the holostage. The image showed the Scorpio firing on the massive Devex warship. Its shielding over the upper hull flashed as the lasers struck.

Pretorius tugged his cuffs.

“Forward hail cannon. Target that Devex warship and open fire.”

A pair of Blades raced up from the Scorpio, heading directly for Jack and Sam in their stolen Devex Raider.

“It didn’t work,” Sam said. “They are sending the Blades in to finish us. I’m getting us out of here.”

Jack was smiling. He put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “No, Sam. It’s okay. Pretorius is sending us an escort. Hold and wait for instructions.”

The two Blades raced up to the raider and took position on either side, then they flipped end over end to point back toward the Scorpio. A light signal flickered from their strobes onto the raider. Jack decoded the light signal.

“They want us to follow them in,” he said. He patted Sam on the shoulder. “Hold formation with the Blades and let them take us in.”

The Blades crept forward a few meters. Sam matched their course and speed. Incrementally, the Blades sped up and soon the flight of two Fleet fighters and the Devex Raider were heading to an open hangar on the side of the Scorpio.

Jack felt his breath catch in his chest. He looked at the dark outer hull and felt as close to home as he had in the longest time. He felt a feeling of pride grow in him, and a feeling of security, of duty and belonging. The massive hull filled the view screen of the Devex ship. The large Marine hangar deck, brightly lit, was a welcome sight. Jack felt emotion fill him, and he patted Sam again.

“We’re home, Sam. Home.”

The raider touched down on the hangar deck. The Blades arced away and resumed their patrol.

“Come on, Sam. Get that ramp open. We need to report our findings from the interior of that Devex ship right away.”

Sam stood up and unwound his Mech tissue from the Devex flight console. The fibers slipped out and churned about before reforming into the hand shape. He looked over to Jack and nodded he was ready.

Jack took in the sight of the pair of them. Tattered clothing, no boots, dirty from the fight. Stinking from the sweat that had dried on their clothes in the cold of the raider. But at least they were safe. They walked down the ramp and onto the Marine deck.

The sound of pulse rifles being readied stopped Jack in his tracks. He blinked in the bright light of the Marine deck. Standing on one side was a formation of Marines in tactical suits. At either end of the formation stood mobile automatic sentry guns—with huge, multi-barrel pulse cannons. Stepping out from the center of the front line of Marines came a Fleet Intelligence agent flanked by two Fleet Intelligence enforcers.

“Stop where you are,” the agent said. “Kneel. Hands behind your heads. Do it or I’ll open fire.”

13

Jack kneeled on the deck. The enforcers walked over, pulse rifles aimed. The line of Marines stood ready too. Jack had no way of knowing who any of the Marines were since they, like the enforcers, were fully clad in the tactical suits.

The Fleet Intelligence agent wore a black uniform with the three silver pips of a senior agent. Jack had only one episode of contact with an intelligence agent. It had been a worrying encounter and Jack had tried hard to forget about it. Intelligence agents were suspicious of everyone, all the time. It was their job to distrust all members of the Fleet and the Fleet Marines. They were selected to be emotionless and highly suspicious. They were all good at their jobs.

“Name?” the agent said, pointing at Jack.

“Major Jack Forge. Fleet Marines. Scorpio Battalion. And this is one of my company commanders, Sam Torent, Cobra Company.”

Jack noticed the subtle shifting in positions of some of the Marines behind the intelligence agent. Jack guessed from the slightest shuffle that some of these Marines recognized him and Sam.

Agent Mallet tilted her head.

“If you are Major Forge, where is your Fleet Marine ident? I am scanning you right now and I am reading no ident.”

“The Devex must have removed it when I was unconscious.”

“Listen up, Agent,” Sam said, jabbing a finger toward her. “Ask any Marine who this is, and they’ll tell you who he is.”

“At ease, Sam,” Jack said quietly.

Mallet stepped forward, the enforcers stepping up too. “You don’t give orders around here anymore,” Mallet said to Jack. “You are out of uniform. You have no identification. You are at best a rogue Marine gone AWOL, and at worst a Devex spy.” Then, turning to her enforcers, she waved at Jack and Sam. “Bring them.”

The enforcer grabbed Jack roughly by the arm and hauled him to his feet. The enforcer grabbing Sam stepped away suddenly and pointed his pulse rifle at Sam. The agent aimed her pulse pistol at Sam’s head.

“What?” Jack called out, suddenly concerned and in a panic. “What’s the matter?”

“The arm,” Mallet said. She held Sam in her gaze and held her pulse pistol steady, aimed at Sam’s head.

Sam held out his right arm. “It is Mech tissue,” he said. “We encountered a group of Mechs. They gave me this.”

“Mech?” Mallet said. “I’ve never heard of Mechs. It is more likely Devex tech. I should eliminate you right here and now.”

Jack saw another ripple of movement in the Marine lines. He saw the defiance on Sam’s face. He saw the fear of the unknown and stiff determination on Agent Mallet’s face.

“Hold right there, Agent Mallet,” the voice of Captain Pretorius came from the far end of the hangar. He marched over flanked by two Marines from his command deck detail. “You are holding two heroes of the Chitin War, and you will release them immediately.”

Pretorius marched over and stood next to Jack.

“They have no idents. They arrived on a Devex Raider. They are spies, can’t you see it?”

Pretorius laid his hand on Mallet’s pistol and pushed it down.

“This is Major Jack Forge.” Pretorius looked at Jack with a half-smile behind his gray eyes. “A little worse for wear, perhaps, but this is Forge none the less.” Pretorius looked down at Jack. “How are you doing, my boy? Well, I trust?”

“Bit cold, sir,” Jack said. “Anxious to get back to the transport. There are still a lot of civilians over there that could use our help.”

“Look,” Mallet said, pointing at Sam’s gray metal arm and looking at Pretorius. “His arm. Devex tech. Explain that.”

“It is Mech, sir,” Jack said, looking up at his old captain, friend, and mentor. “They enhanced Sam’s arm, sir.”

Pretorius looked at Sam. “I remember you, Marine. Remind me, where did you lose your arm?”

“A raid on an enemy listening post, carried out from this ship, sir.”

“I remember now. What happened to the cybernetic arm the Fleet Marines gave you?”

“I had to blow that arm up, sir,” Sam said with a twinkle in his eye.

“Sorry to hear that, son,” Pretorius said.

“I’m not, sir. I hated that kravin’ arm.”

Jack heard the ripple of laughter from the Marines. He saw the agent’s body stiffen.

“These two men are to be detained until we can ascertain who, or what, they are.”

“Sir,” Jack said, looking up at Pretorius. “I’ve been inside the Devex ship. I know what they are doing. You need to let me get back over there. We can still save a lot of people.”

“This is a security matter, Captain. I have authority here.”

Pretorius looked at Jack and Sam. “This is a Fleet operation, and I have the authority to use any and all means to bring it to a successful conclusion.” Pretorius put a hand on Jack and pulled him back up to his feet.

“Jack, the lasers are not putting a dent in their shielding. I’ve just lost a tac boat trying to get through to deliver a combat drone. Do you think that raider can get back inside the warship?”

“Sir,” Jack said, adjusting his tatty clothes, “we can try. But we’ll have to move the drone deep inside the Devex ship or it’ll take out half the civilian transport too.”

“This is madness,” Mallet said. “These men are under arrest by order of Fleet Intelligence.”

Pretorius ignored the agent.

“Jack, you and your comrade are under open arrest. Do you know what that means?”

“It means I can get back in the fight, sir. If Sam and I can infiltrate the Devex ship, we can save a lot of lives here today.”

“Who’s the senior Marine here?” Pretorius called out.

“Commander Osho, sir.” Osho stepped forward.

Jack looked over at the Marine who stepped forward. Osho was as old a friend as Sam. She was alive. Jack smiled. Even with the Fleet Intelligence enforcers pointing a pulse rifle at his chest, he felt glad to be back.

“Commander Osho, take these Marines and equip them. Jack Forge has a plan. Help him carry it out. Clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Osho said. She walked over to Jack and saluted him.

“He’s not an officer,” Mallet said in dismay. “Stop saluting him.”

“Good to see you, Major,” Osho said. “If you would like to come this way, we’ll get you geared up, sir?”

Mallet turned on Pretorius. “If this goes wrong, Pretorius, I will take your ship, your captain’s star, and then your head, is that clear?”

Pretorius looked at Jack. “You hear that, Jack? Don’t let me down.”

Jack saluted the captain. “Copy that, sir,” Jack replied and then, moving across the hangar toward Osho, he began to call out his orders. “Get a combat drone up here and aboard the raider. Let’s do this quickly. There’s no time to waste.”

14

Jack ran through the corridors of the Scorpio with a squad of Marines behind him. His bare feet slapped against the composite deck plates. He had no need to check a map or plan a route, he knew this ship inside and out. He charged into the quartermaster’s store and grabbed a Fleet Marine tactical suit. He threw it to Sam and then grabbed one for himself.

Jack pulled the suit on, sliding his aching body into the familiar equipment. The moment he powered the suit, it began to report all Jack’s medical data. He was fatigued and almost hypothermic. He was bleeding from minor cuts all over his body. He was battered and bruised, he was hungry, and he was in need of a shower.

The suit administered several shots to counter the most dangerous and debilitating issues. Jack immediately felt his body warm up and he relaxed. But he had work to do. He could not relax, yet.

“Just like old times,” Sam said.

Jack nodded. “Just like old times. Squad, with me. Move out.”

Jack ran to the Marine hangar and the waiting Devex Raider. Jack stood at the bottom of the ramp and waved the Marines inside. Sam went up last.

“Guess you need me to fly this thing?” Sam said. He pulled off the right gauntlet of his tactical suit and clipped it to one of his utility straps.

“Get us to the Devex warship. Go.” Jack waved Sam inside, then followed him into the dark interior of the raider.

With his Fleet Marine tactical suit’s enhanced display active, Jack could see the interior of the raider more clearly. It was completely undecorated in any way. Even Fleet Marine tac boats, built for action and strictly controlled, were decorated with pictures of loved ones or small good luck trophies. Every tac boat in the fleet had a small toy or picture at the entrance for the crew to touch in some way as a good luck gesture. The Devex Raider had nothing like that to show that no people with hopes, fears, dreams, or desires ever traveled inside.

The ramp closed, sealing them inside the ship. Jack walked past the Marines in the passenger area, and the huge combat drone that had been loaded inside as well. Jack checked the activity on the drone. It was active and could be detonated remotely. He joined Sam in the flight deck. Sam’s hand was already unraveled and interfacing with the Devex tech.

Jack sat down as the raider exited the Scorpio, and he looked at the forward view screen. It was a limited system and he couldn’t see all he wanted without constant adjustments to view direction. He ignored the forward view on the screen and activated his suit’s wrist-mounted holodisplay. He patched into the Scorpio’s sensor network and called up a picture of the battle.

The Scorpio was in weapons range and holding position. Its massive laser assemblies on the upper and lower hulls were firing on the warship below.

The Blades held formation on the flanks of the Scorpio, ready to defend against any attack.

The Devex ship below was taking the laser hits on an energy field that flickered with every hit. The lancing laser beams slammed into the Devex shields.

The Devex ship returned fire with its countless rapid-fire guns. Millions of tiny points of white energy streamed toward the Scorpio.

Jack watched in horror as the Devex bullets streamed across space toward the Scorpio. The last time Jack had seen the Devex warship weapons in action, they had smashed a Fleet carrier in a few moments.

Jack saw the side of the Scorpio light up as it opened fire with its high-density shot cannon. A wall of kinetic hail spread out like a shield in front of the destroyer.

“Sam, the Scorpio is firing a spread of kinetic hail. Stay out of her field of fire.”

“Copy,” Sam said distantly. The raider moved suddenly to one side. Jack checked on his holoimage. The raider was avoiding the massive wall of kinetic hail. The points of fierce white energy from the Devex ship streaked across space and finally met the wall of kinetic hail.

The hail shot erupted in a wall of plasma fire and the white energy bullets were neutralized in a flash.

Jack punched the air. The Scorpio, and the fleet, had found a counter-measure to the destructive Devex white energy.

The Devex fired again. A stream of energy, thousands of lines each containing hundreds of thousands of points of energy, rushed across space toward the Scorpio.

The Scorpio activated all of its high-energy lasers and delivered a massive blow on the Devex energy shield and then deployed its defensive kinetic hail wall.

The Devex Raiders and fighters were sweeping around on the upper and lower flanks relative to the Scorpio. The Blades moved to counter the maneuver.

“Why doesn’t the Devex warship release the civilian transport?” Sam said. “Surely it’ll be more effective without that civilian ship attached to it.”

“It’s not its objective,” Jack said. “It is just holding the Scorpio off so it can capture all the civilians and create Devex warriors.”

Sam nodded. “Makes sense, I guess. They must need those warriors pretty bad. Makes you wonder what’s attacking the Devex to make them need so many warriors.”

“I guess,” Jack said, “but our priority, our duty, is to save those civilians. How long, Sam?”

“Approaching the raider bay now.”

The ship swooped in toward the open Devex bay. The channel they had so recently escaped through appeared the best way back in. Sam flew directly at the small opening.

Jack called back to the Marines in the hold behind. “Thirty seconds. Move out fast. Use the raider for cover. Watch out for active Devex warriors. There will be thousands of Devex in a trancelike state moving toward the matter transport. Ignore them unless they attack.”

Sam withdrew his Mech hand from the flight deck.

“I’m no longer in control,” he said, his hands off the flight console. “The warship is bringing us in.”

Jack looked at the view screen. The massive Devex assembly area and hangar lay just ahead. The narrow entrance channel opened.

“It’s okay. It’s probably an automated docking program. Can you open the boarding ramp?”

“We’re still thirty meters off the deck,” Sam said, “and we’re not moving.”

Jack looked to the view screen. Then the screen went blank.

“Open the boarding ramp, shoot it out if you have to, but we’re getting out of here now.”

The Marines in the hold were on their feet facing the closed boarding ramp two abreast. The ramp began to open. Then the Devex fire came on.

“Go. Go. Go,” Jack shouted and pushed the Marines toward the open door. Then, with a glance over his shoulder to check that Sam was right behind him, he ran at the open door himself.

The massive holding area was filled with the thousands of new Devex warriors all marching toward the matter transport platform. Another hundred warriors were beamed away.

Jack linked to the combat drone and activated its drive systems. The drone exited the raider behind Jack and followed him as he used his suit’s thruster and local grav field to lower himself to the deck.

The Marine squad was taking cover at the far end of the assembly area. The new Devex warriors continued to march out at regular intervals. The Marines ignored the automated, unthinking warriors and poured their fire on the scores of the massive Devex warriors scattered around the area.

Jack landed in a small channel at the back of the area next to a Marine who was taking careful aim and firing high-energy pulse blasts at the Devex. A stream of white energy bullets raked the space right next to Jack’s head. His suit reported an attacker on a raised platform to one side. Jack returned fire. The Devex fell back as Jack hit him in the faceplate with a pulse rifle blast. He saw Sam out of the corner of his eye dropping down to join him as he took aim again.

The drone hovered near Jack. The powerful combat drone should be able to cripple the warship from the inside and give Jack a chance to save the civilians aboard the transport. He checked the drone’s status.

Jack was filled with a sudden feeling of shock and fear as he noticed the small display on the side of the combat drone.

The short countdown had already begun.

Captain Pretorius stormed across the command deck to Agent Mallet at the weapons control console.

“What are you doing? We had a plan. Stop the countdown.”

“Negative, Captain. This is the first time we have managed to infiltrate a Devex warship. I do not want to take any chances. If I could cancel the countdown altogether and detonate the drone right now, I would. Inform your fighter wing to be ready to move in and finish off any remaining raiders.”

“But the civilians. Jack Forge is in there hoping to save the passengers.”

“Jack Forge is a rogue Marine, Captain. He has been lost to the service for too long. This mission will be his last.” Mallet jabbed a finger into Pretorius’s chest. “Your affection for the Marine is a bad reflection on your command abilities.”

“And destroying the civilian transport is a bad reflection on your compassion for your fellow citizens.”

“We don’t know if the transport will be destroyed. The warship should be, and that was our mission. We just got lucky that we could get a massive payload inside. This is going to look good on both our records, Captain…if you let me write the report.”

Pretorius walked over to the communication console. “Contact Major Forge and order him to evacuate immediately. Do it. Now.”

The communications officer looked up at Pretorius with an apologetic expression. He shook his head and looked down, crestfallen.

Pretorius tried the communication console. Jack Forge was out of contact, no communications were entering or leaving the dark Devex warship.

Pretorius pushed himself away from the console and walked over to his command chair.

“I’ll be writing a report of my own,” Pretorius said. “And I’ll be making a special mention of Jack Forge, a hero of the fleet—” Pretorius shot a look at Mallet. “—and I’ll include all information regarding my contact with the enemy.”

Jack opened the drone.

“I have to slow this countdown,” he said as Devex energy bullets fizzed overhead. “If this combat drone detonates here, it will take a massive section out of the civilian transport too.”

He was there to save lives, not take them. Too many had been lost already.

Sam clamped a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“It’s no good, Jack. You can’t stop it. That looks like Fleet Intelligence security lockout to me.”

Jack knew what he was looking at, and he knew who was responsible.

“Mallet,” he said.

“We need to withdraw,” Sam said. “Jack. Let’s get out of here.”

Jack looked at Sam. “Your hand,” Jack said, nodding toward Sam’s Mech arm. “Can you fix the countdown?”

“I might be able to, but I might end up detonating the thing. I don’t know how to control it.”

Jack looked up to the raider still holding thirty meters above. He looked up just in time to see the boarding ramp close and the ship turn and fly off along the launch tunnel.

“Jack,” Sam implored. “We haven’t got long.”

Jack looked at the launch tunnel. It was the only way out.

“Marines. We are leaving. Form up outside the launch tunnel. Go.”

The Marine squad leaped into the air and flew toward the launch tunnel. Their tactical suits’ local grav fields and thrusters propelled them forward. Devex white energy bullets tore through the air around them.

Jack jumped off the deck last and followed his squad. He set his heading for the opening to the launch tunnel and pushed his suit to move as fast as possible. He turned and aimed his pulse rifle behind him to cover the retreat.

A blast of fire from a Devex warrior streaked toward Jack. He quickly adjusted his heading and evaded the stream of white energy bullets. They glanced off his left hip and sent him spinning. He reached the launch tunnel and was away.

Outside, the squad was waiting, hanging in space. Jack went ahead.

“With me, Marines. Follow me, as fast as you can.”

The side of the Devex warship at the launch tunnel was only a few hundred meters from the upper hull of the civilian transport. Jack looked down and moved toward the transport still clamped underneath the warship. The combat drone was about to detonate. Its antimatter payload was enough the turn the surrounding area into a small, short-lived star. Jack’s only hope of evading the antimatter conflagration was to cover behind the civilian ship.

Jack moved down along the side of the transport. He could see in through portholes into cabins where passengers, locked in their rooms, were sleeping, victims of the Dox vapor. They had been destined to be transformed into a new Devex warrior. Now they were moments away from being vaporized by a Fleet combat drone’s antimatter detonation.

Checking the countdown on his wrist, Jack saw that the detonation was seconds away. He looked out to the Scorpio in the distance. Its laser beams still slammed into the Devex energy shields. The combat drone would turn everything in a hundred-thousand-meter radius into a cloud of subatomic particles. Jack knew he had done his best, but it was the end.

The Scorpio fired another blast and the Devex energy shield shimmered. Jack noticed the shimmering wrap around the Devex ship, even along the clamping arms that punctured the side of the civilian transport.

The energy shield was one of the most powerful defense systems Jack had ever seen. The Scorpio blasted another hail wall to fend off another stream of white energy, but it cut through and blasted a hole in the Scorpio’s lower hull.

The Scorpio was slowly overcoming the Devex energy shield. A second blast and the shimmering around the Devex ship seemed to travel further, wrapping almost entirely around the ship. One more blast and the shield would fail.

Jack realized that if the shield held, it might contain the combat drone blast and save the civilian transport from much of the antimatter detonation.

Jack opened a channel to the Scorpio’s command deck.

“Scorpio. This is Forge. Captain, are you receiving?”

“Jack. You have to get out of there.”

Pretorius sounded rattled. Jack could hear the stiff tone but detected the emotion behind it.

“No time, sir,” Jack said. He looked up at the Scorpio. “You have to stop your attack.”

Jack watched his squad of Marines racing away, down along the side of the transport, desperate to clear the blast zone—a zone they could never hope to escape—unless the Devex shield saved them.

The laser assembly on the Scorpio began to glow as they charged for the kill-shot—a blast that would dissipate the energy shield and expose the Devex hull to the full force of the Scorpio’s devastating laser weapons and the high-density shot.

The glowing laser assembly went dark.

“Explain, Jack?”

“The Devex shield, it might contain the combat drone blast. If we can contain the blast, we might be able to save the civilians.”

Jack looked at the Devex ship as it fired another stream energy points, and then the combat drone detonated.

The explosion transformed the lower hull of the Devex warship to plasma. The shield held as the antimatter explosion ripped up the sides of the Devex ship and wrapped around the inside edge of the shield. The Devex ship disappeared in a seething cloud of plasma.

The Devex puncture arms disintegrated, and the civilian ship fell away.

Jack gripped the side of the civilian craft just as the transport’s massive drive system activated. The transport began accelerating away from the plasma fire consuming the Devex ship.

Finally, the antimatter explosion took out the shield generator deep inside the warship. The energy shield failed, and the antimatter detonation leaped outward. The rolling plasma surged out and caught up with the transport.

The Devex ship was annihilated, and the antimatter explosion reached its maximum range. The flickering plasma licked at the civilian transport as it moved away from the explosion.

Jack looked up to the Scorpio. It was drawing closer, moving into formation with the transport.

“Jack. This is Pretorius. Do you read me, Major?”

Jack smiled and looked at the Scorpio drawing up alongside the civilian transport, dancing lights from the antimatter explosion throwing shadows over the destroyer’s hull.

“This is Forge. Permission to come aboard, Captain.”

Jack powered his suit’s thrusters and headed toward the Scorpio.

It was over. He was home.

15

Jack sat on the medical bunk, his wounds and abrasions dressed. Clean sheets and the familiar hum of the Scorpio’s systems brought a relaxed sensation that he had not felt in too long a time.

The medical drone drew blood while a doctor flipped through the holofile at the end of the bunk.

“You’re in good shape, all things considered,” the doctor said. “I’m going to be releasing you in a few hours. Do you have anyone you need to contact before…”

Jack knew what was waiting, and he had no idea how he was going to explain the days since the evacuation. He was sure Fleet Intelligence would want to know every last detail.

“How’s Sam?” Jack asked.

The doctor deactivated the holofile. He avoided Jack’s stare.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss the subject.”

“The patient, you mean,” Jack said, sitting forward.

The drone gently pressed Jack back to his bunk.

The doctor hesitated on his way to the closed med-bay exit.

“Your friend is well. The tests on his arm are…”

“What?” Jack pushed the medical drone aside.

“Proving difficult.”

The med-bay exit opened. In walked two Fleet Intelligence enforcers followed by Agent Mallet. She pushed the doctor out of the med-bay and closed the door. She stepped over to Jack.

“You ready to begin?”

Jack swung his legs over the side of the bed.

“Let’s get this over with.”

Jack felt the deck under his feet. He was home, and he had a feeling that he was in as much danger as ever.

New Enemy

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 4

1

Captain Kegan anxiously watched the distant ships on the holostage. The first fuzzy image suggested there was a single ship, but as it came closer to Kegan’s civilian transport, the signal resolved to show three vessels. As they came closer still, their Fleet idents were received and displayed over their holoimages. The ships were a pair of Blades and a frigate.

Kegan felt a wave of relief wash over him as the three Fleet ships raced toward his transport. This was the first contact with the Fleet he’d had since he lost contact after running away during a Devex attack. He had escaped the Devex but had been alone and lost ever since. He had been approached a few days ago by a Mech ship. It had swept in and moved swiftly along the length of the transport before racing away.

He had been lost for the better part of a week, which was a long time to be alone in hostile interstellar space. The stress he felt at being alone, with the responsibility of so many people on his hands, had been difficult to hide. It had made him lethargic.

With the relief at seeing the incoming ships calming him, he realized he had let the pressure of command show and his command deck officers had become despondent and undisciplined. They were scattered around the command deck like a group of untrained recruits—poorly turned out, many out of uniform. One was even drunk, a bottle of Amber poorly hidden underneath his console.

With a faint hope that the arrival of these ships would snap his command deck crew back into shape, Kegan opened the communications channel from his command chair armrest. The communications officer was asleep at his post. It would take too long to rouse him, Kegan thought, so he performed the task himself.

The image of the frigate commander appeared on the holostage. He was unshaven but had a look of steely discipline.

“Captain Kegan. This is Frigate Commander Dennis aboard Frigate S-2.”

“Greetings, Commander,” Kegan said, feeling the weight of a number of sleepless nights catch up with him all of a sudden. “I’m so glad you found us,” Kegan’s voice cracked with emotion, “I thought we were lost for good.”

“Copy that,” Dennis replied coolly. “We are currently rounding up a number of transports that have been separated following the Devex raids. I need access to your passenger list. I have clearance from Fleet Command to access all your records. Accessing your ship’s central computer now.”

“Is there something I can help you with, Commander?” Kegan asked. He stepped down from his command chair and walked over to the badly-hidden bottle of Amber under an officer’s console. Kegan shoved the officer aside and took the bottle.

“Negative, Captain. No assistance required,” Dennis replied, looking away to his own flight controls. “I am just checking for a pair of passengers. They are sisters. Riya and Bren Henson.”

“We’ve got over twenty thousand passengers on board, Commander. We were overrun before we could evacuate. I’ve got hundreds, if not thousands, of unregistered passengers on board. I don’t know exactly who we have here.”

“What? You haven’t conducted a ship-wide census?” Commander Dennis asked, looking up from his flight controls and into Kegan’s eye. Then he brushed the question aside with a slight shake of his head. “The Henson sisters are registered passengers, Captain,” Dennis said, looking back to his work, “but it looks like they must be aboard another ship.”

“Any reason you need those two?” Kegan inquired, stepping back up to his chair. He took a sip of the Amber and felt the shiver from the liquor slam into his fatigue.

“No reason, Captain,” Dennis said. “I’m sending you a new heading for a fleet rendezvous. We will get you back with the fleet as soon as possible.”

Kegan’s eyes dropped as he relaxed for the first time since the evacuation. He would be back with the fleet soon and could take a break, or better still, defer command of the civilian transport to someone else.

It had all been too much for him. Kegan had never wanted the captaincy of this massive ship, but he had been stuck with it. His only previous experience had been flying an asteroid mining shuttle, taking a couple dozen roughnecks at a time to and from their asteroid.

Captain Kegan received the heading from Commander Dennis and sent it to the navigation console. A disheveled officer tapped a few commands and input the heading into the navigational controls.

“You will make your way to the rendezvous,” Commander Dennis said. His image on the holostage showed he was already working on something else.

“Can’t you accompany us to the rendezvous?” Kegan implored, his anxiety rising slightly. “Please, Commander. We were attacked by a Mech ship a few days ago. At least send one of your Blades with us.”

Commander Dennis looked out from the holoimage at Kegan in his command chair.

“Attacked? The Mechs haven’t attacked a civilian transport before. Accessing your data now.”

Kegan shifted in his chair. He realized that saying he had been attacked was a stretch of the truth. It had only been a flyby, but the silent alien ship had troubled him.

Dennis looked up from his controls, clearly having reviewed the attack.

“Make directly for the rendezvous, Captain,” Commander Dennis said brusquely. “I have orders to continue my search for lost transports. We have become scattered since the first Devex attacks. We need to reform the fleet before moving on from this sector. When you reach the rendezvous, a guide ship will be waiting there to bring all lost craft back to the fleet.”

“But,” Kegan stuttered, “I don’t trust my navigational systems. I think I got lost because it threw me off course. I need an engineering and maintenance team over here.”

Dennis looked at Kegan and considered this. He guessed the civilian captain could be right and that his systems were out of calibration, but it was just as likely that the captain was incompetent, or at least out of his depth. The civilian fleet had been thrown together at such short notice that practically anyone with piloting ability was assigned a civilian transport to command. But, from what Commander Dennis could see of the transport’s command deck, it was fairly clear that the captain was struggling with command.

“Input the heading and proceed at maximum speed,” Dennis said, ignoring the captain’s protests. “I have sent your current location to the fleet. If you get lost again, someone will come and lead you in. But for now…”

Dennis trailed off.

Kegan shifted nervously in his chair. He watched the holoimage of the frigate commander, hoping the commander had had a sudden change of heart and would lead him back to the fleet personally.

Dennis looked away from the holoimage at something by the copilot next to him.

“Captain,” Commander Dennis said, looking back to Kegan, “I have a signal moving in at high speed. Sync your sensors to mine so we can expand our range and take a look at what’s coming.”

“What is it?” Kegan said, panic rising.

“Maybe another Mech,” Dennis said. “Sync sensors now.”

Captain Kegan sent over the sensor readings from his own ship to the frigate. He called up the combined data and projected it on the holostage. Commander Dennis’s image shrank to a small inset at the base of the holostage.

The main image on the holostage showed an indistinct haze moving in from the port side of the transport, still many astro units away but closing fast. The sensors refocused as the mass moved closer and presented a clearer image.

Kegan thought he could pick out a number of small ships at the head of a huge teardrop formation. Small one-man craft moving in at speed.

“Is it a squadron of Blades?” Kegan asked, hoping the Fleet’s fighter squadron was coming to fly him back to the fleet.

Commander Dennis was suddenly frantically tapping away at his console.

“Skalidion fighters,” Dennis said.

“What?” Kegan asked. He leaned forward in his command chair. All eyes on his command deck turned to him and then back to the image of Commander Dennis.

“Throw everything you can into your drive systems, Captain,” Dennis said. “I’m leaving.”

“Who are the Skalidion?” Kegan said again.

“Dennis out,” Commander Dennis said. His image vanished from the holostage, leaving only the advancing swarm of Skalidion fighters.

“Kravin fleet officers,” Kegan muttered to himself. He reopened the channel to Frigate S-2.

“Commander, I demand an answer, and I demand you come back here.”

The channel remained closed. The incoming fighters had closed to within one astro unit. Kegan could see the ships clearly now. They were small, hardly bigger than a combat drone. Smaller than a Blade fighter craft. But there were thousands of them.

“Drive,” Kegan called out. “Put us on a heading back to the fleet and get us out of here.”

The drive officer input the commands. His haste caused mistakes and it took several seconds for him to reply.

“Ship is coming about onto new heading. Bringing the reactors up to full power now. Drive assembly active. Accelerating now.”

Captain Kegan tapped the armrest and called up a wide view on the holostage. The massive civilian transport sat in the center of the image. It was turning slowly and moving away, its drive assembly glowing bright in the holoimage. The teardrop formation of the small Skalidion fighters moved in closer.

Kegan realized he would not get away.

“They’re tiny,” Kegan said. “Those cowards from the fleet could have beaten these little ships away. How much firepower does a Fleet frigate have? Mega-tons of ordnance, hail cannon, high-energy laser. And they run and leave us.”

Kegan was shaking as he watched the flight of Skalidions closed in.

The drive assembly erupted as the lead fighters slammed into the rear of the ship. The drive began to erupt and tore through the ship.

The bulging front of the tear drop formation wrapped around the massive transport even as it was exploding from the rear. The Skalidion fighters raced ahead of the explosion and tore the outer hull away—physically pulling the hull away and effectively flaying the massive transport.

Captain Kegan watched the explosions and the Skalidions devour his ship on the holostage image in disbelief. The explosion reached the central sensor nodes and the holoimage flickered away, leaving a blank holostage.

Then Kegan felt the rumble of the explosion begin to shake the command deck at the front of the ship. Half the ship must have been consumed in fire already and the explosion was moving forward, drawing closer to the command deck by the second.

The crew was in total panic around him. Many were screaming, some running off the command deck. Panic and disorder and fear.

Kegan picked up the bottle of Amber and took a deep drink. He pulled off the bottle gasping for air as the harsh Amber burst out of his nose. Tears and Amber stung his eyes. The command deck filled with noise, and then fire.

As the civilian transport disintegrated under the Skalidion fighters’ assault, a swarm of builder caste Skalidions came along behind and began consuming every particle from the burning drive assembly to the very deck plates themselves. Every part of the transport devoured in a methodical and voracious feast. The burning embers cooled, leaving empty space and no trace of the massive civilian transport, only a swarm of Skalidions racing off in search of fresh prey.

2

Jack sat in the small interview room on a composite chair that was melded into the composite deck plates. The table was also formed out of the composite. Neither could be moved.

So Jack waited.

The door eventually opened and Special Agent Mallet walked in. The air was cold around her. She didn’t acknowledge Jack as she sat down, but began to tap at her wrist-mounted holostage. She projected a holofile over the table between her and Jack and studied it for a moment.

Jack remained calm and waited.

“You didn’t want to join the Marines, did you, Forge?”

He had been an engineering student, once, during the Chitin War. He had lost his place following a short period of absence to attend the funeral of his brother, his last living relative. The absence had caused him to miss a single test and the subsequent drop of one grade level had caused him to lose his place at university, meaning he could be pressed into the Fleet Marine Service.

At the time, the war was going badly and humanity in the Eros System was being pushed back by the Chitins. That war, and that life, was well behind them all now. Those who could escape had done so. The remnants of the Eros System’s civilization was now adrift among the stars aboard a fleet of massive civilian transport ships, and the tattered remnants of the Fleet Marine Service were their only protection as they all searched for a new home.

Even though that war was far behind, it had a habit of catching up with Jack. Sometimes through vivid dreams of danger and conflict, but on this occasion, it was with a challenge from the Fleet Intelligence Agency here in the form of Special Agent Mallet.

“I was a student,” Jack replied.

“And a good one,” Mallet said. “Until you went truant, that is.”

“It was my brother’s funeral,” Jack said with a resigned sigh. He’d been through this before so many times. He grew tired of repeating it, but every time he did, he thought again of his loss.

“We were at war, Forge. There were funerals every day. But you thought you were special. To study was a privilege. When all other resources were being thrown into fighting for our survival, you were able to read and study. But you thought you could take it easy, when everyone else was fighting for their survival, and for yours.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Jack said.

She was trying to goad him into a hasty response. He had long learned to take the accusations of the Fleet Intelligence Agency with calmness, though. It would not help his cause if he were to become angry. A calm rebuttal of these charges was his best hope of getting through this interview to discover if he was guilty.

“How about when you killed Commander Finch?” Mallet asked, flicking through the files in front of her. “What was that like?”

Jack remained motionless, although inside, he shifted nervously. The truth had never been revealed about the death of Finch. Jack had been cleared of charges, but they were never truly behind him. They reappeared whenever a Fleet Intelligence agent was nearby.

Finch had been a bad commander when Jack was a new Marine, fresh from boot camp and on his first mission. But he hadn’t killed Finch. It had been an accident. But then Finch had returned, perhaps a victim, or maybe a conspirator, of the Chitins. He had been swiftly taken into the custody of Fleet intelligence. Jack always thought that the agency knew more about Finch than they ever let on.

“Finch didn’t die,” Jack said. “He was arrested by Fleet Intelligence Agent Visser on this very ship.”

“Yes,” Mallet said. “Arrested and detained and interviewed extensively where he told us how he had been attacked by Jack Forge. By you.”

“He was a Chitin agent at that point. I don’t know how they did it, but it wasn’t Finch that came back. You can’t believe what he told you.” Jack looked at Special Agent Mallet. “But you already know that. What ever happened to Finch?”

Mallet flicked through her file.

“Classified,” she said.

“But this is old history,” Jack said. “No charges were ever brought against me. In fact, I earned a promotion after that mission. I have fought tirelessly since day one.”

“Yes, you fought. You sacrificed a squad of Marines to win your promotion to major, didn’t you? Who won’t you sacrifice for your own benefit?”

Jack remembered the mission to the small asteroid to flush out a single Chitin soldier. The Marines under his command were performing poorly, and he had taken them under his wing, to develop their confidence and their skill. They were a team that was beginning to grow in stature and confidence, and their deaths had been a tragic loss for the service. A loss that had haunted him long after.

“They were casualties of war. I did what I could to give them the best chance of coming through that war, that mission, by leading well. I failed them. I acknowledge that, but a commander cannot be held responsible if an enemy kills those under his command. Sometimes the team succeeds, sometimes not, and that always means casualties. I learned from that mission and I don’t take their loss lightly.”

“You didn’t seek counseling after their loss,” Mallet said, still flicking through the holofiles.

Jack couldn’t see the information in front of Mallet. He had never felt the need for formal counseling. He had talked through his concerns with his friend and mentor, Captain Pretorius. He had the support of his friend and Marine brother, Sam Torent.

“I received additional training following their loss,” Jack said.

He remembered the days of virtual reality combat training with an elite group of Marine Service leaders. It had been some of the most challenging encounters and missions he had ever undertaken, and even though he knew they were simulations, he had engaged with them fully and learned much about Marine tactics and the leadership skills he would need to make the most of his major’s star.

“And after all that extra leadership training, all those extra hours and resources poured into helping you, again you abandoned your post during the final battle for the Eros System. A battle we eventually lost.”

“The planet was lost. The fleet and the civilian transports had all left the planet. I was alone in the capital, me and the remnants of Scorpio Battalion. Once the fleet had left, there was no authority left on the planet. I was the highest-ranking Marine left on Eros. And I had information that could lead to a way of saving all the people who had been left behind.”

Jack remembered bitterly the hundreds of thousands of people abandoned on the planet, left to the mercy of the Chitin hoards. He remembered the departure areas littered with abandoned luggage. The pitiful sight of so many without a hope.

“We couldn’t save them all,” Mallet said icily.

“You didn’t even try,” Jack retorted. “At least I tried. When I left, it was only because I couldn’t go back. But at least I left the populations safer than they had been before. I would have sacrificed everything to save them. I am happy the plan worked and I gave them all a chance to live.”

Mallet leaned forward, a smiled tugging at one side of her thin lips.

“Are you trying to tell me you saved the world? Do you think it will save you from facing justice?”

“I did what I thought was best under the circumstances, given the information I discovered after the fleet left. I acted. As a leader, I must act. If I hesitate or fail to make a decision, all is sure to be lost. And,” Jack said, leaning forward, “I will face any accusation squarely. I know in my heart that I have always done the best I could, often under difficult, dangerous, or deadly circumstances. There isn’t ever time to consider the fallout of my decisions. I must trust my judgment and act.”

“And was it your judgment to execute Chief Stone? Was that a considered decision under difficult circumstances, or did you just act?”

Jack sat back in his chair, the breath snatched from his chest. He hadn’t wanted to kill Stone, despite all he had done.

“Stone was in danger. I saved him from a fate worse than death. I didn’t execute him. It was a mercy. I didn’t want to do it. But he had brought it on himself.”

Mallet stood up and banged the table.

“Chief Stone was a great fleet chief, a better engineer than you will ever be, and a better leader. He saved the crew of that frigate. They were lost and alone and he brought them almost back to safety. And then they met you. And you hijacked his ship, turned the young frigate crew against him, and shot him on the command deck right in front of Commander Bale.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Jack said, looking up at the furious Mallet.

Mallet walked around the table and leaned heavily on the arms of Jack’s chair.

“Then you tell me what it was like, Forge. I will have your side of it, and then you will face the justice you deserve. Too long you have evaded the Fleet Intelligence Agency. Too long you have run rings around your superiors. You are a criminal, a coward, and a traitor, and I will see you face the consequences.”

Jack bit his lip. Mallet made it all sound like he was a rogue, but he was good Marine. He knew in his heart and gut that he was.

“I am innocent of these charges,” Jack said calmly. “I am entitled to representation. Can I speak to Captain Pretorius? I need advice from someone I trust.”

Mallet pushed herself away from Jack’s chair.

“You will see who I permit you to see. I’m not having you conspiring with your party of traitors and criminals. You will answer for yourself, Forge. I will hear you confess before the end.”

Mallet flicked through her files. Jack braced himself for the next twisted truth to be thrown at him.

“Where is Sam?” Jack asked. “Commander Sam Torrent. Where is he?”

Mallet didn’t look away from the holofile hovering in front of her. She either hadn’t heard Jack or was ignoring him.

Then there was a knock at the door.

Mallet heard that.

Standing and turning off the holofile, Mallet gave Jack a suspicious look. Jack felt she was about to deliver another barbed comment, an indictment of his ability and his character, but she turned and opened the door to the small interview room.

A young officer stood there. He looked at Mallet nervously.

“Speak, boy,” Mallet said with the casually dismissive tone of a Fleet Intelligence Agent.

“We’re under attack,” the young officer blurted out. He looked past Mallet at Jack sitting at the desk.

Jack sat forward and felt the containment field that held him in his seat.

Mallet looked back at Jack.

“We’ll continue this later,” she said as she left.

The door closed. Jack dropped back into the molded composite seat. There was nothing he could do other than look around the interview room. He had been there for hours, maybe an entire watch rotation. He hoped Sam was in a better position than he was, but he feared Sam’s position might be considerably worse. Jack tried to clear his mind and rest, but thoughts for his friend, the news of an attack on the Scorpio, and fears for his own safety played on his mind.

It was easier to fight than sit and wait, but all he could do was wait.

3

Captain Pretorius looked at the holostage on the command deck of the Scorpio. Close to a hundred Devex raiders were racing toward the small flotilla. The Scorpio and a squadron of Blades were protecting a civilian transport and escorting it back to the fleet. Pretorius had hoped they could rejoin the other ships without incident or delay, but it was not to be.

“Time until the Devex intercept us?” Pretorius asked as he watched the holoimage.

Commander Chou, Pretorius’s second-in-command, tapped the console at the front of the holostage and the time to intercept was displayed between the images of the Scorpio and the raiders.

They were only minutes away.

“Time to the fleet rendezvous, please, Mr. Chou.”

Commander Chou extended the image on the main holostage to show the distant fleet, hundreds of ships, civilian and Fleet, all still over twenty hours and hundreds of astro units away. Pretorius was close, but not close enough to receive any support. They were on their own.

Pretorius tugged his cuffs. “Prepare all hail cannon to lay down a hail curtain defense. All Blades take positions to defend the civilian transport. Put me through to Commander Bale on the frigate.”

Bale appeared on the holostage. Even through the holographic image his nervousness was clear.

“Captain,” Bale said, making an effort to sound in control of his emotions. “Your orders, Sir?”

“Hold position above the Scorpio’s upper hull. Prepare all weapons. We must defend the civilian transport. Copy?”

“Copy, sir,” Bale replied.

Pretorius detected the hesitation in Bale’s voice.

“What is it, Commander? Quickly.”

“Major Forge,” Bale said. “He’s been in command of the frigate for such a long time. I wondered if he was coming back.”

“Major Forge is a Fleet Marine. He’s not rated for Fleet ship command. You are. Frigate M-9 is your ship, Commander. You’ll just have to manage without him. Copy?”

Bale hesitated.

“You have a full crew?” Pretorius said, knowing that a full complement had been detached to Frigate M-9 from the Scorpio’s own crew.

“Yes, sir.”

“Then you will have no difficulty in doing your duty. Correct?”

“Yes, sir…but…” Bale said, “Major Forge was—”

Agent Mallet came striding onto the Scorpio’s command deck. She looked at the holoimage of the nervous Commander Bale.

“Major Forge is a criminal,” Mallet said to Bale. “And it may turn out that you were negligent, complicit, and possibly also a criminal to let him take command of your ship.”

Bale’s nervousness peaked and he looked from Mallet to Pretorius.

Pretorius fixed Bale with a stare.

“Prepare your ship, Commander,” Pretorius said. “Devex raiders will be in range in moments. Scorpio out.”

Mallet stepped up to the holostage next to Pretorius. She looked at the image of the Scorpio and the Devex bearing down on them, and the fleet still so far away, too far to be of any help.

“Please try not to scare my people just before a fight, Special Agent,” Pretorius said in a kindly, too-gentle tone. “It makes them jumpy.”

“Your plan?” Mallet asked coldly, ignoring Pretorius’s comment. She was standing next to the captain, but was looking directly at the holoimage, her hands behind her back, assuming a position of total calm and authority.

Pretorius was impressed with Fleet Intelligence and how detached they could be. The threat from the Devex raiders was substantial, but Mallet spoke as if they were nothing more than a swarm of bugs.

“I will lay down a curtain of kinetic hail as a first line of defense. The laser assemblies are charged with broad sweep beams.”

“That will limit their range, won’t it?” Mallet made every comment sound like an accusation.

“Yes, but we will be able to engage more targets more rapidly. These are not Devex warships approaching us now. These are smaller craft. They are not as heavily shielded and are much more vulnerable. The broad sweep beams will be more than sufficient to destroy them.”

“So you will be able to hold them off,” Mallet said. She looked at the holostage. Emotionless.

Pretorius shook his head. “No, Special Agent, I don’t think I will be able to hold them all off. Some of them will get through and they will attempt to capture the Scorpio before attacking the civilian transport.”

“And what do you intend to do about that?” Mallet looked at Pretorius.

“There is only one thing we can do. Deploy the battalion throughout the ship.” He opened a ship-wide channel “All hands, arm yourselves, and prepare to repel Devex boarding parties.”

Mr. Chou stepped between Pretorius and Mallet. He handed Pretorius a pulse pistol. Chou offered one to Mallet. She shook her head and looked up at Pretorius.

Checking his weapon before clipping it to his hip, Pretorius adopted a confident appearance, but he felt nervous. Battle always made him nervous. The trick to command was not showing it. Only a fool would be unafraid. He looked at Mallet. She showed no emotion at all. Ever. Maybe she was incapable of being afraid. Maybe the intelligence agents had their fear removed as part of their training. The best Pretorius, his ship’s crew, and the battalion of Marines that provided ship-wide security could hope for was to manage and overcome their fear.

The weapons officer called out the Devex raiders were approaching weapons range.

“Hail curtain.” Pretorius stepped away from the holostage and climbed into his command chair. “All guns, all batteries, open fire.”

The distant, dull thump of the hail cannon batteries opening fire filtered into the interview room where Jack was sitting.

This is intolerable, he thought. He was on a ship under attack, yet he could do nothing. He could not assist. He could not help in any way to fight off this attack.

Jack felt useless.

He thought about Bale on the frigate that he had so recently been aboard. The man was not a great commander, he was too inexperienced. The young Bale had some natural ability, sure, but it was barely adequate without a lot of experience to back it up. Maybe, one day, he could become a useful commander, but it was too soon. Jack wondered if he would survive this day. If he did, the experience would serve him well.

Bale had worked passably well under orders. Jack hoped Pretorius would recognize that and give him clear instructions. Bale would not be able to act well on his own initiative, and certainly not under the extreme pressure of battle.

Thinking about Bale and the frigate, Jack was reminded of his friend Sam. He was also somewhere aboard the Scorpio, likely in an interview room such as this, also sitting and having to endure the sounds of battle as they filled the ship. He guessed his old friend would relax better than he was able to. Sam was somehow able to filter out the battle and ignore the threat until he was forced to deal with it. Then he would deal with it, decisively and aggressively. But if he was asked to sit back, ordered to sit back, Sam could easily sit back.

Jack tried to be more like Sam and ignore the battle, but it was impossible. He needed to help.

The workshop deep inside the Scorpio was dark apart from a pool of light around the group of intelligence agents from the science division and the workbench they stood around. Sam writhed in pain as the agent’s equipment probed his right arm. Sweat burst over his naked upper body. The shouts of pain were silenced by the anechoic field around his mouth.

With his right arm dispersed into the finest Mech tissue strands, the sci division agents tested another quantum wave. The pain of his arm being pulled to shreds was too much to bear and Sam blacked out momentarily, only being jerked back to consciousness as a change in frequency caused his Mech tissue to clump and knot and gather up to his residual upper arm. His Mech tissue arm climbed up over his own flesh.

He relaxed momentarily as the field was deactivated, and his arm returned to its human form. Sam breathed heavily, fear and pain wracked his body. Tears ran down his cheeks and mixed with the snot and sweat.

“Try and detach the material one strand at a time,” one of the agents said.

Sam cried out in fear, begging the agents not to activate their equipment again, but no sound made it through the anechoic field. The silence of his shouts for mercy heightened the dread already overwhelming him. He sobbed hopelessly until the pain hit. The sudden jolt stopped his cries as his breath was snatched away. And as the arm was shredded again and a single strand of Mech tissue teased away, almost to breaking point, Sam felt his entire body shudder and he blacked out again.

Then the field dropped away. His Mech arm released. The light around the workbench dimmed. Sam came back to consciousness and heard the distant sound of hail cannon.

A sci agent tapped the controls along the side of the platform that Sam was held upon. He could detect the agent’s frustration.

“They’ve cut the power. Find out why they’ve cut the power.”

Sam heard the distant wump, wump, wump of hail cannon firing from their positions on the outer hull of the Scorpio. No pain remained from the tests and the attempts to remove his Mech arm. No pain, only fear that they would try and try again, until they succeeded in removing the limb.

Pretorius watched as the Devex raiders maneuvered around the hail curtain. He redirected his fire to cover the flanks, but the curtain was being stretched too thin. It was only a matter of time before they overcame it and burst through.

He watched the enemy ships on the holostage. They raced around one flank of the curtain and moved toward the civilian transport. Pretorius moved the Scorpio to cut off the attack on the defenseless civilian ship.

Then the Devex came into range of the laser assembly.

The flickering laser beams struck out with short energy bursts. Laser assemblies aboard the Scorpio and the frigate lit up and delivered a deadly fire. The Devex raiders, unable to withstand the laser weaponry, began exploding one after another in rapid succession as the beams struck one Devex ship before flicking to another target.

But they were too many, and too many were getting through.

The raiders came in close to deliver their streams of white energy bullets, all concentrating their fire on the frigate. Pretorius knew that to knock out the smaller craft first would give the Devex a chance at destroying the Scorpio. Once the two Fleet ships were destroyed, the Devex warship that was holding position an astro unit away would move in and capture the civilian transport, beginning the conversion process of turning the thousands of civilians into mindless Devex warriors.

Tapping the armrest of his command chair, Pretorius opened a channel to the frigate.

“Commander Bale,” Pretorius said, “redeploy to the far side of the Scorpio. Reset laser to high-energy offensive beam and give the Scorpio covering fire.”

The holoimage on Pretorius’s arm rest showed him a frightened man.

Bale’s holoimage flickered as the frigate took a sustained stream of weapon fire from the attacking Devex. “Copy, Captain,” Bale said. He rocked in his seat and the holoimage flickered again as the frigate took fire from another wave of raiders.

Pretorius looked at the main holostage and the battle raging on the port side of the Scorpio—the flight of Devex moving in from aft. The frigate took heavy fire as it fell back to a new position, protected by the destroyer.

While opening a channel to the Blade squadron commander defending the transport, Pretorius called Special Agent Mallet to him with a click of his fingers.

Mallet looked at him with distain. Pretorius ignored her and clicked again. The channel to the Blade commander opened.

“Commander Scherer,” Pretorius said, “move to these coordinates and give the frigate supporting fire with your squadron.”

“Copy that, Captain,” Scherer said with an unflappable tone, and then closed the channel. Pretorius watched on the main holostage as the Blades swooped in and opened fire on the Devex raiders focusing their fire on the frigate.

Then the raiders attacking the Scorpio from the rear landed just forward of the drive assembly.

Pretorius stepped down from his command chair and looked at Mallet. He pointed at the tail section of the Scorpio on the holoimage.

“They will be boarding us very soon. They are already cutting their way through the outer hull. They will attempt to take the drive room and then the command deck. I need every active Marine in the fight. The Scorpio battalion is down to one company. They need the best leader we have available to hold the Devex off.”

Mallet started shaking her head. “No, Captain,” she said.

“Give me Major Forge, now,” Pretorius said. He stepped up to Mallet. He was taller than the agent and his grey eyes showed no fear.

Mallet glanced at the holostage and the Devex ships landing on the Scorpio. She avoided Pretorius’s stare and simply nodded. She tapped her wrist-mounted holostage and sent a code to an enforcer authorizing the release of the prisoner.

“It’s done,” Mallet said.

Pretorius nodded and sighed. “Tell the major to contact me as soon as he is suited up,” he said to Mallet.

“Yes, Captain,” Mallet said, looking back at the holostage. Devex ships were landing in numbers on the Scorpio. The hail cannons were maintaining the defensive curtain and holding off others, and the laser assembly was still accounting for many of the small Devex craft. The frigate had completed its maneuver and had retreated to the cover of the much larger Scorpio, a squadron of Blades dancing in the space between the two ships, firing their forward lasers into the enemy.

But even Mallet could see that there were far too many Devex. They were hopelessly outnumbered and completely surrounded.

It was a mistake to come on this trip, Mallet thought. She had come primarily to arrest Forge. It should have been a simple mission to scoop up a missing transport, one of dozens scattered across the region, and arrest Forge. She never thought the trip would put her on the front lines of the running battles with the Devex.

Finding Forge had been her real objective. Now that she had him in her grasp, she feared her right to have her revenge and deliver justice would be robbed from her by a Devex boarding party.

If she lost Forge, she could live with it, but now she also had the Marine with the alien arm. That had been a career-advancing stroke of good fortune. That Marine was more valuable than Forge, and if her science division agents could unlock the secrets of that arm before returning to the fleet, the credit would be hers.

The Scorpio rocked as a raider exploded too close, the blast front from the detonation slamming into the destroyer’s hull integrity field. Mallet wondered if she would make it back to the fleet at all—with or without Forge or the secrets of the alien arm.

More Devex were moving in to join those already on the outer hull, cutting their way into the ship.

Then an alarm sounded on the command deck. Pretorius opened a ship-wide channel.

“Intruder alert. Devex boarding parties are about to enter the Scorpio. All hands, prepare to engage the intruders.”

Mallet drew her small sidearm and checked it was ready.

The Devex were here.

4

The interview room door opened, and the distant sound of hail cannon fire rose in volume slightly. Jack looked up at the enforcer fully clad in a black tactical suit. The enforcer walked toward Jack. Behind the enforcer, Jack saw a Marine also fully kitted out in a tactical suit.

The enforcer deactivated the containment field around Jack’s chair and stepped aside.

The Marine spoke.

“Major. The Devex are cutting through the outer hull, attempting to board the Scorpio.”

Jack recognized the voice from behind the faceplate. It was his old squad-mate, Osho. Jack got up from the molded composite seat.

“Pretorius has orders for you to take command of the defense,” Osho said, stepping aside from the open doorway.

“With me, Osho,” Jack said.

The nearest equipment store was the Cobra Company barracks, an area Jack knew well. He ran along the corridor, Osho close behind.

The old Cobra barracks was so familiar. Even the smell was the same as the last time he had stood there. The equipment store held a Marine tactical suit, and Jack began to pull it on while Osho grabbed a pulse rifle. She stood next to Jack as he pulled the suit over his shoulders, the seal taking hold and pulling itself closed. Jack took the pulse rifle and checked the weapon.

“Sidearm,” Jack said. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and picked up a helmet.

Osho grabbed a pulse pistol. She slid out the power cell and held it up for Jack to see. It was fully charged. She slapped the cell back in and handed it over.

Jack grabbed the pistol and slapped it onto the hip holster, the tactical suit’s holster taking hold of the pistol. He pulled the helmet on and the enhanced data view blinked to life. Now Jack could see Osho’s face behind her helmet. Alongside his old Marine friend were her medical readouts. She was calm and fighting fit.

He held up his right wrist and activated the wrist-mounted holostage. The image of the Scorpio appeared on his arm.

“Location of all Marines,” Jack said to the holostage. The holoimage lit up with a hundred small points of light identifying the positions of all Marines by their ident chips.

“Osho, take first through fifth squads to the front section and prepare to defend the command deck. I’ll take eighth through twelfth squads and hold the drive section. Sixth and seventh squads can hold here and here.” Jack pointed at the Scorpio’s midsection. “These squads will be our reaction force.”

Jack looked at Osho, who was transferring the information to her own wrist-mounted holostage. She looked up to Jack for her order to leave.

“Sam?” Jack said. “Where is Commander Torrent?”

Osho shook her head. “No one has seen him since you first arrived, sir,” Osho said. “He was taken by Fleet Intelligence agents.”

He could tell from Osho’s elevated bio signs and her tone of voice that she was concealing some part of what she knew.

“What is it, Osho? Tell me.”

Osho looked down. “He was taken by the sci division.”

Jack knew instantly why his old friend would be handed over to them and immediately feared for him. But he had no time to investigate right now.

With a simple nod, he acknowledged the information from Osho.

“Go,” Jack said. Osho ran off calling for her squads to join her at the forward section of the Scorpio. Jack knew she had always been an effective Marine and a trusted leader. He had no doubt she would hold the command deck and use her resources well.

Jack ran in the opposite direction, heading for the drive section.

“Squads eight through twelve. Deploy to the drive section. Await instructions. Forge out.”

The Scorpio was a huge vessel with transit channels for rapid deployment, but Jack was already so close to the drive section he chose to run. The corridors were busy with armed Fleet personnel, all at action stations. There were doorways off the corridor that led to the hail cannon stations, all were sealed, the sounds of their fire thudding through the sealed door and filling the corridor. The sound put the hairs on Jack’s neck on end.

The Scorpio was locked down and fully engaged with the enemy.

“More Devex raiders on the upper hull,” the ship-wide address from the command deck echoed along the corridor. “Repel or destroy all Devex boarding parties.”

Jack came to a junction stairway at the Scorpio’s aft section. The last bulkhead before the drive section.

The bulkhead covered the entire aft section. Doorways on port and starboard side, and on two levels, opened into the drive room with its multiple reactor cores and drive systems. Jack had to protect this boundary or lose the ship.

The distant pounding of hail cannon told Jack the Scorpio was still fighting. Soon it would be his turn to engage the enemy and fight.

Jack found the Marine squads he’d tasked with the drive room defense waiting at the assigned location. They came to attention as he came into sight. He called for them to stand easy as he ran a quick assessment of the Marines from his old company, Cobra.

The idents of the Marines were all unfamiliar. The old squad leaders had all changed. Fortunately, what had not changed was the quiet determination of every Marine to fight off the attackers.

Jack issued his instructions quickly and sent the squads to guard various drive room entrances. There were more squads than drive room access points, so Jack was able to keep one squad with him.

Seventh squad fell in with Jack, who led them at a quick march away from the drive room bulkhead into the corridors of the Scorpio.

He called the Marines of seventh squad to a halt only a few meters away from the drive room. He checked his holostage. A Devex raider was clamped on the upper hull just above Jack’s position. The outer hull had already been cut away to give access, and the Devex warriors were already aboard on the decks above him.

Jack pointed up and signaled for his squad to follow. He ran to the nearest stairway up, his squad behind. Even though they all wore the bulky Fleet Marine Tactical Suit and were fully kitted for a fight, the squad moved quietly.

At the uppermost corridor, Jack could see the point where a Devex was cutting through. Jack took a knee and aimed up at the point. The squad all took aim and waited.

The hull plate fell in. Jack opened fire immediately, pouring pulse rounds into the dark space of the raider’s interior.

The first Devex warrior dropped into the corridor, its huge rapid-fire blaster leveled and ready for action. But the punishment from the squad’s pulse rifle fire dropped the warrior in a moment. The body of the warrior drifted upward, drawn back into the raider by the levitation field emanating from the Devex ship.

The Devex never left their dead.

More Devex dropped in, their blasters pouring streams of white energy bullets toward the squad of Marines.

Jack kept on firing until seven of the Devex warriors were dead and drifting back into their ship. Then the raider detached, the sole survivor retreating with its dead comrades.

“Stability field,” Jack said as the raider abandoned its attack, leaving a hole in the Scorpio’s hull.

The rush of air toward the sudden breach threatened to blow his squad into space. The section around the breach sealed and micro drones rushed in to seal it.

Jack checked his wrist-mounted holostage. Another dozen raiders were clamped on at the aft section, near the drive assembly, on the upper and lower hull. Those Devex were already aboard and attacking the drive room access points.

He looked up at the beach and the dark of space beyond thoughtfully.

“With me,” Jack said. He ran toward the breach and jumped up. His suit’s grav field adjusted and let him leap through the breach. He came out on the upper hull of the Scorpio.

The flashing of the Scorpio’s defensive hail curtain in the distance caught Jack’s eye. It was beautiful and deadly, a shimmering wall of kinetic hail detonating across a swathe of dark space. The Devex raiders caught in it were being destroyed, their destruction adding to the shimmering, fiery curtain.

But some were making it through, more than enough to be a threat.

Looking along the hull of the Scorpio to the active drive assembly, Jack was impressed by the size and power of the destroyer. It was not the biggest ship in the fleet, the last remaining carrier had that distinction, but the Scorpio was among the few remaining destroyers, all powerful attack vessels in their own right.

The nearest Devex ship was clamped onto the hull a few dozen meters to his left. He ran toward it, the tactical suit’s gravity field keeping him on top of the Scorpio as he moved. He jumped toward the raider and landed on the side of its hull. He activated his pulse rifle’s electron blade and cut into it.

The squad joined Jack, electron blades cutting through the raider’s hull and in moments, an opening large enough to step through had been cut out. Jack was the first through the breach.

Floating forward into the dark interior, Jack found his way from memory. He had recently been inside a Devex raider and remembered the layout. He could have moved through the ship blindfolded. The flight deck was to his right. A Devex warrior was sitting at the controls, unaware of Jack’s entrance. He rushed the pilot and drove his electron blade through the back of the pilot’s chair and into the unsuspecting Devex.

The flashes of weapons fire from the battle in the corridors of the Scorpio flickered into the Raider’s dark interior. Jack pointed down, through the breach the Devex boarding party had created in the Scorpio’s hull. He sent his squad in after the Devex warriors that were already inside the Scorpio, attacking the drive room defensive lines.

When Jack dropped down after his squad, the Devex were already taking heavy fire. Several were floating back toward their raider, a ship with a dead pilot at the controls, a ship that would be going nowhere.

Jack pressed forward with his squad and dropped the last of the Devex warriors from the raider just above him.

With the Devex killed and drifting back to their ship, the squad took a moment to catch their breath. Jack checked for the location of other enemy craft on the Scorpio’s hull. There were still other raiders to deal with, and more Devex warriors to fight off. Dozens of Devex were in the Scorpio and engaging the squads holding the access points to the drive section.

There were casualties on both sides, and the battle was far from over. The Scorpio was still not safe.

“Come on, squad,” Jack called out, “no time to rest. With me. Now.”

The sounds of pulse rifle fire along the corridor ahead told Jack he was nearing the fight at the drive room access. The familiar sound of Devex energy bullets raking the composite walls of the Scorpio’s corridors filled Jack’s ears.

Accessing all interior sensors and feeding the information to his wrist-mounted holostage, Jack displayed the locations of the nearby enemy. They were taking cover in a recess along the corridor, fighting their way toward the Marine squad holding the access door to the drive room.

Jack projected the holoimage in front of him and used hand signals to give his squad their targets. And then, with a final set of hand signals, Jack sent the squad on a lighting attack, catching the Devex in a pincer move.

The Devex discovered too late they were trapped as a squad of Marines came rushing at them from the rear. Electron blades fizzing and thrusting through the tough Devex armor. The Devex fell to the electron blades of seventh squad before Jack came along.

Standing and watching as the dead Devex were caught up in their levitation field and taken back to their raider, Jack counted his losses. One dead Marine and two injured.

One of the injured Marines had taken Devex energy bullets to the arm and chest, both noncritical hits, but the Marine was struggling. The onboard medical packages treated the injuries until proper medical aid could be given. Another had taken energy bullet damage to his thigh, only a scrape but he was struggling to keep on his feet, determined to endure the pain and stay in the fight.

Jack directed a pair of Marines to take the injured to the med-bay. He checked the locations of Devex on the ship. They were falling back, their initial thrust for the drive section having been beaten back. The battle at the forward section was fierce. Jack opened a channel to Osho.

“Report,” Jack said.

“They are hitting us hard, but we are holding them. The single-access corridor is making it difficult for them to press forward. We could go on like this for an entire watch rotation.”

Jack checked the holoimage. Osho was dug in at the end of a long corridor to the main entrance to the command deck. The Devex were pressing forward but failing to make a critical gain. The corridor benefited the defenders as much as it hindered the attackers.

“I’m sending in the reaction force to catch these Devex in the rear flank,” Jack said.

Jack watched the holoimage show the Devex raiders at the rear section of the Scorpio take off and retreat, several succumbing to laser fire as they fled.

“The Devex are falling back,” Jack said to Osho. “Don’t take any chances. They’ll give up on the command deck attack soon enough, or they’ll be neutralized by the reaction force. Hold position. Defend the command deck. Forge out.”

The battle-scarred corridor around Jack still glowed where Devex energy bullets had superheated the composite walls. The wisps of smoke tugged along the open space to the breaches where the raiders had disengaged, leaving openings to outer space. Only the hull integrity field prevented a rapid depressurization. Micro drones and repair drones rushed in to seal the breaches with fresh layers of hull composite.

Jack called in the company’s squad leaders.

“Those breaches need to be sealed. Assist the repair teams. Get them closed up fast.”

The squad ran off to their designated breach points to assist as best they could, leaving Jack alone in the corridor. He tapped on his wrist-mounted holodisplay and searched for the location of his friend’s ident chip. Sam Torent was somewhere on board, he knew it. He was being held, studied, or worse. Jack needed to see him, to let his friend know that he had not forgotten about him, to let Sam know that his old friend and Marine brother would help him.

Jack found a signal. Sam was in a workshop deep in the central decks of the Scorpio.

He knew the quickest route and ran along the corridor, which still glowed from the energy bullet barrage. Coming to a stairway, Jack dropped without breaking his stride, landed on the deck below, and continued to run toward the workshop.

Jack sent his commander-level access codes from his tactical suit to the workshop door. The codes were refused, but he had worked maintenance and knew how to open the door. A few taps on the door release and it slid open. He stepped inside anxiously.

In the center of the workshop, laid out on a workshop table in pool of light, was Sam Torent. He appeared sedated, his Mech arm hanging over the side.

Stepping forward, a light burst on around him and Jack found himself face to face with a pair of Fleet Intelligence enforcers. They raised their pulse rifles.

He came to a stumbling halt, cursing himself for charging in. He should have guessed Sam would be under guard.

“Surrender your weapons, Forge,” Special Agent Mallet said from behind the pair of enforcers. She was barely visible, her black uniform hiding her in the shadows.

Jack handed his pulse rifle to one enforcer. He unclipped the pulse pistol from its holster and handed it to the other. Then Mallet stepped out from behind the enforcers and stood in front of Jack.

“I’ll take you back into custody, Forge. Attempting to escape. Attempting to release a sci division subject. Your list of crimes is growing longer by the hour.”

Mallet tossed a set of manacles toward Jack. They automatically wound around Jack’s wrist and held his hands together.

“It’s my duty to see you don’t commit any more crimes.” She walked toward the open workshop door and with a flick of her wrist, she drew the manacles to follow. The manacles pulled Jack along.

Glancing back over his shoulder, he looked at Sam in the pool of light. He looked exhausted. Jack wondered if they would ever stand side by side again.

5

Riya pulled her sister along the smooth, curved corridor of the civilian transport. She had no idea where she was going, but her father always told her it was harder to hit a moving target. For as long as she had strength and breath, Riya would run.

“You’re hurting me,” Bren complained. “We should have stayed in the cabin. I don’t want to go running around this kravin ship.”

Riya tugged her sister toward the transport loop access, repeatedly pressing the call button.

“Stop complaining and save your breath,” Riya said, looking at the transport display.

Bren pulled free and leaned against the side of the hatch. She looked at her sister with that defiant look that reminded Riya of her father.

“I want a drink,” Bren said. Her top lip curled.

“Stop talking and you won’t feel so thirsty.” Riya tapped the call button again.

“I’m not thirsty,” Bren said. “I just want a kravin drink. If we’re going to die, I’d rather not be sober.”

Riya looked at the transport loop access. She knew it would not open. A crowd of panicking passengers came rushing toward the access, threatening to crush Riya and Bren. Riya grabbed her sister by the wrist and pulled her to the side letting the crowd rush forward.

The transport loop door opened, and fifty panicked passengers tried to squeeze into the pod.

“This way,” Riya said, tugging Bren along. She moved off at pace.

Riya had always been stronger, but only because Bren had always been so lazy. Although they were so alike and often confused for one another, they knew how truly different they were. But Riya also wanted a drink right now. Sometimes she had to concede she was more like her sister than she would like to admit.

The sounds of panic echoed along the corridor from every direction. Riya ran down a stairway and found herself outside a medical facility. The facility was dark. The clear composite doors open, one of the sliding doors bent slightly, preventing the doors from closing properly.

“Inside,” Riya said, pushing Bren toward the opening.

“It’s dark,” Bren said. Fear was starting to make her lose her composure and her voice wobbled on the verge of tears, but even now, she was still brutally defiant. “I’m not going in there.”

“Yes, you are,” Riya said, pushing Bren hard. “We’ve got to keep hidden and look after ourselves.”

And as Riya and Bren stared in through the partially open door, into the darkness of the med-bay, a sudden crunching and banging sound echoed through the ship, shaking the deck plates beneath their feet. The noise was terrible and continued to rise in volume. Equipment in the dark bay rattled, some pieces crashing to the floor as the quaking continued. Bren covered her ears and crouched close to the deck.

A Devex warship had captured the civilian transport and the puncture arms were smashing through the hull.

“We can hide in here,” Riya said. “We’ll be safe.” But even as she said it, she knew it was a lie.

Bren squeezed through the gap and waited for her sister to join her. The med-bay was lit only by small strip lights around a few bunks, a light at the far end blinking on and off at irregular intervals that made Riya feel dizzy. Maybe it was the stress of looking after her sister, the effort of running through the massive ship, or maybe it was fear. Everyone aboard had heard about the Devex warships by now. Everyone knew what was coming. Captivity. Slavery. Or maybe death.

“They’ll try and put us all asleep,” Riya said. She ran into the dark with her sister dragged behind. A set of cabinets were sealed shut. There had been an attempt to open them by force. An attempt that had failed. Riya held the wrist device her father had given her to the door, and it clicked open.

Inside were stacks of med-packs. Riya pulled them out frantically. They fell to the floor at her feet. Not finding what she was looking for, Riya went to another cabinet. More equipment and amongst it a small, clear facemask with a small canister of super-compressed air. A small block of solid air that would slowly evaporate and give a supply of breathable air for hours.

Riya held the mask out to her sister.

“You like getting all dressed up,” Riya said.

Bren snatched the mask with a grunt.

Riya opened the next cabinet where she found another mask. She pulled it on.

Bren looked at Riya, her broad smile shining through the mask.

“You look like the old house drone,” Bren said. She was smiling and laughing even though her cheeks were wet with tears.

Riya moved in a mechanical way and repeated the old phrase their house drones used to say.

“Your room is a mess, miss.”

Bren laughed.

Then the captain’s voice came over a ship-wide address.

“This is the captain. Dox vapor detected. The emergency safe zone is in the ship’s core, in the central arena. All passengers make your way…”

The message ended.

Bren looked up, expecting the message to resume. She hoped for some news that would let her know she would be safe.

Riya tugged her sister’s hand.

“We have to go.”

“To the arena?” Bren said, still looking up and listening for the rest of the captain’s message.

Riya shook her head. “We’re not going to the central arena. We must keep moving.”

“I’m tired,” Bren said. She leaned against a med-bunk. “And I want a drink.”

Riya picked through some of the med-packs on the ground. She found a hydration pack and gave it to Bren.

“Suck on that,” Riya said.

Bren snatched the hydration pack.

“Oh great, water,” she said sarcastically. And just as she took a sip, a blast of pulse rifle fire smashed the door. The clear composite fell in chunks, tinkling over the deck.

Riya looked and saw a Marine in full tactical gear, armed with a pulse rifle. The Marine came stepping into the bay.

“A soldier,” Bren said. “He can take us to our father.”

Riya called out to the Marine who was walking into the dark facility.

“Marine. What’s going on out there?”

Just as Riya finished talking, the Marine swung up his rifle, aimed it at Riya, and fired.

Riya pulled Bren down behind a bunk as the pulse rounds smashed the cabinets above their heads. Fragments of cabinet rained down over them.

“Hold your fire,” Riya shouted. She heard her father’s voice in hers as she gave the confident command.

She looked up and saw the Marine walking toward them, glancing back over his shoulder.

“Help us find somewhere safe,” Riya said. She stood up and stepped in front of the fast-moving Marine.

“Out of my way, civilian,” the Marine said and pushed his way past Riya. In the darkness and with med-packs scattered over the ground, Riya lost her footing and fell backward. She landed on her sister, who cried out in anger more than pain.

“Hey. You,” Riya said, struggling to climb up. Then she heard the heavy footsteps in the corridor. The bay lit up as a stream of fierce white energy bullets slammed into the Marine, who was running away.

The Devex bullets flung the Marine forward. He dropped his pulse rifle as he fell.

The rifle skidded across the deck toward Riya. She looked at the familiar weapon. She had seen enough of them growing up but had never wanted to handle one. It was not her idea of fun.

She looked to the door as a Devex warrior smashed the remaining composite aside and stepped in. The Devex warrior walked forward cautiously, its blaster aimed at the fallen Marine.

The Marine rolled over on to his back, pulse pistol in hand. The Marine fired a well-aimed shot at the Devex warrior’s faceplate. The Devex’s head snapped back as the pulse rounds hit, but it still fired its blaster. A stream of energy bullets raked the prone Marine, the force pushing the Marine backward. His hands fell to his sides as the pulse pistol fell to the deck.

Riya looked at her sister and pressed her finger to her lips. Bren covered her mouth, tears streaming again. She sobbed silently, her hand stifling the sounds of her crying. Tears and snot ran over the back of her hand.

Riya looked underneath a bunk at the Devex warrior who was approaching cautiously, placing one foot slowly and carefully in front of the other.

Riya put her hand on the pulse rifle. It had fallen to point at the Devex. If she must, she would use the weapon and kill the Devex. She wasn’t going to let it capture her and her sister…although she was not sure if the pulse rifle would be any use against the Devex armor. The Marine’s pulse pistol rounds had done nothing.

The Devex came alongside where the girls were still hidden. Just as Riya thought it would fail to spot them, it turned its head in their direction.

Riya grabbed the pulse rifle and pointed it. She attempted to fire the weapon and shouted a guttural battle cry she had never heard come from herself before. Her sister also screamed fiercely.

The weapon did not fire.

The Devex reached down and grabbed the rifle barrel. Riya held on as it was tugged from her. She saw a button here, another button there. She pressed one hoping it was the firing mechanism. With a click, a telescopic sight popped up.

The Devex brought its hand back and made ready to deliver a stinging backhand blow to Riya’s face. Riya pressed another button. A pair of small support legs dropped from the front end of the rifle. The Devex warrior brought its hand down to strike Riya.

Riya frantically hit another button. A fine, fizzing blade leapt forward from the end of the rifle and traveled straight through the Devex armor. The Devex’s hand came around to deliver the blow but fell limp. The warrior toppled. Riya saw the electron blade sticking out the other side of the body.

She let go of the pulse rifle and let it fall with the Devex warrior.

“You hurt it?” Bren said in an accusatory tone.

Riya grabbed her sister. “Come on,” Riya said and rushed over to the fallen Marine.

“You killed it,” Bren said, looking back in shock at the fallen Devex warrior.

The Marine was motionless. Riya tried to remove the helmet but could not take it off.

“Is he okay?” Bren asked, standing behind Riya.

Riya grabbed the pulse pistol off the deck and ran deeper into the medical facility, toward the flickering light at the far end.

“Someone’s coming, Riya,” Bren said. “There, in the corridor. Is that another Devex?”

Riya turned and saw two Devex warriors standing in the medical facility doorway, silhouetted by the lights in the corridor outside.

A shimmering circular wave was growing out of a small device in one’s hand. Riya watched the wave and the colors shimmering as it grew in size and came ever closer. She raised the pulse pistol, her finger on the trigger. She fired. The pulse round struck the shimmering field, sending out a wave of colorful ripples.

The Devex stood still and watched.

The field crept forward. It was mesmerizing, patterns shimmering over its surface.

And then finally, the field came into contact with Riya. Even though it moved slowly, it hit like an iron meteor. The impact took her breath away. She felt its touch throughout her body. It was both hot and cold, both stinging and dull. Pain flooded over her. She fell to the ground, crumpled in a pitiful heap, shrinking away from pain that she could not escape. The last thing she heard was her sister’s agonized screams before everything went black.

6

Jack stood in front of Mallet, hands bound. His Marine shirt stripped of all rank and insignia. Special Agent Mallet sat behind a desk, two enforcers behind her.

She flicked through the holofile in front of her and then looked up at Jack.

“You stand accused of dereliction of duty, desertion, mutiny, piracy, and murder. With no further evidence forthcoming, it is my finding that you, Jack Forge, formerly of the Fleet Marines, are guilty on all charges.”

Mallet’s cold eyes fixed Jack.

“Do you have anything to say before I pass sentence?”

Jack felt any comment would be fruitless. There was no one to hear him speak and only Mallet’s recording would make it to any higher authority, if it even went beyond this room. And anything he did say would no doubt be twisted in the same manner that Mallet had twisted every action he had taken during his career.

Standing tall and proud, Jack shook his head.

“Jack Forge, you are guilty. Under the authority of the Fleet Intelligence Agency, you are sentenced to death by firing squad. Sentence to be carried out immediately. Take him away.”

Feeling his legs weaken under him was marginally more horrific than hearing the death sentence passed over him. With determination not to appear distressed and to maintain his dignity, Jack somehow managed to stay on his feet.

Death?

He had faced it on the battlefield too many times to recall.

“Permission to address the court?” Jack said, steadying himself as the enforcers gripped his arms, making ready to lead him away.

Mallet looked up as she closed the holofile. Jack detected a hint of a smile.

“Go ahead, Forge,” Mallet said with a dismissive wave.

“Permission to die in my Marine jacket displaying my Marine platinum star.”

The platinum star was the service’s highest gallantry award. Wearing the small star, Jack thought, would give him the courage he needed to endure the next few minutes.

Mallet stood up, looking directly at Jack with her cold eyes.

“Denied.”

And then she waved the enforcers away.

The corridors swirled as Jack struggled to make sense of all that had happened. Only a few hours ago, he was running through these corridors leading the defense of the Scorpio. He could have died then. He could have died a hundred times before. But here he was, being led to his execution.

The small hangar door was open. Inside, a line of eight black-clad Fleet Intelligence enforcers stood to attention. The two holding Jack led him to a chair in between the rows of Marine tac boats.

The enforcers pressed Jack into the chair. He didn’t want to sit. He had fought standing and was determined to die standing. But the enforcers pressed him down. Jack sat. He sat up straight, fists on his knees, sitting at attention.

Mallet stepped forward as one of the escort enforcers produced a thin, white blindfold. He moved it toward Jack’s face.

Jack turned his head, speaking as firmly as he could.

“No.”

Mallet waved the enforcers away. The pair stepped into the line with the other eight enforcers and swung up their pulse rifles.

“If you have any final words, now is the time,” Mallet said.

“I never wanted to be a Marine. But I always did my best.”

Mallet nodded, confirming the words would be recorded. Then she turned sharply about and marched over to stand at the side of the line of enforcers.

Jack looked around the hangar. This was where he had caught his first glimpse of a Fleet carrier. Standing with Sam Torent, they had looked through the small portholes in the hangar deck out at the massive ship.

He had stood here with his fellow Marines before boarding company transport boats and tac boats, ready to depart on one dangerous mission after another. Now he was to depart this ship for the last time, off on the last adventure.

Jack had been a raw recruit, a squad leader, company commander, and finally battalion major. Missions had begun and ended here on this hangar deck. Now here he was again. A condemned man. Alone. Lost.

The command deck of the Scepter was a buzz of activity. Captain Mashiro Tanaka sat in the command chair of the massive carrier, now the flagship of the fleet. Standing at the holostage, studying the latest reports, was Admiral Henson with General Wallace at his side.

Henson had chosen to be evacuated aboard the Scepter and felt lucky to be alive. The other fleet carrier had been lost in the first Devex attack. So many of the fleet’s upper echelon had been lost, but Admiral Henson had survived.

“Communication from Frigate O-3,” Captain Tanaka said. “Commander Levin for you, Admiral.”

“On the holostage,” Henson said.

The main holostage image showed the positions of all Fleet ships. They were still scattered over many hundreds of astro units, but the fleet was slowly regrouping. The image of Commander Levin appeared at the side of the holostage.

Levin had a look of sudden surprise to find he was addressing the fleet admiral.

“Admiral,” Leven said, giving his best salute and adjusting his crumpled and stained commander’s jacket.

“Report, Commander,” Henson said.

“We found the idents we were looking for, both on board a civilian transport.”

A cheer went up around the command deck. Henson leaned heavily on the side of the holostage, emotion welling up inside. He struggled to speak. Days of nervous searching were at an end. He had found his girls.

“Sir,” Levin went on nervously. “The transport…”

Henson looked up. “Spit it out, man.”

“We arrived in communication range during the final moments of an attack by a Devex warship. We saw the warship clamp and begin boarding. We withdrew to bring you the news. Sorry, sir. We couldn’t do anything to stop them.”

Henson turned and looked up to Tanaka in her command chair.

“Set course for the Devex warship and move in on that location immediately. Full speed, Captain. That is an order.”

Tanaka shifted uncomfortably. She had never refused an order before but moving in against a Devex warship was suicide. It would take the carrier battle group with a full complement of destroyers and support ships to take down the warship. And even then, there was no guarantee any of the passengers aboard the transport could be saved with a frontal assault.

Tanaka stepped down from her chair and walked over to Henson.

“Set a new heading for the Devex warship’s coordinates,” Tanaka said to her command deck officers as she stepped next to Henson. “A word, sir, in private if you please.”

Henson’s lips were pressed together so tight they were turning white.

“We are getting my daughters back, Captain,” Henson said.

Tanaka had always admired Henson. She had heard of his missions as a destroyer captain when she began her training. He was a Fleet academy legend, having destroyed an outer system pirate network terrorizing the asteroid mining ring. Henson was known as a ship’s captain who was a solid tactician and not afraid of getting his hands dirty. He had made rear admiral at the outbreak of the Chitin War and had quickly been offered the position of fleet admiral.

And Tanaka had come to know him well since the evacuation. The man always appeared so solid. He was tall and broad with a determined but honest face. She liked him, respected him, but she could not follow his order this time.

He had made one tough decision after another during the evacuation, but now there was a crack in his demeanor. Tanaka could only imagine the dread he was experiencing knowing the fate that awaited his girls.

Henson remained rooted to the spot. Tanaka looked up at the admiral.

“If we go into a full-frontal assault without proper planning, we are going to lose.” Adding a hasty, “Sir.”

“I will not sit by while those people are taken by the Devex for who knows what end. We will move in immediately. Give the order or I will remove you from command.”

“All we will succeed in doing is destroying the Scepter,” Tanaka said quietly. “Thousands of others throughout the fleet need our help. The people on that transport are already lost. Your daughters included. I’m sorry for your loss, Admiral. If I thought there was a chance, I would not hesitate, but we have never successfully engaged a Devex warship while it was in the process of capturing a civilian transport and had any result other than destroying both ships, not to mention the losses of many other ships engaged in the attack. No one has ever survived once a warship has clamped on.”

“That’s not entirely accurate, Captain,” General Wallace said. He tapped away at the holostage and zoomed in on a distant red dot representing the Scorpio.

“A Marine report filed a few days ago says a Marine team were able to infiltrate a Devex warship and destroy it, saving the civilian transport it was clamped onto.”

Henson looked over at Wallace.

“Where? Who?”

“A Marine aboard the Scorpio.” He zoomed in on the distant red dot. “The Scorpio was on a shepherd mission to bring back lost transports,” Wallace recounted from memory as he tapped away at the holostage controls to call up the after-action report.

The report appeared on the holostage. Wallace enlarged it for all to see and read the summary.

“Captain Pretorius engaged the Devex and thanks to a small group of Marines, they succeeded in saving a transport and many of its passengers.”

Henson looked at Tanaka, hope lighting up his face.

“I know Captain Pretorius, sir,” Tanaka said. She climbed back up to her command chair and tapped at her armrest controls to call up the latest reports from the Scorpio. “The Marine that led the infiltration was Major Jack Forge. He was left behind in the evacuation. He must have made his way back to the fleet on his own initiative.”

But Henson was no longer listening.

“Contact the Scorpio. Right now. Priority one communication. I want to see Jack Forge right away.”

Henson looked up at Tanaka.

“Communication sent, Sir.”

Henson turned to the holostage. The small red dot of the Scorpio represented his best chance of saving his girls. He would find them and bring them back safely, and he would never let them out of his sight again.

Jack felt his heart beating in his chest as the line of enforcers raised their rifles. Every heartbeat counted down to the end.

Mallet called out for the enforcers to take aim.

Jack took a breath, possibly his last. It seemed ironic that after all his troubles, he should come to his end at the hands of his own people and not some implacable alien enemy.

The Marine hangar door burst open and a squad of Marines came running in, some were wearing their tactical suits, some missing their helmets. Others were in fatigues or off-duty wear. All were armed. They rushed in and took position between the line of enforcers and Jack.

Jack turned to the doorway as more Marines rushed in. They were all taking a risk. The Fleet Intelligence Agency would deal with them all in time, and Jack had little hope that this display of loyalty to him would stave off his imminent execution for more than a few moments. It was just cruel to delay the inevitable.

Then Jack saw Pretorius march in. He walked over to Special Agent Mallet.

“Stand down,” Pretorius shouted.

“You have no authority here, Captain,” Mallet said.

“On my own ship?” Pretorius replied.

“I have requisitioned this deck for agency operations. Don’t let your affection for this criminal cloud your judgment. Now stand aside, Captain. I don’t need your permission to proceed with the execution and you can’t overturn my ruling.”

“The admiral of the fleet and the general can, Special Agent,” Pretorius said. “Major Forge is ordered to present himself before Admiral Henson and General Wallace aboard the Scepter immediately.”

Mallet let out a disbelieving half-laugh. Pretorius held out his arm and tapped his wrist device. The holofile with Fleet insignia from the office of the admiral flashed in front of Mallet.

“Admiral Henson and General Wallace have both authorized the immediate meeting. Intelligence Agency Chief Pound has been informed. So, stand down, Special Agent.”

The enforcers remained where they were, rifles aimed at Jack’s heart. The line of Marines brought up their weapons. Rifles and pistols aimed at the heads of the black-clad enforcers.

Mallet turned away from Pretorius and waved her hand downwards. She spoke softly.

“Lower your weapons. Enforcers stand down. Stand down.”

She turned back to Pretorius, but the captain had turned away and was walking toward Jack.

“Good to see you, Sir,” Jack said.

Pretorius reached out and pulled Jack to his feet.

Jack felt unsteady. Dizzy and disorientated. He suddenly felt unwell.

Pretorius led Jack away. “Better pull yourself together, Jack,” Pretorius said. “The admiral wants to talk to you right away.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you for coming for me, sir.”

Pretorius let out a sigh. “I had no idea, Jack. I had no idea she was going to try this. I would never have let it happen if I had known.”

“She hates me, sir. I can feel it. This is more than just my failings as a Marine.”

Pretorius stopped. He held Jack firm and looked into Jack’s eyes. “You have no failings, Jack. You hear me? You are a hero, son.” Pretorius carried on walking, bringing Jack with him to the hangar deck exit. “And we will find out what Mallet has against you and make sure she can’t try this sort of thing again. Maybe she will find herself before a tribunal before long.”

“Maybe,” Jack said, but he had no interest in the future of Special Agent Mallet. He was interested in what the admiral wanted to say to him, though.

“Any chance of a clean shirt before I meet the Admiral?” Jack said.

Pretorius nodded. “No time to get one from the Marine store. You can borrow Mr. Chou’s shirt. He won’t complain, as long as you give it back when you are done talking to the admiral.”

“Talking to the admiral,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Maybe I was executed and I’m now in some kind of cruel afterlife.”

Pretorius let Jack exit the hangar deck ahead of him.

“Whatever he wants, try not to involve me,” Pretorius said. “It is never good to have a meeting with the top man.”

“Whatever he wants, it can’t be worse than what I just went through,” Jack said. “At least, I hope not.”

7

Skirid had detected the first signs of growth a long time ago. Now the changes were becoming more rapid and pronounced. Her body was changing shape and color. She was looking more and more like her mother. She could feel the change in the instruction pheromones emanating from her, and knew what she was becoming. It excited her.

Her sister, Phisrid, had become more and more distant, hiding on the far side of the nest asteroid to avoid her sister as she changed.

Skirid knew she was developing rapidly and was on the verge of becoming a new swarm queen.

The latest victory had expanded her territory another square parsec. The enemy was destroyed and broken down into constituent matter by the builder caste even as the fighter caste swept on, pushing ever deeper into Devex territory.

And the further from her mother she went, the more she grew to resemble her as a powerful swarm queen in her own right.

The Skalidion Empire was expanding, and Skirid was at the vanguard of this region of space. She felt powerful. Unstoppable.

The builder caste were already swarming back into the nest asteroid after the latest attack. They were beginning to extrude substance around the hive, the pulped remains of Devex ships and Devex warriors. Every molecule slowly and inexorably added outer chambers to her nest asteroid. Soon she would spawn her own builder caste and would no longer require her mother’s support. Soldiers would follow, and new sub-queen daughters. And after that, further expansion. She would expand the Skalidion Empire and create a nation to rival her own mother’s.

The further she expanded her territory away from her mother’s, the more aggressive she became as her mother’s dominant pheromones became less powerful. Skirid was on the verge of becoming the Skalidion’s newest swarm queen, the outermost swarm queen of her mother’s vast territory. Only a few more square parsecs of space to conquer, to invade, and she would grow the final stage.

There had been years of slow progress when her mother first released the pair of sub-queens. Skirid and Phisrid had engaged the Devex in small battles only, at first. A ship here, a ship there. And although the Devex were a tenacious foe, the pair had battled them relentlessly and began to win greater victories.

The sub-queens had taken their first Devex planet only a few cycles ago. They had destroyed hundreds of thousands of Devex warriors. Her builders had consumed them and re-deposited their matter as chambers on the nest asteroid.

That was the last time Skirid had shared a chamber with her sister, and when Phisrid had started hiding on the far side of the nest.

But they still fought on together, drawing fighters from their mother’s brood, calling them in ever greater numbers. Millions of fighters, all obeying their commands. And the more they won, the more substance they gathered, the greater the nest asteroid, the greater the territory. And the faster Skirid grew.

She needed one more push, one more encounter, and she would be far enough away from her mother to become a swarm queen. The final pheromone release to spread back through her conquered territory to her swarm queen mother requesting a new swarm of fighters, one big push to finalize her expansion, to finally become her own queen.

And then the pheromones changed. It was the last time her mother would send support. Skirid had fully evolved.

“I am now swarm queen.”

Skirid felt the confidence rise. She looked through the dark compound eyes of the observer castes on the edge of her territory. A Devex-controlled planet ahead. A fleet of Devex warships hung in space, facing down the approaching swarm.

The warships fired their storm of white energy bullets, each fizzing bullet enough to destroy a Skalidion fighter as they swarmed across space, closing in on their target.

The Skalidion swarm erupted with fire as fighters burned away under the Devex assault. Builders swooped around the fighter swarm, rapidly devouring the destroyed fighters and carrying their matter back to the nest asteroid. Substance was the same whether it was Devex or Skalidion. It all added to her nest. Added to her power.

Skirid watched through her observer caste as the fighters moved into range. They fired their energy weapons into the Devex armada.

Energy shields flickered as the forward bulky warships took heavy fire. Then came the raiders and attack squadrons, fast and maneuverable, packing a powerful punch. They swept forward to engage the fighter swarm up close.

The Skalidions spread out into a vast, diffuse cloud. They fired indiscriminately at the oncoming Devex. Every Skalidion fighter engaged a Devex ship in single combat. The Devex held formation and moved through the swarm.

Heavy damage from the surrounding Skalidion fighters and Devex ships exploded only to be consumed by the builders that lurked in the fighter swarm.

The Devex squadrons pressed through.

Skirid watched the destruction. Her fighters were falling. The Devex were almost through. Then Skirid saw the danger. The Devex were not attempting to destroy her forward swarm. They were attempting to punch through and engage the nest asteroid itself.

The warships came slowly behind the wave of raiders, their streams of energy bullets ripping swaths through the swarm.

“All fighters to hostile region.” Skirid felt the chemical instructions flow from her. All her fighters on all fronts were drawn to her. The Devex armada was taking terrible damage, but they were enduring and pressing their counterattack on the nest asteroid.

Skirid knew she needed more fighters. More to overwhelm this counterattack. Her first thought was to emit the pheromones that would call for fighters from her mother’s central swarm. Destroy one more Devex world and she would have enough material to grow her nest to true swarm queen proportions. One more push into the dark Devex territory and she would finally achieve the next stage in her evolution.

But the pheromones would never reach her mother. She had grown. She was queen now. She was alone. She must win now or die. A short reign for the latest Skalidion swarm queen.

Even as she watched the Devex press through her attack swarm, she felt the swell of pride and self-belief. With no help from her mother, she was confirmed as swarm queen. She had done enough. She had traveled far enough. She was now the center of her own swarm.

The fighters from the edge of her territory came swooping in, coming to defend their queen. They fell on the Devex from all sides. The green bolts of fire streamed from the fighters and slammed into the Devex ships, smashing the lead raiders into burning wrecks. Then the builders swept in to consume the shells.

Now the first builders from the battle were arriving at the nest and laying down the pods for more fighters. Skirid’s first generation of fighters would be born within hours.

The Devex warships were closing in. Skirid looked on through the dark observer eyes. Only a few astro units and closing. The first warship came under fire as the swarm, defused by the raiders’ attack, began to reform. The green fire pulsed onto the massive warships, tiny pulses of fire that lit up the energy shields. The shields flickered, the disruption growing and sweeping around the Devex ships in waves.

Then the energy shield of the first Devex warship collapsed, blinking out in a flash.

The Skalidion fighters poured pulse after pulse of green fire onto the hull of the Devex ship. Even before the ship was overcome by fire, the builders moved in and gnawed away at the exposed hull, filling their material pouches with matter to transfer back to the nest.

Skirid watched as the first Devex ship exploded. A suicide attack that burned a massive central core from the massed Skalidion swarm.

The next ships moved in. The swarm coalesced around the first. The Skalidion’s green fire overwhelmed the shield. The Devex ship detonated, destroying another huge swath of the swarm.

Skirid knew she had the numbers. The last Devex ship would take most of her fighters, but she had the builders and they would soon construct the fighter pods, and she would spawn enough fighters to expand her juvenile nation on the edge of the empire.

“Mother, I am grown.” Skirid sent the pheromone signal back through the swarm to her mother’s nest asteroid, the vast, moon-sized center of the Skalidion Empire.

The Devex warship detonated. The swarm was consumed. Skirid sensed the surviving fighters swoop on to the Devex world, now completely at her mercy. Skirid signaled the builders to consume all matter and construct fighter pods.

Then Skirid detected the pheromone signal she had once known so well. Her sister, Phisrid, was near. Come to present herself before the queen, and to submit to her sister.

Phisrid was weak, Skirid had thought. She did not attack. She sat back as Skirid pressed forward. If only Phisrid had the determination of their mother, she could have become swarm queen.

“Sister,” Skirid said.

“You have won a great victory,” Phisrid replied.

“I am swarm queen,” Skirid said. “You will leave the nest or I will consume you.”

Phisrid moved closer to the central chamber, the one the sisters had once shared.

“You have won a great victory for me, sister.”

Skirid sensed the hostility in her sister. Then she sensed the strong pheromones of a swarm queen.

“But I took the ground,” Skirid said. She sensed the fear rise in her.

Phisrid stepped in to the central chamber of the nest. The sisters faced each other for the first time in a long time. Both had changed.

“You took the ground, but how will you hold it?” Phisrid said.

Skirid sensed the faint pheromones of a related fighter caste, and related builders. She sensed the observer caste. They were related but not hers to control. It was her sister’s primary brood.

Skirid had been used. Fear was forgotten under a wave of anger and hatred.

Leaping forward, her huge mandibles cracked together. She snapped at her sister’s neck. Phisrid slapped her sister’s attack aside. Skirid saw the spawn sack, full and purple, on her sister.

Then the fighters came rushing into the central chamber, clambering over their mother.

“You won’t fight me yourself, sister?” Skirid spat, counting the hundreds of fighters swarming into the central chamber. “You always were a coward.”

“No, sister,” Phisrid said, sending her fighters forward. “I was patient. You have taken the space we needed. Only one sub-queen will become swarm queen. Did you really think I was just going to let you win?”

Skirid bit out with her huge mandibles, slicing one fighter in two, then another. She fought as she backed out of the central chamber. Her remaining fighters swarmed in and engaged Phisrid’s brood. The fight gave Skirid time to withdraw. She crawled to the outer edge of the nest asteroid. She looked at the Devex planet. She had won it. This territory was hers.

Then Phisrid’s brood came, the blood of her remaining fighters on their mandibles. They moved in on the Skalidion who had been swarm queen for the briefest of moments. They hacked at her outer shell. Then the builders moved in, rushing inside.

Skirid watched the planet she had won as her body was consumed, knowing her matter would provide her sister with substance to expand even further.

As Skirid felt the builders attack her central nervous system, she had the final bitter, cruel thought that her sister had won. Her devious sister had won. She admitted to herself that Phisrid was more like their mother than she ever had been.

It was the bitterest defeat and her dying pheromone rush would let the local swarm know she had fallen and that Phisrid was swarm queen.

8

Jack stood before the admiral’s image on the holostage in the officer’s lounge on the Scorpio.

“You have been in a Devex ship, Major?” the admiral asked.

“Yes, sir. I was captured. I escaped.”

“No one has ever escaped a Devex warship before,” the admiral said.

“I had help, sir,” Jack said. He shifted nervously.

He had faced the firing squad and was still alive. He was more nervous now than he had been facing the line of enforcers ready to end his life.

“Can you do it again?” the admiral asked.

The thought of saying no meant Jack would surely be back on the Marine deck and in front of the squad. There was only one answer he could give.

“Yes, sir, with the right help.”

“This is not a mission to destroy the Devex,” the admiral said. “This is a rescue mission, you understand?”

Jack nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“We have the Devex ship under observation. You will have to move immediately. Are you ready to leave now, Major Forge?”

Jack was filled with pride to hear his title being given to him by the admiral. It gave his right to the rank legitimacy. He was back in the Fleet. He was back in the Marines. He was about to head off on a dangerous mission for which he was hugely unprepared. There was no time to plan. No time to think. He had to act and act fast.

Strangely, it felt good.

“I need my Marine colleague, Sam Torent, sir.”

The admiral turned to talk to someone outside the holoimage. He turned back to Jack.

“You can choose your own team, any ships or equipment you require, but I am informed Commander Sam Torent is no longer available for active duty. He is currently assisting the Intelligence Agency Sci Division.”

“Sir, it’s only thanks to Commander Torent that I was able to escape in the first place. He is able to interface with the Devex ships. Without him, I don’t think it’s possible.”

“You will go without Commander Torent or you will be returned to the custody of the Fleet Intelligence Agency, Major.”

The admiral sounded desperate.

Jack shook his head.

“Sam is here on board the Scorpio, Admiral. He is vital to this mission. Only he can get me inside the Devex warship.”

“If you complete this mission, I will exonerate you of all charges,” Henson said, “But if you refuse, I’ll make this very simple,” Admiral Henson said coldly. “You will find yourself before the enforcers before the end of this watch. Is that clear?”

“If I go without Sam, I’ll be dead anyway. Save us all a lot of time and effort and get it over with. I’ve been accused of terrible crimes I did not commit and found guilty. I can’t deny it in any more convincing terms. If you are going to kill me, do it here on the ship I love. Don’t send me to some Devex ship to get torn apart by their energy bullets, or worse still turned into one of their warriors. I’d rather die knowing who and what I am. I’m not dying as an unthinking, unfeeling Devex drone.”

The admiral pointed at Jack.

“Now you listen to me, Forge. You are under orders. You will go and you will rescue my daughters…”

The admiral fell silent.

“Daughters?” Jack said. “So, this is personal?” Now Jack understood. He had nothing but sympathy for the admiral. Now he could see the strain almost set to overwhelm the man.

“I’m sorry for your loss, sir,” Jack said. “But if your daughters have been taken, they are probably already Devex warriors. I’m not sure I can do anything for them.”

“You can try,” Henson shouted.

“Then give me Sam, and I’ll do more than try. I will succeed.”

Admiral Henson stepped aside and disappeared from the image. He returned a moment later.

“Sam Torent is being released now. All available mission information is being sent to the Scorpio. Find my girls. Bring them home. Please, Major, they’re all I’ve got left.”

9

Jack waited for Sam outside the workshop, flanked by two enforcers. As the enforcers wore no insignia or markings on their black tactical suits, Jack could not be sure if these two had been in the firing squad ready to execute him only a short time ago. But with only a handful of enforcers on board the Scorpio as Special Agent Mallet’s own force, it was likely that they were.

The workshop door opened, and Sam stepped out, an enforcer supporting the weakened commander.

Jack reached out to offer support. Sam shrugged off the enforcer angrily and stumbled toward Jack.

“You look awful,” Jack said, leading Sam along the corridor.

“Well, I feel just fine,” Sam said. He stumbled slightly.

An enforcer stepped up to help carry Sam.

“Get off me,” Sam said, lashing out with his left arm, his human arm.

“We have instructions,” the enforcer said, “to get Commander Torent to the Marine barracks quickly.”

Jack slung Sam’s Mech arm over his shoulder and took his friend’s weight.

“We know our duty. We’ll move as quickly as we can,” Jack said.

The enforcer shoved Jack and Sam forward.

It was a mistake.

Jack and Sam turned on the enforcer. Together, they had no fear of any enemy, not even one in a Fleet Intelligence tactical suit.

“Shove me one more time,” Jack said.

“And what?” the enforcer said, cutting Jack off mid-sentence.

“And I’ll request you for my infiltration team. You know where we’re going, right?”

The enforcer remained still. Jack couldn’t read any emotions from behind the helmet of the black-clad enforcer, but he suspected the threat of going on what was certain to be a suicide mission had shut the enforcer up.

“That’s what I thought,” Sam said.

Jack and Sam turned and headed off. The Marine barracks were a few dozen meters away on the deck below. Jack knew Sam needed some time to recover before they could head off on the mission.

“We’ll get you cleaned up,” Jack said.

“A few med-packs would be good too,” Sam said.

Jack felt his friend take more of his own weight. He was standing taller, stronger, recovering quickly.

“Are you up to this, Sam?” Jack said.

Sam took his arm off Jack’s shoulder and attempted to stand on his own.

“You know anyone else with an alien arm?” Sam said.

Suddenly, Sam toppled to the side. He reached out to the corridor walls and steadied himself. Jack reached out to help, but Sam shook his head slightly, showing Jack he was determined to stand on his own two feet.

“You will be no good to me if you collapse on this mission. I’ll find a way to get this done if you can’t manage it.”

“They told me you were going to be shot. They pulled and poked me, tried everything to get that arm to react. It was painful, Jack. I’d never known such pain. But when they said you were in front of a firing squad, that hurt the most, and they saw it. They used that to torment me, along with trying to pull the Mech arm off me.”

“They twisted everything,” Jack said. “Made me sound like a criminal. I don’t know what Mallet was trying to do.”

“She was trying to kill you. We must get these girls back or die trying. It’ll be death for us if we come back empty-handed.”

They took the stairs down to the Marine barracks. At the bottom of the stairs stood two more enforcers. They fell in step behind Jack and Sam and followed the pair to the shower block.

“No time,” an enforcer said, pushing Sam along toward the Marine store where they could collect their tactical suits and weapons.

Sam turned and faced the enforcer. He reached out with his Mech arm and grabbed the enforcer by the throat. Sam picked the enforcer up, his feet twitching.

“I’ve got time for a shower,” Sam said.

Jack felt the hairs stand up on his neck. He had seen Sam angry before, he’d faced Sam angry before, but nothing like the fury that boiled in Sam now.

Jack laid his hand on Sam’s wrist. The Mech tissue felt strange. Smooth, hard, cold. Synthetic yet alive.

“Put him down, Sam,” Jack said calmly.

Sam lowered the enforcer to the ground. He stepped into the shower block. Soon the sound of water came out followed by a billowing cloud of steam.

Jack felt the sweat and grime on his body. He felt like a shower would sooth more than a few aches as well as the traumatic memories of facing certain death. But soon Sam stepped out of the steam in just his shorts.

“Let’s get suited up, Jack,” Sam said.

The water ran off Sam’s body onto pools on the floor. Jack noticed the Mech arm was completely dry, as if incapable of becoming wet.

“Our ship is standing by,” Jack said. He walked along the corridor with Sam toward the Marine store.

Jack stripped down to his underwear and pulled on the tactical suit. He knew he would not be taking it off and he could use the tactical suit’s onboard systems to soothe his aches.

“Have we selected a Marine squad to come along for the trip?” Sam asked.

Jack grabbed a pulse pistol, checking the electron blade and pulse ammunition load before slapping it to the tactical suit’s hip holster.

“No. This is a stealth mission. Better we take care of it all ourselves.” Jack grabbed a helmet and held it under his arm. He looked at Sam.

“Always after the glory for yourself, aren’t you, Jack,” Sam said. He slung a pulse rifle over his shoulder and grabbed a pack of blast grenades.

“All I ever wanted was a quiet life,” Jack said. He pulled the helmet on. The enhanced data view powered up and showed him a data steam on his friend and Marine brother.

Sam was tired and bruised. The medical data suggested a stim shot and a painkiller. Jack used his command access to authorize the treatment, which Sam’s suit delivered. The reading came back instantly that Sam was in a better condition, but barely ready for active duty.

Sam smiled at Jack. “Better give yourself some meds too, Jack. You are probably not really fit for this mission yourself.”

Sam pulled his helmet on.

Jack checked his own data. The onboard medical device told Jack he was suffering from stress. Jack felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. There was no treatment for stress in the suit’s medical pack, at least nothing that wouldn’t reduce his combat effectiveness. There was no way he was heading into hostile enemy territory under the influence of a sedative.

“Ready?” Jack asked.

“Ready,” Sam replied.

The pair marched off toward the Marine deck and their waiting craft.

The corridor from the barracks led to one of the entrances to the Marine hangar deck, which opened around the pair. The Marine tac boats and company transports were lined up at one side, while sitting in front of the outer hangar doors was the Devex raider that had been captured during the raid on the Scorpio.

Jack inspected the repairs to the outer hull where he had cut his way in with his electron blade. The hull appeared to be intact again.

Standing in front of the boarding ramp was Captain Pretorius. Next to him was a holoimage of the admiral aboard the Scepter.

“Good luck, Jack,” Pretorius said. “You got everything you need?”

Jack nodded. He patted the pulse pistol on his hip and then patted Sam on the shoulder. He turned to look at the admiral.

Henson was standing proud and apparently emotionless, but Jack knew he must have been extremely anxious.

“Good luck, Major,” the admiral said. “Bring my daughters back.”

Jack nodded. “We’ll do our best, sir.”

Sam gave a short nod to the captain and then to the admiral before marching up the boarding ramp.

“If you need any assistance, you have a channel direct to my command chair,” Pretorius said. “I’ll be on the command deck for the duration of your mission. Copy?”

Jack nodded. “Copy that, sir.” He felt a wave of relief knowing that Pretorius had his back. He knew there was nothing that his mentor could realistically do, but it was good to know there were people on his side.

Pretorius held out his hand.

Jack took the captain’s hand in a friendly and respectful shake. Then he walked briskly up the boarding ramp into the Devex ship.

He closed the ramp behind him and looked over to Sam at the flight controls.

“Do you remember how to fly one of these?” Jack asked.

“No, but my arm does.” Sam removed the tactical suit gauntlet and touched his Mech hand to the controls. The hand unraveled into a thousand fine strands. They found their way past the control panel cover and into the systems beneath.

Jack felt the power systems come alive.

“Okay, where do you want to go?” Sam asked.

“Straight to the Devex warship, Sam.”

Sam turned around and looked at Jack as he walked up to the flight controls, dropping into the copilot seat. Jack looked at the holoimage of the raider leaving the hangar on his wrist-mounted holostage.

“You really want to go on a suicide mission? After all they did to me, and to you, you really want to help them? We’ve got a ship and we are free. Let’s get out of here.”

Jack felt his smile drop as he detected the tone in Sam’s voice. He was genuinely ready to abandon his mission, the fleet, and the two Henson girls.

“We have our duty, Sam,” Jack said.

“After all they did to us?” Sam protested.

“Even then.” Jack leaned back in the seat. It was huge, designed for the three-meter-tall Devex warriors Jack had first encountered. “It was Fleet Intelligence that did this to us. Not Captain Pretorius, or Admiral Hensen, and certainly not his daughters.”

The forward view screen activated, showing nothing but black space beyond.

“Get us to the Devex ship, Sam. Let’s finish this mission before we think about running out on the fleet.”

“You always were too good for your own good, Jack,” Sam said.

“It’ll be the death of me for sure,” Jack said. He pointed forward. “Let’s get on with this.”

The raider jumped to maximum velocity and raced away from the Scorpio, out into the dark empty space and toward the warship that had captured the admiral’s daughters.

10

Riya and Bren woke in each other’s arms. They were cold, stripped to their underwear. They were lost in the dark. But they were not alone. Voices cried out all around, shrieking or whimpering in fear and distress.

“Bren,” Riya said. “You okay?” Riya squinted in the darkness, trying to make out her sister, who was sitting right alongside her.

A sudden burst of light lit up the pair of sisters and they could see each other, half in light, half in shadow, the harsh white on one side and deep dark on the other.

Bren had tears running down her cheeks. She was shivering but clamped her lips together with a fierce determination not to appear afraid. The strength of will from her sister gave Riya strength to deal with this situation, lost in the dark, surrounded by the cries of terrified people.

Riya looked to the distant light. A beam lanced down into the wide, dark space. In the beam of light, Riya could see dark shapes. She realized with horror that the shapes were people, tumbling up toward the source of the light.

The light blinked out and all was returned to darkness. Riya looked at her sister. She could make her out now in the faintest of dull lights that filled the huge space.

“What is that?” Bren asked. Her voice quivered in fear but held firm.

“I don’t know,” Riya said. She was at a complete loss, she didn’t know what to do, but she had a pretty good idea where she was: aboard the Devex ship.

“There were people in the light,” Bren said, sniffing and wiping away her tears.

Another light blinked on. Both girls looked, instinctively drawn to look. This time, the light that struck down from the darkness was much closer. Riya and Bren gripped each other tightly as they saw for certain that people were being pulled up into the light.

“What is it?” Bren said again, anger edging her voice and banishing fear.

Riya could not answer. She grabbed her sister’s forearms and looked her in the eye. “We stick together, no matter what. Okay?”

Bren nodded. Her lip quivered.

“You stay with me. Okay?” Riya said again, laying her hand gently on Bren’s cheek.

“I think we should get out of here,” Bren said with a surprisingly steady voice.

At that moment, a wailing man came running toward them out of the dark. He crashed into the girls sitting on the floor and went tumbling forward. He hit the ground hard.

Riya and Bren reached out to help the man, to comfort and support him, but he clambered back to his feet and ran off again, still wailing in terror, hardly noticing the girls he had tripped over. He soon fell again, tripping over a sleeping person.

“What’s his problem?” Bren said. She stood up.

“He’s lost it,” Riya said.

Another light came on. Riya looked and saw that more people were being pulled upwards.

“Maybe that’s the way out,” Bren said.

The light blinked off.

“I think we’ll find our own way out,” Riya said. She took a step, looking around her. “There must be a door. An exit. We should find the edge.”

She turned around to call Bren to her and reached out.

A beam of light fell over her. Bren was standing in the dark beyond. She screamed as her sister was caught in the light. She rushed forward and jumped up after her.

Riya reached down to grab Bren, but the edge of the light was solid, impenetrable. Bren bounced off the wall, and Riya felt herself rise faster, up toward the bright point above. She felt fear well up inside. She didn’t know what was going to become of her, but she didn’t think it would be good.

The raider came within visual range of the warship, which was still clamped onto the civilian transport. The puncture arms were thrust through the outer hull along the bow of the ship, the arms giving access for the Devex warriors to storm aboard the transport and capture civilians, to take them into the factory where they would all be transformed into Devex warriors.

Jack had nearly become one himself. He had seen thousands of civilians encased in the dull grey exo-armor of the Devex and then march mechanically to some huge matter transport device. Where the warriors went was still unknown to Jack, but the Devex clearly needed a huge and constant supply of fresh soldiers. They were creating an army greater than any Jack had ever known.

The forward view screen showed a launch tunnel in the side of the Devex warship. Jack climbed out of his seat and walked to the exit.

“Take us inside, Sam,” he said. His hand went to his pulse pistol on his hip, but he realized his mission would be over pretty quickly if he went in shooting. They had escaped a Devex warship before by sneaking and hiding. He had no reason to think it wouldn’t work again. He hoped it would work again.

“Moving inside now,” Sam said.

Jack stood ready.

The raider touched down in a Devex flight hangar with a light thump. Jack held back in the shadows as the boarding ramp was lowered. Outside the raider, he saw ranks of hundreds of Devex warriors all standing in formation.

Jack crept forward to get a better look.

The huge space was identical to the one Jack had escaped from. It seemed the Devex had constructed all their ships to the same design. He had no doubt that the process here would be the same as he had witnessed before.

The civilians aboard the transport would be taken to a warrior creation apparatus where they would be transformed into Devex warriors. These ranks in the assembly area ahead of him were the civilians from the transport below.

Somewhere among these civilians were the admiral’s daughters.

The ranks of Devex took a step forward. At the far end of the space was the matter transport device. The warriors stepped on to the platform and were whisked away.

Sam came up behind Jack.

“They’re probably already gone,” Sam said. “This is a fool’s errand, Jack. We should go.”

Jack held up his hand and tapped the wrist-mounted holodisplay. A rough map of the Devex ship’s interior was displayed as a series of green lines. He called up a data feed from the Henson girls’ idents.

Two small dots appeared.

“They’re here,” Jack said.

One of the dots was on the same level as Jack and Sam, behind the tall bulkhead at the back of the huge assembly area—the place where Devex warriors were created. The other signal was several meters below, presumably in the dark holding area that Jack remembered being held in.

Then the one dot behind the bulkhead moved.

“She’s coming toward us,” Sam said. “All we have to do is wait and we can let them come to us.”

Jack looked to the direction where the girl’s signal was coming from. One of the dark ovals at the end of the assembly area opened and out stepped a Devex warrior, newly created and armed for war.

Jack zoomed in on his holodisplay. The figure walking out of the hatch and joining the Devex ranks was Riya Henson. Or at least, she used to be Riya Henson—now she was Devex.

“That’s her,” Jack said. He dropped his hand and looked at the freshly-armored warrior as she stepped into formation with the thousands of others.

Then the formation took another step forward. The front rank stepped up onto the matter transport device and vanished. Deployed.

“I’ll go and grab her,” Sam said.

Jack gripped Sam’s shoulder, stopping him. He pointed to the three-meter tall Devex warriors that walked between the rows and columns of new Devex, guarding the new warriors.

“Too dangerous, Sam. If those Devex see us, we’ll be finished. We need to find a way to snatch her without drawing any attention to ourselves.”

Jack and Sam looked toward the assembly area. It had towering sides over a hundred meters tall. At intervals, there were small recesses, some were lit.

“There must be a central command somewhere on this ship,” Jack said, looking up at the high wall across the assembly area. “These new Devex are all operating like robots. They must be controlled from somewhere. Do you think we could send the Henson girls to the raider?”

Sam shrugged. “I can try. Do you think you can get me to the central command?”

Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “Stick with me. Ready?”

Sam got ready to move. “Just one thing,” Sam said. “Didn’t the admiral say he wanted his daughter back? What is he going to think about us handing over a Devex warrior to him?”

“We’ll deal with that later, if we get out of this alive. Ready to move?”

Sam nodded.

Jack moved down the boarding ramp and onto the assembly area deck. He saw the Devex-clad Henson girl step forward with the massed formation. There were so many others here too. He had been ordered to rescue two people but felt his duty to all those who had been captured.

Jack moved to the nearest wall just behind the Devex raider. The wall was vertical. Jack reset his suit’s local gravity field and let himself rise slowly up the side of the wall to a light high above.

The sight of so many Devex below was impressive. Thousands of warriors stepping forward at intervals in perfect synchronization. More Devex joined through the oval hatches at the rear of the assembly area, the front rank of warriors stepping on to the matter transport to be sent away as freshly-created warriors joined at the rear.

Jack reached the lower edge of the opening and slowed his ascent. Sending a micro drone ahead, he projected the drone’s field of view onto his helmet’s enhanced data view.

Through the opening and behind the assembly area side wall, there was a long corridor that appeared to run the length of the massive warship. The forward end was nearby, just above the matter transport device below. The other end was hidden in the far distance, but it appeared perfectly straight and unbroken.

There were no Devex in the corridor, so Jack pulled himself up and inside. He crouched at one side of the corridor and sent the micro drone ahead of him.

Jack’s micro drone raced away in one direction. Sam, at his side, sent one of his own to travel the other direction, toward the near end. The micro drones sent back their data and soon the structure of the ship at this level was revealed. The corridor led to a wide space above the matter transport filled with equipment, part of the matter transport device. The rear led to another space on one side of the corridor where a small group of Devex stood before control consoles.

Sam sent a silent message to Jack.

“The command center?”

Jack shrugged. He returned the silent message.

“If you can tap into one of those consoles, we might find out. Move.”

He looked over his shoulder as he advanced along the corridor, staying low and moving fast.

“I’d love to get a look at that matter transport device,” Jack said. But knowing where his duty lay, he moved off in the opposite direction toward what he hoped was the small command center.

Reaching the open entrance, Jack slowed and finally stopped. Sam fell in behind him. The drone went in low and slow, relaying the positions of the Devex in the room back to Jack and Sam.

The room was a few meters square with six of the three-meter-tall Devex, one at each console. They appeared focused on their tasks.

Jack turned to Sam.

“We need to do this fast.”

Sam nodded.

“Try not to hit the consoles. Ready?”

Sam nodded.

Jack pulled up his pulse pistol and activated the electron blade.

Sam swung up his rifle. The fizzing blade leapt up from the muzzle.

Jack nodded. It was the signal to move.

Entering side by side, Jack and Sam engaged the nearest pair of Devex. They both fell to swift thrusts from the electron blades.

Jack leapt toward the next, his suit’s thrusters throwing him fast. He barreled into the Devex who was just alerted to the sudden appearance of the two attackers. Jack led with his blade and thrust it through the Devex warrior’s exo-armor. They both fell to the deck.

Sam was standing over his second victim when Jack looked up to see the last two Devex fully alert to the attack. One was reaching for a weapon, the massive Devex rapid-fire blaster, powerful but difficult to use in a tight space. The last Devex was rushing to a console embedded in the far wall.

Jack sensed the danger. He could not let the Devex raise the alarm. He leapt forward and headed toward the Devex about to sound the alarm. He flew past the other who was raising his blaster.

A stream of white energy bullets fizzed through the air around Jack as he closed in on his target. The bullets stopped abruptly as Sam thrust his pulse rifle’s electron blade through the Devex, the white blade erupting from the warrior’s huge chest.

Jack closed in a moment before the Devex could reach the wall-mounted console. The Devex, with its hand outstretched, was marginally too slow. Jack brought his blade around in a wide slicing arc across its back. The blade cut from the right shoulder to the left hip.

The Devex flinched, twisting against the cut. It crumpled to the deck, still reaching toward the console in the wall. Jack gripped the Devex around the helmet and forced the warrior to the deck. The Devex struggled weakly until he stopped all movement with a final thrust from Jack’s electron blade.

Standing up and checking the room, Jack counted six dead Devex and an empty room with six tower consoles standing in two lines of three.

Sam was already at one of the consoles. He unclipped his righthand gauntlet and pulled it away from the tactical suit. Sam’s Mech hand moved over one of the consoles. He looked over at Jack.

“Environmental controls,” Sam said. He moved to another. Sam’s hand unraveled and threaded inside. “This one is waste management.” Sam went to the next. “Energy transfer.” Sam covered all the consoles. He stopped and looked at Jack. “They are all secondary systems. Nothing here to do with the Devex manufacture system. No way to access the movement of the new warriors.”

Jack thought for a moment. “Can you find out where the central command is?”

Sam went to the energy transfer system again, threading his Mech hand through the console.

“There is a power hub, I think it’s the main drive. Maybe we could power that down.”

Jack shook his head. “They will know something is wrong if we do that. What about communications? That must be how they get the new Devex to move onto the matter transfer device. Maybe we can hack that?”

Sam threaded through the Devex systems. He sensed so much through his Mech hand without even knowing how he was doing it. He found something of interest.

“Here. Communication subcommand.” Sam looked at Jack. “I’m transferring a map to my holostage.”

Jack watched Sam for a few moments. Sam finally pulled away from the console. He held up his wrist and activated the holostage.

A detailed map of the Devex ship appeared in a projection in front of Sam, several meters across and a meter deep. It was the most detailed view of a Devex warship ever captured. Jack knew that this intelligence alone was worth the mission. Now if only he could get it back to the fleet, it could help fight off future Devex attacks.

Realizing he had been momentarily distracted by this new information, Jack snapped back to focus.

“Show me the Henson idents.”

The two idents appeared as red dots on the detailed 3-D map. One was still far below Jack and Sam’s current location, while the other was still in the massed formation of Devex warriors. She had moved forward, closer to the matter transport device. She was getting closer all the time.

“We need to move fast,” Jack said. “Show us a route to the communications subcommand.”

The route lit up. The long corridors alongside the warship went past one massive assembly area after another. The Devex were sending hundreds of warriors to some unknown location.

A kilometer back along the high corridor lay the communication subcommand. It would take Jack and Sam past several other subcommand rooms.

The location of all Devex on board were on the map. Apart from the small groups in the subcommand rooms, the only significant number of Devex were in the lower decks, nearest the puncture arms that cut into the civilian transport below. The Devex at those locations were busy moving back and forth, bringing the captive civilians to be converted into soldiers.

Up here, at the very upper deck of the massive ship, there were relatively few Devex and all seemed occupied with the upright consoles in the subcommand rooms.

“We need to be careful,” Jack said.

Sam nodded. He slung his pulse rifle over his shoulder.

Jack slapped the pulse pistol onto his hip holster then moved back into the corridor at the side of the secondary systems subcommand room. He looked along the seemingly unending corridor and set off at pace, his suit’s local gravity field and thrusters propelling him along.

Pretorius reached down from the command chair as Commander Chou handed him a small data file.

“Is that everything you could find?”

Chou nodded and then continued with his duty.

Pretorius loaded the chip into a private device. The files were all marked with the Fleet Intelligence Agency seal. Pretorius flicked through them, running through the service history of Special Agent Mallet.

And then he found it.

Her parents.

Although all agents were surrendered to the agency before adolescence, a record of the parents was available for the agents to see after their retirement. Agents were not permitted familial or personal relationships during their time of service. Many never even contacted their parents following retirement. But Mallet had met with her father on several occasions, in breach of the law.

Mallet’s father was Harry Stone, a fleet chief, last seen aboard Frigate M-9.

One conclusion was clear. Mallet was interested in Jack simply for revenge for her father’s death.

Pretorius slipped the chip back out of the device and into his jacket pocket.

This information would be useful the next time Mallet tried pursuing Jack Forge.

Moving along the corridor, Jack passed several subcommand rooms, streaking past the open doorways in the blink of an eye. Every time he approached one, he had the sure feeling a Devex would spot him or step out for some reason and collide with him. But he moved at such speed, he was gone before the doubt could grow. His suit slowed him down just before he reached the target: the communications subcommand room.

Jack crouched in cover, Sam at his side.

“Go,” Jack said and threw himself into the attack.

Jack took down a Devex with a swipe of his blade. He fired a volley of pulse rounds, knocking his second target over before he landed on top of the Devex and drove the electron blade deep into the chest armor.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Sam dispatch one Devex and then another. As Jack was moving toward his final target, he saw the remaining Devex reach a wall-mounted console. The Devex hit the panel with a flat palm and turned to face Sam.

Jack slashed with his blade as he moved in on his last target. The Devex was ready for him and braced for the impact, standing in an unarmed combat stance.

The Devex fended off Jack’s initial attack. The huge warrior swept Jack’s electron blade aside with a swing of his arm.

Then Jack felt the heavy blow as the huge Devex warrior landed a punch to the side of his head.

The onboard medical readout showed he had received a blow of force normally associated with a crash-landing impact. The onboard systems cushioned the blow but some of the impact made it through. He was knocked aside, dizzy.

Jack fell to his knees, one hand on the deck. His pulse pistol was still in his hand, blade fizzing and ready for work. Jack began to bring his blade around in an arc, targeting the Devex’s shin.

A second heavy blow landed on Jack’s helmet, knocking him fully to the ground. The med-pack began to treat a minor concussion, and then another blow hit home.

Jack was face-down on the deck, a three-meter-tall Devex standing over him, punching down on the back of his helmet. He picked his moment and rolled aside, the fist slamming into the deck. The warrior turned to face Jack, now lying face-up a meter to the Devex’s left.

Jack wheeled his legs around and flipped himself up onto his feet. He spun and delivered a heavy blow to the Devex warrior. The blow, assisted by his suit’s wrist thruster, landed on his opponent’s central mass. The blow hardly made a dent.

The huge warrior grabbed Jack around the throat and lifted him off his feet. With a fist drawn back and aimed directly at his faceplate, Jack braced to take a heavy punch. He kicked out at the Devex, then raised both feet and planted them against the warrior’s chest, Jack’s hands holding onto the wrists of the hands at his throat.

Then the Devex went limp, and Jack was released. He fell to the deck and saw the long electron blade from Sam’s pulse rifle erupt out the front of the Devex exo-armor.

Jack stepped away from the fallen warrior and collected his pulse pistol from the deck.

“Get on that console, Sam,” Jack said. “I think they hit the alarm over there. We’re going to get company.”

Jack released a series of micro drones that flew off in all directions, searching for the Devex warriors he felt sure were on their way. The micro drones would give him advanced warning of their approach, and from which direction they were coming. He hoped it would help.

“I’m in,” Sam said. “Communications systems. It is a kravin mess, Jack. I’m surprised they get any communications going.”

Jack checked the opening to the subcommand room. All was quiet, for now.

“Okay, got something here,” Sam said. “A central communication system for all Devex warriors. It’s covering all the newly-equipped warriors. They are all being directed toward one point, then they are gone.”

“It’s sending them to the matter transport. Can you see where they are going?”

Sam shook his head. “That’s controlled from another subcommand. I can try and locate it.”

“No,” Jack said, realizing it was a distraction from the mission. “Just isolate the Henson girl in the massed formation. Can you stop her?”

“I can’t see who she is from here. They are all on a single protocol. They move as one.”

Jack checked Riya Henson’s ident location on his wrist-mounted holostage. She was nearing the front of the Devex formation, about to be transported away to some unknown location.

“Just shut it all down,” Jack said. “Stop them all moving. Can you do that?”

“Done,” Sam said. He turned to look at Jack. “They will throw everything at us now.”

Jack received an alert from one of the micro drones. A number of warriors were heading up from the attack on the civilian transport ship clamped below.

“They’re on their way.” Jack unclipped a blast grenade and set it on the communication console.

Sam did the same.

“High-yield blast, Sam,” Jack said and turned the detonator control.

The pair looked at each other and released their grip. The arming lever flicked away from the grenade.

They ran.

Turning the corner into the corridor, Jack launched himself forward, his suit’s gravity field and thrusters throwing him away from the room. The blast from the two grenades roared along the corridor behind them, the fireball licking at their feet as they moved back to the first assembly area. With the fireball dying away, the pair reached the end of the corridor.

The opening in the corridor looking down on the vast assembly area was just as they had left it, but below, the Devex were statues. The guards marching up and down the lines appeared to be aware of a problem but were unable to fix it.

And out of the dark ovals came more and more Devex. They formed up, but with the formation no longer moving forward, they began to clump in disorderly patterns.

Jack looked at his wrist-mounted holostage, holding the image up against the formation below. He identified the location of Riya Henson in the front rank of the formation.

“We need to secure her first,” Jack said.

Sam nodded and pointed at the Devex guards.

“We deal with them once we take control of the Henson girl,” Jack said. “Then we find a way down to the second Henson girl. I suspect she is in the dark holding area awaiting transformation. Are you listening to me?” Jack said, noticing Sam’s attention was elsewhere.

“Look,” Sam said. He pointed down into the formation. The tall Devex guards were moving off toward a side exit. The lines of Devex raiders were powering up and launching through the tubes, including the one Jack and Sam had used to make their landing.

“There goes our escape,” Sam said.

“Where are they going? Are they abandoning the ship?” Jack couldn’t understand why the Devex were launching their raiders. Maybe the admiral had gotten impatient and was moving in to attack. All Jack could do was guess. It would be better to act.

“Let’s get the Henson girls and then find a way out of here,” Jack said, getting ready to move.

Sam climbed up onto the opening alongside the corridor, one leg over the side wall, a hundred meters above the assembly area below.

Jack followed him up then dropped. He activated his suit’s local gravity field and moved in a smooth arc toward the front of the formation and Riya Henson, Sam right behind him.

Jack landed. A few meters behind him, the matter transport pad was whirring, a bright light emanating from above and below, awaiting its next set of passengers. Jack wondered what he would find on the other side. He was tempted to take those few steps and have himself transported away, to some other system, possibly the other side of the galaxy, or some other galaxy all together.

But curiosity could wait. He grabbed Riya Henson by the shoulders. He looked into the Devex faceplate, dull gray with a dark slit at eye level.

Jack spoke to the faceplate, not knowing if Riya could hear him or not.

“I’m here for you,” Jack said. “Your father sent me. We need to find your sister and then we’ll find a way out of here.”

11

Long-range sensors and an extended surveillance drone network gave Henson a view of the distant Devex warship where his daughters were. He watched the indistinct image on the Scepter’s command deck holostage, waiting, hoping.

Then the sensors displayed a new signal. Something was moving in toward the Devex warship, and it was moving fast.

“Narrow the field and get a look at that mass,” Henson said, pointing at the indistinct shape moving in from several parsecs away.

The holoimage resolved and showed a large teardrop shape moving in toward the Devex warship, rounded end first.

Henson knew what it was.

“Get in closer,” Henson shouted, looking around the carrier command deck for someone to blame.

“We know what it is, Admiral,” Captain Tanaka said. “It’s a Skalidion swarm.”

“Deploy the fleet, Captain,” Henson said. “Move in now.”

Tanaka shook her head. “Sir, that would be suicide. I won’t send my carrier into certain destruction. The fleet is relying on us.”

“Then we go in en mass. Summon all destroyers. The Scorpio, the Aquarius. Everything.”

“We can’t fight off the Skalidions, sir.”

“But they will destroy that Devex ship.”

“Better them than us,” Tanaka said.

Henson thought of his girls on that Devex ship. He had hoped the Marine could have saved them, but he had to admit that those Marines were probably already dead. It was hopeless. He turned and walked away from the holostage.

“We can wait for Major Forge to report in, but if that Skalidion swarm heads this way, we will have to order all fleet ships to fall back to secondary rendezvous coordinates.”

Henson nodded. He walked toward the command deck exit. He knew he had let his personal feelings come before the safety of the fleet.

“I’ll be in my quarters,” Henson said and left.

Tanaka waited for the admiral to leave and then initiated a holocall to the Scorpio.

“Tanaka,” Pretorius said, looking out from the holostage.

“You have seen the readings?” Tanaka said.

Pretorius nodded.

“Skalidions. They will tear the Devex ship and the civilian transport apart.”

“Any word from your Marines?” Tanaka asked without hope. “The admiral would like some good news.”

Pretorius shook his head. “I’ve sent a drone to transfer comms to the major. I’m waiting for it to get into position. I’ll contact you the moment I hear anything.”

Tanaka tapped her armrest controls and pulled up an image of the civilian fleet. Although still spread out, all ships were coming together. Hundreds of ships all under the protection of a few Fleet vessels—three destroyers, one carrier, and scores of assorted frigates, corvettes, and several hundred Blades.

“I’m waiting for the fleet to form up and keeping a close eye on that swarm. We must keep out of its way. Copy?”

Pretorius nodded. “You can count on the Scorpio.”

Tanaka closed the channel. She focused on the distant image of the Devex warship. She pressed her thumb under her finger until it went white.

“Come on, Major Forge,” she said under her breath. “Come on.”

Jack looked at Sam and then back to Riya, clad in the Devex exo-armor.

“We need to move her,” Jack said. “Then we find her sister.”

Sam pushed Jack aside.

“Let me try something.” Sam placed his hand on Riya’s shoulder, the Mech tissue unraveling into thousands of fine threads.

“Won’t that hurt her?” Jack asked, remembering the times Sam had dropped Devex warriors in this manner.

“I’ll try not to. I might be able to bring her around.”

Suddenly, Riya moved. She turned her head and looked at Jack. She staggered out of the formation, looking left and right, taking in the sight of hundreds of Devex warriors.

She let out a frightened gasp and then a whimper. She held up her hands in front of her face.

“What’s happened?” She staggered back for a moment before moving toward the matter transport pad.

Jack reached out and grabbed one of her arms. She pulled away.

“Where am I? What is this stuff? Take it off. Take it all off.”

“It’s okay,” Jack said, reaching out for her again to stop her from stumbling onto the transport pad. “I’m Jack Forge. We’re Marines. Your father sent me. We need to go.”

Riya grabbed the helmet and pulled. She yelled and grunted. The helmet stayed in place.

“What’s happening to me? What’ going on?”

“You have been put in a suit of Devex exo-armor,” Jack said as calmly as he could. He took hold of Riya’s arm and pulled her away from the pad behind that would whisk her away, possibly forever.

“A what? I’m a what?”

“The Devex, they convert their captives into new warriors.”

“Why?” Riya said, her voice rising to a shout.

“We don’t know why,” Jack said calmly. “They need an army is my guess. But you are safe now. Come with us. We need to go.”

“Get this stuff off me,” she said.

“We will, later. Not now. We have to go.”

Jack received a message alert from his suit’s communicator. Text only. It must have come from a great distance on a narrow band. Jack opened the message. It was from Captain Pretorius.

‘Jack. Skalidions. Hurry.’

“We have to go. Now!” Jack said urgently. He picked up the Devex rapid-fire blaster off the deck where Riya had dropped it. He pressed it to her.

“Miss, you might be glad you brought this along.”

“Where are we going?” Riya said, taking hold of the huge blaster. She held it comfortably. Somehow, she knew exactly how to work it.

Jack checked his holostage and searched for the ident signal from Bren Henson. It was still below their current position. He pointed to the rear of the assembly area and the dark ovals where new Devex were emerging every few seconds, cluttering up the rear of the formation.

“Through there. It’s the quickest way to get to your sister. Let’s move.”

“I’ll take point,” Sam said and moved into the lines of Devex warriors, all inert, switched off.

Jack pulled Riya with him. “Stay with me,” he encouraged, looking into the dark faceplate. He had no idea who Riya Henson was, or what she looked like, but he knew he was here to save her. He had at least found her.

12

Phisrid watched the swarm advance on the Devex warship through the observer caste mixed into the swarm. With her sister dead, she was able to easily dominate the remaining fighters and builders. She launched them in her first attack as swarm queen, and they raced toward the Devex warship.

The Devex had held the boundaries of their territory for years, and Skirid had thrown everything into breaking them. She had been too aggressive and used up all her reserves and all that their mother would send. But their territory had become too big and too distant from their mother’s nest. No more support would be sent.

The Devex had rallied recently, having found a fresh supply of warriors from somewhere. Just when Phisrid had thought they were broken, she’d noticed a sudden increase in their numbers. Not the tall warriors she had been observing for so long, but newer, smaller warriors.

But they were just as docile as the Devex that came before, stupider even, but powerfully equipped with the Devex rapid-fire blaster that could tear a fighter apart with a single spread of the fierce white energy bullets.

And so Phisrid had held back her fighters, sent in more observer caste. She watched her sister expend all her resources until she was spent.

Phisrid had been as cunning as her mother, and when her sister became weak, she moved in with all the ruthlessness she had inherited.

Skirid was dead, her husk now a pod for the next generation of fighters. Phisrid’s first fighters would grow on the corpse of her sister.

Her first attack was with her sister’s final reserves. Her first attack was on a Devex warship, clamped to another ship. One Phisrid did not recognize.

She did not need to know what this new ship was. She just needed to know her builders would enjoy the taste and that they would devour it and bring the matter back to the nest asteroid.

Phisrid was growing. Her body was changing. She knew she would be as powerful as her mother had been, as cunning as her mother had been, as ruthless as her mother had been.

This was the start of a great Skalidion nation on the outer boundary of the massive Skalidion Empire.

Soon, the Devex would fall completely.

And Phisrid’s nation would grow.

13

Jack cut through the dark oval membrane at the rear of the assembly area with his electron blade.

“What’s through there?” Riya asked. She held her blaster ready for whatever was on the other side.

“It’s where they make—” Jack checked his choice of words. “—arm the new Devex warriors.”

The membrane collapsed. Beyond was a short, dark tunnel. At the end was a person suspended in an apparatus, clad in Devex exo-armor.

Jack moved toward the man. A small chamber beyond was empty.

Riya stopped next to the man. She looked him all over.

“Is that what they did to me? Why isn’t he moving? What’s going on?”

“The Devex bypass your personality somehow. Once the helmet goes on, you become Devex.”

Jack stepped past the man in the apparatus and into the chamber. He looked at the deck. There had to be a way through.

“How do you know all this?” Riya asked, stepping up next to Jack.

“We were here. Me and Sam. That’s why we were sent to try and get you.”

Riya looked at the deck where Jack was looking.

“What’s up with the floor?”

“We need to get through it.” Jack fired up his electron blade. Sam did the same. “Your sister is down there.”

Jack pressed his blade into the deck. It cut through easily. He moved it along, cutting a line across the deck, but the deck resealed the moment the blade was gone.

Jack looked at Sam. They tried again, faster this time. The cut resealed.

Sam slung his rifle and kneeled, pressing his Mech hand to the deck. The tissue unraveled. It spread over the deck like a swarm of super-thin snakes. He looked up to Jack and shook his head.

“Nothing,” Sam said. His hand returned to the human form.

Riya kneeled. “I know about this,” she said in wonder. “I have access to Devex knowledge through the helmet.” She pressed her hand to the deck.

The deck vanished, and the three fell into darkness.

Jack quickly activated his suit’s local gravity field and grabbed Riya as she fell. They landed together, heavily. Sam landed lightly next to them a moment later.

“Okay,” Riya said, getting up off the floor. “I don’t know how to control the knowledge just yet.”

Jack saw the dark shapes all around, captives from the civilian craft, waiting to be snatched up to the conversion chambers above.

The sight of a pair of Marines landing in their midst caused an uproar as the scared people asked a hundred questions, others begging to be freed.

But the sight of the Devex warrior made them all recoil.

“It’s okay,” Riya said, reaching out to one man. He turned, glancing back in fear, and ran away into the darkness.

Jack checked his holostage. Bren was nearby.

“This way,” he said and led the way.

Bren was sitting and looking up at the darkness above as Jack approached.

“Bren?” Jack said.

“There haven’t been any lights for a while,” Bren said. “Do you think they’ll let me be with my sister?”

Riya stepped forward.

“Bren, it’s me.”

Bren looked at the Devex faceplate looking down at her.

“You are not my sister,” Bren said, distant and matter of fact tone as she dismissed the Devex warrior before looking back up. “My sister isn’t an alien.”

Jack stepped up next to Bren with Riya kneeling next to her. He turned to Sam.

“We need a way out,” Sam said. “We should be able to get into the civilian transport from here.”

“No,” Jack said. “It’s a message from the captain. There is a Skalidion swarm on its way.”

“Well then, we really need to go. We might find a small ship on the civilian transport. The captain’s shuttle. Something.”

“But this ship is defenseless. You knocked out all the power.”

“Good,” Sam said. “It’s a Devex ship. Leave them to the Skalidions.”

“But they are not Devex. They are people. Our people. They are just standing there. Thousands of them. When the Skalidions get here, they’ll be torn apart.”

Sam checked the message from the captain. “So, we don’t have much time. We can’t save them all, Jack. We have our mission objective. Now we need to complete our mission by getting these two back to the fleet. That is all.”

“No,” Jack said. “It’s not all. We need to activate this ship.”

“Are you crazy? The Devex have been attacking us for ages. It’s their fault we are scattered across the sector like we are. Too bad for the Devex. Let’s go.”

Jack looked around.

“These people aren’t Devex, Sam. These are innocent people. We can’t leave them. I’ve got an idea, but I’ll need your help.”

Riya stood up, Bren holding her hand.

“I’ll help. My father always said it was his duty to defend the people. He’s not here, but I am. I must help.”

Jack nodded. “You know what? I think you can. Let’s get back to the subcommand rooms. We don’t have much time.”

14

The subcommand level was busy with Devex running between rooms.

Jack crouched at the side of the corridor and looked back to the far subcommand rooms. Behind him was the matter transport device.

“They don’t have a central command,” Jack said.

“Yes, they do,” Riya said. “But it’s not aboard this ship. It’s on the home world. Massively centralized.”

“How do you know that?” Jack said.

Riya shrugged, a difficult thing in the exo-armor.

“I don’t know, part of becoming a Devex warrior, I guess.”

“We need an accurate position on the incoming Skalidion fighters,” Jack said.

Riya pointed along the long corridor at the command level of the ship.

“Sensor subcommand is back there.”

Jack calculated the chances of making it past the Devex in every room along the way, just him and a fellow Marine, a Devex warrior who only hours ago was a frightened girl, and a second girl, unarmed and unequipped. Jack looked at Bren. To be fair, she appeared the most relaxed of them all.

“How do we get there?” Jack said. “We can’t fight our way along. Is there a hidden route?”

Riya reached down to her hip and pulled a small device from a holster there. Jack recognized it as a Devex concussion device.

Riya aimed it along the corridor and activated it. A shimmering wave expanded out and crept along the corridor.

“Let’s go,” Riya said. She started walking behind the slow-moving field.

Sam turned to Jack and punched him in the shoulder.

“She’s got some fight in her, that one, eh, Jack?”

Jack nodded and started walking. “Seems so.”

A Devex warrior stepped out on the righthand side of the corridor. The concussion wave hit and sent the warrior crumpling to the ground. At the entrance to the subcommand room, Riya aimed her concussion device inside and fired another shimmering wave.

The occupants fell in moments. Jack stepped inside.

Sam went to one of the consoles, a twitching Devex warrior lying on the ground at the base of the console. He began to thread his Mech tissue into the machine.

“How long will they be knocked out?” Sam asked, moving the Devex aside with his boot.

“Not long,” Riya said. “And the rest will be expecting it, so I won’t get another shot.”

“I’m in,” Sam said. “I’ve connected to their sensor net. I can see the Skalidion. They are on their way. They’ll be here soon.”

Jack took a deep breath. He could not run. He had to fight.

“We need to activate all those new Devex,” Jack said.

“But they are civilians, not soldiers,” Riya said. “We can’t send them into battle.”

“You’re right, they’re not soldiers,” Jack agreed, “but they are Devex warriors. And they are going to be destroyed if we don’t give them a chance. How do we reactivate them?”

“They are all connected through a subcommand here on the ship,” Sam said. “If I can get access to one of the Devex, I might be able to route to the subcommand.”

Jack looked down at the Devex at Sam’s feet.

“Will that one do?”

Sam smiled. “As good as any.”

Riya hung her head. “They will turn on us if we activate them.”

“Not if we deploy them,” Jack said.

“Deploy them? Where?” Sam asked.

“Follow me, and bring that Devex with you, Sam.”

Jack ran back to the forward section of the ship overlooking the assembly area. The openings over the area showed Jack that no more Devex were appearing. There were thousands of newly-constructed Devex warriors, though. Jack hoped it would be enough.

The area above the matter transfer pad was mesmerizing to Jack. The device was strange, unlike anything he had seen before. He only wished he could study it and learn how it worked, but he needed to use it now so there was no time to understand how—he just needed to make it work.

“Riya, do you know where they are sending these warriors?”

Riya thought for a moment. “Yes, I do,” she said. “I know it all. We were going to a Devex world on the edge of their territory. The Skalidion are mounting an invasion. We are going to hold them off.”

“Can you reset the destination?” Jack asked.

Riya shook her head. “I don’t have authority to do that.”

Sam stepped up. “Neither do I, but they can’t seem to stop me. Where can I interface?”

Riya pointed at a series of knotted pipes. “That’s the targeting beam calibration system.”

Sam placed his hand over the pipe and his hand dematerialized, thread in. “I think I can do this.”

“How many can we send at once?” Jack asked Riya.

She shrugged. “I don’t know how it works.”

“I do, kind of,” Sam said. “It depends how far we want to send them.”

Jack walked over to Sam. He held out his wrist and showed the holoimage he had displayed above his wrist-mounted holostage.

“We need to send them this far,” he said, pointing at the Skalidion swarm racing toward them.

Sam smiled at Jack with a broad, cheeky smile.

“That isn’t too far, Jack. I can send the whole kravin lot.”

“Okay, do you want to wake them up first?” Jack said.

Sam pulled his hand from the matter transfer machinery and let his Mech tissue flood in through the neck of the unconscious Devex warrior on the deck.

The noise from the assembly area told Jack that Sam had woken them.

“Are they ready for combat,” Jack said, “or are they like…” He nodded at Riya.

“They are normal Devex,” Sam said. “Programmed and ready to fight.”

“Okay,” Jack said. “Send them in.”

Phisrid watched the Devex warship through the dark eyes of her observer caste. The ship was locked in an embrace with a second ship. Her swarm was growing closer. Phisrid could almost taste the new matter that would soon be added to her nest asteroid.

The fighters were arranged in the forward bow wave of the swarm, observers dotted throughout, the builders in the tail, ready to consume all the debris left by the fighters.

She could sense the fighters nearing, and she let the swarm charge in. These were not her own offspring. She wanted to see how the enemy behaved before she deployed her own spawn.

Then she saw the Devex warriors appear, as if from nowhere, thousands of Devex warriors appearing amidst her formation.

Immediately, the Devex rapid-fire blasters opened up and streams of white energy bullets raked through the forward fighters. The builders moved in to consume the Devex in the swarm but were no match for their weapons, blaster fire steaming out in all directions, tearing the swarm individuals to pieces. The builders became confused and consumed everything in their path, Devex and Skalidion alike.

Phisrid sensed her anger spread out from her. Her builders in the nest, laying down the next generation of fighters, became agitated as their queen grew angry.

She lashed out with a long limb and gripped a builder. She brought it to her mouth and shredded it as she fed the builder in, the taste bringing a measure of calm.

The view from the observers in the attacking swarm became fragmented as more were destroyed. Phisrid calmed herself with the thought that it was only her sister’s leftovers that were being destroyed. They had submitted to her now but could easily have turned on her at some point. Maybe better that they were sacrificed this way.

Phisrid looked at the ship beneath the Devex warship. It was new, and these tactics were new too. The Devex had never countered an attack in this way. It was aggressive. It was impressive. She sensed she had a new enemy. An aggressive tactician. It would be good to consume them and add their matter to her swarm.

Her calm rippled through the nest and the builders worked on expanding the number of fighter chambers on the edge of her nest asteroid.

Jack ran from the matter transfer room to the corridor above the assembly area. It was empty now. He dropped from the high corridor to the deck below, carrying the young Bren with him, running back through the assembly area, through the construction chambers, and down to the dark holding area. Riya opened the way to the Devex puncture arms, shafts of light along the sides of the dark space that led back to the transport.

Jack activated the loudspeaker on his suit. He leapt up a few meters above the frightened civilians.

“Head to the light,” Jack said. “Head back to the transport. Move quickly.”

The transport was still powered, but the drive reactors would most likely be out of action. The Devex’s first move was always to deactivate the drive.

Jack grabbed Sam.

“We need power. Can you get to the drive section? Try and get one of the reactors burning. I’ll go to the command deck and get us out of here.”

“What about the Devex warship on our back?” Sam said.

“We’ll deal with that later. For now, we need to get out of here.”

“What about us?” Riya said.

“Find your cabin and stay there until we get back to the fleet.”

Bren looked up at Jack. “I think you need us,” she said. “We had better stay with you.”

Jack looked at Bren, thinking of how to convince the girls to run and hide, when Riya spoke.

“We’re coming with you.”

Jack nodded.

“This way.”

The command deck was empty, the crew having been taken by the Devex. Fortunately, the consoles were still active.

Jack pulled off his helmet and climbed into the command chair. He activated the holostage and plotted a route.

The battle in space between the Devex and the Skalidion swarm was petering out. A few flashes of Devex weapons fire lit up the distant swarm. Jack zoomed in. The Skalidions had been surprised, attacked from within their swarm, and they were fighting to the bitter end. As their number grew fewer so their fighting spirit died away and they became less effective.

Jack looked down from the command chair to Riya and Bren. Riya was looking up at him, her face still hidden by the Devex helmet.

“I didn’t know what you’d look like under there. I expected some grizzle old Marine. You look…” Riya trailed off.

Jack looked at the dull gray faceplate.

“And my sister is quite pretty, when she’s not dressed like an alien,” Bren said.

Riya touched the helmet with her fingertips. She turned away from Jack and looked at the main holostage.

Sam arrived on the command deck. He’d run from the drive room.

“We’ve got power. Let’s get out of here.”

“What about the Devex out there?” Riya said.

Jack looked up from his armrest console.

“Umm,” he hesitated. “The Devex will rescue them, I guess,”

Riya drew her concussion device and aimed it at Jack.

“No, I think I will,” she activated the device. The wave spread out, knocking her sister to the deck a moment before Jack was hit by the blast. As his suit struggled to deal with the concussion wave, Jack saw Riya run off the command deck and away.

15

Jack woke slumped in the command chair. Bren was lying unconscious on the deck, and Sam was slumped over the holostage.

“Sam,” Jack said. The sound of his own voice echoing through his throbbing head. “Sam. Stand to. Report.”

Sam pressed himself up off the holostage.

“Sir,” he said, uncertain and groggy. “Report. Copy.”

Sam tapped the controls on the side of the holostage and called up a local image. The civilian transport was still attached to the Devex warship above.

Jack checked the time. He had been out for a little under fifteen minutes. He checked his wrist-mounted holostage and sent the ident tracker data on Riya Henson to the main holostage.

“Locate Riya Henson,” Jack said.

Sam called up the location of the tracker. She was on the Devex warship.

“Found her,” Sam said. “She’s on the upper decks. She’s not moving much. I’ll go and recover her.”

Jack climbed down from the command chair.

“I’ll get her,” he said.

Jack stepped over the unconscious Bren and noticed her stirring, starting to wake.

“Jack,” Sam called Jack’s attention to the holostage. “We’ve got a signal coming in. It’s huge. Look.”

It was a rough image at this distance but resolving to a cleaner image by the moment as the signal came closer. The distinctive teardrop shape could only mean one thing.

“Skalidions,” Sam said. “Thousands of them. Moving in fast. How many of them are there?”

Then the transport began to shake, a ship-wide quake. A screeching noise echoed along the corridors outside of the command deck.

“Look.” Sam pointed at the image of the transport. The Devex puncture arms were retracting, pulling out of the guts of the civilian transport. Huge gaping holes vented gas into space.

“Locking down all emergency bulkheads,” Jack said, climbing back up into the command chair.

The bulkheads clamped down in place all across the ship. Jack hoped those passengers who had been rescued from the Devex ship were safe in their cabins.

“Devex warship moving off,” Sam said.

Jack looked at the holostage. The huge Devex ship was moving away, heading for the stranded Devex warriors. Beyond the warriors was the fresh wave of Skalidion fighters.

“She’s crazy,” Jack said. “She’ll never get there before the Skalidion.”

“We need to get out of here, Jack,” Sam said. “We’ve got one Henson girl. We’ll just have to go back without Riya.”

“Where’s Riya?” Bren was standing up, looking confused.

Then a communication channel opened and an image of a Devex warrior appeared on the holostage alongside the image of the Devex warship heading on a direct course for the incoming swarm.

“Forge, this is Riya Henson. Get my sister to safety. Those Skalidions are closing in fast.”

“Riya!” Jack shouted. “I have orders to return to the fleet with you and your sister. Get back over here now.”

“I can’t do it, Jack,” Riya said. “I’m the only one in control of this ship. I don’t think I can save those Devex warriors, but I can save the civilian transport. I’m heading for the Skalidions. I’ll try and get away before it’s too late.”

The communication channel dropped.

“Get her back,” Jack said to Sam.

Bren cried out for her sister.

“It’s not us. The signals are being jammed. It’s the Skalidions.”

Jack watched as the Devex ship charged headlong toward the swarm, pulling away, accelerating toward the enemy.

Then the Skalidion reached the Devex warship.

“Riya,” Bren cried out.

Jack leaned forward in his seat.

The detonation filled the holostage.

Jack tapped away on his command chair console to try and clear the image. He rushed over to the main holostage and accessed the system directly.

The glow of the detonation faded as bandwidths of spectrum were filtered away. The glowing core of the detonation was all that remained of the Devex warship—and around the warship, thousands of glowing embers of Skalidion fighter craft.

“Set course,” Jack said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Let’s get back to the fleet.”

Sam tapped away at the navigational console then he moved to the drive systems console.

“Course set. Engaging drive now. We’re underway.”

Jack pushed himself away from the holostage. He went to the communication console and opened a ship-wide address. His heart sunk.

“This is Major Jack Forge, temporarily in command of this ship. We are heading back to the fleet. Remain where you are. The outer hull is compromised. Rescue parties will be with you as soon as possible. Forge out.”

Jack slumped down the console to the deck. Sam walked over to him.

“You saved a lot of people here today, Jack,” Sam said.

Jack looked at Bren, tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked at the image of the cooling fireball on the holostage.

“One too few,” Jack said. He stood up and placed an arm around Bren’s shoulders and led her away.

“Let’s find somewhere safe for you, Miss Henson.”

“It’s not your fault, Jack,” Sam called after him.

“Put out a ship-wide call to any Fleet officers or crew,” Jack said. “We could use some help on the command deck.”

16

The Blades came alongside the civilian transport, the lead pilot sending a message to the command deck.

“This is Commander Scherer of the Blades. Respond, civilian transport vessel.”

Jack opened the channel.

“Major Forge in command. Returning from a rescue mission on the orders of Admiral Henson.”

“Major Forge? Jack Forge? I haven’t seen you since before the evacuation.”

Jack remembered Scherer. He was flashy and had been flirting with his friend, Sarah Reyes.

“Hello, Commander. Good to see you.” Jack said. “Do you have orders for me?”

“Copy that. Hold position. Message coming in from the flagship now.”

Jack waited. He expanded the view on the holostage to show the fleet. The Scepter sat in position at the rear of the formation. Destroyer and supporting attack ships were positioned around the perimeter and within the protective perimeter sat dozens of huge civilian transports.

“Orders from the flagship. A tac boat is coming out from the Scepter to collect you and two passengers. A relief command crew will transfer over to the transport. Copy?”

“Copy that. Send a request for a repair and rescue team. We have significant outer hull damage.”

“Message sent,” Scherer said. “Welcome back to the fleet, Jack.”

Jack sat in one of the tac boat passenger seats, with Bren Henson between him and Sam. The boat entered one of the carrier’s landing pads and touched down lightly.

The pilot turned in his seat.

“Back aboard the flagship, Major,” the pilot said with a salute. “Well done, sir.”

The congratulations rang hollow. Jack knew he had only half-succeeded.

“Thank you, pilot,” Jack said. He stood and stepped over to the boarding ramp as it lowered. Bren stood at his side, Sam just behind.

The landing pad of the Scepter was neat and clean and ordered, with a line of officials waiting. There was Admiral Henson flanked by a pair of Fleet Marines. Fleet Intelligence Special Agent Mallet and the Scepter’s captain stood there also.

Bren ran over to her father the moment she saw him. The dusty old admiral rubbed his daughter’s head but failed to show any emotion. He looked past Jack and Sam as they walked over.

“Riya?” Henson said.

Jack stepped up to the admiral and gave a smart salute.

Tanaka returned the salute and instructed Jack and Sam to stand at ease.

Henson pulled Bren closer and looked at Jack with an imploring expression. He spoke quietly.

“Riya?”

“Sir,” Jack began, “we found both your daughters. Riya returned to the Devex ship after we escaped. She wanted to save more people, sir.”

“Where is she?” Henson said.

Special Agent Mallet stepped forward. “He never found her, I’ll bet. It was a mistake to send this Marine on this mission. He cannot be trusted. I will conduct an investigation and find the truth of how this Marine failed you, sir.”

Henson looked at Mallet and then back to Jack.

“Full report by end of watch, clear, Major?”

Jack saluted. “Yes, sir. Can I just say, she was very brave and selfless. An example to us all, sir.”

Henson nodded.

He took Bren by the hand. He looked into the open tac boat, and Jack could see the hope still on his face that his first daughter would yet step out of that boat.

“She was too much like her mother,” Henson said, and then he walked away, wrapping his arm around Bren’s shoulders.

“I will have you for this, Forge,” Mallet said.

Tanaka stepped up and stood in front of Mallet. “Major Forge,” Tanaka said, “you and commander Torent will transfer back to the Scorpio at the top of the next watch rotation. I’ll have an office prepared for you here on the Scepter so you can compile your report, as soon as you’ve had a chance to get cleaned up, that is.”

Jack nodded and thanked Tanaka, who then walked away.

Jack saw the cruel stare from Mallet. He had no idea how or why he had angered this agent so much. He avoided her stare and walked off.

“She hates you, Jack,” Sam said as he walked alongside him.

“I have a feeling she hates a lot of people. She’s just made me her project for now.”

“If you need any help with that report…” Sam said.

“Thanks, but you go and rest. I’ll meet you back on the Scorpio.”

Sam stopped and faced Jack. He delivered a sharp salute, his Mech hand lightly touching his forehead.

“Yes, sir,” Sam said.

Jack returned the salute and then placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. There were no words to express how he felt. He simply patted Sam firmly and then walked off. There was work to do. There was always work.

A rogue planet hurtled across interstellar space. It moved at terrific speeds, thrown out of the system of its parent star eons ago. A dark night sky rotated swiftly overhead, stars wheeling about as the planet spun rapidly.

The rocky surface was smooth and glassy, blackened by constant exposure to stellar winds from all quarters of the galaxy.

There was no life here, nor had there ever been. There were no artificial structures. There was very little hope.

Suddenly, a small group of Devex warriors materialized on the black, glassy surface. There was a moment of disorientation.

Then Riya gathered the Devex warriors around her.

“First, we identify our location,” she said to her fellow Devex, “then we will link our communication systems. We might generate a strong enough signal to reach a friendly ship.”

The Devex followed Riya’s instructions and began to link their systems. She looked up. Somewhere out there was her sister, her father, and Jack Forge. She hoped she would see them all again.

And far above the surface of the rogue planet, hidden by the black of space, a Mech ship watched.

Alliance

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 5

1

Lights across the tac boat’s flight deck blinked at Jack. The constant flickering had become hypnotic. He thought he might have even slipped into sleep a number of times. With the full set of surveillance drones deployed at maximum range, he was able to survey a huge swathe of space, but there had been no contact. The surrounding space was empty. Maybe he had found the passage the fleet was looking for?

The sensor drones gave Jack a view of a sphere of empty space several astro-units in diameter. On one side lay the Skalidion Empire, a vast territory dominated by the swarms of deadly fighters. On the other side sat the powerful Devex Empire. The Skalidions were steadily pushing their way into Devex territory, and the two empires were locked in a desperate border conflict with battles flaring up along their vast shared boundary.

The Skalidions were pushing into Devex territory, and the Devex were pushing back where they could. The distance between the territories was shrinking, a narrow and undulating plain of unclaimed space, and the map of the region looked like a rippling sheet of spacetime, pushed and pulled from both sides. It was a vast contested boundary, in flux but moving inexorably in favor of the Skalidions. The fleet would have to pick its way between the two empires if it was to escape.

Jack pushed forward, advancing along his proscribed line, mapping more of the surrounding space, while the drones actively sought even the slightest hint of Skalidion or Devex activity.

So far, all was clear, but he knew that with every sector of space he scouted, there was the danger of encountering a Skalidion or Devex ship. He was alone and vulnerable. The thought made him shudder, and the sudden wave of adrenalin woke him. He no longer felt sleepy.

The fleet had sent dozens of tac boats out in all directions to find a path out of danger. It was hiding out in a nebula of dense dust and gas that contained several new stars, each with their attendant protoplanetary disks, and the dust and gas and swirling discs of protoplanets gave excellent cover for the huge fleet. The constant collisions in the protoplanetary disks, the swirling gas, and the chaotic mix of radiation made sensor detection almost impossible. It also meant that the fleet had no idea who or what was beyond the edge of the nebula.

Sending the scout ships had been a risk. If they had been detected leaving the nebula, their hiding place would have been revealed, but the fleet couldn’t hide in the nebula indefinitely. Sooner or later, they had to move on.

So far, they had remained undetected, and Jack knew the importance of keeping their cover. The fleet’s only hope for survival was to escape this hostile region of space and find a star system to settle and rebuild, or at least make repairs to the battered fleet.

They were short on supplies, and the ships needed servicing—many needed their reactors stripped and scrubbed, and some ships had been in constant operation for over a year. Jack’s old ship, the Scorpio, had been on the front line of conflict for far too long and was in desperate need of a total shutdown and refit.

The tac boat Jack was currently sitting in had been in operation for so long that the maintenance counter, the chart that recorded when the boat was due for a service, had reset at least once. The counter was practically at the start of its run, indicating that the boat had just rolled through another maintenance cycle.

How long, Jack wondered, could the fleet continue to stagger along before system failures became catastrophic?

The flight deck suddenly flashed, and he jumped. The light seemed to come at the same time as the thoughts of looming disaster. The drone network had detected a planetary system dead ahead. Jack slowed the boat.

The data piled up and gave Jack a full image of a binary star system with a small red dwarf and a smaller brown dwarf. The pair rotated around a common point in a lazy dance across a small region of space. A few planets orbited the larger red dwarf. Small rocky planets close to the red dwarf were scorched, burned by the heat given off by the dim star and fried by the radiation emanating from the brown dwarf.

If there was any life in this system, it would be unlike anything Jack had ever encountered. This was a dead and decaying system. Even though it was small and tortured, Jack knew to give it a wide berth. The chance of stumbling across a Skalidion or Devex outpost was too great. He marked the system’s location and altered his heading to avoid it.

The way ahead was clear. A black void with the distant star field. There would be other systems in his path eventually, but maybe he could clear the danger zone between the two warring empires before he encountered another.

Jack left the small system away to his port side and scouted forward, into empty space. He felt his eyes droop. He’d been active for days, working straight through several watch rotations. Now that he was alone in the dark, he felt even more tired. At least on board the Scorpio, there was noise, activity, and varied work. It all helped keep him alert. But here, alone, it was almost impossible to keep himself from drifting to sleep.

He entertained the thought of returning to the small dwarf star system on the pretense of exploring it as a route marker and ensuring it was clear, the temptation to set down on one of the small rocky planets and rest was so tempting. He could power down the tac boat and bring the drones in close to give him a warning system should any ships come nearby. He could lie back, close his eyes, let his thoughts drift away, and fall into a welcome, soothing sleep.

Jack jerked in his seat. He had drifted off for a moment. A fraction of sleep, a morsel to feed a hungry man. He rubbed his face and grabbed a hydration pack. He squirted the water into his mouth, letting his aim go wild so the water splashed on his face. He rubbed the water away, trying to rub the fatigue away. He felt alert, for a moment, but soon the weariness began to creep back. He checked the time since his last stim shot. It had been almost an entire watch.

His tactical suit would not let him take another for a little while yet. Jack climbed out of this seat and walked to the back of the boat, hoping a little exercise would bring him back from the edge of sleep.

The tac boat was a small multipurpose craft. Jack had used similar vessels to transport squads of Marines to the front line of battle. There were seats for a full squad of twelve Marines. With twelve tac boats assigned to each company of a destroyer, an entire Marine battalion could be moved at speed to the front lines. The boats were tough, offensive craft in their own right and were designed to deflect heavy ground fire and drop Marines close to the action. They also had a formidable arsenal and could be used to support a destroyer’s operation. They were swift enough to hold formation with some of the fleet’s smaller warships—frigates and corvettes—and they were also able to act as a Blade squadron’s sensor and fire support platform.

But now, the tac boat was a scout vessel. Jack was alone, with only the drones to accompany him. He was a sensor platform, scanning and mapping space. Searching for a way out, a path to safety.

Jack pressed his forehead against the rear bulkhead. Behind the bulkhead was the reactor, and beyond that, the main drive assembly. The bulkhead was cool. Jack let the composite soothe his tiredness and bring some relief from fatigue.

A warning beep from the flight console had Jack on full alert. He hurried forward, picking his way between the cramped rows of seats and up the few steps to the flight deck. He dropped into his seat and responded to the alert.

Another star system, away to his starboard side this time. Jack called up the local map on the small flight console holostage. The dwarf binary was only a few astro units back and now there was another system. A white dwarf that was just on the lower range of a main sequence star. A standard planetary disk orbited the star with two small terrestrial inner planets and three massive gas giants. The inner planets were both in the habitable zone. The largest gas giant had one huge moon, almost as big as the smaller of the two inner planets.

The readings came in from the drone network that organics were detected on the gas giant’s moon. Jack looked at the data. There was life there, but it was little more than a planet-wide moss, a simple form of vegetation. There was no indication of any animal life, or any plant life other than the moss.

Jack zoomed in on the moss planet. It would never be home, but it could be a pit stop. There was liquid water and the moss could potentially be converted into nutritious rations. Jack marked the location of the planet as a possible supply stop and then reset his heading to maneuver along the fine line between the dwarf binary and the white dwarf with its outer mossy moon.

If the fleet was to come this way, it would be a narrow channel, and a dangerous one. The star systems would attract the attention of the Skalidion and the Devex sooner or later as a possible resupply stop, with potential for a planet-side defensive position where they could hold their lines and hold off their enemy.

If the fleet was to come this way, it would be like threading a needle. It would be possible to avoid detection, as there was no activity just yet. Maybe this was the way to get clear.

A new signal sounded, accompanied by an alert. Now Jack was fully awake. He turned the boat about and recalled the drones.

A lone Skalidion ship was in orbit around the moss moon.

Jack zoomed in on the Skalidion ship on the flight console holostage and watched it, taking furtive glances at the holoimage as he moved away, slowly at first, waiting for the surveillance drones to return. With the last of the drones safely housed on the outer hull, nestled in their pods, Jack eased the drive up to full power. The gentle increase in power might go undetected, if he was lucky.

Then the tac boat lurched, fractionally. A warning light flashed on the flight console—the reactor distribution had drifted off symmetry by a picometer and resulted in a slight drive flare. The onboard systems had already recalibrated and corrected the issue. The alert was a simple advisory notice.

But the flare had done more than jostle Jack in his seat. It had lit up the tac boat’s location.

Jack looked at the Skalidion drone in orbit, but it was no longer in orbit. It was accelerating—bearing down on Jack with speed.

“Oh, great,” Jack groaned. He kicked the drive up to full power and began to prepare his weapon systems as the Skalidion fighter moved in for the kill.

2

Jack readied a set of decoy slugs and input a new heading. His hands danced over the flight console, flying on instinct and memory. He released the decoy slugs and waited for them to activate.

The holoimage on the flight console showed him the location of the decoy. It held position a few thousand kilometers off the boat’s rear. The Skalidion fighter was just out of range. Now that Jack had brought in the sensor drones, he was reliant on the tac boat’s onboard sensor array. It was a powerful system in its own right and gave him a good view of over an astro unit in every direction. The Skalidion was just out of that range, but Jack had no doubt the fighter was closing in.

Jack activated the rearmost counter decoy slug. The slug flared like a drive assembly, throwing out a signal impossible to differentiate from the tac boat’s own drive assembly. With the slug flaring, Jack made a slight course correction and headed off a few degrees to starboard. The slug continued in a straight line for a few seconds before altering course a few degrees to port.

Jack watched anxiously. He was sweating but cold. The Skalidion fighter came into range of the tac boat’s sensors. It was following the slug.

Jack cut his drive and coasted while the slug flared again, changed heading by a few more degrees, and accelerated away. The slug could not match the tac boat for speed, but it made a good show of pretending to be the tac boat, running for safety.

Jack altered his heading with a burst from his port-side thruster jet and pushed himself on course toward the nearby dwarf binary.

The image on the flight deck’s holostage showed a sphere around the boat with all data from the sensors feeding into the real-time image. The decoy slug was veering off toward the edge of sensor range at the port side of the sensor view. The Skalidion was toward the rear edge of the sphere but moving closer by the second. Jack clenched his fist tightly, pressing it against his lip, and watched the tiny point of light that represented the Skalidion fighter.

He breathed in relief as he saw that the fighter was clearly in pursuit of the decoy slug. Jack was slipping away. He set a heading and gave the thrusters another light burst, pushing the stub nose of the tac boat toward the dwarf binary.

The holoimage flashed as the decoy slug was destroyed. The Skalidion fighter poured green fire into its target. Jack watched as the Skalidion fighter held position, the fighter slipping toward the edge of the sensor sphere as the boat moved. He could hear his pulse as he watched the small holoimage.

The Skalidion held position. It seemed transfixed by the explosion of the decoy. Jack saw the brown dwarf of the dwarf binary come into sensor range.

Jack had escaped.

Then his drive flared again. It was the slightest of energy-balancing discharges as the onboard systems corrected another minor asymmetry in the reactor.

Jack felt his heart beat hard. The Skalidion fighter turned in a flash and jumped to high speed, heading directly for him.

He kicked the drive up to full power and sped forward. He readied another decoy slug. It might work again, but Jack had another plan this time. He just hoped the Skalidion were as clever as he thought they were or his next trick would never work.

But before he attempted evasion, Jack would put up a defense. However, he had not been equipped with any combat drones. This was a scouting mission, after all.

The forward laser assembly drew power directly from the reactor and was always an option. Jack had the forward laser loop powering up, but he was not planning on attacking the Skalidion head on, as the range of the Skalidion’s green fire was too great. It was slow but devastating ordnance that almost crept forward, but when the Skalidion came on in numbers, the sheer amount of green fire was impossible to avoid.

Jack did have the single top-mounted hail cannon and a range of ordnance at his disposal. He loaded a high-density kinetic hail round into the cannon. The cannon rotated swiftly, and a slight screech echoed through the tac boat, suggesting the swivel assembly had not been serviced for some time. But the cannon lined up on its target and reported ready to fire.

Jack watched the Skalidion on the holoimage. It was closing in to a few thousand kilometers. He reframed the image for close-range operation. The Skalidion fighter grew larger on the holoimage as the sensors displayed more information over a smaller scale.

The Skalidion fighters were sleek craft with three distinct parts: a sharpened nose section that housed the green fire generator, the central section—which was the largest and contained the Skalidion itself, and then the bulbous rear section that tilted upward from the line of the two forward sections. The drive system was possibly housed there, but the method of propulsion was as yet unknown to Fleet engineers.

Jack waited for the fighter to close into its weapon range. With a few seconds to spare, Jack fired the high-density round. It raced toward the pursuing Skalidion, closing the distance in seconds. Then the round detonated, throwing a wall of kinetic hail outward.

The detonation filled the sensors for a moment, obscuring the Skalidion. When the flash died away, Jack saw the Skalidion holding position as the wall of kinetic hail blocked its path.

Then it activated its forward green fire weapon and burned a channel through the expanding wall of kinetic hail before jumping back to high speed and racing through the channel it had created.

Using the time he’d bought for himself, Jack closed in on the brown dwarf, beyond which was the red dwarf. Between the two was the region of tortured spacetime with several planets giving cover. He would evade the Skalidion there, or defeat it, or he would lose and be consumed by the Skalidion or one of the stars.

Jack fired another round and threw up another wall of deadly hail. The Skalidion knew better than to charge through the hail curtain, as it would shred the fighter, but the green fire quickly burned a path and the Skalidion came on.

Readying the next decoy slug, he aimed his boat at the brown dwarf and let himself fall into the gravity well. He released the decoy slug, then cut his power and ran dark.

The Skalidion had already been tricked by this once. Jack was hoping it would not fall for it again. He would have to time it perfectly.

The Skalidion came through the final hail curtain and closed in on the last-known location of its prey.

He prepared the drive assembly to give off a minor, low-level drive flare, just like the one the last decoy had emitted. He sent the instructions to the drive and the flare went off, pushing the tac boat a few degrees to port—away from the brown dwarf’s gravity well.

The Skalidion continued straight ahead, diving into the gravity well of the brown dwarf after the tail of the decoy slug.

“Not falling for the same trick as before?” Jack said with a smile.

This time, the decoy slug was not moving away. He was.

The Skalidion fighter moved in closer to the decoy, and Jack made ready to activate the slug. A tac boat would have to pull up from the brown dwarf’s gravity well or be destroyed. The decoy slug was now going to make like a tac boat.

Jack activated the slug and made ready to bring his tac boat about.

The slug’s drive kicked into life and turned to make a desperate escape from the brown dwarf’s gravity well. The moment the decoy’s drive activated, the Skalidion fired a burst of green fire across the decoy slug’s forward section.

The decoy was incinerated as the Skalidion green fire burned the material at a molecular level.

Jack watched the Skalidion pull up from the gravity well, racing away to its starboard side and presenting its drive section to Jack’s fully-charged laser assembly.

Jack locked on target and fired. The Skalidion, realizing it had been deceived, took evasive action.

The laser assembly lit up and the energy beam connected with the Skalidion drive section. The fighter tumbled off course. Jack fired again, striking it in the midsection. The fighter detonated with a green fire eruption that burst from the fighter. The remaining parts of the fighter, nothing bigger than a decoy slug, slowed under the tug of the brown dwarf’s gravity and began to fall to the dull star.

Jack watched the Skalidion fighter break up and burn as the pieces fell. He breathed for what felt like the first time in minutes. He had survived.

Jack checked the data he had gathered, looking at the thin strip of unoccupied space. He could scout further ahead, but he had been gone for over two days. He had gathered lots of useful data, and a possible way out of the region.

“Okay, let’s get this back to the fleet,” Jack said.

He input a heading into the navigational systems, reached out to activate the drive, and stopped himself just as he was about to hit the panel.

“Procedures, Jack,” he muttered to himself. He was tired and taking shortcuts, but it was even more important to do things correctly now that he was so fatigued. He reset the sensor back to cruising range to give himself the best view of the surrounding space.

And then he saw the Skalidions. A dozen fighters racing toward the brown dwarf, heading for the position of the destruction of the decoy slug and their fighter.

Jack held off hitting the drive. He checked his heading. He was adrift and heading out of the system, but he was caught in the gravity well of the brown dwarf and beginning to fall back into it.

The Skalidions were holding position, the fighters gathered around another ship that Jack did not recognize. It was about the same size as the fighters but less sleek, more bulbous, with several antenna-like structures.

“A surveillance ship,” Jack breathed. “They’re searching.”

He checked the heading of his tac boat. He was falling—but not rapidly—in an elliptical orbit that would bring him close to the brown dwarf. In a few moments, he would be on the far side of the dull dwarf star from the Skalidions and out of their sensor view.

Jack looked at the configuration of the binary system. As he fell toward the brown dwarf, he could kick his drive into life and head for one of the small terrestrial planets orbiting the red dwarf, the larger of the two stars.

As he slipped beyond the horizon, he saw the Skalidions fall out of view. Jack kicked up the drive and with a single burst, he made for the nearest terrestrial planet. Falling in toward it, he gave himself a kick with the thrusters and entered a low, geostationary orbit, hanging over the surface of the dark planet like a piece of debris.

Jack may have found a way out, or he may have found a dead end. He had encountered a few Skalidion, but were there more?

He sat back in his seat. “I guess we just wait and watch,” he said. His eyes drooped closed. “And no sleeping,” he said loudly, waking himself. He grabbed the hydration pack and doused his tired face then checked his suit’s medical report, discovering he could now administer another stim shot.

“Maybe just wait a little longer,” he said. “Don’t know how long I’m going to be here.”

With the tac boat’s passive sensors on full alert, Jack watched the movement of the Skalidions as they came out from behind the brown dwarf, lingering, searching.

He zoomed in on the small group. Maybe this was a scouting party, just like him. Maybe it was the vanguard of a swarm invasion of this system. Either way, Jack had to find out, to give the fleet the best information he could gather, then maybe find a way to escape the Skalidion threat and find some quiet space to call home.

3

Sitting in the center of the nest asteroid, Phisrid surveyed her territory through the dark eyes of her thousands of observers, the small Skalidion drones bristling with antennae, all relaying information back to their queen.

Phisrid was aware of everything her millions of individual drones could sense—fighters, observers, and builders all fed information back to the nest, to their queen. She listened and watched and considered it all. Her late sister would never concern herself with this minutia, but Phisrid wanted to know everything that happened across her nation. Everything meant something. Every detail was important.

A fighter was lost on the edge of her territory, near the border with the Devex. Phisrid examined the information. A single fighter was insignificant amongst the hundreds of thousands preparing for war on that part of her border, but its destruction at this time, far from the battlefront, was significant. Something was attacking her forces, and they had won a minor victory. That could lead to far worse.

Determined to discover the cause of her fighter’s destruction, she dispatched a hundred fighters from her swarm to that region, a small dwarf binary system between her and the Devex.

The observers along the border with Devex space were quiet. There had been no sightings of Devex ships for days. Phisrid guessed the Devex forces had fallen back, concentrating their power deep inside their territory. Any other Skalidion Swarm Queen would have swarmed into the deserted territory in an instant and snatched any star systems in their path. But Phisrid had been fighting the Devex long enough to know that they would not have fallen back without a plan.

The Devex were aggressive and attacked the Skalidions on sight. Phisrid had overwhelmed them with sheer numbers, and just when she thought the Devex could offer no more resistance, they had fought back hard with a revitalized force.

They had gained numbers from somewhere. The builders who had devoured the new Devex forces had relayed to Phisrid that the new Devex were different. They were smaller. They were strange. They were sweeter. Phisrid tasted them through the signals sent back to the nest asteroid by the builders. She had never tasted anything so good.

The desire to conquer new territory was innate to all Skalidion, and that was why their empire spanned a thousand systems and was growing by the day, but Phisrid’s desire to defeat more of these smaller Devex warriors was due entirely to the taste. She wanted more.

The builders on the outer edge of her nest asteroid completed laying down fresh matter, building her nest. The matter had been consumed after a battle, when the builders devoured all broken ships before returning to the nest and regurgitating the matter to create fresh nest pods. These pods would contain the larvae for fresh drones.

And with her nest now at such huge proportions, Phisrid knew it was time to spawn daughters.

The new sub-queen larvae sat around her. Nurse drones waited outside the central chamber for Phisrid to invite them in, to allow them to carry the sub-queen larvae away to the fresh pods on the outer edge of the nest. A pair of sub-queens would be placed in each pod and from each would hatch a single sub-queen. One would be devoured by the other and only the most powerful and voracious would ultimately hatch.

But Phisrid was on the verge of a major battle for Devex space and she needed fighters more than she needed daughters. She began to spawn fresh fighter larvae and summoned the nurse drone.

The drones collected the sub-queen larvae, but Phisrid halted them with a wave of pheromones. The nurses stood dead still, sub-queen larvae in their mandibles.

The sub-queens had come too early, and Phisrid needed all matter for her army. She summoned the builders from the outer edge of the nest and brought them to the central chamber. They came scuttling in. The smallest of all the castes had the biggest job after conquest. They built the nest, they built the nursery pods, and they converted all matter into usable materials.

The builders moved in, dozens at a time, swarming over each nurse and sub-queen larva it held.

With a final wave of chemical signal from Phisrid, the conversion began. The builders tore into the larvae in a frenzied feast, but not a gram of matter was wasted. Once all was consumed, the builders scuttled off to the outer edge of the nest and laid down even more pods. These would house the fighters. Hundreds of fresh fighters would be secured in their maturation pods.

Phisrid sensed a whiff of dissent from a nurse drone. The nurses were all failed sub-queens, their abdomens clipped to refresh the nurse drone ranks. Some nurses had a little too much of the sub-queen about them. They were the only caste to ever show opposition, and swarm queens needed to be alert to it. Too many nest asteroids had become lifeless husks after a nurse caste uprising.

Phisrid snatched up the nurse and pressed the squirming dissenter to her rasping mouth. She pressed the wriggling nurse in deeper, tearing it apart, crushing it. The queen was not as clean an eater as the builders and the soft internal parts of the nurse exploded over the inner chamber.

Wiping the mess from her face and antennae with a satisfaction she had not felt since destroying her sister, Phisrid summoned a builder to come and clean up the mess. The rest of the nurse drones began to carry the fresh larvae away, the new wave of soldiers.

The taste of nurse drone was sweet, but not as sweet as the new small Devex warriors. Although she could only taste them as a secondary sensation received from her builder caste drones as they devoured them, Phisrid could not forget the taste. She had one thought other than expansion of her territory. She would taste one of these Devex for herself. She would train one builder for this very specific task. The next time Phisrid’s Skalidion army moved against the Devex, one would be taken alive and brought back to the nest asteroid, to the central chamber and before the swarm queen herself, and then Phisrid would taste for herself.

But before she could fulfill that desire, she would have to attack. Her forces were growing and soon, she would press her invasion deep into Devex territory. The Devex would be wiped out, all their systems falling under her control. She was on the verge of creating the largest Skalidion territory ever, a nation so large it would become an entirely new Skalidion Empire, separate from her mother’s empire. Stronger. Smarter.

Her recently dispatched group of fighters and watchers were arriving at the location where her fighter had so recently been destroyed—the dwarf binary on the edge of her territory. She diverted her attention to this one small region. There was a mystery here. She was intrigued.

She was also hungry. She reached out and snatched up a nurse drone that was entering the central chamber to transport a soldier lava to its outer pod. Phisrid pressed the nurse to her mouth and sucked the juice, rasped the husk, and savored the flavor. Sour and sharp, a hint of the sweetness that she craved.

She dropped the shattered fragments of nurse drone and watched through the dark eyes of her observers at the dwarf binary system.

4

Jack watched the Skalidions zip back and forth across the dwarf system while holding his position in orbit. Below lay the dead surface of barren rock. Above lay the cold dark of space with the Skalidions moving about in random, jerking flights.

Then Jack detected a new wave of Skalidions. He looked at the holostage and the indistinct signal. At this range, it appeared to be a large blob, an indistinct mass. But as the mass drew closer, Jack could make out the individual signals from a hundred Skalidion drones. Most were the sleek fighter configuration but a number were the bulbous shapes that Jack suspected were the Skalidion sensor drones. Although they shared the same basic body plan, there were distortions here and there. They had more antennae and larger dark areas that appeared to be eyes. The front section was squat and sat at the front and center of the huge, round central section. The drive covered the entire rear side of the drone but was flattened. The look was of a large rounded blob with streaks of green and red.

The fighters continued their seemingly random search, but the sensor drones began a systematic sweep of the system.

Jack sat forward, sensing the danger.

“Looking for me?” he muttered. “Looking for the one who killed your fighter?”

Jack was amused to have become the target of a manhunt, a dragnet to find the one who had beaten the fighter, but he was also aware of the danger of staying too long.

Tapping the thruster controls, Jack moved along the low orbit and hid his tac boat beyond the horizon, putting him just out of sight of the searching Skalidions, for now at least.

“So we’ve learned one thing,” Jack said to himself as he made ready to move out of the system, “the Skalidions want to learn about their enemy too.”

Jack let himself fall closer to the planet below and moved further to the far side, putting the cold, rocky world between him and the hunters in the system. Jack released a decoy slug and let it drop slowly to the surface. It would make its presence known in a short time, but not before Jack was away.

Watching the available data on the holostage, Jack could see the location of the surveillance Skalidions. They were in formation directly on the far side of the planet. Ahead of Jack was the red dwarf, so he laid in a direct heading.

Jack’s suit alerted him to the fact that he had been without sleep for far longer than recommended. The suit’s onboard med-pack recommended a stim shot.

Jack felt alert. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing to attention, and his scalp tingled. He felt excited and afraid. He waited for the right moment.

“The last thing I need right now is a stim shot,” he said, and then he punched the drive.

The tac boat leaped to full speed in a fraction of a second. The inertia stability field inside the boat stopped Jack from being hurled across the small interior, but minor fluctuations in the field pressed on him in waves that brought pain and nausea. His suit’s grav field compensated for some of the effect, but the tac boat was definitely in need of service, and the inertia field generator needed recalibration.

The red dwarf star came close, growing in size, showing on the holostage as a towering red wall and making the tac boat appear as a barely significant speck of matter. Jack slowed the tac boat and entered orbit in the corona.

At that moment, he activated the decoy slug on the surface of the small rocky planet. A merest flicker of energy output. Jack didn’t want to tempt the Skalidions with too tasty a lure. He guessed they might suspect a trap or diversion. The flicker was insignificant, but for the swarm of Skalidions sweeping the system and actively searching for him, a flicker was all he needed.

The holostage showed the Skalidions all racing in and scanning the area in detail.

Now Jack could make his final move. He raced through the corona of the red dwarf. The tac boat’s external sensors let him know that hull composite tolerance was about to be breached. Jack wanted to push it a little bit more, but the boat was in such a poor state, it might fail before design tolerance was reached.

Jack pushed as hard as he dared and rounded the red dwarf, putting the star between him and the Skalidions.

Now Jack could move. He pushed the drive up steadily to maximum, diverting power to the hull stability field as the boat creaked under the stress of acceleration. Releasing a surveillance drone in his wake, Jack felt a sudden increase in the fluctuations in the inertia field. They tugged at him here and there, pulling him close to breaking point. Only his tactical suit kept him together.

Then the tac boat hit max speed and the inertia fluctuations dropped away. Before Jack could relax, he checked the data being sent to him by the surveillance drone. No Skalidions were in pursuit.

Jack felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He sent a signal to the surveillance drone to power down and remain silent so it didn’t give away his escape. Jack slumped into the chair and looked at the flight console. Amber warning lights told him what he already knew: the tac boat needed service. The whole fleet needed service, and so did he, but the first thing he needed was sleep.

“Not yet,” Jack said. He repeated it to himself only louder. He stood up and walked along the small interior before returning to the flight console. Jack input the coordinates of the fleet into the navigation systems and then let the drive systems make the necessary corrections.

Jack was heading back to the fleet.

The nebula came out of the dark and grew as Jack fought off his fatigue. The suit had woken him moments before with an automated, low-level stim shot, just enough to stop him drifting into a deep sleep. A flash of light on the holostage caught Jack’s attention. It hurt his eye like a needle pressed to the back of the socket. He checked the ident codes over the holoimage and saw that a pair of Blades were racing out to intercept him.

Jack’s flight console communicator burst into life with the voice of the lead Blade.

“Attention incoming craft. This is combat patrol. Come to a full stop and maintain position. Transmit ident codes now.”

The squeaks and whistles of the distorted communication transmission made Jack feel even more tired. The nebula was distorting the signal and made it unclear, but the message was not misunderstood. Jack’s tac boat had been detected, but it was not clear what it was. The Blades were here to take a closer look and destroy the craft if it was hostile.

Jack responded.

“This is Tac Boat Scorpio Nine. Transmitting ident codes now.”

Jack boosted the signal and directed it at the lead Blade.

“Ident confirmed. Welcome back, Major Forge.”

The Blades maneuvered into formation on either side of Jack. They were small by comparison, like a pair of racecars next to a tank, but they were highly maneuverable and extremely deadly. The nose-mounted laser assembly and flank hail cannon were as powerful as anything the fleet had in its arsenal. The Blades could fight off any small craft that evaded a destroyer’s heavy weapons, and they could close with an enemy’s largest ships fast and deliver a crippling blow. They were called the Blades because they could slice through a defense and cut an enemy to ribbons, softening them up for the knockdown blow from the destroyers and their supporting flotillas.

Jack relaxed as the clouds of nebula enveloped him. It felt like a thick blanket covering him, taking him into a soft bed where he could relax.

Sleep.

Jack slapped his leg to stave off the drowsiness that crept up on him like an assassin.

The fleet hiding in the dense nebula was revealed on the holostage as Jack drew closer. The massive shape of the carrier Scepter was the first ship Jack saw. The carrier was bigger than any of the warships in the fleet. It was the main landing base for the Blade fighter wing. The carrier was so massive, it had landing bays and a maintenance section capable of landing a frigate class vessel or up to three corvettes.

Moving in formation with the Blades along the length of the massive carrier, Jack next saw an even larger ship, one of the dozens of city-sized civilian transport ships. These massive ships were unarmed and extremely vulnerable. They relied on and owed their safety to the Scepter and its attendant warships.

As Jack moved past the Scepter, he saw his target up ahead. Emerging from the dust and gas was the Scorpio. Although smaller than the carrier, the Scorpio was one of the remaining destroyers and was itself a huge ship. With a formidable arsenal of laser assemblies and hail cannon batteries, the destroyer class was the fleet’s primary heavy hitter. It was heavily armored with durable hull composite augmented by hull integrity fields. The destroyers had small landing bays designed to house the thirty-six tac boats for its Marine battalion.

The Scorpio Battalion was Jack’s. He had been a part of it from his first posting as a Marine recruit all the way through to his current position as the ranking Marine officer of the Scorpio battalion. The battalion had shrunk greatly from its original three companies, each of twelve squads, and the tac boats were reduced even more to only a few functional craft.

The outer hangar door was open for Jack, so he moved in and contacted the Scorpio’s command deck for permission to land. Commander Chou, the Scorpio’s second-in-command, acknowledged Jack’s safe return and allocated him a landing spot in the hangar.

“Put her down gentle, sir,” the lead Blade said to Jack over his communicator.

“Thank you,” Jack said. “Good flying with you. Go the Blades.”

Jack maneuvered inside the hangar, the outer doors sliding shut behind him. He touched down with the slightest of jolts and began to isolate the tac boat’s reactor to commence shutdown. He worked on autopilot, his hands moving across the flight console, deactivating the subsystems in order. He realized he was not concentrating and made the conscious effort to focus on each minor operation of the shutdown procedure. The last thing the fleet wanted was a tac boat running free or a residual energy flare inside the hangar deck, a possible outcome of an incomplete or incorrect shut down.

Jack double-checked his work, pointing at each subsystem and speaking the result to himself to ensure he had completed the job correctly, then he climbed out of the seat, gathered the few items he had brought aboard, and walked to the boarding ramp.

The tac boat ramp dropped with a thud. The deck was busy with boats being prepped for scouting missions and some undergoing maintenance. At the far end of the hangar, Jack saw a Blade receiving some attention from a maintenance crew. The Blade was one of the Orphan group, the Blades that had been left homeless after the destruction of their carrier. These Orphan Blades now set down on any available deck in the fleet. The Scepter had crammed in as many as possible, as each remaining destroyer had their allocation. The rest of the Orphans were using the outer hulls of the frigates as makeshift landing pads.

The pilot of the Blade was sitting on the hangar deck, his back against the front landing strut of his ship. He had his arms folded and his ankles crossed. His head was down, and he was snoring loudly. The maintenance team moved as quietly as possibly, allowing the pilot to catch a few well-earned moments of sleep.

Jack left the hangar deck as a tac boat lifted off noisily, and he noticed the sleeping pilot appeared undisturbed.

Jack walked out into the familiar corridors of the Scorpio.

The Scorpio was busy, crew walking here and there, all focused on some task. There was a pair of Marines standing guard at one internal hatchway in full tactical suits with their pulse rifles slung on their shoulders, and they saluted Jack as he came near. He returned the salute and stepped through the hatch, making his way toward the command deck at the forward section of the destroyer.

All life was here. People working, eating, sleeping. The Scorpio was operating with a full crew compliment. All fleet ships had recruited suitable personnel from the civilian population aboard the massive civilian craft. Those here were glad to be, and the captain of the ship, Pretorius, was glad to have them. All were former fleet personnel, or former civilian fleet personnel, or at least had some technical experience that made them suitable for their new role.

The Fleet Marine Service, however, was not fully manned. The training facility set up on one of the civilian transports was not producing the best quality Marines. Jack recalled his introduction to Marine life. He’d been pressed into service, he’d been Tasered, flogged, half-starved, and then almost killed during an attack on the training base. He remembered it now in a sudden flood of memory. He particularly remembered being forced into a fistfight with a fellow recruit, a thuggish criminal who had since become a firm friend of Jack’s.

Stepping past another pair of Marine guards and onto the command deck, Jack felt the heightened tension. The fleet was hiding and in constant danger of being discovered. Their hiding spot had bought them some time to make what repairs they could, but there was still not enough time or resources.

Jack stepped over to the holostage at the center of the command deck. Captain Pretorius was looking at a holofile on a small handheld holostage, flicking through the information and cross-checking with the data on the main holostage, which showed a 3D image of the Scorpio—a line image showing all decks, corridors, vital systems, and subsystems. The ship was in full diagnostic and repair mode. Most of the subsystems were highlighted in yellow or red, and some were blacked out completely to show they were currently offline.

Pretorius handed the small holostage over to his second-in-command.

“Tell whoever we have in charge down there that the seals need to be reset manually. I don’t care what they did in the civilian fleet. I’m not leaving this nebula just to have my starboard thrusters fall away into space.”

Commander Chou nodded, took the tablet, and walked off quickly.

Pretorius looked up briefly.

“Jack, my boy. You look awful.”

“Thank you, sir.” He looked at the image on the main holostage. “The Scorpio doesn’t look so good either.”

“I’ve got systems failures across the board. I’ve got a team over from the Canis helping reset the main drive manifold. I’ve got half my gunnery crew training the other half how to service a hail cannon. And…” Pretorius looked up. “And we’re getting there…slowly. Did you find anything out there?”

“Maybe,” Jack said. He looked at the holoimage and the section where his quarters were. “I might have found a narrow channel out of here. But the chance is slipping away. The Skalidions are advancing all along the boundary. I’ve transmitted the data to the Scepter. It’s all with the admiral’s staff now.”

Pretorius took a holofile from a deck officer as it was handed to him. “We’ll be ready to move the moment the admiral gives the order. Why don’t you go get some sack time, Jack. You’ll be no good to me if you collapse from exhaustion.”

Jack nodded. “Yes, sir. Thank you. But I was going to look in on Commander Torent first.”

Pretorius placed the holofile down and looked at Jack.

“I should have told you already. I know he’s your friend. He’s with Fleet Intelligence. The alien tech division.”

Jack felt a wave of anger wash over him. Sam had given enough. Why couldn’t they just leave him alone?

“Alien tech division?” Jack asked. “They created a division just to torment Sam? Where are they?”

Pretorius looked at Jack with a cheeky grin. “Agent Reyes has him. Agent Sarah Reyes.”

Jack felt his breath catch in his chest. The sound of the name was like a symphony.

Sarah Reyes.

He had not seen her since… It had been too long.

“Where are they?” Jack said.

Pretorius zoomed in on the holoimage of the Scorpio and highlighted a maintenance workshop.

“They are in there.”

Jack pushed off the holostage. “Thank you, sir,” Jack said and moved off.

“Say hello and then get some sleep. That is an order, Major.”

Jack shouted back that he would, but he didn’t feel tired at all. He was excited.

Sarah Reyes. She was here.

The maintenance workshop was guarded by two Fleet Intelligence enforcers in their black tactical suits. They stopped Jack at the entrance.

“No one can enter.” One of the enforcers moved his pulse rifle and blocked Jack’s path.

“I’m here to see Agent Reyes,” Jack said. The sound of her name was wonderful, but the title of ‘agent’ was strange. Jack had only ever had a bad time at the hands of the Fleet Intelligence agents. He hoped Sarah would be pleased to see him.

“Jack?”

Jack heard his name from behind the workshop door. Then the sounds of running feet and his name called out again, louder, excited.

“Jack? Is that Jack Forge?”

The door was yanked open, and there stood Sarah Reyes—her bright eyes smiling at Jack, and her thick, dark hair bouncing around her perfect features. Her high collar black Fleet Intelligence uniform was decorated with a single silver pip on her chest.

“Sarah,” Jack said. He wanted to say so much more.

Pushing her way past the enforcers and reaching for Jack, Sarah smiled. “It’s good to see you!” She dragged Jack toward her, through the door, and into the workshop.

Jack let the door close behind him. He let Sarah throw her arms around his neck and kiss his cheek. It felt good to be close to her again. He squinted into the darkness. A single pool of light up ahead showed Sam, sitting up on a bench. He was shirtless and cradling his right arm by the wrist. His Mech arm.

Sarah took Jack by the hand and led him across to Sam.

“It is so good to see you, Jack. Sam’s been telling me everything.”

“Oh, good,” Jack said. “Pity you couldn’t get it from a reliable source.”

“Krav you, Jack,” Sam said. He jumped off the bench and leaned back against it. “You look terrible.”

Sarah wrapped an arm around Jack’s waist and walked him forward.

“Don’t mind Sam,” she said. “He’s just grumpy because I’m making him work.”

“What kind of work?” Jack said. He looked at Sam. His old friend was smiling. He still cradled his Mech arm, but he appeared to be fine. The last time intelligence agents had their hands on him, they had performed an investigation into his alien arm that was nothing short of torture. Now he looked fine.

Jack looked to Sarah Reyes. The uniform looked good on her, but it still held too many bad memories for Jack. He couldn’t trust the intelligence agency. They never seemed to have his interests at heart.

“We have been trying to discover the range of abilities Sam’s new arm has. It’s fascinating. The most interesting thing I’ve ever worked on.”

Sarah was a genius engineer, and she had managed to learn the secrets of alien tech before. She had some kind of innate ability to understand the strange and unknown.

Sam grabbed his shirt off a nearby bench. Sarah stopped him and grabbed his Mech arm. She tossed the shirt back to the workbench and tugged Sam’s arm toward Jack. Sam protested for a moment but let Sarah continue.

“It is amazing. Look,” Sarah said, pointing at the upper arm. “The doctors fitted an endcap, a place for Sam’s old cybernetic arm to attach and connect to his nervous system. The Mechs injected their Mech tissue at that point and look!” Sarah tugged again. “It’s gone. It’s been transformed into Mech tissue. I can’t detect any sign of the endcap interface.”

Jack looked at Sam’s arm. It merged seamlessly into the lower arm and hand that was clearly composed of the dark strands of Mech tissue, forming a human-shaped arm and hand.

Jack looked at Sam. He was worried about the arm.

“You okay?”

Sam nodded. “It feels great.”

“Show him,” Sarah said. She let go of Sam’s arm.

Sam grinned at Jack. He looked around the workshop and spotted his shirt on the workbench.

Sam held out his hand toward the shirt. Jack watched and saw the fingers begin to unravel, fine threads of Mech tissue unwinding so the hand was gone, replaced by the fine dark strand.

Jack had seen this before when Sam interfaced with the Devex technology. But then something new happened. The threads began to stretch forward.

Sam grunted with effort.

“Concentrate,” Sarah said calmly, soothingly.

Jack watched as Sam’s arm unraveled and reached for the shirt. The fine threads gripped the shirt and began to draw back, bringing the shirt with it.

Sam grunted in pain and effort.

“Don’t overdo it, Sam,” Sarah said. She placed a hand on his bare shoulder.

Jack stared for a moment at Sarah’s hand, touching Sam’s bare skin. He wanted that touch. Then he looked to the shirt and saw Sam drawing it toward him. Then the hand began to reform, and finally, with Sam gasping for breath and on the point of exhaustion, he held the shirt in his fully-formed, human-shaped hand. He looked at Jack. Beads of sweat lined his forehead.

Sarah squealed in delight and clapped excitedly, then she patted Sam on the back.

“That was amazing, Sam. The best yet. Well done.”

Sam nodded. he began to pull his shirt on and then his knees gave way.

Jack was there in an instant, acting entirely on instinct. He grabbed Sam and stopped him from falling.

“Easy there, Sam,” Jack said.

“I think…” Sam panted. “I might have—” He paused. “—gone a bit too far.”

Sarah helped Sam put his shirt on and leaned him against the bench. “I think we’ll apply a med-pack and let you get some rest,” Sarah said.

Sam climbed up onto the bench and laid down. He was asleep in a moment.

“Is he okay?” Jack asked.

Sarah placed a med-pack on Sam’s forehead and looked at the display.

“He’s exhausted,” she said, reading the diagnosis. “Sleep and something good to eat and he’ll be right as rain.” She turned to Jack. “You look tired too.”

Jack nodded. “I just had to come and see you.”

Sarah smiled. “It’s good to see you too, Jack. I never thought I’d see you again. When you were left behind…”

Jack placed a hand on her waist. “It’s okay.”

“I had to leave,” Sarah said, looking down. “I had no choice.”

“It’s okay,” Jack said again. “We all did our duty. Speaking of duty, you’re not working maintenance anymore.” Jack looked her black agent’s uniform up and down.

“I was sworn into the intelligence agency. I have a brief to reverse engineer any alien tech.”

Sarah stepped closer to Jack.

“Like Sam’s arm?” Jack asked, taking a step closer.

“I have a broad jurisdiction. I’m pretty independent. I can work on whatever takes my fancy.” She stepped closer.

Jack could feel her body heat. He could smell her hair.

“We should swap notes,” Jack said. “I’ve seen some crazy alien tech recently.”

Sarah reached up and placed her hand on Jack’s shoulder. He looked down into her shining eyes.

Then Sam jerked in his sleep, crying out in pain. His arm unraveled and threads erupted outward.

Sarah turned to Sam and adjusted the med-pack on his forehead. Sam fell quiet again, but his arm remained a frayed mess of Mech fibers.

Sarah turned to Jack, a little concerned.

“I should get back to work,” she said, pointing at Sam. “The arm does strange things when he’s asleep. I need to monitor it all.”

Jack nodded.

“And you could use some sleep too,” Sarah said. “I have broad agent powers and can order you to bed,” she said with a half-smile.

Jack nodded. “I should sleep. I’ll be back on duty at the top of the next watch.”

“I’ll see you soon,” Sarah said. “I hear a bunch of former ball professionals are putting on an exhibition match of 360 switch ball in one of the civ arenas. Take me?”

Jack nodded. He felt his passion for Sarah grow. Then he felt his eyelids droop and tiredness come over him.

“Sure. I’d love to take you,” Jack said. He stepped away, reluctant to leave Sarah but eager to lie down and sleep.

The sound from the ship-wide communicator echoed around the large, dark workshop.

“All hands to battle stations. This is the captain. Devex warship on intercept course. All hands. All hands. This is not a drill. Battle stations.”

5

The command deck was a frenzy of activity when Jack walked in. Captain Pretorius was sitting in his command chair, and an image of Group Captain Tanaka aboard the Scepter dominated the main holostage. Her avatar hung over the map of the entire fleet at the base of the image.

“We are not sure that they have detected us,” Tanaka said.

Pretorius nodded. “Nevertheless, it’s better to assume hostile intent at this stage.”

“Agreed. How is the Scorpio, Captain?” Tanaka asked.

“We are battle ready. Limited functionality on some subsystems, but we can bring all offensive systems to action. The Scorpio stands ready.”

“Acknowledged, Scorpio,” Tanaka said. “Move to the vanguard. Good luck. Group out.”

Jack looked up at Pretorius in his chair. The captain looked tired. His beard was showing, and he had clearly spent an entire watch rotation on the command deck. Now he was going to put the Scorpio in the vanguard of the fleet.

Jack didn’t know Pretorius had noticed his arrival until the captain spoke, his gray eyes fixed on the small armrest holostage and the files he was activating there.

“Better get suited up, Jack,” Pretorius said without looking down. “We can expect company. And if those Devex do board us, I will be relying on you and your Marines to keep them away from our vital systems.”

“Maybe I can infiltrate the Devex before they get here. I just need a handful of Marines and Commander Torent.”

Pretorius didn’t look down. He was busy preparing the Scorpio for battle.

“We have our orders, Jack. I want the battalion deployed throughout the ship.” He looked down at Jack, his eyes red with fatigue. “Make ready to defend the Scorpio. Beat to quarters, Major Forge.”

Jack nodded his compliance and ran off toward the Marine deck.

The corridors were busy but steadily becoming less so as crew made for their battle stations, locking down hatchways and access points, sealing themselves into their stations. Jack activated his communicator and messaged the battalion to muster on the Marine deck in full tactical gear. Jack went to his locker and pulled out his tactical suit. He had only just taken it off after days of wearing it, and its self-cleaning program and system update were still in progress. Jack canceled both and began to pull the familiar suit on. It was cold from the cleaning program, but it would be hot soon enough and the environmental systems would be running at full capacity to channel his excess body heat and perspiration away.

Jack let the suit seal before slapping a pulse pistol to the hip holster. The suit grabbed the pistol and held it in place, ready for the moment Jack would need it. He grabbed his pulse rifle and slung it over his shoulder, and the familiar feel of the weapon against his back was a minor comfort. Then he put on his helmet and strode off to the Marine deck where his battalion would be waiting.

“Where is everyone?” Jack said as he stepped on to the deck with only one full company standing ready for orders.

The battalion squares marked out on the Marine deck were there for the twelve squads for each of the three companies of the battalion—Adder, Boa, and Cobra. Currently, only Adder was filled, and a single squad stood in place on the Boa company square.

“Where’s Cobra?” Jack said.

Commander Osho stepped up. “Orders from the general. Concentrate all squads into A Company in each battalion.”

Jack looked at the empty Cobra square. That was his company. Although he was now battalion commanding officer, he still had affection for his old company.

“Listen up, Marines. We have a Devex warship approaching. If they have detected the fleet, they will try and take the civilian transports. It’s the Scorpio’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen. However, they will try and board the Scorpio to take her out of the fight, and it’s our job to make sure they fail.

“Hold the drive room and the command deck at all costs. We will not fail the Scorpio, and she won’t fail us. Squads, to your stations. Go.”

The squad leaders shouted the order again for the Marines to move. They ran out in good order, squad leaders leading the way.

The defensive positions throughout the ship were preselected for maximum defensive strength. Main routes along the length of the vessel were defended, as were the main entrances to the drive room and the command deck. The Devex would have a hard time moving through the ship, and they would face resistance at every step. The drive and command deck were particularly heavily defended. Loss of either would render the Scorpio ineffective and out of the fight. Once neutralized, it could be bypassed or destroyed.

The Devex were powerful, but the destroyers were powerful as well and could take on the Devex. They were not invulnerable, but in all encounters, the Devex made a significant impact on the fleet only once. The Devex had destroyed a carrier, the Overlord, and a number of destroyers, but that encounter had taught the fleet a lot about their enemy. They were not about to lose to them again.

They were ready this time.

Commander Osho stood next to Jack as the Marines ran out of the deck.

“Where will you be, sir?” Osho asked.

Jack checked his wrist-mounted holostage. They were too few. If the Devex came in force, the Scorpio could not hold them off indefinitely. Jack knew he could only delay them and hope the rest of the fleet beat the attackers back.

“I’ll be on the command deck overseeing the defense. If it comes to it, I’ll join the defensive action outside the command deck.”

Jack checked the progress of the Marines throughout the ship. The tiny points of light representing each Marine moved over the holoimage of the Scorpio mapped out. One Marine was moving against the flow of the others, toward the Marine deck that was now empty save for Jack and Osho.

“Who didn’t report?” Jack said. “Someone is tardy.”

Sam stepped into the Marine deck wearing his utility outfit.

“Reporting for duty, sir,” Sam said.

“Sam? Are you fit for duty?” Jack knew Sam wouldn’t run from a fight, and Jack needed every available hand, but Sam was under the orders of the Fleet Intelligence.

“Sarah, I mean, Agent Reyes, said I’m fit for duty.” Sam held up his Mech hand. He clenched and unclenched the fist. “She still wants to run a few more exercises with me, but only if we survive the attack.”

Jack nodded, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Get suited up and grab a pulse rifle.” Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “Join me on the command deck when you are done.” Then, turning to Osho, he said, “Hold the drive room. Good luck.”

Osho saluted Jack. “To us all, sir,” she said before quickly moving off.

“Are you sure you are fit?” Jack said, walking with Sam toward the exit.

“I’m fit, Jack. Are you?” Sam asked.

Jack felt tired, but he had his duty. He had to be fit.

“Hurry and join me on the command deck,” Jack said as Sam made his way to storage to collect his tactical suit. “I might need to you slap me if I start to fall asleep.”

“Strike a superior officer?” Sam said. “I’ll be in trouble then for sure. If you make me do that, Jack, I’d kravin well better kill you.”

Jack grinned, and the pair separated, Sam heading to collect his equipment as Jack hurried to the command deck.

The deck was strangely quiet, but still fully crewed with its many officers. Pretorius and Commander Chou stood at the holostage looking at the current fleet formation displayed there.

The center of the image was the Scorpio. On this scale, it appeared about as big as a Marine in full tactical suit. Around the Scorpio were the support ships assigned to the vanguard. A frigate held position off the port side and another off the starboard. Two corvettes were in formation abreast of each other holding a few hundred meters above and behind the Scorpio’s stern. A squadron of Blades were in close formation, hidden under the Scorpio’s belly.

Behind the Scorpio, the rest of the fleet crept deeper into the nebula, hoping to avoid the Devex and make an escape.

Bearing down on the destroyer was the Devex warship—a huge craft, bigger than the biggest fleet ship. Heavily armored, heavily armed, and packed with scores of Devex raiders and thousands of Devex warriors.

Jack stepped up to the holostage. He was greeted by Chou with a slight nod before the commander resumed his duties. Pretorius didn’t look away from the display. He reached out and tapped the holoimage of the Scorpio on the upper laser assembly. The image zoomed in. The data readout showed that the laser was fully charged.

“We’ve had some trouble with the anterior emitter loop on the upper assembly,” Pretorius said. “If it fails, that’s where the Devex will try and board. That’s the weak link.”

“The battalion is spread pretty thin, Captain,” Jack said.

“Will they stand?”

“Oh, they will stand, sir. We have enough veterans in the ranks to help the new Marines along when it gets tough.”

“And what about you, Jack? How are you going to hold out when it gets tough? According to your latest data feed, you haven’t slept in…” Pretorius looked away from the holoimage and at Jack. “Too long, Major.”

“Well, it is too late for sleep now. Maybe I’ll get a chance after the Devex have been dealt with.”

Pretorius scrutinized Jack. Pretorius was a friend and mentor, but now he was captain of his ship and Jack was the battalion commanding officer. Jack wasn’t Pretorius’s friend now, he was an asset, a weapon, and he was not at peak efficiency. Like the upper laser assembly, Pretorius had a doubt that Jack could perform to the necessary level.

Jack felt the cold, gray eyes study him, looking for weakness. Then he looked back to the holoimage, presumably satisfied that Jack was up to the task.

A command deck officer called out, “Devex Warship approaching weapons range.”

Jack looked at the range finder. The dense nebula would make targeting more difficult and less accurate than in the vacuum of space, but a well-aimed shot from the Devex energy weapon could still strike the hull of the Scorpio. And the Devex could deliver a wide spread of the rapid-fire white energy bullets. One hit would give away the Scorpio’s position and allow more accurate targeting.

Jack knew battle was only moments away.

“Draw back the surveillance drones,” Pretorius said. “Slowly. Let’s assume they haven’t spotted us. I’m not going to give our position away if I can help it.”

Jack watched the small drone network ten thousand kilometers in front of the Scorpio slowly move back to the destroyer. Deeper in the nebula, the Devex ship came to a halt. A wave of dust and gas billowed forward as a bow wave ahead of the Devex ship, heading toward the Scorpio.

The sudden halt in the Devex ship’s progress drew murmurs from around the deck. Commander Chou called out for quiet, and the command deck fell silent again.

The Devex warship hung there in the colorful clouds, disappearing from sensor view as the surveillance drones drew back, the dust and gas of the nebula scattering the signals to practically nothing.

Jack watched the image fade.

“Ready forward batteries. High-density kinetic hail load. Open all combat drone launch tubes. Stand by for contact,” Pretorius said.

Then out of the dust that obscured the massive warship came a Devex raider. The bulky little ship was the primary interceptor fighter and warrior deployment craft. They were similar in size to a fleet tac boat, but longer and more streamlined for operation in planetary atmospheres as well as deep space. The weapons array, a line of the Devex blaster weapons, were deployed across the front of the raider and extended a meter out from each side. Although small, the rapid-fire blasters could deliver a relentless stream of the tiny but devastating white energy bullets. The raiders were dangerous little craft, and the fleet was wary of them. And when they came in numbers, they were a match for a destroyer, evading the destroyer’s hail cannon with their incredible maneuverability.

Jack watched the raider emerge from the dust and come into weapons range.

“Stand by weapons control,” Pretorius said.

Jack was impressed by the captain’s stoicism. The captain gave away no hint of what he might be feeling, but Jack guessed he was as concerned as any other person would be that fury and fire was about to fall on the ship they all called home.

The raider came closer. Jack watched the holoimage feeding surveillance data to the image in real time and expected to see the other Devex raiders emerge in their spearhead formation.

But there were none. The single raider came on.

Now Jack realized the raider’s speed was slow. Not a race into combat. Maybe it was a scout. A single craft sent to find the enemy, to pinpoint the location before the full weight of fire power could be delivered. A sacrificial craft.

Engaging the target would give away the Scorpio’s position. Jack knew Pretorius would not reveal himself for one raider…

Then the raider stopped.

“Full power to forward hull integrity field,” Pretorius said.

Jack felt alive, his senses tingling. He gripped the edge of the holostage and waited for the stream of white energy to come pouring through the clouds and slam into the Scorpio.

Then came a flash from the front of the raider that lit up the surrounding dust and gas. A bright white flash that was quickly followed by a second. Then nothing. Then three more flashes.

Then nothing.

“Weapons control ready for your command, sir,” the weapons officer called out.

“Stand by,” Pretorius said.

“Are they trying to detect us?” Jack said.

Then another series of flashes.

“Analysis,” Pretorius said.

But when the next burst of lights came, Jack knew what it was.

“Prime numbers,” Jack said. “It’s flashing us with primes. They are trying to communicate.”

“Copy that,” Pretorius said. He walked over to his command chair and climbed up to the seat. After a few moments and another prime number had flashed from the Devex, the image of Tanaka appeared on the main holostage inset against the images coming from the nebular.

“Are you seeing this, sir?” Pretorius said.

Tanaka nodded. “Maintain position, Scorpio. Send out surveillance drones and gather as much data as possible. Scepter out.”

Jack was amazed. The Devex had never attempted contact before. It might be a trap, a ruse. Pretorius clearly felt the same.

“Send out the drones carefully. Show me that Devex warship and target that raider with the forward laser assembly. If this standoff goes wrong, I want that raider vaporized in the first nanosecond of the fight.”

The holostage showed the surveillance drones as tiny points of light as they move away from the Scorpio. As they drifted into the dense nebula, the Scorpio’s effective sensor range was extended. Behind the single raider, several hundred kilometers behind, was a wall of raiders, all hanging in formation.

And as the drones went deeper, closer, the Devex warship could be seen behind the raider wall. The huge ship was still in its last-known position. Sitting there, huge, dark, and threatening, but motionless. Waiting.

The communication officer called out from his console.

“Captain, I am detecting an audio transmission from the raider. It is computer generated, but it’s in plain language.”

“Let’s hear it,” Pretorius said. He stepped down from his command chair and walked to the holostage.

The sound of a computer-generated voice sounded alien and synthetic, but the words were clear.

Pretorius staggered to a halt as he heard the words, the first contact with the Devex that did not involve weaponry.

The message repeated on a loop.

“We request meeting. We request Jack Forge.”

6

Jack stood in stunned silence as all eyes on the Scorpio’s command deck turned to him. Listening again and again to the Devex voice calling him by name was hypnotic. Pretorius signaled the communications officer to cancel the message with a swipe of his hand, but even after the audio was cancelled, Jack could still hear the sound echoing around in his head along with the single thought.

“Why me?”

“Jack,” Pretorius said, stepping over to him. “Get cleaned up as best you can. I think the admiral will want to talk with you.”

And no sooner had Pretorius said it than a message was received from the Scepter.

“Pretorius,” the admiral said, his image filling the holostage. “Jack Forge? He’s one of yours, isn’t he?”

Pretorius held his hand out toward Jack. “He’s right here, Admiral.”

Jack detected a tone in Pretorius’s voice that he’d not heard before. The captain was stunned. And when he looked over at Jack, there was a look in his eye, something like distrust.

Jack shook his head in short little movements.

“I don’t know what they want with me,” Jack said.

“Get over here now, Forge,” the admiral said.

Jack staggered off the command deck. As he stepped into the corridor outside, two black-suited Fleet Intelligence enforcers came marching down the hall. Jack stopped in his tracks as the two tall enforcers, fully armed and in full tactical gear, walked toward him. They stopped in front of Jack and fell in alongside him.

“What is it?” Jack said, looking from one to the other.

“We are here to escort you, sir,” one said from behind his helmet’s black faceplate.

The news had spread through the ship faster than a plasma fire in a high oxygen atmosphere, and the corridors were filled with stunned faces, all watching Jack as he marched along with his enforcer escort. The only two faces to not look at Jack with a mixture of fear and distrust were Sam Torent and Sarah Reyes as they came toward Jack.

“We heard,” Sarah said, reaching out to Jack.

“Move aside,” one enforcer said.

Sarah tapped her lapel and her agent insignia. “I will speak with the major, Enforcer,” she said firmly.

“My orders come from the admiral’s office, Agent Reyes,” the enforcer said. “Now stand aside.”

Sam Torent stepped in front of the enforcer. He was wearing his tactical suit, but he had the helmet under his arm. He looked small next to the fully-suited enforcer, but Jack knew that look in Sam’s eye. Sam was not about to take a backwards step.

“And I take my orders from Major Forge,” Sam said.

Jack appreciated the support from his two oldest friends, but there was more at stake here than any of them could guess. Jack knew he had to go. He placed a hand on Sam’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Sam. I’ve got this.”

Sam looked at Jack and then up at the nearest enforcer. “I’m coming with you,” he said.

“The major will come alone,” the enforcer replied coldly.

Noticing Sam clenching his Mech fist, Jack knew he had to calm matters.

“Stand down, Commander,” Jack said, then in a softer tone he added, “I’ll be okay.”

“I should come,” Sarah said. “No one is better qualified than me to help, Jack.”

“The major will come alone. Now stand aside.” The enforcers brought up their pulse rifles in a swift movement, each one pointing at Jack’s friends.

“It’s okay,” Jack said, hand in the air. He stepped in front of Sam and Sarah. “Put your weapons down.” He turned to Sam. “You can’t help me like this.” Then to Sarah, “Find out whatever you can.”

One of the enforcers shoved Jack with the side of his pulse rifle. Jack turned.

“Take it easy,” Jack said. “I’m going.”

With a final nod to his friends, Jack marched off toward the nearest hangar deck and the waiting transport.

The hangar was empty save for another pair of enforcers standing at the foot of the boarding ramp to a tac boat. Jack walked up and inside without breaking his stride, an enforcer a step behind. Then, once inside, the ramp began to close. In the cabin lights, Jack could see someone sitting in one of the rear seats

“Sit down, Major.”

Jack recognized the voice immediately. He dropped into the nearest seat.

“Agent Mallet. Are you part of my escort?”

Mallet leaned back in her seat as the containment fields activated. The cabin lights changed to red as the tac boat pilot called out the egress procedure.

“Somehow I knew you’d be back on the agency’s agenda.”

Jack felt the acceleration kick in through fluctuations on the containment field. The fluctuations on pressure across his body made him feel nauseous, or maybe it was the proximity to the agent who had so recently tried to have him executed.

Jack sat back and tried to rest. He was used to flying these tac boats himself, but now he was a passenger. There were other things beyond his control, not just this tac boat. The near future was going to be filled with events that Jack could barely control. He was a passenger in the events of the fleet and the Devex. Whatever was happening was beyond him, and he would have to respond as best he could.

But he was tired. He had always done his duty for the fleet and for the Marines, for those under his command and those giving him his orders. He had always faced the unknown with courage. This was no different to any other time he had faced the unknown, he lied to himself. But this was different. Now an alien power was asking for him.

Jack felt hungry, tired. He needed a good shower, and he could use a break. But here he was hurtling across space from one fleet ship to another, on his way to the unknown. He was on his way to find an answer to the riddle. Why did the Devex want to speak to Jack Forge?

“Anyone got anything to eat?” Jack said.

Mallet shook her head. An enforcer handed Jack a nutrition puree pack—a small ration drink designed for field operations.

Jack hated the nutrition puree, but he tore off the top and pressed the cold, thick, tasteless slime into his mouth. He heard Mallet laugh in single breathy grunt from the red-tinted darkness of the rear of the tac boat.

“Thank you,” Jack said, handing the empty pack to the enforcer who took it from him. Then Jack closed his eyes. He was fed, now he needed some rest. He’d be meeting the admiral in a few minutes. Just enough time for a Marine to grab some sleep. In battle, a few minutes of sleep could keep a Marine going for hours, and Jack had no doubt that he was going into battle.

The sleep was brief, and then Jack was back on his feet. The escorting enforcers fell in behind Jack while Agent Mallet walked alongside. The corridors of the Scepter where clear all the way to the transport loop that waited, doors open, and another pair of enforcers guarding the entrance.

Jack walked into the transport pod without a word. Mallet kept pace with him. He turned and faced the doorway as the doors slid shut.

The slightest feeling of movement was all Jack could detect as the transport pod moved along the loop. The carrier was far too large for Jack to be expected to walk from the hangar to the command deck, where he assumed he was going.

The transport pod doors slid open a few silent moments later, and another pair of enforcers were waiting. Jack knew the admiral was taking no chance in bringing Jack swiftly to him. At the entrance to the command deck, Mallet grabbed Jack’s arm. Her fingers gripped tightly and held him for a fraction, long enough for her to whisper, “If I get the slightest hint that you are in league with the Devex, there will be no trial, no interview, just a hanger deck and a line of enforcers waiting for you.”

The memory of the firing squad had disturbed Jack’s sleep ever since, but he’d had so little of it lately that he felt he could sleep soundly even knowing Mallet was still clearly out to get him.

The Scepter’s command deck was similar to the Scorpio’s. The central holostage was the same size, and it currently displayed the image of the fleet hidden in the nebula and the single raider that had approached. The range finder showed that the raider was within weapons range. A single blast from the Scepter’s forward laser assembly, even from one single emitter, would vaporize the Raider in an instant.

Sitting in the command chair facing the holostage was Group Captain Tanaka. She looked down as Jack walked in and then climbed down from her chair.

“This way,” she said and walked toward a small side entrance behind a bank of consoles and the officers standing there. They all looked at Jack as he walked by—some nervous, some excited, all curious to why he alone had been identified by the Devex.

Through the small side opening, Jack stepped into a conference room. A long table filled the room with a smaller holostage at its center. It too displayed the fleet and the Devex messenger.

At the head of the table sat Admiral Henson. Next to him was General Wallace. Jack recognized them as much for their uniforms as their features. He had only ever seen them on a few occasions.

Alongside the general was a person Jack had only met once briefly. Jack recognized the uniform first. It marked him as Colonel Snipe, Commanding Officer of the Scepter Battalion. He wore a Fleet Marine Platinum Star, the same gallantry award Jack himself had received. Snipe looked up at Jack with a half-smile and a nod.

Group Captain Tanaka took a seat opposite the admiral and invited Jack to sit at her side.

The admiral tapped the control panel on the tabletop before him, and the holoimage on it changed to the Chief of Fleet Intelligence..

As agent Mallet took a seat at the table, the admiral sat back and began talking.

“The Devex have asked for you, Jack Forge. Why?”

Jack looked at the admiral in shock. Why would they think he knew? He looked at the general, who was fixing Jack with a stare. The colonel was smiling at Jack, perhaps enjoying the young, infamous officer’s discomfort.

All around the table, all eyes were on him.

“I don’t know,” Jack said at last.

“In all our encounters with the Devex,” Agent Mallet said, almost spitting venom with each word, “we have had conflict. Now they want to speak with you, after you have been aboard one of their ships.” Mallet looked sideways at Jack, fixing him with a stare. “What did you agree with them? Do you intend to turn us all over to them?”

Jack rolled his eyes. Mallet had a habit of making everything he had ever done sound like treason.

“I have had no communications with the Devex. I’ve only ever fought them, and they have only ever fought me. I don’t know why they would ask for me. Unless…” Jack trailed off and looked around the table.

“Unless what, Major?” General Wallace leaned forward. He was softly spoken for a big man.

“If they asked for me, maybe they knew we’d have a high-level meeting like this. Now you have the leaders from across the fleet, all in one place. Maybe they want to kill the leaders.”

The holoimage of Chief Agent Pound laughed out loud. His image flickered as he rocked back and forth.

“I told you he was a clever one,” Pound said. “And I’m happy I am not on that huge target of a ship.”

Jack sensed the tension increase a notch. He looked at the admiral, who was looking a little uncomfortable at the head of the table. Across from him, Colonel Snipe was smiling broadly.

“The Devex have asked you to speak with them,” Chief Agent Pound said, looking out from the holoimage directly at Jack. “We don’t know what they are going to say, but they won’t say it to anyone else. Whatever you did on their ship, you made an impact.”

“I just did my duty.”

“We’ll expect you to do so again,” the admiral said.

Jack could do little but nod his agreement.

The holoimage of Chief Pound shrank away to the side of the stage, and the image of the Devex raider took over the center of the display. Jack felt all eyes on him.

“Are you ready?” the admiral asked.

Jack was tired, hungry, and in need of a shower and a run to clear his head. He was not ready to talk to the Devex, but he didn’t think he ever would be.

“Ready,” he agreed.

Group Captain Tanaka tapped her wrist-mounted device and spoke into it.

“Open communication with the Devex raider.”

The image flickered, and an image of a Devex warrior appeared, a head and shoulders image showing the dull silver helmet with the dark horizontal line at what Jack presumed was eye level.

“I am Jack Forge,” Jack said. He felt foolish saying it sitting here amongst the highest-ranked officers on the fleet.

The reply was mechanical and stilted, but in plain language that all could understand.

“The Devex Empire requests alliance with Jack Forge. Do you agree or do we engage in battle now?”

A claxon alarm sounded from the command deck just outside the conference room. Group Captain Tanaka got up from the table and dashed out. The admiral sat back, his fist pressed to his lips. Then the holostage changed to show the fleet at the center of the image and the Devex warship moving in closer, then out of the thick gas of the nebula came more Devex warships, moving in on all sides.

Looking up at the colonel, Jack saw Snipe seemingly relaxed and still smiling. He nodded at Jack, inviting him to answer the Devex.

“Yes?” Jack said uncertainly. “We agree to an alliance.”

“Why do you want an alliance with our fleet?” the admiral said.

The Devex did not reply.

Snipe laughed out loud and then pointed Jack toward the holoimage of the Devex, instructing him to repeat the admiral’s words.

Feeling like he was acting way above his rank, Jack shifted uncomfortably and repeated the question.

“Why do you want an alliance with our fleet?”

“Not fleet. Jack Forge. We have the numbers to defeat the Skalidion. Jack Forge has the skill. We need an alliance with Jack Forge.”

Snipe smiled at Jack. “Looks like you got their attention when you kicked their asses last time, Major.”

Jack looked to the admiral. Henson was nodding and mouthing the word ‘yes.’

“I need assurances,” Jack said.

“Tell us.”

“The fleet must be allowed passage through your space.”

“Agreed.”

The answer came quickly, almost without thought.

“I need time to make an assessment of the Skalidion threat.”

“No. No time. We act now. We defeat Skalidion forces now.”

“No,” Jack said.

The tension around the table rose again, except for Colonel Snipe, who was beaming a smile from ear to ear, enjoying the exchange. Mallet was glowering at Jack. General Wallace stood up, fists on the table.

“Don’t tell them no, Major, or I’ll bust you back to grunt right here and now.”

Snipe waved dismissively at Wallace. “General. Don’t interrupt the major. He knows what he’s doing.”

Turning to the image of the Devex warrior, Jack repeated himself. “No. We will lose if we don’t first study the Skalidions.”

“Know your enemy?” the Devex said. “Is that how you beat us?”

Jack felt a flush of embarrassment. He had fought the Devex and beaten them on several occasions, but only by the narrowest of margins and not with any convincing final victory.

“No. I beat you because you did not know us.” Jack said.

“The Skalidion move closer. You will be discovered and destroyed too. Act now. Act fast.”

“Send me all maps of local space and all known Skalidion positions,” Jack said, standing up. “I need to assemble a team. Do you agree?”

“The Devex agree,” the warrior said, and the channel closed.

Standing at the table with all eyes on him, Jack felt more nervous than when facing the most vicious enemy. He controlled his fear of the top ranks and spoke up.

“Do I have the admiral’s permission?” Jack looked at Henson.

Henson nodded.

Looking at the general, Jack repeated the request for permission to proceed. The general nodded too.

Colonel Snipe stood up and walked around the table. “I’ll see the major has what he needs,” Snipe said.

“And I’ll be right alongside you both,” Agent Mallet said, rising from her seat.

Colonel Snipe held Mallet back with a hand. “I don’t think so, Agent. The surveillance mission is a Marine operation.”

The image of Chief Pound, fully restored to the holoimage, spoke up.

“Major Forge can operate alone, but all information is to be directed through intelligence channels back to all other departments.”

The admiral and the general both nodded their agreement.

Snipe put an arm around Jack and led him away. “Let’s find you a ship. And I can recommend some great officers on my staff who’d be willing to assist you, Jack.”

Jack shook his head. “Thank you, Colonel. I’ll need a few tac boats, but I think I know who I want for my team. Can you get word to Commander Torent aboard the Scorpio? I’ll join him there as soon as possible.”

Snipe spoke into his wrist-mounted device to inform the Scorpio of the request, then he stopped Jack.

“And I’d be happy to assist you in any way I can. We’ve all heard of Jack Forge. To be honest, I thought you’d have been killed long ago. You are either very lucky or very clever. I hope it’s the latter.” Snipe grinned.

“After all the action I’ve had to go through, I wouldn’t say I was very lucky. If I could have a bath and a few hours’ sleep at this point, I’d call that lucky.”

Snipe laughed. “I never expected you to be so funny.”

Jack had been called many things, from hero to traitor, but he had never been called funny before. He suspected that Snipe found a lot of things funny.

Snipe led Jack into the Scepter’s battalion offices. Here, the management of the carrier group’s battalions was managed. Snipe had been colonel for the Scepter group for as long as Jack had been a Marine. The office was where he managed the Marines under his command.

Snipe led Jack to a large desk and showed him to the seat. The Devex data was already displayed on the small holostage. A holoimage showed a large number of star systems and a stack of holofiles. A group of clerical staff were already at work.

“Work fast, Jack,” Snipe said.

Looking at the stack of data made Jack feel even more tired, but he had a job to do. He began by looking at the locations of the Skalidions. This was as close as he wanted to get to them, but he knew he would have to get closer. Much, much closer.

7

The nest was crowded with all the nurse drones scurrying about taking the soldier larvae to their pods. Phisrid watched through the eyes of her observer caste where her forces had encountered the Devex. A star system in the center of her front against the Devex.

Her forces massed for the final push into the Devex lines. Hundreds of enemy warships formed a defensive line with a planet at its center. The planet was orbited by several moons no bigger than asteroids, but large enough for a sizable defensive installation.

The Skalidion fighters hung in formation, a huge teardrop with the builders forming the tapered end pointing away from the Devex.

The observers moved in closer, scanning the formation and searching for a weakness. The Devex ships held close, reluctant to move from their supporting neighbors or move too far from the defensive installations on the asteroid surface.

Phisrid knew a frontal assault would be costly. It was the sort of tactic her sister had favored, and it had been her downfall. Too aggressive. It was better to move carefully, cautiously. Better to pick a vulnerable spot and then strike. Either way, Phisrid knew this attack would be costly. She was creating her own soldiers now. She was the swarm queen. Soon she would be providing soldiers for her sub-queen daughters, when she began to spawn them. But for now, she was going to expand and grow, and that would come at the expense of her soldiers’ lives.

The Devex ships held formation as the planet moved slowly about its orbit, maneuvering to keep the widest front facing the Skalidion. If Phisrid were to attack, she would come under fire from all ships in the formation. The front of her formation would take terrible damage.

But she had the numbers to overwhelm even this position. The Devex had populated the two inner planets and some moons around the outer gas giants. Phisrid sent a fighter phalanx in closer to one of the outer moons.

The Devex fire came the instant her fighters were in range. The streams of minute white energy bullets came tearing up from the moon’s surface. The Skalidion fighters exploded, their green fire ballooning out in billowing clouds that faded and finally died to nothing. The builders moved in to devour what remained of the fighters and return their matter to the next asteroid many astro units behind the front line, deep in Phisrid’s expanding territory.

The defensive fire from the moon was heavy and sustained, but it had peaked. Phisrid released a second phalanx and rushed the moon’s surface, closing in on the fixed Devex position.

The phalanx overwhelmed the Devex, obliterated them with bursts of green fire dropped to the surface, and when the white energy bullets stopped flying and the Devex fell silent, the builders moved in and devoured what remained.

Phisrid looked to the formation in the inner system. More fixed positions and the Devex warships. The thrill of her small victory filled her with confidence. She poised ready to attack.

Then the Devex made their mistake. A misalignment in their formation. A group of ships on the sunward flank moved too far from their supporting moon defense battery.

The instant she identified the chink in the Devex armor, she deployed her fighters. They raced in toward the narrow gap, a dagger to pierce an opening in heavy armor. A flurry of defensive fire poured from the Devex, but they sensed their destruction even as the Skalidion fighters fell in their hundreds. The Devex could not destroy them all. Phisrid knew she had won. There was the carnage to come, but the outcome was certain.

The Devex knew this also and began to fall back, dropping toward the central star and using gravitational slingshots to hurl themselves out of the system, abandoning it to the Skalidions.

The builders moved in, falling onto the fixed defensive installations. In a final act of defiance, the Devex garrison detonated the self-destruct and annihilated themselves and the attacking Skalidions. But there was plenty of matter for Phisrid’s remaining builders to devour. The fighters charged after the fleeing Devex, chasing them out of the system, with bursts of Skalidion green fire scorching the retreating ships.

The corridors of the civilian vessel were filled with the dispossessed. Hundreds of civilians without a cabin to call home made their homes in the corridors. A shantytown of improvised tents along every corridor. The sight of these scum made Agent Mallet sick. These feral humans should have been left behind in the evacuation.

Ident codes from many flashed up on Mallet’s receiver. Some of this human detritus had no idents, showing they were either outcast or criminal before the evacuation. Living in this squalor would not change their status and probably would only serve to embed it further. Mallet wondered if it would be best to vent this entire section into space.

A small stall set up on the corner of a junction in the smallest of recesses was cooking food on an open fire from an unregulated micro plasma coil. The food smelled revolting to Mallet, a mixture of crushed insect and fungus masquerading as meat, but the stall had a small crowd waiting for the finished product, wrapped in flat bread and doused with a thick sauce.

Mallet could shut this stall down, arrest the chef and the customers, impound the equipment, and set jail terms for all involved, but she didn’t have the time. She was here to see someone, a person who was good at evading intelligence agents. She had his location and wasn’t going to waste time on this illegal street food stall. They would all be dead from food poisoning, or a plasma fire eruption, before too long in any case.

The small bar along the corridor was set up in a family cabin. Where the family was now was anyone’s guess, and Mallet couldn’t care less about the original occupants. The bar had one access through the main door that had been jammed open. There was no other way out. Mallet had her target trapped.

The doorman stepped in front of Mallet as she approached. This establishment was not the sort to welcome in members of the agency. Mallet smiled. She scanned for an ident and found there wasn’t one. No one was going to miss this heavy. She slipped the Taser down her sleeve and into her palm, then jammed it into the fat belly of the towering doorman. All without breaking her stride. The doorman fell in a quivering heap. Mallet stepped around him, moving between the customers who rushed to flee the scene.

Several chairs and small bar tables had been toppled by the fleeing customers and they littered the floor that was soaked with cheap liquor. The barman looked at Mallet nervously before leaving, following the others.

Sitting at the far end of the room, at a small table facing the doorway and the approaching Mallet, sat one lone customer, the only one too brave or too stupid to run. Mallet picked up a fallen chair and dropped it down opposite the man.

He poured a small glass of Amber from a half-full bottle and slid it over to Mallet.

“I don’t,” she said and sat down.

Lou Beretta raised the glass and offered a silent toast to his new companion before knocking the small measure of Amber back. He slammed the empty glass down with a satisfied growl before pouring himself another.

“So if you don’t want a drink, sweetness, what do you want?” Beretta threw back another shot.

“I want you,” Mallet said. She made to lean forward onto the table but seeing the mess all over the it, a mix of cigar ash and liquor, she chose to sit upright on the small, uncomfortable composite chair.

“If I had a drink for every woman who said that…” Beretta poured another drink.

Mallet snatched the glass off the table and threw it over her shoulder, the Amber spilling as the glass arced across the bar toward the open doorway. It clattered to the floor and skittered away into the corridor.

“I’m not any woman,” Mallet said. “I’m Special Agent Mallet, and I’ve spent a long time looking for you.”

Smiling a broad and cheeky smile, Beretta lifted the bottle. “I am happy you have found me, but it wouldn’t work out between us. I don’t think I could survive a strong woman like you.”

Mallet drew her sidearm and held it in her lap. Beretta raised his bottle in a toast.

“If I’m going to get shot, I might as well finish the bottle.”

Mallet fired, blasting the bottle in Beretta’s hand. Beretta looked at the Amber and broken glass on the ground then dropped the neck of the bottle to the ground along with the rest of the pieces.

Beretta stood up, his chair flying back. Mallet remained completely relaxed.

“I can get you another,” she said, “but you have to work for me first.”

Beretta picked up his chair and sat down. “I’m no agency chirp. Find someone else.”

“I don’t need information. I’ve got all the information I need. I just want you to take a little job with the fleet, an advisory role.”

Beretta held his hands out wide. “Guess there’s no point in me running, so speak up before I sober up.”

“You know this region. You were out there on your own for weeks. You’ve been inside Skalidion territory and made it back to the fleet. I can’t think of a person in the fleet better qualified to be lead on a little recon mission.”

“Fly into Skalidion space?” Beretta laughed. “You sure you haven’t been at the Amber?”

“There is a mission to take a close look, a fact-finding mission.”

“I’m not a man much interested in facts. I go with my gut feeling.” Beretta leaned forward, folding his arms on the table and looking Mallet in the eyes. “And my gut is telling me you will be the death of me. One way or another, sweetness, you will be the death of me. But I’d rather die here, warm and half-drunk, and with maybe with a kiss from your cold lips, than sober and frozen to death in the void of space.”

“I need you to come back alive,” Mallet lied. “But there is someone on this mission I hope doesn’t make it back.”

“And what makes you think I am going to listen to your kill list?”

“Because it’s short—only one name—and he’s top of your list too. Jack Forge.”

Beretta sat back in his chair and looked Mallet up and down. Mallet let him stare and consider what he’d been told.

“Skalidion space is not a very safe place,” Beretta said.

Mallet shook her head.

“Tell me what the fleet wants me to do, then tell me what you want me to do, and then I’ll tell you my price.”

Mallet tucked her sidearm away. “How about we forget about your current record? I can make the agency forget all about you. How does a new start sound?”

Beretta nodded. “And a date, with you, somewhere nice.”

Mallet stood up and tossed Beretta a small holochip. “That’s your authorization and all the information you need. Be ready to move,” she said.

8

The Marine deck of the Scorpio was a hive of activity as Jack strode in. The tac boats were receiving final prep. A group of engineers were replacing access panels to some tac boats, having given the various systems a hasty yet much needed servicing.

Alongside Jack stood Sam, both in their tactical suits with their helmets under their arms. Both were armed with the Fleet Marine pulse pistol. This was a reconnaissance mission, and Jack hoped there would be no contact with the enemy, so sidearms were preferred to the rifle.

The final adjustments were made to the waiting tac boats, and the maintenance crew moved off. This left only a small group of handpicked Marines to accompany Jack into Skalidion space. Sam was the first name on Jack’s team sheet. Second was Commander Osho. Jack had served with Osho, trained and fought with the young woman, and she had been in command of the Scorpio Battalion during Jack’s absence. She was a great choice for Jack’s team.

The others were suggested by Osho and picked by Jack. All had seen combat in either the Chitin War or against the Devex. All had superior ratings on tac boats. This was the best group of Marine pilots on the Scorpio, if not in the fleet.

“Fall in, Sam,” Jack said quietly to his old friend. Sam marched to the end of the line of Marines and turned on his heel, coming to attention with the rest.

“At ease,” Jack said, and the group adjusted their posture. All were ready for action, equipped with a tactical suit and a pulse pistol on their hip, with some having a second pistol attached to their chest holster. All had a steely look of fierce determination in their eyes.

“This is a surveillance operation only. We don’t know much about the Skalidion except they are extremely dangerous and have been pushing into Devex territory at will. We will find a weakness in their formation and bring back the information so the fleet can exploit it and escape this region.

“Our mission will be for nothing if we cannot get this information back to the fleet, so watch your boats carefully. We are going in dark. Make sure we all stay that way. We have a full ordnance load, but if you open fire, you will make your position known to the Skalidion, and they will attack. Be in no doubt, this is as dangerous as it gets, Marines.

“We get in. We go deep. We scan and map and get out clean. If you have to engage, be advised you will be on our own. We are under strict orders not to offer assistance. Our priority is to gather information. Don’t get itchy trigger fingers. Get the information back to the fleet.”

Jack looked at the Marines. This was a volunteer-only mission, and they all knew the danger. Jack nodded in satisfaction that they all understood their jobs.

As a last-minute duty, Jack contacted the command deck of the Scepter on his wrist-mounted holostage. Group Captain Tanaka’s image appeared.

“Ready to proceed, sir.”

Tanaka nodded once. “Caution is advised, but speed is the key. We don’t know how long we can maintain the cooperation of the Devex. Bring us something we can use as soon as possible, Major. Scepter out.”

Jack dropped his hand to his side as the image of Tanaka vanished, then he gave the order for the Marines to board their boats.

“Let’s do this,” Jack said and waved the Marines forward.

Jack climbed onto his boat. The flight console was powered up and all lights were green. He hadn’t seen a green board for longer than he could remember.

Dropping into the pilot seat, Jack hit the panel to close the boarding ramp. The hiss and screech of the ramp closing reminded Jack that this boat and all the others had been through more action than they had ever been designed for. They were still flying, however, and about to perform one of the most important jobs of their operational lives.

Jack opened a channel to the tac boat flotilla as he requested the hangar doors be opened.

“I’m lead scout. Hold your position and watch your energy readouts. Hangar doors are opening, and we have permission from Scorpio command to disembark. Passive scanners only. Main drive burst on my command. Be ready to shut it down before we exit the nebula.”

Jack moved his tac boat through the hangar doors. The holoimage on his flight deck holostage showed him the nearby ships all hidden inside the nebula. Off on the edge of his passive scanner range was the single raider, the envoy who had brought the offer of an alliance.

Jack watched the raider and hoped he could bring back some useful, tactical information. But the Skalidion were a complete unknown. It would be difficult to identify a weakness. Their strength was clear: they had numbers and were ruthless with a complete disregard for the individual.

They were a dangerous enemy, but they were predictable. They were aggressive and would attack. Maybe that was their weakness.

A new tac boat signal appeared on Jack’s holostage, a ship joining his flotilla from the Scepter. Jack opened a channel to the Scepter command deck. He was answered by a command deck officer.

“This is group flight control. tac boat Scepter Three is assigned as observer by Fleet Intelligence. Communications prohibited under agency law. Scepter out.”

Jack looked at the small blip now registered as Scepter Three and rolled his eyes. The last thing a covert mission like this needed was an agency wildcard. Jack had vetted all his pilots and was sure they would do their jobs. He had no idea who or what was in Scepter Three. The best thing to do, Jack thought, was to ignore it, unless it became a threat to the mission.

“All tac boats. This is Forge. Operation Silent Visitor is go. Main engine burn on my mark. No further communications are authorized. Good luck, everybody. Mark.”

Jack hit the main drive and kicked his tac boat up to insertion speeds. He would clear the nebula in moments and be inside Skalidion territory only moments after that. He cut his drive a moment before leaving the nebula and was flung deep inside Skalidion space.

He would either come back with a realistic idea of how to beat the Skalidion, or it wouldn’t be worth coming back. Without a plan, there could be no escape.

Sitting back in his chair, Jack let himself fall into a deep sleep. He knew it would be brief, but it would give him the rest he needed before he got in too deep.

Jack was instantly awake the moment the flight console alerted him that he had crossed into Skalidion territory. The tac boat flotilla was arranged in its search pattern, a line abreast covering a hundred kilometers with a passive search radius of several thousand kilometers. Scepter Three hung back a few hundred kilometers from the line, directly behind Jack at the center.

With all the activity in this area, Jack knew it would not be long before he detected the Skalidion.

And he was right. The huge swarm of Skalidion fighters was moving across the front of his flotilla at speed, no doubt patrolling the boundary of their territory.

The formation moved across the tac boat front. The boats closed in, holding their speed. Jack held his nerve and hoped the other pilots could remain calm also. If one made a bid to escape, they would surely be detected at this close range.

The Skalidion swarm cleared the starboard end of the formation and moved off along the border. Jack replayed all the data gathered from the swarm and re-watched it on his flight console holostage. The swarm moved as one and looked like a huge teardrop-shaped ship all together, but on closer inspection, Jack could see the movement from the individual Skalidions within. They flitted back and forth in jerky motions, moving seemingly at random but not ever coming too close to another fighter. Their jerky motion was slightly hypnotic and unpleasant. Jack wondered if it was fatigue or the strange alien motion that was making him feel nauseous.

Releasing an antiemetic into his system made Jack feel instantly better. He drank some water and took a bite of a ration block he dug out from a supply pouch on his tactical suit sleeve. Then, switching from the recording back to the forward view, Jack resumed his hunt into Skalidion territory.

The passive scanner showed a Skalidion fighter swarm moving along behind the boats. Jack looked at the data. It appeared to be the same swarm moving back along its patrol line. The formation had advanced so now the Skalidions were patrolling behind Jack and his flotilla.

They were inside Skalidion territory now. Up ahead, Jack saw an even larger mass, a huge swarm of Skalidions, larger than a hundred teardrop-shaped fighter swarms. Moving in closer, Jack saw the familiar shape of the sleek Skalidion fighters dominating the swarm, but there were also other types, all about the same size but with clearly different abilities.

Toward the outer edge of the swarm were the largest Skalidion craft. They were roughly spherical and were covered in antennae. They had huge dark regions on their surface. Jack would need to capture and study one of these craft to understand their role in the swarm, but that was not his mission.

Within the swarm of fighters was another type of spherical craft, but these were missing the antennae and dark regions. They also had a large, flattened end. They were difficult to understand at first, but as the flotilla came closer, Jack noticed the rasping teeth in the round flattened end. It looked like a shredder. In the center of the swarm, the spheres were paying out a long line of material from the side opposite the shredding front and depositing it in a precise swirling motion to the surface of a huge asteroid.

Jack zoomed in on the asteroid. On the surface, there was movement.

Skalidions.

They were glinting as they moved on their many spindly limbs, scuttling across the surface of the asteroid. They appeared to be moving small glistening white pods, burying them in the structures being built by the large spherical craft.

They were exposed to the vacuum of space and appeared to have no clothing, no protective outer garment or suit, though they seemed to have a hard exoskeleton.

The asteroid interior was invisible to the tac boat sensors, so Jack could not look deeper than the surface that was being constantly built upon by the large builder Skalidion.

The tac boat formation moved in closer, but still Jack’s passive sensors could not penetrate the outer wall of the asteroid, a teaming nest of Skalidions. But Jack guessed, a gut feeling, that this was the center of the Skalidions’ local operation, at least it was one of them. A command center.

It was new information. It was useful tactical information. It needed to be delivered to the fleet.

Jack slowed his tac boat with slight thrusts that would go undetected. The way back would be slow under thruster power only. He had reached this spot in less than a single watch duration. The way back would take an entire watch rotation. A fleet day.

As Jack’s tac boat slowed, the rest of the flotilla followed and slowed as well. The line came to a halt only a thousand kilometers from the swarm above the Skalidion nest.

With the flotilla about-face, Jack activated the thrusters and slowly pushed his boat away from the huge swarm. His fingers hovered over the main drive boost. If he was detected, he would be in full retreat where it was every boat for themselves, so at least one would have to return to deliver the data recovered on the mission. Data that could hopefully be used to help the Devex defeat the Skalidions.

Jack watched as the distance between his boat and the swarm increased. Every kilometer brought a measure of relief. His pulse quickened as he saw the swarm patrolling the edge of the territory heading directly toward the line of tac boats.

It was possible they had been detected, Jack thought, or it might simply be the Skalidions’ patrol pattern. Either way, the seething swarm was on a direct course. If they hadn’t been detected, they soon would be as at least one of the hundreds of swarming Skalidion fighters would surely collide with a tac boat, albeit unintentionally. Their stealth mission would be all over from there.

Jack held his nerve. He stood by on thruster control, ready to move aside from any fighter that came too close. The line of tac boats held their formation. They knew that to run at this stage would mean the Skalidions would close in on them. Jack hoped the pilots were standing by to take evasive action, hands on the thruster controls, just as he was.

And Jack was sure they were anxious, watching the holostage image of the approaching swarm.

“Hold steady,” Jack whispered, fearful to speak too loud in case the Skalidions heard him, even though he knew it was impossible. Nevertheless, he breathed quietly, hoping to maintain his current state of invisibility.

Jack spotted the Skalidion fighter directly in his path. Even if he avoided collision, the close approach would surely give him away. He loaded a kinetic hail round into the flank hail cannon and braced for impact.

At only a hundred kilometers, and with Jack standing by to plow through the swarm, the swarm stopped. A sudden halt to their direction. Individuals in the swarm continued to move, but the overall appearance was of the large teardrop turning about-face in an instant.

Then Jack saw the reason for the sudden reversal. Moving in from the Devex side of the boundary came a warship, then another, then another, and all about them were hundreds of raiders, all in formation, moving in on the patrol swarm at speed.

Feeling his fist clench, Jack realized his frustration with the Devex. Their actions were ruining his mission. They had come to him for help. Jack was doing his best to provide it, but this hostile action was jeopardizing his mission to gather information.

The group of Devex warships was powerful and more than a match for the Skalidion patrol swarm. Maybe, Jack thought, the Devex were taking advantage of a target of opportunity, but the Skalidions were hardly an easy target. This patrol swarm could be more than a match for one Devex warship.

As the Skalidions raced toward the Devex, Jack at least recognized the Devex had saved him from a near certain collision with a Skalidion fighter. Jack had never been up close with the Skalidion, and he was glad not to have to face them now.

With the tac boat line holding formation, Jack activated the thrusters and moved off the line he was on, upward to clear the Skalidion swarm.

Jack watched the Skalidion swarm to see he was clear over the top of them. The Devex warships and the Skalidion swarm entered weapons range and the space between the two groups lit up in a terrifying fire storm. White energy bullets leaped away from the Devex, and bursts of green fire poured from the Skalidions. The ordnance passed by with some chaotic mixing as white energy bullet collided with Skalidion green fire, but most energy passed and raced in toward its intended target.

The first contact of energy weapons on enemy ships created a sudden flash from both sides. Skalidion fighters were torn apart by the white energy bullets that continued to stream across space, and the green fire slammed into the Devex hull, burning in a slow but relentless assault.

The smashed Skalidion fighters and their billowing clouds of debris were set upon by the few spherical, flat-fronted craft. Jack zoomed in and watched the flat face of the sphere rasp away at the remains of the Skalidion fighters. Jack realized the craft were consuming the debris. He’d seen them deposit material on the surface of the nest asteroid. Now he saw them feed.

“So they don’t waste anything,” Jack said, impressed with the efficiency. Where the Devex left their broken ships and fell back, the Skalidion reused and recycled, and their material strength was not diminished by battle.

A Devex warship targeted by Skalidion fire exploded. A white sphere of tortured energy erupted, flinging debris in all directions. But the Skalidions had taken huge losses, and Jack could see that even though they had transferred all their firepower to a second warship, their numbers were so reduced by the assault that they were unlikely to defeat another one.

The battle was going to be short-lived, and even though the Devex had acted in contravention of the alliance so recently formed, Jack was pleased that their arrival had given him the chance to avoid colliding with the swarm himself. For that, he was grateful. As to whether the Devex attack had been intentionally designed to help Jack or not…

The second warship began to rotate slowly, having lost power. It drifted out of formation as yet more green fire slammed into it. But the Devex fire was relentless and poured into the shrinking Skalidion swarm, streams of energy bullets tearing through them. The skirmish would be over soon.

The alert on the flight console came a moment after Jack spotted a new danger. Fragments of the destroyed Devex warship were racing toward the underside of the tac boats, still maneuvering with thruster power alone. One huge fragment, jagged and spinning, was heading directly toward Jack’s lower hull.

Jack had time to move aside. He activated the thrusters and nudged the tac boat out of the path of the wreckage. Watching the holostage for confirmation he was clear, he spotted the emergence of a new, huge signal. It was so big it filled the entire side of the holoimage. Jack zoomed in and saw the unmistakable mass of Skalidion fighters. A hundred thousand or more.

The first bursts of weapons fire overwhelmed the passive sensors. The Devex ships began to turn and head back to Devex space and the supposed safety of their planetary defense systems and larger fleet.

A collision alert sounded through the tac boat, bringing Jack’s attention back to his flight console, but before he could locate and evade the object, he felt the impact. He was fixed into his seat as his suit’s stability field kicked in, but the boat had been thrown off course. Jack knew something had hit him. He checked back through the data.

Jack couldn’t believe it. In the sudden moves by the tac boat flotilla to avoid the expanding debris field, one tac boat had collided with Jack.

The tac boat’s slow speed meant the collision would probably not be a problem, as long as the Skalidions didn’t detect the impact, but then Jack noticed the red light. A plasma conduit had been ruptured and was venting into space, creating a flare that was already thirty kilometers long and growing. It was a hundred kilometers by the time he shut it down.

The rest of the tac boats were maintaining their heading, directly back toward the nebula in the dead zone between Skalidion and Devex space, the only hiding place for the fleet.

Jack shut down the flare and looked anxiously at the Skalidions. A small group of fighters had broken away from the swarm that was chasing the Devex, and it was closing in on him.

He quickly activated the lateral thrusters and spun the ship through ninety degrees, turning it on the spot. Now facing along the line of tac boats to the port side of the formation, Jack kicked up the main drive and powered away.

It was terribly bad luck that a conduit would be ruptured in that minor collision. It was a hundred to one shot. Jack checked the status of the tac boat that had run into him, making sure it wasn’t in danger. The boat was fine. Then Jack noticed which one it was.

It was Scepter Three. The Fleet Intelligence observer. Could it be a coincidence that it was the intelligence agency’s observer that had collided with him, and in such a manner as to highlight his position to the Skalidions? Jack thought not. It would have taken a pilot of incredible skill to rupture that conduit. Jack almost marveled at the skilled piece of piloting. One thing was clear, Mallet wanted him dead and would use any trick in the book to get her wish. A wish she was about to get.

The Skalidions closed in on Jack’s boat, ignoring the others in the line that were still running dark. A planetary system ahead and above Jack was his best chance of escape.

He readied the kinetic hail round he had loaded into the flank cannon. The cannon swiveled around and targeted the lead Skalidion fighter on his tail. The Skalidion vanished in a green explosion as the kinetic hail shredded the craft. He loaded another and brought the top-mounted laser emitter up to full power. He couldn’t hide from the Skalidions now, he couldn’t even fight them all off, but he wasn’t going down without trying.

The laser fired and destroyed another Skalidion, and Jack set the flank cannon to independent fire. Kinetic hail rounds fired in regular beats, the dull sound echoing through the small tac boat and filling Jack with hope for his escape.

Then a burst of green fire hit.

The green fire mixed with the drive energy and created a huge boost of speed, and complete loss of stability. Jack tumbled out of control, spinning wildly. The next burst of green fire hit the upper laser emitter and burned it down to the housing.

Suddenly, Jack saw the first potential landing spot in the star system he was now tumbling toward. With a well-timed boost from the thrusters, he put himself in the gravity well of a gas giant’s moon. The size of a dwarf planet, the moon even had a thin atmosphere, enough to slow Jack’s decent and generate enough friction that even if the Skalidion green fire didn’t get him, entry into the moon’s atmosphere would.

Another blast of green fire and Jack was tumbling. Creaking filled the small tac boat as some part of the outer hull was ripped away by centrifugal force and yet more Skalidion weapons fire.

Then he hit the moon’s atmosphere. The internal temperature jumped, and the inner hull began to glow brightly from the heat, with Jack still inside

With the hull temperature reaching ferocious levels, Jack clambered out of the pilot seat, snatched up his helmet and pulled it on. His tactical suit’s environmental controls were close to failure as the internal temperature soared even higher. With the deck plates glowing white hot, Jack ran to the boarding ramp access panel. He deployed the boarding ramp and made ready to jump.

The ramp’s mechanism squealed and seized as the hinges melted. Globules of melted composite dropped onto the glowing deck plates. Jack snatched his pulse pistol out of his hip holster and fired up the electron blade, slicing through the hinge mechanism. The boarding ramp fell away and tumbled into the burning atmosphere.

The fire raging over the outer hull of the tac boat blasted into the interior, flinging Jack back across to the opposite hull. He activated his suit’s thrusters and moved himself toward the opening and out into the moon’s atmosphere.

Falling away from the tac boat, Jack spun and watched the machine fall away in a fiery ball. He turned away, kicked up his suit’s thrusters, and powered away from the flaming ball that surrounded his boat. The wrecked boat went down like a meteor, smashing into the surface below.

The moon below looked cool, dark, green, and inviting. The fire rippling over his faceplate died away as he moved deeper into the atmosphere. An alert from his suit’s onboard environmental controls warned him his suit’s safety systems were about to fail. Jack had only moments.

Opening a vent on his calf, Jack let cool air rush into his suit’s interior. He felt the blisters on his face, his hands, and his eyes burn from the dry heat of the fire he had just escaped.

From this altitude, kilometers above the moon, Jack could see the moon was heavily forested around the equatorial region, but it was barren on the northern pole. The orange and brown gas giant filled the sky, and glinting over the western horizon, Jack could see the system’s star.

The ground raced toward Jack ever quicker, the northern pole now lost to sight as he fell faster and faster toward terminal velocity. His suit’s grav field was operating at its upper range. The suit’s thrusters assisted the grav field and slowed him further, but still, the ground came too quickly.

Jack could make out the tops of the trees. At first, it appeared as a mossy field, but as he got closer, he could make out branches and leaves. The trees were similar to the winter trees of his old home planet, thin leaves, dark and waxy with a fierce point. Now that he was even closer, the tops of the trees looked like a field of fierce, jagged, green daggers. Jack diverted environmental control energy into his suit’s thrusters. The thruster emitter aperture was now glowing as the thrust-jet heated the air around it, mercifully slowing Jack to a steady descent.

With the top of the nearest tree merely meters away, Jack began to pick his point of contact. Now fully in control of his descent, he touched down on the very tip of the tree beneath him, his feet barely touching the stiff, needle-like leaves.

Jack surveyed the forest at his feet. In every direction, jagged peaks poked up into the clear sky. Jack looked at the tree directly beneath him. His suit’s thrusters kept him stable as the tree flexed. Stepping down to the next branch, using his suit’s thrusters to keep him upright, he moved down through the canopy.

The sharp needles on the moon’s winter trees scratched Jack’s tactical suit. His gloves, his forearms, and his boots took the brunt of the punishment. Soon the forest floor appeared below, dark under the dense dagger-like foliage.

Jack dropped to the ground, his boots crunching on the dead needles. Jack took a knee and rested his hand on the ground in front of him. He took a breath. He had survived the landing, but could he survive this moon?

Looking up, Jack could just make out the clear sky and the deep orange of swirling clouds on the gas giant. If he could get a signal to the fleet, he knew rescue would be only hours away. But the Skalidion fighters would detect his distress call first. Jack would have to wait for them to leave the local space. He hoped they would not move in on this system, but they were possibly too preoccupied with defeating the Devex. The Skalidion would first attack the Devex before invading this simple forest moon, or they may even move on to attack the fleet.

Jack had to let the fleet know that the Skalidions were massing for an attack. It might be the last message he sent.

Jack released his set of micro drones and sent them racing through the trees. They relayed the data back to his wrist-mounted holostage. Jack looked at the map of the surrounding area, the dark green holographic lines matching the dark green dagger trees all around. He spotted the clearing in the forest where his tac boat had come down, only five kilometers to the north.

The emergency communication system on the tac boat was built to survive the worst crash landing, so Jack headed toward the crash site.

The dead needles on the ground had lost their deep green color, and now sparkled like silver stiletto knives. They shattered under Jack’s feet, scattering diamond-like shards as he walked. The dagger trees stood evenly all about. The wide trunk-bases were the same deep green as the leaves at the very top, but they were smooth, and Jack caught his reflection as he moved through the dark forest.

With the glass shards at his feet reflecting what little light filtered down through the thick canopy above and his reflection on the smooth trunks, Jack felt he was walking through a hall of mirrors. Realizing his pace had slowed as he wondered at the sights around him, Jack picked up the pace. He jogged through the forest, the crystal shards of dead leaves kicking up behind him in a sparkling cloud that drifted just above the surface of the forest floor.

He recalled his micro drones as he neared the forest clearing and his smashed boat. A number of fallen trees were already losing their green and becoming clear glass, like the dead leaves on the floor. Jack took cover alongside the tac boat and made a damage assessment.

It was bad. Very bad.

The hull was still hot, and melted composite flowed over the glass needle ground cover, crackling and smoking. There was a chance a communication node could be salvaged, and Jack might get a message away.

One fallen tree had caused a domino effect and other trees had fallen in a line that stretched a few dozen meters to the west. The distant star glinted at the end of the path through the deep green.

The last of the micro drones returned to Jack. He sent them vertically above him in a line with the topmost reaching hundreds of meters above the canopy, the others in a line down to the one that hovered just above his wrist-mounted holostage. The micro drones would be his beacon to send a message to the fleet. The Skalidions were coming.

Connecting the tac boat’s communication node through his suit’s transmitter to the tower of micro drones, Jack activated his suit’s sensors and searched the surrounding space for any ships, friend or foe. The sensor range would never be as great as that available on his tac boat, but it might be enough. It was also all he had.

As Jack waited for any sort of signal, he looked up to the gas giant above him. Radiation from it fed the needle trees in the forest, the distant star merely glinting off the tips of the leaves.

The tactical suit’s environmental sensors alerted Jack to the heightened levels of radiation pouring onto the moon. He would have been quite safe in a fully-powered tactical suit for some time, but his suit had taken a beating. He’d vented the internal atmosphere during his descent. That had given him a dose of radiation that his medical package was dealing with, but he was starting to feel ill. The needle leaves that had scratched the suit had left tiny micro scars all across the surface, which were being attacked by the radiation. Jack could almost see the color change due to the reaction with the radiation.

The tactical suit’s power supply was being drained at an accelerated rate, partly due to damage and partly due to the radioactive assault. Jack would not have as much time as he would have liked, but then, he never did.

The passive sensors detected a distortion in spacetime caused by a ship’s drive system, but at this range and with limited sensor ability, Jack could not tell if this was his fleet or a Skalidion.

Jack crouched in cover and watched the approaching signal, indistinct on his wrist-mounted holostage. Would this be rescue, capture, or death?

9

The signal came closer, and Jack looked to the sky for the telltale signs of the ship’s entry into the moon’s atmosphere. The burning tail across the sky roared overhead. He made out the outline within the burning fireball of a Fleet Marine tac boat. Checking the ident, Jack saw the signal. It was Scepter Three.

The boat crashed along the canopy, scattering green glassy daggers down through the branches. Jack ran toward the landing site. He felt the boat’s impact rattle through the ground, and billowing clouds of dust and glassy fragments rolled back through the forest toward him.

Jack ran through the forest, his boots crunching on the glassy leaf litter underfoot. His tactical suit’s sensors sent him an alert that the Skalidion fighters were entering the moon’s atmosphere. A dozen of the small, sleek craft were approaching fast, hot on the trail of the other tac boat.

Jack moved quickly, hoping to make it to the boat, his only possible means of escape from this moon, before the Skalidions intercepted him.

He was too late. The Skalidion fighters overhead released something that dropped down. Jack continued to move through the trees as he watched the falling object. The fighters that followed also released something. Jack felt sure the Skalidions were bombing the forest floor to destroy whatever was down there, but as the object came closer, Jack could make out the unmistakable outline of an actual Skalidion—the pilot from the fighter craft.

The Skalidion was shorter than a man and thinner. The skin appeared to change color between green, purple, and blue, and it shimmered in the dull brown light from the gas giant above. It appeared waxy and hard, like an exoskeleton.

The Skalidion’s head was roughly diamond-shaped with two large, dark regions on the top of the head and a small mouth with rasping teeth that sat under the huge eyes. The Skalidion appeared to wear no protective suit. The only equipment it carried was clearly a weapon.

Held in one hand, the weapon was a half-meter long and ended with three curved needles that almost met. The nearest Skalidion was dropping directly in front of Jack, cutting off his path to the tac boat up ahead. It crashed through the trees at what would be a fatal speed for Jack or any human, landing on its two thin legs as it dropped to the ground, its left hand extended downward. The weapon in its right hand was held out behind it.

Jack drew his pulse pistol, aimed, and fired. The pulse rounds glanced off the tree trunks, smashing huge green shards and ricocheting with an alien sound. Jack advanced—firing, refining his aim, zeroing in on the Skalidion fighter ahead of him.

The Skalidion rose to its feet and brought its weapon around. As Jack moved in, he saw purple flecks of energy flickering over the needle points that almost met at the front of the weapon. A ball of green fire grew between those points. The Skalidion rocked back as the ball was launched at Jack.

The fire burned through the forest, and Jack jumped to his right and rolled over his shoulder, taking cover behind a trunk of one of the needle trees. The green fire raced past the point where he’d just been standing, colliding with a tree trunk and exploding in a shower of fire and shards.

Jack broke cover and fired a series of rounds at the Skalidion as its weapon recharged for a second shot. And Jack’s aim was good. The first pulse round caught the Skalidion in one of its large eyes, while the second caught it lower on its head. The third struck it in the spindly chest as the Skalidion fighter fell, its weapon dropping at its side.

A blast of green fire came tearing through the forest from behind Jack and smashed into the trunk just above his head. The force from the impact sent Jack tumbling to his side, and he scrambled away from the glassy debris that scattered all around him.

Keeping low to the ground, Jack searched quickly for the Skalidion firing at him. Another blast of came tearing through the forest, slamming into the ground next to him. Jack saw the dark shadows of Skalidions moving between the green trunks, their shadows falling, their reflections flickering over all around.

Jack saw movement between two distant trunks. He fired. Three quick rounds found their target, and the Skalidion fell. He rolled to his left, sensing return fire was only moments away, and as he got to his feet, he jumped to the side. A ball of Skalidion green fire slammed into the ground where he had stood.

Jack ran, taking cover between heavy green trunks as more fire rained down. Breaking cover just to fire off a few rounds, Jack took a quick assessment of the enemy coming against him.

The reflections on the green trunks of the needle trees made it extremely difficult for him to count the Skalidions pursuing him. He saw movement between two trunks and fired. The pulse round struck satisfactorily, knocking the Skalidion off balance, but the Skalidion was not out of the fight. It brought its weapon around, the needles fizzing their sparkling energy, the green ball growing, ready to be launched. The Skalidion toppled over as it launched the green fireball toward Jack.

Shifting position once again and firing wildly behind him as he ran, Jack ducked from one point of cover to the next. He drew his second pulse pistol and held them behind him, pointing both back over his shoulders as he fired. The pulse pistols fired a stream of pulse rounds, laying down covering fire as he moved.

Releasing a micro drone from his tactical suit and leaving it on the forest floor, Jack hoped he could count the number still on his tail. The shimmering forest made it impossible for him to make a visual assessment, but Jack knew there were more Skalidions than Marines on this moon.

The flicker of movement up ahead was the only warning Jack needed. He brought both pulse pistols in front of him as he ran toward the movement. The dark shape of the Skalidion stepped out from behind a tree. Jack’s timing was perfect, and he fired a withering series of pulse rounds that struck the Skalidion’s head, chest, and abdomen. The creature fell backward, and Jack moved in.

He looked at the fallen Skalidion as he approached. It was small and thin; it could hardly weigh anything. Yet the Skalidions were extremely powerful, and extremely numerous.

As Jack came closer, he saw the Skalidion still moving its arm out toward its fallen weapon. The hand on the end of the arm was more like a series of feathers, all moving independently like a thousand fingers scrabbling through the leaf litter to find its weapon. A clear ooze was dribbling from the mouthparts of the Skalidion, and also from one of the entry wounds.

Jack slowed slightly as he came near. He kicked the weapon out of reach and looked down at the Skalidion. The Skalidion spluttered the thick ooze from its mouth as Jack looked down at it. The Skalidion lashed out with one of its thin legs, striking for Jack’s left ankle, but he moved aside just in time.

The Skalidion let out a high-pitched chattering, and that brought the Skalidions’ green fire, several balls slamming into the area and trees around. Jack ducked as tree shards showered over him. He pulled a grenade from his tactical suit, activated it, and tossed it over his shoulder. The grenade would detonate in seconds, and any Skalidions closing in on him would be caught in the blast.

Jack saw the destruction caused by the tac boat crash landing up ahead, tree trunks snapped halfway up their height. He jumped over a fallen tree, using his suit’s grav field and thrusters to help him up and over. He landed on the other side, covered from the Skalidion fire by the fallen trees.

He felt the detonation of the grenade shake the ground, shaking needle leaves from high in the trees. They fell like shards of glass, tinkling to the ground.

The hull of the tac boat was still glowing as Jack came near. It was tipped onto its starboard side, the boarding ramp partially open. Steam and smoke were pouring out of the gap, and Jack made out the hand of someone struggling to get out. The black gauntlet of a Fleet Intelligence enforcer’s suit struggled to escape the tac boat.

“I’m coming,” Jack said as he came near. “Take my hand. Hold on, I’ve got you.”

Jack pulled the black-suited figure clear of the boat and fell back onto the forest floor. He felt the sweat trickle down his back and sides, and his suit’s environmental controls activated to cool him. Jack checked the medical files from the enforcer tactical suit. The data was displayed on Jack’s enhanced data view. The person in the suit was unhurt, and he did not even appear distressed, though his heart rate was elevated.

The ident was classified, but Jack didn’t need an ident to recognize the voice.

“Hey, Jack. Fancy meeting you here.”

“Lou Beretta?” Jack pulled Beretta away from the tac boat. “You hit me.”

Beretta stood up and leaned heavily against one of the needle trees.

“Correct.” Beretta rose to his full height. Jack could see he was injured. “It was supposed to look like an accident, but whatever works.” Beretta drew a pulse pistol and aimed it at Jack.

Jack stepped forward and snatched the pulse pistol out of Beretta’s shaking hand. “Well, you’re not doing a very good job of it. Why did you take out my ship? Who sent you here? Answer me.”

Beretta collapsed to the forest floor. He gripped his right thigh with both hands and applied pressure, squeezing until Jack could detect the rise in his pulse through the effort.

“You were not as popular as you like to think, Jack. I’m not the only person who wants you dead. You’ve made some pretty nasty enemies.”

Jack tucked Beretta’s pulse pistol away into his tactical suit and began to assess the damage to the fallen boat. There appeared to be some minor outer damage, but not enough to crash the boat into the moon.

“You were a pretty good pilot from what I remember,” Jack said. “What happened to bring this boat down so hard?”

Looking over to Beretta for an answer, Jack saw Beretta point up. “I only wanted to take you out. It only needed a little tap in the right place. I just miscalculated the Skalidion and they spotted me. I took some of that green fire. This was the only place to bail out.”

“What about the other tac boats?” Jack said, stepping over to Beretta, standing over him and glowering down at the dark faceplate of the enforcer helmet the old pirate was wearing.

Beretta shrugged. And then Jack spotted the new signal on his wrist-mounted holostage.

A new group of Skalidion fighters were entering the moon’s atmosphere following the path Beretta had taken.

“We need to get out here,” Jack said. “More Skalidions will be on top of us any minute.”

Beretta leaned up against the needle tree while still applying pressure to his thigh. “What makes you think I am going to let you escape?” he said.

“Fine, you be like that,” Jack said. “I’m getting out of here.”

Jack climbed through the open boarding ramp and into the smoking interior of Beretta’s boat. The flight deck was sparking, and dark smoke billowed out of a conduit. Jack needed to get this ship off the ground.

Stepping up to the flight console, Jack tapped the control, more in hope than expectation. The flight console was a mass of red lights. And then the power failed, and the flight console went black.

The ship was broken.

Jack was going nowhere.

Crawling back out into the forest from the now-black interior of the tac boat, Jack realized his predicament. His own orders were for no communications. He was alone. The mission was more important; that had to succeed.

And then a blast of Skalidion green fire slammed into the side of the boat.

“Take cover,” Jack called. “They’re here.”

10

Throwing a micro drone into the sky, Jack scanned the area from his position behind the boat. Checking his wrist-mounted holostage, he saw the Skalidion fighters advancing through the trees. A dozen of the short, thin, shiny-skinned Skalidions were advancing toward him.

“What did you do to this ship?” Jack said, looking over at Beretta.

Beretta shrugged. “Guess it didn’t like crashing into you. You want to toss me a pulse pistol?”

Jack checked the position of the nearest Skalidion fighter. It was moving through the forest at speed. Jack broke cover, leaned on the hull of the boat, and fired a stream of pulse rounds into the oncoming enemy. The creature fell.

Jack ducked back into cover just as a series of green fire missiles rained down. Beretta sat in cover, clutching his thigh in pain, but he otherwise looked undisturbed by the Skalidion attack. He looked at Jack.

“Pistol, Jack.” Beretta held out his hand. “Come on, Marine. You are not going to get out of this on your own. Throw me a pistol and let’s fight our way out of here. Face it, Jack, you need me.”

Breaking cover and laying down heavy fire, Jack looked over at Beretta. “I need you like I need a lungful of plasma,” Jack said. He turned and fired again at the nearest Skalidion darting through the trees nearby. “I need to get this ship running if I’m getting out of here.”

Another flight of Skalidions raced overhead, the pilots dropping out of their craft and falling rapidly to the moon’s surface. Jack took aim at one crashing through the trees above and let loose with both pistols. The Skalidion tumbled out of control and crashed to the forest floor just meters away from Jack, and his holostage lit up the nearest targets, which glowed red on the holoimage. He turned this way and that, firing and holding off the Skalidion attack.

But still they moved through the trees. Jack glanced at the tac boat and could see that one of the side hull plates had been torn away by the hard landing. The conduit for the main drive was behind that panel. If Jack could repair that, even a patch-up job, he might be able to restore power and get the boat off the ground. Whether he would leave the moon’s orbit before the Skalidion shot him down was another matter.

“One thing at a time,” Jack said to himself as he fired another salvo before ducking for cover.

“Do you think I want to die here?” Beretta said, his hand outstretched. He withdrew his hand suddenly as Skalidion green fire globule scorched by. “You’re my only way out here, Jack. Toss me a kravin’ pulse pistol and let me give you some cover fire.”

Suspicion filled Jack. Beretta was here to kill him. He knew exactly how devious Beretta could be. There was every chance he had an escape plan already worked out and would not hesitate to kill Jack the moment he gave him a pistol. There was just one question Jack asked himself: would he rather be killed by Beretta or the Skalidions?

“I think you know me well enough to know I’m not giving you a weapon.”

A Skalidion came rushing through the trees. Jack spotted it, took aim, and shot the alien down.

“Scurry over to that open panel,” Jack said, pointing quickly at the broken hull plate. “Take a look inside. Is the main conduit ruptured?”

Beretta shook his head. “I’m injured, Jack. And I don’t know what a main conduit looks like, ruptured or otherwise.”

“Don’t give me that, Beretta. You know your way around a ship well enough.” Jack twisted to his right and fired at the Skalidion who had moved out from behind his tree trunk cover. “Now get over there and give me a damage report.”

“You can’t order me, Jack. I’m not one of your Marines.”

Moving to the cover of the tree next to Beretta, Jack dodged a sudden hail of Skalidion green fire that rained down on his previous position. Sitting now only two meters from Beretta, he pointed his left-hand pulse pistol into Beretta’s face.

“It’s not an order, Lou, it’s a friendly request. Now get in there, or I’ll put a pulse round in your ugly face.”

Beretta leaned down on the ground and began to crawl on his elbows toward the open hull plate. “I’m not ugly,” Beretta said under his breath.

Jack moved quickly, picking his targets and laying down rapid bursts of pulse pistol fire before relocating and firing again. The Skalidions were moving in slowly, but Jack’s accurate shots were holding them off. The micro drones through the forest reported back on the locations of a dozen Skalidions in weapons range, the green fire balls slamming in and giving away their positions.

“Damage report, Lou.” Jack fired.

“I could fix this,” Beretta said, “if I had a workshop and a week.”

“You got about five minutes before the Skalidions overrun us,” Jack said as he targeted another Skalidion.

“A few meters of conduit flex and I can bypass the damage to the main drive loop. It’ll be a rough ride, but I can get us off the ground,” Beretta said.

“Then we might be in luck,” Jack said. He looked through the trees back toward his crashed tac boat. “You do what you can here. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

Jack ran through the trees, weaving between the shining green trunks of the needle trees. The Skalidions were advancing toward Beretta’s boat. Surely, there would be some at Jack’s crash site too. And Jack was alone, with only his pulse pistols for attack.

Running from tree to tree, Jack found the flanking position on the next Skalidion. He fired a quick blast from both pulse pistols before moving again. A group of three Skalidions were moving toward the front end of the tac boat, their left flank exposed. Jack ran toward them. One pulse round struck the nearest in the head, dropping it instantly. The next was turning to face Jack, the green fire building at the end of its weapon, when a blast from Jack’s left-hand pistol dropped it.

He ran and took cover with his back to a tree as the third Skalidion blasted a burst of fire at him, and Jack saw the Skalidion that had been advancing stealthily on his rear the moment he took cover. He dropped to one knee and fired with both pistols, then he spun around the trunk and targeted the last Skalidion, dropping it with a well-aimed shot.

Jack moved swiftly; speed was essential. The smoking wreckage of his boat emerged from the dark green, glistening forest. A Skalidion with its strange diamond-shaped head poking inside the wreckage turned suddenly as it heard Jack’s approach. He dispatched it with a blast of pulse pistol fire to its ugly face.

Firing up the electron blade on his pulse pistol, he cut through the wreckage and found the conduit flex. He pulled out as much as he could, wrapping it around his elbow and hand, glancing all about for approaching Skalidions as he did.

Checking his wrist-mounted holostage, Jack could see more Skalidions further out, scattered throughout the forest, all moving in toward the tac boat at the center of a tightening circle. Jack checked the power cell on both pistols. He could keep fighting all day, but so could the Skalidion. There was also only one of him, and sooner or later, a green fire blast would surely take him.

Running back to the tac boat, Jack saw Beretta’s feet sticking out of the broken hull. Green fire scorch marks covered the ground and it.

“Beretta. How does it look in there?”

Beretta clambered out and turned to face Jack, a pulse pistol in his hand.

For a fleeting moment, Jack wondered where Beretta had found the weapon, and it distracted him from what he knew he must do. Jack needed to take cover. The pulse rounds slammed into Jack’s suit as he dove for cover.

“I couldn’t resist taking the shot, Jack.” Beretta stood up and fired another salvo. “I could have just left you here for the Skalidions—” Beretta’s voice grew manic and angry. “—but you killed my friend.” Beretta fired again. “I guess they’ll have to finish the job for me.”

Beretta climbed into the tac boat. The main drive kicked up, spluttering and flaring irregularly, but it eased off the surface, glassy shards of dead leaves billowing toward Jack in a cloud of jagged debris.

Jack felt the anger in him, realizing he’d been tricked by Beretta. He aimed his pulse pistol at the tac boat’s drive, knowing a well-placed round would be enough to destroy the boat’s struggling drive system, but the alert on his wrist-mounted holostage caught Jack’s attention. He swiveled and laid fire down on the small group of Skalidions coming through the trees.

Jack was surrounded and alone.

11

Jack searched for a good defensive position where he could hold off the incoming Skalidions. As much as he would like to take his revenge on Beretta, he would have to survive this latest attack if he was to ever achieve that.

The best cover nearby was at his crashed tac boat with the fallen trees all around. That was where he would make a stand, and that was where he would fight the Skalidions moving in on his position.

As Jack ran through the forest, he took fire from the shadows as Skalidion fighters emerged from behind the trees all around. He detected another ship entering orbit high above his position on the forest moon. Jack was determined to fight. He would fight off as many Skalidions as they could throw at him. He looked up and saw the shape of the craft highlighted on his helmet’s enhanced data view. It was unmistakable: a tac boat.

The tac boat held position in a stationary orbit. Jack checked the ident on his wrist-mounted holostage. Sam. Of course.

“That’s against my orders, Sam,” Jack said to himself, but inside, he was happy to see his old friend in orbit above. There was a chance, although still slim, that he might live.

Checking the image, Jack saw the altitude of Sam’s tac boat holding steady, but the boarding ramp was opening. This was Jack’s only chance.

A Skalidion rushed in on Jack’s rear, its weapon raised with a ball of green fire growing on the end. It seemed to snarl and chatter as it moved in for the kill. Jack adjusted his suit’s grav field and began to levitate upwards. He kicked up the thrusters on his ankles and wrists and accelerated up through the trees, the harsh needle-like leaves scratching at his suit as he raced toward the waiting tac boat.

Bursts of green fire chased him. Jack twisted this way and that, avoiding the burning balls of green energy, any one of which could burn through his tactical suit and leave him exposed to the harsh atmosphere and the deadly radiation pouring down to the surface.

The boarding ramp on the undercarriage of the tac boat was fully open, but at this distance, it seemed like the narrowest slit in the universe, the finest target for Jack to hit. The thruster distribution began to fluctuate, threatening to tip him off balance, threatening to throw him back down to the surface. He deactivated one thruster that was spluttering and throwing him off balance, directing all the energy to a functioning opposite thruster. The strain on his body as the single thruster took over the work stretched his sinews to near breaking point.

With only meters to go, and the opening now looking like an achievable target, Jack reached up. Inside the opening, he saw the movement—a Marine in full tactical gear, reaching out for him.

The remaining thruster splattered, kicking Jack off balance. The Marine in the tac boat boarding ramp dropped and grabbed Jack, with a handshake grip and lifesaving strength. The Marine dragged Jack up to the ramp, landing lightly on his feet and setting Jack down next to him. Jack reached out and pressed the control panel. The boarding ramp closed, and Jack felt the Marine next to him pat him heavily on the back.

“I thought that would be you down there.” Sam smirked as he walked off toward the flight deck.

“I thought you’d be the only one to disobey an order,” Jack said, pulling off his helmet. “What are you doing here, Sam?” Jack walked to the flight deck and dropped into the copilot seat next to Sam. “You’re supposed to be taking the intelligence back to the fleet.”

“Job done, Jack. Captain Pretorius said I could go and find you. You got some friends in high places,” Sam said.

“That’s not what Beretta said,” Jack said. He tapped the flight control panel and accessed the holostage. He checked all the data on the surrounding area. Skalidion fighters were swooping around the forest moon. A small group of Skalidion fighters were pursuing a single spluttering tac boat that was racing toward the system’s star.

“I saw that tac boat,” Sam said, pointing at the holographic image. “I thought that was you, but then I detected weapons fire on the surface and knew that had to be you. Who is on that boat? Should we go and help them out?”

“That is a Lou Beretta,” Jack said, slumping back in his chair. “He’s working for Fleet Intelligence. He was sent to kill me, and he very nearly succeeded.”

“Beretta?” Sam turned and looked at Jack. “I thought he’d be dead by now.”

“Looks like he doesn’t have long left. Those Skalidions are moving in on him fast.” Jack zoomed in on the holoimage. Beretta’s drive system was spluttering badly. Surely it was only moments from catastrophic failure. “But somehow I think he’s going to survive even that. Why is it that only bad guys can survive?”

“You managed to keep alive long enough, Jack.” Sam said, looking back to the flight controls. “So do you want to go and kill that kravin’ scroat, or leave him to the Skalidions?”

The small flashing panel on the flight console caught Jack and Sam’s eyes simultaneously. A distress call.

“Who is that? Don’t they realize they’ll give their position away to the Skalidions?” Sam said, activating the distress call panel.

“Either they don’t know the Skalidion are a nearby, or they are in even more trouble than that.” Jack activated the call.

The distress call was an approximation of fleet standard distress and had the feel of a week one cadet in his first communications training session. It was clumsy and garbled. Barely recognizable.

“Can you work out any actual speech in that signal?” Sam said.

Jack tapped on the call coordinates and displayed it on the holostage.

“It’s coming from Skalidion space.” Jack refined the reception field. “That’s odd,” he said. “The range. It’s reducing. It’s reducing fast. Whatever it is, it’s moving toward us very quickly.”

“Is it a ship?” Sam asked, looking at Jack. “I thought we were the only ships away from the fleet right now.”

“It’s not a ship,” Jack said. “It’s far too massive. Just take a look at the size of that thing.”

The signal was coming from a massive body that was bigger than any ship—Skalidion, Devex, or Fleet. It was bigger than anything Jack had seen.

“If that’s a ship, it is huge.”

“I think I got something here, Jack,” Sam said. “I can play audio here, I think.”

“It’s a planet, Sam.” Jack looked at the data in disbelief. “It’s moving on its own. It’s a rogue.”

“Playing audio now,” Sam said as he activated the message.

“This is Riya Henson. Come in, Admiral Henson. Come in, Scepter. Come in any fleet ship. Come in, anyone, please.”

“Riya Henson?” Jack turned from the data on the rogue planet racing across space and looked at Sam. “Did that say Riya Henson?”

Jack had come so close to rescuing Riya Henson, but he thought she’d been lost when the Devex ship she’d been on had been destroyed.

“It can’t be her.” Sam looked at the holostage and the swarms of Skalidion fighters in the local region. “But if it is her, the Skalidion are going to pick up her distress call. Do you think they’ll leave the admiral’s daughter alone? Do you think we should try and rescue her?”

“Set a course, Sam. We tried to rescue her once. Maybe we’ll succeed this time.”

“It couldn’t do any harm to try, except maybe kill us.” Sam input the coordinates toward the rogue planet and the distress call from Riya Henson.

12

Jack and Sam moved in on Riya Henson’s distress signal. Running dark in the tac boat using only thrusters to maneuver, Jack picked his way through the Skalidion swarm. The Skalidion were massing on the edge of their territory, ready to deliver an overwhelming and decisive blow against the neighboring Devex system.

The rogue planet was moving at tremendous speed. Only a planet kicked out of the system by the most extraordinary and powerful force could have propelled it across interstellar space at such speeds. Detectable only by the ripples it left in spacetime from its huge gravitational field, it was completely black across its entire surface. It must have been traveling for millennia, for eons, to have become so blackened by the interstellar radiation.

The Skalidion swarm moved erratically. Holding its position relative to the Devex system yet constantly moving and shifting, the individual Skalidion craft darted this way and that. Jack and Sam were on full alert, picking their way through the swarm until they reached the relative safety behind the swarm, now fully in Skalidion space.

“How are we going to stop without giving away our position, Jack?” Sam said as he focused on the task of piloting his boat.

“Let’s just get there first,” Jack said and made a minor adjustment to the heading, sending it straight toward the rogue planet.

Now the two bodies, the massive rogue planet and the tiny tac boat, were on a collision course. Only one body would survive the impact. Somehow, Jack had to achieve orbit and remain undetected, if he was going to pick up Riya Henson.

Sam sat upright in his chair. Jack sensed Sam had discovered something startling.

“What is it, Sam?” Jack asked.

“Look,” Sam said, pointing at the holostage. Jack could see the swarming Skalidions now moving en masse. But they were not heading toward the neighboring Devex system. The entire Skalidion swarm was heading toward a tiny distant speck on the boundary of Devex and Skalidion space. The tiny distant speck was the nebula.

The Skalidion swarm was heading toward the fleet’s hiding place, its sanctuary. The fleet was in danger.

“Okay, listen up, Sam,” Jack said, his hands dancing over the flight console. “We are going to cut our speed using the main retro drive and enter orbit right above Riya’s signal.”

“Copy that, Jack.” Sam made the necessary calculations. “You don’t need me to tell you, but that is going to light us up on the Skalidion scanners like a solar flare.”

“That’s right, Sam. We just have to be quick, accurate, no mistakes. You ready for this?”

“I am disappointed you have to ask.” Sam made the final prep, his finger hovering over the retro drive panel. “Ready for orbit over rogue planet, firing in five seconds.”

Jack sent the distress call into the communication relays and prepared to return the signal.

“Attention Riya Henson. This is Major Jack Forge. Entering orbit above your location now.”

The flight console shuddered as Sam fired the retro drive. Even with the stability field operating at full power, Jack felt his inertia throwing him forward slightly. Any tiny failure in the stability field, and Jack and Sam could be torn apart. The stress on his body fell away suddenly and Jack was in orbit, weightless. He climbed up out of his seat, his tactical suit’s grav field activating and holding him onto the deck plates. He walked to the back of the boat and opened the boarding ramp.

“Keep an eye on those Skalidions and don’t hesitate to get out here if anything goes wrong. No sense in us all dying here today.”

Sam hooked his arm over the back of his pilot chair and looked to the back of the boat where Jack was standing, making ready to drop down to the planet.

“If you think I have come all this way just to leave you on that rock, you don’t know me very well, Jack. Now get down there, get Henson, and let’s get back to the fleet.”

Jack stepped off the boarding ramp. He adjusted his suit’s grav field and dropped. He fell like a stone, activating his thrusters and pushing himself to the surface. On the black, glassy rock below, Jack could make out a glinting fragment of light. Like a grain of mica in a black rock. Jack zeroed in. Surely this was Henson. At last he could complete his previous mission.

As Jack neared the surface, his thrusters spluttered again, tipping him off balance. He threw everything into the grav field and slowed his descent, still falling too fast. He saw the single person below and dropped faster as he came nearer. Using his tactical suit’s enhanced data view, he zoomed in on the body below.

A Devex warrior stood waiting on the planet.

Jack hit the surface like a hammer blow, his suit’s stability field barely holding him together as the brittle rocks beneath him fractured.

He looked up at the dark faceplate of a Devex warrior.

“Jack? Jack Forge? It’s me, Riya. You found me.”

Jack stood up and reached out, taking Riya by the arm. “Lucky for you it was me that found you. There are thousands of Skalidions up there. We need to get out of here. Are you alone?”

“There were six of us,” Riya said, holding onto Jack. She stumbled as she spoke. “They were civilians, just like me, all of us wrapped in this Devex exo-armor. We were all aware at first, but they lost it. They are over there. They just laid down. They just died. They couldn’t deal with being trapped on this black rock, trapped inside this Devex armor. You have to get it off me, Jack. Help me, please.”

“First thing, let’s get out here,” Jack said. “I have a tac boat in orbit. Does that Devex suit have some kind of levitation system? Can you work it? My tactical suit has taken a beating. I don’t think I can get us both up there.”

“I’ve had nothing to do but play around with this suit,” Riya said, stepping closer to Jack. “Just point me in the right direction and let’s go.”

Jack slipped his arm around Riya’s waist. He looked at the Devex faceplate, the dull gray metal, the dark slit at eye level, and he knew behind that faceplate was a young woman, the daughter of the admiral. He had met her sister, but he had only met Riya in her Devex exo-armor after her capture.

“Just hold on and be ready to activate your suit’s thrusters. The tac boat is right above us. Let’s go.”

Jack moved up off the ground, slowly at first, gripping Riya with his left arm. In her Devex exo-armor, she was heavy. She became lighter as she activated her suit’s levitation systems. Soon the pair were racing toward the open boarding ramp.

Jack received the message from Sam as he closed in to within only a few meters.

“I don’t want to hurry you, Jack,” Sam said, “but we have attracted some attention. We need to move.”

Jack could detect the hint of anxiety in his friend’s voice. Sam was as brave a Marine as Jack had ever met and had been on the frontline of one battle after another. He had fought some of the fiercest and most determined enemies that any Marine ever had, and he had faced them all with courage. He had never shown any sign of running in fear, but he was a man, and he knew fear. Jack could hear it in his voice now, although Jack doubted any other person would detect it.

“Entering tac boat now,” Jack said. “As soon as that boarding ramp is closed, you kick up the drive.”

“Copy that, Jack.”

Jack touched down on the boarding ramp. He gently nudged Riya further up and then reached out to the control panel to close it. He felt the tac boat lurch as Sam kicked up the drive.

Moving to the flight deck, Jack removed his helmet and dropped it on the deck next to the copilot seat, settling down at the flight console alongside Sam.

“Skalidion fighter, Jack,” Sam said, pointing quickly at the holostage.

He saw the single Skalidion fighter closing in on their position. Behind the fighter came the other Skalidion craft that would chew up the remains of the tac boat once the fighter had dealt with them.

“We are going to power directly away from this planet,” Jack said, setting a course. “And then we are going to dive straight back in, with full power to the drive. The gravity slingshot will throw us back toward the nebula. If we get it just right, we shouldn’t have to make another course correction until we enter the nebula.”

“We going to have to get pretty low to get enough of a slingshot,” Sam said.

“We are going to have to be practically scraping the ground,” Jack said. “If you don’t mind, Sam, I’ll take the controls.”

Taking off his helmet, Sam turned to Jack and laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “If anyone can do it, you can. She’s all yours.”

He waited until he was practically outside the rogue planet’s gravity field before he spun the boat on a dime. The Skalidion fighter was closing in fast. Jack kicked up the main drive and powered directly toward the incoming fighter.

“Standing by fire control,” Sam said. “Just say the word and I’ll pour kinetic hail into the face of that Skalidion.”

“Hold your fire,” Jack said. “The speeds we are going at will catch up with that kinetic hail and we’ll shred ourselves.” Jack held his breath for a moment as he raced past the Skalidion’s green fire. With the drive at full power and the rogue planet pulling it into its gravity field, the tac boat reached terrific speed. The deck plates began to vibrate as the boat encountered the thinnest of atmospheres that clung to the rogue planet.

The surface was virtually flat, a dead world, smoothed by cosmic rays and interstellar dust and gas. But Jack was going to maneuver over that surface just mere meters above it. A boulder could end this trip pretty quickly. Jack held his nerve. It was the only way to escape.

The boat raced over the surface of the black planet, pulled in by gravity and whipping around the planet until it was facing the correct heading, straight home. At the precise moment, Jack activated the main drive for a fraction of a second and kicked the tac boat out of the planet’s gravity, racing away with its slingshot momentum and full drive power behind it.

Slumping back in the chair, Jack felt a trickle of sweat run down his forehead. He took a breath, the first he had taken in what felt like an hour. Sam laid a hand on his shoulder and patted him gently. It was a job well done, and they were going home.

Jack checked the passive scanners and presented all the data on the holostage. The Skalidion swarm was moving in on the nebula.

Jack was never going to get there before the Skalidion, before the attack.

13

Phisrid watched her advancing swarm through the eyes of her observer drones. The nebula between her territory and the Devex systems held a prize too easy to ignore. The observer drones detected the signal of starships, but not the familiar Devex signal. This was something new, and Phisrid liked new. Everything was simply matter, so she would have it all.

Beyond the nebula, Phisrid’s observers detected a Devex fleet. Dozens of warships, hundreds of raiders, millions of tons of matter, just waiting for her builders to consume. All would be laid down on her nest asteroid, all would provide brood chambers for her new generation of fighters. Her swarm had grown faster than her mother’s ever had, faster than any Skalidion Swarm Queen she had ever heard of. Phisrid was ruthless. Phisrid was aggressive. But what set her apart from all others, she was cunning.

Phisrid sent the pheromones through her swarm. All drones, all fighters, all builders, all observers, every individual drone would be drawn to her now. The fleet in the nebula would be dispatched quickly enough. Soon she would attack the Devex fleet beyond the nebula, deep in their own territory. She would destroy them soon. As ruthless and aggressive as she was, as any Skalidion Swarm Queen was, she knew the value of patience. Even though waiting made her angry, she knew that it would ultimately lead to the destruction of her enemies.

The pheromone signal echoed back through her swarm. All her drones, her children, were rushing to her now. Her swarm was massive and now concentrated on the nest asteroid, just as her mind was concentrated on the destruction of those who would stand before her. All would be consumed, and nothing would prevent her from growing to become the greatest swarm queen ever. Her nation on the edge of the Skalidion Empire would soon eclipse the greatest nations of the empire. It may come to pass that they would consider her a threat to their dominance, but swarm queens sometimes became empresses, the center of the empire that all Skalidion ultimately belonged to. For now, she had a single battle. Soon, there would be war.

With all drones located and racing in, converging on her nest asteroid, she issued her final orders, subtle variations in the formation that she knew would lead to victory. Some fighters became the main attack force, with others in reserve. Her attack fighters concentrated into a massive teardrop swarm that raced toward the nebula. She was sending in death. She was as certain of victory as she had ever been.

Admiral Henson leaned on the holostage in the center of the command deck of the Scepter. The surveillance drones on the Skalidion side of the nebula detected the Skalidion fighter swarm. They were on a direct heading for the nebula and the fleet hidden within. Henson had no doubt they had been discovered.

Moving away from the holostage, Henson turned and looked up to Group Captain Tanaka sitting in her command chair.

“Have the Devex responded?”

“Nothing since we sent Major Forge’s recon report,” Tanka said. She looked down at the admiral.

Henson nodded, a single stiff jerk of the head. “Send orders, battle stations throughout the fleet. Tactical command is yours now, Group Captain,” Henson said.

“Thank you, Admiral,” Tanaka said. She tapped her command panel on her chair’s armrest and sent the orders to the fleet. The nest was the target.

“The Devex,” Tanaka said suddenly, her voice lifting in hope.

Henson looked back to the holostage.

“Devex fleet is moving into position above the fleet,” Tanaka said. “Just entering sensor range now, Admiral.”

“Let’s hope we can trust them,” Henson said, leaning heavily against the holostage.

The large command deck holostage showed the entire fleet deep within the nebula. The Scepter was in the vanguard, facing the approaching swarm. The Scepter was flanked by her destroyers: Aquarius, Canis, and Scorpio, powerful warships all. Between the carrier and her destroyer-class ships, every available tac boat and Blade had been deployed. On the outer edge of the formation were all other support ships: the swift and powerful weapons platforms, the frigates, and the corvettes.

All ships were ready to engage the swarm, and behind the fleet stood the huge civilian transport ships, each as big as a city, each holding thousands upon thousands of innocent lives all desperate to find a new home somewhere in the far reaches of space. Trapped between warring empires, the Skalidions and the Devex, they were in a battle for their lives.

14

Jack watched the holostage as he raced behind the Skalidion swarm on the edge of the nebula. He was undetected. The fleet clearly was not. The enemy was heading directly for the Scepter at the center of the formation.

His surveillance mission had been successful, even if he had been taken out by Beretta on behalf of Fleet Intelligence. The information that the Skalidion nest was the center of power for the Skalidion swarm had still been delivered to the fleet. If they proceeded as Jack would have, they would wait for an opportunity to attack the nest. The fighter swarm was a threat, no doubt, but it was the nest that had to be destroyed. But first, the fighter swarm would have to be endured.

“Where are the kravin’ Devex,” Sam said, looking at the holostage.

“I can hear them, just about,” Riya said. She stepped up behind the flight deck chairs, leaning one arm behind each. She looked between Sam and Jack at the holostage. “They are entering the nebula on the Devex side, maneuvering into position above the fleet. I think they are conforming to the orders given by the fleet to create a defensive formation.”

Sam looked at Jack. “I sent the information about the nest asteroid. Captain Pretorius told me they were formulating a plan. It looks like they are just sitting and waiting.”

“If I was making the plan,” Jack said, “I would stay in cover for as long as possible, fight off any attackers, and wait for that nest asteroid to come into attack range of the frigates and corvettes. They are the fastest ships capable of attacking the asteroid. That’s what I would do. That is when the fleet would launch their attack. That’s when they would move against the Skalidion.”

“It’s true,” Riya said. “I can hear the Devex. It’s not plain language, but I get an understanding from them. They are waiting for the nest. They know that is the main target.”

The Skalidion fighter swarm entered the outer edge of the nebula, and its signal was scattered by the dust and gas. The signal on the holostage became indistinct as they raced deeper into the nebula.

Soon, the tac boat followed them. The swirling dust and gas churned up by the fighter swarm further up disrupted the boat’s passive sensors.

“I’ll deploy some surveillance drones,” Sam said, looking at Jack for confirmation.

“No need, Sam,” Jack said. “There’s no hiding anymore. Prepare to send a message to the fleet. Inform the admiral we have his daughter.”

“Won’t that give away our position?” Riya asked.

“I don’t think it’ll matter,” Jack said. He pointed at the holostage and the sudden eruption of weapons fire as the fleet and incoming Skalidion swarm engaged.

The nebula lit up from within as the fleet laser emitters delivered devastating beams, each one vaporizing a Skalidion fighter. The hail cannon batteries on all destroyers and the Scepter delivered withering fire, kinetic hail churning the clouds of dust and gas as the ordnance raced toward the incoming swarm. Combat drones raced under their own power toward the Skalidions, the antimatter detonations creating voids within the nebula and destroying hundreds of enemy fighters at a time.

But the Skalidion fighters raced on, their darting, jerking flight helping them to evade the heavy fire from the fleet. As hundreds were vaporized, thousands more rushed on. They opened fire with bursts of green fire, each shot through with tortured strands of orange and purple energy and racing through the nebula, burning the dust and gas before it.

The green fire slammed into the forward section of the Scepter. The massive carrier took the damage, the front sections of composite boiling away, and the hull integrity field shimmering over its surface.

As the Skalidions raced toward the Scepter, the corvette and frigate wing on either flank moved forward to envelop the Skalidion fighter swarm on both sides. And then, appearing above the fleet formation, came the first of the Devex warships. Huge, dark slabs of military hardware, previously feared and hated by the fleet, now moved in support as Devex and human fought for their lives.

“Incoming message, Jack,” Sam said he sent the message to the small flight console holostage.

The image of Admiral Henson appeared.

“Riya. Riya, is that you? This is your father, answer me.”

Riya leaned forward she looked at the holotransmitter.

“Father. It’s me.”

“I’m taking the Scepter out of the line. Tell whoever is flying that tac boat that you will board the Scepter on the first available landing deck.”

Sam looked at Jack. “He can’t take the Scepter out of the line. The fleet’s center will collapse.”

“Father, I’m okay. We will board the Scepter where you are.”

“No,” Henson said, his voice falling. “Just get safe. Move to the rear, find a civilian craft. I’ll see you later.”

Jack selected a heading for the nearest civilian transport. He knew the battle that was raging needed every available ship. It was wrong avoiding the conflict. He knew he could have a positive impact on the fight. No matter how many ships were involved, a good Marine in the right place was always a battle-winning prospect.

“Who is flying that boat?” The admiral said, his image flickering as the intense fire of the battle distorted the communication frequencies.

“Major Jack Forge, sir,” Jack said.

“You don’t leave a job half-finished, do you, Jack? Get her safe for me, son. I’ll see you when this battle is over.”

“Copy that, Admiral.” Jack cancelled the transmission and set course for the rear of the fleet. He slumped back in his chair.

Sam returned the holostage to show the raging battle. The Devex were raking the Skalidion fighter swarm with their rapid-fire white energy bullets. Streams of millions of the minute points of white energy ripped through the nebula and smashed their way through the Skalidions. The raging torrent of fire from the fleet, and the return fire from the swarm, boiled away the dust and gas in the center of the nebula, creating empty space.

Jack linked the boat’s active sensors to all active sensors throughout the fleet. The maximum range now extended far beyond the nebula. Jack saw the nest asteroid, still far away. It was the Skalidions’ command center, the center of all their power. It was the only target that mattered.

The moment Jack had detected the massive nest asteroid, the Devex fleet began to move out of formation from their position over the top of the fleet. The drive systems kicked up, and they moved toward the distant nest asteroid.

“They spotted it,” Sam said. “The Devex are going straight for it.”

Riya Henson nodded.

“Put me through to the flagship, Sam,” Jack said.

“Channel open. You’re through to the group captain.”

Tanaka’s image appeared on the holostage in front of Jack. She was clearly busy with the conducting the battle. Jack respected her for taking his call.

“If you have something to say, Major,” Tanaka said without looking at him, “then please hurry.”

“The Devex must hold position, sir. We can’t hold the Skalidion off without them.”

“The Devex are not responding to my communications. Move your tac boat into formation, Major. I need every available ship in this fight. Group out.”

The image of Tanaka vanished off the flight console holostage. Jack felt frustration well up inside him as he saw the holoimage of the Devex fleet moving further away from their formation.

“They wanted this alliance,” Jack said. “And now they are just throwing it away.”

“But the nest is the target, right?” Sam said.

“Yes, but the fleet will be torn apart if the Devex move off now,” Jack said.

“We are pretty exposed out here, Jack,” Sam said. “I’d be happier if we could form up with that tac boat wing in the fleet. Setting a course now.”

“Maybe I can do something. Maybe I can stop them,” Riya said, leaning between Jack and Sam. “I still have some connection with the Devex through my exo-armor. The range is limited, but if you get me in close…”

Jack turned in his seat. “You really think you can stop that fleet?”

“We have to try something, Jack.” She shrugged slightly, as best she could in that armor.

Sam reset their heading. “I don’t think the admiral is going to be too happy about us taking his daughter into the heart of the Skalidion swarm.” He turned and looked at Jack. “But if you give me the order, Jack, we are all set here.”

Jack looked at the holoimage of the fleet. The Skalidion fighter swarm was closing in rapidly, still with thousands of individual fighters. They evaded the high-energy laser beams lancing out from every ship. Every laser assembly on every frigate and corvette sparked into life and shot through the swarm.

And then, with the Skalidions closing, the fleet deployed its kinetic hail curtain defense. A wall of high-energy hail leaped up in front of the fleet. The swarm slammed into it, hundreds of ships annihilated in a second, their explosions billowing outwards, fiery gas and debris colliding with hail fragments in the defensive curtain to create a sparkling cascade of fire and destruction.

The Skalidion fighters picked their way through the holes in the curtain carved out by the destruction of their fellow fighters, and they closed in on the fleet.

All communication from the flagship came over the boat’s channels automatically as Tanaka sent her fleet-wide order.

“This is group. All ships. All ships. Engage the Skalidion. All Blades. All tac boats. Engage them ship to ship. Stand down defensive measures. Set all laser assemblies to short range. Group out.”

Sam, his hand hovering over the flight controls, looked at Jack. Jack looked to Riya. Riya nodded.

“Do it, Sam. Move toward the Devex fleet. I am going to open a channel to group. I hope they don’t see it as mutiny.”

Jack opened a channel to Group Captain Tanaka, but the communication request was blocked. Jack felt nervous at disobeying his last order from Tanaka, but he had to try something. He glanced at the holoimage of the battle and the Skalidion’s breaking through the battleship lines with several dozen fighters closing in on a civilian craft that was turning to run. It hardly made its turn before the Skalidion green fire vaporized the drive system. The explosion tore forward through the civilian transport in seconds and left a flaming hulk of shattered composite.

“Opening a channel to the Scorpio,” Jack said.

The image of Captain Pretorius appeared on the holostage. The holoimage flickered, and Jack saw flames licking along the side of the command deck. Captain Pretorius was clearly sweating. He had unbuttoned his collar and was bleeding from a wound on his face. He still managed a quick smile for Jack.

“Jack my boy. I don’t have much time right now. I hope this isn’t a social call.”

“Captain,” Jack said quickly, “the Devex must return to formation. I have Riya Henson with me. She was converted into a Devex warrior. She has some connection to the Devex fleet. I need to get in close. Tanaka won’t take my call. I need permission, sir.”

“I can’t authorize that, Jack…”

The holoimage flickered and dropped out for a moment. When Pretorius came back, black smoke was billowing into the command deck. “I trust your judgment, Jack. Do what you think you must. Good luck. Scorpio out.”

Jack hit the main drive and threw the boat toward the Devex fleet that was reaching the edge of the nebula. Several astro units away, Jack detected the nest asteroid. It was alone and vulnerable. It was a perfect target of opportunity. Jack could understand why the Devex had sacrificed the alliance and the entire human fleet in order to take down this central command unit of the Skalidion forces. It was almost too easy.

As the tac boat closed in on the Devex fleet, Jack turned to Riya.

“Let me know as soon you have contact,” Jack said.

Riya nodded. “I can hear them. They will hear me soon.”

“If you can slow them down,” Sam said, “that would be a help. We are getting pretty close to that nest asteroid.”

Jack zoomed in the holoimage onto the nest asteroid. For such an important part of the Skalidion force, it seemed extremely unlikely that it would be undefended. Zooming in closer, Jack could make out the movement of fighters on its surface. Maybe a hundred at most. Clearly not enough to defend the asteroid against even the smallest of fleet attack ships. A corvette with tac boat support could severely cripple if not destroy this central point of the Skalidion force.

“They can hear me,” Riya said. “They are convinced they can end the battle by destroying the asteroid. They have more than enough firepower. I hear them. They say the battle will be over in minutes.”

“They are just sitting ducks.” Sam placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder and patted it heavily, clearly excited that the battle was nearly at an end.

But Jack sensed the danger. The Skalidion were extremely numerous, extremely powerful. They were also intelligent and devious. Leaving their command center so exposed seemed highly unlikely. Jack launched the tac boat’s full complement of surveillance drones and sent them in all directions.

“Charge up the laser assembly, Sam. If we have any ordnance for the hail cannon, get that loaded too.”

“We don’t need to get too close, Jack,” Sam said. “The Devex will be more than a match for that nest.”

“Bring everything to battle condition now,” Jack said as he loaded all available surveillance data into the holostage. “Look at our position, Sam. The Skalidion has split our force. Maybe they knew they couldn’t take us down as a combined fleet. But if they kill us one piece at a time…”

And then Jack spotted what he feared, what he suspected. With the surveillance drones only one astro unit out from the tac boat, he detected the edge of the new, larger, more deadly Skalidion swarm. Holding position on the edge of sensor range, the fighter swarm was clearly much larger than the one battling the fleet in the nebula.

“They suckered the Devex into attack. Now here comes the counter.” Jack opened a channel to Tanaka. The channel to the flagship opened, and Jack was surprised to see Admiral Henson looking out of the holostage at him. The admiral’s angry face was inset on the holostage below the image of the vast Skalidion swarm now bearing down on the Devex.

“You get my daughter back here this instant, Forge. You get back here now and I’ll consider not having you on a court-martial and then shot.”

“Admiral, listen please, relaying new data to you now. There is a new Skalidion swarm, larger than the one attacking the fleet right now. It has just come into sensor range. The Devex fleet is under attack. You need to order the fleet to withdraw. Admiral, we can’t win.”

The image of Admiral Henson looked aside, clearly studying the new data. When he looked back out of the holoimage at Jack, he was clearly concerned.

“I’ll instruct group to withdraw,” Henson said, his voice failing. “Please, Major, bring my daughter back home now.”

The new Skalidion swarm filled the sky on the port side of the tac boat and covered a vast swathe of space. It was about to envelop the entire Devex fleet and the lone tac boat that was catching up.

“I am bringing the boat about,” Jack said. “And get ready on the weapons control, Sam. We might have to battle our way out of here”

Phisrid watched the battle in the nebula. Her builders were moving in on the destroyed craft. The other ships were fighting tenaciously. She admired the fighting spirit of this new fleet. They had destroyed a vast number of her advanced fighter swarm and were steadily destroying what remained. But she had drawn out the Devex.

Phisrid had been battling the Devex since she was a young sub-queen. She knew they would attack the nest, that it would be too attractive for them to ignore, and now she had drawn them away from their new allies. She would smash them, devour them, adding their matter to her own, and she would grow. The fleet in the nebula was different, strange, but she would destroy them in time.

With victory only moments away, Phisrid sent the pheromone signal to the nest pilots and moved her asteroid closer to the nebula. This marked the new edge of her nation. She had advanced deeper into Devex territory than any other swarm queen. She felt strong. She snatched up a nearby nurse drone and devoured it, savoring every crunch as she watched her massive fighter swarm close in for their victory.

The main body of the Skalidion swarm slammed into the nearest Devex warship, tearing through its outer hull and bursting out the other side, huge balls of Skalidion green fire vaporizing the outer hull and bursting out along with the swarm of fighters.

The Devex warships turned in every direction, attempting to scatter and flee from the sudden Skalidion attack. But it was too late, they were doomed, every one of them taking masses of green fire. Their drive sections erupted as the Skalidions concentrated their attacks.

Jack hit the main drive on the tac boat and headed directly back to the nebula, but he was cut off by a small group of Skalidion fighters that had wrapped around the far end of the Devex fleet. They moved in on a collision course, blasting out bursts of green fire toward the tac boat.

“Deploying kinetic hail,” Sam said. “Forward laser assembly firing.”

“We can’t escape that way,” Jack said. He put the boat into some extreme maneuvers, twisting this way and that, evading the incoming fire. He moved the tac boat in the same jerky manner as the Skalidion fighters, evading their attacks. “Plotting an escape route now.”

The green fire that slammed into the tac boat ripped away the port-side hail cannon. The force of the weapons hit spun the boat off course. Jack fought to stabilize the flight, but the green fire burned over the hull, creating a new jet as the composite burned away into space.

Jack stabilized the tac boat and set it moving forward, its main drive on maximum output. A second burst of green fire slammed into the rear of the boat and pitched it forward. It tumbled over the forward section, the drive spluttering and sending it further off course.

The smoke from the burning hull filled the interior of the small boat, black acrid smoke cutting visibility in an instant. The only thing Jack could see without the use of his tactical suit’s enhanced data view were the red lights all over the flight console. Every system showed some level of failure. The tac boat spun again as another burst of Skalidion green fire slammed into the outer hull.

The forward section took heavy fire as Jack fought to stabilize the tumbling craft, but he knew the boat was lost. At that moment, the forward section was ripped away. Flight deck and holostage were all torn away. Jack remained in his flight seat, but before him was nothing but empty space.

And that space was filled with green fire pouring in on the scattering Devex warships, all of them taking heavy damage, every one of them giving fire in all directions. Millions of points of white energy flickered across space with many of them destroying Skalidion fighters, too many of them missing their targets, too many Skalidion fighters even for the Devex to counter.

The destruction of a Devex warship suddenly dominated the view. It exploded, sheet-like planes of white energy erupting in all directions, slicing through the Devex hull and illuminating the battle. Its debris flew into the next nearest warship, the collision burning and lighting up the side of the Devex warship as the hull vaporized in the collision.

“Abandon the tac boat,” Jack said. “With me. Stay together. Let’s go.”

Jack grabbed hold of Sam’s wrist and pulled him toward the open, exposed front of the boat. He reached out with his other hand and grabbed Riya’s exo-armor. He pulled them both toward the open front and leaped out into space.

Activating his thrusters, Jack pushed himself further away from the boat. A Skalidion fighter raced in, a blast of green fire from its forward weapons assembly burning past Jack and into the open front section of the tac boat. The drive assembly was destroyed, and the reactor exploded.

Debris flew outward and raced past Jack and his companions. He threw everything into his thruster and powered away. Sam and Riya fired up their suit thruster units, and the three gripped each other and flew deeper into the Skalidion attack on the scattering Devex.

One warship had managed to come completely about and was heading directly toward Jack, the vast ship accelerating, growing bigger as it came forward. Jack could see the flickering green fire over the hull as the Skalidion fighters swept in, pouring their deadly weapons onto the fleeing target.

Jack’s tactical suit picked up a distant transmission from the fleet in the nebula. A high-energy all ships transmission signaling full retreat, with one ship ordered to the rear guard to protect the retreat. The message was barely audible, but Jack understood. And the one ship ordered to hold and protect the retreat was the Scorpio.

“Get me inside that warship,” Riya said.

“They are getting torn apart,” Sam said. “We need to head back to the fleet.”

“The fleet is in full retreat,” Jack said. “And we are on suit thruster power alone. It’ll take us months to get back to the nebula.” Jack knew that by spreading out by a few hundred meters, the three of them could generate a strong enough distress signal to alert the fleet to their position. A rescue tac boat might be their only chance of survival.

“Get me inside that Devex warship,” Riya said. “Get me in there before the Skalidions destroy it entirely. They still have power. They have a matter transport unit. I’ve used it before. I can get us back to the fleet instantly. Get me in there now!”

Jack was already heading toward the oncoming warship before Riya had finished talking. Sam was also throwing his thruster power forward, and soon, the three of them were closing in on the massive Devex warship even as it took more fire from the huge Skalidion swarm.

The warship’s forward section was bigger than any ship in the fleet. Hanging in space just beyond the hull, Jack truly realized how massive it was. He reached out with his suit’s grav field and connected with the oncoming hull. The three of them settled down feet first onto the forward hull.

Jack drew his pulse pistol and fired up the electron blade. He cut into the outer hull, creating an opening, and Sam joined in. Riya tapped Jack and pointed along the hull.

“There’s an access hatch there,” Riya said. The access panel popped open. “I’m still part of the Devex consciousness in this suit. I know the way to the matter transport pad. The nearest one is not far away.”

Jack followed Riya as she ran toward the opening just ahead. Jack followed her inside, with Sam hot on his heels.

Jack had been inside a Devex warship before, but he was still amazed at the scale. The access panel brought them out into a long corridor that ran the length of the starboard side and connected many subcommand rooms together. Riya ran along the corridor until she reached an opening that looked down on a vast assembly area. At the front of the area was the matter transport pad.

Riya leaped over the side and dropped down the huge vertical wall. Jack and Sam followed. They used their suit thrusters and grav fields to push them closer to the matter transport pad. Touching down a few meters short, Jack, Sam, and Riya grabbed hold of each other and ran up onto the pad.

Looking at Sam, Jack wondered what a matter transport would feel like. He hoped he would be happy to tell the tale. He hoped it wouldn’t scatter his atoms throughout the Skalidion swarm. He hoped Riya Henson’s targeting was good enough that he wouldn’t be thrown into the hull of the Scorpio. But Jack had no way of knowing where he was going to end up. He was entirely in the hands of Riya Henson.

“Activating matter transport now,” Riya said. “Targeting nearest fleet vessel.”

A blast of green fire came tearing through the wall alongside the assembly area. A Skalidion fighter came racing in, the sleek lines like an arrowhead. It fired another blast across the space and into the opposite wall. The green fire slammed into the wall, exploding and throwing out shards of debris. The fighter leaped forward to the center of the assembly area. Jack could see the full length of the Skalidion fighter, and a new ball of green fire was growing at the forward weapons assembly. It was fired at the already smoking, melting wall.

It seemed the Skalidion was going to race away deeper into the warship, pouring its fire into the interior and burning it from the inside out, but it stopped, slowly turned, and pointed its forward weapon directly at the matter transport pad—at Riya Henson, Sam Torent, and Jack Forge.

The building green fire on the front of the fighter grew to the size of a tac boat, then the colors seem to fade. The sharp edges of the assembly area, and the Skalidion fighter hovering there, blurred away. All diffused into a hazy wall of color that faded to dull gray, white, and then black.

Jack woke. All noise was muted, but it was growing in volume and becoming clearer by the second. He opened his eyes. He could see nothing. Realizing his tactical suit helmet had lost power, he unclipped it and pulled it off. The sounds became familiar—the sounds of boots on deck plates. The sounds of Marines readying their weapons.

Climbing up off the floor onto his hands and knees, Jack held up a hand in surrender.

“Hold your fire. Jack Forge. Major Forge. Where are we?”

“You are on the command deck of the Scorpio,” Captain Pretorius said. He stepped forward and grabbed Jack by his arm, lifting him to his feet.

Jack looked up. The captain’s face was streaked with dirt and sweat, and there was a small med-pack covering the wound on his face. Jack attempted to stand unaided and steadied himself against a nearby console.

“We have to get out of here, Captain. The Devex have lost. The Skalidions are everywhere.”

“We are in retreat, Jack. We’re heading deeper into Devex space. The Skalidions are holding in the nebula. If it wasn’t for you, we would never have known they were coming.”

Sam Torent was lying on the deck, Riya Henson next to him. The Marine guards were all pointing their pulse rifles at Riya Henson, covered as she was in the Devex exo-armor.

“Stand down, Marines.” Jack staggered toward the group of Marines standing over her. “That is Riya Henson. Contact the admiral. Tell him his daughter is safe.”

“I’ll do that, Jack,” Pretorius said. “But you do something for me. Get yourself down to the medical bay. That is an order. You copy?”

Jack picked Riya Henson off the deck. He staggered with her and Sam toward the command deck exit. He knew the way to the medical bay. He knew every inch of the ship. She had taken a beating, but it was still the same old ship he remembered.

“Copy that, Captain.” And Jack staggered onward. He forced himself forward, one foot in front of the other, one more step, just one more step. Jack had made it home. He would make it to the med-bay. He already felt better being aboard the Scorpio.

Jack woke up on a medical bunk feeling alert, fit, and healthy. He swung his feet over the side and dropped down onto the cold deck. He looked down at his bare feet. He was wearing his Marine PT gear. He had no shoes. He didn’t wait to find any. He wanted to see Riya Henson.

The maintenance workshop was guarded by a pair of Fleet Intelligence enforcers. As Jack approached, he expected some argument before they would let him through. He had no time for politics now. But both enforcers drew back their pulse rifles, pointing them to the ceiling, and stepped aside.

Jack acknowledged them as he stepped through the workshop door.

Inside, in a pool of light, was Riya Henson. She was still fully covered in the exo-armor. Standing at her side was Sarah Reyes, and on her other side was Admiral Henson. Sarah looked over at Jack and smiled.

“You’re just in time, Jack,” Sarah said. “I think we are just about to get this helmet off.” Sarah turned to Riya Henson, her face still hidden behind the faceplate.

Sarah Reyes lifted a small device and held it to Riya’s neck. Wispy black strands reached out from the device, strands that reminded Jack of Sam’s Mech hand. The strands poured out and worked their way through the Devex exo-armor. Sarah Reyes left the device in place and twisted the helmet. It slid up.

Jack held his breath.

The helmet came away. Riya Henson’s hair fell over her shoulders. She blinked in the light. Her father placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Jack? Jack, is that you?” Riya said.

Jack nodded. “It’s good to finally see you, Ms. Henson.”

The admiral looked at Jack and smiled. “I owe you a great debt. If there’s anything I can do, if there is anything you need…”

Jack nodded. “A little sleep. And then I’d like to get back to duty.”

The admiral stepped toward Jack. “Is there anything in particular that you would like to do? Any job you want.”

Jack shook his head. “I just want to get back to my battalion, sir.”

“Battalion major? I think a Marine with your talents could be better deployed elsewhere, Mr. Forge. You go and rest, and as soon as you’re ready to return to duty, I want you to report directly to me on the Scepter.” The admiral looked at Jack with a stern yet haggard face. “And that is an order, Jack.”

Jack saluted the admiral and came to attention. Just as he turned to leave, he saw Riya Henson jump off the medical bunk and run over to him. She wrapped her arms around him, still clad in the Devex exo-armor, and planted a gentle kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you, Jack. You saved me more than once. If there’s anything I can do, you can call me anytime.”

Jack looked over to Sarah Reyes, one of his oldest friends, and gave her a slightly embarrassed smile. He had once thought that he and Sarah would one day be more than friends. She avoided Jack’s smile and turned away.

“Now, you get back to your quarters and let me catch up with my daughter and let Agent Reyes finish her work,” the admiral said, maneuvering Jack toward the exit.

Jack left the maintenance workshop and headed back to his old quarters through the cold corridors of the Scorpio. He returned the salute of a pair of Marines in PT gear who jogged along the corridor. Just watching the Marines made Jack feel how tired he was. He would love to go for a run about now, to blow away the thoughts of recent events, but there was only one thing Jack could do now.

Jack was going to sleep.

Betrayal

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 6

1

The fleet raced onward in tight formation, its left flank skirting dangerously close to Skalidion space. Deep inside that space, a squadron of tac boats scanned the area for enemy movement. Surveillance drones surrounded the squadron, extending their sensor range a few more crucial astro units.

As he launched a data drone to relay the latest sensor data back to the fleet, Jack Forge opened the squadron communication channel.

“All boats, report in,” Jack said, initiating an end of watch check on all systems.

Jack’s old friend and Marine brother was the first to respond. Although Jack was the battalion commander, the pair had come up through the ranks together. They were friends, and Sam would normally call Jack by his first name, but only in private. On the squadron channel where all could hear, Sam observed protocol and addressed Jack by his rank.

“Copy, Major. Commander Torent reporting in. All systems green here, sir. Torent out.”

Jack looked at the holoimage of the tac boat formation on his flight console and zoomed in on the tac boat that Sam Torent was sitting in, confirming the systems report. Jack had selected the flank surveillance squadron personally and had volunteered for the task himself. Even though he was deep in Skalidion space, Jack felt secure that the Marine teams around him were the best of the Scorpio Battalion, if not the entire fleet. It was about as comfortable as Jack could be, given the circumstances.

The rest of the squadron reported in with only one tac boat reporting a minor maneuvering thruster control error. The squadron was operating effectively, and Jack maintained the heading.

The holoimage of the squadron flickered on the holostage. The eight boats were arranged in line and moved forward as one, holding formation to within a millimeter of their assigned position. Jack’s boat sat in the center of the formation, the fixed point that all the other tac boats took their position from.

The port side of the line faced Skalidion space, and they all knew that was the most likely direction from which danger might come. Jack zoomed out the view on his holostage and displayed all data within the squadron’s surveillance sphere.

A slight flicker of a signal on the edge of the sphere caught Jack’s attention, and he was immediately on full alert.

“Check port surveillance feed. All tac boats check port-side. Signal detected.”

Turning in his seat, Jack called back to his crew, a group of three Marines all selected for their ability to effectively service the tac boat’s weaponry.

“Make ready the guns. Skalidions.” Jack turned back to his flight console

It was a guess, a judgment call. Without confirmation from the rest of the squadron, Jack could not be sure that it was the Skalidion, but Jack needed to be ready. Every second would count, if it was.

The signal on the holostage came closer, and Jack reset the resolution. He focused on the far-off signal, still only a tiny reflector in the vast expanse but closing the distance fast.

“Signal confirmed, Major.” The voice of Commander Sam Torent crackled over Jack’s flight deck communicator.

“Copy that.” Jack looked at his holostage and saw the tiny reflector now with a code displayed alongside it. The identification made by all eight tac boats was confirmed. A Skalidion fighter was racing toward the squadron.

“Just one?” Jack said to himself. The Skalidions never came alone.

“All boats, recall all surveillance drones. Prepare to defend. Dispatch data update to the fleet. We have encountered the Skalidion.”

Jack’s small crew reported all guns ready. The two hail cannon gunners were standing ready at their position on the port and starboard sides of the cramped boat. The high-energy laser operator hung from the top-mounted laser turret, his head and shoulders in the center of the small rear section.

Jack checked all systems on his flight deck. The boat was fully functional and green across the board. All combat systems were ready. The holostage showed the line of tac boats and the single Skalidion fighter closing in, heading directly for the center of the line. On the edge of surveillance range, Jack saw the fighter swarm. A hundred reflectors in a tight formation raced in. The lead Skalidion was soon caught up in the swarm, just one more fighter lost in a hundred-strong swarm bearing down on the small tac boat squadron, determined to destroy anything and everything in their path.

A reply from the fleet flagship came as a text-only message, short and clear.

Deploy kinetic hail curtain defense and withdraw to the fleet.

“All tac boats, orders from the fleet. Port-side hail cannon will deploy kinetic hail curtain. Maximum spread. Set heading back to the fleet and prepare to maneuver at speed.”

Jack set the new heading to the fleet several astro units away on the starboard flank of his squadron. The port-side hail gunner called out to Jack that the defensive fire pattern was set.

“All tac boats, fire on my mark and then withdraw to the fleet at maximum speed. Mark.”

Immediately, the boat was filled with the dull sound of the cannon firing. Three short blasts and the gunner reported that his rounds were away. Jack turned to the flight deck and activated maneuvering thrusters, spinning the heavy little boat on the spot. He looked to the image on the holostage and confirmed the squadron had rotated ninety degrees, main drive systems firing up and throwing the tac boats across space toward the fleet. With every tac boat underway on their new heading, Jack hit his drive and followed.

The kinetic hail curtain sat within sensor range, and Jack saw the Skalidion swarm racing toward it. Their main green fire weapons flared to life and burned channels through the deadly hail. Many fighters streamed through, but many more collided with the wall and were instantly obliterated.

Ahead of the tac boat squadron, Jack spotted a new group of signals on his holostage. These signals were already accompanied by the Fleet ident codes marking them as a squadron of Blades. The fighter wing was racing in to engage the swarm.

With the swarm clear of the hail curtain, all Jack and his squadron could do was run. The support of the Blades was still several minutes away. Jack looked at the range finder on the holostage and could see clearly that the Skalidions would be on the tail of his squadron before they met up with the Blades. With their tails turned, the tac boat squadron was vulnerable. Their green fire would tear through the drive systems first, and with his drive systems out of commission, the Skalidion fighters would easily overpower his small squadron. It was hopeless.

Unless he turned to fight.

“All tac boats, this is Major Forge. All weapons stand by. We will engage the Skalidion.”

Jack shouted over his shoulder to his three-man crew, “Get those guns ready. It’s all on you to keep them firing.”

Communication from the Blades crackled over Jack’s flight deck communicator.

“Attention tac boat squadron. This is Commander Scherer of the Orphan Blades. You have orders to return to the fleet. Leave the Skalidions to us, Major Forge. We’ll take it from here.”

“Negative, Commander,” Jack replied. “They’ll be on our tail before you can get here. The only chance I have is to fight. Get here soon. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

Jack closed the channel to Scherer and opened one to his squadron.

“On my mark, come about one-eighty. We will have to face them down. Hail curtain, and then prepare high-ex ordnance. High-energy laser on wide beam. Let’s try and even out these odds. Stand by to maneuver. Mark.”

Jack hit the flight console controls and spun his tac boat on the spot, the inertia field straining and pressing Jack to the side of his flight seat. The instant the tac boat was facing the advancing swarm, he heard the hail cannon activating. The holostage showed the ordnance race ahead. At only a few hundred meters, the hail rounds exploded and threw out the curtain of sparkling kinetic hail. The rounds all detonated within seconds of each other and created a shimmering defensive shield several hundred square kilometers across that hung in space, sparkling and deadly.

The Skalidion fighters had closed in on the tac boats so close that the sudden appearance of the hail curtain took them by surprise. The first dozen Skalidion fighters collided with the defensive curtain, detonating and creating a fiery ball that spread. With a dozen more enemy fighters destroyed, Jack had reduced the odds against them. Now his squadron was only outnumbered ten to one.

The Skalidion fighters further back in the swarm had time to fire up their primary weapons and burned a channel through the hail curtain, but Jack and his squadron were expecting this. The breaches in the curtain were now targeted with hundreds of high-explosive rounds. The hail cannon pounded away, firing at the fighters that slipped through the gaps in the hail curtain.

Jack looked at the holostage and saw the Blades were still too far away to help.

The flicker of the laser assembly firing on wide beam danced across the flight deck. Jack called out his support and encouragement to the laser gunner in the small turret on the topside of the tac boat.

And then the Skalidions opened fire.

The boat on Jack’s starboard side took a hit from the green fire. The pilot called out the hits. Jack was surprised to hear any communication from the tac boat, given that Skalidion fire was usually powerful enough to burn through a tac boat and vaporize all inside.

“Forward maneuvering thrusters inoperable.” The pilot of the tac boat on Jack’s starboard reported the damage. “Losing stability. I’m dropping out formation.”

Opening a channel and watching the targeting data streaming in from his own weapons, Jack sent a message to the stricken tac boat.

“Keep firing, Marine. The Blades will be here. Keep fighting. Forge out.”

The Skalidion swarm swept in on the tac boat squadron. Jack recognized their tactics. All the boats on Jack’s starboard took fire to the forward maneuvering assemblies, so half the squadron began to tumble out of control. Jack could see that the Skalidions were firing to disable rather than kill.

The swarm raced past the tac boats and on toward the incoming Blades. As they closed into weapons range with the Blades, the Skalidions tightened formation. The green fire erupted from the front of the fighters in a tightly-packed salvo. It burned through the center of the Blade squadron, annihilating one of the Blades in an instant. They took evasive action and returned fire. Their forward laser assemblies lit up and accounted for an equal number of Skalidions. The Blades were outnumbered, though. In fact, the remaining Skalidions still vastly outnumbered the tac boats and the Blades combined.

Another tightly-packed salvo from the Skalidion fighters and they turned in a sweeping arc, heading back toward the tac boat squadron. Jack was already turning his boat to give fire. The four tac boats on one flank of the squadron were tumbling, with only the rear maneuvering assemblies and main drive giving them any form of control.

The swarm swept in on the damaged tac boats and fired again. Jack felt sure they would be destroyed on this sortie, but the Skalidion green fire only grazed the boats on the lower port side. Jack knew for sure now that the Skalidions were merely attempting to disable the tac boats. The rear maneuvering assemblies were rendered useless by the Skalidion swarm and left the tac boats tumbling in space.

Quickly running a check on the local star maps, Jack saw that the tumbling tac boats were caught in a gravity well and were slowly being pulled toward a nearby star. Two massive terrestrial planets orbited in the habitable zone around the star. The tac boats were falling toward the outer most of these two.

The Skalidion fighters swept past the tac boat formation, with the trailing fighters colliding lightly with the stricken boats to nudge them further into the gravity well speed their fall.

With the tac boats’ maneuvering capabilities limited, if not completely destroyed, Jack knew they were completely vulnerable to enemy fire. At least planet-side, the four-man Marine crew would stand a chance of survival until the fleet could mount a rescue. The alternative was destruction.

Opening a channel to the four stricken tac boats while also maintaining his battle position, Jack sent his orders.

“Make for that outer terrestrial. Set down and await rescue. If you have the opportunity to give fire to the enemy then don’t hesitate, but your priority is to put your boat down and await rescue. Forge out.”

The Skalidion fighters arced in again and came racing back toward the remaining tac boats. The last embers of the previous hail cannon curtain were no defense against the swarm still numbering more than sixty individual ships. The gunners fired on the Skalidions as they arced to race back in for the second sortie, and Jack noted with satisfaction that the gunners’ aim was good and half a dozen Skalidion fighters were dispatched before they brought their weapons to bear against the tac boats.

The damaged boats tumbling toward the nearby star system had regained some control and set their heading for the planet. Main drive systems burst to life and flung the boats toward the planet, out of the battle space and toward safety.

Jack watched on the holostage as the Skalidion fighters closed in, and he braced himself for the inevitable onslaught. The Blade squadron was only seconds away from joining the tac boats. Maybe their combined capabilities would be a match for the remaining Skalidions.

The Skalidions laid down a tightly-grouped salvo of green fire and arced away, following the boats falling to the planet.

Jack took evasive action as the green fire salvo raced in. A boat next to Jack took a glancing blow, its outer hull on the lower port side boiling away into space, but a group of Blades coming up on Jack’s rear took the brunt of the fire, the billowing, seething mass of bright green pouring over the nose sections of three Blades and vaporizing the hull composite.

The Blade pilots ejected from their fighters moments before they exploded. The pilots in their tactical suits would be protected from the vacuum of space for a short time, and Jack knew they were too small a target for the Skalidion fighters that were moving rapidly across the battle space. Too small to be deliberately targeted, at least.

Jack zoomed in on one of the Blades pilots adrift in space—the leader, Commander Scherer—as a Skalidion fighter closed in.

“Commander Scherer, this is Forge. That Skalidion is coming for you. Hold on, I’m coming.”

Jack maneuvered his boat the short distance toward Commander Scherer and watched Scherer with the external sensors as the pilot pulled his pulse pistol off his hip and fired at the incoming enemy. An almost entirely useless act of defiance.

As Jack closed in, he saw the flicker of the laser assembly across the flight deck followed by jubilant shouts from the laser gunner. The Skalidion fighter closing in on Scherer vaporized as a high-energy laser blast connected with its drive system.

Jack stopped the boat meters from Scherer. The external sensors showed that Scherer was maneuvering toward the boat, until finally Scherer gripped hold of the hull near the boarding ramp.

“Depressurizing tac boat,” Jack shouted back to his crew. “Open boarding ramp, let’s get the commander in here.”

The main flight of Skalidion fighters were still in pursuit of the stricken boats, but a small group of Skalidions were closing in on the Blade pilots loose in space. Jack watched as one pilot was captured by a series of fine strands that fell from the underside of the Skalidion fighter, catching him up in a tangle of dark fibers. The pilot fired his pulse pistol into the underside of the Skalidion, the pulse rounds ineffectively flickering off the dark green ship.

“They are not trying to kill us,” Jack said to himself. The swarm chasing the tac boats to the surface was not pursuing to destroy. They were pursuing to capture.

Looking back, he saw the tac boat boarding ramp open to black space. Commander Scherer pulled himself inside, his pulse pistol still in his hand.

Opening a channel to the remaining tac boats and Blades, Jack gave his orders.

“This is Major Forge. I’m taking command of this mixed squadron. Set heading for that terrestrial giant. Blades engage those Skalidions in pursuit of our tac boats. Let’s go and save our people.”

2

With the Skalidion swarm shepherding the damaged tac boats to the planet’s surface, Jack and his mixed squadron were able to close on the rear of the swarm. Jack pushed his main drive to its limit and closed the distance still further, eager to take a shot while the swarm was still in deep space.

“All Blades, this is Forge. Move up and engage the Skalidions.” Jack watched in satisfaction as the Blades raced past the tac boat squadron and closed in on the Skalidions’ rear. The Blades’ forward lasers flickered to life and took out several Skalidion fighters, their drive sections exploding under the assault.

Jack watched the Blades fire another salvo and account for another handful of enemy fighters. He leaned on the flight deck, moving closer to the holostage, and considered why the Skalidions were allowing themselves to take the punishment. Surely pursuing the stricken tac boats was secondary to defending themselves against the Blades.

Jack launched a surveillance drone, fearing suddenly that a fresh wave of Skalidion fighters was moving in. However, space was empty for several astro units, filled only by Jack, his mixed squadron, the Skalidion fighters, and the tac boats falling to the planet surface.

The flash on the holostage informed Jack that the first of the damaged boats had entered the massive planet’s thick atmosphere. The nearly out of control tac boat tumbled as friction heated one side, throwing it off balance and presenting a fresh cold face to the friction. The craft heated almost to the point of vaporizing the hull.

Soon enough, all four stricken tac boats were tumbling through the atmosphere, leaving long trails of fire behind them. Communications ceased from the falling boats as they burned ahead, with the remaining Skalidions on their tail.

The Blades slowed their approach and entered the atmosphere cautiously. All sensor readings were scrambled during reentry, and the Blades were vulnerable. Jack synced his tac boat squadron’s sensors with the Blades’ and boosted their targeting accuracy. The strategy was rewarded with an almost immediate explosion of a Skalidion fighter as the Blades were again able to pick out their targets.

Jack entered the atmosphere behind the Blades, burning trails all around. He zoomed in on the damaged boats and saw they were battling to achieve a safe landing. Drive systems were powered, and their remaining thruster units fought to maneuver the boat into some sort of safe landing orientation.

As the tac boats fell, Jack saw several Skalidion pilots detach from their ships. The short, spindly figures somehow dropped alongside the tac boats maneuvering for a safe landing as they fell the last few kilometers. But still, several dozen Skalidion fighters shepherded the boats to the surface seemingly unaware or unconcerned by the presence of the handful of Blades firing to their rear.

Then the Skalidions turned and fired a salvo of green fire at the Blades on their tail. Jack’s heart sank as two Blades erupted into a ball of fire and debris, orange erupting from the fighters’ main drive and mingling with the green that tore through hull and the pilot alike.

Communication from one of the stricken tac boats broke through.

“This is Scorpio Two. Have regained partial thruster control. Landing imminent. Scorpio Two out.”

Jack saw the heavy impact on his holostage as Scorpio Two violently touched down. The impact was followed by three others in quick succession, spread out over a small area. The boats had held formation as best they could, and thankfully were on the ground.

Their external sensors fed their readings back to Jack. He could see the Skalidion fighters that had abandoned their ships land on the surface. Gravity here was three times standard, but the Skalidions seemed unimpeded as they ran toward the downed tac boats.

The Blades racing low across the surface fired their flank hail cannons. Ordnance tore up the ground, and the Skalidion pilots running toward the boats exploded violently. The remaining Skalidion fighters engaged the Blades in ship-to-ship combat. The thick atmosphere of the planet slowed the Blades and reduced their maneuverability, but the Skalidion fighters, small and mobile, moved through the thick atmosphere as easily as they did through the vacuum of space.

“This is Forge. All tac boats set down and create a perimeter. All Marines, arm yourselves, and I’ll see you on the surface.”

The Skalidion fighters hunted down the Blades as Jack prepared to land his craft. He saw one Blade after another succumb to the green fire. A small group of fighters peeled off from the attack on the Blades and circled back to the downed tac boats. The Skalidion pilots detached from their crafts and dropped to the surface.

Combat reports from nerve-shattered Blade pilots filled the communication channels as one after another was destroyed by the pursuing Skalidions.

“This is Forge to all Blades. Break off, climb to orbit. Report tac boat location to the fleet. Get out of here, Blades. I’ll take it from here. Forge out.”

Jack’s tac boat touched down heavily. The boarding ramp immediately began to open, and a fine dust swirled into the interior, clinging to every surface like sticky powder. It even covered Jack’s faceplate. He wiped away the dust, leaving smears over, then activated his enhanced data view to help him see past it.

“Keep those guns active,” Jack said to his crew as he ran to the boarding ramp. “If those Skalidions move in, we will need your firepower.”

Jack ran down the boarding ramp and out of the tac boat. His tactical suit’s stability field alerted him to the high gravity, but his local field kept him from collapsing. The dust on the ground was ankle-deep, thick, and sticky. It clung to his boots as he waded through it as if marching through syrup. Fine particles kicked up by the landing of the tac boats clouded everything in a thick white cloud. Visibility without the enhanced data view was reduced to mere centimeters. Jack swung up his pulse rifle and took a position just outside his boat.

“Attention Major Forge. This is the lead Blade. We have been ordered back to the fleet. All Skalidion fighters have detached from their craft and landed on the surface. We detect thirty-six Skalidions advancing on your position from the planet’s magnetic north. Good luck, Marines. Blades out.”

Commander Scherer came down the boarding ramp and took a knee next to Jack, his pulse pistol held loosely in his hand. He wiped his hand across his helmet’s faceplate to no effect.

“Nice place you’ve got here,” Commander Scherer said.

“And we’ve got some neighbors moving in that I’m not too keen to meet,” Jack replied. He brought his pulse rifle up to his shoulder and sighted into the distance. The Skalidions were moving in.

The sound of pulse rifle fire started sparsely at first, but by the time Jack fired his first round, the sound was sustained. The laser assembly on the upper hull of Jack’s tac boat activated, a beam of high-energy laser lancing out from the assembly. The dust on the surface rose in huge clumps and stuck to the assembly as it fired. The thick white dust scattered the laser from a thin, focused beam to a diffused mass of light that reflected off the swirling dust, creating a wall of orange that was impossible even for the enhanced data view of Jack’s tactical suit to penetrate.

“All tac boats, this is Forge. Stand down high-energy laser. All laser gunners grab a pulse rifle and join the ground force.”

“Jack, this is Sam.” The message came on a private channel.

“Go ahead, Sam.” Jack scanned his field of fire, connecting his enhanced data view to the rifle targeting systems.

“I got Skalidions moving in on the west perimeter. Dozens of them. Giving fire now.”

Jack saw movement in the thick dust only twenty meters out. A Skalidion, its handheld green fire weapon raised, came running. Jack pulled the trigger on his pulse rifle and let out a short burst. The pulse rounds punched through the dust and veered sharply off target. One round caught the onrushing Skalidion in its right hip and sent it tumbling to one side as it fell.

“There is something wrong with the pulse rifles,” Jack heard a Marine calling out over the open channel.

Another Skalidion rushed at Jack. The pulse rounds he fired to slow the attacker veered off course. Jack analyzed the data through his rifle’s targeting system. The planet’s thick electrostatically-charged dust was scattering the pulse rounds through the strong electromagnetic field. He scored a glancing blow on the next Skalidion, knocking it off balance but failing to bring the enemy down. The Skalidion came on, closing in even more.

The Marines’ panicked shouts filled the open channel.

“They have taken Bill!” the Marine repeated his report. “They snatched him in some kind of black net and dragged him a—” The report ended with a scream.

The Skalidion rushing toward Jack was only five meters out when he saw the black fibers spinning out from the end of the Skalidion’s weapon. He activated his electron bayonet and made ready to dispatch the Skalidion in close combat. The black fibers leaped forward and wrapped around Commander Scherer’s head and shoulders, pulling him to the ground and dragging him through the dust.

Jack rushed forward, slashing out with his fizzing bayonet. The white blade was practically invisible in the swirling white dust, but Jack knew exactly where the tip was and easily sliced through the fibers.

Scherer skidded to a halt, pulling himself to his feet and tearing at the fibers around his upper body, all while aiming with his pistol. Scherer let off a rapid series of shots in the general direction of the Skalidion that had tried to trap him. Jack took two steps forward and lunged with his bayonet, the blade slipping through the Skalidion’s large thorax. He lifted the blade upwards, and it burst out through the upper shoulder of the Skalidion, who fell into the dust. A cloud burst up as the alien disappeared into the ground, covered by the swirling white haze.

Jack grabbed Scherer and pulled him back toward the perimeter. Panicked reports from Marines all around the perimeter came in, and Jack heard more reports of the black fiber nets that were snatching the Marines as they fought.

“All Marines, we are getting out of here. All active tac boats make ready to leave. Fall back to your boats. We leave on my command.”

Walking backward toward the open boarding ramp and looking at his wrist-mounted holostage, Jack checked on the progress of all Marines units. Although the swirling dust made it impossible to see his hand in front of his face, the green lines of the holoimage cut through cleanly and Jack could make out the arrangement of tac boats. The Marines were abandoning the crashed craft and falling back to the four functional ones. All Marines were at their boarding ramps in moments.

The Skalidions closed in on all sides.

Falling back to the boarding ramp, Jack let off a sustained blast of covering fire. The pulse rounds swirled off course, some spiraling forward, others arcing up or down to slam into the dusty surface. Jack edged up the boarding ramp and then took a knee and let off another sustained burst. Even though the rounds flew wild, it would surely be enough of a deterrent to the Skalidions advancing on his position.

The medical data from all tactical suits told Jack that of the Marines who had landed on the surface, three were now dead. Six others were in a heightened state of distress, pulse and temperature high, and they were moving away fast, dragged from the tac boat formation by their Skalidion captors. Jack picked out one of the Marines and tapped into the suit’s enhanced data view. What Jack saw through the eyes of his Marine both chilled him and brought him to boiling point. A Skalidion carried the Marine in a thick black web, dragging him through the white dust, moving at speed. The Marine was completely immobilized and could only scream his fear and frustration.

“Jack,” Sam Torent said over a private channel. “Have you seen what they are doing? We have to help.”

Jack could see exactly what the Skalidions were doing. The entire attack had been designed to take live prisoners. Jack was only aware of the numbers that had been taken, but now he was aware that his friend Sam Torent was not among the dead or the captive, and Jack couldn’t help but feel relieved.

“We can’t fight them; they have the advantage. We must retreat.”

“Don’t be so kravin heartless, Jack,” Sam said angrily. “We can’t let them go. We can save them.”

“We can’t save them, Sam, and we could lose even more. We need to know why they didn’t just try to destroy us. We need to report back to the fleet.” Jack activated the boarding ramp and began to close it. Commander Scherer was in the pilot seat. Jack turned to him and gave him a thumbs up and the okay to lift off. “All Marines, head back to the fleet. That is an order.”

As the tac boat lifted off, Jack counted the cost of his perimeter patrol. Four of the best tac boats in the battalion were lost along with nine of his Marines—three dead, six taken prisoner by the Skalidion.

“We are off the ground,” Scherer reported. “Heading to orbit. Visibility low. Sensor readings unreliable. Plotting a course for the fleet.”

Jack opened a channel to the squadron and all surviving Marines. “This is Scorpio One. All tac boats make directly for the fleet with all speed. Forge out.”

Jack looked at the thick dust still covering his tactical suit. His gloves were covered with it, and it clung defiantly to every surface. That he had lost nine Marines was bad enough, but that he had been surprised by the Skalidions’ attack and their determination to take live prisoners was worse. The Skalidion had lost dozens of fighters for every Marine they had killed or captured. They had paid a heavy price for their reward. They wanted live prisoners, and Jack wanted to know why.

With the fleet still hours away, Jack could only think about what the Skalidion plans were. The sooner he could report this turn of events to the fleet, the sooner the intelligence service could try and unravel the mystery.

A proximity alert sounded from the flight deck. Jack walked a few paces to the deck, climbed up the few steps, and dropped down into the copilot seat next to Commander Scherer.

“What is it, Commander?” Jack asked.

“Ship detected, Major.” Scherer sent the signal to the holostage and projected it on full resolution.

The ship was unmistakable. Jack had encountered them so many times before that he would recognize one right away. He had been inside and outside of these craft. But why was one here now, sitting directly in his path?

“Receiving a communication,” Scherer said.

Jack tapped the controls and sent the communication to the holostage. The image that appeared was both familiar and surprising. A Devex warrior in full exo-armor appeared on the holostage.

And then the Devex spoke.

“Fleet vessels. I demand attention.”

Jack looked at the active scans. It was a single Devex raider. A powerful ship to be sure, but no match for four battle-hardened tac boats and their Marine crews.

“We can just punch our way through,” Commander Scherer suggested.

Jack shook his head. “Open a channel, Commander. Let’s see what this Devex has to say.”

Just as Jack opened the return channel, the sensors showed another raider move out of the sensor shadow created by the first. And then a third appeared.

“This is Major Forge of the Fleet Marines. Go ahead, Devex Raider. You have my attention.”

And they had Jack’s curiosity too. What were these raiders doing so far away from their support, positioning themselves in front of the tac boat squadron? Jack wasn’t sure he wanted to know. It was not going to be good news, he was sure of that much.

3

The image of the Devex warrior sitting on Jack’s holostage remained motionless as Jack considered the situation. Commander Scherer looked at Jack with a mixture of surprise and amazement.

“It could be a trap,” Scherer said.

Jack nodded. He opened a channel to Sam’s tac boat. The image of the Devex warrior shrank away and was replaced with the image of Sam.

“It could be a trap,” Sam echoed.

“Whether it’s a trap or not, we can’t hang around here. We either go back to the fleet right now or we see what this Devex has to say.”

“It’s your call, Jack,” Sam said. “I’ve got your back. Whatever you decide.”

Reopening the channel to the Devex, Jack knew he had to decide.

“How can I assist?” Jack said.

“We have your people.”

The Devex had a history of snatching people by the thousands and converting them into the armor-clad Devex warriors, into mindless automata acting under the direction of the Devex. But why were they telling Jack that now?

“How many people do you have? What do you intend to do with them?”

The Devex warrior on the holoimage remained motionless. It may well have been a still holoimage rather than a live transmission from inside the Devex raider. Maybe this was how the Devex were attempting to distract Jack in order to launch their attack on his small yet powerful tac boat squadron.

Jack opened a private channel to Sam Torent and sent him a silent message.

“Launch surveillance drones, Sam. Check the area for other Devex.”

The reply came back within moments. Jack knew Sam was on the case. Returning his attention back to the Devex warrior, Jack felt suspicion above all else.

“The Devex will trade the humans to the Skalidion. The Skalidion will allow one of our planetary systems to exist within their territory for the payment of fifty thousand humans.”

Jack felt the eyes of Commander Scherer and the rest of his tac boat crew drilling into him. The Devex, not content with transforming humans into their own warriors, now were selling them to the Skalidion. Jack didn’t know whether being forced to be a soldier was worse than being forced to be a slave.

Jack had never wanted to be a Marine. He had been forced into service against his will. The Fleet Marines needed recruits, and Jack had been pressed into service. But the Fleet Marine Service had called him to duty to fight for humanity and survival in this distant corner of the galaxy. Some might call it slavery, but Jack had embraced the service. Now Jack called it duty.

“Why are you telling me this?” Jack could not believe what he was hearing. This was either some bizarre trap, or maybe the Devex was simply boasting. Jack had to discover more.

“The Devex are split. Humans are not our enemy. The Skalidion will only destroy. We will help you rescue the fifty thousand humans before the Devex can deliver them to the Skalidion.”

“You should have gone to the fleet. My tac boat squadron could barely rescue fifty people, let alone fifty thousand.”

“Your fleet is too far away. Devex will be arriving to transport the humans soon. You must defend the humans in their transport until your fleet can arrive.”

Jack sat back in his chair. This was extraordinary. The Devex trading humans for land. A Devex coming with intelligence. Jack received a private signal from Sam.

“Go ahead, Sam. I hope it’s good news.”

“Dispatch drone has contacted the fleet. We have a reply. Investigate the hostage situation and report.”

There was no room for doubt now that Jack had orders from the fleet. Whether the Devex was telling him the truth or it was some elaborate ruse, Jack’s next move was clear. He would investigate the fifty thousand hostages and report back to the fleet.

Speaking now to the Devex, he was able to be confident and clear in his objectives. It made everything much simpler.

“Where are the hostages?”

“I will lead you there. Follow my lead vessel. The humans and their transport are hidden on a planet on the edge of Skalidion space. Your ship must use full power. Are you ready to follow me?”

Sending orders to his squadron to make ready for new heading, Jack replied, “Ready now.”

The Devex raider in front of Jack’s tac boat turned in an instant and powered away, leaping to top speed in a moment. Jack activated his tac boat’s drive and followed the raider with orders to his squadron to fall in behind.

As the tac boat moved off after the raider, Jack checked the holostage and the position of the other Devex ships. They fell in behind Jack’s tac boat squadron.

A private channel from Sam Torent opened, and Jack knew what his old friend was going to say.

“We’ve got three raiders with their blasters right on our tails. Let me drop back and get some guns on their rear.”

“Negative, Sam. If they wanted to attack us, they could have done it by now. For all we know, their claims might be genuine. We hold formation. Keep an active scanner on the raiders behind us. If you see any hint that they are powering up their blasters, break formation and get ready to fight.”

The channel closed without reply, but Jack knew he could rely on Sam. He focused his active scanners on the Devex ship in front. The raider was operating at close to its top speed. Jack had flown a Devex raider himself, so he knew their capabilities only too well. The raider was much quicker than a tac boat, but it did not have the maneuverability, the firepower, or the sensing capabilities that Jack had at his disposal. If this was a trick, the Devex would pay a heavy price for their attempted deception.

A communication alert flashed on the flight deck. A message from the fleet transferred via the dispatch drone had been received. Jack sent the message to the holostage and the holoimage flickered to life. He recognized the black uniform of the Fleet Intelligence agent before the image cleared up enough for Jack to see that it was Agent Reyes, his old friend Sarah.

The message was brief, but even through the cold, detached tones of the intel agent, Jack could detect the friendly warmth of his friend.

“Major Forge, we have confirmed a civilian transport has been lost. It dropped from formation several days ago. The last we heard from the captain was that he was in orbit above a planet on the edge of Skalidion space. Engine repairs were expected to take several days. We expected the transport to rejoin the fleet but have had no communication from the captain. We believe this is the transport your Devex contact is referring to.

“Fleet Intelligence has dispatched a destroyer to your location and will track you to the lost transport. You can expect support but do what you can until help arrives.

“Good luck, Jack. I’ll see you when you return.”

Jack sat back in the chair. What could a handful of Marines do to protect fifty thousand civilians? Even a full battalion of fully equipped Marines would struggle to assist that many. Jack had fought against the odds before, and won, but sooner or later, his luck would run out. The only way to maintain his luck was to plan carefully and do his best.

A star up ahead grew as the caravan moved in closer. The tac boat reported the gravity well of the massive red supergiant, and Commander Scherer piloted the boat into a stellar orbit, following the lead Devex.

Jack directed his active sensors toward the inner system, searching for signs of the civilian transport. The active sensors detected a signal on the surface of a large, green, terrestrial planet shrouded by a thickly clouded atmosphere. The signal was unmistakable. Jack had found the missing civilian transport.

Life signs from the transport were barely detectable. The Devex had previously used Dox vapor to incapacitate passengers aboard civilian transports. Jack guessed the weak life signs he was detecting were the fifty thousand civilians all asleep, having succumbed to the vapor.

Commander Scherer altered course to follow the raider. He turned to Jack.

“Altering course, Major. Looks like the Devex are heading to that green planet.”

Pointing at the active sensor report on the flight deck, Jack nodded. “That’s where the people are, so that’s where we are heading. Instruct all tac boats to follow the lead raider.”

Sitting back and watching the planet grow larger on the holostage, Jack could not help but be suspicious of the Devex. He had fought them too many times to just accept that they now wanted to help him. He had been moments away from being converted into one of the Devex warriors. He found it difficult to trust them.

The tac boat plunged into the upper atmosphere of the terrestrial planet, the orange glow from the red supergiant scattering in the thick, high clouds that swirled into vast circular patterns.

Dropping below the upper atmosphere, another cloud layer appeared—a diffuse green like a rippling carpet across the sky. The tac boat burned its way down to the green clouds. The raider punched through the cloud layer and vanished from sight, which made Jack’s suspicions intensify.

He thought back to the Skalidions that had captured his Marines on the dust planet. Maybe a handful of Marines were to be added to the fifty thousand civilians being gifted to the Skalidions.

The tac boat cut through the clouds, which immediately cleared to a green haze.

Below him, the surface was wet, covered in thick dark green and purple flora, and dotted with bodies of black water. The water was little more than shallow ponds, but they covered most of the surface, broken only by dense clumps of the colorful foliage.

And in one black lake, half submerged and surrounded by thick foliage, Jack saw the upper hull of the vast civilian transport.

The lead Devex opened a communication channel to Jack’s boat. It was virtually motionless on the holostage. Its dark gray armor and dark gray helmet with the black eye-slit stared back at Jack.

“Here are your people. You will save them now.”

“I have orders to protect the people.” Jack stared at the holoimage of the Devex warrior. Curiosity overcame him. He could contain himself no longer. “Why?” Jack asked, leaning closer to the holostage. “Why are you helping me?”

The Devex remained motionless. The holoimage flickered slightly, giving some illusion of movement. The warrior spoke in the same cold tone. “Not all Devex hate humans. Not all Devex want to help the Skalidion.”

It was all the information Jack felt he was going to get. “Thank you for your assistance, Devex,” Jack said. “We will take it from here.”

“The Devex will be here soon. You are too few to protect these people. You will be killed or captured and delivered to the Skalidion.”

“I have my orders. I will protect these people as best I can.”

“I will assist you. I will be your ally. My Devex warriors will stand alongside you, Jack Forge.”

Jack sat back in his chair. This was unbelievable. The Devex that he had fought for so long were now offering to stand at his side and fight against their own people to save this shipload of human civilians.

“The lead raider has touched down, Major.” Commander Scherer held the tac boat five hundred meters above the surface, almost grazing the tops of the tallest trees growing out of the dark swamp below.

“Inform all tac boats to conceal themselves a kilometer away from the transport.”

Jack looked at the holoimage of the Devex warrior. He could not work out if this warrior was lying to him or not, but either way, he did not trust him to stand at his side during a battle.

The active sensors informed Jack of a change in the civilian craft’s energy profile. The main reactor was active, but energy was being fed to the main drive. The civilian transport was making ready to lift off.

The Devex warrior on Jack’s holostage spoke suddenly.

“Devex warriors are aboard your civilian craft, Jack Forge. I detect a dozen Devex warriors within the central command center. They are attempting to return to Skalidion space. Our arrival has made them act.”

“All tac boats. New orders. Set down on the upper hull of the civilian transport. Gain access to the craft. We will attempt to gain control of the command deck. Forge out.”

Jack canceled the channel to the Devex. He placed a holoimage of the civilian transport on the stage, showing the power readings across the ship. The main drive was in its final stages of activation. The maneuvering thrusters were coming online. The ship was only minutes away from attempting to take off from the dark waters of the swampy surface.

Jack’s tac boat touched down. Climbing out of his seat, Jack could see his three Marines armed and waiting at the boarding ramp that was already partially open. Commander Scherer was out of his seat and hot on Jack’s heels. Jack stopped and turned to Commander Scherer.

“Remain on the tac boat, Commander. Inform all pilots to keep their boats ready.” Jack opened a channel to the rest of the Marines. “Gain entry by whatever means you can. Converge on the command deck. If this ship gets off the planet, we might never save these people. Move out, and I will see you on the command deck. Forge out.”

Jack grabbed his pulse rifle and walked swiftly down the boarding ramp onto the upper hull of the civilian transport. A maintenance access port lay just a few meters away, and Jack’s Marines were already attempting to open it.

Jack received the communication from the Devex. He fed it through to his wrist-mounted holostage and saw a Devex warrior appeared on his wrist.

“The Devex on the command deck know you are coming. They have posted four warriors to protect the entrance. I will try to disrupt them.”

Jack’s crew pulled open the access hatch, and the first Marine dropped into the civilian transport. Jack watched the next two Marines drop before stepping to the edge himself. Looking back along the length of the transport, he saw the drive assembly hidden in the green mist flaring to life, churning the mist into tight eddies.

Dropping into the dark of the civilian transport below, Jack’s enhanced data view showed him the corridor and the direction he needed to take to get to the command deck quickly.

The three Marines ahead of him moved low and fast. Then the corridor lit up with the rapid stream of the white energy bullets from a Devex blaster.

As one Marine was struck and the stream of white raked the corridor, Jack pressed himself to the smooth, curved wall for cover and brought up his pulse rifle to return fire.

4

Pulse rifle fire lit up the dark corridor, silhouetting Jack’s squad. From the darkness beyond, streams of the Devex energy bullets came pouring past them. A second Marine took a bullet to the right shoulder, his pulse rifle snatched from his grip. He fell squirming in agony, pressing himself to the corner of the corridor, scurrying back and seeking cover.

“Take that wounded man,” Jack said, pointing at the first fallen Marine. The Marine wounded in the right shoulder grabbed the fallen Marine with his left hand and dragged himself and his Marine brother back around the curve of the corridor and into cover.

The stream of Devex fire slammed into the walls, creating superheated spots of molten white composite. In the flickering light of the weapons fire, Jack saw the corridor smoke and vaporize under the Devex onslaught.

“Maintain the fire,” Jack called to the Marine on the other side of the corridor. Jack’s enhanced data view showed him the readings from the other Marine. Heth was in a heightened state of anxiety, his pulse racing, but his pulse rifle was steady, and he laid down a withering hail of fire.

Moving toward the streams of energy was the last thing Jack wanted to do, but it was the only thing he could do. With his rifle to his shoulder, he moved forward, firing steadily at the Devex warriors hidden in the darkness.

Communication from the rest of the Marines came through to Jack’s communicator. All Marines had entered the civilian transport within a few hundred meters of the command deck section.

The transport’s command deck was a self-contained unit at the front of the craft, with a single corridor leading into the secure area. A hallway lay at a right-angle to the command deck access corridor. Jack was moving along that one now, coming toward the deck from the right with Marines rushing up behind him in support.

Reaching the intersection, Jack risked a look down to the command deck. Jack saw a flash of a Devex warrior’s rapid-fire blaster before darting back into cover. He broke cover and fired straight along the hallway.

A Devex warrior had his head snapped back by Jack’s pulse rifle round, its blaster falling from its grip. The three-meter-tall Devex warrior was out of the fight. But next to it stood another, its weapon busy pouring white energy down the long corridor.

Unclipping a grenade from his tactical suit waistband, Jack took a knee and set the detonation protocols to deliver a low-yield explosion with a maximum EM flash output.

“All Marines activate flash shielding on your faceplates. Now.” And with his order still echoing in his ears, Jack tossed the grenade around the corner and into the darkness. “Heavy fire.” Jack broke cover and let loose a rapid-fire burst from his pulse rifle into the darkness. Marine Heth on Jack’s right moved across the open end of the corridor to the other side, his pulse rifle firing into the dark as he moved.

The flash from the grenade lit up the corridor in a seething white burst that washed all color from the scene. Only the flash shielding on his helmet’s faceplate saved Jack’s sight from being completely overwhelmed.

The Devex warrior, now lit by the lingering flash, was turning its head away from the sudden brightness. Its blaster was still aimed along the corridor and firing, although the aim was off and bullets raked the ceiling. Jack took careful aim and delivered a series of pulse rounds to the warrior’s chest. The pulse rounds glowed orange on the Devex exo-armor, lighting up and lingering as the flash from the grenade faded, returning the corridor to darkness with only the glowing orange points on the Devex warrior’s chest as any sign of light.

“Move up, Marines,” Jack said to those that had finally caught up with him in the corridor. They paused for only a moment before running into the darkness, Jack close behind.

After only a dozen meters, the corridor was again filled with the deadly white energy as another pair of Devex warriors opened fire. The Marine in front of Jack was thrown off his feet as Devex bullets slammed into him. Jack kept running, leaping over the fallen Marine. As he landed, he fired from the hip, spraying pulse rounds to the far end of the corridor. The Marines on Jack’s left also opened fire. The flashes of pulse rounds and Devex energy bullets flickered in the dark.

The return fire from the Devex subsided. A fourth Marine fell in next to Jack and added his pulse rifle fire to the attack. Jack brought his rifle to a shoulder and advanced steadily.

The outline of the corridor mapped out on Jack’s enhanced data view showed him the closed blast doors to the command deck a few meters ahead. Lying in front of the door were four fallen Devex warriors.

Rushing to the door with Marines on either side of him, Jack checked the activation panel. It was deactivated, so Jack fired up his electron bayonet and prepared to cut his way through. He found a join at the center of the door where the two sides of the blast door met. He pressed his bayonet into the gap, and the blade slid in easily. He moved up and down the seam, the blade cutting through the locking catches.

Jack deactivated the bayonet and pressed his fingers into the seam, pulling on the door. A Marine grabbed the other side and pulled as well, but it did not move. Out of the darkness, the last Marines came running. Jack turned and saw Sam Torent, and he called Sam over with a wave of his arm.

“Get up here, Commander Torent, and see if you can pull this door open for me.”

Sam slung his rifle over his shoulder and stepped up to the door. He unclipped the gauntlet of his right arm, pressing the fingers of his Mech hand into the gap. The fingers slid into the tiny gap between the two panels, and Sam pulled.

The door slid open a fraction. Immediately, the flashing of Devex blaster fire from inside came pouring toward the narrow gap. Several white energy bullets made their way through the space and into the corridor, streaking past Sam Torent’s hand and helmet.

“Put some fire into that command deck,” Jack said, pointing toward the gap that Sam was slowly pulling open.

A Marine took a knee, jammed the muzzle of his pulse rifle through the door and fired. A second Marine, holding his pulse rifle high above his head, jammed the business end of his weapon into the gap. Sustained fire poured in, but still, the Devex were defending the command deck.

Jack stood opposite Sam and gripped the right side of the two-panel door. He squeezed his fingers into the gap that Sam had opened. With the fingertips of both hands into the gap, Jack activated the suit’s maneuvering thruster on his wrist and added their power to his own. The door jerked open.

The two Marines firing through the central gap were now fully exposed to the Devex fire and took several white energy bullets, knocking them both off their feet, their pulse rifles falling uselessly to the corridor deck. Jack stopped pulling, leaving a one-meter gap between the two sides of the door and a vital piece of cover on either side.

“Grenades.” Jack pulled a grenade off his waistband. The remaining Marines following Jack’s command. Jack nodded, and four grenades were tossed into the command deck. Taking cover behind the partially open door, the Marines counted down to the blast.

The explosions burst through the narrow opening like a cannon blast from the muzzle of an old gun. Jack moved into the command deck the instant the blast subsided, firing his pulse rifle.

The command deck was large and oval with a similar layout to the Scorpio’s command deck that Jack knew so well. Just inside the doors was the high command chair. The chair looked down onto the deck with its various systems, arranged in two semicircles on either side. At the far side of the command deck sat the large main holostage.

And lying on the floor were the eight Devex warriors that had been attempting to get the civilian transport off the surface. One was crawling toward a control console, but Jack took aim and stopped that.

“Check those Devex and make sure they’re down.” Jack moved quickly toward the command chair and climbed up. “Secure all stations.”

Jack tapped on the command chair’s armrest console and accessed the drive system. The main drive was offline, and there was an energy overload building in the main power conduits. The Devex had sabotaged the drive system, but their botched attempt looked set to destroy the entire ship. Jack accessed the main reactor systems and began to power down, but the buildup needed to be discharged somewhere. Only the main drive could channel so much energy. Jack relayed the power surge through secondary conduits and diverted it to the main drive assembly.

With all subsystems deactivated and only the drive receiving power, any sudden activation of the main drive would throw passengers about violently. But it was too late. There was nothing more Jack could do.

“Brace. Brace. Brace. The drive assembly is going to discharge in three, two, one.”

The sudden acceleration hit and pinned Jack back into the command chair. The Marines on the command deck slid back to the aft side and were pinned to the wall. The civilian transport rumbled as it plowed through the swamp it was partially submerged in. After several terrifying seconds, the ship stopped. Jack felt the pressure of acceleration drop away.

He opened a channel Scherer on the tac boat.

“Commander, this is Forge. Patch your active sensors through to my location.” Jack tapped the armrest panel and brought the deck’s emergency power online. “Let me see exactly where we are.”

Data from all four tac boats streamed through to the command chair, and Jack rerouted the signal to the main holostage, which flickered into life. The image of the civilian transport on the surface of the planet dominated the center, and behind it, a trench a kilometer long was gouged through the muddy water and swamp foliage. Four tiny points of light with the tac boats’ ident codes were shown holding position a hundred meters above the upper hull of the transport.

And further above, on the edge of the lower cloud plane, were the four Devex raiders that had brought Jack to this planet.

Communication from the Devex came over Jack’s tactical suit communicator. Jack displayed it on the command chair’s armrest holostage.

“Well done, Jack Forge. You have taken the transport. The crew holding the ship sent a message to their people. They will not give up their captives so easily. More Devex are on the way and will be here soon.”

Jack wondered how soon he could expect support from the fleet, and if he could expect more attacking Devex sooner. He looked at his force, which were picking themselves up off the command deck floor—a dozen Marines armed with personal weapons. Jack had four functioning, fully-armed tac boats. It was enough to take down a handful of Devex, but if they were throwing a larger force at him, he would not only need every available gun, he would need a watertight defense plan.

The channel from the Devex crackled to life again. “I have Devex warriors determined not to let your people be taken by the Skalidion. We are here to help you succeed, Jack Forge. We will fight with you now.”

Jack could not easily accept the offer of help from those he could not trust, but they had brought him here, and they had alerted him to the number of defenders on the command deck. And now they were alerting him to the arrival of a large force of Devex warriors. As impossible as it seemed, maybe this group was here to help for whatever reason they had. And Jack could certainly use a group of well-equipped Devex warriors.

“Allied Devex warriors, I accept your support. Follow my orders, and we will save these people from the Skalidion.”

Sam Torent staggered toward the command deck, the first of the Marines to get back to his feet. He looked quizzically at Jack.

“Do you really believe they are here to help, Jack?” Sam said

“Do you really think we can fight off the incoming Devex without their help?”

Sam shrugged. He walked over to the main holostage, tapped the control panel, and showed the planetary system at the center of the display. On the outer edge of the system, past the outer asteroid belt, came a group of signals. Twelve small ships moving at high speed.

Climbing down from his command chair and crossing to the holostage, Jack opened a channel to all Marines and the Devex warriors in his alliance.

“Incoming enemy Devex. Stand by for my orders. Check your weapons. Get ready. They are going to want this transport back. Whatever we do, we can’t let them win.”

5

The Skalidion swarm gathered at the edge of the system, the latest target in Phisrid’s expansion. The observer drones showed her the enemy defenses. The Devex fleet was concentrated around a small terrestrial planet of the inner system. Three small moons each had large defensive weapon platforms, while a fleet of warships orbited the planet, protected by the moon-based defense platforms.

Hundreds of Devex raiders swept around the warships, searching for first signs of contact with the enemy. Vapor trails through the atmosphere of the terrestrial planet showed Phisrid that the Devex were evacuating the civilian population. Huge starships were moving out of the system at speed.

Phisrid realized the Devex were aware of her presence. She did not need the element of surprise, because she had the numbers. Phisrid initiated the attack.

The pheromone signal spread from the nest asteroid and out to her attack swarm that was poised and ready. She watched through the large dark eyes of the observer drones as the attack swarm jumped to high speed.

A hundred thousand Skalidion fighter craft led the charge. Behind them came hundreds of builder drones, all eager to devour the Devex matter and transport it back to Phisrid’s nest asteroid.

The Devex forces were stronger here than they had been in the last handful of systems. They were concentrating into larger numbers as Phisrid pushed deeper into their territory, but with the civilian population fleeing before her, Phisrid knew this was not the final battle. She would push the Devex deeper and deeper into their territory until eventually they could run no further. They would put up a final defense. That would be a battle that would seal her ultimate victory over the Devex and establish her nation as the greatest in the entire Skalidion Empire.

The Skalidion fighters raced across the dark void toward the Devex forces. The flickering of lights on the Devex planet and its orbiting moons announced the first salvo from the defensive platforms. Dark rounds in dark space moved toward the swarm, eventually reaching their targets and detonating in vast billowing white plasma eruptions, destroying handfuls of Skalidion fighters at a time. The Skalidion green fire generators erupted, adding boiling plasma to the white energy of the Devex weapons.

Phisrid sent the attack pheromone signal again, strengthening its potency and driving her attack swarm into the deadly onslaught from the Devex defense. More fighters were destroyed, second by second. In the charge to battle, Phisrid counted her fallen fighters in the thousands. Still they advanced. And still they fell. Smashed and vaporized by the powerful planet-side and moon-based defenses.

The Skalidion fighters were nearing weapons range, and Phisrid knew her remaining fighters would soon return fire. The green fire of the Skalidion fighters concentrated into a single blast would annihilate one of the three moons in an instant. As her swarm made ready to fire, they moved into range of the Devex fleet.

The fire from the planet and its orbiting moons was now joined by thousands of rapid-fire blaster cannons on the warships. The white energy bullets streaked across space, every one capable of tearing a Skalidion fighter part. And they did so. The front of the Skalidion fighter swarm lit up with a thousand flashes as more fighters were destroyed.

And then came the raiders.

The Devex raiders were fast and heavily armed. They closed in on the Skalidion swarm on the flanks of the main defensive salvo from the fixed guns and the warships. As the Skalidions raced on into the heavy fire on the leading front, they took fire on the flanks from the raiders.

Another thousand fighters destroyed. But Phisrid had the numbers, and another world lay at her mercy. Phisrid sent the attack pheromone again, driving her swarm into a frenzy. In an instant, the green fire generators on the tips of the Skalidion fighters activated and launched a concentrated salvo. The deadly green fire raced toward the moon exposed on the flank of the Devex defense. It scorched the moon’s surface, and the defense systems erupted in huge explosions.

And then the swarm scattered.

Phisrid moved her nest asteroid deeper into the Devex system as her fighters engaged the raiders. The Skalidion fighters outmaneuvered the raiders easily, flipping end over end, darting left and then right, decoy fighters racing head on, flanking fighters delivering their deadly green fire into the vulnerable drive systems of the Devex. Her surviving fighters were more than a match for the massed Devex attack, and within seconds, the builders moved in to devour the broken remains of the raiders, their hulls still glowing with the energy of the green fire attacks.

The swarm scattered into a loose formation, evading the heavy weapons from the planet and the two remaining moons. In a seemingly uncoordinated mass, the fighters scattered green fire across the warship flotilla. The fighters moved between the warships. The planet-based defensive platforms were now useless as the Skalidions used the Devex ships for cover. But once within the flotilla, all fighters turned their weapons on a single warship. Green fire slammed into the heavy outer hull from all directions and burned through, melting its way to the interior and destroying the warship’s capability in seconds.

And then a second Devex warship succumbed to the same punishment, and then a third.

Phisrid watched with satisfaction as the remaining warships began to fall back. They fell down the gravity well toward the system’s star and kicked their drives up to perform slingshot maneuvers out of the system and deep into interstellar space.

The Skalidion builders moved in to devour the burning wrecks left behind while the fighters turned their attention to the surviving moons. The fighters formed up into the tightly-packed attack formation, delivering the massed green fire blast. It raced over the surface of the moon, scorching the rock and vaporizing the defensive platform as it fired in one last defiant act against the Skalidions.

Hunter drones returning from the edge of the battle to the nest asteroid brought with them trophies for Phisrid. Devex warriors captured from the broken ships, plucked from the void of space, were delivered to the central nest where Phisrid controlled her swarm.

The hunters deposited the bodies at her feet. Phisrid scooped one up with her massive hand. She cracked open the exo-armor and thrust the soft interior to her rasping mouth.

The warrior was dead and tasted sharp. It was not the soft, sweet taste that came from the humans, as she had learned. It was not enough. She dropped the half-devoured Devex and instructed the builders to collect this pathetic offering.

As frustration emanated from her throughout the nest, the nurse drones collecting her latest spawn grew nervous. Phisrid snatched a nurse and devoured it greedily, blood and soft tissue splattering across Phisrid’s limbs and upper body, gore floating in congealed lumps around the nest interior.

Phisrid had only enjoyed the taste of human remotely through her builder drones. She needed the taste for herself. And a group of Devex on one planet had promised her just that. A single observer Skalidion still remained in that system, one Phisrid had conquered not long ago. The humans they had promised had still not been delivered. Phisrid would give them more time. She could contain her thirst for fresh humans a little longer

With the current battle reaching a swift conclusion, Phisrid watched as her swarm swept down to the planet. Millions of Devex still remained, left behind, abandoned. Phisrid would not abandon them. Her builder drones would devour them. Her fighters swept across the surface of the planet raining green fire onto every structure that remained, and then the builders came, methodically rasping their way through all matter before delivering their loads back to the nest asteroid.

It would take days for her builder swarm to scrape the surface of the planet clean, all matter delivered to Phisrid and her expanding empire, but Phisrid and her swarm would move on to the next Devex system, and the next battle.

Counting her losses, Phisrid was satisfied that she had gained more than she had lost. By the time she reached the next Devex system, she would have spawned new fighters that would more than replace her losses.

Phisrid’s empire was growing, her forces growing stronger, but bigger battles lay ahead. Devex warships escaped from every battle, which meant more to defeat in each subsequent battle. Eventually, they would combine the last of their forces. She would need the greatest fighter swarm ever spawned to finally defeat the Devex. That time was nearing. Her time was now.

6

Standing on the command deck of the civilian transport, Jack watched the incoming Devex ships on the main holostage. A dozen raiders had entered the system on a direct route for the swamp planet, but the thick green clouds that shrouded the planet gave cover from the Devex sensors. Jack knew he did not have the numbers to hold off a determined Devex attack, but if he used the cover wisely, he might be able to hide from the Devex the fact that he had limited numbers available to him.

To defend a city-sized civilian transport with over fifty thousand sleeping civilian passengers, Jack’s entire force consisted of a dozen Marines, four tac boats, and the unlikely assistance of a small group of Devex warriors. The raiders that were approaching knew for sure that Jack had already taken control of the command deck. The new group were here to seize back their prize, a prize they would soon be delivering to the Skalidion.

Opening a channel to Commander Scherer, Jack knew he only had one option: fight hard, hide whenever possible, and not reveal his numbers to the Devex. Jack was fighting a defensive operation with limited resources. He had to hold out until the fleet arrived to take the civilians off this damp, hot planet.

“Commander Scherer here,” Scherer said from the flight deck of the tac boat. “What’s your plan, Major?”

“You have command of the tac boat squadron, Commander.”

Jack tapped the controls of the holostage and focused on the civilian transport. Docked on the upper hull were the four remaining tac boats of Jack’s original eight-boat squadron.

“Move them away from the civilian transport,” Jack said. “The Devex will probably attempt a frontal assault. I want the tac boats ready to attack their flanks before they can put down. Don’t give away your position until you have to. Use the cover of the swamp to evade the Devex. Hit them hard when you can and stay hidden. Do you copy?”

“Copy that, Major,” Commander Scherer replied.

Jack watched the holoimage of the tac boats lifting off the transport’s hull. They stayed low until they were clear, and then dropped toward the surface of the swamp planet and skirted over the dark waters, dodging the thick clumps of dark green foliage, before setting down several kilometers from the transport. The boats settled into the dark water and the foliage and were obscured even from the civilian ship’s surveillance equipment.

Jack zoomed out the holostage view, shrinking the massive civilian transport down to the size of a ration block. Then he zoomed out even further, the civilian transport shrinking so it was lost on the planetary surface, and the planet shrank down to the center of the holostage, showing the position of the incoming Devex raiders relative to the planet. They were closing in quickly, getting closer by the second.

Communication on Jack’s tactical suit communicator distracted him from the holostage image for a moment. He climbed up onto the command chair and sent the communication to the armrest holostage. His unlikely ally appeared.

“We stand ready to aid your defense, Jack Forge,” the Devex said.

Jack could still not quite believe that these Devex were truly here to help him, but since his first encounter with these supposed allies, they had done nothing to suggest they were anything other than genuine. And Jack needed all the help he could get.

“Ally Devex,” Jack said. He saw out of the corner of his eye the Marines across the command deck turn and look, wondering what Jack would say to these one-time enemies now uncertain ally. “Move your raiders away from the civilian transport and take cover, stay hidden, be ready to defend the transport. If you have any intelligence on how the attacking Devex will proceed, let me know immediately. Do you copy, Ally Leader?”

“The attacking Devex are arriving ahead of the main force.” The Devex stared out of the holoimage and remained completely motionless. “We will not be able to hold against a warship when it arrives.”

“We must hold until support arrives,” Jack said, climbing down from the command chair.

Walking to the main holostage, Jack zoomed back in on the civilian transport. The Devex raiders, tiny points of light next to the huge civilian transport, raced away to conceal themselves in the dense swamp foliage.

The sound of footsteps across the command behind Jack had a familiar sound. He could recognize the approach of his old friend Sam Torent blindfold.

“Can we trust them?” Sam said.

Jack watched the allied raiders conceal themselves in the swamp and vanish from sensor view. He zoomed out the holoimage and checked the location of the attacking Devex. They would be entering the atmosphere in moments.

“I hope so, Sam.” Jack turned from the holostage to face his old friend. He laid a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “But I know I can rely on you. Take half the Marines and position yourselves outside the command deck. Let the Devex approach. I’ll hold them here while you move up on their rear and hit them in the tail. Sound like a plan?”

Sam nodded. “I’ll keep my squad mobile,” Sam said, unstrapping his pulse rifle from his shoulder and holding it across his chest. “We’ll hit them and run, and then hit them again.”

Sam pointed at the Marines who were to join him. All stepped up, instantly ready for action. They fell in step behind Sam as he moved swiftly off the command deck, running down the corridor to take up position in the vast ship.

Turning his back on the holostage the moment the attacking raiders entered the upper atmosphere, Jack looked at the remaining Marines on the command deck. The Marines were standing ready, loosely spread about the large command deck. Pulse rifles at the ready.

“Listen up, Marines. We’ve got an attack force moving in determined to take this ship. A Fleet destroyer is on its way, but we’re the only thing that can stop the Devex now. The narrow entrance to this command deck will reduce the effectiveness of their numbers, but we still have to fight doubly hard to maintain our position. I haven’t had time to get to know you personally, but if you are Marines, you won’t let the civilians down, you won’t let the Marine Service down, and you won’t let yourself down.”

An alert from his tactical suit’s communicator told Jack that Commander Scherer was moving to attack the incoming raiders.

“Take your positions,” Jack said, swinging up his pulse rifle. He walked toward the command chair and looked down the command deck corridor, preparing to fire on the enemy that would soon be moving into that narrow kill zone. “Get ready for action.”

Climbing up into the command chair and activating the main holostage, Jack looked down on the image of the civilian transport. The enemy was closing in and reducing speed, making ready to land on the transport.

A blast of hail cannon fire tore out of the dark green swamp and slammed into the starboard side of the lead raider. The attacker broke off its descent and arced away from the hail cannon fire.

The next raider altered course and charged toward the source of the fire. It lit it up its rapid-fire blasters, and a stream of white energy bullets slashed through the green mist and the dense foliage. Tearing up the dark leaves and slamming into the black waters, the stream of bullets searched for a target.

A second blast of hail cannon fire slammed into the attacking raider from a hundred meters to the left of where the first blast had come from. Jack fed the ident data from the tac boats into his wrist-mounted holostage and looked for the position of Scherer and his tac boat squadron.

The tac boats were arranged in a line of three several kilometers off the civilian transport’s starboard side. The boat now firing sat in front of the line and was moving laterally, changing location between blasts of hail cannon fire.

Two of the attacking Devex broke off from the main group and raced across the dark swamp toward where the hail cannon fire was coming from. Their rapid-fire blasters raked the swamp, the fierce white energy bullets burning through foliage and turning the dark water to steam.

Jack watched the tac boat move sideways through the foliage, crashing through one dense patch after another, its maneuvering thrusters throwing up swamp water around it.

The attacking raiders that had broken off from the main group concentrated their fire toward the single maneuvering tac boat. A stream of white energy bullets slammed into the dark water centimeters from the boat’s forward section.

At that instant, a blast of hail cannon fire from the two flanking tac boats behind the single moving tac boat slammed into the two attackers.

The kinetic hail struck the forward section of both attacking ships. First the hull material was superheated in tiny points where the kinetic hail struck, and then it glowed across the entire section as more of the tiny rounds hit and detonated, eventually vaporizing the entire forward section of both raiders.

The first Devex that had been hit was fleeing across the swamp and drawing close to the position of the hidden allied Devex. Jack watched closely. What were they going to do, given the opportunity to destroy an already crippled Devex Raider? Were these allies truly here to support Jack? Or were they going to show their true colors and join the attackers?

The damaged raider began to climb toward the clouds. With its drive systems pointing directly down to the surface and within range of the hidden allied Devex, Jack clenched his fist and urged the allied Devex to destroy the damaged craft. Jack imagined what the situation would have to be for him to open fire on one of his own craft. Jack knew the Devex would never open fire on their own. For all the intelligence the allied Devex had provided, Jack knew that he could not authorize the destruction of his own kind.

Jack punched the air in front of him in frustration as the signal from the Devex craft raced away to high orbit. A communication channel sparkled into life from the allied Devex.

“I did not want to give away our position,” the Devex said. “Better we maintain our cover until we are really needed.”

Jack closed the channel. He could not bring himself to reply. He felt the Devex were always going to pick their time to act and would never choose to destroy their own kind. If the allied Devex continued to provide Jack with useful intelligence, then they could still be a useful ally, but Jack knew they were not adding to his combat strength.

The attacking raiders all moved off toward the location of the hidden tac boats. Advancing in loose formation, they fired wildly into the dense foliage. The bullets smashed through the dark leaves. Commander Scherer appeared on the main holostage, looking out at Jack.

“They are zeroing in on our position, Major. I will have to break cover. If I attack, we have a chance. If I sit here, we are finished.”

Jack knew the risk, but the Devex were firing blind. They knew there were enemy craft with heavy firepower somewhere in the swamp, but they did not know exactly where, and crucially, they did not know how many.

“Maintain cover, Commander. Divert power to your upper hull integrity field. If they zero your position, break cover and engage. The longer they are hunting for you, the less time they’ll have trying to retake the civilian transport.”

Jack accessed the sensor data from the tac boat squadron and presented the data on the main holostage. Now viewing the enemy from the tac boat’s point of view, Jack could see the white energy bullets slamming into the swamp all around. The rounds were coming ever closer. If one hit a tac boat, then the feedback from the collision would be enough to highlight its location. One lucky hit was all the Devex would need. And seven raiders were more than a match for four under-crewed tac boats.

Jack opened a channel to the allied Devex. He could not simply watch his boats be destroyed.

“Ally Devex, this is Forge. The attacking raiders are focused on finding the tac boat squadron and have their tails to you. Advance and give fire. Bring them down now. I am giving you an order.”

“I do not take orders from you, Jack Forge,” the Devex replied coldly.

“Then what good are you to me,” Jack said, spitting in anger.

The tac boat on the far right was struck by a single energy bullet. The hull integrity field absorbed the energy, distributing it over the surface of the field, but the point of impact glowed momentarily like a small sun deep in the dark swamp. All attacking raiders turned their fire on that location.

All four tac boats leaped vertically from their hiding places in the swamp, hail cannons blasting out huge gouts of kinetic hail at the attacking raiders.

“This is Commander Scherer. Breaking cover, Major. Time to fight back.”

Jack watched the four tac boats climb and then scatter as the remaining attacking raiders concentrated their fire on the one that took the hit. As the tac boat performed emergency evasive maneuvers, it was struck again on the port-side hail cannon. Streams of Devex energy bullets plowed into the same point, spinning it off course. The main drive flared and kicked the tac boat away, but the raiders had it in their sights and fired a merciless stream of bullets into the drive section.

One of the Marines standing in the command deck was staring at the holostage and shouted in frustration.

“Eject, krav it. Eject.”

Jack watched the sensor data on the main holostage. He remained quiet but was thinking the same thing as his fellow Marine. No ejection procedure was reported. The tac boat turned on one of the raiders firing on it. The high-energy laser and both flank hail cannons fired briefly before the tac boat erupted in a billowing cloud of orange fire. The green mist surrounding the boat glowed brightly before turning dull brown. The burning boat crashed into the black water, leaving a white cloud in its wake.

The instant the tac boat was destroyed, the raiders turned on the remaining three boats.

Commander Scherer, leading his three-boat squadron in a head-on charge, came in all guns blazing. The hail cannon blasted a series of high-ex rounds before switching to high-velocity kinetic hail. The Devex raider’s white energy bullets raced away in a chaotic stream, flickering through the green mist..

And then the allied Devex raiders broke cover.

Jack leaned toward the holostage as he saw the raiders rise slowly out of the dark swamp. The four allied raiders moved together, their forward sections pointing directly toward the left flank of the tac boat squadron as it raced in on its headlong charge toward the attacking Devex.

Jack held his breath.

The allied Devex jumped to high speed, the green clouds swirling behind them as they raced toward the two sets of ships moving into. The allied raiders opened fire, their streams of white energy bullets tearing across the sky. And all four white energy streams slammed into the lead attacking Devex.

The raider erupted in billowing explosion before arcing down to the dark swamp. The allied raiders’ bullet streams re-targeted the next attacker, and the tac boats targeted the same ship. High-energy lasers slammed into the nose, and white energy slammed into them from the side, catching them in a crossfire. Another attacking raider fell to the dark waters, and the remaining attackers broke off the attack and began to retreat.

Commander Scherer was in no mood to let any of the enemy escape. Now one-on-one, with the Devex in retreat, the tac boat squadron engaged with all weapons targeted on the raiders’ drive sections. Before the attacking raiders could make it through the lower cloud level, all were falling back to the planet broken and in flame.

Jack opened a channel to Commander Scherer. “Good work, Commander. You held them off. Relocate and grab some cover.”

“Copy that, Major. Send a thank you to our new allies. Scherer out.”

Looking at the image of the four allied Devex raiders on the holostage, Jack saw them turn and slowly return to their original hiding place. He leaned on the holostage to open a channel, but he noticed the ship at the rear of the formation drop behind its companions.

Jack checked through the logs of the battle to see if that raider had taken any damage. It hadn’t even fired a shot. Just as Jack began to wonder if the ally was as committed to protecting these people as the Devex leader, the raider began to climb rapidly through the atmosphere.

“Allied Devex, this is Forge. One of your Raiders is leaving. Why?”

“The raider will not respond.”

“Stop it! If that raider gets away, it will be able to tell the Devex how few of us there are down here. Stop it now!”

Jack looked at the image on the holostage and saw the three remaining allied raiders slowly turn toward the escaping ship that was already in high orbit.

“If you can’t convince that Devex raider to stop then you must shoot it down.”

“Understood. It is the best and surest way to ensure no information is delivered to the Devex on the defensive strength you have here.”

Jack watched the holoimage of the ships in pursuit of their recent companion. And then the raider leaped to high speed and raced toward the system’s star. It fell down the star’s gravity well and scorched through the corona, slingshotting away out of the system.

“We were too late, Jack Forge. The raider has escaped. We will take cover and wait to defend your position when the next wave of Devex comes. We do not want these humans being given to the Skalidion. We are on your side.”

“They let it get away,” one of the Marines shouted in anger as Jack closed the communication channel.

“Focus, Marine. Concentrate on your job and we’ll be fine. Expect another attack soon. Take some rations, rest if you can, but be ready. They’ll be back again soon.”

And Jack knew that when the Devex were told how few defenders there were, they would send the proper number of raiders to swiftly and successfully complete the job. Before long, the corridors outside the command deck would be filled with pulse rifle fire and white energy bullets.

The battle had only just begun.

7

The workshop deep in the heart of the carrier ship Scepter was dark. Sarah Reyes’ workbench was lit by only a harsh white light shining down from above. Parts of Devex exo-armor lay scattered across the bench, and next to it lay a pile of parts taken from a Devex warship. Sarah had finally discovered the secrets of the Devex matter transport. In front of her lay the small device, a test device, and now she was about to test it.

The device was no larger than a pulse pistol, but it took ten times the energy to activate even once. Right now, it was little more than a one-way ticket to the far side of the workshop. But with extra work and resources from the Fleet Intelligence Service, she knew she could develop the technology, and soon she would be moving individuals the length of the fleet carrier.

The current system of transport loops operating through the carrier worked well enough. Mag-rails moving transport pods at super high velocities could move a person from the forward command deck to the rear drive section in moments. However, this personal matter transport device could move them the same distance almost instantaneously.

And it was not just the chance of moving personnel the length of the fleet carrier that had the interest of Sarah Reyes and Fleet Intelligence. They also knew that there would be real benefits in moving personnel from ship to ship within a moment.

The Fleet Marine Service was particularly interested in its development. Currently, the service was operating at a fraction of its strength. Too few Marines were joining, and now the three destroyers each had an active battalion of less than a hundred individual Marines. With the development of the matter transport device, squads and companies could be moved from one ship to another in a moment. It was not an answer to the under-staffing problem, but it would allow the Marines a high degree of flexibility with their current force.

Sarah checked the power system on the device. Everything was ready. The test could begin.

Turning to the assembled spectators, Agent Reyes cleared her throat. The Chief of Fleet Intelligence, Chief Agent Pound, was here, and he stood next to Admiral Henson. The admiral’s daughter, Riya Henson, was also attending. It was her experience with the Devex exo-armor that had once encased her body that allowed Agent Reyes to finally decode the mysteries of the matter transport device.

The medical staff present consisted of a single doctor and a medical drone. They stayed back from the main group, and everyone ignored their presence, hoping they would not be needed.

General Wallace stepped forward along with the Scepter’s highest ranking Marine, Colonel Snipe, and standing in between the two high-ranking Marine officers came the person who would test Agent Reyes’s device. A young, brave, and slightly nervous Marine who had volunteered for the test walked toward Agent Reyes and the small, innocuous-looking device.

Sarah stepped toward the Marine, who was dressed in his shipside work uniform, and attached the device to a tactical vest, holding out the vest for the young Marine to put on. The Marine slipped it on in an instant, without a moment’s hesitation, and stood ready for Reyes to begin.

“Just relax,” Reyes said. “I will activate the device. You just focus on your breathing and staying on your feet. Good luck, Marine.”

Reyes stepped back. The Marine nodded, indicating he was ready.

Sarah stepped up to her workbench and stood next to a large Devex device. She made the last adjustments to power, targeting, and range. Then, satisfied everything was ready, she turned back to the assembled group.

“Our Marine volunteer will now traverse this workshop, traveling from his current position to the far side of the room. It is a distance of only eight meters, but the Marine will complete the journey in less time than it would to take even a single step.”

With a final nod at the Marine, Sarah Reyes activated the device.

The feeling of every hair on her body standing on end was partly her own excitement and partly the huge amount of energy released from the activation of the small device. The air around the Marine went dark and seemed to collapse in on itself. The sudden eruption of energy at the far end of the room pulled everyone’s attention.

The Marine appeared, and a light wave of energy rippled out from the point where he re-materialized. Sarah looked him in the eye and saw a combination of relief and sheer terror all realized at the exact same moment. A smile began to spread over his pale, frightened face as he realized he’d survived the trip. And then he looked down.

Following his gaze to the deck, Sarah saw immediately that Marine’s boots were embedded in the deck plate. The Marine began to whimper and shout. He tugged and grunted. He had made a supreme effort to bury his emotions, but the sight of his feet embedded in the deck to just above the ankle was almost too much to take.

The doctor and the medical drone moved forward. Agent Reyes ran across to the Marine and called for him to remain calm.

“It’s okay, Marine. Hold still. It’s just a little targeting error. Calm down.”

“My feet!” The Marine held his right leg just above the knee and looked down at his feet cut off at the ankle by the deck plate. He tugged at his right leg but stayed fixed in place. “My feet!” he shouted again.

Grabbing him by the shoulders, Sarah looked into his eyes. “At ease, Marine.” She used the sternest voice she could muster. “It’s okay. You are fine.”

She pulled at the straps on the top of the boots and pulled them loose. She loosened the boot from the upper ankle all the way down to the deck plate.

The doctor arrived and kneeled next to Sarah Reyes, scanning the Marine’s ankles with his medical device. He looked at Sarah Reyes with a smile.

“Pull your foot up, Marine,” Sarah Reyes said, looking up.

The Marine pulled and out came his foot, sliding out of his boot.

Sarah Reyes stood up and addressed the group of spectators as the Marine loosened his second boot and pulled his foot out.

“The matter transport device creates a void that the body being transported can materialize in. With the targeting scanners fully functional and calibrated to the correct level, this will not happen. The system is completely safe. It’s safer than most of our transport systems.”

“But what if the Marine had been transported fully inside the deck plate?” Colonel Snipe asked. “Or the bulkhead? What if we sent a squad into a mountain?”

Sarah shook her head. The Marines would be fine.

“The space created for the matter transport destination is a skintight fit inside any material. If a Marine found themselves inside a rock, they wouldn’t be able to move, but they could simply reverse transport and get themselves out of there and be none the worse for it, and they would be the first person to report on what it’s like to be inside a rock.”

Chief Agent Pound stepped forward, clapping a slow, firm solo applause. “Great work, Agent Reyes. How soon before we can fit out the intelligence enforcer tactical suits with this device?”

General Wallace stepped forward. “The Marines should be first in line for this equipment. We need to move squads about the fleet as quickly as possible if we are to respond to any threat.”

Reyes interrupted. “I can get one device ready for a field test in a matter of days. I still need to refine the targeting systems, and power consumption is still far too high. I will have a field test device ready soon, but a production model suitable for active service is still a long way off.”

The assembled spectators drifted away, leaving Sarah alone in the dark. She resumed work. The test had yielded a lot of data, and it would help her refine the device.

The Marine stepped over to Reyes quietly.

“I didn’t hear you approach,” Reyes said, covering her surprise.

The Marine pointed to his boots still embedded in the deck plates and then to his feet covered only in his thin socks.

“Thank you, Agent Reyes,” the Marine said. “I’ll be ready to volunteer for you again for the next test.”

Reyes looked up at the Marine. He was looking at her with a mixture of respect and longing. She hadn’t seen anyone look at her in that way since…

“Thank you, Marine,” Reyes said. She saluted. “Dismissed.”

The Marine, clearly with more to say, held his tongue. Reyes was a Fleet Intelligence agent and outranked the Marine by a long way. He turned on his heel and left.

Reyes looked back to the work. Since she had been promoted to the intel’s science division, no one had been able to create a friendship with her. The only man she knew who still looked at her the same way was Jack Forge. Friends before the fleet began its race across the cosmos in search of a new home, Jack knew Reyes for who she was before. She looked forward to the next time they could be together. The next time she could be herself.

But she had not heard from Jack since he left on his patrol mission. He was not due back for some time. Sarah promised herself she would make a call to her old friend as soon as she finished work on the portable matter transport device.

8

The small cabin deep inside the cramped mass of living quarters of the civilian ship was a far cry from her office aboard the Scepter, but Special Agent Mallet needed an unregistered location for her search. Jack Forge was out there somewhere, and Mallet wanted him dead. The scanning equipment she had stolen from the Fleet Communication Service recorded every conversation between every person on every ship. Picobits of data every second poured into her clandestine surveillance systems, every bit processed, cross-checked, cross-referenced, and stored. All to find the location of Jack Forge.

The last-known location of Jack Forge was aboard a tac boat squadron sweeping the far-left flank of the fleet, skirting along the edge of Skalidion space. Only communications from the tac boat squadron to the fleet could give away Jack’s location, but he had gone silent and vanished just as Mallet had been prepared to pounce.

A well-placed combat drone far out on the edge of Skalidion space would be enough to cripple Jack’s tac boat and alert any patrolling enemy fighters. All Mallet needed to do was give Jack a bloody nose. The Skalidions would close in and finish the job for her.

But he had been silent. Mallet just needed one communication from Jack and she would have him. And then the message came. Jack had sent a coded message to the fleet that he was going off-mission to defend a civilian transport on some swamp planet.

Mallet read through the report. It spoke of Devex allies and a trade with the Skalidions to deliver thousands of human bodies. It was intriguing, but nothing could divert Mallet from her single-minded mission to kill Jack Forge.

And now she had him.

The surveillance feed from Mallet’s microdrones scattered dozens of meters away from her hidden location went offline. They could have been any number of reasons why her surveillance net had been momentarily deactivated. The cramped and overloaded civilian vessel was forever experiencing power fluctuations, and some of these could affect her micro drone surveillance net. It was possible that a civilian had found one of her microdrones and had deactivated it to sell it on the black market. Fleet Intelligence tech would sell for hundreds of ration blocks, or a dozen crates of Amber.

There were any number of reasons for the slight disruption in her surveillance drone net, but, ever suspicious, Mallet guessed correctly: She had been found.

Mallet powered down her equipment and set the microdrones hidden inside the equipment to emit a broad-spectrum flash that would destroy all the data she had been gathering and analyzing. The huge amount of data was useless to her now that she had the one fragment that she needed: the location of Jack Forge.

With the data destroyed, Mallet grabbed her pulse pistol and stuffed it in her underarm holster. She fastened the front of her black jacket and stepped to the door.

The door opened before Mallet could get there. The empty opening looked out onto the narrow gray corridor, but the faintest shadow on the far wall told Mallet that enforcers were in cover on either side of the open doorway.

“Mallet. This is Agent Visser. Step out with your hands behind your head. We can do this easy, or we can do this nasty. Step out, now.”

Mallet had trained with Agent Visser and knew the old drunk’s demeanor only too well. She was a shoot first and make up the questions, and the answers, later kind of agent. Mallet had guessed the agency was on to her; she just didn’t realize how close they were. She clenched her fist and cursed Visser.

“I want amnesty.” Mallet drew her pulse pistol. “I want to be released from the agency.” Mallet activated the small micro-surveillance drone she’d held back and sent it drifting out into the corridor. The surveillance drone activated and projected a holoimage of Mallet stepping out into the corridor with a pulse pistol in her hand.

“You know I can’t agree to that.” Visser’s voice echoed along the corridor. “We can still use you, Mallet. You were a good agent, before you started your vendetta against Forge. This is your last chance to come back to the agency. Don’t throw it all away.”

The movement of the shadow on the corridor wall showed her the two enforcers bringing their pulse rifles onto the holoimage. Mallet sent instructions to the micro drone to show the holoimage turn its pulse pistol toward the far end of the corridor where Mallet guessed Visser was standing, shielded behind a squad of enforcers.

Mallet sent the detonation code to the micro drone the same moment she heard agent Visser call out a warning to the enforcers in the corridor.

“Take cover!”

The detonation was small, but in a confined space, it was powerful enough to disorientate the two enforcers covering the doorway. As one fell, the muzzle of his pulse rifle moved over the threshold, allowing Mallet to grab it. She pushed it as she stepped forward, bringing her other hand around. She aimed the pulse pistol out into the corridor. She fired. Flashes of pulse rounds lit up the hall.

Mallet felt the pulse rifle fall loose. She brought it into the room just as pulse rifle fire lit up the corridor.

The enforcer to the right of Mallet’s open door must surely have been taking cover. Training would have told him to press himself to the floor and the wall. Mallet knew he could only be a meter away from where she now stood. She swung up the rifle, aimed at the bottom of the wall, and fired a stream of pulse rounds. The deck and outer wall of her small cabin exploded as the pulse rounds tore through.

Mallet released the power pack from her pulse pistol in one hand and dropped it into the other. She slid the power distribution node into overload mode and tossed it out into the corridor. She pressed herself as far back into her small room as she could, and the detonation roared down the corridor. She saw the fallen enforcer skidding along the floor, driven by the blast. Before the dust could settle, she was out in the corridor, pulse rifle at her shoulder and firing into the distance.

The targeting screen on the top of the pulse rifle showed her the enforcer locations. They were taking cover at a junction. Agent Visser would not be far from them. With her rifle delivering a sustained fire, Mallet advanced. The rifle muzzle moved only marginally left and right as she transferred her aim from one side of the end of the corridor to the other, laying down a sustained barrage to keep the enforcers in cover.

Mallet was sure Visser would be delivering her orders silently to the remaining enforcers to capture Mallet alive. Mallet had no need to take the enforcers or Agent Visser alive. If she could escape and leave them alive, that would be fine. But if she had to take them all down to get away, she would.

Reaching the junction at the end of the corridor, Mallet slowly turned and fired at one end. The enforcer on a knee took a pulse round directly on the faceplate, sending him backward. Mallet turned and fired behind her at the two enforcers standing there.

Mallet leaped back and landed behind the enforcer she had just murdered. His body still partially upright against the wall, she knelt to take cover—using his tactical suit as a shield as she fired her rifle at one enforcer then the other.

Standing behind the two fallen enforcers, fists raised, was Agent Visser.

Mallet stood and aimed the rifle at Visser.

Visser grinned.

Then the holoimage collapsed. Visser’s image disappeared just as she appeared for real behind Mallet, a pulse pistol aimed at the rogue agent’s head.

Mallet spun and reached for the pistol. She moved in a flash and pushed it aside. A pulse round blasted into the corridor wall centimeters from Mallet’s head.

As Mallet twisted the pistol from Visser’s grip, Visser ripped the rifle from Mallet. In a swirling moment, both agents were disarmed and in reach of the other.

Visser delivered an immediate blow with her right knee to Mallet’s left side. The sound of a rib breaking causing Visser to grin again.

Mallet fell back a step, fist raised. She waved off a punch as she cradled her side. And Visser came forward, delivering a series of rapid blows at Mallet’s head. She fended one punch with her right arm, then turned and fended the second with her left, releasing a wave of pain from her left side. Mallet brought her left arm down to protect the wounded area, spun on her left foot and brought her right up to connect sharply with the side of Visser’s head.

Visser fell back laughing, her hands raised ready to defend or deliver an attack.

Mallet paused. She flexed her left side and tested the busted rib. A med-pack and a few minutes of rest would make it right again. She had a med-pack in her back pocket, but she knew that the instant she reached for it, Visser would attack.

Mallet reached for the med-pack.

Visser came fast, focused on delivering another punch to Mallet’s wounded side. As Visser moved in, she left the left side of her head exposed for a fraction of a second. Mallet grabbed the med-pack and set the pack to release a soporific. She spun on her right foot and brought her arm around, the med-pack in her palm, and she slapped it hard onto Visser’s head, just as the punch was delivered to her broken rib.

Mallet fell back, screaming in pain. She blocked it out as best she could and cradled her wounded left side. She watched as Agent Visser reached for the med-pack. She took a step back, tearing the med-pack away, but it too late. The soporific had done enough work that Visser was staggering around like the drunk she was.

Mallet advanced slowly, left arm cradling her broken rib, right arm raised with a clenched fist. Standing over Visser, Mallet knew her old partner expected some cutting remark. But all Mallet had for Visser was a heavy blow to the head.

Visser lay motionless on the floor, the soporific and the heavy blows rendering her unconscious. Mallet scooped up her pulse pistol.

“Always thought you’d be the one to kill me,” Mallet said. She fired a single pulse round, stepped over the body of Agent Visser, and walked off down the corridor.

Mallet needed a med-pack for her busted rib, she needed a ship, and she needed to make Jack Forge pay.

9

The Devex raiders entering the system came far too quickly and in far greater numbers than Jack had initially feared. His position was vulnerable, he was outnumbered, and support was too far away. Jack had been in tight spots before, but this time, he knew he had a fight on his hands.

The holostage initially showed the raiders as a single hazy signal. As they drew closer the surveillance equipment aboard the civilian transport, he began to pick out individual craft. Now Jack could see the numbers thrown against him. In short, it was too many. But Jack would not run, even if he could. He would stay and fight. There was no choice.

Jack checked the position of his ships. He had three remaining tac boats from his squadron of eight, and he had the three allied Devex ships. They were positioned several kilometers from the civilian transport ready to respond to any attack.

But the small group was no match for the thirty-six attacking Devex raiders now entering the inner system. Every raider could hold eight Devex warriors, and the heavily-armored, powerfully-armed Devex warriors were a formidable fighting force. Jack could not hope to hold the civilian transport indefinitely, even if he had a battalion of Marines. The number of Marines under Jack’s command would not even qualify as a full squad.

Jack’s fighting force was only eight Marines armed with their personal weapons, three battered tac boats crewed only by a pilot, and three allied Devex raiders whose allegiance was not rock solid. One raider had already fled. Jack was sure the attacking Devex knew exactly what they were up against.

The attacking raiders entered view above the swamp planet. They adopted a geostationary orbit high above the civilian transport, half-submerged in the dark water. The location of the transport was known to the Devex and could not be hidden. If the Devex simply intended to annihilate the ship, they would be able to obliterate the target from orbit. A stream of deadly white energy bullets from the raiders would reduce the lightly armored, unpowered civilian transport to vapor in the matter of minutes.

But the Devex were not here to destroy the civilian transport. They were here to secure the fifty thousand live humans asleep in the transport.

Jack watched a group of enemy craft break off from the massed squadron in orbit and begin their descent toward the civilian transport. They were here to retake the ship and deliver the civilians to the Skalidions. Jack could not guess why the Skalidions wanted the humans alive, but Jack decided it was most likely hideous. He would do his best to destroy the craft and all its passengers before he let them fall into the hands of the Skalidions and their nefarious purposes.

The first wave of raiders entering the lower atmosphere turned north. North of the civilian transport, hidden in the dense foliage and partially submerged, were the three remaining allied Devex. The attacking raiders spread out and swept forward, searching for the allied Devex.

A second group of attacking raiders swept south, spreading out and flying low toward the three tac boats.

The ships were outnumbered. All they could do now was hide.

Opening a channel to the two groups of ships, Jack sent a single simple message: “Maintain cover.”

The flights of attacking raiders to the north and south simultaneously lit up their rapid-fire blasters. They advanced slowly in a line, raking the swampy surface with their white energy bullets. The water and vegetation erupted in a boiling blast ahead of the Devex line as the Raiders swept the swamp, firing blindly in searching of the hidden ships.

A third group of attackers swept down from high orbit and headed for the civilian transport. Jack watched the signals on the holostage closely. All he could do was wait.

The third group of Devex slowed as they approached the upper hull of the transport. They touched down and immediately began cutting through the outer hull.

“Sam, are you seeing this?” Jack sent a private message to Commander Torent.

“Can’t take my eyes off it, Jack,” Sam said casually. “Guess they’ll be moving on your position before long.”

“Copy that, Sam. I will hold them here. You stay mobile, hit-and-run, keep them looking over their shoulders. Keep them guessing.”

“Any word from the fleet?” Sam said.

Jack hesitated. He glanced around the command deck and saw the small group of Marines looking at him. Their helmets covered their faces, but Jack could guess the concern that was etched on them. The only thing he could do to assuage their fears now was to be confident.

“Nothing yet, Sam,” he said over the communication channel, but also so all Marines on the command deck could hear. “They know our situation. They will attend when they can. It doesn’t change what we have to do.”

The internal surveillance network alerted Jack that the inner hull had been breached and intruders were now moving through corridors on the upper deck.

“All Marines stand ready. The Devex are aboard.”

Commander Scherer watched the enemy sweep across the dark swamp, their rapid-fire blasters tearing through the water and drawing ever closer. The stream of white energy bullets from each raider swept from left to right as they advanced slowly, every square centimeter of swamp taking fire.

With all systems powered down, Scherer knew his tac boat would not survive a hit. A single white energy bullet would not be enough to destroy the boat, but it would punch a hole through the upper hull. The impact would give away his position and then would come the concentrated weapons fire that would tear the tac boat apart.

Commander Scherer understood Major Forge’s orders, but he did not want to sit and wait to be hit. He made ready to power up his tac boat and leap into the sky to engage the attacking raiders. It was likely he would not last any longer in a dogfight with the raiders than he would sitting still in the swamp, but at least he would warm up his guns and possibly take one of the Devex with him.

With the raking stream of white energy bullets now only a couple of hundred meters away from the nose of his boat, Scherer made the decision. He would order the two boat pilots with him to power up, ascend vertically, and fire on the nearest attacking raider.

It would be a short battle.

The small holostage showed him the civilian transport at the center of the image, his three tac boats on one side and the three allied Devex raiders on the other.

And it was the allied Devex Raiders that drew his eye now as he made ready to make his first move. They were breaking cover. They came out of the swamp with their white energy bullets streaming into the lead attacking raider, and they came under fire the instant they fired.

The line of raiders closing in on Scherer’s position turned suddenly and raced to join the attack in the north.

Commander Scherer activated his tac boat systems in a few swift movements. He sent a message to the other two tac boats and to Jack on the civilian transport.

“We have an opportunity to kick these attacking raiders in the rear. Attacking now. Scherer out.”

The confirmation and agreement from the two tac boats came almost instantly. Scherer guessed they’d been waiting to attack just as he had. A brief acknowledgement from Major Forge came a few moments later as Scherer was lifting out of the swamp.

“Engage attacking raiders. Good luck. Forge out.”

Before the three tac boats had cleared the low canopy of the dense swampy vegetation, they were already firing. The high-energy lasers lit up, a beam appearing between the emitter and the target Devex drive systems instantaneously. All three tac boats targeted the nearest raider. The laser beams blinked out a moment later as the raider’s drive system erupted in fire.

Climbing vertically, the three tac boats fired a salvo of kinetic hail. Huge gouts of hail blasted out from both flank cannons on all three. The kinetic hail slammed into the attacking raiders and knocked them out of the green sky.

Away in the north, the allied raiders diverted their fire to the next nearest raider. The first allied Devex went down in flames, all attackers concentrating their fire on one ship at a time. With the first allied raider crashing back to the black swamp, the attackers switched fire and within seconds had smashed another ally.

Commander Scherer lit up his high-energy laser and fired his flank hail cannon into the next target. One tac boat had taken a hit as the attackers flipped end over end, bringing their rapid-fire blasters onto the tac boats on their rear.

And then the second tac boat went down. As it spiraled into the swamp, its high-energy laser activated and it slammed several short-lived beams into the nose of the nearest raider. The moment the tac boat crashed into the dark waters, the raider it had targeted exploded, white plasma rippling over the hull.

Commander Scherer was the last remaining tac boat, flying head-on into four enemy ships. He fired a blast of hail as a defensive curtain and brought his tac boat about. He banked the ship and turned a tight high-G turn, the stability field around his chair failing near his left ankle. He felt it being crushed under the pressure. Now fully in retreat, he diverted all power to the drive and blasted away from the attacking raiders.

With the upper canopy of the dense swamp foliage flicking over the lower hull of his tac boat, Scherer raced away.

“Commander Forge, this is Scherer. Scratch four attackers. Scratch two tac boats. Scratch two allies. I am in retreat. I’ll try and draw off these attackers. Good luck, Major. Commander Scherer out.”

And as Scherer raced away, his attackers closing in behind, he swiveled the flank hail cannon to fire at his pursuers. The instant he gave a blast of high-energy kinetic hail, he felt the tac boat buck. The nose pitched down while the tail pitched up. Collision alarms sounded and system failure lights lit up over the flight console.

A white energy bullet sliced through the rear section and exploded just above the flight console. Scherer twisted out of his seat and stumbled toward the boarding ramp. He activated the ramp as the boat tumbled out of control, taking more fire.

Scherer leaped from the tac boat and was flung away by the sudden explosion of the main drive. He tumbled in midair and fell. The deep green leaves slashed against his tactical suit before he hit the black waters of the swamp.

Jack Forge crouched in cover on the command deck, his pulse rifle aimed down the only corridor that would give the attacking Devex access to the transport’s central command systems. He glanced at his wrist-mounted holostage as the report from Scherer came in. All boats were destroyed, status of the pilots unknown. All missing in action.

The last communication from the leader of the allied Devex was that they had fought and destroyed six of the eight raiders sent against them. Jack confirmed the numbers.

But there were more to come. Jack had lost all his ships, and he’d not even taken half the Devex. Now all Devex warriors would be focusing their attention on the civilian transport’s command deck, and Jack.

The surveillance net throughout the civilian ship’s interior relayed every step of the Devex warriors that had broken through. Jack watched on his wrist-mounted holostage as they advanced closer.

He patched his enhanced data view through to a corridor internal sensor node. He looked out of the node at the advancing Devex.

The Devex that attacked were too big to stand up in the corridors of the civilian ship. They advanced slowly, stooped to fit within the smooth white hallway. They advanced with their long, heavy rapid-fire blasters in their hands.

The three-meter-tall Devex warriors could not easily maneuver through the corridors, but they came on with speed nevertheless.

Approaching a mid-deck junction, the Devex warriors began to climb down a set of stairs to the deck below, still several decks above Jack’s location.

But another group of Devex was already even closer. Jack switched to the surveillance node in the nearby corridor where the closest Devex group was.

A group of six Devex warriors came along the corridor. They moved in twos, side by side, their huge bulk making very little room for anything else.

Jack assumed that of the eight Devex warriors that had arrived in their raider, six advanced on the command deck and two remained behind to defend their ship. But with so few Marines at Jack’s disposal, the Devex did not need to defend their raiders. He did not have the numbers to be diverted from his very simple plan to hold the command deck.

The Devex warriors on the command deck level were now only a few corridors away. They advanced toward the cross corridor that led to the long hallway outside the command deck. Jack knelt next to the command chair, the back of which was facing the partially-open command deck blast door. A Marine knelt on the other side, pulse rifle aimed down the long corridor. Two Marines were in position at the open command deck entrance, one on either side. A group of four Marines to hold off the first six Devex.

The small device scuttling down the corridor, bouncing and clattering as it came, caught Jack’s attention. Possibly a surveillance device, maybe a grenade, but whatever it was, it was Devex. Jack took aim at the small bounding item. It was already halfway down the corridor and closing in fast. He pulled the trigger and let off a single pulse round.

Jack hit his target, and the small device detonated in a brilliant white flash. The blast wave slammed into the corridor’s white wall and punched a dark sphere in it. The blast wave raced toward the command deck.

“Door,” Jack called out the simple order.

The Marines on either side began to push the two parts of the sliding door together. The blast wave hit before they were shut.

The partially-closed door buckled inward. The blast wave that made it through the gap slammed into the command chair, knocking it off its small pedestal. The chair flew over Jack’s head and landed on the holostage. Jack saw the holoimage flicker and finally blink out as it was smashed by the falling wreck.

A second small device came bouncing down the corridor. This time, all Marines were alerted to the danger and a stream of pulse rounds raced down the corridor toward the device. It detonated further away this time, punching another sphere into the smooth corridor. The lights flickered and died, plunging the corridor into darkness. The blast wave came again and slammed into the partially-closed doors, racing into the command deck.

Jack took cover behind the broken plinth of the command chair, but he still felt the blast wave slam into him and push him across the floor. If one of those devices made it into the command deck, it would kill or injure all four Marines.

Jack checked the location of the nearest six Devex on his wrist-mounted holostage, now his only link to the ship’s internal surveillance system. They were in the cross corridor, just out of sight at the end of the corridor. He saw one of the six Devex take an item off its hip—a tiny silver sphere, another blast grenade ready to be thrown.

“Stand ready, Marines. Another one of those blast grenades any second.”

And then Jack saw movement behind the Devex.

A group of four Marines, led by Sam Torent, appeared in the cross corridor. With two taking a knee and two standing behind, they poured a stream of pulse rifle fire into the rear of the six Devex warriors. One fell, then another. The four still standing turned to return fire. One was struck in the faceplate and fell back. Another took a pulse round to the hip, then the shoulder, and finally the throat before falling into a crumpled mass on the floor.

The surviving warriors opened fire, but the Marines were already retreating back along the corridor, leaving a grenade behind.

The detonation of the Marine’s grenade disabled the surveillance node at that section. Jack lost his view on his wrist-mounted holostage for a moment and then reconnected with another nearby node. When the signal returned, six Devex warriors lay in the corridor.

That was when the left-behind grenade detonated.

The six Devex warriors were slammed against every surface. One was flung along the cross corridor to the junction with the command deck corridor. Jack aimed with his pulse rifle and focused in on the single Devex warrior with his pulse rifle’s sighting screen. The Devex warrior was still and silent.

Cheers went up from the Marines on the command deck, and Jack allowed them a moment of jubilation before bringing them back to order.

“Steady now, Marines,” Jack said firmly. “It’s not over yet.”

“Jack, this is Sam,” Sam’s voice came over a private channel. “Redeploying now. Two more groups of Devex advancing along the port and starboard side, heading to either end of the cross corridor. I’m going to be cut off if I stay here, and they’ll be kicking me in the nose and the kravin ass.”

Jack felt a smile tug the corner of his mouth. Sam Torent was a born Marine—brash, bold, and never overwhelmed by the task.

“Copy that, Sam,” Jack said. “Keep mobile. Keep hitting them.”

And as Jack watched Sam relocate on his wrist-mounted holostage, moving fast through the corridors of the civilian transport, he saw the next group of Devex moving up into position to assault the command deck.

“Stand by, Marines,” Jack said. He raised his pulse rifle, settling it against his shoulder, and took aim. “Here they come.”

The silver sphere came bouncing down the corridor. A Marine at the partially-open door shot it with a single pulse round, and it detonated at the far end of the corridor where the Devex were positioned. Jack checked the surveillance node on his enhanced data view and saw that the warrior group had been blasted by their own grenade.

“Great shot,” Jack said. “That’ll make them think twice about throwing one of those at us again.”

The next group of Devex stepped through the carnage. Jack knew they would change tactics. The only way into the command deck was with a frontal assault. It would be brutal work, but the Devex warriors were determined. They needed to take the command deck in order to take the ship. They needed to take the ship to secure the fifty thousand live humans aboard. They needed the humans to give to the Skalidions in a desperate attempt to save their own skins.

The Devex stepped into the far end of the corridor two abreast, their rapid-fire blasters alive and pouring the fizzing white energy bullets along the corridor.

A white energy bullet slammed into the door. Jack saw the interior glow white hot as the energy bullets struck the far side. Given enough fire, the door would melt away under the onslaught. Jack took careful aim through the narrow gap between the doors and fired.

His pulse rifle poured a stream of well-aimed pulse rounds into the Devex on the left side of the corridor. The other Marines picked their targets and let loose streams of weapons fire. The two Devex fell quickly. One, refusing to die, crawled forward, its huge rapid-fire blaster still pouring a stream of white energy bullets toward the command deck. One more pulse round to the Devex helmet and the warrior collapsed to the deck.

And then came two more, firing the instant the Devex in front had fallen. They stepped over the fallen warriors, the corridor even more cramped for them as they picked past the bodies. The energy bullets came on incessantly. They raked the sides of the corridor and peppered the partially-closed door. Many streamed into the command deck, slamming into the far side.

The Marines returned fire and another Devex fell, only to reveal yet another one marching steadily along the corridor, its blaster lighting up the moment it had a clear line of fire.

“Maintain the fire, Marines,” Jack said as he fired another stream of pulse rounds. Jack paused to take aim and fired again, the rounds racing away through the gap between the doors and down the corridor to connect with an advancing Devex warrior.

A Marine on one side of the open door had his rifle knocked out of his hand. Jack glanced for a moment to check the Marine’s status. He dropped the broken pulse rifle and drew a pulse pistol from his hip holster, aimed down the corridor, and resumed firing. Jack noted with satisfaction that the Marine had not lost his aim. The first pulse round struck the next Devex warrior high on the helmet, the second lower down. A third and a fourth hit the chest exo-armor. It glowed white hot under the assault of the pulse rounds, and then the Devex fell, first to its knees and then face down just centimeters further along the corridor than the other fallen Devex.

And still they came in pairs, their rapid-fire blasters pouring fire toward the command deck. Jack saw the door on one side of the corridor was now glowing white hot. Soon the composite would begin to crumble. All he could do was maintain the fire.

The latest pair of Devex stepped over their fallen and came closer. The Marines’ fire intensity continued until they fell. Behind them lay a corridor with only dead Devex lining the deck. Jack shifted his aim from one end of the corridor to the other, flicking his pulse rifle lightly across the space. No more Devex came.

Jack checked the nearest surveillance node and saw a group of six Devex warriors holding around the far end of the corridor, just out of sight.

There had to be a reason why they stopped.

“Sam, report.” Jack flicked through all the nearby surveillance nodes, checking the corridors on his wrist-mounted holostage.

“I’m preparing to move. Devex attempting to outflank me. I am looking for a way past them. Attempting to enter transport loop channels. How is the fight at the command deck?”

“They’ve stopped.”

“They must be planning something. I am moving to support you now.”

“Negative, Sam,” Jack said, scanning the far end of the corridor ahead of him.” As long as they are hunting for you out there, the pressure is off me up here. But you’re right, Sam. They are planning something.”

Jack accessed the main surveillance systems and scanned the surrounding area. He zoomed out to maximum range. Jack was able to scan as far out as high orbit. And there, above the civilian transport, was the unmistakable shape of a Devex warship.

And now Jack knew why the Devex warriors had stopped. Their main assault group had arrived. Thousands of Devex warriors would soon be pouring into the civilian transport, not this time to convert them into Devex warriors but to capture them and hand them over to the Skalidions.

Jack knew he couldn’t fight them all. He was trapped, surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned. He was out of chances. But if the Devex wanted to take back the civilian transport, they would have to go through him.

Jack would fight to the bitter end, and by that bitter end of it, the Devex would know they’d been in a battle with the Fleet Marines.

10

“Make ready, Marines.” Jack checked his rifle’s power load. “Devex warship incoming.” Jack had seen before how the warships could clamp onto a civilian transport, punching huge boarding arms in through the outer hull. Dozens of warriors could pour into the civilian ship. Jack knew he could not hold them off forever.

“Sam, get back here. I need you on the command deck.”

“On my way,” Sam said.

Jack checked the surveillance node at the end of the command deck corridor and saw the group of Devex taking cover around the corner in the junction. If Sam was to make it back to the command deck safely, that group needed to be removed from the fight. Jack stood and called for the Marines’ attention with a wave of his hand. All eyes fell on him.

With a swift series of hand signals, Jack told the Marines to stay in their position while he advanced on the enemy position at the far end of the long, straight corridor where he would engage and destroy them.

All three Marines on the command deck shook their heads. Jack repeated his hand signal and made ready to make his attack.

Unclipping his last grenade from his belt, Jack depressed the activation circuit. The three Marines copied his action, stood, and faced the partially-closed command deck doors.

Nodding in agreement, Jack agreed to let the Marines deploy their grenades ahead of his assault. With a few quick steps toward the doorway, Jack brought his arm back and pitched the grenade far down the corridor. In a single movement, he stepped aside and pressed his back to the left side of the door. Before his grenade hit the floor, the second Marine was up to the opening and tossed his after Jack’s. The third and fourth Marines pitched their grenades in the same fashion.

And with the timings coordinated, the detonation came as one blast.

The debris roaring down the corridor came blasting through the gap, scattering fragments of Devex exo-armor and corridor composite into the command deck. Before the dust had settled, Jack pressed himself through the narrow opening between the two door panels and ran along the corridor.

The hallway was littered with the fallen Devex from the earlier attack. Jack sprinted and hurdled the first, landing lightly on his left foot before leaping again to clear a second. He landed on a third and ran over the next. Nearing the end of the corridor, Jack activated the electron bayonet at the end of his pulse rifle.

With the rifle raised and the bayonet held forward, Jack ran toward the right side of the hall where the Devex were waiting to make their next move. One risked a glance along the corridor just in time to see Jack’s electron bayonet thrust through his helmet.

Slamming into the end of the hallway, Jack faced the right side of the intersection. A Devex warrior hunched in the corridor was raising its blaster. Jack flicked up his rifle, the electron bayonet slicing through the end of the weapon. White plasma burst from the end of the broken blaster like liquid fire. The warrior dropped the gun and staggered back into another hunched Devex warrior.

Thrusting forward with his electron bayonet, Jack inched closer to the first, who fell away. Jack recovered his rifle and thrust forward again, ripping the bayonet up and out of the next Devex warrior’s shoulders. As the warrior fell aside, Jack was squared with two more, their blasters aimed at Jack with only one meter separating them. Too far for Jack to thrust.

Staring into the helmet of the nearest Devex, Jack imagined all that had happened to bring him to this corridor, to the end of this battle, and to the end of his time as a Marine. He remembered running over the grassy prairies of his youth, the difficult training he’d been through to become a Marine, and his rise through the ranks. He remembered every Marine he had known, those who had fallen, and those who would go on after him.

With a battle cry rising in his throat and his muscles tensing for one final thrust, the two Devex warriors standing before him fell aside under a hail of pulse rifle fire. Jack instinctively dropped to the deck and pressed himself to the side of the corridor. As the Devex fell, Jack looked to see a small group of Marines running toward him.

“Jack, on your feet.”

Climbing to his feet and deactivating the electron bayonet, Jack recognized the voice of Sam Torent.

“Jack, fall back. We’ve got Devex after us. Hundreds of them.”

Jack urged Sam and his small group to hurry and run to him. Jack waited at the corner of the two corridors and waved the Marines down the long hallway toward the command deck.

“Go, go, go!” Jack waved the Marines on. Sam slowed as he came near.

“Get going, Jack,” Sam said. He grabbed Jack and pushed him toward the command deck.

As Jack was bundled around the corner, he saw the first Devex warrior turn into the end of the intersection in pursuit. Sam raised his pulse rifle and fired. Jack grabbed his friend and pulled him around the corner and into cover. A stream of white energy bullets raced by like a stream of heavy, horizontal rain, every drop fizzing like white fire.

Jack pulled Sam. Sam pulled Jack. The pair pulled and pushed each other along the corridor back to the command deck, laughing at their narrow escape. With the end of the corridor only a few paces away, Sam turned sideways and raced through the narrow gap, colliding heavily with one side of the door. Jack turned sideways and led with his shoulder aimed at the narrow gap, and as he glanced back down the corridor, his pulse rifle raised in his right arm, he saw the Devex warriors turn from the cross corridor into the hallway leading to the command deck.

He fell into the command deck as the Devex bullets raked the walls and slammed into the doors. Lying on the floor, half inside the command deck, Jack fired. He lay on his back and scurried backwards, laying down heavy return fire. He was pulled into cover.

“Guess you got us cornered good and proper now, Jack?” Sam looked down at him and pulled Jack to his feet easily with his Mech arm.

“Maintain the fire,” Jack said. “Two Marines that side, two Marines that side.” Jack pointed to either side of the narrow opening, the door panels still smoldering from the previous attack. “If they try a forward assault, I want you to fill up that corridor with fallen Devex warriors. If fire won’t hold them back, maybe their own dead will. Heavy fire, Marines.”

Jack looked at his wrist-mounted holostage. He accessed the civilian transport’s surveillance network and checked how many Devex ships were now around the swamp planet. He detected a new signal, on the edge of surveillance range. A faint signal was received by his tactical suit’s communication system.

The Scorpio had arrived.

The Scorpio command deck was a buzz of activity. Command deck officers were all at their consoles, busy and focused on their specific tasks. Captain Pretorius stood in front of the main holostage, his second-in-command, Commander Chou, at his side.

Racing toward the inner system, the Scorpio was flanked by two frigates and a squadron of Blades.

The frigates and fighters raced ahead to meet the Devex Raiders that swept up from the planet surface to meet the new threat, but the warship continued its descent through the planet’s thick atmosphere. The puncture arms were partially deployed, poised and ready to grip the civilian transport in its deadly embrace.

The Blades and frigates opened fire with every available weapon. Hail and high-energy lasers slammed into the raiders that raced to meet them.

Pretorius targeted the warship. He could deal with the Raiders in his own time, but the warship had to be stopped now or all the people would be lost.

“Make ready all combat drone pods,” Pretorius said.

Commander Chou checked the targeting calculations. A command deck officer called out that all combat drone pods were ready.

Tugging his cuffs, Pretorius gave the command.

“Fire all tubes.”

The combat drones dropped from the Scorpio, and their rockets kicked to life, flinging them across space toward the swamp planet and the Devex warship descending through the atmosphere.

The combat drones raced past the battle between the raiders and the Blades and frigates, on toward the swamp planet and the warship. The first combat drone collapsed its antimatter containment field, exposing its deadly warhead to the outer hull of the warship.

The huge fireball created by the drone slammed into the massive ship, pressing the forward section down suddenly. And then the line of combat drones detonated one after another all along the warship’s upper hull.

“Scan for damage,” Pretorius said, walking back to his command chair. He climbed up into the chair and activated the communication console on his armrest.

Commander Chou zoomed the main holostage image in on the Devex warship. The outer hull near the rear of the massive ship was smashed, venting gas and plasma into the green clouds of the swamp planet.

Pretorius looked in satisfaction as the warship began to retreat. It banked away to port and raced through the dark green clouds, blasting out into orbit and disappearing from view on the far side of the planet.

“Commander Forge, this is the Scorpio. Do you copy?”

Pretorius leaned forward in his chair and looked at the holoimage of the civilian transport on the planet below. The Scorpio entered geostationary orbit above the civilian transport. The faint reply from the ship below came over the communication panel on Pretorius’s armrest.

“This is Forge. Good to see you, Scorpio. We have fifty thousand sleeping civilians down here who don’t know it yet, but they are happy to see you too.”

Pretorius smiled and leaned back in his chair. If anyone could pull off the impossible, it was Jack Forge.

“I have orders from Fleet Command to deliver an engineering team to the civilian transport. And I have a relief squad of Marines ready to take over from you, Major. I think you and your people have done enough down there. I’m sending a tac boat down to collect you now. Pretorius out.”

Looking at the main holostage, Pretorius saw the raiders turn and flee. The frigates held position while the Blades continued pursuit, high-energy lasers and hail cannons seeing the Devex off.

Pretorius climbed down from his command chair. “You have the command deck, Mr. Chou. Inform me as soon as Major Forge is aboard.”

Being back aboard the Scorpio was the closest feeling to being home that Jack had these days. Every corridor in the huge ship was so familiar to him. He passed the Marine deck where he’d assembled with his troops on so many occasions. He passed his old squad barracks from the time when he had been a new recruit and squad leader. Now, he walked toward the forward section of the destroyer and the command deck.

Commander Chou directed Jack to the officers’ lounge when he stepped onto the command deck. He walked straight to the lounge and found the captain standing at the small side cabinet pouring a heavy tumbler of Amber.

“Good work, Jack.” Pretorius turned around and stepped over to him, holding out the tumbler with the dark liquor at the bottom.

Jack shook his head in refusal and wrinkled his nose. What Jack really needed was a heavy ration block and a shower.

“The people on that ship, Captain?”

Pretorius took a sip of the harsh liquor and then placed the tumbler on the small side table.

“A group of engineers are down there now and will have the ship ready to fly within the hour. We will rejoin the fleet as soon as they have completed the work. The Devex have all but cleared their people from this region. The Skalidions are moving in on a new front. They are closing in on the fleet. All Fleet craft are being assigned to a rearguard to protect the civilian transports. We are sending the fleet across an interstellar void and leaving this region. The Skalidions can have it all.”

The message over the lounge communicator cut over the captain.

“Captain to the command deck. Priority message from the Scepter.”

Following the captain out of the officers’ lounge and back onto the command deck, Jack noticed all officers looking nervously at the captain. The holoimage of the admiral appeared on the holostage.

“New orders, Captain Pretorius,” the admiral said as Pretorius stepped up to the holostage. “The Scorpio will return immediately.”

“But what about those people down there?” Jack said. “The Skalidions wanted them alive. They are coming to get them right now.”

“Major Forge,” the admiral said. “This is not your call. The engineering team will have the transport ready to fly. They will have their chance to escape this region, but only if we give it to them. The Skalidion are moving in on the fleet. The Devex have abandoned us. We need to give the civilian fleet a chance to run. I need all ships in the line.”

“We are on our way, Admiral,” Pretorius said. He instructed the command deck crew to set the heading and activate the main drive.

“Captain,” Jack said, turning to Pretorius, “let me stay with the group of Marines and protect the engineers and the civilian transport.”

“Negative, Major. I need you to head up the Scorpio Battalion. If we are going into a fight, I’m going to need you on board.” The captain placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder “You are needed here, Jack. Go and grab a bite to eat, rest up if you can. We’ll be taking our position in the line before the end of the watch.”

Jack nodded and marched off the command deck toward his quarters. A shower, a bite to eat, and he’d be back in action against the Skalidion.

11

Jack woke suddenly in his quarters, slumped over his small desk. The alarm sounding throughout the ship alerted all crew that the Scorpio was taking its place in battle formation.

Sprinting through the corridors, sleep forgotten, Jack raced toward the command deck.

The main holostage showed the Scorpio moving into position. At the center of the formation was the huge carrier, the Scepter. Surrounding the Scepter were squadrons of Blades, and further out from the Blades were the frigates and corvettes, fast and powerful weapons platforms. All were positioned and standing ready for action.

And in the front line, the destroyers.

The destroyers of the fleet were arranged in a line bow to stern. The Canis, the Aquarius, and finally, coming into position in the center, the Scorpio. Each had their port-side hail cannon batteries presented toward the front where the Skalidions were coming from. The destroyers would slow the Skalidion attack, but Jack could not believe that the three destroyers could stop them.

Standing at the holostage and studying the formation, Jack realized the power of the combined fleet. It was a formidable arsenal of hardware. Even though it was a mere shadow of the once-powerful fleet that had consisted of three massive carriers and a dozen destroyers, it could still strike awe into Jack.

Sitting in his command chair, Captain Pretorius was busy communicating with the other destroyer captains and the Scepter. The command deck officers were all busy, but Jack could tell they were not too busy that the nerves did not show through the slight cracks developing in the overworked and overwhelmed personnel.

Looking up to Pretorius, Jack could see his old friend and mentor showed no signs of stress. He was focused. He was calm. He was determined and ready to fight.

Pretorius looked down at Jack at the holostage.

“Sleep well, Major?” Pretorius smiled.

“The civilian transport?” Jack said, remembering the ship he had left behind.

“Back with the others. The passengers are still asleep, I hear. They’ll never know what you did for them. Is the battalion ready, Major?”

Jack nodded. Before he’d drifted to sleep at his desk, he had instructed his officers to deploy the battalion throughout the ship. The Marines were positioned at vital locations, ready to repel any Skalidion that tried to infiltrate.

The admiral appeared on the main holostage, a priority message to all ships. The image of the Scorpio in its position amongst the fleet shrank away while the admiral dominated. Jack could see the old admiral was breaking under the strain. Even over the slightly-distorted holoimage of the admiral, Jack could see the slight signs of stress—a nervous smile here, a twitching eye muscle there, the furrowed brow and the permanent curl of his lip.

“Hear this, all ships. Skalidion fighter swarm incoming. Tactical command will now pass to Group Captain Tanaka. The civilian fleet is away and heading toward the interstellar void. We will hold the Skalidion here. We will beat them back, join the civilian fleet, and leave this wretched region of space behind. Good luck to us all.”

It seemed clear that the admiral was suffering under the strain, but Group Captain Tanaka was a resourceful and competent battle leader. Jack had no doubt that she would use the fleet effectively.

The image of Admiral Henson faded to be replaced by Captain Tanaka.

“Defensive hail curtain deploy on my mark. All support warships move up into the destroyers’ line. The fleet will make ready to redeploy to these coordinates. Tanaka out.”

Jack watched the holostage as Tanaka’s image faded and the fleet reappeared. Commander Chou zoomed the image out to show the full extent of the surveillance sphere around the fleet. Moving in at high speed toward the Scorpio’s port side was the Skalidion fighter swarm. Several astro units away below the fleet’s starboard side was a new star and protoplanetary disk. In that chaotic space of swirling dust, gas, and rock lay the redeployment coordinates Tanaka had set.

Captain Pretorius activated a ship-wide address. Jack heard his voice echoing over the communication notes throughout the ship and from the captain himself sitting up on his command chair.

“All batteries make ready to fire kinetic hail defensive curtain. All sections make ready for high-speed redeployment to new coordinates. Navigation, double-check we are not going to be flying into a protoplanet when we get into that system. Pretorius out.”

Jack looked at the holoimage of the advancing swarm. It was a huge elliptical mass of the small fighter craft that Jack had seen in action only recently. They darted about within the swarm and advanced as one, closing the distance to the fleet rapidly.

They closed in on the point where the kinetic hail defensive curtain would be deployed. Jack looked up to Pretorius. The captain tugged his cuffs and then calmly issued the fire order.

The port -side hail cannon battery of the Scorpio erupted as one and delivered a huge mass of kinetic hail. The two other destroyers in the line fired simultaneously. The smaller frigates and corvettes fired their hail cannon and added a small but significant amount of hail to the defensive curtain.

The kinetic hail raced across the space between the fleet and met the incoming Skalidion swarm at the predetermined coordinates. Mere meters ahead of the Skalidion swarm, the kinetic hail erupted into a shimmering cascade of high-density hail fragments, creating the vast defensive curtain.

The leading front of the swarm was annihilated as it raced headlong into the curtain.

And still they rushed on, hundreds of Skalidion fighters annihilated in a moment. They punched deep into the hail curtain. Although only a few dozens of meters thick, it was thousands of meters in circumference and created a vast wall. The fighters at the rear of the formation altered course in order to maneuver around it, but those directly in front plowed on regardless. Many more were destroyed until finally a Skalidion punched through the hail curtain and left a narrow channel of empty space behind it, through which flooded Skalidion fighters by the dozens.

“Secondary defensive curtain. Fire.” Pretorius remained calm. “Drive systems to full power. Let’s get out of here.”

Jack watched the surveillance image disappear from range. The primary hail curtain was still destroying Skalidion fighters, but thousands more were now breaking through and even more were circumnavigating it.

Looking ahead to the protoplanetary disk, Jack could see the benefit of fighting the Skalidion in that space. It was chaotic and would prevent the swarm from advancing in a single mass.

And if the fleet could achieve a tight stellar orbit within the chaotic protoplanetary disk, they would be able to fight as a single unit. Jack knew the Scorpio would be one of the deadliest ships in that fight.

Phisrid raged. The Devex warrior before her had promised to deliver thousands of humans alive. The Devex had failed her. She had promised to spare his planet from the swarm. She would not spare them now. Even though she knew they were fleeing and abandoning the planet they had so desperately wanted to keep, she was determined to have her revenge. Their leader cowering before her would have to be sufficient for the moment.

Phisrid wrapped one of her secondary arms around the Devex while another arm secreted a thick chemical communication pheromone slime over it. She sensed his pleas and the bargains he hoped to strike, to deliver even greater numbers of live humans to her.

“Give me one more chance,” he pleaded.

Sending the signal through the pheromone slime into the Devex leader, Phisrid told him his planet now belonged to her. He would belong to her. She would satisfy her hunger for humans herself.

And even as the Devex warrior pleaded, she crushed the life from him, squeezing the body within the heavy exo-armor. It cracked like a shell, the soft parts of the Devex leaking out of the exo-armor as it cracked in her grip.

Phisrid raised the broken Devex to her mouth and rasped at the soft parts leaking out. The taste was bitter and sweet. But human was all sweet, and Phisrid had to have the taste. She could not ignore the lure of that taste. She would have that taste again. But not remotely through her builders as they transmitted the flavors to her through the pheromone field.

No. She would have the taste in her own rasping mouth.

Phisrid dropped the broken Devex at her feet. A builder drone scuttled in and began to drag the body away, breaking it down into its constituent matter. This single Devex would be broken down and secreted on the outer shell of Phisrid’s enormous nest asteroid to provide some part of the spawn pods ready to develop a new generation of Skalidion drone.

Phisrid snatched a nurse drone from the inside of her central chamber and ate it. Her daughter nurse drones were a favorite treat, but nothing could stave off the hunger for more human.

Looking through the eyes of her distant observer drones, she saw her fighter swarm breaking through the human fleet’s defenses. A shimmering wall of fiery shards destroyed her fighters and blocked their way to the fleet. And beyond that fleet lay hundreds of civilian craft, each packed full with thousands upon thousands of live humans.

Her hunger would never be sated, but that many humans would satisfy her for a long time. She urged her swarm onward into the seething protoplanetary disk where the fleet were retreating.

Her swarm would be fragmented in that swirling mass of rock and dust. She sent out the pheromone signal to other swarms within her nation. All drones, all fighters were to converge on the protoplanetary disk. The human fleet must be destroyed. She must have human flesh.

The fleet moved swiftly through the protoplanetary disk, moving as individual ships through the swirling mass of rock and dust, heading toward the very inner system where clear space would give the fleet a chance to reform into a battle formation and fight off the incoming swarm.

The Scorpio plunged toward one of the larger protoplanets and used its gravity well to draw it on ever faster. At the last moment, Captain Pretorius gave the order to flip the Scorpio around the protoplanet and send it at all speed toward the inner system and the new, bright blue sun. The Scorpio arrived in stellar orbit as the first of the major battleships. The Blades, the corvettes, and the frigates, the fastest ships in the fleet, had already made it to the inner system and were there to receive the destroyers and finally the Scepter.

The fleet formed into its battle formation, and a moment later, the Skalidions began to infiltrate the protoplanetary disk. Each fighter came on fast, but the chaotic swirling mass of the infant planetary system caused them to spread out into a diffused mass.

And in went the Blades, racing away from the fleet formation to engage the Skalidion fighters.

The Fleet fighters danced around asteroids and protoplanets and picked off the Skalidion craft. Lasers and hail cannons tore through one Skalidion after another. The Blades moved independently, every Blade pilot a superb fighter. They operated throughout the swarm seemingly at will, picking off the Skalidions that seemed only able to fight as a mass.

But the Blades could not hope to destroy the thousands of Skalidion fighters pouring into the system. Soon they would be overwhelmed and swallowed up by the sheer number of Skalidions. With every Blade chalking up a huge number of kills, it was difficult for them to fall back. But then the orders came.

It was now the fleet’s turn to engage the swarm.

Cannon and laser batteries lit up across the fleet. Dozens of corvettes, dozens of frigates, and hundreds of tac boats all fired into the protoplanetary disk and picked off Skalidion fighters. And then the main ships of the line added their firepower.

The Scorpio was filled with the dull thump of hail cannons firing repeatedly. The hail spread outward from the inner system, smashing dozens of Skalidion fighters every second. Smaller protoplanets were torn apart by the huge amount of kinetic hail, and the debris flung out from the smashed planets further disrupted the Skalidion formation, some destroyed by wildly flying chunks of rock.

Jack watched the holostage closely. Despite the huge amount of destruction going on within the swarm, Jack could see the inevitability of them breaking through. They relied on the sheer weight of their numbers. Even though the fleet were destroying more and more of them by the second, there were too many, and the Skalidion would not give up this fight.

The sudden flicker of green light throughout the protoplanetary system told Jack one thing: The Skalidion fighters had battled into firing range. Every fighter within range was firing their weapons.

A seething mass of green fire raced toward the fleet. The Scorpio took the first hit. Collision alarm sounded on the command deck. The stability field control console officer called out the impact and the reduction in the field strength covering their forward section.

And then another bolt of green fire struck, and another, and another. The Scorpio began to shudder under the impacts.

Jack looked up to Captain Pretorius in his command chair. The captain appeared completely at ease. He was looking at holofiles on his armrest and managing the ship. Jack looked back to the holostage. The fighters closed in and were moving freely through the fleet’s formation. The Blades were reengaging the Skalidion fighters, chasing them between the ships of the fleet.

Thousands upon thousands of Skalidion fighters raced between the ships, pouring their green fire into their targets. A frigate went down, its signal lighting up red on the Scorpio’s main holostage. Then a tac boat, then another frigate, and then the warning from the Scorpio’s stability field officer.

“Captain. Outer hull stability field at thirty-five percent.”

Captain Pretorius did not look up from his work; he simply called out his orders.

“Laser fire command. Protect the field generators. Target any Skalidion firing on those locations.”

The fleet formation was completely surrounded and shot through with Skalidions. The position had fallen. But to flee now would mean destruction for sure. Only by fighting as a fleet could they hope to win.

And then the signal from the civilian fleet. A new swarm of Skalidions were moving in on the unprotected civilian fleet as it raced toward the safety of the interstellar void—the vast empty space, devoid of stars, a passage to a new region of space and safety. But they were not going to make it. And the message chilled Jack.

The Skalidions were capturing the civilian transports and taking the passengers alive.

12

With the Scorpio rocking under the onslaught of Skalidion green fire, Jack Forge stepped over to Captain Pretorius up on his command chair.

“The Skalidion are all controlled by a swarm queen,” Jack said.

“Your point, Mr. Forge?” Pretorius said, looking at his work, rocking in his seat as another blast of struck the Scorpio.

“If we can attack the queen, we can disrupt the Skalidion attack. We can triangulate between the civilian fleet and our position and pinpoint the location of the nest asteroid. If we can locate the nest, we can locate the queen and kill her.”

Captain Pretorius tapped away at his armrest controls. He placed a call to Captain Tanaka.

Tanaka appeared on the central holostage. The image was fragmented as the Skalidion green fire slammed into the Scepter.

“Yes, Captain?” Tanaka said, looking out of the holoimage onto the command deck of the Scorpio.

“Major Forge has a request,” Pretorius said.

Without waiting for an invitation to speak, Jack stepped up to the holostage and looked up into the large holoimage of Captain Tanaka.

“The Skalidion Swarm Queen. She must be nearby. She can only operate over a certain range, and if the civilian fleet is being attacked as well as the fleet here, then we can locate her. We can attack the queen.”

Tanaka turned away, looking to someone on her command deck.

“We are searching. But if we move to intercept the nest, we will expose ourselves even more to this fighter swarm. And the nest is mobile and will surely move off if this queen detects us. Do you have a suggestion, Major Forge?”

“Give me a tac boat and a combat drone and I’ll destroy the nest.”

The image of Captain Tanaka shrank aside and was joined by the image of Chief Agent Pound. Jack was not surprised to see the Fleet Intelligence Agency listening in to all conversations, but he was surprised to see the chief agent interrupt his call.

“Fleet Intelligence has been working on a plan that might suit the major. Report to Agent Sarah Reyes. She has Devex technology that can help you now. Intel authorizes release of the tac boat and combat drone. Proceed with all haste, Major. Good luck.”

The image of chief agent shrank away from the holostage. Group Captain Tanaka restored to full size. She looked down at Jack.

“Well, there you have it, Major. You are working for intel. Report to Agent Reyes. Tanaka out.”

Jack was already running off the command deck. He knew where Sarah Reyes was working. She was aboard the Scepter. The tac boat was prepped by the time Jack reached the Marine deck, the boarding ramp lowered. Jack ran up the ramp, and a Marine pilot initiated takeoff the instant Jack was aboard.

Dropping into the copilot’s seat, Jack activated the holostage. The Scepter was close, but hundreds of Skalidions moved between the ships. A squadron of Blades swept in to cover Jack’s tac boat as it headed toward the Scepter, their cannons tearing a path through the swarming fighters.

The white-knuckle ride ended with a combat landing on one of the Scepter’s huge landing pads. Jack was out of his seat and running in an instant. An enforcer fell in with Jack, escorting him to Sarah’s workshop, but Jack was too fast and soon outpaced his escort.

Sarah’s workshop was guarded by a single enforcer, but he stepped aside as Jack approached, clearly already informed by his commanding officers to let Major Forge into Agent Reyes’s workshop.

Sarah came walking over toward Jack quickly the moment he came in. She had in her hands a large backpack. She held the shoulder straps out.

“Put this on, Jack.”

Jack turned around and held his arms out for Sarah to slip the backpack on him.

“No time for a quick hello?” Jack said. Sarah spun Jack around as soon as she had slipped on the backpack and handed him a small device.

“This is the targeting device. The transmission device is in the backpack. Target the center of the Skalidion nest, strap this backpack onto the combat drone, and then send. It’s the Devex matter transport device that I’ve shrunk down. You can transport the drone from your tac boat directly into the center of the nest asteroid. Just make sure you clear the area before it detonates. We have set it to ultra-high yield. It’s going to destroy everything within a few kilometers.”

“Another one of your projects?” Jack said.

Sarah ignored the question. “The tac boat and combat drone are ready for you now. Good luck, Major.”

“Major? Are we all formal now, Sarah?” Jack said with a half-smile. He had known Sarah since his first days aboard the Scorpio. He thought they were friends, but now she was Fleet Intelligence. She was now as cold as any agent Jack had encountered.

Sarah laid a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I’m an intelligence agent, Jack. It’s difficult to have friends now. But you can rely on me. We will always be friends, but I might have to send you on a dangerous mission one day. We need to keep it professional.”

“A dangerous mission?” Jack said with a smile. “You mean more dangerous than this?”

Sarah marched Jack toward the exit. She called out to the enforcer guarding the door, who stepped in.

“Escort Major Forge to the Marine hangar and his tac boat.”

Jack had lost many friends, and now it seemed he had lost another.

“Thank you, Agent Reyes. I will not let you down. “

Former Agent Mallet watched through the micro drone she had hidden aboard the Scepter as Jack Forge climbed aboard a tac boat. She had followed him closely, waiting for her chance, and now she had him in her sights. She would finally get to kill Jack Forge.

As the tac boat lifted off and drifted out of the doors into the space filled with the weapons fire, Mallet made her move.

Mallet dropped from her hiding place high on the side of the hangar deck. She rushed across to the single Blade fighter being rearmed to be returned to the fight. She dropped the pilot with an electron blade to the back of the neck, and then she slashed the throat of the engineer who was closing up a conduit cover.

“Thank you for getting a ship ready for me,” Mallet said, stepping over the body as she climbed up into the cockpit. She sent her cloned security codes to the Scepter command deck and gave herself clearance to leave.

Mallet had been one of the best agents in the fleet. If they had just given her Forge, a disposable Marine major brought up through the ranks, they would not have turned her into an enemy.

She would have her revenge on Jack Forge now.

Jack raced away from the Scepter. A squadron of Blades fell in on his position.

“We are the Blades,” the lead Blade came over Jack’s flight deck holostage. “We have orders to see you safely out of the protoplanetary disk. Kick up to full speed and watch out for those flying rocks. You leave the Skalidions to us. Blades out.”

Jack hit the main drive and flung the tac boat out from the blue star into the swirling chaotic mass of rocks, dust, and Skalidion fighters and fleet ordnance. He sent the tac boat on the heading that had been preprogrammed into the flight system.

The flight console was lit green. Every system was operating at peak efficiency. Jack had no weapons, he noticed. All he had was his sidearm—the Fleet Marine pulse pistol strapped to the hip holster of his tactical suit.

Racing away from the battle raging below him and heading toward the location of the nest asteroid, the Blades left without a word, leaving Jack racing across interstellar space.

At full speed, Jack closed in on the nest location faster than expected. Jack checked the active scanners for the asteroid, but what he located was a swarm of Skalidion fighters surrounding it. The swarm queen had not left herself defenseless. Jack cut the main drive and continued toward his target on stealth approach. The tac boat was dark and silent. He closed in toward the nest asteroid.

Climbing out of his chair, Jack moved to the back. The small passenger area designed to carry a squad of Marines was now dominated by the single combat drone. The long, black torpedo with its own onboard drive system and targeting system easily filled the compartment. Jack grabbed the backpack Reyes had given him and looked for a suitable spot to attach the matter transport device.

And then the tac boat bucked violently. Jack was thrown forward, a collision alarm sounding from the flight deck. He grabbed the backpack and hooked it over his shoulder, walking back to the flight deck.

The Skalidions must have found me, he thought.

Checking the passive scanners for the attacker, the boat bucked again. Jack rocked in his seat. He slipped his arms through the matter transport backpack and held it over his chest to save it from being lost as the boat was thrown about. He checked where the fire was coming from…

…and saw a single Blade.

And then Jack saw fighters from the defense swarm stream across space toward him.

A message appeared on the flight deck holostage.

“I know you can hear me, Jack. This is Mallet. You killed Stone. You’ve killed so many. But you won’t kill again. The Skalidions will take care of you now. I gave everything to destroy you, Jack.”

Jack stared at the holostage and the image of the former Special Agent Mallet. Jack couldn’t believe she was here now.

Jack checked his proximity to the nest asteroid. He was still too far out for the device to send the drone to the nest. Jack knew there was only one way he could deliver the combat drone now.

He set a collision course.

He made ready to kick up the main drive, to break his covert advance and to go racing toward the asteroid where he would deliver his deadly payload.

The tac boat rocked again. This time, Jack knew it was not fire from Mallet’s ship. Something had hit the tac boat. And then the screeching and the tearing echoed around the ship. Jack looked up and saw the hull being torn apart. Looking down from the dark space above was a Skalidion drone, fine strands reaching for Jack. It pulled him out and raced toward the nest asteroid.

Jack struggled against his hands clamped at his sides. He tried to grab his pistol off his hip, but he was stuck. The nest asteroid was growing ever closer. He looked back at his tac boat as it was torn apart by a group of Skalidion builder drones.

If the builders tried to devour the combat drone, it would be destroyed. But he was still too far out for it to destroy the nest asteroid. Jack had failed. He had been captured. Jack could only guess what was coming next.

13

Jack was carried into the nest asteroid through a tunnel on the outside of the dark surface. The lights on his helmet lit the way. Small Skalidions scuttled aside as Jack was carried into the interior.

The tunnel opened out into a vast internal chamber. And within that chamber stood the single largest Skalidion Jack had ever seen. It was almost the size of a corvette. A huge head was ringed by a hard bone crown, many arms protruded from the huge central portion of the queen’s body, and a vast bulbous abdomen with a slime-covered tube protruding from the end deposited small, black, glistening globes to the floor that were carried away by small scuttling creatures.

Jack was released and floated freely in the inner chamber. He drifted toward the large face of the massive Skalidion Swarm Queen.

Dark eyes dominated the large head. A huge rasping mouth that was larger than a person dripped with thick slime. Jack twisted and reached for his pulse pistol. As he turned, he saw another person drifting in the chamber beside him. They were dressed in black enforcer uniform, and Jack knew it was Mallet.

A channel opened on Jack’s communicator.

“They may have captured me too,” Mallet said, “but it least I’ll get to see you die.”

Jack twisted and grabbed his pulse pistol. Mallet collided with him and wrestled for it. She punched him hard in the helmet, using her wrist thrusters to add weight to the blow.

An arm with many fine, fibrous fingers reached out from the huge queen and gripped Mallet around the chest. She was tugged away from Jack toward the queen. The pulse pistol was wrenched from Jack’s hand and now floated away from him. Jack activated his thrusters and moved toward the weapon.

With the channel still open from Mallet’s suit, Jack heard her laughing manically as she was drawn ever closer to the huge rasping mouth of the Skalidion queen. The crushing of her bones silenced her laughter and brought on a brief shriek of pain. Jack reached out and grabbed the pistol as he saw the fleshy parts of the former agent erupt from the tactical suit only to be sucked up by a number of feeding tubes that reached out from the Skalidion queen’s mouth.

Jack reached for the pulse pistol and took hold of it with fingertips just before he was grabbed by the dark fibrous fingers of the swarm queen. She drew him in. The large rasping mouth grew ever larger in his vision. With his arms pinned at his sides, he could not bring up the pistol to take aim at the Skalidion, but Jack was not sure how much damage a pulse round would do to her anyway. However, within reach of his other hand, strapped to his hip, was the matter transport activation unit. On his chest, he had the matter transport device. Jack thought fast. And acted even faster.

With the targeting and transmission device in his right hand, Jack estimated the distance to the swarm queen. He input the coordinates and activated the device on his back.

Jack had traveled using the Devex matter transport device before and the sensation was even more disorientating this time. Light seemed to flood his senses. He could feel spacetime expand and contract around him and through him.

And then Jack dematerialized. He felt the tight grip of the queen disappear. And then Jack re-materialized. He could not see, and he felt pressure on all sides. Jack knew he was inside the Skalidion.

The warm, slimy, internal mass of the queen gripped him in tight slick. He moved his arm through the thick slime and internal structures. Blinded by the material all around, Jack operated on touch alone. He brought the pulse pistol close to him, still gripping it with his fingertips alone, pulling it through the slimy mass. And finally, with the pulse pistol gripped firmly in his hand, Jack activated the electron bayonet.

The white blade shone through the dark slime surrounding him, and he moved the blade little by little this way and that. He quickly freed up a cavity and was able to move more freely, then he began to slash away—left and right, up and down, moving all around, cutting through the thick slime until it became a thin liquid. Then Jack came to a hard edge.

The exoskeleton.

Jack thrust the blade forward and it burst out of the queen’s thorax. Jack sliced upward, downward, and cut an exit. With his suit’s thrusters burning, boiling the slime and liquid behind him, Jack burst out of the Skalidion.

The swarm queen thrashed violently. Jack brought his pulse pistol up and took aim at a small drone coming toward him. Jack realized the small Skalidion was tumbling, its legs thrashing uselessly, and it mirrored the frantic actions of its mortally-wounded queen.

Jack turned and saw the queen collapse to the side of the central chamber. Dark red slime oozed out of the opening Jack had cut through her thorax. All around, the Skalidion drones were helpless. Jack looked again at the queen. Her arms were thrashing but less violently now, and she tore at the opening in her thorax. She gripped the drone and pressed it into her rasping mouth. Blood from Mallet was still smeared over her face.

Taking aim, Jack fired a round into the huge mouth. The pulse rounds slammed into the hard teeth, smashing them into fragments. Jack moved in closer, as close as he dared. The thrashing queen was slowing but still moving. Jack unclipped the pistol’s powerpack and set it to overload. He raced toward the massive head of the Skalidion queen and pressed the pack into her face. And then, kicking up his suit’s thrusters, Jack raced across the vast internal chamber of the nest asteroid. Skalidion drones floated around helplessly, uselessly, and Jack made his way to the access tunnel that had brought him into this terrible place.

As Jack raced down the dark tunnel, he felt the rumbling of the detonation. Bursting out into space with fire, slime, and Skalidion body parts racing after him, Jack found himself alone in the dark. The defensive fighter swarm that had been surrounding the nest asteroid drifted aimlessly. None approached Jack. Their bright green outer hulls dimmed and lost color by the moment.

Jack opened a communication channel and sent a message to the fleet. A simple message.

The Skalidion Swarm Queen was dead.

14

Jack woke up in the familiar surroundings of the Scorpio’s med-bay. He had spent far too long in this facility, but here he was again.

“At least you’re alive, Jack,” Sam said. His old friend patted him heavily on the shoulder.

Jack winced as Sam touched him. He looked at the bruises from shoulder to elbow on both arms where the queen had gripped him.

“Yeah, and in enough pain to know it.” Jack sat up on the bunk. A med-drone rolled over and pressed Jack back down.

Sam grabbed the drone with his Mech arm and held it back. “Don’t touch him, drone. That is Jack Forge there, hero of the fleet. If it wasn’t for him, we’d all be dead. If he wants to sit up, he can kravin well sit up.”

Jack sat up and pulled the various probes off his body, dropping them onto the small unit next to his bunk. He felt strong enough to walk, and he’d spent enough time in the med-bay.

With his pants on and still pulling on his jacket, Jack walked out of the bay toward the command deck. As he walked along the corridor, Sam at his side, he received salutes, applause, and cheers from the crew and officers that passed.

Stepping onto the command deck to applause, Jack held up his hands to call for quiet. He did not like the attention. He had only been doing his job.

“You are supposed to be in the med-bay, Major,” Captain Pretorius said, climbing down from his command chair. “Do you need me to suggest to the admiral that we submit you for a court martial for disobeying medical orders?” Captain Pretorius stepped up to Jack, his hand held out for a handshake.

Jack took the captain’s hand and shook it warmly. He looked over at the holostage. Only an image of the Scorpio appeared there. The commander put a hand on Jack’s shoulder and walked toward the holostage. Pretorius gestured at it and looked at Jack.

“This is where we are, Jack,” Pretorius said. “In the middle of nowhere. We have entered the interstellar void. Navigation estimates it will take several months to cross. No stars, no planets, no Devex, and certainly no Skalidion. We estimate there to be a rich region of space on the other side, though. We’re certain to find a new home. I know you don’t want to hear it, Jack, but it’s all thanks to you.”

Jack looked at the holostage. Commander Chou smiled back and then zoomed out to show the fleet, the entire fleet, military and civilian. Hundreds of ships all being escorted by the three destroyers, the single carrier, and dozens of corvettes and frigates. All making for the far side of the interstellar void. They seemed to hang in empty space, drive systems powering them across the empty region.

“So,” Pretorius continued, turning Jack away from the holostage and marching him off the command deck, “will you return to the med bay, Major, or do I have to order you?”

“Thank you, Captain, but I’d like to return to my quarters for now. I don’t think I’ll be taking orders from you now, with the greatest of respect, but I think my days as a Marine are over. My intention is to resign my position. I’m leaving the Marines.”

Pretorius stopped and looked at Jack. He nodded, tugged his cuffs, and placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“No one has done more than you, Jack. If anyone deserves to give up their position, it’s you. You should be able to retire, and once we get to our new home, you should be able to live anywhere you like, and live a long and happy life in peace. But I won’t accept your resignation. The admiral won’t accept your resignation. You are a Marine, Jack. And when we get to the other side of this interstellar void, we will have a whole new set of challenges. Someone of your ability is going to be required to give his service. I’m sorry, Jack, but you won’t be leaving us. As it stands, I can order you. I order you to take a vacation. We are all alone out here, so you can be sure you won’t be disturbed. I’ll inform the admiral that Major Forge is on leave.”

Pretorius marched Jack off the deck and left him at the door. He patted him heavily on the back and sent him on his way.

Jack walked down the corridor, his eyes fixed on the deck plates in front of him and Sam Torent at his side.

“I hear some former swerveball players have set up a mini league. They’re playing a match at the end of red watch over on one of the civilian transports in the central arena. You want to go?”

Jack kept looking at the deck. “You got tickets?”

Sam laughed hard and hit Jack hard on the back. “Tickets?” Sam laughed again. “I don’t think you are going to need a ticket, Jack. But I might.?”

Jack looked up at Sam.

“Guess I’m on vacation.” He shrugged. “I can’t think of a better way to start a break than going to watch a game. Do you think we could have a few sips of Amber while we are there?”

“A few sips?” Sam said, laughing and hitting Jack again. “A few bottles maybe? A few cases even!”

Jack was still feeling a little worse for wear. A sip would be more than enough. A short break could be good, and a couple of tickets to the game with his friend for company would be the best.

“Sure,” Jack said. “Let’s make the most of being a hero while we can. Guess we will be back to normal soon enough. Now who do I have to talk to for some halfway line tickets?”

And as Jack walked through the familiar corridors of the Scorpio, with his old friend at his side and free time ahead of him, he felt like he was moving into new and unfamiliar territory.

Whatever lay on the far side of the interstellar void, Jack knew he wouldn’t face it alone, but he would face it soon.

Enemy Within

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 7

1

“Listen up, Recruits!” Jack Forge walked along the line of raw Marines ready for their first active training session. “We’ve done everything to make this as brutal as the real thing. The central arena on this civilian transport has been fully kitted out according to the specifications of the Marine training moons in the old system. With your tactical suit’s VR systems booted up, it is going to look, feel, and smell just like the real thing. And if you recruits are going to stand a chance of getting out of a real firefight with all your limbs intact, then you will take this training seriously.”

Jack turned at the end of the line and looked back at his half-dozen recruits drawn from across the civilian fleet. Most seemed too young to be here, but one or two seemed too old. The enhanced data view on Jack’s visor showed him the vital signs of each of his new recruits. The younger ones were showing heightened pulse and breathing rates. They looked nervous, or it might just have been excitement. Either way, these youngsters were too emotional. In a battlefield situation, they would have to be calm, and if they were going to remain calm in combat, Jack knew that training was the key.

Two of the oldest recruits were former cops who had previously joined Jack’s militia in the defense of a civilian transport. Operating as part of a military force instead of a civilian force was a completely different prospect, but obviously something they wanted to pursue. Given their experience, however limited, and their enthusiasm, Jack felt it was worth giving them a shot. Who said Marine trainees had to be young?

“In my time with the Fleet Marine Service, I have faced off against some of the deadliest enemies ever encountered, but today, we are going to train against one of the most brutal, aggressive, and devious enemies we are ever likely to face. If you can come through this training, you will be ready to meet anything the Fleet Marine Service will ever be asked to deal with. Today, Recruits, we will be going into battle against one of the toughest Marines ever to pull on a tactical suit. We will face Commander Sam Torent. If you have a chance to take him down before any of his squad, then do it. If you corner him, you better finish him quick.”

Jack turned and walked back along the line of recruits. He imagined Sam was doing the same thing on the other side of the central arena, preparing his squad of six recruits for a training session. Training against each other rather than some VR opponent was going to be more useful than preprogrammed scenarios. Even programming the holographic projections with images of Chitin soldiers, Devex warriors, Skalidion fighters, or any of the other enemies the Marines had faced would not present the challenge of engaging a living, thinking enemy.

And Jack could not think of any Marine who would provide Jack and his trainees with a greater challenge than his old friend Sam Torent. Sam was a seasoned Marine, a veteran of dozens of critical battles. He had fought overwhelming enemies on every conceivable terrain, and he had won.

Jack knew Sam was determined to win against his old friend, and Jack was determined to give Sam the fight of his life.

“Your pulse rifles are all equipped with training power packs. With your tactical suit stability field tuned to the same power range, you will not suffer any injury, but this is not playtime, people. If you get hit, you will know about it. The tactical suit’s onboard medical packs have been disabled so you won’t be able to blot out the pain using any medication. Use that fear of pain, but don’t let it overwhelm you. Keep your thinking clear and your moves sharp. Listen for my commands and do exactly as I say when I say.”

Jack stepped in front of the line of recruits. He swung his pulse rifle off his shoulder and held it across his chest. Sending an access code to the central arena, Jack activated the training program. The three-hundred-sixty-degree field was ready to become a battlefield on some distant asteroid. Jack’s team was ready to take on Sam Torent.

“On me, Marines. Move.”

Jack turned and ran toward the double-doors in front of him. The door slid open, and Jack had his first glimpse of the battlefield.

The training field Jack and Sam had agreed upon was a dense asteroid cluster. The simulation VR had been enabled to generate the asteroid field independently so neither Sam nor Jack had any knowledge of the terrain other than its basic nature.

Stepping into the arena, Jack felt gravity drop away. He zoned in on the nearest gravity well, a simulated asteroid laying ten meters from his entrance. Jack dropped to the asteroid. His training squad landed clumsily around him, one youngster rolling over to his left to land heavily on his side. Immediately, the boy clutched his ankle and yelled in pain.

Checking the medical readout on his enhanced data view Jack could see the recruit had torn a ligament. Only one maneuver into his training and already he had a casualty.

“You, Recruit,” Jack said, pointing at the injured recruit, “hold position. You will cover us from this asteroid while we advance.”

“It hurts. I surrender. Get me out of here.”

“You surrender again, Recruit, and I’ll shoot you myself. You are injured, it will hurt, but you are going to be Marine and cover my squad. Do you get me, Recruit?”

“Sir. Yes, sir,” the Marine said, clutching his ankle and wincing in pain.

“Let go of your ankle and take up your pulse rifle. You are not going to provide cover to anything by rolling around in agony. Rifle. Now.”

Jack knew he could not do the recruits any favors at this stage. Although volunteers, they had signed up for a mandatory training term and were required to complete it. Jack was not about to let one of his recruits abandon the program on the first day of combat training. They might not have earned their stripes yet, but they were no longer civilians either.

Jack saw the flash of a pulse rifle out of the corner of his eye. Instinct fired his response, and he rolled into the cover of a shallow crater on the asteroid’s surface just to his right, calling out orders as he moved.

“Take cover. Attack coming in one o’clock high.” Jack swung up his pulse rifle and took aim. “Return fire.”

The stream of pulse rounds came across the dark from one small asteroid high above Jack. The weapons fire slammed into the asteroid’s surface around his squad. The dust thrown up by the impacts looked so real. Even the way it hung in the low gravity around the asteroid looked authentic.

The yelp of pain from a second of Jack’s recruits was also entirely authentic as a pulse round slammed into his right shoulder. The recruit dropped his pulse rifle and squirmed in the dust, yelling for the training to stop.

Jack picked the target on the asteroid where the attack was coming from and laid down a stream of return fire.

“Pick up your rifle, Recruit,” Jack said, letting off another burst of pulse rounds. “Your left arm still works, doesn’t it?”

He was satisfied to see the recruits who were still standing join him in laying down a barrage of fire against the enemy still hiding somewhere on the asteroid above them. Jack zoomed in with his tactical suit to try and identify any of the attacking recruits. Flashes of pulse fire was all he could see, but the shadows cast over the asteroid’s surface showed him the location just on the edge of the asteroid horizon, behind a low ridge.

Moving quickly from his shallow crater, Jack moved to his left. He fired up his thrusters and roared across the asteroid’s surface, mere meters above its dusty surface.

“Hold position and lay down fire on that location.” Jack sent the target location coordinates to the group enhanced data view. “Keep your heads down and stay in cover.”

Jack raced across the surface of the tiny asteroid to the far side. He scanned for another asteroid to give him cover from their attackers. He spotted the best possible cover location and made ready to launch himself across the open space to that point where he could lay down crossfire on the attack and start to build his counterattack, but just as he was about to leap into the empty space between the asteroids and take up position, he saw a group of three attacking recruits racing toward him from that same location.

Falling back, Jack opened fire. The pulse rounds raced across the emptiness toward the distant targets moving in at pace. His shots found their marks. Jack landed a chest hit on each attacking Marine.

But the Marines had already opened fire, and Jack found himself twisting as pulse rounds raced past him and slammed into the asteroid beneath him. The Marines he had just fired on were still falling, even though he knew they would be in agony from the pulse rounds he had landed on them.

With a huge amount of admiration, Jack saw one recruit raise his pulse rifle against the pain and take careful aim on Jack. This recruit was totally Marine. He was carrying on the fight despite his obvious discomfort.

Jack reached out to the asteroid with his onboard gravity field and pulled himself into the gravity well even faster, accelerating to several points beyond standard gravity. And then, activating his thrusters at ninety degrees, he skirted across the asteroid, racing towards the horizon where he could take cover from the three recruits falling toward him. Jack twisted as he raced forward and took careful aim on the three falling Marines. He delivered a stream of pulse rounds and took them out of the fight for good.

Landing heavily on the dusty surface, Jack reset his onboard gravity and reversed the thrusters to slow him down. He skidded sideways across the asteroid, his feet throwing up dust and pebbles as he came to a halt. That was when he saw another group of the attacking recruits land on the asteroid, Sam in the center.

Jack’s squad turned to run and took pulse rounds in the back for their trouble. Now they were writhing on the ground in agony as Sam Torent and his group closed in.

Jack ducked for cover as the attacking Marines turned their rifles on him. As he flew, he pulled a pulse grenade off his right hip, flipped the primer with his thumb, and tossed it directly toward the group of Sam’s trainees. He landed on his left shoulder and rolled, bringing his pulse rifle back to his hands and laying down a stream of fire.

With the pulse grenade still tumbling slowly across the asteroid, the attacking recruits leapt away. The grenade detonated, sending out a sparkling silver sphere that caught all but one of the Marines.

Jack knew that Marine was Sam Torent.

With the blast wave settling, Sam Torent raced back in. He grabbed one of his stricken recruits and held the recruit in front of him like a shield. Sam rested his pulse rifle on the right shoulder of the recruit who had been caught in the grenade blast, the recruit quivering with the pain of the blast.

Sam opened fire.

Jack opened a channel to Sam. All recruits were out of the fight. Only the two officers left.

“That’s it, Sam. Training over.”

Torent raced in, pouring weapons fire at Jack. Jack took cover behind a small boulder, his back to the boulder and rifle close to his chest.

The med data from Jack’s recruit squad showed him pulse rounds hitting each of the recruits who had already taken hits.

“Stand down, Sam,” Jack said. He stood up from behind the boulder and saw Sam walking towards his stricken Marine recruits. He’d slung his pulse rifle over his shoulder and had drawn his pistol. He fired a round at each of the stricken Marines as he walked across the asteroid, dust kicking up in his wake. He moved in towards the Marine with the twisted ankle, the young recruit’s pulse rifle pointed but poorly aimed.

Jack walked across the asteroid, slinging his rifle as he did.

“I said stand down, Sam,” Jack said.

Checking his enhanced data view and tapping into Sam’s feed, Jack could see his old friend was wrapped in bloodlust. He advanced on the Marine recruit with the twisted ankle. The recruit tossed his rifle and was holding his hands up in front of him, begging for Sam to stop.

“They ain’t going to learn nothing, Jack, if you wrap them up in baby blankets.” Sam took aim at the injured recruit, pointing his pulse pistol directly into the recruit’s faceplate.

Jack fired up his suit’s thrusters and launched himself across the asteroid. He grabbed Sam’s pulse pistol a moment after Sam had fired a round at point-blank range. Jack tried to rip the pistol away from Sam’s grip.

Sam let the pistol go, and Jack staggered back as the pistol was suddenly released. He regained his footing, dropped the pistol, and walked back towards Sam.

“I said the training was over!” Jack shouted.

“Well, I think it’s only just beginning.” Sam stepped forward, squaring up to Jack.

Jack felt his usual cool, calm manner failing. His pulse quickened and his blood ran hot as he realized Sam Torent was challenging his authority directly in front of the recruits. He saw the slight movement of Sam clenching his fist. Jack bunched his fists and stood lightly on the balls of his feet, his left shoulder forward, his right arm ready to swing.

The sudden flickering of the asteroid beneath Jack’s feet did little to distract him at first, but then the flickering intensified until the VR simulation ended and the image vanished completely. Jack found himself floating in the center of the empty arena, slowly drifting toward the edge under the new gravity field. The lights came up in the central arena, lighting rigs, seating areas, exit signs and directions to all facilities suddenly looking strange after having been so immersed in the simulation.

Sam and Jack landed lightly on the outer edge of the arena, the recruits landing nearby. Jack deactivated the simulation protocols from the squad’s tactical suits. He administered light pain relief to the recruit with the twisted ankle. All other pain from the pulse rounds was merely simulated and it fell away the moment Jack canceled the protocols.

Standing in front of Sam, Jack pulled off his tactical suit helmet and held it lightly at his side. Sam pulled off his helmet, a fierce glare in his eyes.

“Square away these recruits, Commander,” Jack said. “Get them back to their training barracks and replay the training simulation. I want tactical awareness reports from every recruit, and I want your report too, Commander. I want to know how we can improve training.”

Sam Torent stared at Jack, but after a moment, his stare softened slightly.

“Yes, sir,” Sam said.

“And get that recruit to the med bay. He has a torn ligament. Get him patched up and back in the line, okay, Sam?”

He nodded.

Jack turned to talk to the Marine recruits from both squads now assembled on the edge of the arena, all resting and chatting amicably.

“Training will continue at the top of the next watch. I’m going to find out why this session was canceled prematurely.” Jack turned to Sam. “Walk with me, Commander.”

Once Jack was sure he was out of earshot of the recruits, he stopped and turned to Sam.

“I am going to run this training program,” Jack said, “but I need your support. Do you have a problem with that, Sam?”

“You were too soft on them, Jack,” Sam said. “If they are going to be at all Marine, you can’t hold their hands. Throw them in and throw them hard. Remember our training? It worked for us, didn’t it?”

“Our training is not a good example, Sam,” Jack said. “As I recall, it was just about getting us to the front line as quickly as possible, and between the drill sergeant tasering us and taking a flogging or two, I’m surprised any of us lived to actually fight at all. I’m not doing it that way. These are volunteers. We were pressed into service against our will. They needed to threaten and beat us into shape, but I want to train these recruits to be useful Marines, not just cannon fodder. We need them to be tactically aware, not just able to rush at an enemy because they are more afraid of what is behind them than what is in front of them. Copy?”

Sam nodded and glanced at his boots.

“Get them some rations, some rest, and get them ready for training. We go again next watch. I’m going to speak to the colonel about this training session getting canceled.”

Jack exited the central arena. He walked through the civilian corridors towards the civilian transport’s docking bay and his tac boat. From a simulated battlefield to a very real battle with the colonel, Jack knew without a doubt which was worse.

2

Marine Colonel Snipe was sitting behind his desk, a VR headset on. Jack waited for the colonel to acknowledge him. Snipe swung lazily in his seat, his head turning this way and that, watching the VR images being transmitted directly into his eyes.

Jack cleared his throat to catch the colonel’s attention. Snipe swiveled around to sit at his desk, tearing off the headset. He looked up and saw it was Jack. His gaze hardened noticeably. Jack realized he had startled the colonel, and the colonel had thought it might be one of his superiors when it turned out to be one of his juniors.

“What is it, Jack?” Snipe said, tucking the VR headset into one of his desk drawers. “Stand before me at attention.” Snipe pointed, his tone changing.

Jack came to attention and waited to speak. Snipe settled back in his chair. “At ease, Major,” Snipe said finally, twisting gently in his seat. “What can I do for you?”

“Sir,” Jack said, “My training program on the civilian transport central arena was canceled. The civilian authorities didn’t have the authority to cancel my session. I wanted to ask the colonel if you knew why training was canceled.”

Snipe tucked his hands behind his head and clicked his tongue. “Take a seat, Jack,” he finally said, indicating the chair opposite him with a casual wave of his hand. “So, you’ve been training the recruits?”

Jack nodded, a little surprised that the colonel wasn’t taking a keener interest in rebuilding the Marine Service.

“Yes, sir,” Jack said. “We currently have one dozen volunteers for Marine Service training. I’ve been working on the training program since we entered the stellar void. It seems like a good opportunity to rebuild the force.”

Snipe tucked his hands behind his head and looked up to the ceiling of his small office aboard the flagship Scepter. The massive carrier lay at the center of the fleet. From here, surveillance patrols were being launched regularly, flying tac boats at an astro unit distance away from the civilian transports that clustered around the carrier. The civilian pilots were getting better at close-formation flying, but even after several months in the stellar void, they were still not as good as the worst military pilot.

The destroyers held position on the outer edge of the vast fleet. There were few military warships to escort almost a hundred massive civilian craft, but the fleet had got the civilian ships this far. Their job would not be done until landfall on a habitable planet that all were hoping to find on the far side of the void.

“It’s a question of prioritizing resources, Jack,” Snipe said. “We have thousands of civilians on every transport and they all have their own demands on the energy usage. Until we get across this empty region of space, we are not going to be able to replenish our energy supplies. We all have to make sacrifices, Jack. I know you are keen on your little training program, but you have to understand that other things might have to be put before your pet project.”

Jack bit his tongue. Pet project? Jack was attempting to rebuild the Marine Service while they had time. In the weeks that had passed since entering the void, they’d had no contact with any alien vessel. Even the Mech ships that had followed them into the void had finally disappeared. Their occasional appearance on the edge of sensor range had become a familiar sight to all the fleet vessels, but they had never shown any signs of aggression and had simply been noted and largely ignored. Now they had finally gone, and the fleet was utterly alone.

With the Skalidion threat firmly behind them and little more to do than watch the blackness, Jack had suggested the Marines be given the opportunity to rebuild. At a meeting with the general and the colonel of the Scepter battalion, and the majors of the three destroyers’ battalions, it had been agreed that Jack would lead the training program.

Only volunteers would be allowed, and Jack would be limited to training on one of the civilian transport’s central arenas. It was never going to be enough to provide the full range of training that Jack felt a group of new recruits needed, but it would have to do. With the call for Marine volunteers having largely been ignored by the civilian population, Jack had created the three training squads each of a dozen men. The first squad was nearing the end of its first week of induction and training. Soon, Jack would be bringing the second squad into the arena for their live training.

“I’ve got one squad with half a training session under their belts. I’ve got my second training squad ready to start in a couple of days—”

“No,” Snipe said, rotating gently. “I’ve canceled the other volunteer groups. I’ve put them on hold for the time being.”

“What… Sir?” Jack felt stunned by this unexpected news. “Why?”

“I will let you train the group of volunteers that have already started the training. I think it will be good for you to have something to do, Major Forge. But as I said, it’s a question of resources, and we just don’t have the resources for a full training program.”

“We don’t have enough Marines to provide an effective force,” Jack argued, using the same line that had won over the general. “We have to rebuild the service.”

Snipe stood up. “When you speak to a senior officer, you say sir. Is that clear, Jack?”

“Yes, sir,” Jack said. He stood up and came to attention. “I’d like the general to decide on my training program, sir.”

Snipe leaned on his desk. “I will decide, Jack. I will discuss it with the general, and you will be informed what the service intends to do about recruit training. Is that clear, Major Forge?”

“Yes, sir,” Jack said.

This is absurd, Jack thought. The Fleet Marine service had kept the fleet safe on numerous occasions. They had fought off alien boarding parties and they had projected the fleet’s power onto enemy territory. With every engagement, the Marines had secured the safety of the fleet, and none of it had come without the cost of Marine lives. The service was near to collapse. Jack’s own battalion, once over four hundred strong, was now reduced to a handful of squads. Jack and Sam were the highest-ranking officers on any of the destroyers. The battalions on the other two destroyers were similarly low on numbers and were under the command of company commanders and a handful of squad leaders.

This was not the service Jack knew it needed to be. Once the fleet cleared the stellar void, the civilian population would have to set down on the first habitable planet they found. There would be danger there, no doubt, if it was a living world, which it needed to be if the civilian population had any chance of survival.

There was any number of reasons why the Fleet Marine Service needed to be in good health. Colonel Snipe was ignoring any and all of these reasons.

“I will take your concerns to the general. I’ll also be telling him that we don’t need a Marine Service at an increased strength. I will recommend we reduce our numbers somewhat. We have new technologies coming online from the Fleet Intelligence Sci Division. The Devex matter transport devices are currently being produced that will enable a squad to move from one ship to another virtually instantaneously. This and other reasons mean we can reduce our numbers and still remain effective. But these decisions are above your level, Major. You are not in command of the entire service. You are a frontline officer, Jack—a good officer, and I don’t want to lose you, but if you don’t toe the line, I will suggest to the general that you are redeployed in a less prominent role. I mean demotion. Is that clear?”

Jack felt a twinge that he’d never felt before. He had never wanted to be a Marine. He had never wanted to be a squad leader or an officer, but after one engagement after another, Jack had won victory for the service and the fleet, and he had been rewarded with military honors and promotions. Although he’d never wanted it, the thought that it could now be taken away, particularly when he was trying to do the right thing, made him feel like he was being treated unfairly.

“Dismissed, Major,” Snipe said, sitting back in his chair and pulling his desk drawer open, his hand reaching for the VR headset.

Jack hesitated, desperately searching for something to say to the colonel that would change his mind.

“Dismissed,” Snipe said again and pointed to his office door. “And next time you want to see me, make an appointment. Don’t just burst into my office.”

Jack turned and marched out of Snipe’s office, the door sliding shut behind him. He turned to march down the corridor toward the landing strip where his tac boat was waiting. His pace slowed and he came to a halt, leaning against the wall.

The Scepter was quiet around the Marine wing where Colonel Snipe had his office. Its battalion, although usually only one company strong, was itself at a reduced level. The Scepter battalion was purely for ship defense and security. It was the job of the destroyer battalions to project Marine power beyond the fleet. But as Jack looked around at the Marine wing, he could tell this unit was hardly functioning.

When Jack was on board the Scorpio, he had his Marines posted and relieved on every watch. Although numbers were low, there was still a pair of Marines on guard outside the Scorpio’s command deck, another outside the main entrance to the drive section, and two more groups patrolling the main corridors on the upper and lower levels.

Since Jack had been on board the Scepter, the only Marine he had seen was Colonel Snipe, sitting behind a desk playing VR simulations on his headset.

Jack was going to discuss this with the general. Even though the fleet was adrift in a vast stellar void, lightyears from any planet or star system, the Marine Service should still be on duty.

Colonel Snipe was ignoring his duty to the service. Jack Forge would not.

3

The nest asteroid drifted through space, the deactivated swarm floating around the old nest, fragments of a once-great swarm now leaderless and inert.

As the neighboring swarm queen sent her observer caste in for a closer look, she saw the opportunity. Skalidion Swarm Queens were always looking for opportunity.

Skoldra had watched Phisrid’s rapid expansion with a mixture of admiration and fear. Phisrid had grown her swarm more rapidly than any swarm queen before her. She looked on the verge of conquering neighboring Skalidion territory and even becoming Empress of the Skalidion Empire. If Phisrid had indeed expanded, then Skoldra’s territory would have been the first to be consumed. And Skoldra knew that when swarm queens fought, only one survived.

But then Phisrid’s swarm had fallen silent. Skoldra had redirected observers from her attack on local Devex systems to investigate this silence.

Skoldra’s observers came within the range of Phisrid’s nest asteroid. The swarm appeared more or less intact. Over half a million drones, most of them fighters, drifted in space. The gravity of the nest asteroid, bigger than Skoldra had even imagined, was drawing many of the nearest drones down to its surface. Many more hung across an astro unit of space.

Skoldra sent her observers in even closer. She suspected Phisrid was cunning, given how quickly she had managed to grow. This might be a ruse to draw a neighboring queen into an ambush.

Skoldra was curious. She was also highly suspicious. She had broken off her attack on the Devex to investigate her neighbors’ silence, and she had arranged her entire fighter swarm, two hundred and fifty thousand drones, in her screen in front of her. She came up behind, her nest asteroid moving slowly across space, matching the speed of her observers as they crept into Phisrid’s territory. If Phisrid decided to attack, then Skoldra’s two hundred and fifty thousand fighters would only hold her off for a short time. Skoldra was playing with fire, but her curiosity was too strong. She had to advance.

The observer drones reported back that Phisrid’s swarm energy output was at zero. The drones were not receiving orders through the pheromone field. With no instructions from the queen, they could not act. Their strings were cut.

Skoldra instructed a group of fighter drones to advance at speed and swoop deep into the seemingly sleeping swarm. A hundred fighters broke away from the center of her swarm and raced forward, their green drive trails lighting up the space behind them. The fighters passed the line of the observer drones and raced deep into Phisrid’s territory. Soon they came upon the outer sleeping drones, members of Phisrid’s fighter swarm hanging lifeless in space.

If Skoldra had advanced her fighters into the territory of any active swarm queen, this was the point where battle would ensue, but the fighters remained silent.

As she advanced her observers and sent her fighters swooping low over Phisrid’s nest, she realized the drones on the surface were unpowered. Skoldra, looking through the large black eyes of her observer drones, saw Skalidion nurse drones on the surface, larvae in their jaws not being placed into the spawn pods. Nurse drones were always the last to stop.

There was no power, no activity. There was only Phisrid’s deactivated swarm.

Skoldra advanced her nest asteroid dangerously close to the edge of Phisrid’s swarm. Even though all her observations told her that Phisrid was silent, most likely dead, Skoldra was still anxious. No Skalidion Swarm Queen should come so close to her neighbor and expect to live. Swarm queens did occasionally invade each other’s territory, but only if one had become so weak that the conquest was a formality and over in hours. If a queen had become so weak that her pheromone field instructions to her swarm were all but non-existent, only then could a neighboring queen overpower the pheromone field and take control of her neighbors’ swarm, hastening the end of the fallen queen.

But Phisrid’s swarm was massive. There was danger here even from what appeared to be a dead queen.

Skoldra advanced to the very edge of Phisrid’s swarm. Clambering out of her central chamber, Skoldra stood on the outer edge of her nest asteroid. She gripped her spawn pods with her hind legs and reached out into space with her forward arms. Her senses tingled as fear ran through her tissues, expecting an attack any moment. She reached out with her grappling arms and took hold of one of the sleeping swarm.

Reeling in the sleeping drone in a fraction of a second, Skoldra pressed herself to the surface of the nest asteroid and quickly shoved the drone to her mouth. She rasped away at the tough outer hull of the fighter and exposed the Skalidion drone within. She pulled the sleeping fighter out of its craft and held it tightly in her grip.

The fighter remained motionless. Skoldra scanned the entire sleeping swarm with her drones. This was her greatest piece of luck ever.

Skoldra gathered a pheromone paste in her mouth and pressed the sleeping fighter drone into the sticky mass. The pheromones signal seeped into the drone, and it wriggled to life. Skoldra held it tight, waiting for its response, and then the fighter fell still, but not sleeping—awaiting instructions.

Releasing the drone covered in her sticky pheromone ooze and pressing it to her nest asteroid, she fixed it in position. Skoldra scanned the sleeping swarm once again. She had them now. She directed her nest asteroid to greater speed. The nest accelerated slowly, and as she plowed through the swarms of sleeping fighters, she sent out her strongest pheromone field.

The sleeping swarm would wake and be hers.

Her existing fighter swarm swept in and surrounded her nest asteroid. As she moved through Phisrid’s sleeping swarm sending out the pheromone signal for them to arise, fighters from her own swarm escorted them far away from Phisrid’s asteroid by the thousands. Now that she had control of the new drones, Skoldra would not allow a sleeping queen to awake in an attempt to snatch them back. They were hers now. They were Skoldra’s swarm.

The nest asteroids came closer and closer. Gravity began to take effect and pulled them even faster. As she closed in, Skoldra marveled at the size of Phisrid’s nest. It was enormous. Almost the entire Devex Empire had been destroyed, and Phisrid seem to have acquired the lion’s share of the matter. Broken Devex ships, warriors, buildings, all now built the nest asteroid at the center of the swarm, an asteroid now the size of a small terrestrial planet. A self-powered rogue that should be marauding through the entire region consuming all.

So, why was Phisrid silent?

Skoldra reached out from the surface of the nest asteroid, her enormous forward arms gripping the surface of Phisrid’s. The swarm queen drew the two nests closer together until her nest, tiny by comparison, collided gently with the surface of the massive one. Skoldra moved quickly. She scurried across the surface to find a passage down to the central chamber. Nurse drones filled the nearest corridor. Skoldra pressed her way down into the passage and crushed the nurse drones against the sides as she pressed her way forward. She would have the fighters, she would have the observers, she would have the builders, but the nurse drones were all potential queens and all belonged to Phisrid. In a sense, they were all Phisrid. They would never submit to Skoldra’s pheromone field. They would all eventually die, if Skoldra could take control.

Reaching the central chamber, Skoldra felt the fear wash over her in huge pulsing waves. She could smell the swarm queen that lay within. She had never been this close to another since her mother had spawned her and sent her off in her own embryonic swarm asteroid. And she had naturally feared her mother. If she had been born an hour earlier, she would have been a nurse drone, doomed to ferry the larvae to their spawn pods, constantly in threat of being murdered by her mother at the slightest hint that the nurse would rise up and take over the nest, but she had been hatched as a sub-queen and sent off to expand the Skalidion Empire. And now here she was entering the central chamber of the greatest swarm queen in the entire region. She was on the verge of becoming swarm queen to the greatest swarm ever known.

And perched on the verge of such power, Skoldra felt so vulnerable. She was cautious, but curiosity had brought her here. It was too late to turn back. She dropped into the central chamber.

Phisrid’s huge body drifted through the central chamber, her thorax burst open and inner tissues leaking out and floating through the chamber in huge purple and green globules. Skoldra gripped the head of the dead queen and pressed her gripping arms against the sides, crushing the skull into a sticky pulp.

Skoldra cut the smashed skull of Phisrid off her body and drew it to her rasping mouthparts, and she feasted on the brain of a dead queen.

The taste was intense. Few swarm queens ever tasted the brain of another queen. Skoldra quivered, every limb and antenna twitching and shivering with the intense feelings of victory and power. The dead swarm queen drifted headless across the central chamber that had once been hers. Skoldra spat out thick blobs of pheromone paste and began to smear it over the corpse.

The builders from Skoldra’s swarm came scuttling down from her nest asteroid into the conquered territory and began to consume the dead queen’s body. All matter would be distributed to the double nest asteroid surface, growing the nest with the matter of her conquered enemies.

Skoldra summoned a thousand of her fighters. They abandoned their craft and dropped to the surface of the conquered nest. They scuttled across its surface, their handheld green fire weapons ready to obliterate every nurse drone they could find. The nurse drones would be completely removed before Skoldra would introduce her own nurse drone daughters to manage the swarm.

Skoldra sat on the body of Phisrid as her builders dismantled it. She sent out the pheromone field, the strongest she could muster, and all drones in the vicinity responded, their feedback down the pheromone field sending shivers of ecstasy through Skoldra’s quaking body.

The central chamber of the nest asteroid still held the strong stench of the dead queen. Skoldra deposited pheromone paste on every surface, spitting it from her spawn sacks in great gouts. And soon the inner chamber was sticky and stinking of Skoldra.

She was queen. She was the swarm queen of the greatest swarm ever. Her nurse drones from her own nest transferred across to the new asteroid and began to prepare the spawn pods for the next generation. The builders broke down the old queen and smeared her matter on the outer edge of the asteroid, subsuming her old nest into the new one. The new nest asteroid took on the appearance of a misshapen blob rather than the near-perfect sphere that all swarm queens aspired to. Soon, and with enough matter, the nest asteroid would become spherical again, with all new matter encasing both old and new nests to create the greatest nest asteroid for the largest swarm there ever was.

Now that she had the numbers, nothing could stand in her way. Skoldra analyzed the surrounding region. The greater Skalidion Empire lay behind her. On her left flank was her neighboring swarm queen, now dwarfed by Skoldra’s size. Skoldra calculated the chances of success should she invade her neighbor and seize another nest asteroid. Yes, she had the fighters, but she was fatigued from generating such a vast pheromone field to absorb the entire half-million inert drones. And only she could defeat the swarm queen at the center of the nest asteroid. Any fighters sent would be absorbed by the pheromone field. Only a swarm queen could advance and take the territory by killing an existing queen.

On Skoldra’s right flank were the fractured remains of the Devex Empire. Scattered star systems lay at her mercy. It would be easier to take down the remaining Devex systems one by one and consume their matter than to attack a neighboring queen. While she was resting, the Devex would fall. She would keep careful watch with her observer drones on the nearby queen and look for any opportunity to conquer. Taking the brain of Phisrid had made Skoldra bold, even if it had exhausted her almost to the point of collapse. It was exhausting to take even a dead queen’s territory. But now, Skoldra had the taste for conquest. Only by consuming swarm queens could she become empress, and now that had to be her goal.

As her fighters cleared out the last of the nurse drones and the entire swarm fell fully under her control, she accessed the memories of Phisrid through her observer caste.

And now Skoldra learned how the swarm queen had died. A creature had been brought here, small and insignificant. It had been brought before Phisrid, and it had killed her. The small, four-limbed, smooth-skinned creature, smaller than a nurse drone, had jumped inside Phisrid, and then cut its way out, bursting from the thorax. That such a tiny creature could kill a massive queen felt utterly wrong.

Skoldra searched through the memories of the observers for information on the creature.

Human.

Humans were rare, existing not on any home world in the region but in a collection of ships travelling on the edge of the Skalidion Empire. And now they were gone.

Then the builders sent Skoldra the memory of the taste.

Skoldra, already exhausted with conquest, fell even more into a stupor as the sensation of the taste of human filled her. It was extraordinary, irresistible, delicious.

Even the taste fed to her by the builders from another swarm was the greatest thing she had ever experienced, though her affinity with her own swarm was that much greater than the affinity with the new Skalidion under her control. She would have to taste human with her own builders. She would have to taste human with her own rasping mouth.

And this was how Phisrid had fallen. Determined to have the taste for herself, she had brought a human into her nest asteroid, into the central chamber, and allowed it to destroy her. Skoldra would not make the mistake Phisrid had. She would bring the humans naked and unarmed into her chamber, and then she would have the taste.

Skoldra sent fighters and observers immediately to the last-known location of the humans. Their collection of ships, insignificant next to the might of her massed swarm, had left the region. Their last-known heading was toward the stellar void. The Skalidion Empire would end at the edge of that stellar void, no star systems existed in that vast area, so there was no reason for any Skalidion swarm to enter.

Until now.

Skoldra sent her scouts. Observers and fighters, thousands of them, peeled off from her seven hundred and fifty thousand-strong swarm. She would find the humans. She would have the taste.

Skoldra settled onto the surface of the central nest chamber, gathering the brittle remains of the dismantled swarm queen around her—a nest within the nest built from the teeth and bones of the dead queen. Skoldra would sleep, but soon, she would wake. Soon, she would capture all the humans.

4

The lower decks of the civilian transport were filled with the overflow of humanity. Those who had escaped in the great evacuation but failed to secure a cabin, or had had their cabin taken from them, found themselves living in refugee camps that sprang up in the underbelly of the city-sized civilian transports. As Beretta walked through the crowded corridors of the lower decks, he imagined the other transports were in a similar state. People desperate to survive, scratching out a living on the lifeless interior of these transports.

Beretta stepped over a sleeping, or possibly dead, body in the crowded corridor. Eventually, a maintenance drone would make it to these corridors and clear away the detritus, but for now, the heaving crowds stepped around the prone body.

Curtains hung from the bulkhead, marking out a tent city. The homeless made their homes, or their businesses, where they could. An alcove here with a sheet hung from it became a family home, a recess there became a business, manufacturing the things the populace needed from any and all material scratched together.

With a steady supply of nutritious, tasteless ration blocks, no civilian was likely to go hungry, but people trapped in this dark underworld wanted more than just food. They needed escape. A roaring trade in backstreet narcotics created from basic chemicals was sold in tiny packets. Synthetic drugs were more expensive. A bottle of Amber would cost you a week’s hard scratch, or, if one chose to steal it, it could cost you your life. In the dark corridors, there was no law, only desire and despair.

Picking his way past one business to another, slowly making his way through the underworld, Beretta stopped to listen to a complaint from a business owner whose neighbor had stolen a small shelving unit for his own use. A square meter of space and the men would fight to the death over it, but before that happened, they would take it to Beretta.

Insisting that he would deal with the problem, Beretta walked on, whispering to one of his men to get the best price for the shelf area from either one of the two businessmen. Whoever paid most could keep it.

The cabins of the corridor in this area were designed to take families or groups of evacuees. They were basic with an energy output and a water delivery system. Now they were all occupied with Beretta’s businesses—bars selling engine room hooch, VR pods with illicit, homemade entertainment from murder to sex, or both, gambling on dice, cards, or bare-knuckle boxing… It was all here, and it had made Beretta rich.

The doorman controlling entrance to the fight club nodded at Beretta as he stepped up. He patted the big man on the shoulder as he stepped inside. Fighting was the most lucrative entertainment. It amused Beretta that people who were struggling so badly would get so much pleasure from watching two men batter each other, and that they would gamble their meager resources hoping to benefit by choosing the winner. Beretta had realized these people did not gamble to make money, they gambled to forget that they had none.

The bar built into the side of the fight club was stocked with everything from the dirtiest engine room hooch to bottles of Amber or White. Beretta shouted over the noise of people cheering on the latest fight and pointed to the bottle of Amber at the back of the bar. He held up his finger to indicate he would take a single shot. The young barmaid—no more than sixteen—gave Beretta a sultry glance and poured him the shot. She smiled as he took his drink.

The fight was a heavyweight match, and two enormous fighters covered in sweat, snot, and blood were slugging it out to raucous cheers. One fighter with shoulder-length hair and a broken nose swung a wild haymaker of a punch at the slightly larger bald man. The bald man was delivering a kick to his opponent’s left knee.

Beretta knocked back his Amber and dropped the glass back onto the bar as the swinging punch landed heavily on the bald man’s chin with a crunch that was only just drowned out by yells of pain as the bald man broke his opponent’s knee.

Wild cheers leapt up and a flurry of betting slips were launched in the air. Every discarded slip was a penny in Beretta’s pocket. He turned and walked away, tossing a credit chip to the young girl behind the bar. She called out her thanks after him as he stepped out into the corridor.

Beretta’s men, who’d been waiting in the corridor, fell in step behind him. Ducking past the curtained-off alcoves and stepping around small unlicensed fire elements, Beretta made his way to the end of the corridor. This corridor, one of over a dozen that Beretta controlled, was his most lucrative. It was mostly the fighting. Beretta knew he needed to take his most lucrative scams into the rest of his territory.

Reaching the end, Beretta saw the shadow of the pair of cops on the far bulkhead. Turning to his men, Beretta told them to hang back. He walked up to the end of the corridor and turned to face the two old street cops.

“Hey, Lou,” the old cop said, his composite baton hanging at his side, tapping the top of his boot gently. “We had a report of some disorder in this corridor.”

Beretta smiled his broad, charismatic smile and leaned against the bulkhead, pulling out a cigar and tearing off the paper package. Flicking open his lighter, Beretta puffed on the fat cigar to bring it to life. He blew the thick, blue smoke upward.

“I just been down that corridor, Officer. It all looks in order to me.”

“You know there’s a new chief on this transport, an old cop from a small town. You know he thinks we ought to clean up this ship.”

Beretta gripped the cigar between his teeth and nodded. “And you guys are just the ones to get the job done. I know,” Beretta said. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out two more cigars. “Just so you know I appreciate your efforts, gentlemen.” Beretta handed one to each cop.

“We need more civic minded people like you, Lou,” the second cop said, tucking the cigar into his blue jacket pocket. “Too many people want to do too little. We’d all be lost a few wasn’t for people like you.”

Beretta nodded and smiled. The two cops crossed the end of the corridor with barely a glance down into the den of vice that Beretta had created.

The cross-corridor was littered with more of the homeless, those without even a blanket. The wrappers of sticky ration blocks lay strewn around the people who sat and lay and waited for a chance to leave the ship that had become their prison. So many people just wanted the fleet to find a planet so they could make a new home. Many others seemed to thrive in this overcrowded, stinking mess.

Beretta turned and looked into the next of his corridors with its collection of business and vice. The commotion coming from there was no different than any of his others.

Beretta turned and walked away slowly, pulling on his fat cigar. In a few steps, he was at the end.

As long as the civilian transport remained in the fleet, Beretta knew he had to operate in the underbelly of the ship, and he was always going to be in danger of being discovered and stopped by Fleet Intelligence. The old city cops who formed the civilian police service were woefully ill-equipped and poorly trained—they were no match for Beretta—but Fleet Intelligence were well equipped, devious, and relentless. They were unstoppable.

The only way Beretta could avoid the intel agents and expand his territory from the lower decks was to take the ship. And Beretta knew he was on the verge of doing just that.

Leaving the vice district behind him, with the shouts dying in the distance, Beretta came to a stairway leading up to a wider, cleaner corridor above. Here the cabins were spacious, and the doors securely locked.

Beretta had business here too. Those who had escaped in the evacuation with items of value were able to buy their occupation in these plush cabins. Beretta sold vice to those behind these closed doors. Most simply wanted VR escapism—to walk on a planetary surface, even if it was an illusion. Others wanted more stimulation. Escape was all these people wanted, to escape the reality of being trapped in the civilian transport. And when the occupant had spent every last tradable resource on their vice, Beretta was ready to take their ultimate last resource: their comfortable cabin.

Beretta reached one door, tapped once and waited. The cabin doors slid aside noiselessly, and Beretta stepped inside.

The cabin had been converted into a laboratory. Two men worked at the clean white bench, jars and tubes and heating induction coils creating a series of bubbling liquids and boiling gases all trapped within a clear composite network of tubes and bottles. The older man turned and ran his fingers through his remaining hair.

“Mr. Beretta,” the old chemist said, “the samples were easy enough to deconstruct and we have isolated the vital components. We’ve tested them on some rodents. It works, kind of.”

Beretta sat on the workbench and folded his arms. ‘Sort of’ was not what he wanted to hear. The old chemist started to complain that Beretta was sitting on a workbench, but a quick look silenced him.

The young assistant stepped up. He was smiling and looked slightly drunk. “Kind of works is kind of awesome,” the young assistant said. He pulled a hard candy out of his pocket and threw it up into the air, catching it in his mouth as it came down. As he sucked on the sweet, he continued to explain. “Some of the components are just impossible to reproduce. We’ve thrown in some things that are chemically very similar. It’s just not going to have the same effect. But the effect is close enough. I’d say once we manufacture the correct amounts, you’ll be able to proceed with your plans.”

Beretta climbed off the bench and grabbed the young assistant by the hair. As he dragged the young guy’s head down, Beretta fixed him with a fierce stare. “And what do you think my plans are?”

The young assistant began to splutter on his hard candy. The old chemist stepped forward, trying to explain while stuttering, clearly distressed by Beretta’s sudden violent outburst.

Looking up at the old chemist, Beretta said, “He can speak for himself. He’s got plenty to say.” He looked down at the young assistant. “Haven’t you? You got plenty to say. Now speak up.”

The young assistant spat out the candy and tucked it back in his pocket. He wiped his sticky hand on his jacket and looked up at Beretta.

“You’ve asked us to manufacture a ton of Dox vapor. That is about the amount you would need to flood a civilian transport’s atmosphere and knock out the entire ship’s complement. That’s your plan. You want to send everyone to sleep.”

“Why? Why do I want to send everyone to sleep?” Beretta tugged the young man’s hair, pulling him down even lower.

The young man held his hands up. “I don’t know. So you can steal the ship?”

Beretta let the young man go. He stood up slowly and adjusted his hair and his jacket.

“And who have you told of my plan?” Beretta took a puff on his cigar.

“No one,” the young man said. “I haven’t spoken to anyone. I’ve just been working on this Dox vapor. I want to see it work.”

“And will it work?” Beretta said, sitting back on the workbench.

“Kind of,” the old chemist said. “And kind of is pretty kravin’ good.”

Beretta puffed his cigar. “When you say kind of, what do you mean? Are the people going to be asleep?”

“Most of them,” the young assistant said. “Most of them will be out as long as the Dox vapor is in the atmosphere. Some are just going to get really sick, but they will be too sick to do anything except vomit and sweat.”

Beretta nodded. “And how soon can you have a ton of Dox vapor ready for me?”

“We’ve been talking about that,” the old chemist said. “We need a few things, personal things.”

Beretta knew when someone was overplaying their hand, and this old chemist was quaking in his boots. The young assistant looked a little surer of himself, but even he realized they were playing a dangerous game asking Beretta for payment.

Beretta remained silent and simply stared at the old chemist, inviting him to go on, paying out enough rope so the old man felt thoroughly tangled up in its deathly grip.

“We want accommodation. Food. And we want to be safe.”

The old chemist turned as white as his coat.

Beretta puffed on his cigar and nodded. “I can make sure you are safe. And if you get this done for me, I might want to keep you around for some other little jobs.” Beretta stood up and gestured with his cigar. “And if I have use for you, of course I will want to keep you alive.”

The old chemist sat down and let out a large sigh. He turned to his young assistant. The young man was more composed. He thanked Beretta without a crack in his voice.

“So? When will it be ready?”

“We can have the rest of the Dox ready for you by the end of the day. We just need to synthesize some more psychoactive ingredient, and we’ll be ready for the final batch manufacture.”

“Good. Thank you, gentlemen.” Beretta opened the door. One of his men was waiting outside. A large man with a bald head and a large moustache stepped inside. The tattoos on his knuckles promised pain before death. He stood inside the door and folded his arms.

“This is my associate. He will watch over the final manufacture. He’ll let me know when you have finished.”

The old chemist nodded. “Does your associate have a background in chemical engineering?”

“No,” Beretta said. “But I’m pretty sure he knows what blood tastes like.”

He took a large puff on his cigar, leaving the smoke in the room behind him as he stepped out into the clean corridor.

This time tomorrow, the entire ship would be his.

5

Back on the Scorpio, Jack looked over the list of trainees. It was short, but it made no difference. Jack was not able to bring even one more recruit into his training program, and the dozen Marines he had been allowed to train would only make up a single squad. That was far from the several companies he felt he needed to restore the Fleet Marine service to somewhere near an operational standard.

The knock at the door was familiar, and Jack called for Sam to enter.

“What did the colonel say?” Sam asked as he took a seat in Jack’s small office.

“He said you’re a belligerent old Marine,” Jack replied, deactivating the holofile. The list vanished along with Jack’s hopes of rebuilding the service.

“Less of the old, you old scroat,” Sam said.

“The colonel will let us train the twelve recruits we currently have in the program, but he won’t authorize any more resources for the training program.”

“But he has to,” Sam said, standing up and pacing. “How does he expect us to maintain any kind of force without replacing our losses?”

“I agree, Sam, but the colonel made it quite clear,” Jack said heavily. “We have to make do with what we have.” Jack slumped back in his chair.

The short silence between the two was broken by a call alert on Jack’s desk. Jack tapped the small holostage, and the image of General Wallace appeared.

“Major, we have a situation on one of the civilian transports. I need you to assemble a squad. You’ll be going in with Fleet Intelligence under the authority of Special Agent Kitt. You depart from the Scepter’s number one hangar at the end of the watch. I’ve recommended you personally, Major. Don’t let me down.”

Jack nodded. “Absolutely, sir. My best, of course. Can I ask, what is the operation?”

“Fleet Intelligence has been tracking criminal activity on the civilian transports. One vessel is falling almost completely under the control of an old pirate. We thought he was dead, but he’s just shown up on microdrone scan of the lower decks. I understand you had a run-in with him yourself. It’s—”

“Lou Beretta,” Jack finished the general’s sentence with him. “Yes, we have met, sir. He’s a very tricky individual. Dangerous, devious, violent.”

“That’s him,” General Wallace said. “Report to Special Agent Kitt right away. Wallace out.”

The holoimage of General Wallace faded away. Jack turned in his seat and looked at Sam, who was still on his feet.

“Do you want to take any of the recruits?” Sam asked.

“I don’t think so,” Jack said. “Beretta is a dangerous individual. Even if we are going in with the Fleet Intelligence, I still want our best Marines. Call up whoever is left from sixth squad of Cobra Company. Is Osho still squad leader over there?”

“She is if you want her to be, sir,” Sam said.

“I only want veterans on this one, Sam. We haven’t got time for handholding. We’ll see what this intel agent wants, but I expect it’s going to be in and out fast and hard.” Jack stood and grabbed his pulse pistol off his desk, slipping it into his hip holster. “Go and assemble my squad, Sam, and I’ll see you on the hangar deck.”

Sam Torent turned and stepped up to Jack’s office door. He hesitated.

“Jack, I just want to say…about the training… I know it’s your call on how to train them, but I think you needed to let me go a bit harder on them. Those recruits might have to go up against Beretta or someone like him soon. They are not going to be ready if you try to ease them into it. We need to throw them in hard, Jack.”

Jack nodded. “Thank you, Sam. I appreciate your input. We’ll do it my way for now, but I need you at my side just to keep me on my toes. Agreed?”

Jack held out his hand. Sam took it in a firm handshake.

“How did a scroat like you get to be in charge?” Sam said with a smile.

“How did a scroat like you get to be my friend?” Jack said.

“Because you know it’s better to have me on your side than as your enemy.” Sam stepped back and gave a casual salute.

Jack smiled and patted his friend on the shoulder. “Get me my squad. And be quick.”

Jack waited for Sam to leave his office before he sat back down. He turned to his desk and put in a holocall back to the general.

“Major. What is it?” The general appeared on Jack’s small holostage but his attention was elsewhere.

“General, it’s the situation with the new recruits.”

Now Jack had the general’s attention.

“I’ve spoken with Colonel Snipe,” Wallace said, “and he’s told me you were borderline insubordinate arguing with him over the necessity for more training resources.”

“I protest, sir.” Jack was irritated that he had been misrepresented.

“It’s okay, Major. I know you’re not insubordinate by nature, but the colonel has a point. You can’t expect to have everything you need to do your job. There’s not a military commander in history who thought he had the resources he needed to do his job, but they all got the job done nevertheless, or their superior officers found someone who would.”

“The situation I’m going into now on this civilian transport requires trained professionals. We are only going to have the right kind of people available if we give them the right kind of training. I have a dozen volunteers in a training program that is suffering badly from a lack of funds. I have another six dozen volunteers waiting to start the training. Sir, that gives us half a company of new Marines, badly needed replacements for the service. I must ask you to reconsider and give me the resources I need to train these people.”

“Colonel Snipe will make the decisions on this, Major. Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention, though I think you have more immediate concerns. Go and assist Fleet Intelligence and bring Beretta into custody. Do what you can with the training, and when we have more resources, we will look at the situation again. That is my final word, Major. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Jack said. “Forge out.” He had said what he had to, but what could he really do? If the colonel wanted to keep training to a minimum, then training would be limited and there was nothing more that Jack could do about it.

The holoimage faded away again, and Jack stood up from his desk. The thoughts of the trainees waiting to begin their training was pushed to the back of his mind as he focused on the task in front of him. He was going to take down Beretta. Maybe this time, the old pirate would be caught.

Jack left his office and stepped out into the corridors of the Scorpio. The way to the Marine hangar was so familiar to Jack that he barely noticed as he walked there, finally stepping out into the wide hangar and up to the tac boat where the squad was waiting.

They were turned out in their tactical suits, pulse rifles strapped over their shoulders. Jack slid an enhanced data view screen from his cap over his eye and scanned the six Marines before him. Their names appeared over their right shoulder on his screen.

The personnel in Cobra Company’s sixth squad of Cobra had changed since Jack’s time with the squad, but some names were still familiar. With the Scorpio Battalion reduced from its original complement of three companies down to a depleted single company, Jack had become familiar with many of the Marines under his command.

Notable among these was the Squad Leader Osho. She had been on the training moon with Jack and they had fought together on many occasions. She stepped forward and saluted as he approached.

“At ease,” Jack said, returning the salute. “How is your squad?”

“Ready for orders, sir. Pleasure to be working with you again, Major Forge.”

Jack acknowledged Osho’s comments with a nod and then turned to Sam to give the order for the squad to board the tac boat.

Sam ordered the Marines to take their places. When all were inside, Jack and Sam walked up the boarding ramp. Sam tapped the panel on the inside and closed the ramp, sealing all within the tac boat’s seating area.

Jack looked up to the flight console and saw the two Marines in the flight seats.

Osho called out to Jack, “Do you want to pilot her, sir?”

Jack sat down in the seat amongst the Marines—thirteen seats in the back of the tac boat with only seven filled.

“No, thank you, Squad Leader. I am fine back here.” Jack turned to Sam. “Get us underway. Let’s not keep Special Agent Kitt waiting.”

The familiar sounds of the drive systems powering up gave Jack a thrill. He felt the slight juddering as the tac boat lifted off the Marine deck and drifted out into space. Jack accessed the sensor data and patched it through to his wrist-mounted holostage. He watched as the boat drifted out into the fleet, and its sensors showed the nearest dozen ships—the Scorpio behind with its attendant frigates and a corvette. The image showed parts of the nearest civilian transports, home to thousands upon thousands of civilians. And dead ahead of the tac boat was the enormous flagship of the fleet: the Scepter.

The flight from the Scorpio Marine deck to Scepter’s hangar was brief and uneventful. The boat touched down and the boarding ramp opened. Jack was first out of this seat and down the ramp onto the Scepter’s deck.

A pair of Fleet Intelligence enforcers waited nearby with the agent. Her ident appeared on Jack’s enhanced data view screen hovering over his right eye. This was Special Agent Kitt.

She was short. Jack knew the person didn’t need to be big to make a big impact in a difficult situation, but he was surprised at how short she actually was. She barely came up to the midriffs of her enforcers. She was unarmed and appeared completely at ease. She stepped forward to greet Jack.

“This is my operation, Major Forge.” Special Agent Kitt had a force of will completely incongruous with her diminutive stature. “I am going to apprehend and detain the pirate Lou Beretta. Your Marines will take orders directly from me. You are here as the Marine authority. You will take your orders from me also. Is that clear, Major?”

Jack Forge was completely at ease with taking orders on a mission, and this was a mission no different to any other. “This is your operation, Special Agent. You have my complete support.”

“We will transfer to a civilian transport on your Marine tac boat. There, we will switch to a civilian cruiser. The civilian cruiser will take us to the target transport, and we will land at the secondary supply hold. Detain any personnel on duty there so none can inform Beretta of our presence. We will proceed alone, and I will isolate Beretta before we capture him.”

“Understood,” Jack said. “If I may offer something, Special Agent?”

Kitt nodded curtly once.

“I have had my encounters with Beretta.”

Kitt cut Jack short. “I know, Major. That is why Fleet Intelligence has requested you for this operation. Move out.”

Kitt directed Jack towards the tac boat he had just left. Jack called the order to his Marines and followed them back inside.

Kitt was wasting no time, and neither was Jack. The mission was on.

6

Transferring to the civilian transport’s secondary supply hatch was as quick as it was secretive. No communications from the tac boat’s flight crew to the civilian transport’s command deck were made that Jack could hear or see. They approached from the rear and dipped below the transport’s main drive to the secondary supply dock hatch on the underside of the massive ship. Once inside, Agent Kitt sealed the inner hatch and then walked ahead of the small group of Marines and her two enforcers.

“With me,” Kitt gave her simple command and marched off, moving fast.

The secondary supply hatch led into the secondary supply hold. The hold was empty. Jack could not even see any evidence that any supplies had been stored here at all, given the far end of the empty supply hold was a transport loop access. Special Agent Kitt called the transport pod and within a moment, the doors slid open. All eleven of the group were able to fit comfortably inside, even with the Marines’ tactical suits and the bulky pulse rifles.

With the doors closed, Jack could not detect any movement in the transport loop. Moments later, the doors slid open and the group stepped out into a second hanger.

Even though the civilian transport was vast in size, this hanger was no bigger than the Marine deck on the Scorpio. It was completely unoccupied except for a single cruiser. A sleek spacecraft built primarily for comfort, the cruiser would easily take the eight Marines, two enforcers, and special agent.

Climbing up to the flight deck, Special Agent Kitt called over her shoulder to Jack.

“Your file says you are a pilot, Jack. Take over the flight controls in seat number one.”

Jack followed Kitt and dropped down next to her in the pilot’s chair. He started the flight preparation for the cruiser.

This ship was in good condition. Jack had flown tac boats, fleet frigates, and corvettes since the evacuation, but this ship was, hands down, the sleekest, most well-maintained craft he had ever been aboard. It was completely unarmed, inadequate for any military purpose, but this was merely to transport the small group without arousing any suspicions. A military ship touching down on the flight deck of the civilian transport would alert Beretta that people were coming for him.

“Do you mind me calling you Jack?” Kitt asked, sitting back in the copilot seat and letting Jack do the work.

“Jack will be fine,” he said, focusing on his task. Technically, the special agent held a rank equivalent to colonel and was superior to him. Not to mention this was her mission, and Jack was under her command. He had no problem with her calling him whatever she liked. If she wanted to treat him as a grunt, he didn’t see that it would affect his performance in any way.

With the cruiser ready for departure, Jack handed over to Special Agent Kitt.

Kitt sent a coded transmission via her wrist-mounted holostage and the departure authorization flashed up on the cruiser’s flight console. Jack checked that the flight deck outer doors were open, then piloted the cruiser out into space.

The cruiser handled beautifully, moving easily and responding to every touch. It was an absolute joy to pilot, and Jack almost forgot his reason for being here. This was no pleasure cruise, despite the flashy vessel. This was a dangerous mission, as dangerous as anything Jack had taken on since entering the stellar void. The group was on route to take down one of the most dangerous men at large in the fleet.

They were going to capture Lou Beretta.

The proximity meter showed they were nearing the target craft. This time, the flight plan set the ship to approach the secondary supply dock on the underside of the massive vessel. Although nowhere near the scale of the landing deck on the carrier, the supply dock on the civilian transport was easily large enough to accommodate several cruisers. Jack piloted to the landing site and put her down gently.

Special Agent Kitt sent a message from her wrist-mounted holostage. Jack set the flight console holostage to show activity on the supply deck. Kitt reached over casually and deactivated it. With a gentle wave of her hand, she instructed Jack not to activate again.

“Shall I ready the team, Special Agent?” Jack said, half-rising from his pilot seat.

“Yes,” Kitt said, watching her personal holostage for a response. “Get everyone up and ready to move. But do it in silence.”

Jack stood up and turned to the group pressed into the rear of the cruiser. The two enforcers in their black tactical suits were already standing at the exit ramp in the center of the cruiser’s main deck. The six Marines in their standard tac suits were sitting where they could find space in the comfortable lounge. Sam Torent, in his uniform with his pulse pistol in hand, leaned casually against a bulkhead.

Jack held his hands out in front of him, palms up. He spoke almost without sound.

Jack lifted his hands. Stand up. The six Marines responded immediately and in almost total silence, climbing to their feet and standing in two rows of three. Jack then tapped his shoulders with the fingertips of both hands. “Equipment check,” he said with barely a whisper, and the Marines ran a final suit system check. In a few moments, they all gave Jack a thumbs-up. Jack clenched the fist of his right hand and held it forward, giving the signal to hold and wait for action.

Sam walked slowly over to Jack and stood next to him. Arms folded, he tipped his head to the side and whispered, “Do you really think we can take Beretta by surprise?”

“We have to try,” Jack said.

“You think he already knows we’re here, don’t you?” Sam said with a wry smile.

As Jack was about to answer, Special Agent Kitt came down from the flight deck and walked over to the boarding ramp. She waved her index finger forward and instructed one of the enforcers to open the hatch.

The center of the cruiser’s lounge dropped to create the boarding ramp that angled down from the front section towards the drive. Kitt sent the enforcers first. They brought up their pulse rifles and advanced side-by-side down the ramp and out of sight.

Kitt turned to Jack and spoke quietly. “Send your team in, Jack.”

Jack gave the signal for his squad to advance, then he turned to the agent. “Would you like me to go ahead, Special Agent?”

Special Agent Kitt nodded and with the outstretched hand, she offered Jack to lead on.

“Not before me,” Sam said and pushed ahead of Jack. He drew his pistol from his hip holster and held it in front of him, the butt of the pistol cupped in his left hand.

Jack drew his own pulse pistol and checked that it was primed and ready to fire. He slid it back into his holster and marched down the boarding ramp ahead of Special Agent Kitt.

The supply deck of the civilian transport was not as orderly as the Marine deck on the Scepter or any of the fleet’s Marine hangers. Although there was very little equipment here to truly clutter the space, somehow it looked untidy. Both marked and unmarked crates lay in haphazard stacks. Some were open, the contents half taken out and spilling out on the deck.

Although there was clutter, there was one thing missing that surprised Jack.

“Why is it deserted? There should be someone here,” Jack said quietly to Special Agent Kitt.

She looked around the deserted deck, folding her arms across her chest and taking a deep breath. Immediately, Jack could see she was falling. She toppled forward, landing on one knee with her hand outstretched to stop her falling face first to the deck.

Jack caught Special Agent Kitt as she fell, and then Jack felt himself succumb to a sudden bout of dizziness and nausea.

The air was bad.

Osho stepped over to Jack.

“We are detecting Dox vapor in the atmosphere, sir. We need to get you out of here.”

Jack nodded and escorted Special Agent Kitt back into the cruiser followed by Sam. Once inside, Jack rushed to the flight deck and set the atmosphere scrubbers on the cruiser to clear the air inside. He started to breathe more easily, but with a headache that made him feel like he’d been kicked in the head.

Special Agent Kitt started to regain her strength. Sam Torent looked angry.

“Do you think the Dox vapor is for us?” Sam said.

Jack shook his head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Beretta is here, and we are going to get him.”

He stepped back into the lounge, avoiding the open boarding ramp, and sent a message to Osho.

“Create a perimeter around the cruiser, Squad Leader,” Jack said. “I’m going to find the ship’s emergency breathing apparatus and I’ll join you in a moment.”

The Marine responded with a silent reply that appeared on Jack’s wrist-mounted holostage. Jack went to the rear storage cabinet. A civilian ship would always have some basic emergency equipment. He hoped this cruiser was properly equipped.

Pulling open the cabinet, Jack found a set of simple breathers for the cruiser’s full passenger capacity. Although this was a private craft, it was designed to carry up to eight people in comfort. Jack grabbed three of the breathers and carried them to the forward section. He tossed one to Sam, who immediately fit it over his nose and mouth. Sam stepped over to Special Agent Kitt, who was on the floor breathing heavily and struggling to get rid of the Dox vapor that had entered her system. Jack pressed the breather over her nose and mouth.

“Breathe deeply, Special Agent.” Jack held a hand on her back and pressed the mask into place.

“Thank you,” Kitt said. She started to breathe more easily and then climbed up to her feet. She drew her pulse pistol from her hip holster and started toward the ramp down to the hangar. Although still slightly unsteady, she was regaining her strength quickly.

“With me, Jack,” she said.

Jack turned to Sam. Sam was smiling and tipping his head towards Special Agent Kitt.

“She’s a pocket battleship all right,” Sam said. “Do you think she needs any backup on this mission?”

Jack patted Sam on the shoulder and then shoved him towards the hatch.

“We all need backup from time to time, Sam,” Jack said, then followed him down to the hangar deck and into the Dox-filled atmosphere of the civilian transport.

Somewhere in this vast vessel, Beretta was up to something, and the Dox vapor was only the start of his nasty tricks. Jack was not going to be beaten this easily.

Stepping back down onto the boarding platform where the mixed squad was waiting, Jack looked proudly at the Marines who stood at attention in a group. The enforcers fell in either side of Special Agent Kitt. Sam and Jack stood in front of the Marine squad and waited for Kitt to deliver her orders.

“We are here to apprehend Lou Beretta,” Kitt said, showing no lingering effects of the Dox vapor she had inhaled. “He is eluding our sensors and has deactivated his ident chip, so we will isolate his bio signal and close in on him. I want him taken alive.”

The landing bay was empty save for their group. The silence was eerie for such a huge space, like being alone in an empty city. A distant noise caught Jack’s ear. A rumbling and roaring, rising and falling like waves crashing on a beach. Then Jack thought it sounded more like a hundred bowling balls rolling down an alley. The noise died away again and then came back like a growling, like an animal in the distance.

The sound died away to be replaced by the ambient noise of the vast ship. A thousand systems still in operation all rumbled in the background of the vast city-sized transport. Jack turned to Sam.

“Did you hear that?”

Sam nodded, a slightly bemused look on his face, difficult to take for one usually so certain of everything.

“Is there something you want to add, Major?” Kitt said.

“It’s probably nothing,” Jack said, but then he heard the distant noise growing again, closer this time. He looked out over to the open interior doors to the white, brightly lit corridors beyond. Something was coming this way, and it was getting close.

The noise died away. Jack pointed to two of his Marines.

“Send microdrones now,” Jack said, pointing to the open door. The huge opening was large enough to drive a supply truck into the main corridors of the civilian transport. The two Marines picked the microdrones from their tactical suit webbing vest and released them into the air. The two tiny drones, flashing their brilliant white location beacon, raced off towards the open hangar doorway, each taking a different route away from the landing pad.

Jack walked over to Special Agent Kitt, his right hand held in front of him as he looked at the display on his wrist-mounted holostage. He tapped the controls and accessed the surveillance data being relayed by the microdrones. He looked up at Kitt as she activated her own holostage.

Then the noise rose up again, a rumbling, thundering, deep guttural growling with occasional shrieks. It rose and faded, but always came back.

Sam steadied the squad of Marines as Jack conferred with Special Agent Kitt.

And then the microdrones discovered the source of the noise.

The image on Jack’s holostage stunned him for a moment. The corridor was filled with a horde of writhing civilians. They poured forward at a pace that varied from a light jog to a fast walk, surging forward along the corridor a dozen across and a hundred deep. Jack zoomed in on the image and isolated a single individual.

The individual was foaming at the mouth, thin rivulets of light red blood streamed away from the nostrils. The eyes were bloodshot. The skin pale and ghostly. Mouths wide open, eyes wide open, and hands clawing their way forward.

Special Agent Kitt accessed the ship’s address system via her wrist-mounted holostage and issued her commands over the corridor speakers to the group of civilians coming forward at pace.

“This is Fleet Intelligence Special Agent Kitt to the civilian group. You are required to stop and return to your cabins.”

Hearing Kitt’s instruction echo along the distant corridor, Jack watched the horde on his holostage. They appeared to take no notice of the instructions issued to them. In fact, they appeared to quicken the pace.

“Stand to, Marines,” Jack said, turning away from the agent. “Form a line. Set your pulse rifles to low power. Low pulse only. They are coming through the interior hatchway any minute now.”

Sam Torent repeated the order and mustered the squad to adopt the position Jack had ordered. Jack turned back to Special Agent Kitt.

“Your enforcers should join my Marines in the line, Special Agent, unless you intend to abandon our position.”

Special Agent Kitt was still staring at the image on her holostage. She looked up at Jack clearly unsettled.

“Enforcers,” Kitt said, “join the Marine line.” Kitt walked to stand behind the Marines. She pulled her pistol and checked the weapon. She looked up at Jack. “I think this is more your area of expertise, Major. Take command.”

Jack checked the position of the civilian horde on his holostage, but the noise from the corridor told him everything he needed to know. They were only a moment away.

“Stand by, pick your targets, and fire at will. Hold them.”

And then the horde burst around the edge of the internal hangar door and came rushing across the vast empty landing pad towards the small line.

Jack took aim and fired.

7

The first civilians came tumbling onto the landing pad, and the Marines opened fire. The low pulse rounds slammed into the civilians, dropping them into quivering heaps. The civilians behind seemed to grow even wilder as they poured in, trampling over those who had fallen in front of them.

“Maintain fire,” Sam called. He stepped up to the edge of the line, his pulse pistol held out in front of him and laying down a rapid stream of rounds.

The sound of the horde was as worrying as the sight of several hundred crazed individuals pouring forward, their intentions completely unknown. It seemed unlikely they were a welcome wagon for the mixed squad that had boarded their ship.

Jack walked behind the line of Marines, noting with satisfaction that the horde was being slowed. Only a few now remained, clambering unsteadily and awkwardly over those who had been dropped, and within a moment, all were down.

Jack walked toward the nearest civilian—a young man who had been the last to be dropped. He lay on the ground, eyes wild and staring, his mouth still foaming and body quivering slightly while the low pulse round wreaked havoc on his nervous system.

Leaning down and checking the young man’s pulse, Jack satisfied himself that the victim was disabled but alive. The effects of a low pulse round on an unarmored civilian would incapacitate the individual for up to an hour.

Sam and Kitt came alongside Jack. Sam checked another individual.

“They’re all out for the count, Jack,” Sam said, “but what the krav got into them?”

“You allow your subordinate to use your first name?” Kitt said, looking up at Jack with a disapproving expression.

Jack ignored Kitt’s remark. He was sampling the air and running an analysis through his wrist-mounted holostage. “This Dox vapor is not the same as the one the Devex used on us. Someone has tried to recreate it and they’ve nearly got it right. I’m betting it didn’t put them all to sleep but made them into, well, this.” Jack waved at the quivering, slumbering horde on the deck.

“Who could do this?” Sam asked.

But Jack knew Beretta was more than capable of doing this.

“We need to report a medical emergency to the fleet,” he said, stepping back from the helpless and hopeless mass of civilians.

“This is a clandestine mission, Jack,” Kitt said. “We proceed as such. We just need to locate Lou Beretta.”

Jack knew the best place to look for Beretta now was the place where he could best take command of the entire ship.

“We should check the command deck,” Jack said. “I’ll bet you my pulse pistol that’s where he is. We need to move fast, though.”

“Agreed,” she replied.

Jack was impressed by Kitt. She understood the importance of taking the command deck and she had no arrogance about her like so many other Fleet Intelligence agents. He nodded.

“The enforcers will take point,” Kitt said and waved her two black-clad enforcers forward.

“Let’s move,” Jack said to Sam, who relayed it to the Marines, and they all moved off along the smooth white corridors of the transport’s supply deck. It was a long way to the command deck, but using the transport loops would give away their position.

They had to move hard and fast.

The old chemist watched the horde of civilians on the small holostage in his laboratory workshop as they ran wild through the ship. His young assistant was scrolling through holofiles of the Dox vapor synthesis procedure looking for the error. Beretta’s associate stood in the corner of the workshop, unconcerned by the scientists and their panic.

“They are going crazy out there. Mr. Beretta wanted us to put them to sleep, not have them all charging around like maniacs,” the old chemist said, his smooth hand scratching his rough stubble-covered chin. “We have to find the problem, and quick.”

“I am looking through everything,” the young assistant said. “It should be just the same as the Devex Dox vapor.”

“It’s clearly not the same as the Devex Dox vapor.” The old chemist turned on his assistant and threw his hands in the air in frustration. “Have you seen them down there? We have got about twenty percent of the population of this transport running around like wild animals. Mr. Beretta wanted them asleep! I’m not going to tell him that everything is just the same, when it clearly isn’t.”

The young assistant sat back in his chair in a moody sulk, his hands across his chest. “Well, you look through everything. I’ve gone through every scrap of data. If you think you can find an assistant who can do a better job than me then I wish you luck. We spent days analyzing that sample, and even more days recreating the chemistry. I told you we needed to take longer to synthesize all the Dox vapor Beretta wanted!”

“It’s Mr. Beretta to you,” the old chemist said with a nervous glance at the huge thug in the corner of the laboratory as he walked over to the holofiles. He scrolled through on his own, looking for any anomaly in the procedure.

And then the call from Beretta sounded on the holostage. The old chemist looked at his assistant. The assistant felt the blood drain from his face.

“He’ll want to hear it from you,” the assistant said, his voice shaking.

The old chemist walked over to the small holostage. Lou Beretta appeared, his holoimage only a head and shoulders on the small stage.

“Mr. Beretta, I can see the problem. We are working our hardest down here to sort out this situation. We can have a new batch, a better batch, and have it through the atmosphere in an hour.”

The young assistant shot a look at the old chemist. He mouthed the words, “One hour?”

“Listen to me,” Beretta said. His calm voice was as frightening as any horde of wild civilians. “Have you seen what they’re doing out there? They are going crazy.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Beretta,” the old chemist said, his voice cracking under the strain.

“I don’t know what you’ve done, but I want you to cook up a new strain of Dox vapor, and I want you to make sure that you get everyone running around in that crazed state. Do you think you can do that?”

The old chemist felt his heart stop and he stood gaping. He looked across to his assistant, who was similarly stunned.

“Did you hear me? Are you going to make me repeat myself? Can you do that again?”

“Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Beretta, sir. A new batch. Absolutely. Running around like crazy. Of course, sir.”

Beretta leaned back in the chair and looked across the command deck. The central holostage showed him the image of the civilian transport. Red dots on the green line diagram of the ship showed him the locations of the crazed civilian hordes. Inset was the image of the old chemist, looking nervous. Beretta wanted him focused and calm.

“Take your time and get it right, but don’t take too long. Do you understand me?”

Sounds in the background from the laboratory drew the old chemist’s attention and he looked away. It sounded like doors sliding open.

The old chemist called out in panic.

“No! Get out. Lock the door.”

Beretta leaned toward the holoimage as a wild civilian came into the holoimage field and fell onto the old chemist. The chemist held up his hands to fend off his attacker. The civilian’s eyes were wide and red, their mouth foaming, and they tore into the old chemist tooth and nail.

The thug in the corner drew a pistol and fired at the civilians, killing several before more came pouring in and slammed into him, pressing him to the deck. Another couple of pistol shots rang out and then stopped.

Beretta zoomed out the image to show him the entire workshop. More civilians were pouring through the open door and falling onto the old chemist. The young assistant was backing away and throwing laboratory glassware at the wild-eyed civilians who came lumbering forward. They grabbed at his face and his neck and tumbled to the floor. Beretta smiled to himself as he saw the laboratory fill with a mass of crazed civilians.

“Well, that’s annoying,” Beretta said as he canceled the holocall. “I guess we’ll have to find another science team to cook up that spoiled version of the Dox vapor.”

Beretta returned the main holostage to show the outline of the civilian transport. Thousands of civilians filled kilometer after kilometer of corridor space, and the red hazy blobs showed where the civilians roamed in crazed bands. And there, at one location, Beretta spotted a small group that were not registering with any civilian ident chips. They were moving out of the secondary supply hangar.

Instinctively, Beretta knew this was a group moving against him. He zoomed in using the security sensor grid and immediately saw the two black-clad Fleet Intelligence enforcers moving ahead of a group of Marines in tactical suits. Behind them, two Marine officers and a Fleet Intelligence agent followed, the three of them wearing emergency breathing masks.

Beretta tapped away on the command chair’s armrest console and identified all the sealable hatches on the ship’s security systems. He began to seal the hatches behind the small group, far enough behind so they didn’t hear and realize their retreat was being cut off. Then Beretta sealed the hatchways ahead of several groups of crazed civilian hordes.

“I guess I’ll have to work with what I’ve got,” Beretta said as he continued to corral the horde and send them against the squad moving through the lower decks of the ship.

8

Captain Pretorius leaned on the holostage on the Scorpio’s command deck and looked at the incoming signals approaching the fleet’s rear. The stellar void had been dark for weeks. Watch after watch of no contact and emptiness. Now this.

But he was ready for anything.

Pretorius had been a destroyer captain for too long to let a period of inactivity dull his senses. He knew, like all good fleet officers did, that the moment one let their guard down was the very moment an attack would come.

“Send the signal to the flagship,” Pretorius called to his communications officer. “Inform Group Captain Tanaka that the Scorpio will drop back and investigate the signal.”

The hazy blur on the holostage showed a signal at the very edge of the fleet’s sensor range. All fleet ships were accounted for, but it could be a civilian ship or a fleet support vessel that had been deemed lost or destroyed, attempting to catch the fleet and join the exodus across the stellar void to the new region on the far side, a new and hopefully peaceful region where the fleet could find a new home.

Pretorius walked over to his command chair and climbed up. He sat down gently and began plotting a course. He sent his instructions to the drive and navigation officers, then opened a ship-wide channel.

“This is the captain. We are bringing the Scorpio about to check on a signal at the fleet’s rear. All hands to standby, all active crew to stations. Let’s not get caught unawares. Pretorius out.”

With the channel closed and the crew informed, Pretorius activated the maneuver.

The Scorpio began to slow and pivot on its vertical axis around the central point. The forward section of the ship turned to face aft, and when the ship had come fully about, its drive systems flared and slowed its movement before pressing it away from the fleet and toward the signal.

In the time it took for the ship to come about, the fleet had moved off several astro units, and the signal on the rear had closed in.

Although still too far out to be clearly identified, Pretorius began to see some resolution on the main holostage. It was not one ship but several, maybe a dozen, maybe a hundred. Still unclear.

After only a few more minutes, the sensor net detected a single individual ship at the head of the group. It was clear to Pretorius now.

It was Skalidion.

“Combat turn,” Pretorius said. “Set to reverse and turn the ship at full speed.” Pretorius activated a combat turn alarm, the harsh tone sounding once across the ship. The well trained, experienced Scorpio crew knew what that meant.

“Activate turn,” Pretorius said.

The Scorpio drive assembly went dark and cold as the massive destroyer turned in space. Flipping about its midpoint, the Scorpio was pointing back the way it had come in only a few seconds. The hull stability field and grav field held the crew and ship together in the rapid about-face. And when the ship was set on a heading back to the fleet with the Skalidion on its tail, Pretorius activated the main drive and initiated a full burn.

The Scorpio was flung forward back to the fleet. Pretorius opened a channel to the group.

“Tanaka. Signal confirmed. It’s Skalidion. A hundred fighters, just a scout group. They are coming in fast and will reach my position before I can make it back to the fleet. Permission to engage.”

Tanaka appeared, her image fuzzy as the Scorpio transferred power to the drive and hull stability field.

“Maintain heading back to the fleet. Our calculations show the Skalidion will reach you before you get back to the fleet. A group of corvettes will rendezvous with you at that point and assist you. Try and destroy all fighters, Captain, but do not pursue them. We need the Scorpio back with the fleet. Tanaka out.”

Watching through the large black eyes of the single observer drone in the mini swarm of fighters, Skoldra saw the human craft. She had found them. Deep in the stellar void, on the edge of her vast territory, she had discovered a human craft. Now it was just a matter of time before she would have them.

The signal rushed out through the pheromone field to the fighter swarm.

“Attack.”

The central chamber of her new nest asteroid was still unfamiliar, and she still detected slight hints of the pheromone signal from the former swarm queen whose bones now lay at Skoldra’s feet.

All nurse drones had been destroyed by her fighters. The builders had moved in and devoured them, spreading their matter across the asteroid’s outer edge. New spawn pods were being laid down every minute as Skoldra consolidated her position in the center of her new nest. The drones of the previous queen were responding to her pheromones signal. With a new generation of fighters already being laid, Skoldra knew she would soon have a swarm of over a million. She had drones to spare.

Studying the human craft, Skoldra concluded that one hundred drones in her advanced fighter swarm would be far too few to overwhelm it. She analyzed the memories from the former swarm queen who had engaged the humans in battle. The single ship was heavily armed and heavily armored. But swelled with the victory over Phisrid’s swarm, Skoldra felt bold, and she welcomed a battle with this destroyer-class vessel.

Releasing pheromone instruction to her swarm, she dispatched another thousand fighters to race into the void and join the mini swarm to press the attack. And if a thousand fighters could not take down this destroyer, she would send a hundred thousand, and then a hundred thousand more. Skoldra knew that beyond this ship lay a huge number of vast human craft packed with thousands of helpless humans. A million drones would be more than enough to utterly conquer the human fleet.

Driven mad with power and the hunger for human flesh, Skoldra determined she would have them all.

9

Moving through the corridors of the civilian transport, Jack encountered increasing numbers of sleeping, unconscious civilians. The lower decks were a makeshift collection of tents and temporary structures that provided some level of accommodation.

All were asleep.

“Looks like the effects of the Dox vapor,” Jack said, checking the pulse of one small girl. “They are all asleep. They’ll be out for hours.”

“What happened to the others? The ones running around?” Sam said quietly.

“This is not Devex Dox vapor. Someone tried to create their own version,” Jack said. He knew who would try such a thing.

“Beretta?” Sam said

“Beretta,” Jack agreed. He pulled a small blanket over the sleeping child and walked on.

The two enforcers on point came to a halt at the base of a stairway. Special Agent Kitt walked back toward Jack at the rear.

“We’ll go up,” she said quietly. “Command deck is thirty decks above us, so we have a bit of a climb.”

“Can’t we use a transport loop?” Sam said. “We can mask the signal. Beretta will never know we are coming.”

Kitt shook her head. “If he did discover us, he could reroute the transport pod and drop us at the rear of the transport. It would take us hours to get to him. We are pretty close, and we have no reason to believe he has detected us.”

Jack pointed to the ship surveillance node at the bottom of the stairway.

“I know,” Kitt said. “Let’s hope he is not aware of our presence. Either way, we move on. Agreed?”

Jack and Sam both nodded.

Then came a sound behind them, a rumbling noise, and one they knew now to be a horde moving through the corridors.

Special Agent Kitt instructed her enforcers to proceed and climb the stairs. Jack looked at the girl lying in the small alcove.

“Do you want to bring her?” Sam said.

Jack shook his head. It was a heavy decision. “There are thousands of girls just like her throughout the ship. We can’t save them all until we take Beretta. We can vent the Dox vapor once we have control of the command deck. We move.”

Jack shoved the sleeping child further into the alcove and hoped the horde would ignore her. He turned his back on the child and the dozens of other civilians sleeping under the influence of the Dox vapor, following the rest of the squad already climbing the stairs.

Beretta watched the horde on the lower level crash through the shanty town that had been Beretta’s vice town. The curtains fell and the horde pressed forward. Beretta zoomed in to watch it.

He knew they could fall on the sleeping civilians and tear them apart the way they had the two scientists and his thug. If they tore into the sleeping civilians, they would never reach the Marines and the agent that were here to arrest him.

He zoomed in on the horde and watched as they stepped on the sleeping who had fallen where they stood. They tripped over the unconscious but did not attack.

Beretta was relieved, but also a little disappointed. It had been strangely satisfying to watch them tear apart the scientists. He had hoped they could create more of the vapor and give him the chance to turn an entire shipload of people into a ravenous, crazed mass, so he regretted their deaths, but it had been interesting to watch.

But the horde seemed to have no interest in the sleeping civilians. They had been interested in the squad sent against him when they arrived in the secondary supply dock, and the scientists in their laboratory.

Beretta looked to his map of the ship. He identified the group of crazies closest to the squad moving up the stairs and began to direct them. He sealed a hatch here, opened one there, and channeled them closer and closer.

It would be wonderful to watch the horde tear this small squad apart, and if they were able to fight off the hundreds upon hundreds of crazed civilians, Beretta and his own men would kill them. Either way, this small group moving towards him would not take control of this ship from him. It was his.

The stairs were hard going for Jack. The Marines and the enforcers moved easily with their grav fields and thrusters sets helping them. The sound of the horde fell away as Jack moved up another level, putting greater distance between him and the monsters below.

Special Agent Kitt was sweating heavily. She called a halt. Jack sat down on the next step. A Marine offered Jack a hydration pack pulled from the tactical suit’s supply pack.

Jack accepted it and slipped the drinking tube under his breathing mask. The cool liquid was refreshing and revitalized him instantly. He passed the pack to Sam.

Taking the hydration pack, Sam held out his wrist and showed Jack the image on his wrist-stage. It showed the horde below as it reached the position where Jack had tried to hide the sleeping girl.

“They ignored her,” Sam said as he played the sensor data back on his holostage. He took a sip from the hydration pack and then handed it back to Jack.

“They ignore the sleeping,” Jack said and took another sip.

The sound below grew louder briefly, rising and falling in a sudden wave. Then the same sound from above.

Jack looked up, instantly recognizing the danger. He looked at Kitt, who was handing a hydration pack back to one of her enforcers and climbing to her feet.

“We need to move. Looks like they are closing in on our position. Only a few more decks to go. Move.”

Jack was on his feet in an instant. Sam gave him a wry smile.

“She’s a tough little one,” Sam said. “The agency knows how to pick them. You ever thought about becoming an agent, Jack?”

“Save your breath for the climb, Sam,” Jack said. He watched Special Agent Kitt march up the stairs just behind her enforcers on point. She was tough and fit, Jack was impressed, but nothing in him wanted to join her in the agency. He hadn’t even wanted to be a Marine, but he was a Marine now and he didn’t want to be anything else.

Reaching another level, Jack heard a rumbling of movement along the adjacent corridor. The sound from below was coming on but not getting any closer. The rumbling from above was getting much closer as Jack climbed up to meet the horde moving down. And now a third group on this level was moving towards them.

Kitt turned to Jack and showed him her wrist-mounted holostage. It showed sensor data from a series of microdrones her enforcers had sent through the ship.

“They are closing in. But look at this.” She pointed at the sealed hatchways her drones had encountered.

Jack recognized immediately. “We are being boxed in. All the roaming civilians are being channeled to our position.”

Kitt nodded.

“We need to break communication silence and contact the Scepter,” Jack said.

Kitt nodded once. She knew she was breaking protocol, but the situation with the wild civilians and the imminent failure of her mission left her little choice.

“Agreed, Major,” she said. She tapped her holostage and opened her personal communicator.

The communicator attempted to access the flagship and the agency offices, but no signal was detected.

Kitt tried again. Jack tapped his own communicator, as did Sam. They all got the same result.

Out of range.

“He’s left the fleet,” Jack said with a slow shake of his head. “He’s stolen the entire civilian transport.”

“Why doesn’t the fleet bring him back into formation?” Sam asked.

“Maybe he’s just drifted from formation, faking some drive trouble. I’m sure he gave them some believable excuse, or maybe he has masked the transport’s signal and bolted. Either way, we can assume we are alone. It’s on us to get control of the ship and get back to the fleet, for the good of the civilians as much as to bring Beretta to justice.”

“Beretta is my primary concern, Major,” Kitt said. “All other considerations are secondary.”

“The command deck must be our objective,” Jack said.

The sound of the hordes grew closer, the rumbling putting the hair on Jack’s neck on end.

“And we need to avoid these people,” he added.

Kitt showed the surrounding areas from her microdrone data. A single corridor showed no sign of crazed civilian activity.

“But that’s still several decks below Beretta,” Sam said.

“We’ll deal with that once we have got around these mobs,” Jack said and directed his squad along the corridor, heading toward the forward section of the ship.

The squad ran and left behind the sound of the groups converging on where they’d been. Ahead lay a smaller secondary stairway that would take them up two more decks, but between the squad and that stairway was a sealed hatch.

“He’s got us trapped,” Sam said. “With your permission?” He looked to Jack.

Jack nodded, knowing what he had in mind.

Sam pulled the glove off his right hand and pressed it to the side of the doorway. Kitt looked on with a slight moment of incomprehension, then she saw Sam’s hand begin to unravel.

“You are the Marine with the Mech arm,” she said.

“Yes, sir,” Sam acknowledged. His hand became a mass of fine black strands. The Mech tissue slipped in between the edge of the hatch and the bulkhead. Sam pressed his unraveled hand deeper inside and then began to pull.

The Mech arm above the wrist swelled and pulsed with a deep purple glow as Sam pulled at the door. At first, it only slipped open a fraction, but then with a final great effort, the door slid open.

And on the other side of the open door stood another horde of crazed civilians. They turned and looked at the sudden movement and the squad standing there, stunned.

“Low pulse fire,” Jack called out. “Present and give fire.” Jack pulled Kitt back from the open doorway as a hand grabbed for her.

The Marines came forward, all six filling the corridor. They stood shoulder to shoulder and gave fire. The pulse rounds lit up the corridor.

Staggering back behind the wall of Marines, Jack, Sam, and Kitt regathered their composure.

“A trap,” Sam said. “I’m going to kill Beretta.”

The wall of Marines fell back a step, and then another as the civilians pressed into them. They crawled and bit at the Marines, but their tactical suits could take any amount of punishment from their barehanded civilians, no matter how crazed they were.

But Jack, Sam, and Kitt—dressed in their uniforms—were in danger, and so was the mission.

A civilian reached past a Marine and grabbed Kitt by her short, blonde hair. Jack grabbed the civilian by the wrist and pulled Kitt free.

Then the sound of pulse fire from the enforcers on the other end of the corridor caught Jack’s attention. A horde was swarming forward, filling the corridor. They fell as the low pulse rounds sent them quivering to the deck, but they came on too fast and in too great a number.

“We need to get out of here!” Kitt said.

Jack checked his holostage and called up a schematic of the transport. A small storage locker lay on the far side of the hatch Sam had just opened.

“Move there,” Jack said. “Marines, advance. Push those people back! Go!”

And as the horde closed in on their rear and they pressed their way into the one before them, Jack wondered if Beretta had got the better of him this time.

“Move, Marines! Move!”

10

Hanging in the stellar void with the Skalidion swarm catching up, Pretorius could do little but wait. Two corvettes were racing across the void to rendezvous with the Scorpio. Behind it, and already snapping at his heels, came the hundred-strong swarm of Skalidion fighters.

With only moments to go before the swarm fell on his ship, and before the corvettes brought their weapons into range of the Skalidion, Pretorius put his battle plan into effect.

“Bring us about, ninety degrees to port. Port-side hail cannon batteries, high-density hail. Upper and lower laser assemblies present to port and stand by high-energy laser discharge. Fire on my command. Stand by fire control.”

On the main holostage, Pretorius watched the Scorpio turn. Corvettes from the Scepter’s group moved into position. Pretorius sent a message to the commanders of the two small but powerful gunships.

“Corvette Commanders. Take position above the Scorpio’s upper hull. Ready all weapons and target the Skalidion swarm. Fire on my command.”

Captain Pretorius was the senior officer of the more powerful vessel. It was protocol that he would conduct the battle, and neither Corvette commander questioned Pretorius’s order. Pretorius watched as the two corvettes slipped smoothly into position, aligning themselves over the Scorpio and presenting their port-side hail cannon to the oncoming Skalidion.

Pretorius watched the range finder on the main holostage. The range of the Skalidion fighter’s green fire weapon was well-known to the fleet. It was not as great as the hail cannon. Pretorius intended to utterly destroy the Skalidion swarm before they had a chance to bring any weapons into range.

“Fire.” Pretorius clenched his fist as he watched the first salvo leap forward from the Scorpio and the two corvettes. Huge swathes of space were filled with the high-density hail racing away toward the Skalidion fighters. The hail slammed into the swarm. Tiny fragments punched through the Skalidion fighter craft, their green energy weapons and drive systems erupting in fierce green explosions that lit up the stellar void, the light flickering over the hull of the Scorpio.

With the second salvo launched from the Scorpio and her support corvettes, the Skalidion scattered. They moved in jerky motions, cutting this way and that as they attempted to evade the kinetic hail. Another dozen Skalidion fighters were snatched from the void in burning green balls of incandescent fire. Pretorius leaned forward in his chair as half the Skalidion fighters moved in even closer. The high-energy lasers on the Scorpio lanced out across black space. The beams lit up momentarily, each connecting with a Skalidion fighter and vaporizing it instantly.

The Skalidion swarm swept down, attempting to drop below the fire coming from the Scorpio and the corvettes above her upper hull. Pretorius saw the maneuver. He set the Scorpio’s orientation, sending instructions to the flight console to rotate the Scorpio about its long axis.

Watching on the main holostage, Pretorius saw the Scorpio twist slowly, keeping its port-side batteries trained on the flight of Skalidions as they tried to dip below the lower hull. Another salvo of kinetic hail roared away, aimed ahead of the Skalidions as they dropped lower in an attempt to flank the Scorpio. The kinetic hail slammed into the swarm.

With only a dozen Skalidion fighters still advancing, Pretorius knew he had won, but now his ship was in range of the green fire. The Skalidion turned and headed directly for the Scorpio.

“Corvettes move to flank the Skalidion swarm and finish them. Scorpio hull stability field transfer maximum shielding to the port-side hull.”

Pretorius watched as the remaining Skalidion fighters fired their weapons. The corvettes moved away from their position above the Scorpio. As the green fire slammed into the Scorpio’s hull stability field, the corvettes’ hail cannon rounds slammed into the Skalidion fighters. A final ripple of green fire across the Scorpio brought an end to the skirmish.

“Corvettes, set your heading back to the fleet and return at best speed. Looks like we’ve got them all. Good work, Commanders. Scorpio out.”

With the corvettes leaving the Scorpio behind, the huge destroyer adjusted its course. Pretorius checked the extreme range of his sensor field. A large signal was detected travelling at forty-five degrees to his position—heading towards the fleet’s extreme port flank was a vast swarm of Skalidion fighters. At this range, they were far too indistinct to calculate numbers, but this swarm was clearly much, much bigger than the swarm he had just dispatched.

Opening a channel to the Scepter, Pretorius set an intercept course. Group Captain Tanaka appeared on the main holostage.

“I have detected a larger Skalidion swarm, Group Captain,” Pretorius said. “Sending you position, heading, and speed now. It looks like it’s attempting to get onto the fleet’s port flank.”

“We have a civilian transport falling out of formation and moving away to our port side. It looks like the Skalidion are moving in on that ship. Take the Scorpio and protect the transport. Tanaka out.”

Pretorius stood from his command chair and tugged his cuffs.

“Set an intercept course for that swarm. We can intercept them before they reach that civilian transport if we engage at maximum drive.” Pretorius sent the ship-wide communication, his voice echoing over the command deck as well as over every communication node throughout the ship. “This is the captain. All hands remain at your combat stations. Prepare to engage the enemy again. We are moving to engage another, larger Skalidion swarm and defend a civilian transport. Prepare for combat maneuvering. All weapons stand by for action. Pretorius out.”

Looking at the main holostage, Pretorius studied the formation of the three signals. Orientated in a line away from Pretorius was the image of the Scorpio pointing towards the center of the holostage. Away to the port was the massed Skalidion swarm racing on a direct heading towards the civilian transport. The civilian transport lay across the holoimage, its starboard side pointing towards Pretorius. It was moving away at its maximum speed. This civilian transport was not a floundering craft. Possibly the captain had panicked and was attempting to flee, or there was some other reason why it was trying to leave the fleet.

As the Skalidion swarm closed in, the Scorpio’s sensor grid was able to pick out individual signals.

“Assume for a moment,” Pretorius called to his sensor officer, “that the Skalidion signal is made up of Skalidion fighters, configurations we’re familiar with, how many fighters are in that swarm?”

The sensor officer studied his console and ran the analysis according to Pretorius’s instructions. He looked up at the captain, his face white.

“How many?” Pretorius said.

But the officer did not need to answer. Pretorius could tell by his reaction that it was a very large swarm indeed. And then, as the Scorpio moved in closer, heading across space to put itself between the Skalidion swarm and the civilian transport, the sensor network was able to resolve the image and present the data on the holostage.

Pretorius fell back in his chair as the number ‘one thousand’ appeared on the holoimage above the signal on the holostage.

“Time to intercept?” Pretorius asked.

The holostage processed the captain’s question and projected their course, speed, and time to intercept on the holostage—a bright orange light line indicating the Scorpio’s course and a green box where the Scorpio would intercept the Skalidion swarm. Five minutes to intercept.

Pretorius tugged his cuffs. “All stations report status.” Pretorius climbed down from his command chair and walked to the holostage.

As all combat and support stations throughout the Scorpio responded with their status reports, Pretorius zoomed in on the civilian ship. He needed to get a signal to that ship if he was to save them. They needed to return to the fleet immediately.

“Communications officer,” Pretorius said, leaning on the side of the holostage, “put me through to that civilian transport’s command deck as soon as we are in range.”

Sitting in the command chair of the civilian transport, Beretta tapped the armrest console. He was surrounded by his henchmen, but he still needed to do everything himself. These men were good at bending a bar manager’s arm to get a tribute payment, and they were pretty good at cracking heads whenever Beretta told them to, but as far as crewing a starship, they were about as much use as a burnt-out power pack.

“There must be some kind of transport ship, a shuttle craft, even an escape pod, krav it. There must be something I can use.”

Searching through the civilian transport’s stores was hopeless. Even though the civilians were starving and supplies of every kind were low, the store manifest was still far too long for Beretta to scroll through manually.

And then he found a supply vessel currently grounded due to a faulty outer hatch. Beretta punched the air.

“Yes,” he said triumphantly. “I won’t need an atmosphere on that ship. I just need the drive systems to work.”

Beretta bypassed a few safety protocols and authorized the launch. He could do it all from his command chair. He powered up the supply ship and opened the cargo bay doors. Beretta watched the surveillance feed on his armrest holostage. The cargo ship was ready to fly.

All he needed was to wait for the right moment.

“Civilian transport, this is Captain Pretorius of the Fleet Destroyer Scorpio. Skalidion swarm inbound. You are in danger. Set your heading to return to the fleet. The Scorpio will attempt to engage the Skalidion so you may escape. Civilian transport, respond please.”

Pretorius waited for a moment, but somehow, he knew he would not receive a response. If the civilian captain on that ship had gone this far and this fast, it was not by accident. But still, Pretorius’s duty was clear. There were thousands of civilians on that ship who would become the victims of the Skalidion unless the Scorpio engaged.

A barely audible signal from the civilian transport crackled to life from the communication console. Pretorius walked over and stood next to the communications officer.

It was a voice he had not expected to hear.

“Scorpio. This is Major Forge. The civilian transport has been hijacked by the pirate Lou Beretta. We are attempting to regain control of the vessel. If you have any means of sending a Marine boarding party to reinforce my group, then do so with all speed. Captain Pretorius, it’s good to see you.”

Jack Forge listened closely for the reply from the Scorpio. Sam and Special Agent Kitt sat on either side of him.

“Captain Pretorius won’t leave you without trying to assist,” Sam said.

“I can order him to send Marine reinforcements,” Kitt said.

The reply from Pretorius came through. Jack kept the volume low, since the horde outside the supply room door became more agitated when they heard noise.

“Major Forge, this is Pretorius. Not surprised to discover you are on that ship. But I have to disappoint you, can’t send reinforcements. I am about to engage a thousand-strong Skalidion fighter swarm. I’ll stop them if I can, I’ll be able to slow them for sure, but if the people on that civilian transport have any hope of surviving, you will have to get them back to the fleet. Good luck, son.”

“Let me talk to him,” Kitt said.

“The captain would help us if he could,” Jack said. “He’s got a job to do. And so have we. We need to take the command deck.”

Watching the range finder on the holostage, Pretorius could see he was seconds away from engaging the Skalidion swarm. He walked back to his command chair and sat down, accessing his tactical interface on the command chair’s armrest.

“All gun batteries, weapons free. Weapons free. Fire at will. Full power to the laser emitters. Direct all hull stability field power to the port-side flank. Pretorius out.”

The Scorpio continued on its heading, cutting directly across the face of the Skalidion swarm with less than half an astro unit between the swarm and the civilian transport.

The Scorpio’s weapons lit up in a flickering, dazzling display. The upper and lower laser assemblies discharged their first beams simultaneously. The second beams, half a second later, were all coordinated within a nanosecond of each other. As the third and fourth beams struck out from each assembly, the drift crept in until by the thirteenth beam, fired within the first five seconds of the battle, the drift between the fastest and slowest laser assembly was almost half a second. With every beam, a Skalidion fighter was vaporized. The laser assemblies’ beams flickered over the surface of the Scorpio, lighting up her hull as it shimmered under the intense hull stability field focused on that flank.

The hail cannon blasted out gouts of kinetic hail in a single massive broadside. The hail raced forward, scattering high-density shots across the front of the swarm. Hail fragments collided with Skalidion fighters, smashing into them and sending them tumbling off course, spinning and spewing green fire from their weapons assembly and drive systems. The front of the swarm was alight with exploding fighters torn apart by kinetic hail and vaporized by the high-powered laser beams that flickered like perfectly straight bolts of lightning across dark space.

Pretorius rocked in his command chair as the first fire from the Skalidion swarm slammed home. The green fire rippled over the hull stability field, angled to deflect the ordnance harmlessly into space. Pretorius checked the status of all his weapons. All laser assemblies and port-side cannons were functioning to a high degree of efficiency.

He knew he could only maintain the fire for so long, though. Soon the port-side hail batteries would slow from thermal load, and the human crew that served the guns would tire. To maintain this intensity, Pretorius would need to spread the load for his hail cannons across the ship.

The Skalidion fighter swarm took terrible damage, and their number was reduced by twenty percent in the first few seconds, but now the green fire was raining down. The collision with the stability field interfered with targeting systems. The ship was shunted off course fraction by fraction, and that also affected targeting. Now the losses in the Skalidion swarm were slowing.

Pretorius saw the drop in efficiency from his forward port-side hail cannon. It only dropped a fraction behind the best operating cannon, but that drop was just the first, and soon all hail cannon batteries on the port side would show a similar reduction.

Pretorius set the Scorpio to roll.

The Scorpio rotated about its long axis to bring its starboard hail cannons into the fight. The crews there were fresh and anxious to get into the fight, the cannons primed and ready for action. Pretorius watched the image of the Scorpio as its upper hull appeared to move so it was on the bottom of the image pointing towards the base of the holostage.

The hull stability field intensity was set to an even spread across the entire Scorpio before it could be refocused on the starboard flank. With the field intensity reduced momentarily, the Skalidion green fire burst onto the hull composite.

Collision alarms sounded across the command deck. Pretorius called for it to be silenced immediately. He’d known green fire would strike the outer hull when he performed the maneuver, but the hull would hold. The composite evaporated away as the green fire struck, dissipating the heat load into space. And then the hull stability field was flicked to full intensity on the starboard flank.

The starboard cannons blasted out a broadside that slammed into the heart of the Skalidion swarm.

Pretorius checked the status of the swarm on the holostage, but over six hundred of the Skalidion fighters remained. At least the fighters were focusing their attacks on the Scorpio. She was taking a beating, but she could take it.

The signal from the civilian transport was called out by the sensor officer. Pretorius looked away from the battle momentarily to see what craft was leaving the transport. It appeared to be a cargo ship. It was slow, unarmed, and extremely vulnerable. A single blast of green fire would tear the hull apart.

And the ship was racing directly toward the battle.

“Send a signal to that ship and tell it to break off and return to the fleet.” Pretorius returned his attention to the battle with the swarm.

The Skalidions were attempting to wrap around the Scorpio and engage its flanks. Pretorius had hoped the Skalidions would make a mistake just like this. If he could split this force and spread the swarm, he could send out his small squadron of Blades with tac boat support. While the Skalidion swarm remained a single cohesive unit, Pretorius would not risk sending his Blades to engage them. Even with tac boat support, they would be hopelessly outnumbered. Not even the Blades would survive such an attack.

As he sent the standby signal to his hangar deck for tac boat and Blade pilots to man their ships, Pretorius noticed the cargo ship from the civilian transport still racing toward the battle.

Pretorius looked at the craft with a bemused expression. Was this some kind of suicide run? Was this Jack Forge attempting to win the battle all by himself? No, Jack Forge was brave, but he was not recklessly suicidal. Something else was going on here. The cargo ship raced into the thick of the battle and past the Scorpio on its port flank, keeping the Scorpio between it and the Skalidion swarm. It skimmed over the Scorpio’s port-side hull.

Pretorius had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was danger. He tugged his cuffs and barked out an order.

“Port-side hail cannon, target that cargo ship and fire. Blast it out of my sky.”

But Pretorius was too late. The cargo ship raced past the port-side hull and came alongside the Scorpio’s drive assembly.

The bright flash that appeared in space where the cargo transport had once been ballooned in a nanosecond and slammed into the Scorpio’s rear. The Scorpio twisted and bucked as the smaller vessel’s main reactor detonated following an antimatter containment collapse. The Scorpio’s port-side drive assembly spluttered and flared, kicking the Scorpio like a wild animal through space.

“Shut down main drive assembly,” Pretorius said. He brought his fist down hard on his command chair’s armrest. “Repair and maintenance crews to the drive room! Get me my drive systems back online!”

Pretorius looked at the image on the holostage. The Skalidions were swarming all over the Scorpio, and the civilian transport was racing deeper into the stellar void and further from the fleet.

Pretorius reset the hull stability field intensity to cover the entire outer hull and sent a message to all gun crews.

“Maintain the fire. Maintain fire intensity. We are dead in the void, and those Skalidions are looking to finish us off for good. Only one of us will be standing at the end of this fight. Let’s make sure it’s the Scorpio. Maintain the fire. Captain out.”

Pretorius watched the Skalidions swarm around the old destroyer, green fire raining down. He felt the ship quake and the dull thump of the hail cannons giving fire. Dead in the void, a critically wounded animal surrounded by hundreds of predators slowly draining the life from their prey.

Skoldra watched through the eyes of her observers as the destroyer floundered. The huge ship filled with the tasty humans was escaping, but alone and cut off from help. Skoldra sent a pheromone wave to her swarm and dispatched another thousand fighters to swoop in, finish the destroyer, and move on to capture the huge transport.

Skoldra would achieve what the dead swarm queen could not. She would have a store of humans to feast on for herself.

She could almost taste them already.

11

The small storeroom was beginning to feel even smaller. The sounds of the crazed horde outside was growing louder and wilder. The door flexed inward under the pressure of those outside.

“We have to move,” Sam said as he paced like a trapped animal. The Marines were huddled together, their pulse rifles ready to fire should the door give way. The enforcers stood at the far end of the storeroom on either side of Agent Kitt.

“Agreed,” Jack said. “We need to take the command deck.” Jack found the quickest route to the command deck through a few corridors filled with wild civilians, driven mad by the Dox vapor that Beretta had pumped into the ship’s environmental systems.

Jack pulled at a shelving unit against the storeroom wall and rattled it. He fired up his pulse pistol’s short electron blade. The thirty-centimeter-long white blade fizzed and glowed, fierce and bright. Jack applied it to the shelving unit fastenings that kept it stuck to the bulkhead. The unit came away. Jack handed it to one of the Marines.

“Hold this in front of you,” Jack said. “Get ready to move.”

Sam, seeing Jack’s plan, was already cutting away a second shelving unit—a dark composite shelf held rigidly together by a fine framework. It was not ideal, but it would just about keep the civilians out of arm’s reach.

Jack moved the two Marines with their improvised shields toward the doorway. He accessed a microdrone dataset and showed the scene on the other side of the door. The corridor was still jam packed with civilians, but they were quiet and becoming still. Jack guessed the moment the door opened they would become agitated and attack.

The Marines and the enforcers were protected by their tactical suits, but Jack, Sam, and Kitt were only wearing their uniforms. They would be vulnerable to the clawing hordes. The Marines would have to protect them.

Jack signaled the two Marines to get ready. One would press out into the corridor and hold back the horde with the shelf unit before turning left. The other, close behind, would turn right. Jack hoped to create a safe space and move along the corridor toward the command deck.

Getting to the command deck would be hard, but it might be the easiest part of the plan. Jack knew the obstacle that awaited him there. The long single corridor leading to the command deck was easily defensible, but that was the next problem. First, Jack needed to get moving.

He opened the door. It slid aside, and the civilians that filled the doorway all looked with sudden wild eyes, their heads jerking about as the door moved.

Before the civilians could react further, the first Marine pressed forward, bundling them aside. A second Marine help to push the makeshift barricade forward. Then the second barricade moved out, turning to the right to create a small space beyond the doorway.

Silently, Jack waved the rest of the Marines forward. He could see the civilian mob becoming wilder by the moment, growling and snarling, their hands reaching through the shelving and clawing at the Marines. Thankfully, their tactical suits were impervious to the clawing fingers.

Then the Marines began to fall back, pressed in by the horde. They were too many. A Marine fired a wrist thruster and pressed the shelf back against the civilians, their wild red eyes filled with a mixture of hate, anger, and surprise.

“We can’t hold them, sir,” a Marine called out as he skidded backward, determined not to be moved but being forced back by the weight of numbers.

“We will have to find another way,” Kitt said. “Call up the schematics and find a service conduit behind these bulkheads.”

It was a vain hope. If there had been a rear exit from this room, Jack would have identified it by now. He took a step back, leaving the corridor and returning to the storeroom.

“There is no other way,” Jack said. He thought of the Scorpio, so close but unable to help, surrounded and unable to move.

“Then we shoot our way out,” Kitt said.

Jack fell back another step. The shelving shield was pressed into a phalanx just beyond the storeroom door, a small triangle of space just enough for the Marines to take position and hold the small space they had won from the civilians.

“We can’t kill them,” Jack said.

“They are trying to kill us, Major,” Kitt said. “We have no choice. They are not civilians anymore; they are wild animals.”

“They are not animals,” Jack said. “They are still humans, and we are so few right now, we can’t just kill our own kind. They are sick. They need our help, not an attack.”

“Get ready to fire,” Kitt said. Her enforcers stepped up and aimed their rifles at the open door. “Get your people out of the way, Major,” Kitt said. “I will give the order to fire.”

Beretta watched the holoimage of the destroyer fall away as it was left, dead in space and surrounded by hundreds of Skalidion fighters.

“The fleet always wants to protect the civilian ships. You can protect us by drawing the enemy, just long enough for me to get away.” Beretta leaned back in the command chair. “Let’s see how the little arrest party is doing.”

Beretta accessed the surveillance feed from the corridor where the civilians were pressing in on the small group of Marines and intel personnel. He drew more wild civilians to the area, seeing how they were pressing back the small arrest party.

“They can’t hold them back.” Beretta smiled to himself. He accessed a surveillance node opposite the open storeroom doorway and watched the Marines trying to hold back the hordes with a couple of storeroom shelves. It made him laugh. “Good luck,” he said. He zoomed in, eager to see how the clawing mob tore into the Marines. Would they tear the Marines apart or would they crush them under their weight?

“Why don’t you shoot your way out,” Beretta said to himself. “That’s what I would do. Whoever is in charge is too soft. I’d give the order to fire.”

Zooming in on the small group in the storeroom, Beretta saw the two enforcers with their weapons raised.

“Now that’s the way to do it, but can you kill all the crazy civilians I’m sending your way?” He checked the data on the map and saw the horde pressing in and saw there were hundreds of civilians throughout the ship, all being drawn and herded toward the storeroom. The Marines would be trapped behind a wall of dead if the wild civilians did not overcome them first.

Smiling and eager to see the carnage, Beretta leaned in and looked at the full-size image of the crush at the storeroom.

He could see over the heads of the civilians from the surveillance node on the bulkhead behind them and into the room beyond. The shelving units were flexing and buckling under the weight, and the six Marines held them in a desperate battle, trying to hold back an unstoppable tide.

Behind them were the two Marine officers. They had their back to the open doorway and were standing in front of the enforcers.

“So there is a bit of disagreement in the group,” Beretta said. “Arguing how best to proceed, are we? Kill or be killed.” He smiled.

Then one of the Marine officers turned and pointed back to the open doorway, pointing at the civilians. The breathing mask obscured part of his face, covering his nose and mouth, but Beretta felt his heart pound hard as he recognized the man.

“Freeze the image,” Beretta said, standing up. “Zoom in on that officer.” He stepped down from the command chair, but he knew who he was looking at.

“Jack kravin’ Forge,” Beretta said with a mixture of hate, anger, and joy. “Come to take me down, have you, Jacky? Too bad for you.”

Beretta stepped up to the command chair and searched for the nearest airlock. A shuttle hangar deck just below the command deck was the closest. It was perfect.

Beretta accessed the internal hatch controls and shut a series of hatchways, creating a channel of twisting corridors towards the hangar. Then he bypassed a series of safety systems and made ready to open the outer doors.

“Hold on, Major,” Beretta said. “I’m going to clear the corridor for you. You are going to get to join me on the command deck after all.”

Beretta hit the final control and the hangar door opened.

The rush of wind as the air was blown out into space first tugged at the clothes of the wild-eyed civilians driven crazy with the corrupted Dox vapor before intensifying in an instant and blowing them all out into space. Jack felt the rush of air spiral around the open doorway as the civilians were blown away.

The Marines holding the small space in the corridor were also tugged by the strong wind. They fell back. Their tactical suits’ local grav field held them in place.

As the shelves were snatched away and the mass of civilians was swept past the doorway, the wind caught Jack and Sam. They slipped forward, grabbing at anything. Special Agent Kitt was pulled off her feet and into the air as she was blown out toward the corridor. Jack reached out and grabbed her wrist as she flailed around for something to hold on to.

The rush of air popped their ears. Their skin felt the cold. Tiny fragments of grit and dust blasted into them, peppering them with tiny missiles. The civilians raced past and into space. As the air died down, the last of the civilians was snatched away and Kitt fell into Jack’s arms, their face masks tapping together. But in the vacuum, with all the air blown out, there was no sound.

Kitt opened a team communication channel.

“What happened?” she said.

“The Skalidions?” Sam suggested.

Jack felt the air pressure rise as the atmosphere was replaced. Then they heard Lou Beretta, his voice echoing along the empty corridor.

“Jacky. My old friend. You should have said you planned to drop by.”

“Give yourself up, Beretta,” Jack said, assuming Beretta could hear him.

“Give myself up? No, Jacky, I don’t think so. I think you should surrender. Come to the command deck. You alone, or I will vent the rest of the ship. That’s over one hundred thousand sleeping civilians, and few thousand wild ones, that will be flushed out unless you come to me now. You have thirty seconds to start your walk. The corridors are clear for you now. Head on over. We’ve got some unfinished business.

“Twenty seconds and counting.”

12

“You can’t go,” Sam said. “He’s a psychopath. He’ll kill you.”

Jack shook his head. “We don’t know that.”

“Yes, we do,” Sam said, urgency rising in his usually calm voice.

Jack took his pulse pistol out of his holster and handed it to Sam.

“You must be joking,” he said, refusing to take the sidearm. “You can’t go in there defenseless.”

“I’m not letting him kill me with my own pistol.” Jack pressed it to Sam’s chest. “There is no time. I have to go.”

“There’s no reason to believe he will kill over a hundred thousand people just to get to you, Jack,” Kitt said.

Beretta’s voice came over the ship communicator, counting down from ten.

“Sure there is. As Sam said, he’s a psychopath.”

Jack stepped out of the small storeroom into the corridor that had recently been filled with the clamoring horde of crazed civilians. He walked toward the forward section of the ship. The deck composite glowed with a pathfinder strip showing Jack the way forward. He reached the final set of stairs up to the command deck level and at the top of the stairs, he found himself on the starboard side of the command deck cross-corridor. Walking toward the center, Jack saw two of Beretta’s henchmen step out of the command deck. They were grinning and waved him forward.

Standing at the end of the corridor, Jack looked down the long hall toward the command deck. Jack walked with Beretta’s henchmen on either side of him and just behind. They gave him occasional encouraging prods in the back, urging him toward his fate.

Finally stepping into the command deck, Jack could see Beretta standing in front of the main holostage, where a three-dimensional map of the civilian transport was displayed. Scattered over the image were thousands and thousands of tiny, sparkling, red dots. Jack knew they were the ident codes of all the registered civilians on board. He guessed there could be another thousand unregistered civilians scattered through the ship.

Beretta turned around, grinning.

“Jack Forge, what a pleasure to see you again.” Beretta made a gesture with his index finger to his henchmen behind Jack.

The blow landed on the back of Jack’s leg, sending him to the floor. A rough hand on his shoulder pulled him up and kept him on his knees.

“So these are all the people you saved today, Jack.” Beretta indicated the holoimage. “The world needs a hero like you, Jack.”

“These people are in danger out here, Beretta. The Skalidions are closing in. Why don’t you let everyone go? There’s a civilian cruiser in a secondary cargo pad. You could take that and your handful of thugs and get out of here.”

“Jack,” Beretta said softly and with mock offense. “Why don’t you call me Lou? We’ve been through so much together; we must be on a first-name basis by now.”

“Let the civilian transport get back to the fleet, Lou. You know they are in danger. I’m sure you could evade the Skalidions, a man of your skill, but with this vast civilian ship, the Skalidions will try and take it if it’s exposed and vulnerable like this.”

“You worry too much about other people, Jack. I think you should start to worry about yourself a little bit.” Beretta leaned in, grinning cruelly. Fierce anger welled up inside him, and he spoke to Jack through clenched teeth. “Because you’re going to be dead long before any of these civilians. And I am going to kill you.” A carefree smile spread across Beretta’s face as he relaxed. “It’s the least I can do for an old friend.”

“Well, I’m going to try something,” Sam said, glancing around the open doorway into the empty corridor outside the storeroom.

“Me too, but I can’t get in there without alerting Beretta. Wait for me to make my move and then you can move in on the command deck,” said Agent Kitt.

“A direct assault on the command deck would be crazy, even if he’s only got a handful of gangsters with sidearms. I’m not sending my Marines into that corridor. Besides, Jack will be dead as soon as Beretta hears pulse rounds blasting along the corridor.”

“So what’s your plan, Commander?” she said, joining Sam at the open doorway.

Sam held his right arm up in front of him and turned it this way and that. He let Special Agent Kitt admire his Mech arm.

“I’m going to make my way to an area above the command deck. I’ll rip the deck plates up and send my team in, then I’ll drop Beretta before he knows what happened.”

“That’s not bad, Commander, but the chances of you landing right on top of Beretta are pretty slim. And the sound of the composite being torn apart above his head is going to get his attention. I can get in there without even opening a door.”

Kitt waved her to enforcers to her. “I’ll take position underneath the command deck.” Kitt raised her wrist and accessed the ship’s schematics on her holostage. She highlighted the location. “I’ll send my enforcers in, and they will apprehend Beretta. You create your access point here—” Kitt pointed to a location directly above the command deck. “—and infiltrate with your Marines. Take down Beretta’s crew and secure the command deck.”

Sam synced his holostage with Kitt’s.

“See you on the command deck, Special Agent,” Sam said. He held his hand up as a signal to his squad to get ready. And then with a flick of his hand forward, Sam moved off into the corridor, the Marines moving behind him. He moved smoothly and quickly along the corridor, making his way to the point where he would breach the command deck from above.

“I don’t understand why a man of your talents wastes so much time trying to get a shortcut,” Jack said, looking up at Beretta from where he knelt in the middle of the command deck floor. “Why not just get involved in helping the fleet find a new home for the civilians?”

“The fleet?” Beretta chuckled and stepped over to the holostage. He tapped the console and the image of the civilian transport shrank away, finally disappearing from the holostage. “The fleet is doomed. It’s too big, too slow, and too much of a tasty target. The only way to survive is to go it alone.”

Beretta tapped the side of the holostage and accessed the ship’s sensor net. He zoomed in on the image of the Scorpio, surrounded by Skalidion fighters.

“Take a look at this, Jack,” Beretta said. He turned his back on the holostage and leaned against the edge. He grinned. “This ship, one of the fleet’s finest, is getting absolutely smashed by a group of tiny fighters.” Beretta turned and looked at the holostage. “Just look at that ship, it’s going to be burned out of the void before too long. You think the fleet is going to be safe? The people on this ship are doing better with me in charge. At least they stand a chance of surviving.”

“Don’t pretend you’re doing this for anyone but yourself. You are no hero, Lou. You’re a thief. Even if you are stealing something this size, it doesn’t make you anything other than a common thief.”

Beretta laughed. “Nothing common about what I’ve done. I’ve come from nothing and now I am the proud owner of this vast piece of interstellar hardware, and I am the de facto ruler over a hundred thousand helpless civilians. They wouldn’t last five minutes back with the fleet. I’m giving them a chance.”

“You are giving them nothing, Lou. You never thought about anyone but yourself.”

Beretta took two quick strides toward Jack and delivered a stinging punch. Jack steadied himself, taking the blow, and remained kneeling. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard the low, dark laughter of Beretta’s gang.

“I thought about Lars Crook. I don’t know if you ever met Lars, but you killed him, Jack. I’ve never forgiven you for that. That’s why I’m going to kill you. That’s why I’m going to enjoy it.”

“I didn’t kill Crook,” Jack said. “He wouldn’t have been in danger if he hadn’t followed you. If you are angry about his death, Lou, then you should look to yourself. You’re to blame. You killed him as sure as you killed those people you just flushed out into space.”

Beretta looked down at Jack with a fierce snarl, his eyes growing red with fury and pain. He reached to the small of his back and pulled a pulse pistol. He checked that the weapon was ready to fire and then looked at Jack with a grin.

“If you want to beg, go ahead.” Beretta walked around to stand behind Jack. He pressed the muzzle to the back of Jack’s neck. “Beg, Jack. Beg for your life like you begged for the lives of so many others moments ago. I’ll enjoy hearing you beg, but not as much as I’m going to enjoy seeing your blood pump out of your broken body.”

Jack took a breath of the stale air of the civilian transport’s command deck. He looked at the holoimage of the Scorpio under attack from hundreds of Skalidion fighters. So many times, he’d been onboard that destroyer when it had been in the thick of the action. Seeing them struggling now, Jack’s only regret was he couldn’t die fighting to save the Scorpio, fighting for the Fleet Marine Service. He was always in danger of death, from the first day in Marine training until now. He had accepted the danger, and he accepted that any mission could be his last. If he was to die here at the hands of a psychopathic criminal then so be it, but he would die as a Marine—brave, honest, and disciplined.

Beretta would not hear Jack beg, but he did have one more thing to say.

“It doesn’t matter what happens to me. It’s the people that matter. Save them, Lou. Save yourself too. Surrender to me now and we can go and rejoin the fleet. This is a last chance, Lou.”

The laughter that filled the command deck came after a slight pause. Beretta’s charismatic laugh boomed over the rough, low guffaws of his henchmen. The sound of so many people laughing had an infectious quality, and Jack could not help joining in. He looked up Beretta with a smile.

Sam Torent kneeled on the deck above the command deck. He ran his hand over the deck, searching for any fissure. The Mech tissue in his hand and arm began to unravel, fine threads spreading out over the deck plate composite, the strands so fine it appeared almost like a dark mist. And then Sam found the tiniest of cracks.

This was his way in. The Mech tissue threaded into the crack. Sam could feel the edges of the plate of composite that had been molded to appear seamless. It almost was. Sam gripped the hull composite with the fine threads. He checked his wrist-mounted holostage for the signal from Special Agent Kitt and waited to tear the hull apart.

Beretta’s laughter stopped, replaced by a dark menace. He turned Jack’s face away and pressed the pistol back to Jack’s neck.

The sight out of the corner of Jack’s eye was strange, but also familiar. A darkness appeared to either side of him. A tall, dark, indistinct shape. It grew darker, sucking the light out of the air around it. And as the darkness collapsed into its center, a small fragment of brilliant light appeared at the dark core. In a sudden flash, the bright spark grew to fill the dark shape, and two Fleet Intelligence enforcers appeared.

One snatched the pulse pistol from Beretta’s grip as the other fired a pulse round into his chest. The dull hum of the rifle told Jack that the rifles were set to low-yield pulse. Jack took aim with Beretta’s pistol at the nearest of Beretta’s gangsters. He pulled the trigger.

Beretta’s pulse pistol was not set on low-yield pulse, and the gangster was flung back to the bulkhead with the force of the shot.

Jack looked up as he heard the ceiling plates being torn aside. Looking up, he saw Sam Torent with a section of composite in his Mech hand. A Marine dropped through the breach, firing as he fell. Before the Marine had landed, two of Beretta’s gang were lying on the floor. A second Marine was dropping, closely followed by a third.

Beretta’s men attempted to flee or surrender. The last of the Marines dropped in, followed by Sam Torent, to finally overwhelm Beretta’s gang. Getting up off his knees, Jack reset the pulse pistol to low yield and walked over to the command chair. Climbing up, Jack began to access the ship systems.

Accessing navigation control, he set a new heading and swung the civilian transport back toward the Scorpio. Then he accessed environmental controls and began pumping the Dox vapor into space, replacing the toxic air with clean oxygen. Jack sealed all hatches and bulkheads to stop the wild civilians that still roamed around the corridors from going too far.

Working quickly, Jack diverted power to the civilian transport’s stability field.

Special Agent Kitt came running down the corridor and stopped next to the command chair. She looked at the holostage and the image of the Scorpio, the range finder counting down.

“Major, we can’t help the Scorpio. She is a battleship. We are just a civilian craft. We have to get back to the fleet.”

“The Scorpio is dead in the void,” Jack said. “Her drive systems are offline. She’s taken a beating. We can assist. Besides, we stand a better chance of making it back to the fleet with a destroyer in support than if we try and go it alone.”

Jack opened a channel to the Scorpio.

“Be advised, Scorpio. Civilian transport moving to assist. Major Forge out.”

Captain Pretorius appeared on the holostage. He was being buffeted in his command chair. There appeared to be a fire somewhere on the command deck.

“This is the Scorpio. We are taking heavy damage. We can’t maneuver. Weapon systems are holding. We can hold them off, but if we can’t get to the fleet, they will overwhelm us eventually. Save yourself, Jack. Get back to the fleet. We’ll hold the Skalidions as long as we can.”

Jack watched the holostage as the image of Captain Pretorius shrank away to be replaced by the image of the Scorpio in a desperate battle with the Skalidion swarm, green fire pouring onto the old warship drifting through the void.

13

“Those Skalidion fighters will tear this ship apart,” Special Agent Kitt said, appealing to Jack.

Jack, consumed with moving the massive civilian ship across space as quickly as possible, barely acknowledged her.

“Jack,” Kitt said. “This is crazy.”

Looking at the holostage, Jack could see the civilian transport closing in on the Scorpio. The drive systems were at maximum power, throwing the millions of tons of starship across space. Jack deactivated the hull stability field as he came even closer.

“Scorpio, this is Forge. I’m approaching your position now. I dropped my hull stability field. If you deactivate your field, we can synchronize the fields and create a single field bubble around both ships. Do you copy, Captain Pretorius?”

The image of Pretorius appeared on the holostage. The command deck of the Scorpio was filled with thin, black smoke from a recently extinguished fire.

“You know we’re both going to be extremely vulnerable with the fields deactivated. I will wait until the last moment when you are in position. I’ll transfer the Scorpio’s field control to your command deck the instant I deactivate. I’ll be relying on you, Jack.”

As the image of Pretorius shrank away, Lou Beretta writhed on the deck in front of the command chair, groaning as the low-yield pulse round wore off.

“Planning on getting everyone killed are we, Jacky?” Beretta asked as he squirmed.

Striding over to Beretta, Sam called to a Marine.

“Get that pirate off this command deck. Secure the prisoners in the command deck corridor. Post guards on either side. Sam reached down and grabbed Beretta by the collar, yanking him up sharply. “You are very lucky I’m not in command here, Beretta.”

Agent Kitt, standing next to Jack and the command chair, looked down at Beretta. “Don’t hurt him, Commander Torent. Fleet Intelligence has got a few questions for this criminal.”

“Approaching the Scorpio now,” Jack said, focusing on the command chair armrest. He was the only person on the deck able to crew the enormous ship. He had no time for anything else. “Cutting drive and bringing the transport into formation with the Scorpio.”

Quickly glancing at the holostage, Jack watched the image of the civilian transport slide underneath the Scorpio. And then the Skalidion fighters slammed into the forward section of the transport ship and detonated in a green flash of fire. Jack felt the collision from his command chair. Marines and criminals were rocked by the collision.

Jack activated the hull stability field. He watched the image on the holostage, and the rippling field bubble formed around both ships—the massive civilian transport underneath and the Scorpio above.

As the Skalidion fighters took more fire from the Scorpio, dozens being destroyed at a time by the high-energy lasers and the kinetic hail batteries, Jack heard a hull breach alarm sound on the civilian transport.

“Scorpio, this is Forge. I have formed the hull stability field shell around both ships. I am creating a field tether to the Scorpio’s lower hull. I can use the civilian transport drive to get the Scorpio back to the fleet.”

“Jack,” Captain Pretorius said, speaking from his command chair on the Scorpio. “I think I can lay down enough fire to hold them off. I’m deploying my Blade squadron to cover the underside of the civilian transport. I have word from the fleet that two corvettes are moving in to assist.”

Jack sat back in the command chair and let out an exhausted breath. He’d faced death once today already. It looked like he’d have to face it again.

“I have Skalidion fighters boarding near the civilian transport’s command deck, Captain. Do you have any Marines you can send over to reinforce my group?”

Pretorius shook his head. “Negative, Jack. I have one squad of Marines to protect the entire Scorpio. Three at the drive room and three on the command deck. If the Skalidion board the Scorpio, I do not think with my current strength I can hold them. You really need to see about getting some new recruits trained up, Jack.”

Jack nodded. “If we get back to the fleet, I’ll see what I can do.”

The internal surveillance node on the deck above the command deck alerted Jack that Skalidion fighters were moving toward the breach just above the center of the command deck.

“Keep those Skalidion fighters off us, Captain. I got some intruders to take care of. Forge out.”

And then Jack saw the movement in the breach above him that Sam had opened only moments before. Jack took aim with his pulse pistol, Special Agent Kitt on his right aiming her pistol up at the breach. Taking position around the edges of the command deck, the enforcers and Marines all had pulse rifles aimed at the breach.

And then the Skalidion fighters dropped in.

The Skalidions were small, smaller even than Kitt. They took a barrage of fire as they dropped in. The pulse rounds glowed brightly on their dark green shell-like skins. They raised their meter-long green energy weapons to open fire, but they were all dropped by the withering hail of pulse rounds.

Shouts from the command deck corridor behind Jack drew his attention. Kitt was already looking there, her pistol aimed.

“They’re taking the prisoners,” Kitt said

Lou Beretta came running back toward the command deck, shouting as he came.

“Come on, Jack, I know you love to save the day. Come and save me from this hideous little thing. Throw me a pulse pistol, and I’ll help you fight them. Come on, Jacky, you know you can trust me.”

Jack climbed down from the command chair and aimed his pistol along the corridor. He fired a pulse round that missed Beretta by a fraction of an inch and slammed into the Skalidion fighter chasing him. A second Skalidion leapt and grabbed Beretta around the neck and head, its thin fingers as long as its arm wrapped around Beretta’s face. It pulled him back sharply, snatching him off his feet. The Skalidion scurried backward, dragging Beretta with him.

Jack took aim at the back of the Skalidion’s head, its long green antennae twitching as it ran. Jack fired a well-aimed round, which burned into the back of the Skalidion’s head and dropped the creature to the deck. Beretta began tearing at the long thin fingers wrapped around his face. He screamed in panic as he failed to drag them away. Jack ran forward and cut the Skalidion’s arm off with his electron blade, dragging Beretta back toward the command deck. At the end of the command deck corridor, another pair of Skalidion fighters ran around the corner. They met a hail of pulse rifle rounds from the remaining Marines.

“Stay there,” Jack said, pressing Beretta to the bulkhead just inside the command deck. A Marine stepped up and pushed Beretta down to sit on the floor.

“I’ll make sure he does not move, Major,” the Marine said. Jack could hear the determination and commitment in the Marine’s voice. He had no doubt that Beretta was thoroughly contained.

A call from the Scorpio appeared on the holostage as Jack moved back to his command chair.

“Fleet corvettes moving into position on the underside of the civilian transport. We are fighting off the Skalidion swarm. They’re falling back, Jack. How you holding up over there?”

Jack checked the internal surveillance network. No Skalidion fighters were left aboard. Only a small handful had made it past the hull stability field, and those now lay dead around the command deck.

“We all clear over here, Captain.” Jack clipped the pulse pistol onto his hip holster and climbed up into the command chair.

“See you back at the fleet, Major,” Pretorius said.

“Copy that, Captain,” Jack said. “Forge out.”

14

Skoldra watched from the edge of the stellar void as her swarm of a thousand fighters engaged the destroyer and the massive ship that contained over a hundred thousand humans. She knew the humans would fight. She knew she had to overwhelm them quickly with the weight of numbers if she was to take her prize of living human flesh. She sent her pheromone wave through her new swarm. The fighters responded in a lazy manner, and she realized her pheromone signal was not yet strong enough to fully control the drones she had captured from the dead queen.

If she spread herself too thinly now, she may suffer the same fate as her fellow queen.

Watching through the dark eyes of her observer drones, she saw a mass of humans floating in space. They had been jettisoned from the larger ship and were just lying there, just waiting for her to pick them up. She sent a signal to the attack swarm fighting the destroyer. She directed them to disengage, to swoop in on those humans floating and freezing in the empty void, and to bring them back to her nest asteroid. They would not be fresh, but it would be a taste. Soon, with complete control of her massed swarm, she would move in on the humans and crush them, capture them, and feast.

The fighters powered down their weapons and disengaged, racing away at high speed towards the small cluster of floating bodies. Each fighter snatched up three or more of the dead humans, their skin frozen, their eyes bloodshot red, foam still bubbling out of the mouths.

Skoldra received the message from the fighters that they had captured fifty dead humans and were returning to her. She ran her forearms over her rasping mouth in anticipation of her first genuine taste. Soon, the frozen human flesh would be hers. Soon, she would be rasping away at their cold flesh.

Skoldra’s nurse drones were moving from her old nest asteroid to her new, much larger conquered nest. They began taking away the spawn for the new fighter generation. Skoldra was strong, having dined on the body of the dead queen. She was producing a new fighter generation to join the massed swarm at an accelerated rate. It would not be long before she had a million drones. She would have enough to pursue and crush the humans.

A line of observers stretched from her swarm across the void toward the human fleet. Staying out of range of their surveillance network, the small observer drones watched and shadowed the fleet. As they raced further and further across the stellar void, Skoldra imagined they felt that they had escaped. But she was watching and waiting, she would pursue them in time.

She watched them for the longest time, and when her fighters returned to the nest asteroid bringing the dead frozen bodies of humans with them, she seized one immediately. Holding it before her, she studied the strange form. She pressed the human to her rasping mouth and chewed on the frozen body.

There was a strange taste to this smooth-skinned creature. It was not the taste she had expected from what she had learned from the pheromone memories of Phisrid. It was different.

Skoldra felt herself grow anxious, lively, eager, wild. All logic, all caution, all curiosity left her. She was overwhelmed with an urge to rush after the humans and destroy them. It was a sensation that grew stronger, crushing her own sense of self with the unstoppable urge to rush in for the kill.

The sensation swept through the swarm. The orderly social structure of the swarm stretched to breaking point. The swarm raced forward, the nest asteroid at its center. The whole swarm buzzed with excitement and fury.

Skoldra snatched another frozen body. It also had a strange taste. It was not entirely human. This body had been corrupted, tainted by some strange substance that she could not identify, and it drove her wild. She accepted the taste and wanted more. Now.

She was wild. She was crazed. She was determined to capture and kill all humans immediately.

15

Maintenance craft from across the fleet swept in toward the Scorpio as they came back into formation. Jack Forge watched the ships race toward the destroyer, and he couldn’t help the smile of joy and relief that crept over his face as he realized the Scorpio would be brought back to fighting condition.

And soon, Jack would be there himself. One ship from the fleet raced to the civilian transport, bringing the relief crew, with a new captain ready to take command of the ship. Another medical ship brought med drones and doctors to administer to the civilians suffering from the effects of the corrupted Dox vapor.

“So I guess you’ll be getting back to your battalion, Major,” Special Agent Kitt said. She stood in front of the command chair looking up at Jack, her enforcers at her side with Lou Beretta in custody.

“I don’t think there’s very much left of the Scorpio Battalion. I think we are down to about two squads, if my math is right.”

“Well, let’s see if we can’t get you some new recruits,” Kitt said, smiling up at Jack. “But something tells me you’re getting used to the command chair. I don’t know if you want to go back to being a frontline Marine.”

Jack finished his operation, opening the docking bay for the new command crew and the medical ship to land, and then he climbed down from the command chair. He adjusted his jacket.

“Not afraid of the big chair,” Jack said, looking back up at the command chair of the civilian transport, “but I’d much rather have my boots on the ground, alongside a squad of well-trained Marines.”

“And I can’t think of anyone better to train those Marines,” the agent said. She gave Jack crisp salute and a smile. “See you soon, I hope, Major Forge.”

Jack looked down at Kitt. She was so much shorter than any Marine, but she was a powerful individual, and Jack was sure she was going to be an important member of the Fleet Intelligence Service. At last, Fleet Intelligence would have some agents with real-world experience in their ranks.

Jack returned Kitt’s salute. “Look forward to working with you again, Special Agent Kitt.”

“And if you’re not too busy training your new recruits, maybe we could meet socially. Special agents do occasionally have some off-duty moments.”

Jack was surprised, but pleasantly so, and nodded sharply. “Yes, Special Agent, I’m sure that would be enjoyable.”

Jack watched as Kitt marched off ahead of the enforcers and their prisoner, taking him to the tac boat waiting on one of the landing pads.

Sam stepped up next to Jack and gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs. “Are you getting fresh with intel?” he jabbed.

“Get your Marines in order, Commander,” Jack said. “Get ready to disembark. They are heading back to the Scorpio immediately.”

“Did you hear what I said, Jack? Are you avoiding the question?”

Jack looked at Sam and nodded. “I guess it would be nice to get to know someone socially.”

“So it’s not enough for me to get you tickets to the game anymore, is it, Jack?” Sam said.

Footsteps in the command deck corridor caught Jack’s attention. He looked up to see a new civilian captain and crew walking towards him. Jack stepped aside from the command chair and saluted the new captain as he stepped up.

“Captain Maslin relieving you of command, Major Forge.”

“I stand relieved,” Jack said.

Jack and Sam left the command deck and made their way to their waiting tac boat.

Racing from the civilian transport to the Scorpio, Jack could see the damage over the Scorpio’s outer hull. One laser assembly had a broken emitter, bent halfway along its length, putting it out of action for some time. Marks all across the hull composite showed where the Skalidion green fire had smashed through the stability field.

“She’s a great ship,” Jack said.

“She sure is, just like her battalion major,” Sam said. He patted Jack firmly on the shoulder.

Entering the Marine deck, Jack tapped the control panel on the inside of the boat boarding hatch and walked onto the familiar deck. Walking toward him came the familiar sight of his old friend Sarah Reyes, now a member of the Fleet Intelligence Sci Division. She had become more serious since taking on her duties as an agent. She had a stern look on her face now. Jack was suddenly concerned.

“Agent?” Jack said with concern. “What is it, Sarah?”

“Did you see Special Agent Kitt take Beretta to the intel boat?”

Jack shook his head. “No, she left on her own with her enforcers. She was taking Beretta to the Scepter’s brig. Is everything okay?”

Sarah Reyes shook her head.

“No, Jack. Beretta is gone. He never made it to the Scepter’s brig. He didn’t even make it to the Scepter.”

“Has he stolen the tac boat? Give me the boat’s ident code and I’ll get after him right away,” Jack said.

Sarah shook her head ahead. “No, Jack, the tac boat arrived on the Scepter, but Beretta was not on board.”

“I know Special Agent Kitt left the civilian transport with him. I don’t think she would let him get away. Ask her. What does she say?”

Agent Reyes turned to walk away.

“Sarah, tell me, what is it?”

Agent Sarah Reyes paused and turned slowly to face Jack. “Special Agent Kitt arrived on the Scepter. She’s dead. So are the two enforcers. We are trying to locate Beretta now.”

“I’ll find him,” Jack said.

“I’m with you, Jack,” Sam said, folding his arms across his chest and stepping up next to Jack.

Agent Reyes shook her head again. “Negative, Major. The last message we received from Special Agent Kitt was that you should be put in charge of training Marines. Fleet Intelligence will handle Beretta. You can handle the Marines.”

Jack stood on the Marine deck and watched his former friend now agent walk away.

Sam turned to Jack. “If you want to go after Beretta, I’m with you,” he said.

Jack looked at his boots and shook his head. “No, Sam, our duty is clear. We have to rebuild the Fleet Marine Service. Who knows what we are getting into on the other side of the stellar void? We will need a good force of disciplined, dedicated Marines. That’s our duty. That’s what we have to do. But if the intelligence service needs me to capture or kill Beretta, I’ll be ready.”

Jack sat at his desk and looked through the holofiles for the Marine recruits. Some were too young, some were too old, but all were enthusiastic, dedicated, and committed to becoming the best Marine they could be. Jack allocated the training squads to the training commanders. Central arenas on three civilian transports had been kitted out to provide a full training simulator. He hoped he could at least have the basis of the new reinforced Fleet Marine Service before the fleet reached the other side of the void.

A message on his desk holostage drew his attention away from the stack of holofiles he was still looking through. He tapped the holostage without thinking.

“Hey there, Jacky.”

Jack felt a shiver of cold hate run down his spine.

“Lou Beretta, you—”

“Yes, I’m fine. How about you?”

“I’m going to find you, Lou.” Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He felt his fist clench and tighten.

“I hope so, Jack. I think I have some unfinished business with you. No need to go hunting around for me. I’m not that far away. And anyway…” Beretta leaned forward, his face filling the image on Jack’s holostage. “I’ll be coming for you soon enough.”

The image of Beretta faded away as the old pirate ended the call. Jack continued to stare at the blank holostage for some time. Finally, he looked back to his work, making a huge effort to focus on selecting the new Marine recruits rather than selecting the method by which he would make Beretta pay for everything.

Jack had been a professional for such a long time that he’d almost forgotten what it was like to be a private individual. But now, he had a strong feeling that this was more than just professional. This was personal.

For the first time since he could remember, Jack was truly angry.

New Home

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 8

1

The fleet limped out of the stellar void and emerged into a new star-filled region. The drive systems on ships all across the fleet were struggling. Sputtering. Blue active drives flickering, a sure sign that the symmetry of the reaction field was slipping out of range. The failing drives created a variance in speeds across the fleet. To stay in formation, all ships were forced to move at the speed of the slowest.

And with navigation systems on the older craft out of calibration, many ships were drifting off course. Constant realignment with the fleet’s lead ship had slowed the fleet still further.

But they had made it.

The starfield on this side of the stellar void was bright and vivid after the months of complete and utter darkness. The stellar void had been the fleet’s escape route from a dangerous region to a new region where every star held a possibility for a new world, a new home.

The darkness of the void left a darkness in the minds of the civilian population, all crammed into the dozens of city-sized transports. Every person was desperate for light, all longing to feel a planet beneath their feet. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were crammed into decaying starships, and with system failures occurring all too frequently, a total disaster was only a matter of time. The fleet needed to land.

Jack Forge watched the main holostage on the command deck of the Scorpio as the data on the local starfield was updated. The holostage updated every few seconds as a new star was scanned and its data added to the growing map—stars and their planetary systems all being detected and processed as the fleet crept along.

The sight of so many new and uncharted star systems was exciting for the Scorpio’s officers and an enthusiastic chatter rippled around the command deck. Jack watched each new star appear. There had to be a planet around one of them that they could call home.

“See one you like?” Captain Pretorius called to Jack. The old captain was sitting up in his command chair overseeing countless ship operations as Jack watched the data pour in.

“They all look pretty good, sir,” Jack said, turning to face the captain. He leaned against the edge of the holostage, new stars blinking onto the image behind him. “The civilian population could do with some time off-ship. Any habitable planet will do right now.”

“It almost sounds as if you have had enough of being aboard the Scorpio, Jack,” Pretorius said, looking up from his work.

“Not at all, sir,” Jack said, turning back to face the holostage. “I could never give up this old ship. But it would be nice to have a change of scene for a few days.”

The appearance of the blue giant on the holostage was accompanied by an alert from Fleet Intelligence. A planet in the habitable zone around the star had been earmarked as a potential colonization site. Jack tapped the side of the holostage and called up the report.

“A super terrestrial,” Jack said, looking at the data. “But the gravity is just about standard. And there’s an incredibly dense, metal-rich moon orbiting the planet. What a crazy configuration. The gravity on that moon is huge. It’s creating a massive tidal bulge across the planet’s ocean.”

Jack continued to sift through the data. The super terrestrial had a vast ocean, running from the north pole right down to the south pole, which wrapped almost entirely around the planet. A blue planet. On one side was a scattering of small islands creating an archipelago that covered the entire face of the planet. The seas were incredibly shallow between the islands, and the data showed a vast sunken continent with only the tips of the mountains standing out from the water.

The ocean between the islands at high tide was only twenty meters deep. At low tide, it would be possible to wade across from one island to another with the waters coming up to chest height, if it were possible for someone to walk the hundreds of kilometers between the largest islands in chest-deep water.

The only major landmass was a continent centered on the huge planet’s equator and reaching far north and south. It was almost as long as it was wide, and its western and eastern coasts were marked by two long, white sand beaches.

The entire planet was warm and humid. The islands and the interior of the huge continent were heavily vegetated. Dense jungles grew in the damp, warm atmosphere.

“Scans are coming back showing a lot of life,” Jack said. “Data is pouring in on flora and fauna. Atmospheric chemistry looks good. It’s definitely habitable.”

“Don’t get too excited, Jack,” Pretorius said. “We have good data on the nearest dozen stars. They are all likely to have a habitable world. If not a planet in the habitable zone, then potentially some moon that could support the civilian fleet. My feeling is this will just be a pitstop. A place to stock up on supplies and reorganize the fleet, before we head deeper into this region.”

Jack tapped the holoimages of another couple of stars and checked the data coming back from the surveillance network. A number of orange mid-range stars were showing planetary systems that were hospitable to life. One mid-range star was young and in its early phase of planetary development. Thirty large terrestrial planets orbited close to the star with a chaotic mass of asteroid debris moving amongst them, a system in the early stage of a heavy bombardment with the potential for major planetary collisions every couple of orbits.

The innermost planet of that system was a hot gas giant while the outer system was home to several small ice giants. One moon around an ice giant appeared stable with a frozen water crust. It was a potential landing site and refuel station, but certainly nowhere the fleet would want to call home. Jack tapped the image of the star and let it shrink away. Then he tapped another.

This was another mid-range star, but the system was in a more advanced stage of development. Again, the innermost planet was a hot gas giant orbited by several small terrestrial moons. The moons were tortured by gravitational tides from the gas giant and the star. Pulled and stretched to create a virtually permanent liquid rock surface. Baked by radiation from the gas giant and solar radiation from the star as the moons orbited between the two. Clearly inhospitable to life, even to Jack’s untrained eye.

The outer planets perhaps had more potential. A large gas giant, although far from the habitable zone, had a planet with a liquid water surface. Heated by radiation from the gas giant and protected by an unusually strong magnetic field, possibly the result of an extremely dense nickel core, the ocean moon was highly likely to harbor life, marine life at least. Data suggested the moon’s water was extremely low salinity, but not fresh. Not good enough to drink, but enough to make it a tempting prospect for a visit.

Jack selected another star. He read the same results again, a series of planets with potential for a landing site, but nothing as good as the super terrestrial already identified around the blue giant.

Jack heard Pretorius respond to a communication from another ship. Jack turned and listened.

The message was coming from the fleet’s flagship, the largest military vessel and the power at the center of the fleet: the Scepter. Group Captain Tanaka appeared on the main holostage and her voice echoed around the Scorpio’s command deck.

“The science division has identified a planet around the blue giant in sector three. I’m dispatching the Scorpio to go in and take a closer look. How is the Scorpio holding up, Captain?”

“We are in good condition, considering,” Captain Pretorius said. “We’ve been through a lot, but we’ve been worse. A little planetary exploration will be no problem at all.”

Jack looked around the bridge of the Scorpio. She was an impressive ship. She had taken on some of the deadliest enemies ever encountered and had stood toe-to-toe with them in some of the most brutal encounters the fleet had known. With all the action the old destroyer had seen, it was amazing that she was in such good shape.

The image of the group captain shrank away on the holostage, leaving the image of the local starfield. The holoimage moved suddenly to position the blue giant at the center.

“All hands,” the captain’s voice came over the ship-wide address system. “The Scorpio is moving to the blue giant star in sector three to take a closer look at what could be a habitable planet. All hands to your duty stations. Stand by to move out of formation.”

Jack turned to the captain. “I will assemble the battalion. No doubt the Marines will be the first boots on the ground.”

“Agreed,” Pretorius said. Then he paused and looked up from his work. “You know, as the first ship in the new system, I will have the right to name the system. Any suggestions?”

Jack looked around the command deck. It was so familiar. He had stood here as a squad leader, as a company commander, now he was a major in charge of the entire battalion and was the senior Marine aboard.

“She’s a good ship, sir,” Jack said. “You should name the star and the system after her.”

“Blue Giant Scorpio.” The captain mulled it over, checking the name out. “I like it. It sounds good. Just wait one moment before you go, Jack,” the captain said and opened a channel to the flagship.

The image of Group Captain Tanaka grew to fill the central holostage.

“Moving out of formation, sir,” Pretorius said. “New heading set for the blue giant in sector three. We will be on route to the Scorpio System in a matter of moments.”

Tanaka smiled wryly and nodded. “Very well, Captain,” she said. “I want a full assessment by the end of watch. Atmosphere, geological activity, biota, all of it. I’ve already dispatched the Aquarius and the Canis to two other stars and a group of corvettes are surveying some other nearby systems, but the super terrestrial around the blue giant in sector three looks like our best chance for a safe harbor while we patch up the fleet. I look forward to the first report back from the Scorpio System, Captain. Good luck.”

Tanaka disappeared from the holostage. Jack turned and walked toward the doors, then stopped next to the command chair. He looked up to Pretorius.

“You should join us on the ground,” Jack said. “When was the last time you had any shore leave?”

Captain Pretorius stopped and looked down at Jack, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Captain doesn’t get shore leave, Jack.” He looked back to his work. “I’ll be stuck on this ship until I die. I’ve got engine trouble, stability field problems, and I’m shorthanded across every department on the Scorpio. The hull composite is peeling off around the drive section, the forward section is so pitted from collisions with micro asteroids in that stellar void I’m surprised that the command deck isn’t an open-air deck by now. It’s only the paint on the name banner that’s holding the forward section together. I’m going to be busy for the next couple of hundred hours getting the old tank back into shape.”

Pretorius looked down at Jack with a shake of his head. “It must be bad if I am complaining to a Marine major about ship operations. Get down to the planet and make your report. Hope you have a nice visit. Maybe we can all take a bit of shore leave soon.”

Jack exited the command deck and made his way down the long corridor, finally coming out into the deserted halls. A crewman hurried along a corridor here or there, and at one point, a maintenance crew was stripping a wall-mounted console, but otherwise, all the Scorpio’s crew were at their stations and the corridors were quiet, empty, deserted. Jack turned a corner and slid down the handrail of a stairway to the deck below.

Jack could navigate his way around this ship blindfolded. He had first come aboard as a Marine recruit, fresh out of training, the sounds of his first battle still ringing in his ears. The ship had quickly become his home, but with humanity’s displacement from their former planets, the fleet itself had become homeless. They had wandered, protecting the immigrant humanity for a very long time. But maybe the fleet had found a new home. Maybe this super terrestrial around the blue giant in the newly-named Scorpio System was the home they’d been hoping for, searching for.

Jack stepped up to the door of his small office on the Marine deck. The door slid aside but jammed halfway. The Scorpio had taken a beating during the evacuation and was behind on low-level maintenance issues, like the door to the battalion major’s office. He shoved the door aside enough for him to step through.

On a small desk near the back of the room sat a holostage console. He quickly opened the holofile of the Scorpio’s battalion, giving him access to all battalion information, from equipment and supply lists to personnel records. Jack had it all at his fingertips.

He opened the personnel file, and the holofile showing all battalion personnel. It was not a long list.

This battalion had been reduced from a force over four hundred strong to a current complement of just a few squads. Fewer than half of his Marines were veterans of the Chitin War. They had also defended the fleet as it battled across space, pursued by Devex warriors and Skalidion fighter swarms. They were battle-hardened, experienced troops, experts with their weapons and equipment. Jack knew many of them by name, having been with them from the start. But of the sixty available Marines, over half were new recruits, volunteers hastily trained and equipped in an effort to boost their numbers.

Jack had trained many of his replacements himself and was impressed with their enthusiasm and determination, but many were either too young or too old, and all were too inexperienced. They could only go so far on enthusiasm. Training was the key, and Jack had been unable to give sufficient training in hastily-assembled VR training suites aboard the civilian transports.

A lack of training would inevitably lead to disaster on an active operation. Trained Marines were able to respond to deadly threats in an orderly and practical way. Inexperienced Marines could panic, maybe even run instead of facing the threat. It was not only dangerous for the individual, who would be separated from his unit and become even more vulnerable, it was also a deadly threat to the squad or company in the field. If they could not rely on every Marine to do their job and stand their ground, then whole squads could be lost. Individual Marines fought battles, but only Marine squads could win them.

Jack flicked through the list. One or two of the new recruits had Jack’s confidence. Only those that he had seen in training and had the qualities that would serve them best on an active operation were selected to join his ground team. Several veterans were selected as well, to add some steel to the spine of the ground force.

Now Jack’s concern turned to the Scorpio. With most of the Marines off-ship, the Scorpio would be vulnerable. The Fleet Marines were not only the fleet’s attack force, they were also its defense. The Scorpio would need Marines aboard to ensure she was protected from attack.

Although the fleet was in a quiet region of space, and no enemy ships had been seen for weeks, danger could come at any moment and from any quarter, either from attacking aliens or from within. It had already been proven that there were people in the fleet itself who, for whatever reason, might attack the Scorpio.

As battalion major and the highest-ranking Marine aboard the Scorpio, it was Jack’s duty to ensure the safety of the captain and the command deck crew, and to secure vital systems up and down the ship. A few raw recruits would be poorly suited to the task. Many of the recruits had only been aboard the Scorpio for a few weeks, a handful more for only a couple of days since completing their insubstantial Fleet Marine training. They were so green they hardly knew their way from the Marine deck to the Marine hangar. Jack had found recruits wandering the corridors of the Scorpio, apparently lost or looking for the mess hall or the gym. Others, civilians until recently, were simply sightseeing, walking around the destroyer and marveling at her size and power. After months aboard a cramped and overpopulated civilian transport, the Scorpio must have looked like the most sophisticated ship ever. Jack knew the Scorpio was battered and decaying, but next to the evacuation ships, she was a wonder.

“Just make the call,” Jack told himself as he pressed his fingers into his forehead and closed his eyes. Streams of names and numbers from the holofile still burned on the back of his retina. He was being indecisive, and Jack knew that in the field an indecisive officer was more dangerous than a bad officer. He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. “Just pick your team, Jack.”

“The joys of command?”

A voice behind him made Jack spin around in his chair, a voice with an insolent and mocking tone that he knew well.

Sam Torent stepped into Jack’s office through the partially-open door. As he pressed past, the door shut hard and slammed against the frame, rattling the thin walls of Jack’s little office.

“Sam, you are welcome to call in any time, but I’m a bit busy right now.”

“So I heard,” Sam said, sitting on Jack’s desk, blocking the view of the holofile. “Looks like we found a new home, and you’ll be the first one there. Maybe we’ll name the planet after you.” Sam grinned.

Jack leaned back in his seat and looked up at his old friend. Sam Torent and Jack had been together since day one of training. They had not started out as friends, and Jack was never sure if they were going to end that way. Sam was the bravest, most determined, and ruthless Marine under Jack’s command. He was essentially Jack’s righthand man, and Jack could not imagine life in the Marines without him.

“So when do we leave?” Sam said.

Jack looked around Sam at the holofile and all the names that were too unfamiliar. He would have no problem picking Sam for his team on any other day.

“You aren’t going, Sam.”

He laughed, his mouth open wide, as he looked at Jack. “Yeah, right. Of course not. Jack Forge is going to do it singlehandedly. When do we leave?”

“I’m not joking, Sam. I need you on board the Scorpio. I’ve got sixty Marines under my command. I am going to survey a landing site on a previously-uncharted planet. And I’m responsible for the security of the Scorpio. I can’t be in two places at once. Fortunately, I’ve got you.” Jack stood up and patted Sam on the shoulder.

Sam scowled.

“You are not leaving me up here while you get to run around on the planet. I have been stuck on this ship for too long! The last time I was on a planet—”

“We nearly got killed by a pack of predatory aliens,” Jack laughed.

Sam laughed too. “You nearly got killed.” Sam poked Jack hard in the shoulder. “And if I hadn’t been there, you would have had your head chewed off your shoulders by one of those beasts.”

Jack nodded, remembering how close he’d come to those snapping jaws.

“If I encounter anything like that down there, I’ll be sure to let you know. But until I do, you will take command up here. I am assigning a few veterans to the ground force, but the bulk of my force will be made up of new guys. Maybe some time in the field alongside some veterans will bring them along a bit.”

“If you are leaving experienced guys up here, they know how to cover the Scorpio. I’ll have nothing to do while you run around on the planet.”

“Yes, that’s about the gist of it,” Jack said. He pushed Sam off his desk. “Call it the joys of command.”

Sam nodded slowly and then looked at Jack, a contrite and acquiescent expression on his rugged features.

“Aye, Major, sir,” Sam said and delivered a mocking salute, clearly dissatisfied with his assigned duty.

“Don’t worry, Sam,” Jack said, shoving him toward the office door. “If all goes well, we will all be down there before too long. I’ve seen the initial data for this world, and it’s definitely the best candidate for a base, at least for a temporary settlement before we move on into the region. Once I secure the landing site, I’ll post you to the planet the first chance I get. But for now, pick your teams carefully. Remember your duty to the Scorpio. You need a Marine guard on the command deck, a guard at the drive room, and make sure you have a mobile guard on the primary corridors. Don’t forget to rotate your people and make sure they have some downtime. Make sure you get some rest too, Sam. I don’t want you spending one watch on the command deck and then the second at the drive room before patrolling the entire ship yourself on the third. Use your people, use your resources, cover the ship, and make sure it’s here when I get back.”

“If you get back,” Sam said with a grin. “And if you do, who is to say I am going to let you back on board, you kravin’ scroat.”

Nowhere else in the Fleet Marine Service would a subordinate speak to their commanding officer in such a disrespectful way, but Sam was not just Jack’s second-in-command; he was Jack’s oldest friend, and when they were alone, rank was forgotten and Sam would speak his mind. Jack often thought it was inappropriate for him to let Sam get away with the way he spoke, but Sam always behaved properly when they were in the company of other Marines. Behind closed doors, Jack was happy to let Sam call him anything he wanted. As long as he did his job, which he always did, Jack had no problem.

There were other Marines currently in the service who had been in the service since before the evacuation, since before the Chitin War. They would never accept that level of dissent from a subordinate. But Jack had never wanted to be a Marine. He was an outsider himself in many ways.

An alarm sounded on Jack’s desk, a gentle chirp letting him know that a message was coming from the command deck. The image of Captain Pretorius appeared.

“Jack, my boy, we are coming up on the Scorpio System. We will be in orbit around the terrestrial planet shortly. You’ll be able to make your landing soon. Pretorius out.”

Jack turned to Sam. “I’ll send the holofile showing your split of the battalion to your ident chip and let you assign teams and guard duties. I need to muster my ground force and get everyone kitted up.”

“Is that your way of telling me to get lost?” Sam said.

Jack folded his arms and took a breath. Sam was always challenging him, but Jack knew that he was one of the best, if not the best, Marine in the entire service, and Jack could forgive Sam his rough edge.

“Yes.” Jack nodded again. “Now get out of my office.” Jack gave Sam a final shove toward the door.

The door slid open with an uncharacteristically harsh thunk. Both looked at it suspiciously.

“That door is dangerous,” Sam said. “Someone could lose a hand in that thing.” He grinned at Jack and held up his Mech hand, an alien technology prosthetic that had replaced Sam’s flesh and bone arm.

“War is hell,” Jack said in an offhand, expressionless tone.

Sam gave Jack a casual salute with his dark Mech tissue hand and then darted through the door before it decided to slam shut.

The door slid shut the moment Sam was standing in the corridor outside, leaving Jack alone in his office. He sat down in front of the holofile and looked through the names he was taking with him down to the surface: Squad Leaders Gilchrist, Heaton, and Lane, along with their respective squads.

Jack didn’t know a single one of them personally.

He opened a message to the selected group of Marines and sent a brief muster order.

“Attention Marines. This is Major Forge. Assemble on the hangar deck immediately in full tactical gear. Forge out.”

Jack stood up from his desk. The holofile shrank away and disappeared. The enthusiasm and excitement for exploring a new world was overshadowed by the apprehension of taking a group of undertrained recruits to the surface. Jack knew he would have to be his absolute best to ensure discipline and a safe return for his entire group.

Jack left his office and walked toward the battalion locker room, only a few short corridors from his office. This section of the ship was buzzing with Marines dashing this way and that, some in their PT gear, others in their fatigues, some exiting the Marine supply store in their tactical suits with pulse rifles over their shoulders and helmets under their arms.

Jack walked through the locker room to his own alcove and equipment locker. He grabbed his tactical suit and pulled the familiar suit on easily. It sealed and closed over his body like a skintight glove. It was durable, yet light and flexible, and it could take a Fleet Marine pulse round at close range, dissipating the energy over the surface before channeling it harmlessly away. It could withstand both high temperature and high-pressure environments, or even the freezing cold vacuum of space. With onboard medical packages, thruster units, and local grav field generators, it was a powerful piece of Marine kit.

Jack grabbed his helmet from the little shelf above his locker, as well as the pulse pistol from its little holster in the unit and checked the power pack. Fully charged, loaded, and primed. Jack slapped the pistol into his hip holster. The suit took it from his grip and held it neatly in place. Jack walked over to the rifle rack. He reached out with his left hand as he walked past, a pulse rifle sliding out and into it. Slinging the strap over his left shoulder, helmet under his right arm, Jack marched out of the Marine locker room and across to the hangar. Fully kitted, fully equipped, and ready for action.

Jack was ready for anything.

2

The chatter from the Marines died down slightly as Jack walked onto the deck, his footsteps echoing inside the hangar. The deck was large enough to accommodate enough tac boats for each company of a fully-manned battalion. Spaces for thirty-six tac boats were marked out next to the grids for the three companies of the Scorpio’s battalion. Now the hangar was virtually empty, apart from the few remaining tac boats and the three squads Jack had selected for his mission.

The Marines stood in a loose formation chatting amongst themselves. They fell into a more orderly formation when Jack stepped up in front of them, but the chatter continued.

Jack looked at the group. Some were at the position of attention, others standing casually, and too many were talking, ignoring that Jack had walked in. No doubt enthusiasm and excitement for the upcoming mission had taken control of their minds and their mouths. Jack saw a Marine here or there tug at their fellows and whisper for them to come to order.

“Squad leaders, step forward,” Jack said casually, quietly, relaxed.

Three Marines stepped forward from their squads and stepped up in front of Jack. Jack looked at each of them in turn. One looked serious, one looked far too intense, and the third had an arrogant sideways grin.

“Names?” Jack said. He heard the volume of the Marines in the squads in loose formation rise again once Jack’s attention was focused on the three squad leaders in front of him.

“Gilchrist,” the serious one said.

“Heaton,” one said through his smug little grin.

Jack looked at the third. He was stuttering, his mouth moving, but no coherent sounds were making it out. How this Marine made it to squad leader when he couldn’t even get his own name out was a mystery to Jack.

“Lane. Owen Lane, sir,” the third Marine said finally.

The noise of the three squads grew and was now quite loud. Any formation had completely dissolved, and the three squads appeared to be milling around as one crowd. Jack invited the three squad leaders to step a little closer.

“You are squad leaders.” Jack looked at each of them, and they nodded in agreement. “But I don’t see any Marine squads here, just one crowd of ill-disciplined and ill-trained rookies. Assemble my squads in good order this instant or I will fire each of you and find a squad leader who can maintain discipline.”

Jack spoke quietly, slowly, and deliberately, and with a wave of his hand, he sent the three squad leaders back to their squads.

Heaton walked over to the crowd waving his hands above his head. He spoke with an amiable tone.

“Guys. Guys. Come on, Second Squad, let’s all line up for the officer.”

Heaton walked in amongst the crowd and pushed the Marines for his squad back toward their grid on the Marine deck.

And then Gilchrist started shouting. Jack could see the veins on the side of his head popping as he shouted. His voice loud and gravelly. He went into the crowd and began shoving Marines roughly toward their squad grid.

Squad Leader Lane stood in front of the crowd, his hands behind his back. Although he stuttered slightly, his voice was loud and clear. “Third Squad. Fall in. Attention.”

Members of third squad began to leave the crowd where Heaton was still walking, coaxing, and gently shoving members of his own squad to where they bumped into the members of first squad as Gilchrist bullied them into formation.

Third squad came together in good order, standing to attention in front of Lane. He turned to face Jack once he was sure his squad was in formation.

Jack waited a few moments more while Gilchrist and Heaton formed up their squads. A little slow, a little unorthodox, but they got the job done. Jack guessed it would have to do, for now.

“Listen up, Marines.” Jack walked along the front of the groups. “We are going to be the first people to set foot on this planet. We know nothing about it, and there is danger in the unknown. I need every Marine in this group focused and disciplined. Listen to your squad leaders, and listen to me, and if you think you have a better idea, alert your squad leaders and they will relay that to me. But be decisive, keep your actions clear, and remember your training to focus on your tasks.

“Squad leaders, take your squads to your tac boats and strap in. We will be departing Scorpio in five minutes.”

Jack watched as the three squad leaders moved their squads to the tac boats in their own styles. Gilchrist shouting, Heaton cajoling, and Lane simply issuing the order.

The Marines jogged across the deck and up the boarding ramps of the waiting ships. The familiar sound of boots on the composite deck plating. Jack had run that pattern himself so many times. He watched as the squad leaders boarded the boats. Jack followed and boarded Tac Boat One.

Squad Leader Gilchrist was checking that the final Marine was secured in his seat when Jack Forge stepped inside. He tapped the control panel, and the boarding ramp began to close.

Gilchrist looked to Jack. “Do you want to pilot her, sir?” he asked.

Jack Forge shook his head as he walked toward the flight console. “You take her down, Squad Leader. I’ll scan for a landing site,” Jack said, opening a line to the other two boats. “Get ready to move off. Begin your preparations for takeoff and egress.”

Gilchrist nodded and walked to the flight deck, where he dropped into the pilot seat and began to study the controls.

Jack dropped into the copilot seat and activated the holostage on the flight console. The planet was positioned in the center of the small holostage. Jack zoomed in as far as he could and looked at the day side of the large blue planet. It looked so much like the planet where he’d grown up, or at least it did from space. Green and blue with wispy white clouds.

A message appeared on the holostage, a text from the Scorpio’s command deck. First Officer Chou advised Jack that the Scorpio was entering a high geostationary orbit above the equator on the sunward side of the planet. The planet’s rotation had been estimated to be extremely slow and one day on the surface would last over a hundred hours. It meant a day on the planet would be equivalent of ten watches of Fleet time.

“The boat is yours, Gilchrist,” Jack said. “Take us out when you’re ready.”

Jack looked over to see that Gilchrist hadn’t even begun to prep the boat for flight down to the planet surface. “Is there a problem?” Jack asked.

Gilchrist looked at Jack. His gruff demeanor was slipping, and Jack could see a lot of insecurity behind it.

“You are rated to fly a tac boat, are you not, Squad Leader? Every squad leader should be rated on tac boats. We don’t expect combat piloting skills, but you should be able to put your squad onto the surface of the planet.”

Gilchrist opened his mouth to answer but knew there was no point arguing with Major Jack Forge. Forge was a legend in the Fleet and a respected Marine. Gilchrist knew he would get no change from arguing with him.

“I can’t remember how to start,” Gilchrist said quietly. He glanced nervously over a shoulder at the squad sitting behind them, strapped into their seats, pulse rifles on their knees, helmets locked in place. “I didn’t even want to be squad leader.” Gilchrist looked down at the flight panel.

Jack sighed and began the startup procedure himself. He noticed Gilchrist had let his head drop and was staring at the console. Jack nudged him. “Pay attention. You might have to bring the tac boat back. You should at least be able to activate the onboard flight systems and have the thing autopilot you back.” Jack glanced at Gilchrist and could see the squad leader was paying attention. “How were you expecting to get down to the planet if I hadn’t come on board?”

“I was going to use the cheat manual.”

Jack looked at Gilchrist. “Cheat manual?” Having come up through the ranks, Jack thought he knew all the little tricks, but a cheat manual for tac boat pilot operation was something he’d never heard of or even thought could exist.

Gilchrist pulled a small holochip out of a pouch on his suit’s webbing and showed it to Jack. He tapped the top of the holochip and a small holofile appeared with a set of simple instructions along with diagrams of a tac boat flight console.

Jack looked at the instructions and his mouth dropped open. He read the first instruction.

“Engage drive chamber. Press third red button on the left of the large gray panel under the red dome-shaped object?” Jack grabbed the holochip from Gilchrist. “What? Who?” Jack looked again at the first operator instruction on the cheat manual. This manual had been designed for someone who didn’t even understand the basics of the flight console, let alone how to pilot a TAC boat.

“If you engage the drive chamber before you seal the plasma loop, you could end up blowing out one of the main drive assemblies. And the large dome-shaped object—” Jack pointed at the drive reactor polarization actuator panel. “—is an essential piece of equipment and you should not be going anywhere until you know exactly why it is so important and how to use it.”

Jack tucked the holochip in his suit and made a mental note to track down and destroy any and all cheat manuals that he feared were circulating around the new Marines. He finished prepping for launch and then opened a holovid feed to the other two boats. The images of Heaton and Lane appeared on the small holostage. Lane was still tapping the console in front of him. Heaton was deactivating and hiding a holofile. Another cheat manual, Jack was sure.

Jack shook his head. The Fleet Marine training for new recruits was inadequate to say the very least. Someone had tried a shortcut and gave the squad leaders an easy-to-understand manual that could really only lead to disaster.

“Tac Boats Two and Three, stop all operations. I’m accessing your flight systems from Tac Boat One. Standby.” Jack connected his boat to the onboard systems of boat two. He looked at the startup procedure that Heaton had been going through. This was not standard startup procedure. Jack could see Heaton was following some system of shortcuts. Jack canceled all the operations and reset the boat to its resting standby configuration.

Jack tapped into prep data on boat three. The first operation was correct. Jack had hope that young Lane was following the correct procedure. Jack checked all the instructions Lane had sent from the flight console to the boat systems, and apart from the time stamp showing he was taking too long, he was at least doing it correctly.

Jack opened a private channel to Lane’s ident chip.

“Continuing boat startup, Squad Leader,” Jack said. “We’ll be taking off soon. Are you able to pilot yourself?”

“Sir. Yes, sir,” Lane replied.

Jack could not hear even the slightest flicker of enthusiasm in Lane’s voice, but at least the job was being done correctly.

Jack initiated the remote access interface for boat two and began to prepare the flight system, starting them correctly. He then opened a private channel to Heaton.

“Squad Leader Heaton, do not ever use that cheat manual on one of my tac boats again. Is that clear?”

Heaton replied correctly, but his tone was flippant and, Jack felt, borderline insubordinate. Perhaps Heaton could not take the discipline of the service and could only behave in a slightly jovial and offhand manner. It didn’t necessarily mean he was a bad Marine or a bad squad leader, and Jack was prepared to give anyone a chance to prove themselves. Even though Jack suspected Heaton was not a good choice, resources were severely limited, and Jack would have to give him a chance—maybe more than one. Jack knew everyone could make a mistake. It was how you responded to that mistake that was an indication of your character rather than the mistake itself.

Jack went through the startup procedure for the two boats, then opened a channel to the other two. “Attention Squad Leaders, I’ll be taking out Tac Boat One. Tac Boat Two is programmed to run convoy with the lead. Tac Boat Three, follow in convoy and be ready to change heading on my command. Forge out.”

Jack activated the thrusters and moved the boat off the deck and out toward the hangar deck’s main doors. The holostage showed the doors slide apart. The port-side hangar opened out to show the huge super terrestrial planet ahead. The Scorpio was in orbit, and the blue planet filled Jack’s holostage.

Jack maneuvered the boat out. The holostage showed him his remote connection to boat two was stable and it was in convoy. Tac Boat Three lifted off the deck with a slight wobble and then followed slowly. Finally, the three boats left the Scorpio, slipping out into space and moving off toward the planet.

“Scorpio, this is Forge on Tac Boat One of the planetary landing advance force. We have left the Scorpio and are heading down to the planet now. Forge out.”

Captain Pretorius appeared on the holostage. His image appeared at thumbnail size shrunk down to the corner of the holostage just in front of the huge image of the blue planet.

“Copy that, Major. Have a pleasant trip. Scorpio out.”

Jack set his heading for a flat plain on the equator of the planet near the west coast of the single continent. The plain extended a hundred kilometers inland and ran the entire length of the landmass. A sandy beach two hundred kilometers long with the vast grass plain before the terrain merged into dense jungle that stretched from the equator to the tropical zones. Almost the entire sunward side of the planet showed jungle. Dense, dark green jungle.

The tac boat behind remained in perfect formation while boat three was already veering off course, rotating slightly to port and drifting off to starboard. Jack opened a channel.

“You are drifting, Lane. Is there a problem?”

Squad Leader Lane appeared on Jack’s holostage. He was flustered, his hands dancing uncertainly over the flight console. His head and eyes darted this way and that.

“I’ve got an alarm on the port-side stability field. It’s overpowered and is throwing the boat off course. I also have interference from the planet’s magnetic field, and I’ve got drive assembly instability. I think there’s asymmetry in the reactor. I’m going to have to shut everything down.”

Jack tapped into Lane’s flight systems, flipping his own boat over to autopilot. He checked the readouts on boat three and Lane was right, there was too much power running through the stability field and an asymmetry in the reactor. Jack sensed someone had been starting the boat using the cheat manual and that was throwing the calibrations on a dozen systems out of whack.

“Listen to me, Lane. No need to power down. Just recalibrate the hull stability field generator. Then deactivate drive assembly three. Your symmetry on the others is just within tolerance. We will run a full calibration and diagnostic once we get down to the planet. If you shut down now, you might not get her powered up again and will be drifting in orbit for weeks. Do you hear me, Lane?”

“Sir. Yes, sir. I’ll do as you say. But I can’t stop my TAC boat drifting off course. I’m not going to make the landing site.”

And then the signal went dead.

Jack centered the image on his holostage on the three-boat flotilla heading to the planet. Boat three suddenly veered violently off course. A drive flare erupted from one of the main assemblies, then there was a small explosion of orange plasma on the port-side stability field generator as the power surge discharged. The tac boat tumbled toward the planet.

Jack attempted to open a channel, but the system was not responding. Jack clenched his fist. Too many people were taking too many shortcuts. This was not the service he had served. This was a poor shadow of its once great power and organization. People were going to get hurt. People were going to get killed. And there was nothing Jack could do about it right now. He had two boats under his control with twenty-four raw Marines packed inside.

If any of them survived this, they would all be a lot more experienced. This would knock some of the rough edges off them all.

Jack dispatched a surveillance drone over to Tac Boat Three as it tumbled wildly out of control, falling to the planet. The surveillance drone attached to the hull just as it hit the upper atmosphere. Fire from the heat of entry poured over the boat as she fell, and the hull started to glow as it dropped through the atmosphere like an fireball. But with the surveillance drone in place, Jack would be able to keep tabs on the location of Lane and Tac Boat Three.

Jack angled the hull stability fields on boats one and two and dropped into the planet’s atmosphere.

3

Jack brought his boat down carefully onto the yellow plain, boat two landing a few meters behind. Isolating the flight systems on both, he turned to Squad Leader Gilchrist who, though he had been sitting in the pilot seat, had been just another passenger.

“Deploy your squad to the planet surface,” Jack said. “I’m going to check on the location of Tac Boat Three. Form a standard perimeter and wait for my orders.”

Jack opened the communication channel to boat two, and the image of Heaton appeared on the holostage.

“That was a rough landing,” Heaton said, smiling at Jack.

“When you address an officer, you say sir.” Jack looked at the grinning face on the holostage and felt his blood boil. It wasn’t Heaton’s fault that he hadn’t been trained correctly on the tac boat, but to criticize Jack for his piloting technique after Jack had piloted two boats down to the surface simultaneously was almost too much for him to take. The insubordination was irritating in the extreme. Jack made a mental note to send all squad leaders on an emergency remedial training course the moment he got back to the Scorpio.

Heaton’s smile wavered and then dissolved, replaced by a grim frown.

“Sir. Yes, sir.”

Heaton seemed to always either be grinning or scowling, Jack had noticed. He had only known Heaton for a few hours and already had seen more of the cocky, lackadaisical man than he would like.

“Deploy your squad to the surface,” Jack said. “Form a perimeter around the tac boats with first squad and wait for my orders.”

Jack closed the channel and released a number of microdrones from the tac boat, sending them skidding across the surface of the plain. Data streamed back into the sensor network, and a detailed map appeared on the holostage, expanding in real time as the drones swept over the yellow plain.

Jack accessed a pair of microdrones and deployed them to the east of the landing site, sending them to sweep into the jungle area and make contact with Tac Boat Three.

A channel opened on the communications panel. Jack tapped it, opened it, and the image of Squad Leader Lane appeared. The holoimage flickered, Lane’s voice crackling.

“Sir, Tac Boat Three reporting in. We made a heavy landing in dense foliage. We were able to partially stabilize before impact, but the rear starboard quarter is buried. I have ordered third squad to start digging the tac boat out so we can take off, once we make repairs to the navigation system.”

“Okay, sit tight, Lane,” Jack said.

Lane spoke, his fracturing channel making it almost impossible to be understood.

“Can—repeat th—”

Then the channel went dead.

Jack marked boat three’s location on the growing map of the landing site where boats one and two were stationed, sitting on firm, flat ground with a view to the horizon in every direction.

To the west were the sandy shores of the vast ocean. The plain stretched away a thousand kilometers north and south. A few hundred kilometers to the east was the dense jungle of the continental interior.

There was plenty of land on the continent’s western plain for the entire fleet to land. Civilian transport, military destroyers, even the huge carrier Scepter would be able to make landfall. The ships of the fleet arranged across this vast strip of land would create an instant network of cities, and if the planet proved to be as habitable as Jack’s initial assessments suggested then the fleet could immediately start a colony.

It was what everyone had been hoping for such a long time.

Jack stepped out onto the planet surface. The feeling of solid ground beneath his feet was strange at first. He had been adrift in space with the fleet for so long that only the deck plates and grav fields of the various fleet ships had been there to give him the illusion of solid ground beneath his feet. But this was real, he could almost feel the hundreds of thousands of kilometers of rock deep beneath him.

And even the gravity had that unmistakable authentic feel to it. Artificial gravity always had a slightly tenuous and inconsistent feeling. One deck plate could generate a slightly lighter or stronger field than another, and sometimes the grav field only reached up to knee height. Jack had become used to walking in the slightly-fluctuating gravity fields. He’d become accustomed to the changes. But here, gravity was consistent and persistent. He wanted to drop to his knees to run his hands over the surface, to feel the solid surface, to touch the planet with his hands.

He walked over to the two squad leaders, Heaton and Gilchrist, who were standing idly while their squads milling around, studying the ground, the sky, the horizon. Helmets and rifles lay in untidy heaps. Jack had never seen such an indisciplined group.

“Marines, suit up,” Jack marched from one group to another calling out his orders. “Pick up your rifles. Form a perimeter, one hundred meters from the tac boats.” He grabbed one Marine who was staring at him and shoved him toward a helmet abandoned on the plain. “You need to be ready. We don’t know what to expect down here. Suit up and look alive.”

Heaton walked over and called out to Jack.

“Sir,” Heaton said with a mild tone of insubordination. “There’s nothing here. This is just some barren rock, as far as the eye can see. No danger here. I ordered my squad to relax.”

Jack stepped up in front of Heaton. The squad leader was taller than Jack by a head and shoulders. Jack looked up at the big, grinning man. The only thing Jack was afraid of on this planet was that which he could not yet see.

“I ordered you to arrange your squad in a perimeter around the tac boats. Do it now or there will be consequences.”

“Consequences?” Heaton laughed. “This is a new world. I’m a volunteer. You can’t order me around like this. I have rights.”

This was dangerous territory—an ill-disciplined and poorly-trained force loose on a new planet with a squad leader who was being openly insubordinate to Jack. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Jack needed to stop it right now.

“You are hereby demoted.” Jack looked up at Heaton, his hands behind his back, chin out. “I’ll take over until I can find a squad leader capable of doing the job.”

Heaton laughed. “My squad chose me. I think they’d rather listen to me.”

“This is not a democracy. This is a Marine expeditionary force. You will obey orders, or you will suffer military justice.” Jack unclipped his pulse pistol from his hip holster. He felt the grip in his hand. He was a fraction away from raising it and pointing it at Heaton’s forehead. “Your insubordination is toxic, Heaton,” Jack said, stepping closer so they were toe-to-toe. “I am in command here, these Marines are all my responsibility, and if there’s a problem, I will fix it. If you are my problem, I will fix you. Am I clear?”

Heaton snarled and shoved Jack back, both hands thrusting against Jack’s chest.

“Krav you, soldier boy. I quit.”

Jack drew his pulse pistol in a flash. As he raised the weapon, he set the power to deliver a low-yield pulse. He took aim at Heaton’s forehead, aiming directly between the eyes that in the last moment saw the consequences of insubordination.

Jack pulled the trigger.

Heaton’s face froze as the pulse round struck. The expression of disbelief that Jack had drawn his weapon was frozen on Heaton’s face as the low-yield round surged through his nervous system. He fell in an untidy heap on the dusty ground. Jack stepped up and grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head up close. Jack checked Heaton’s eyes. He was barely conscious. His eyes rolling back in his head, the pupils dilated, almost filling his irises so he appeared to have entirely black eyes.

Jack dropped Heaton back to the ground and turned to Gilchrist, who was staring open-mouthed at Jack. The Marines standing around the landing site with the dust still swirling all stared in surprise, horror, and disbelief. Several started slowly to gather their helmets and rifles and soon were formed up almost like a proper group of Marines.

“Squad Leader Gilchrist,” Jack called the man over with a wave of his hand. He pointed at Heaton on the ground, who was groaning and starting to come around. “Secure the prisoner and make sure he’s out of harm’s way. The restraining pod in the back of the tac boat, do you know how to use it?”

Gilchrist shook his head. “No, sir. I only just finished flight training. I don’t know the other tac boat systems yet.”

Jack realized he was rolling his eyes. Completed flight training was a joke. Gilchrist couldn’t even start the machine. If the squad leaders didn’t know how to fly a tac boat, then they probably didn’t know how the weapon systems worked. He wondered if they were able to use their pulse rifles. These men, although armed and equipped like Marines, were not even close to the real thing, and they were all a danger to themselves and those around them.

A voice behind Jack spoke up, a small, reedy voice of a young man.

“Sir, I know tac boats.”

Jack turned around and found himself facing a small, sandy-haired boy. He could only have just reached adulthood.

“What is your name, Marine?”

“Tim,” the young man said. A ripple of laughter from the nervous Marines.

“And do you know how to secure this man on Tac Boat One?”

Tim nodded.

Jack turned to Gilchrist. “Assist Tim, Squad Leader. You will be in charge of both squads. Tim here will assist you in your duties. Is that clear?”

Gilchrist nodded at Jack and then looked down at Heaton, who was beginning to climb up onto his hands and knees, groaning like a bear waking from hibernation.

“How do you address an officer?” Jack said, a little kinder to Gilchrist.

“Sir. Yes, sir,” Gilchrist replied quickly, and then he grabbed Heaton by the shoulder and dragged him up onto his feet.

With Gilchrist and Tim taking Heaton to be secured, Jack turned to the Marines.

“A line here,” Jack said, drawing a line in the air in front of him. The Marines shambled into position. They moved awkwardly and uncertainly, but at least they moved, and at least they all had their pulse rifles and helmets with them now. Jack walked along the line and pushed them into neat order, and then he stepped back to address both squads, all ten of the men before him.

“If this were a combat situation, we would all be dead by now. I’ve worked with some of the best Marines ever to wear the uniform. I’m not saying you all can’t become useful members of the Fleet Marine Service, but right now, you are a danger to yourselves and others. Present arms.”

The line of Marines swung their pulse rifles in front of them, holding them vertically with both hands.

Well, one thing that seems to have stuck is how to present arms, Jack thought as he walked along the line checking everyone’s pulse rifle. All were fully charged and ready for action. A charged pulse rifle in untrained hands was a dangerous thing, and Jack could not trust these people at all, at least not yet.

“All Marines, deactivate electron bayonet systems,” Jack said he stepped back and watched. All Marines shifted their left hand to the top of their rifle. They decoupled the electron bayonet power system and held it aside from the rifle. Jack went to the line and pointed at the Marine on the end of the line.

“You’ve got the duty, Marine. Gather all electron bayonet charge packs and deposit them in Tac Boat One.”

Jack stepped back and watched as the Marine went along the line, gathering the fist-sized power packs. The Fleet Marine pulse rifle would still be a formidable weapon, but Jack could not risk any of these ill-trained Marines accidentally activating the electron bayonet and skewering one of their own colleagues.

A light chirping sound from Jack’s wrist alerted him that he had an incoming message. Jack glanced at his wrist-mounted holostage and saw an incoming message from the Scorpio. He activated the holostage and the image of Captain Pretorius appeared.

“Captain,” Jack said. “Can you give me just one brief moment, please, sir?”

Pretorius nodded and canceled the message, his holoimage vanishing. Jack walked over to the line of Marines as the electron bayonet power packs were delivered to Tac Boat One. Gilchrist and Tim were returning from securing their prisoner. Jack called Gilchrist over.

“Create a perimeter, one hundred meters all directions. Access the sensor network and display all tactical data on every Marine’s enhanced data view. Helmets must be worn at all times. Watch the horizon for movement and await my orders.”

Squad Leader Gilchrist saluted and acknowledged the order. He walked over to the line of Marines and began barking the orders to deploy the group. Jack watched for a moment as Gilchrist urged the squads into action. Concerned that Gilchrist was just the loudest voice rather than a good choice for squad leader, his concerns were assuaged when he saw Gilchrist delegate a duty to young Tim. At least Gilchrist knew how to use his people, even if he didn’t yet know how to speak to them.

Jack turned away and walked toward the tac boats. He raised his wrist and activated the channel back to the Scorpio.

Captain Pretorius appeared on Jack’s holostage, the image of the captain flickering in the warm air rising from the yellow plain. Fragments of grass and dust floated through the holoimage, scattering the light, but Jack could see Pretorius was smiling.

“Is everything all right down there, Jack?”

“If I said ‘yes,’ I’d be lying,” Jack said, “but if I say ‘no,’ you’d worry.”

Pretorius laughed and nodded. “You are going to be on your own for a while, Jack. Is that going to be a problem?”

Jack shook his head. “No, sir. I think I have it under control.”

“The Scorpio has been ordered to a moon around a gas giant of the outer system. We’ve detected lakes of dense hydrocarbons on the surface. The Scorpio has been ordered to pump as much of it off the surface as we can. It’ll be good fuel to get us started on planet Blue.”

“Hydrocarbons?” Jack said. He leaned against the tac boat and held up his arm to look at the holoimage of Pretorius. “Isn’t that dirty stuff?”

“Yes, it’s not ideal, but the fleet’s in a bit of a mess. We can use it to get ourselves back on our feet. And it looks like we will be setting down on planet Blue. I have just had word from the Canis and the Aquarius. They have only encountered dead planets. Lava lakes, super-dense terrestrials, toxic atmospheres. They did find a couple of moons that might be suitable for the shortest of pitstops, but nothing like we have found here. The fleet is regrouping in the Scorpio System. The civilian transports are all really struggling, engine systems going offline. The Scepter is basically towing the entire civilian fleet to the system. The Canis and Aquarius will be in orbit above Blue before long. It looks like you found us a new home, Jack, and you’re the first people to set foot on our new home. Maybe they’ll name the planet after you.”

“Planet Jack?” Jack shook his head. “Somehow I don’t think so. Blue sounds pretty good to me. That would be my suggestion.”

“I’ll make sure I send that upstairs to the top brass. The Scorpio is leaving orbit now. See you soon, my boy.”

As the image of Pretorius drifted away, Jack pushed away from the hull of the tac boat. He could hear Heaton shouting from inside the boat, calling out all his raging indignity at being held captive. Every curse and slur he shouted reinforced Jack’s opinion that the man was not fit to be a Marine, much less a squad leader.

Jack found it easy to ignore Heaton’s shouting as he walked further out onto the plain. He could see the Marines arranged around the landing site in a wide perimeter, one hundred meters out from the landing site, evenly spaced in a wide circle all looking out to the distance.

Jack checked the wider area on the holomap displayed on his wrist. The microdrones racing out were hundreds of kilometers away by now, feeding data back to the sensor network. The westernmost drones had made it to the coast, and the holoimage showed him white breaking waves lapping against a pale sandy shore. To the north and the south, there was nothing but vast flat plains of short, yellow, grass.

To the east, the microdrones had entered the jungle. Their progress slowed as they mapped and charted every knot and twist of branch and leaf. The leaves were a deep green, almost blue, and some nearly black. The jungle was dark and dense. Jack halted the spread of the microdrones and called them to hold their positions. All around, there was nothing but empty land populated only by the yellow grass and the deep, dark jungle.

A message from Squad Leader Lane appeared on Jack’s holostage, and he opened it. It was sputtering and broken, cutting out for a moment before resetting.

“Sir, we have freed the boat from the ground. The drive assembly is free, but I can’t restore power. There is a serious problem with the onboard systems. We are stranded, sir.”

“Stand by, Squad Leader. We will bring a tac boat and extract your squad. We can repair your boat once the fleet arrives in orbit. Form a close perimeter and sit tight. We’re on our way.”

Jack canceled the call to Lane and located Gilchrist. He was away to the south, checking on the perimeter guard at that location. Jack opened a channel to Gilchrist.

“Meet me at Tac Boat One.”

Gilchrist replied in the affirmative. Jack saw the distant dark speck of Gilchrist running back toward the landing site from the distant southern perimeter guard. He walked out to meet him, pausing in the wide-open space, the boats far behind him. Jack breathed deeply, the air was clean, and he could almost smell the salty spray from the waves crashing on the sandy shore miles to the west. He felt light and at ease. He checked the locations of all the Marines of first and second squads. He scanned the horizon in three hundred and sixty degrees. The ident data of each Marine appeared on his enhanced data view, projected on the faceplate of his helmet as he turned and scanned the horizon. Of all the Marines, barely any had active experience, and all were novices in the field.

We are very fortunate, Jack thought, that there is no threat…yet.

Gilchrist came forward in huge leaping bounds, using his tactical suit’s local grav field generator and onboard thrusters to cover the ground in moments. He landed, slightly awkwardly, losing his footing and falling to the ground but rescuing himself by landing on one knee and both hands.

“Maybe some practice with tactical suit’s rapid advance systems when we get back to the Scorpio?” Jack chuckled, helping Gilchrist to his feet.

“Yes, sir,” Gilchrist said.

Jack heard the slight quiver in Gilchrist’s voice, embarrassed at his somewhat clumsy landing, before he continued, a little stronger this time.

“Yes, sir. I think we could all do with a little more training.”

“Well, consider this your first training assignment,” Jack said. “Third squad is crashed in the jungle five hundred kilometers to the east. The jungle is far too dense to attempt to walk out of there. I’m going to have to take Tac Boat Two and extract the squad to bring them back to the landing site here. You will be senior Marine while I’m away. Can you handle it?”

Gilchrist nodded. “I won’t let you down, sir.”

Jack nodded. He wanted to believe in Gilchrist, though right now, he had no option but to trust the squad leader. Jack remembered his first days as a Marine. An alien attack on the training base had thrown Jack straight into the deep end. It had turned him and his training squad into seasoned Marines overnight, and Jack had only been a Marine a short time before he was given the responsibility of squad leader. If Jack could do it, he was sure anyone with any sort of competence could.

“All you have to do is maintain the perimeter. Keep a watch for any danger and use the microdrones and the sensor net to keep a close watch. I will be back in a short while, and the fleet will be arriving in orbit soon, as the first of the civilian ships will be touching down at the landing site. You might find yourself in a lot of company very quickly.”

Jack left Gilchrist standing alone on the plain and walked over to Tac Boat Two. He climbed in and went directly to the flight console, starting the boat in moments and lifting off a moment later. He set his heading for the crashed boat in the jungle and activated the main drive.

“Major Forge,” Lane said over the communication console. “My microdrone surveillance perimeter has reported movement in the jungle. We have animal lifeforms moving in on all sides.”

“Fall back and take cover inside your boat, Squad Leader,” Jack said. He accessed boat three’s surveillance net and called up the movement data from the microdrones.

In the dense black jungle with its twisted vines and branches, Jack saw the flicker of movement—a dark shape moving easily through the tangled trees. Jack identified the portion of the holoimage and zoomed in to get a better view of the shape. It was roughly the size and shape of a man, and it was cloaked in a shimmering sheet. Long arms with three long fingers at the end gripped the branches as it moved forward. The lower limbs ended with a similar three-fingered shape as the other hand, and three long toes gripped branches as it moved.

The shape was cleverly camouflaged and hidden by the trees. Jack switched to a live view from one of the microdrones, and he created a composite image of the body and displayed it on the holostage. The head of the swinging jungle creature was covered with a large, dark shimmering hood, but the shape within could be discerned. A wide face with large, dark eyes. A wide, straight horizontal slit for a mouth and in between the eyes, a deep dark gash where a human’s nose might be.

And then over the open communication channel, Jack heard Lane’s panicked voice.

“They’re everywhere! They took Jackson! Fall back! There’s too many! Open fire!”

The channel cut out again. Jack tried to restore the feed, but it was dead. The atmospheric and magnetic anomaly interference had intensified and cut it off. Jack pushed the boat to greater speed. He lowered the tac boat and skimmed the tops of the trees, racing toward his stranded squad deep in the dark jungles of planet Blue.

4

Lou Beretta sat back on the recliner in the cabin of his civilian cruiser. It used to be a small recreational vehicle for a family, but now it was his lifeboat. He skirted between the civilian ships of the fleet, making sure always to stay in the sensor shadow of one of the huge transports, staying out of view of both the military and Fleet Intelligence.

Having escaped from custody after his arrest by Fleet Intelligence, with the help of his criminal gang, he was determined not to be taken into custody again. But that meant he was stuck on this little cruiser. He couldn’t risk stepping foot on a transport and being detected by the surveillance net. It was not the life he was used to. It was no way to live at all. He hated it.

Every system that had been installed on this civilian recreational holiday vehicle was there to provide comfort for the passengers, but all had failed or were failing. The small galley was way out of order. The shower unit was leaking, when he had enough water to take a shower, and the cruiser reeked of his two-man crew. They were two of the brightest of his criminal thugs, but certainly not the cleanest.

Ivan and Titch had secured the civilian cruiser from its former owners, and now it was part of Beretta’s criminal empire. This part of his empire was tiny, only big enough to carry Beretta and his two new tenants, but his empire was bigger than anyone in Fleet Intelligence realized. He had cells on every civilian transport, hundreds of associates on dozens of ships, even some in the newly-recruited Fleet Marine Service. Beretta was the single most powerful man outside of the military.

But he was trapped on this tiny ship. It was just not worthy of him.

As the three destroyers headed off to survey various stellar systems, Beretta found he was more easily able to move through the fleet with only the Scepter still in formation with the civilian craft. Although the fighter Blades still flew their combat patrols, Lou Beretta knew he could stay out of sight.

Microdrones attached to the hull of the three destroyers fed back data on their locations. One, the Scorpio, had discovered a habitable planet. Beretta sifted through the data excitedly. It looked like the destroyer was leaving orbit, leaving a detachment on the planet.

“That’s the one,” Beretta said. “That’s where we are going.” Beretta stood up and picked his way through the trash that littered the cabin, stepping up to the flight deck at the front of the cruiser. He grabbed Ivan by the shoulder and pulled him out of the pilot’s seat.

Beretta set a course for the blue planet.

“You want to go somewhere, boss?” Ivan said in his deep, stumbling voice.

“That destroyer has dispatched tac boats to the surface of the blue planet.”

“Marines,” Titch said. “We want to stay away from them. Right, boss?”

“If they were any good, sure. But do you think they are going to send the best and brightest down to look at the planet and leave their precious destroyer unguarded? I don’t think so. I bet all we got down there is a bunch of kids and old men. And the tac boats are fresh for the taking. We can get rid of this old bucket and pick ourselves up a new flagship for the Beretta fleet.”

Beretta positioned his cruiser in the sensor shadow of one of the civilian transports on the edge of the formation and then leapt away toward the blue planet around the blue giant. As he neared the system, he intercepted transmissions between the Marines on the surface and the destroyer moving away from planetary orbit, its heading taking it toward one of the system’s gas giants.

Beretta recognized the voice of the Marine on the planet, and it sent a shiver down his spine, a shiver of excitement and anticipation.

“Jack Forge,” Beretta breathed, his voice quivering over the name as he imagined getting one over on the Marine that had killed his friend and most trusted gangster.

“Isn’t he the Marine that killed Lars?” Ivan said.

“That’s the one,” Beretta said. He watched as the planet drew closer on the cruiser’s holostage.

“You want we should call in some guys and finish this Marine?” Titch said, his voice chattering like a rat.

“If the opportunity presents itself, I sure would like that. But look here.” Beretta flicked to the intercepted data coming from the planet. “Three tac boats on the surface, and one of them is currently sitting on this wide-open plain. One is lost in this jungle area, and then there’s this one in the air. I say we drop down next to the first and take it for our own.”

“What about this one, boss?” Ivan asked. “Don’t you like the old bus? She’s a beauty.”

“When she was new, she was average at best.” Beretta cut the drive and let the blue planet’s gravity pull the ship down. “Now it’s only got one more use. I think it would make one hell of a bang, don’t you?” Beretta adjusted his heading with a few flicks of the thrusters and set his heading toward the ship on the plain. “Grab a couple of weapons and get ready. Things could get hot down there.”

The cruiser slammed into the atmosphere. Alarms across the flight console caused Titch to become animated and anxious.

“She’s burning up, boss. We have to slow down.”

“No, she’s fine. She’ll make it. I’ll just put us down next to that tac boat and we can be away.”

“But if there’s a tac boat, there will be Marines. They’ll shoot at us,” Ivan said, crashing through the trash in the cabin.

“Easy, big fella. No one’s going to shoot at you.” Beretta made a few adjustments to the falling cruiser’s course.

“How can you be so sure?” Titch said in his reedy voice.

“Because they can’t shoot at what they can’t see,” Beretta said and sent the last reserves of energy to the thrusters.

The cruiser came tearing through to the lower atmosphere and skirted across the waves over the ocean to the west of the single tac boat on the yellow grassy plain. Beretta pushed the cruiser as low as he dared. The sea boiled underneath the red-hot hull of the cruiser. He sucked in the boiling water vapor as he raced toward the coast. With the craft only a few hundred meters ahead, Beretta banked and raced over the heads of the nearest Marine. He drew a billowing cloud of boiling water vapor and burning hull composite fragments behind him.

The cruiser was on the point of breaking apart, but just before the forward view screen failed, Beretta saw the Marines stationed in a wide perimeter around the tac boat open fire. They poured pulse rifle rounds into his burning meteorite of a ship. Beretta pressed the ship even lower, setting the grass on fire, only for it to be extinguished by the boiling clouds of vapor pouring off the sea in his wake. And then he slammed the ship into the ground. The hull stability field only just survived, only just protecting the three occupants of the craft.

As the cruiser skidded to a halt, digging a deep trench in the light dirt, Beretta was out of his seat and grabbing hold of his pulse rifle, one he had liberated from a Fleet Intelligence enforcer when he had last been under arrest. He activated the electron bayonet and thrust the meter-long fizzing blade into the side of the cruiser, cutting his way out of the melting ship.

“Let’s go,” Beretta said, kicking out the panel he’d cut in the hull. He dropped out of the transport and landed on the planet.

Beretta knew he was a good pilot, but seeing how close he had brought the cruiser to the tac boat impressed even him. He was only a few strides away. In the distance, he could see Marines running back toward the boat.

Titch dropped out of the hole in the side of the civilian cruiser and immediately gave fire with his pulse rifle. He poured a sustained fire toward the distant targets. Beretta grabbed Titch by the neck and dragged him.

“They are too far away for you to hit,” Beretta said, shoving Titch toward the boat’s open boarding ramp.

Ivan dropped out of the cruiser last and ran to catch up with Beretta. The big man was slow. He was a heavy hitter, and Beretta was impressed with the man’s stamina, but he could not run. There was always a danger he would be left behind.

“Don’t wait for me,” Ivan said through huge heaving breaths, his deep voice echoing off the side of the vessel in front of Beretta.

Beretta waved Ivan to him, encouraging him to run faster and catch up. He threw Titch at the boarding ramp and shouted after him.

“Get this thing started. I want to be off the deck in thirty seconds.”

The nearest Marines were only a few meters away now, leaping through the sky using their anti-grav systems and thruster jets to clear the space in moments. Beretta took aim at the closest and laid down a stream of fire. The return fire came in from the leaping Marines, but their aim was inaccurate, and the pulse rounds slammed harmlessly into the ground a dozen meters in front of Beretta as Ivan came lumbering forward.

The whine of the tac boat systems coming to life told Beretta that Titch was at the controls and the ship was ready to go. He stepped up onto the boarding ramp and urged Ivan to run, the big man’s red face eager and excited.

Streams of pulse rounds tore through the yellow grass and cut across Ivan’s trailing leg. He went sprawling through the dirt and shouting in pain as another stream of pulse rounds slammed into his back, punching huge wounds into the big man’s back.

Beretta turned his back and stepped up the boarding ramp. He hit the panel to close the boarding ramp and called out to Titch to take off.

“What about Ivan?” Titch said.

“What about him?” Beretta said. “He was always too damn slow, that one. Get us out of here, Titch.”

Beretta felt the tac boat leap into the air and race away. He turned and looked at his new ship. A Fleet Marine tac boat, no less. Fully kitted, fully armed, and fully functional.

And occupied.

“What do we have here?” Beretta said, looking at the Marine strapped into the restraints at the back of the cabin. “It looks like we have a passenger.”

“Yeah,” Titch said. “I saw the scroat, but I didn’t have time to kill him yet. Looks like they got him strapped in good. You want me to throw him out when we get into orbit?”

Beretta stepped back and looked at the Marine. He smiled.

“I know you,” Heaton said. “You are Lou Beretta. You run the boxing, the cards, the liquor. You’re a legend.”

“And you’re about to become history,” Beretta said easily. He turned his back on Heaton and looked at the laser assembly control bay on the side of the boat.

Beretta accessed the targeting systems for the lasers and targeted the burning cruiser that had been his home, and his prison, for far too long. He activated a high-yield pulse and fired. The small targeting screen on the weapons panel showed him the destruction below. The cruiser, half-molten and smoldering from its rapid entry flight, erupted as the laser struck, vaporizing the cruiser and punching a crater a hundred meters across into the planet’s surface.

Beretta turned again to the Marine captive in the back of the tac boat.

“Or would it be better to keep you alive?” Beretta wondered aloud. “Tell me, what is a Marine doing under arrest? And has he got anything to do with Jack Forge?”

“Jack Forge,” Heaton said, nodding nervously. “Yes, he put me here. Is he a friend of yours?”

Beretta laughed. He walked over and patted the Marine heavily on the cheek.

“Something like that. Now tell me, what’s your name?”

5

The crash of the foliage, vines, and branches, all slashing against the outside of the tac boat, echoed around the flight deck as the sturdy craft tore through the jungle, heading toward the ground. The forward view displayed on the holostage flickered wildly. A report from the communication systems informed Jack that local gravity field variability and a wildly-fluctuating geomagnetic field was interfering with communications.

The boat lurched violently to one side, throwing Jack about in his seat. The starboard thruster assembly flared, instructions from the flight management system becoming scrambled. Jack compensated, using the holostage image to help him steady the boat. Then the holoimage flickered and vanished. Jack was flying blind. Using his own balance as a guide, he kicked in the reverse thrusters and stabilized the boat’s descent. The holostage flickered back on for a moment and Jack saw the bright reflector of Tac Boat Three half-buried in thick jungle soil. Flickering over the image, Jack could see the unmistakable signal of pulse rifle fire flickering out from the tac boat and into the jungle in all directions.

The tac boat kicked sideways as the port thruster assembly cut out. Jack rocked violently in his seat. The sudden variance in the local gravity field caused the boat to drop ten meters in less than a second, and Jack felt himself lift out of his seat. The readout on the flight panel showed Jack was a hundred meters from the surface, but he did not know if he could trust the readings on the constantly-flickering instrument panel. The boat was descending at a slow rate now as the branches and foliage all around slowed his descent. He knew the tac boat could take a crash landing from this height and be fine, so he activated an emergency shutdown of all systems.

Jack flipped open the panel for the system-wide deactivation control and pressed the small button. He pressed it firmly and it replied with a satisfyingly loud click. And in that moment, the boat went dark.

Jack felt himself lifting out of the seat again as the tac boat fell. He felt it roll, caught on the side of a tree trunk. It tumbled over completely. Jack activated his tactical suit’s onboard stability field to keep him in the seat, but he knew he was upside-down. Then the boat lurched forward and stopped violently, the craft’s blunt nose slamming hard into the ground.

Jack climbed out of his seat and realized the boat was lying at an angle, pitched forward and dipping slightly to the port side. The boarding ramp on the starboard side opened to show Jack a view through the jungle foliage to the canopy above. The sky was barely visible through the thick overlapping branches and leaves of the deep green and black foliage.

Jack heard pulse rifle fire and the shouts of panicked Marines. He climbed onto the side of his boat and saw Tac Boat Three, its drive section partially buried in the thick soil, surrounded by Marines firing wildly into the jungle.

Sudden movement in the trees caught Jack’s attention. He saw the creature coming toward him at speed, half-falling, half-swimming through the trees—a dark, green creature with a shimmering cloak covering its head and body. It moved easily, its hands and feet gripping the hanging branches as it swung through the foliage. The creature snarled at Jack as it came in for an attack.

As the creature came closer, Jack could see the features buried in its deep hood. In those shadows, Jack could see the wide mouth open to present rows of jagged teeth. The creature let out a piercing cry as it swung forward.

The creature raised one hand, the three slender fingers gripping a primitive weapon—a short, thick stick with a stone head fastened to one end with a crisscross arrangement of sinew and string.

Jack drew his pulse pistol and took aim at the creature as it came within a few meters. This primitive shrieking thing would be no match for his Fleet Marine tactical suit, or his pulse pistol.

Jack fired a low-yield pulse into its body. The energy from the pulse crackled and dispersed over the cloak that the green-skinned creature wore. And still it came forward, bringing back its stone-headed club ready to strike.

Jack brought up his left arm to fend off the blow, fully confident that his tactical suit could take a blow from the primitive weapon. The tactical suit could deflect micro meteorites traveling at several thousand meters-per-second, so it should have no difficulty with this handheld club.

The club struck Jack’s forearm. The impact itself was negligible, but the shower of electrical force that erupted from the impact sent Jack hurtling backwards, thrown aside by the force of the sudden electrical discharge. He dropped back into the tac boat.

And the creature dropped in on top of him.

As the creature dropped into the boat, its hood fell back and Jack was staring into the smooth, green face of the wild creature. Its wide, round, black eyes sat above the gruesome horizontal slit filled with razor-sharp teeth. The eyes glistened, and the teeth sparkled as the creature fell on top of him. The side of the head was smooth with a series of red fleshy strips where human ears might be. Its neck was thick and muscular, and Jack saw tiny discharges of electrical energy flicker around the creature’s throat.

The creature grabbed Jack with its feet, the three long toes gripping his arms and pinning him to the deck. It raised its stone-headed club high above its head with both hands, staring down at Jack, a thick dribble of slime running from the creature’s wide mouth.

Jack set his pulse pistol to high-yield rounds. With a flick of his wrist, he activated the electron blade. He twisted his arm to point the pistol up at the creature. The electron blade touched the ankle near the long, snakelike toes gripping his forearm. As the electron blade touched, the creature was flung away as an eruption of sparks and a sharp electric jolt ripped between the two.

Jack’s arm slammed back into the tac boat’s hull, the pulse pistol lost from his grip. The creature shrieked as it was flung back by the force of the discharge, then it leapt up and grabbed the open boarding ramp above with both hands, the club now gripped in its right foot. It snarled at Jack and then climbed out of the tac boat. Jack saw the dark shape swing off into the jungle.

He quickly got up and scrambled over to his pulse pistol. He deactivated the electron blade that was slowly beginning to burn a hole in the deck plate where it sat. Jack set his suit’s local gravity field to a low level and leapt up through the opening, floating up through the trees that surrounded the tac boat.

Lowering himself back down to the tac boat, he stood on the port-side hull. He scanned the jungle for any sign of the creature and released a microdrone to keep watch and give him an early warning, but the drone’s connection to his wrist-mounted holostage was intermittent at best. Jack would have to rely on his own vision, and his own instinct for approaching danger.

Standing on the side of his boat, Jack looked over to boat three, where the Marines were huddled around one side with their electron bayonets activated. They had created a small defensive formation with the meter-long electron blades sticking out on all sides.

Jack watched as one of the tree creatures went swimming in through the foliage and leapt screaming, feet first with its axe high above its head, and tried to break into the defensive formation the Marines had formed.

The creature struck one of the electron blades, and the sharp explosion with the sound of an electric twang cut through Jack’s suit. He felt his hair stand on end. The Marine holding the pulse rifle was thrown back to the ground while the green jungle creature was flung away with force, its cloak falling away to reveal its smooth, dark green skin.

Jack looked down at the Marines. One was looking up at him and waving his left hand above his head to signal to Jack that the squad was ready to move. Jack opened a communication channel to the group, but his suit’s communications were dropping in and out. Jack canceled the channel and shouted down.

“Let’s go, Marines! We’re leaving.” Jack waved the Marines over then turned to check his back, sure a fresh attack would be coming at any moment. He did not have to wait long before three of the dark green creatures came swinging toward him. One was twirling a slingshot in its right hand. It released the sling, and a small projectile came flicking through the air toward Jack, small force lines sparking off the projectile as it tumbled forward. Jack turned away, lifting his left arm to fend off the item. It struck him on the elbow with the huge electric twang that sent his left arm and shoulder slamming back into his body, knocking him off his feet.

Jack brought his pulse pistol around as he fell and fired a stream of high-yield pulse rounds into the oncoming creatures.

The first creature took a blow and fell out of formation, but the other two kept swinging. One of them was already twirling a slingshot ready to release another shot. Jack poured another blast of pulse fire into them and sent another one spinning away from the electrical explosion. Then the Marines from third squad were clambering up onto his tac boat and their electron bayonets seemed to scare off the last of the creatures.

“Get aboard, Marines. Lane, take the copilot seat. The rest of you strap in.”

With the Marines piling in through the boarding ramp on the sideways tac boat, Jack could see deep in the jungle. All around were the slight movements of the jungle creatures slowly circling. Swinging lightly from one branch to another or sitting on high branches and staring, they all snarled and hissed at the group. With the last of the Marines aboard, Jack dropped into the boat. Looking up through the open boarding ramp, he could see dozens of the creatures swimming toward him through the foliage. He raised his pulse pistol with his right hand and slapped the boarding ramp control panel with his left. The boarding ramp began to close. Through the narrowing gap, Jack saw twenty or thirty, maybe even forty or more move in. With the boarding ramp finally sealed, Jack heard the patter of feet over the outer hull.

Because the tac boat was lying on its side, Jack half-climbed, half-crawled toward the flight deck.

“Keep an eye on that boarding ramp, Marines. Don’t let any of them in here.”

Jack dropped into the pilot seat and held himself in position with his grav field, stopping himself from sliding sideways into the copilot seat. He deactivated the emergency shutdown system and made ready to charge the drive.

Squad Leader Lane turned to Jack.

“It wasn’t my tac boat that was the problem. It’s the local gravity field in this region. There is a magnetic anomaly that was interfering with my systems. That’s why I crashed.” Lane turned back to the flight console and helped Jack prep for takeoff. “I’m not that bad of a pilot, I don’t think. It was my best skill in training. I’m sure that’s the only reason they made me squad leader. It’s lucky for me I have a good squad that are ready to do the right thing. I’m only their squad leader because they let me be.”

“That’s fascinating, Squad Leader,” Jack said. “But this is hardly the time for a performance review. I understand the problems with the magnetic fields in this region from my flight and landing, and how the weapons behaved. The thrusters are too unreliable in this area. The only way I’m going to get this boat out of here is by using the main drive assembly.”

“Main drive should only be used in outer space,” Lane said, his voice showing his surprise and concern. “We can’t use the main drive here.”

“If we don’t use the main drive, we’ll be stranded, and I don’t like our chances of walking out of here with those tree sharks out there. Hold on, Marines. Engaging main drive now.”

The roar of the main drive filled the tac boat. Jack was thrust back into his seat as the drive kicked in, and he felt the pressure threaten to crush him. The powerful main drive sent the boat racing forward through the jungle, its nose plowing through the thick ground cover. Jack angled until the front came up and began skidding over the surface. Finally, the nose came up off the ground. Jack angled the drive to its maximum tilt and directed its thrust down to throw the tac boat up. Tearing through the jungle, ripping through the branches that crisscrossed across its path, the craft raced away from the surface.

The flight console panel flickered, stabilized, and came back to life. All systems reported back to the flight deck and Jack could see that the tac boat had taken a beating. Yellow lights appeared on all systems indicating they needed attention. Thankfully, very few red warning lights appeared, most of them for the thruster assembly that had blown out during his landing. Jack reset the maintenance schedule and bypassed the diagnostic and calibration routines, allowing him access to all functioning systems, no matter how battered they were.

With the navigation systems open, Jack set a course back to the original landing zone on the plain. The holostage came back online, and Jack could see the jungle below him. From this distance, it looked like a beautiful soft covering, so alive and so beautiful, but filled with dread for anyone not ready to take on the deep jungle.

“Set course for the landing site where Tac Boat One is waiting,” Jack said to Lane. “Show me these piloting skills, Squad Leader.”

Jack sat back and took off his helmet. He felt a dribble of sweat on his upper lip. He raised his fingers to his nose and mouth and rubbed it away, but when he pulled his hand away, he saw the blood on his gauntlet-covered hand.

Maybe the impact of the electrical shocks from the tree creatures’ weapons had ruptured a blood vessel? His nose was bleeding steadily.

“Listen up, Marines. Check yourselves for bleeding. Use your tactical suits’ onboard medical package to identify any bleeding and administer first aid.”

Jack looked back at the Marines. Even though they were all fully kitted out in their tactical suits, Jack could sense the distress at having been attacked by such a strange enemy. He pulled on his own helmet and accessed med data on the squad. Bio readings flashed up on Jack’s enhanced data view and showed him that all were suffering from minor injuries: a sprained wrist, a mild concussion, even a broken finger. But each was bleeding from the nose, and all showed signs of heightened stress. Jack accessed the squad med package and administered a mild sedative. If this was a well-trained squad of Marines, they would be able to cope with the stress of having suffered an attack, but these were new recruits and had never been in the field before. Their training was wholly inadequate, and Jack could not expect them to take this without some reaction. A mild sedative would calm everyone down and they might be able to act with clear thinking for the rest of the ground mission.

Seeing the squad relax, their heart rates showing that the mild sedative had taken the edge off their distress, Jack relaxed as well. His own med data showed a slightly erratic heartbeat, but that was probably due to electrical disruption to his system rather than anxiety. Of course Jack had been afraid when the creatures attacked him, but Jack knew and understood fear and was able to calm himself and act with clear and decisive thinking. In time, this squad would learn to manage their emotions, but for now, medication would take some of the load.

Jack was impressed with how they had performed, however. These were no longer raw recruits; they were veterans of their first encounter with a strange creature that no one had ever fought before.

The Fleet Marine Service had its newest group of combat veterans. Jack was proud to be among them.

“Coming up on the landing site now, Major.” Lane appeared relaxed and in control in the copilot seat.

Jack put the landing site up on the holostage. A dark cloud of smoke hung over the area.

Crap. The thought invaded the major’s relaxed mind.

“Thank you, Squad Leader. Good work. I’ll take the tac boat in for landing. She’s taken a beating, so it might be a rough landing. Hold on and I’ll put her down as gently as I can.”

Jack lowered the tac boat down into the thick cloud swirling around the landing site. The smoke cleared as the boat’s remaining functional thrusters blasted out, letting the craft descend gently to the surface. As the smoke blew away, Jack could see that Tac Boat One was missing, and in its place was a large, smoldering impact crater.

“Weapons ready, Marines. Combat egress.” Jack stood up and turned to face the cabin, his helmet in place and pulse pistol in his hand. “Line up at the boarding ramp and move out, combat pacing and combat spacing. Create a close perimeter.” Jack turned to Lane. “You have trained for combat egress from a tac boat, haven’t you?”

Lane’s failure to answer was an answer in itself. The training had been so slight that the squads had not been trained to fight their way out of the tac boat while landing in a hostile area.

“Hold, Marines. Wait for my signal. Form up on me.” Jack clambered through the boat in between the two lines of Marines and stood in front of the boarding ramp on the starboard side in the midsection of the squat tank of a ship. He slapped the boarding ramp control and the ramp moved out and down to the surface of the plain. Jack aimed his pulse pistol forward and moved quickly out onto the boarding ramp, calling out behind him as he went.

“On me in twos, fan out—one left, one right. Move around the boat and clear your sectors. Call out your targets if you see them and give fire.”

Jack dropped onto the surface and stepped away from the craft. He looked all around him and could see there was no movement anywhere on the plain. There was no tac boat anywhere on the plain apart from his own right behind him. There was no enemy. Only a smoldering crater the size of a curveball pitch, and scattered around, lying on the dusty yellow grass, were the bodies of Marines from first and second squad.

Jack halted, his pulse pistol raised and held cupped in his left hand. He looked around in all directions one last time, checking for any movement.

“Move out, Marines. Area secure. Check those Marines for any survivors.”

As third squad rushed away from the boat and toward the bodies scattered around the plain, Jack walked back in. Lane was standing on the boarding ramp staring, his head turning this way and that looking at the devastation all around.

“You hold here,” Jack said, patting Lane on the shoulder as he slapped his pulse pistol into his hip holster. “I’m going to check if any of the microdrones have sent reports on what happened here and see if we can find out who’s responsible. Keep an eye on your people out there. Make sure you guard this boarding ramp. I don’t want anyone getting on board who shouldn’t be here. Is that clear, Squad Leader?”

Lane continued to stare, absorbed by the sight of the plain.

“Is that clear, Squad Leader?” Jack said again with force.

Lane nodded suddenly and repeatedly. “Sir. Yes, sir. Secure the boarding ramp. No one gets in. Copy that, sir.” Lane swung his pulse rifle up and held it across his chest as he turned to Jack. “What happened here?”

Jack patted Lane once more lightly on the shoulder. “That’s what I’m going to try to find out.” And then Jack walked inside the boat to the flight console, where he was going to get some answers.

6

Beretta stood over Heaton, who was strapped into the seat at the rear of the tac boat. Beretta leaned with one arm against the hull and looked down at the Marine.

“What are we going to do with you?” Beretta said with a broad smile.

“Just kill him now, boss! Let me do it!” Titch shouted from the flight console at the front of the boat.

Beretta raised an eyebrow. “Killing you would be the simplest thing. Not sure why I would want to keep a Marine around. Tell me, how would you like to go? Pulse round to the back of the head? Maybe we just flush you out into space. Or would you like to do it yourself?” Beretta rubbed his chin and considered the options.

“I can help you. I’m on the inside. I can be a spy. Let you know what the Marines are doing,” Heaton stammered as he frantically searched for any reason for Beretta to keep him alive.

“Nah,” Beretta said dismissively. “I already have people on the inside, and higher up the food chain than you.” Beretta patted Heaton on the side of the head like parent to child. “You will just be in the way. No hard feelings, but it will be better if we just get rid of you now, don’t you think?”

“Whatever you do, boss,” Titch called out, “do it quick! I’ve got a reading here. The fleet is entering the system. We’ve got two of the destroyers, the carrier, and all the civilian transports. They’re all heading this way.”

“Guess we better get rid of you quick,” Beretta said, stepping back from Heaton, strapped and struggling in the chair. Beretta pulled a pistol from his waistband. He primed the weapon and tapped it against the side of his leg. “Can’t have you knowing my location. Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick. I’m not a monster.”

Heaton shook his head, then he spoke with a voice that was breaking but trying desperately to remain calm and somewhat jovial.

“No. No. Listen. You don’t have to do this. I hate the Marines. I can help you.”

Beretta smiled and nodded, holding up the pistol.

“There’s a message coming from one of the destroyers,” Titch said. “It’s already in the system, heading toward that orange gas giant. You want to hear it, boss?”

Beretta grinned. “Yeah, sure, play it.”

The voice of Captain Pretorius aboard the Scorpio crackled over the communication system.

“Scepter. This is Scorpio. We have identified reserves of dense hydrocarbons at the surface of the moon around the system’s orange gas giant. I am attempting to capture as much as I can store. Assistance would be appreciated.”

“This is the Scepter. How can we assist you, Scorpio?”

“If you can get a maintenance team over here, I can convert some of my storage capacity to contain the hydrocarbon fluid. I will be able to bring a lot more back to planet Blue. It could give the fleet a large enough secondary energy resource while we make repairs to the power systems.”

“Copy that, Scorpio. The Scepter will organize a maintenance team for you and dispatch to your location. We will be arriving in orbit around planet Blue shortly. We have a request from the civilian fleet command: Marines to assist with disembarking the civilians to planet Blue. A lot of them are keen to get planet-side and it’s going to take us days to disembark the civilian transport. Civil unrest is a concern for the civilian command. All available Marines to assist the disembarkation operation. Respond please, Scorpio.”

“The Scorpio battalion is depleted. I’ll check with the ranking officer, but I think we are down to a skeleton complement as it stands. However, I will instruct the senior Marine to dispatch all available Marines to assist the civilian disembarkation process.”

“Copy that, Scorpio. The Scepter will dispatch maintenance teams to you now. Scepter out.”

Beretta walked toward the flight deck and looked at the holostage, showing the positions of the ships throughout the fleet. The Scorpio was in orbit around the moon of the orange gas giant while far out on the edge of the system and, just clearing the diffuse Oort cloud, came the rest of the fleet.

“Get a message to our people on the Scepter,” Beretta said. “I want a crew on board that maintenance ship heading to the Scorpio. We will be the maintenance team and we will take control of the Scorpio. Make sure you send only the hardest associates we have, and they need to be smart, and anyone with some maintenance experience would be good. Get that message away now, Titch.”

Beretta watched as Titch started contacting cell leaders in Beretta’s criminal network. Then he turned back to the Marine strapped into the seat at the back.

“I could kill you now,” Beretta said with the sympathetic tone, “but it’ll make a mess, and Titch is too busy to clean up right now. So I guess we’ll wait until we rendezvous with my maintenance crew, and then we can get rid of you. You don’t mind waiting, do you?”

“I can help,” Heaton said, tears and desperation in his eyes. “I was on the Scorpio. I know my way around. Let me help you. I can help you.”

Beretta considered Heaton’s suggestion. He tapped Heaton on the head with his pistol while he gazed into space. Beretta ran the pistol down Heaton’s cheek and tapped him on the shoulder. Beretta looked down at Heaton.

“I’m not really looking to take anyone on right now,” Beretta said, and he tapped Heaton again with the pistol, looked at the pistol, and his smile melted away.

Heaton stammered and pleaded.

A sympathetic look appeared on Beretta’s face. He shrugged and smiled a broad, joyful smile as he tucked his pistol back into his waist band.

Heaton gasped and sighed and thanked Beretta, promising not to let him down.

“Don’t mention it,” Beretta said dismissively. “I’m sure you’ll do great. And if you are as useful as you say, then there might be a permanent position for you. And if not, I can always shoot you later. Is that okay?”

Heaton nodded, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I won’t let you down, sir.”

Beretta punched Heaton in the jaw with a casual yet powerful punch. “I’m not a Marine. You don’t have to call me sir.” Beretta punched him again hard. “Just call me boss, and I’ll call you ‘Tears.’ Is that okay?”

Heaton nodded.

“The contact on the Scepter just sent a message: he’s assembling the crew now. They’ll be leaving for the Scorpio as soon as they get into orbit. We are a bit exposed here, boss. You want I should move us out of sight?”

Beretta grinned at Heaton and nodded. “Yes. Get us out of sight. These Marine tac boats have dark and silent running capability. Can you work out how to activate that?”

“Don’t think I have the brain power for that. You are the brains, boss. I’m sure you could do it, better than me at least,” Titch said, shaking his head.

“Yes,” Beretta said brightly. “I think I probably could.” He turned his back on Heaton and walked to the flight deck, dropping into the pilot seat. He turned to Titch and spoke quietly. “You think we can use Tears back there?”

“He could be handy when it comes to getting around the destroyer. You sure you want to steal one of the fleet ships?”

Beretta shrugged. “It’s an opportunity. We might as well give it a shot. If it all goes wrong, we can always just steal a bunch of guns and ammo and get out of there.”

“And if it does go wrong…” Titch said. He jerked his head toward the back of the tac boat and Heaton strapped to his seat. “What about him?”

“He isn’t anything. If he wants to turn traitor on his people, I’m happy to make the most of the opportunity. But if he’ll turn traitor on them, I don’t see why we should trust him. We can make the most of him and then finish him off when he’s done his job.”

Titch and Beretta turned and looked back at Heaton. Heaton was looking at them with tear tracks dried on his cheeks. Beretta grinned and nodded. Titch smiled and pointed a finger and clicked his cheek, giving Heaton a wink. Heaton smiled back and wriggled in his restraints.

“Do you think I could get out of this seat now?”

“No, you relax there now, Tears. We will have plenty for you to do soon enough.”

Beretta turned back to the flight console and worked the system to send the boat into dark running mode. Then he set course for the orange gas giant and the Scorpio.

7

The Skalidion swarm charged across the wide, dark stellar void. The fighters formed a huge teardrop shape, the huge bulbous end leading the way. Buried in the tail of the million-strong swarm came the nest asteroid—a huge, recycled rock secreted by the Skalidion builder drones using matter harvested from fallen enemies.

And in the center of the nest asteroid sat the swarm queen, Skoldra. She urged the swarm onwards.

Skoldra snatched a frozen human corpse floating across the huge inner nest chamber. The feeder drones brought fresh human corpses regularly to satisfy the queen’s appetite. She rasped at the frozen body and felt the thrill of the taste ripple through her.

The human larder was running low. Skoldra had gathered the dead that had been found floating in space, lost from a human starship and found by Skoldra. It was an addictive taste, and she had left her vast territory on the edge of the Skalidion Empire to pursue the humans across the void into unknown space beyond so she could capture more humans, live humans, and finally satisfy her hunger, her thirst, her desire.

Skoldra looked out of the large, dark eyes of the observer drones on the leading edge of the fighter swarm. She could see the faint signs of a distant star, a fresh starfield on the far side. The familiar stars of her own territory were left long behind. No swarm queen would give up her territory and hope to return; the neighboring swarm queens would move in as soon as her pheromone field faded. Usually, a fading pheromone field suggested a swarm queen was failing, so the neighbors would move in, destroy and consume the weak swarm queen, and take control of the swarm, expanding their territory and their power.

But Skoldra had not left any drones behind. They were all with her, her massed swarm, the product of intensive spawning and conquest. She was powerful and moving into a region ripe for conquest. A new empire would be born, with Skoldra as empress. Soon she would spawn a pair of sub-queens and expand into the new territory. But first, she would feed. First, she would drink. First, she would locate and conquer the human fleet and take them for her food.

Skoldra was mad with desire for human flesh, but a small part of her calculated and thought forward. She knew she would soon be without her most desired drug—human flesh—if she simply consumed every last human. She would have to sustain a live population to maintain a supply, to grow her larder. If she was to provide herself with an unending bounty of human flesh, she would have to preserve some stock and make sure they created new spawn. No swarm queen had managed a conquered population, but no swarm queen had tasted human and fallen for its taste as Skoldra had.

She would be the first empress of this new region and would become a farmer of human flesh.

The signal picked up by the forward observer drones fed back to Skoldra. She dropped the half-eaten corpse from her monstrously long, spindly fingers, the limbs detached from the body and floated freely through the nest chamber. A builder drone cautiously snatched the discarded debris and extracted all matter from the remains, ready to lay it down on the outer wall of the nest asteroid.

The observers informed Skoldra that they had spotted the edge of the stellar void and a starship, unpowered and adrift.

A human craft.

Skoldra sent a signal through the pheromone field to the front edge of the swarm. A pair of fighters and an observer drone raced ahead to close in on the human starship. A dark, mid-sized craft.

The observers fell behind the two fighters as they came near the craft. Adrift and tumbling gently, heading in the direction of the edge of the void. Skoldra watched in hope and expectation. Humans rarely abandoned their own, but the fleet was so huge that some had been lost and left behind. This was the third such craft Skoldra had encountered during her pursuit of the human fleet. Both had contained fresh corpses. Maybe this time, she would be lucky and find a live survivor.

They would not be alive for long. They would be taken to Skoldra, to her nest and the inner chamber, where few were ever allowed to tread, but a fresh, live human would be brought forward. The last thing they would see would be Skoldra’s rasping mouth, salivating with the digestive enzymes pouring from her mouth parts before they were torn to shreds.

The thought made her quiver.

The fighters detached from their craft and landed on the outer hull of the tumbling human vessel. The fighters were small, but powerful and armed with the long green fire weapons. They scuttled over the hull, looking for an entry point.

Skoldra watched her two fighters. They flushed with pheromone reply as they found the ship’s hatch.

Skoldra instructed her observer to move in closer.

Then the human ship opened fire.

A stream of pulses poured out from a laser assembly lying flush to the hull. The stream lit up the ship’s hull with a strobe effect. The weapon fire slammed into the observer drone, destroying it.

Loss of the forward observer drone meant Skoldra was blind. But she knew now that the humans in that ship were alive. And the taste of a living human was a prize worth fighting for.

Skoldra sent a small detachment of fighters away from the swarm along with a number of observers. The fighters on the hull reported that they were being attacked with an energy discharge, throwing them away from the hull and out into space. Their crafts moved in automatically to scoop them up. With the fighters back aboard their craft, they kept their distance, evading the fire from the human ship and waiting for Skoldra’s instructions.

Skoldra waited until her fresh observers moved in close enough give her a view. Again, the human ship’s weapons fired at the observers.

The humans were trying to remain hidden from her sight. But the observers, alert now to the danger posed by the craft, evaded the streams of laser pulses and watched the craft that was still tumbling, drifting, and floating in the vast empty black of the void.

As Skoldra’s massed swarm came closer to the floating human craft, Skoldra could see the craft in detail from her hundreds of observers still within the massed swarm. A flicker of blue at the drive assembly suggested the humans were attempting to run, but the drive was malfunctioning. If it was active, they would be running by now. They would not stay here, alone and at the mercy of the million-strong Skalidion swarm of Swarm Queen Skoldra.

“Destroy the ship’s drive systems. Destroy the ship’s weapons systems,” Skoldra sent the pheromone message to the fighter swarm detachment around the human ship. She watched as the Skalidion fighters’ green fire burned over the human ship. The drive spluttered and failed, going dark. The gouts of green fire burned over the hull and melted the laser emitters to a fizzing mass, cooling in the void.

Skoldra scuttled around inside her nest chamber, excited at the prospect of taking a live human, or maybe even a group. A tasty snack to keep her going until she reached the rest of the human fleet. She was following their drive turbulence trail left on the fabric of spacetime. She would be on top of them, amongst them, and capturing them soon.

Then, as Skoldra cleaned her rasping mouth ready to receive the tasty human flesh, the tumbling craft exploded.

The flash from the explosion blinded her forward observer drones. The massed drones watched from a distance. Skoldra thrashed in fury. Had one of her fighters destroyed the ship? But then as the data streamed back along her pheromone field, she realized the humans, alive within the stranded ship, had destroyed themselves, choosing death instead of capture.

Skoldra tensed, her long limbs drawn back to her massive body. She thrashed out at the walls of her chamber, scraping chunks of material away. She continued to spawn larvae. A nurse drone scuttled along her spawn tube to collect the latest pod. Skoldra grabbed the nurse with one of her grasping hands and crushed the tiny drone. The nurse struggled as it was crushed, and then finally ruptured, the white and green innards spilling out and floating in a long, thick river of guts and slime.

Skoldra threw the nurse’s shattered remains at the wall and let out a blast of pheromone frustration. The frustration rippled through the million-strong swarm in waves. All the drones, from fighter to nurse, responded with a quivering that rippled back to the nest chamber, a quivering that was meant to pacify the angry queen, a quivering that was a reaction to the fear of their queen and her temper.

The swarm settled. Skoldra settled.

“Bring me another human corpse,” Skoldra said.

A nurse drone came in carrying a frozen human from the dead she had previously gathered. She rasped at the frozen body, the taste calming her. She relaxed and settled, her long limbs relaxed, flexing lightly.

The human fleet was not far away. Soon, she would have humans. She would destroy all who resisted her and take the remaining humans for her larder, for her farm.

She would feed on humans for as long as she would reign as the swarm queen of the new Skalidion Empire of the new stellar region.

8

Beretta maneuvered the tac boat alongside the maintenance barge that was headed to the orange gas giant in the outer system. The barge slowed to docking speeds. The boat touched down on the barge’s upper hull, directly over the transfer hatch.

Climbing out of his seat, Beretta crossed to the middle of the tac boat cabin. He deployed the lower docking tunnel and waited for the telltale sound of the soft docking. Beretta looked over at Heaton, still strapped in his seat, immobile and totally vulnerable, and gave the Marine a wink.

“Your time to shine is nearly here, Tears.”

“Whatever you say, boss,” Heaton said. He jutted out his chin in an attempted show of confidence and self-belief.

The floor hatch slid aside, and Beretta looked down into the maintenance barge. Looking up was a familiar face from Beretta’s mob, a low-ranking associate, a small rat-like man with a wispy beard covering his dirty face.

“Hey, boss,” the rat said. “The boys are ready.”

Beretta grinned and dropped through the docking tunnel to the barge’s deck. He landed lightly in the low gravity field of the docking tunnel and then stepped out into the standard gravity of the barge. A gang of men dressed in maintenance overalls looked at Beretta, some smoking cigars or mechanical pipes. The stench of smoke and dirt was gross.

Beretta walked into the group. They nodded in turn as Beretta passed by, each man a hardened criminal and a brutal gang member, specially selected to infiltrate a fleet destroyer.

“Looking good, guys,” Beretta said. “You look just like a bunch of grease monkeys. Anyone would think you really are a maintenance crew. Let’s keep them thinking that for as long as possible.”

The group answered as one, calling out ‘yes, boss’ as Beretta surveyed the gang. He recognized many of them, muscle from around his criminal network.

Beretta stopped in front of one with a bloodstain on the front of his overalls. Beretta grabbed the material at the stain and pulled at it. He discovered a cut in the material, a small slit in the center of the stain. Beretta gave the thug a stare.

“The maintenance man wearing it didn’t want to give it to me, so I gave this to him.” The thug held up a short black blade with a twin edge.

Beretta nodded. “Okay. Cover it up. It looks suspicious.”

The thug nodded. Beretta moved off and continued to press through the crowd—his gang of thugs all prepared to take over the Scorpio.

Beretta stopped after checking all the gang. The rat came up next to him.

“Where are the real maintenance crew?” Beretta said.

Rat tapped the deck plate with his foot. “We packed them in the under-deck equipment storage space.”

“Breathing?” Beretta asked.

“No. Did you want them alive?”

Beretta shrugged.

The pilot called back that the barge was approaching the Scorpio.

Beretta clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously.

“We know the ship has no Marine guard. We know she’s undermanned. Kill anything that moves and move toward the command deck. A bonus to the man who captures the captain. Don’t kill the captain. We need him alive, for a time.”

The barge entered the Scorpio’s hangar deck and touched down. The rear boarding ramp began to open out and then touched down, scraping across the deck. Beretta pulled out his pulse pistol and walked down the boarding ramp at the rear of the barge. He stepped onto the Scorpio’s deck and saw a maintenance chief waiting.

“Hi, I’m the Scorpio’s maintenance chief. Call me Slim.”

“Hi there, Slim,” Beretta said. He raised his pulse pistol and fired a single shot into the maintenance chief, burning a hole through the man’s chest and flinging him back across the deck. Beretta stepped over the fallen body as his gang rushed out of the barge and into the destroyer.

9

Jack approached the smoldering crater. Twisted and partially-melted composite, along with the shattered parts from various systems, showed Jack clearly that this had once been a spacecraft, but most certainly not a tac boat. Rather, it looked like this ship had been destroyed by a tac boat, but Jack was not about to jump to conclusions. He picked up a twisted piece of conduit and examined it. There was nothing here to identify it as being from any particular craft. He dropped it to the ground and dusted his hands off.

Lane approached Jack. “We found three still alive, sir,” Lane said, his voice low and quiet.

“Gather the dead, Squad Leader,” Jack said. He stepped forward and picked up another twisted piece of machinery. “Gather up all weapons and equipment and bring them to the boat.”

Jack turned the twisted bit of material over on his hands. He recognized the part as coming from a thruster assembly. The diameter of the thruster injector conduit leading from the piece was too small to be part of a tac boat. Also, the conduit was oval, and although that might have been deformation from the explosion that destroyed the craft, Jack also knew that oval conduits of this type were regularly used on civilian craft.

Jack drew his pulse pistol and activated the small electron blade on the muzzle. He sliced through the piece of machinery in his hand and created a fresh surface. The material this item was constructed from was not military-grade composite. This was clearly civilian. This had not come from the fleet.

Jack dropped the part to the ground and walked down the crater toward the final remains of the twisted craft. He cut away with his electron blade and removed a section of hull. It was from the lower section, and Jack found a serial number.

Now Jack could have no doubt as to its origins. Even though only the first part of the serial number was visible, the prefix was civilian.

Jack clambered back up the sides of the crater onto the plain and marched across to the tac boat. The Marines from third squad were laying the dead in neat rows next to the Marine craft. A stack of pulse rifles also lay there.

Jack reduced the local gravity on his tactical suit’s grav field and jumped up onto the upper hull of Tac Boat Three. He looked around the area. The light scorch marks toward the perimeter he had set around Tac Boat One showed him where the Marines had leapt forward using their tactical suits’ thruster packs. The pattern of fire had left scorch marks on the plain.

It all became clear to Jack now. A ship had touched down here, and a group had fought off the Marines and captured the tac boat. The weapon marks on the Marines’ suits showed only small arms had been used, but the civilian craft had been destroyed by a blast from the Fleet Marine ship.

Jack looked up into the blue sky. Somewhere out there was Tac Boat One, stolen, and under the command of a murdering group of renegades, strong and certain enough to take down two squads of well-armed and fully-equipped Marines. Although those Marines were poorly trained and fresh from that training, it still was shocking to Jack that they could have been overwhelmed so easily.

Three Marines sitting in the shade of the boat looked up at Jack as he dropped down.

“These are the three wounded men,” Lane said as Jack landed on the plain.

“What can you tell me about the men who came here?” Jack said.

One Marine coughed and spluttered, blood spurting out of his mouth as he tried to speak. Jack knelt next to the man and laid him on the ground.

“Take it easy, Marine,” Jack said. “You will be okay.”

Jack returned the helmet to the Marine’s tactical suit and activated the onboard medical suite to administer emergency first aid.

“They came out of nowhere,” one Marine said. He winced in pain and gripped his shoulder.

Jack saw the scorch marks on the Marine’s tactical suit. It was the mark of military-grade weapons, but the aim was not as accurate as it would be in the hands of a military-trained individual.

“They came falling out of the sky. The ship was on fire,” the third Marine said. He managed to get up onto one knee. His breathing was labored, and he winced in pain as he moved. “They made a dangerous reentry. They knew they weren’t going to be using the same craft to take off again. I think they knew we were down here.”

Jack stood and walked out of the shade to look at the battleground around him. Whoever had been here could not have gotten far. Jack knew the boat’s speed and range. They were still relatively nearby.

Jack walked up the boarding ramp into Tac Boat Three and dropped into the seat at the flight console. He activated the scanner and surveillance network systems and scanned for the stolen ship.

The local system, as far as boat three’s sensors could spread, showed only one ship in the system, lying in orbit around the system’s orange gas giant. It was the Scorpio.

“The tac boat must be running dark,” Jack said to himself. He thought for a moment about how to track a ship that was able to evade all scanner technology. Then he remembered the only Marine not accounted for—Heaton, who Jack had placed under arrest and confined aboard the now-missing craft.

It was a long shot, but Jack was running out of options.

He tapped away at the controls and called up any and all ident chips on Fleet Marine tactical suits within scanner range. Most were right here at the landing site, and many of those chips were reporting back that the Marines wearing them were now KIA. Two others were also in the system. One familiar to Jack was Commander Sam Torent, currently aboard the Scorpio, and the only Marine reported to be aboard that ship.

“What have you done with my battalion, Sam?” Jack said, wondering why Sam was the only Marine left aboard the Scorpio.

The only other tactical suit ident chip in the system was that of the Marine Heaton. Jack identified the location and discovered he was also aboard the Scorpio.

Jack downloaded the ident chip’s tracking data and fed it into the holostage on the flight console. It showed that Heaton had been aboard Tac Boat One when it had taken off. Jack tracked the chip as the only marker of the boat’s course. It was now adrift.

Jack zoomed in on the chip’s location and sent a narrow-band emergency communication code to that location.

The TAC boat automatically replied.

“Whoever you were,” Jack said to himself, “you were pretty smart, but you forgot to turn off the emergency response protocol.”

With the code response logged into Tac Boat Three’s navigational and communications systems, Jack was able to log in to Tac Boat One’s internal systems.

Jack opened the internal surveillance node and displayed the boat’s interior. The boat was empty. Lying on the floor in an untidy heap was Heaton’s tactical suit. But Heaton was missing. The boat was empty, empty and adrift in space.

Jack scrolled back through the surveillance feed until he was able to see who had been aboard.

Jack paused the feed the moment he saw the two civilians stripping Heaton of his tactical suit. Jack zoomed in on them. He recognized one almost immediately.

“Beretta,” Jack said. He slumped back in his seat and looked at the still image on the holostage.

Beretta had evaded capture on numerous occasions. Jack knew him to be a devious and intelligent criminal. An excellent pilot and ruthless killer, Beretta was possibly the most dangerous man in the fleet.

Jack leaned forward and called up the boat’s external sensor data. Jack scrolled to the moment where the boat had been abandoned by Beretta, his criminal sidekick, and Heaton. Out of the black, Jack saw the tiny reflector on Tac Boat One’s external surveillance node. As it came closer, Jack could see it was a maintenance barge. The maintenance barge docked with the tac boat.

Jack attempted to access the maintenance barge’s internal surveillance node, but the systems on that battered old ship were offline.

“But you can’t stop me tracking your movements,” Jack said to himself as he tapped the controls on the flight console and scanned the system for the telltale trail of the barge.

The maintenance ship’s drive systems were functioning, but dangerously misaligned. They were close to total shutdown. The asymmetry in the drive reactor left a trail that any Fleet officer could follow with even the simplest of scanning equipment. Spacetime churned and tortured in the wake of the maintenance barge. Jack followed that trail as it moved across the system toward the orange gas giant.

“The Scorpio,” Jack said, suddenly feeling his anxiety peak.

Jack opened a channel to the Scorpio immediately. Beretta was heading to the Scorpio. He was possibly already on board. Jack needed to warn Captain Pretorius.

The communication channel failed to connect. The destroyer’s communications were offline. And now Jack knew for certain that Beretta was aboard. His objective, although outrageous, was clear.

The old pirate was attempting to steal the Scorpio.

Jack felt anger and frustration building inside him. He forced himself to be calm. No Marine could act effectively if he was overwhelmed by his emotions. Jack scanned the rest of the system with a wide-beam sweep, attempting to detect any Fleet vessel. Jack’s sensor range was limited by the atmosphere of planet Blue and the tac boat’s own limited range. He opened a channel and called out to any ships that could receive a signal with the wide-beam, high-gain message.

“This is Major Jack Forge. I am aboard a tac boat on planet Blue of the Scorpio System. Any Fleet ships receiving this transmission please respond.”

Jack waited a moment for a response. It could take minutes for the any of the fleet to respond if they were just on the edge of his sensor range. It could take hours if they were not even in system yet.

A small light on the communications panel flashed and Jack knew he had received a standard reply. Jack put it on the holostage.

The message simply told Jack to stand by.

Jack checked all systems and prepared the boat for takeoff. If the fleet had replied to his emergency hail so swiftly, they could not be far away. Jack would be able to takeoff and rendezvous with the fleet.

As Jack brought the systems online, he received a communication from the Scepter.

“Major Forge, this is Group Captain Tanaka. Are you in contact with the Scorpio?”

Jack looked at the holoimage of Tanaka on his holostage. The image was flickering. The fleet was on the edge of communication range.

“Sir, the Scorpio is not responding to my communications. I believe the pirate Lou Beretta has boarded her.”

“Proceed immediately to the Scorpio, Major Forge,” Tanaka said. “Secure it and make contact with the flagship as soon as possible. Proceed immediately.”

“Copy that, sir,” Jack said. “I request additional Marine units to rendezvous with me en route to the Scorpio.”

“Negative. Proceed with whatever units you have available.”

“But, sir,” Jack said, trying to remain diplomatic, “I don’t have even a single active squad. We were attacked.”

“Go with whatever you have. Go alone if you must. There are no units available for you at this time, Major. The fleet has just detected a swarm heading this way leaving the stellar void. The Skalidions have followed us, and they have caught us. Proceed to the Scorpio and secure that destroyer for me, Major. Instruct Pretorius to rendezvous with the fleet on the edge of the system where we will engage the Skalidion. If Pretorius is unavailable for command duties, then you are authorized to take control of the Scorpio and bring her to the fight. Go now, Major Forge. Do not fail. We are outnumbered and outgunned, and I need to have the Scorpio in this fight. Tanaka out.”

Jack jumped out of the pilot seat and ran onto the plain. He looked at the Marine resources he had available to him: one poorly-trained squad leader, one poorly-trained squad, and one battered tac boat.

Jack pointed at the three wounded Marines.

“Squad Leader Lane. Move these wounded men away from the boat and then board your squad. We are leaving in thirty seconds.”

“We can’t leave them down here, sir,” Lane said in a reasonable tone.

Jack stepped up to Lane. “Follow your orders, Squad Leader, is that clear?”

Lane nodded and then called his squad to him.

Within thirty seconds, the squad had moved the wounded aside and were boarding the boat. Lane was the last to step up. Jack walked up the boarding ramp alongside him. Once inside, he tapped the boarding ramp and pulled Lane with him toward the flight deck.

“I’ll explain on the way.” Jack dropped into the pilot seat, and within moments, the tac boat was blasting off the surface of planet Blue. “Strap in. We’re leaving.”

Jack hit the main drive and sent the tac boat racing up from the plain toward space. Once in orbit, Jack performed a slingshot maneuver to fling him around the planet and toward the Scorpio in orbit around the orange gas giant.

If Beretta had already taken the command deck, then he may well identify the tac boat racing toward him. One blast from the Scorpio’s hail cannon would reduce the tac boat to a cloud of debris with no piece bigger than a pulse rifle power pack. Jack just hoped Beretta didn’t see him coming.

And Jack was coming. Beretta was his target.

10

The Skalidion swarm filled the image of the Scepter’s main holostage. Group Captain Tanaka sat in the command chair looking down at the holostage. Admiral Henson, flanked by General Wallace and Colonel Snipe, stared at the huge swarm racing toward the Scorpio System.

Tanaka switched the holostage view from the Skalidion swarm pouring across space toward the fleet to show the fleet itself. The Scepter sat at the center of the image, flanked by the destroyers Aquarius and Canis. The three battleships sat in front of the hundred civilian transports, each the size of a city and holding more civilians than they were designed for. The civilian transports moved slowly, creeping deeper into the system toward Blue.

Between the three warships were arranged the dozens of support craft. Every fleet frigate and corvette was in the line alongside the bigger brothers standing ready to engage the oncoming enemy. Between the ships of the line were the smallest ships of the fleet, the Blades and the tac boats. The fleet’s full complement of fighters were deployed and massed in two squadrons, deployed on the port and starboard flanks of the fleet, ready to swoop in and attack the Skalidion fighters in ship-to-ship combat.

Holding position throughout the battle line were the tac boats. They added their scanning and surveillance data to the fleet’s, creating a millimeter perfect aiming system for even the biggest guns across the huge warships. The boats also brought their own significant firepower to the fight.

Every gun was primed and ready to give fire.

The civilian ships limped away, slowed by their burned-out drives and constant deviation from the direct course to planet Blue. The civilian fleet went on, winding their way in arcing moves instead of direct clean lines. The civilian ships ran in loose formation, fear of collision due to the erratic movements on the minds of every civilian transport captain.

The Skalidions came in tight formation, a bulbous teardrop with the fighters in the front, observer drones on the fringes, and at the tail of the teardrop came the massive nest asteroid.

Tanaka watched the range on the small armrest holostage of her command chair as the Skalidion swarm approached the Oort cloud of the Scorpio System. Admiral Henson turned from the main holostage and looked up at Tanaka in her command chair.

“Launch your combat drones, Group Captain,” Admiral Henson said.

Group Captain Tanaka looked carefully at the distances between the fleet and the swarm. If she played her hand too early, the swarm may spread and evade the combat drone strike.

“Launch now, Group Captain,” the admiral repeated.

“You have ordered that we make our stand here, Admiral,” Tanaka said as she studied her armrest holostage, “but I have tactical command of the fleet.” She watched the holostage range finder race down as the swarm closed in.

Henson stared up at Tanaka. She could feel the admiral’s eyes on her. The admiral was the senior Fleet officer, but his position had been largely political before the fleet began their long retreat across dangerous space. Tanaka had tactical acumen beyond that of the admiral and everyone knew it. And now the admiral was feeling nervous as the Skalidions charged at what remained of the once-mighty fleet.

“Launch combat drones,” Tanaka said suddenly. The Skalidions had reached the critical point, just inside the system’s Oort cloud.

The order went out from Tanaka to the combat drone officer on the Scepter’s command deck. That officer activated launch authority to all ships in the fleet. Combat drone launch tubes along the massive carrier and both destroyers were open and loaded with the first salvo of drones.

The drones shot out of their launch tubes and their independent drive systems activated, kicking them up to maximum speed in an instant, acceleration beyond what any crew could endure even with hull stability fields compensating.

Tanaka watched as the drive trails traced straight lines across the dark space between the fleet and the swarm.

The image on the main holostage showed the fleet shrinking away, the Scepter at the center facing the swarm head on, the destroyers on either side presenting their port-side batteries. The holoimage zoomed out to show the combat drones spread out to form a disc, with dozens of drones hundreds of kilometers apart. They raced on in perfect synchronization with not one drone a millimeter ahead of its neighbor. Perfect coordination from all drones in the attack.

They closed in on the Skalidion swarm.

Tanaka leaned forward and watched the drones as they neared their detonation point. Just at that moment, the swarm spread out. The teardrop seemed to crumple at the forward end as the fighter swarm spread out into a vast oval, gaps appearing in the densely-packed swarm.

Tanaka clenched her fist. She’d launched too early and the drone detonation would not be as effective against the dispersed Skalidion swarm is it would have been against the tightly-packed group.

“Maximum dispersal of combat drones. Manual detonation on my command.”

Tanaka watched as the disc of combat drones spread out across space. Even at maximum dispersal, the point where the drones were attacking the spread-out Skalidion swarm was little more than a pinprick.

“Detonate.” Tanaka gripped the armrest of her command chair.

With the combat drones close to the front of the swarm, the drones collapsed their antimatter containment shells. The blast front of a white billowing cloud of plasma fire appeared all along the advancing front of the Skalidions.

The sensor readings from the fleet were blinded by the sudden, massive antimatter explosion. Even the tac boats’ powerful sensor arrays in concert with the fleet’s ability could not penetrate the seething wall of plasma fire thrown up against the advancing Skalidions. Only when the first Skalidion ships were destroyed did the sensor data begin to show.

Green flashes across the combat drones’ detonation field showed where Skalidion fighters were being destroyed, dozens a second were falling as they plowed on into the plasma field. But within seconds, the destruction of Skalidion fighters stopped. The antimatter blast front was dissipating.

Henson spun around and looked up to Tanaka. “You detonated too early,” Henson said, his voice shaking with fury and fear.

Tanaka tapped the controls on her armrest, resetting the fleet’s sensor network. “No, we launched too late. Far too late. We should have laid the combat drones in the cloud before the Skalidions reached the system.”

“We had no way of knowing where the Skalidions were going to enter the system,” Henson growled. “We would have wasted all those combat drones mining an area of the Oort cloud that wouldn’t even have been threatened.”

Tanaka sent the surveillance drones out to the sides of the drones’ blast front. “No, the Skalidion have been on a direct heading to the fleet since we first detected them. We knew exactly where they were going to be. We lost our chance to ambush them.” Tanaka looked down at Henson. “Now we are in a straight-up fight. Let me do my job.”

With the sensor drones redeployed, Tanaka looked at the main holostage. She watched the edge of the blast front for the point where the Skalidions would emerge. And then the first signal was detected on the upper left edge—a Skalidion fighter evading the plasma fire and maneuvering around the deadly wall.

And then on the lower right, another Skalidion. And then another at another location, the craft appearing until a ring around the plasma fire field showed the Skalidions evading the fire.

“Send another salvo of combat drones and target the fighters,” Henson said. He marched across the command deck toward the drone control console. “Launch another salvo. Launch every combat drone in the entire fleet. That is an order.”

“Belay that order,” Tanaka said calmly. “Combat drones will not help us now, Admiral.”

Henson turned back to the holostage. “General Wallace, have your Marines arrest the group captain. I’m taking command of the fleet.”

Tanaka adjusted the orientation of the Scepter to sit in a line with the two destroyers. “Hail cannons, stand by to deploy hail curtain.”

“Do you hear me, General?” Henson said.

“My Marines are deployed throughout the ship, ready to repel any intruders. I don’t think now is the time to be redeploying my resources, Admiral,” General Wallace said calmly.

“Right then, I will take command myself.” Admiral Henson stepped up to the foot of Tanaka’s command chair. “You are relieved of duty, Group Captain. Step down now or I will have you shot.”

Tanaka sent her deployment orders to the rest of the fleet. The corvettes and frigates arranged themselves on the fringes with their hail cannons ready and targeting the point Tanaka had identified.

“Calm yourself, Admiral,” Tanaka said. “Let me do my job. If not, I’ll have you removed from the command deck. Is that clear?”

“Admiral? You call me admiral and yet you are openly disobedient. I have command here! I am senior! I am taking control of this fleet right now!” Henson spun around and shouted to the command deck and its officers standing at their consoles. “Set heading out of the system. Deploy combat drones to cover our retreat. Fire all weapons!”

Tanaka looked at her armrest holostage, watching the Skalidion swarm reforming to its familiar teardrop shape, having circumnavigated the plasma fire wall. She called out calmly, “General Wallace, will you escort the admiral to the officers’ lounge? You can observe the battle there.”

“You can’t evict me from my own flagship command deck!” Admiral Henson shouted, spit flying from his mouth, tears in his red eyes.

General Wallace and Colonel Snipe stepped over and stood on either side of the admiral.

“This is no time to be changing our strategy, Admiral,” Wallace said. “Let the group captain do her work.” The general escorted the admiral away.

“All ships deploy hail curtain now. Fire.” Tanaka looked up to the main holostage and saw the image showing the hail cannons on all ships, from the Scepter all the way down to the last tac boat. Flashes erupted from them all, indicating charges of kinetic hail ready to release their devastating wall of shrapnel.

The charges raced away from the fleet toward the Skalidion swarm. It spread out, and moments before the Skalidions collided, the charges detonated, scattering superheated shards of hail and creating a curtain of deadly, molten metal.

The Skalidions slammed into the hail curtain, the fighters’ green explosions tearing holes through the hail curtain. The Skalidions were being destroyed, dozens by the second, but the fighters flowed through the gaps created by the destruction of their own fighters, and soon the swarm was sweeping through, over the wreckage of their own fellows.

Group Captain Tanaka watched the range finder. Soon, the Skalidion swarm would be in range of the high-energy lasers on all warships. With the tac boats giving second-by-second perfect targeting data, the laser batteries would soon account for yet more of the Skalidion fighters.

But still they came, their numbers hardly impacted by the fleet’s defensive measures.

“Close proximity hail curtain, now,” Tanaka said, giving the order to launch the final defensive curtain before the fleet engaged the Skalidions directly.

Beretta checked his position in the corridors of the Scorpio on his handheld holostage. Around the corner was the long, straight corridor that led to the Scorpio’s command deck. Beretta called a group of his crew to him.

“We have nearly got them, lads. Just around that corner and down the corridor. Go in shooting, kill anything that moves. If it doesn’t move, kill it anyway. Go.”

Beretta waved his crew around the corner and heard them shrieking as they ran. Soon, the zinging fizz of pulse rounds colliding with the composite of the corridor walls came around the corner.

Beretta, excited by the sound of gunfire, checked his pulse pistol and charged off.

The floor of the corridor was already littered with the dead from his crew. Ahead, in the command deck, Beretta saw pulse rounds fizzing back and forth. He felt his heartrate quicken, and he ran headlong into the fire.

Nearing the end of the command deck corridor, he saw the blast doors begin to close. Beretta urged himself to greater speed and rushed toward the narrowing gap. He ducked through a moment before they slammed shut. He rolled over his shoulder and skidded into cover behind the command chair. An officer came into view, a pulse pistol aimed. Beretta swung up his weapon and loosed a shot. The round snatched the officer off his feet, the burning smell of uniform and flesh filled Beretta’s nostrils and excitement rushed through him.

He stood up and looked out into the command deck. Behind the main holostage, a group of officers were taking cover and giving fire to Beretta’s crew, who were taking cover behind the control consoles.

Beretta moved out of cover and skirted around the edge of the large command deck. He laid down cover fire and called to his crew to advance on the group of officers.

As the pirate moved in, he saw an officer break cover and take aim at one of his crew. Beretta’s aim was good, and he shot the officer dead.

Coming around the side of the holostage, Beretta saw the man in the captain’s uniform with his second-in-command at his side. He aimed the pulse pistol at the captain, but his XO stood up and placed himself between them.

Beretta fired one round that slammed into the commander’s chest.

“Commander Chou!” Pretorius said, grabbing his second-in-command as he fell. Pretorius looked up at Beretta, who was standing there, grinning, with his pistol held loosely at his side.

“Captain,” Beretta said in a friendly tone, “won’t you join me at the command chair?”

Pretorius stood up and looked Beretta square on. A hand grabbed him from behind, a hand across his face pulling him backwards. Another hand grabbed the pulse pistol from his grip, and yet another grabbed his left arm and dragged him across the deck. They flung him at the foot of the command chair.

Pretorius looked up at Beretta. “You will never take the Scorpio,” Pretorius said.

“Guess I’ll have to prove you wrong,” Beretta said as he climbed up into the command chair and sat down. He tapped the controls on the armrest and accessed the drive systems.

They were locked.

“Like I said,” Pretorius said, looking up at Beretta, “you will never take the Scorpio.”

Beretta felt himself become angry. He was here on the command deck of a fleet destroyer, but the controls were locked out. But they could only keep him out for so long.

“I think I’ll have command of this ship before long,” Beretta said. He climbed down and walked across to the security console. Somehow, he was going to find a way to break this encryption and take control of the ship. He had the command deck. All needed now was access to the systems.

Henson paced in the officers’ lounge, Colonel Snipe guarding the door and General Wallace watching the feed on the small holostage.

“I will have her shot. She will hang for this! I am the admiral!”

“If she wins the battle, I think we’ll give her a pass, don’t you?” Wallace said.

“If she wins, it will be because she has the most powerful ship at her command. The Scepter is bigger than both destroyers put together, bigger than the rest of the fleet! Tanaka thinks she’s the one with the power. It’s my ship, and I should be in command!”

Wallace had known Henson for years, since before the evacuation, since before the Chitin War. They were colleagues. They were friends.

“You command the fleet, not just one ship,” Wallace said.

Henson grunted and walked toward the exit. Colonel Snipe stood in the doorway looking slightly uncomfortable as Henson approached him. Wallace called out.

“Where are you going?” Wallace said amiably.

“I’m going to spend some time with my daughters,” Henson said.

“The girls are not here,” Wallace said. “I had them sent with the civilian fleet to the planet the moment we detected the Skalidions. I took care of it myself. I chose their escort personally. They are safe and in good hands. I didn’t think you’d want the girls on the flagship when we went into battle.”

“This is the safest place they could possibly be,” Henson said. “Where are they? I’m going to join them. I’m not going to wait around here and have my authority questioned.”

“I don’t think there are any ships available right now,” Wallace said. “Anything with a drive system is in the fight or heading to planet Blue. There is nothing for us to do now but wait, and hope.”

Jack watched the Scorpio on the holostage of the tac boat’s flight console. The Scorpio was in orbit above the gas giant. Jack resisted the urge to send a message to the command deck. Any message he sent might be intercepted by Beretta.

The signal from the other side of the system showed Jack that the fleet had engaged the Skalidion and was deep in combat. The Skalidion swarm poured in on the far side of the system, heading toward planet Blue with the combined fleet in its path.

Jack clenched his fist. The Scorpio needed to be in that fight. Captain Pretorius was one of the best combat captains in the fleet, and the Scorpio needed to be there, standing alongside the other destroyers and the Scepter. The million-strong Skalidion swarm was powerful, but it could be defeated if the fleet operated together. Jack already had enough reason to be angry with Beretta, but keeping the Scorpio from the fight was the worst act of criminality the old pirate had ever committed.

Jack crept closer to the Scorpio, its drive systems powered down, only the maneuvering thrusters holding it in its geostationary orbit.

Jack moved the tac boat over the upper hull of the Scorpio and held the position a meter above it. Jack climbed out of the pilot seat and pulled on his helmet. He called out to the Marines in the cabin.

“We are going to be on familiar ground,” Jack said, standing in front of the Marines with all eyes on him. “But we do not know the strength or disposition of the enemy. We will move carefully and in fireteams. Look after our point man and watch our six. Suit up and follow me.”

Jack checked the Marines with his enhanced data view. The data showed that every Marine had correctly sealed his tactical suit. They were ready to leave the boat.

Tapping the boarding ramp console, the ramp moved away from the side of the boat and Jack descended. There was nothing but black space outside, and in the distance, the flicker of the battle as the Skalidions attacked the fleet. Jack walked down the boarding ramp and stepped out into empty space. Only a meter below him was the Scorpio. Jack let himself fall and land gently on the hull, activating the mag-boots in his suit. He walked toward the aft section and the cold drive assembly. Before moving on, he checked that his squad was falling in behind him. The last Marine out was Squad Leader Lane, and they all moved in step, following Jack.

The group came up to the upper hull access port behind the secondary laser assembly, but he found it sealed. Jack sent his command codes to the exterior hatch panel and the hatch popped open. He pulled it open and looked down the long ladder, the path lit by a dull red light. Jack stepped over the edge of the hatch and let himself fall slowly down toward the inner hatch, the others gliding after him. There was just enough room for the entire squad, and Jack looked up to watch Lane close the hatch above them.

With the pressure equalized in the access corridor, Jack opened the inner hatch. The hatch opened with a gentle hiss, and the group dropped, one by one, to the corridor below.

The Scorpio was eerily quiet. The drive systems were unpowered, and there was no movement in the corridors. Jack accessed the internal surveillance network and switched to a view of the command deck on his wrist-mounted holostage.

Standing on the command deck was Captain Pretorius, his back to the holostage that showed the fleet’s battle with the Skalidion swarm. Pretorius was looking up at the command chair. Jack refocused the image to show the person sitting in the chair. He didn’t really need to, as he knew exactly who was sitting there, but he wanted to get a good, long look at the man he was about to kill.

Lou Beretta. A scourge to the fleet. And he had taken the Scorpio.

Jack zoomed out the view to see the corridors surrounding the command deck. Several armed men were scattered around the corridors and across the deck. Some had ident chips, some did not, but Jack knew they must all be Beretta’s pirate gang. Further out, some gun crews were manning their positions at the high-powered laser stations and at hail cannon placements at the port and starboard batteries. They were waiting for their orders, expecting a fight, but with all communications cut off, the crewmen had no way of knowing what had happened on the command deck. Jack suspected they had no idea the ship had been captured.

Jack searched for the Marines of the Scorpio battalion, hoping some were still on board. But Jack soon discovered that all had been transferred to the Scepter. And then Jack identified a single Marine’s ident chip. The signal was moving toward the forward section, moving fast through narrow side corridors and closing in on the command deck.

Jack opened a channel. “Sam, it’s Jack. I’m on board.”

“Glad you decided to show up, Jack. Although I was looking forward to retaking the Scorpio all by myself, I could use a hand.”

“Rendezvous with me at this location.” Jack sent Sam the location of the maintenance hatch on the deck below the command deck. “The fleet has engaged the Skalidions. They need the Scorpio’s firepower. We need to take control of the command deck and get the Scorpio into the fight now. We haven’t got much time.”

“I’m moving into position,” Sam said. “Think it’s best we observe communication silence for now.”

Jack deactivated his communication system. He held up a hand and called the squad to attention, then indicated with a series of hand signals for them to follow him close behind at the double.

Jack moved off at speed, determined to take back the Scorpio, and determined to kill Beretta.

The Skalidion swarm punched through yet another hail curtain. Finally in range of the high-energy laser, the fleet gave fire.

The tac boats fed real-time data back to the central targeting network. Every laser assembly identified the nearest Skalidion fighter with pinpoint accuracy. The high-energy laser beams from the dozens of assemblies across the fleet flicked on and off, individual beams existing for only a fraction of a second, lancing red light out from the fleet and connecting with Skalidion fighters. The momentary connection with the beams delivered enough energy to obliterate a single fighter instantly.

As the lasers flickered in a dazzling display of ordnance, the hail cannons blasted out high-explosive rounds into the tightly-packed clusters of Skalidion fighters. Hundreds of Skalidions were destroyed in the first second, and a hundred more a second later.

The Skalidions moved in, seemingly unaffected by the loss of so many of their fellow fighters. Even as they were destroyed by the hundreds, thousands more swept into the deadly cannon fire and the flickering laser beams.

And then the Skalidions were in range with their own weapons, and the green fire burst into life.

Gouts of boiling shot raced away from each fighter, coalescing into a massed pulse. A tortured, seething mass of green fire energy tumbled forward through space toward the center of the fleet’s line—the Scepter.

Tanaka sent her orders to angle all stability field energy to deflect the incoming mass of Skalidion green fire. With the order delivered, she then issued orders to fighter control to deploy the Blades. The squadrons of fighters raced away from their flanking positions and tore in to the Skalidions, the maneuverable craft avoiding the green fire and laying down a deadly fire of their own from their forward laser assemblies and flank hail cannons.

The tumbling mass of Skalidion green fire connected with the Scepter’s angled hull stability field. The fire slammed into the field and spread over the lines, wrapping and twisting and choking it out of existence.

Then the Skalidions fired again, and the second boiling mass of green fire came tumbling toward the Scepter’s unprotected hull.

The green fire connected and began corroding the hull. The black composite blistered and smoked, boiling away into space. With the first layer melting, the hull began to tear away in chunks. The green fire clung to the surface of the Scepter and spread over its surface. Eventually, the green fire found a crack here and a broken access port there, pouring directly into the Scepter. Even as the second massed green fire assault corroded and tore the Scepter apart, a third volley came.

And there was nothing to stop it this time. The green fire flowed in through the corridors of the Scepter, corroding it from the inside out. The fire flowed through the corridors like a toxic liquid, obliterating everything in its path. Where it met a blast door or a sealed bulkhead, it began to corrode the structure even as it flowed around it, seeking another way, coursing deeper into the Scepter’s body.

Tanaka watched the image on the main holostage as it showed the green fire racing through the ship. Gun emplacements blinked red as they went offline, destroyed by the unnatural fire. And with the green fire only moments away from the main reactor, she sounded the alarm for all hands to abandon ship.

She slumped back in her chair and, in her final act as group captain, she transferred the flag to the Canis.

As the green fire burned into the reactor chamber of the main drive, the Scepter lost all power. A moment later, she exploded in a final, terrible, green and orange fireball. The explosion ripped forward from the drive section, consuming the ship entirely. Orange drive plasma boiled away into space, mixed with the Skalidion green fire that clung to every surface and every fragment of debris, corroding it, boiling it away to form clouds of incandescent dust that swirled in the black of space.

11

Jack moved quickly and silently through the Scorpio’s familiar corridors. He held up his hand to call a halt and took a knee. Glancing behind him, he was satisfied to see the squad of new Marines right behind him, kneeling in two lines along the sides of the corridor, Squad Leader Lane at the rear but moving forward to join Jack.

“Movement,” Jack said to Lane.

Lane turned back to the squad and called two Marines forward using a series of hand signals. His actions were so accurate that Jack forgot for a moment he was so new. His hand signals were clean and precise, not at all like his stuttering speech pattern.

“Hold here,” Jack said. He moved forward along the corridor to an intersection, a crossroads at the forward end of the Scorpio.

The movement was on two sides. From the left came a noisy group, and from their loud chatter and heavy footsteps, Jack guessed there were five of them. To the right was one person. Jack followed the movement on his wrist mounted-holostage. The single body was moving quietly in short, darting movements. Sam. The actions confirmed it, a confident yet cautious advance toward the enemy.

The group on the left came close to the junction. Jack called Lane and his two-man fireteam forward. He instructed them to take up position across the corridor and present their pulse rifles.

Jack drew his pulse pistol and took aim at the end of the corridor.

As the group came stomping around the corner, Jack gave the order to fire.

The Marines at his side gave fire, and four of the group fell instantly. The fifth turned and fled, running back the way he had come.

Lane was on his feet, ready to give chase, but Jack stopped him.

A fraction of a second later, the end of the corridor was lit up with a hail of pulse rounds, racing from right to left. Sam Torent came into view, moving forward, pulse rifle at his shoulder. He ceased fire and slung his rifle over his shoulder. He turned to Jack.

“They are all down,” Sam said. He stepped up and shook Jack firmly by the hand. “Good to see you! I see you brought some company.”

“This is third squad,” Jack said.

“Right. Well, now it’s the entire Scorpio battalion,” Sam said.

Just then, Jack was alerted to a message being sent on a broad range, directed at the Scorpio. He showed it on his wrist-mounted holostage.

It was from Group Captain Bob Stuart.

“The Scepter is destroyed. I have command of the fleet. The Aquarius and Canis are holding the line. The Scorpio needs to join the fight immediately. The entire fleet must stand as one or the Skalidions will destroy us all. Come now, Scorpio. Stuart out.”

Jack canceled the message.

“The Scepter,” Sam breathed. “Gone…”

A ripple of chatter spread through the new Marines behind Jack as they heard the news. Jack stood in front of them.

“But how can we win without the Scepter?” a Marine asked.

Jack could see from the Marines’ slumped shoulders that the news had hit him hard.

“Listen up, Marines. The Scorpio has fallen into enemy hands. We need to retake this ship. The only fight we can win is this one. The only way we can win is by acting with accuracy and discipline. Put any other concerns from your mind. We must retake the Scorpio, then we will think of the next battle. Now move forward.”

Jack turned back to Sam, who was showing a surveillance feed on his personal holostage. A group of armed men on the command deck were in position at several of the control consoles. Beretta was in the command chair. Pretorius was standing in front of Beretta, a gun pointed at his head.

The image abruptly vanished.

“They cut the surveillance feed,” Sam said. He swung up his rifle and made ready to move.

“They know we are coming,” Jack said. He turned and gave a final hand signal to Lane to ready his squad.

“They probably don’t know it’s you,” Sam said.

“No, Beretta doesn’t know it’s me. If he did, he would really worry. We need to take the ship, and fast. With me, Sam. Let’s move.”

Jack moved off along the corridor, following his men, advancing on the command deck and advancing on Beretta. Jack was going to retake the ship. Dying wasn’t as option. Survival of the entire human population of the Scorpio System was in his hands.

Last Stand

Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 9

1

The background hum of the Scorpio’s power systems reverberated around the corridor, making Jack feel like he was walking through the belly of a giant synthetic beast. This noise was usually drowned out by the sounds of the crew going about their duties on the massive warship, but at this moment, the ship was virtually empty. Only a handful of gun crews were at their stations, and Jack’s small Fleet Marine squad moved through the corridors. The destroyer’s power systems could be heard, thrumming so deeply it was almost tangible.

Jack advanced, fast and silent. His tactical suit’s anechoic field eliminated any noise or rattle from his Marine kit, but even though he knew he was moving silently, he still advanced with caution. Danger could be hiding around any corner.

The suit’s sensor array detected a faint sound far away along the empty corridor. Jack raised an arm, and the squad behind him came to an immediate halt. The Marines took cover where they could find it in the corridor—a hatchway here, a console recess there. They covered all sectors, forward and rear, their pulse rifles raised and held lightly at their shoulders, targeting sensors and clear eyes scanning for danger.

Sam came up alongside Jack and took a knee. The pair looked along the corridor toward the distant source of the noise.

What started as a faint single tap became louder, though it remained indistinct. Jack released a microdrone and sent it in the direction of the noise. While the drone went to relay fresh information, Jack and Sam held their breath and listened.

The drone fed data to Jack, and he sent the information to the squad. Men were running along the corridor ahead.

“They are heading this way,” Sam said, his voice message received silently inside Jack’s tactical suit.

“And they are moving fast,” Jack said. He recalled the drone and activated the holoimage on his wrist-mounted holostage. He fed the data into his holostage and displayed the group moving toward them. Only a few dozen meters away, the corridor was filled with armed pirates, members of Beretta’s criminal gang, and they were closing in on Jack’s position.

“They’re heading right for us,” Sam said, raising his pulse rifle, ready for action. “They must have sensors back online.”

Jack nodded as he tapped into the Scorpio’s surveillance network.

“What works for them will work just as well for us,” Jack said. He accessed a surveillance node right next to the armed group and displayed all the data on his holostage. The internal sensor net recorded the number and types of weapons the group was carrying—a collection of Fleet Marine small arms, presumably stolen. There was also some basic medical data based on their respiration. Jack was not surprised to see they were all breathing heavily, partly fatigue and partly poor general stamina.

And amongst the data came the signal from a Fleet ident chip.

The ident chip code flashed over the image of one of the thugs. A Marine’s ident code.

“Heaton,” Jack said, “that insubordinate scroat.”

Sam looked at Jack. “Who’s Heaton?”

“He was a Marine, for a while. He’s nobody now, just another pirate. Get ready. Here they come.”

Jack’s squad fell into formation across the width of the corridor, with the front rank kneeling and the second rank standing behind. The hallway bristled with pulse rifles, all aimed by resolute hands.

Jack eased his breathing. Contact with the enemy was always a dangerous situation, even if the enemy was unfit and untrained. He looked at the range finder on his holostage and signaled to his squad that the pirates were close.

The thugs came rushing around the junction at the side of the corridor in a fury, pulse pistols firing, battle-cries rising. They charged forward is a disorganized rabble, the rearmost urging on those in front.

And they charged headlong into a hail of pulse rifle fire from Jack’s squad.

The two ranks of Marines gave fire in controlled bursts, picking their targets carefully—the nearest first to ensure accuracy.

Jack took careful aim and dropped another one of Beretta’s gang. As the front of the rabble fell to the pulse rifle fire, their charge lost its momentum. In a moment, the pirates at the rear began to fall back, turning and scurrying away. Most fell to the Marines’ fire as they fled, but not all. Several made it to safety and took cover around the corner of the adjoining corridor.

Jack stood and advanced, pulse rifle aimed. He fired a round that slammed into the corner junction, and the composite blasted away in sparkling fragments. He fired again after another step and then again, making sure the thugs kept in cover. Every round from his rifle fizzed and drove into the corner, every impact sending vapor and dust spurting into the air. The dust and vapor were tugged along the corridor by the circulation of the Scorpio’s environmental systems, curling the small clouds of vaporized composite into miniature tornados.

A rifle appeared around the corner as a thug fired blind. The aim was bad, and the pulse rounds slammed into the ceiling, showering Jack with sparks.

Jack’s next shot smashed the rifle from the hands of the hidden attacker. He heard a yelp of pain as it clattered on the deck plates. He continued to advance, firing as he stepped forward.

“They are getting away,” Sam said. He stepped up alongside Jack, then moved a step ahead.

“Hold position,” Jack said and stepped back in front of Sam, taking point at the head of the squad. He neared the corner and pulled a concussion grenade from a clip on his hip. He tossed the grenade at the junction. It rebounded off the far wall and landed out of sight around the corner.

The blast threw dust and debris with it, the fallen pulse rifle Jack had shot out of the thug’s hand flipping end over end in the blast.

Jack quickly checked his holostage and saw that the group was in full retreat. Jack waved for his squad to follow as he ran into the billowing cloud left by the grenade blast.

Heaton’s ident chip was still in the adjoining corridor, left behind by the pirates that were running away as fast as they could. Their first contact with an organized group of Marines had sent them fleeing for their lives in disarray, concerned only with their own pitiful hides.

Jack moved fast and turned the corner. He raised the rifle to his shoulder and took aim at the fleeing Heaton. A single round struck the man in the upper thigh and sent him sprawling. The rest of the thugs continued to run, leaving the fallen Heaton alone in the corridor.

Heaton clutched his leg in pain and struggled to get away, continuing to crawl along millimeter by painful millimeter as Jack and his squad marched up.

Jack stepped alongside Heaton and kicked his rifle out of reach. Jack waved to Squad Leader Lane, instructing him to take his squad ahead to chase down the rest of the retreating thugs.

The Marines ran by as Jack stood over Heaton.

“Consider this your dishonorable discharge, Heaton,” Jack said. He slung his pulse rifle over his shoulder and pulled the pistol off his hip holster. He aimed at Heaton’s head.

“No, no, please,” Heaton said, holding his hand up to ward off the pulse round.

Jack fired. The pulse round slammed into Heaton’s head. Heaton collapsed to the deck and was still.

“Jack,” Sam said in shock. “You killed him.”

“Nah,” Jack said. He slapped the pistol back to its holster, the suit took it from him and held it there, ready for the next time Jack needed it. “It was just a low-yield pulse. We’ll hand him over to Fleet Intelligence. They can decide on a suitable punishment for him.”

Sam kneeled next to Heaton, accessing the unconscious Marine’s tactical suit and its mobility systems. Sam used his command override and initiated a mobility lock, preventing the suit from any movement and fixing Heaton in place.

“When he wakes up, he’ll be fixed to the spot,” Sam said. “We can collect him when we’re done here.”

Jack stood over the Marine, until recently a squad leader, and a bad one. “He will have a killer headache when he comes around,” Jack said.

“Not as bad as the one he’ll get from intel when they hang the kravin’ scroat,” Sam said.

Jack nodded dismissively. The sound of pulse rifle fire from along the corridor indicated that Squad Leader Lane was meeting some resistance. A quick glance at his wrist-mounted holostage showed Jack that the thugs had taken a defensive position.

“Come on, Sam. The closer we get to the command deck, the more resistance we are going to meet from Beretta’s men. We don’t have any time to waste. We need to retake the Scorpio.”

Beretta sat in the command chair on the Scorpio’s command deck and watched the holoimage on the armrest. His gangsters were falling in the corridor as the Marines pressed forward. They were falling too quickly. Beretta slammed his fist on the armrest in frustration. His soldiers were giving up too easily. They had no discipline. Even the Marine that had joined his gang only hours before now lay motionless in the corridor, dead as far as Beretta could tell, shot by the officer that led the squad trying to retake the Scorpio.

Beretta zoomed in the holoimage, focusing on the one Marine standing at the back of the squad directing the pulse rifle fire at his men. He recognized this Marine from the way he was standing, by his arrogant and superior stance, and the way he held his pulse rifle lightly in his hand, as if it was all so easy for him.

It was clearly Jack Forge.

“Bring it on, Jackie boy.” Beretta punched his palm repeatedly, willing the young Marine to come forward and bring the fight to him.

“You’ll never get away with this, pirate,” Captain Pretorius said as he climbed up onto his hands and knees, pressing himself up off the deck. The sharp pain in his side caused him to flinch, but he covered his pain, hiding the weakness. A thug nearby slammed the butt of his pulse rifle into Pretorius’s shoulder, sending him sprawling back to the deck.

Pretorius stopped himself from crying out, not wanting to give the pirates the satisfaction. He breathed lightly, catching his breath. As he lay on the deck, he risked a deeper breath. A sharp pain shot across his side. Breathing hurt. It felt like a broken rib. It had been a long time since Pretorius had received any injury, but losing his command deck to this pirate rabble was the worst pain he had ever endured.

“The Fleet Marines won’t let you take the ship,” Pretorius said, again rising. “Give yourselves up now, give me back my ship, and maybe they won’t hang you.”

Beretta jumped down from the command chair and strode across the deck. He crouched in front of Pretorius, one arm folded across his knees, and leaned forward, his face close to Pretorius’s, which was sternly refusing to crumple up in pain.

“They will not hang me, Captain, because they will not find me. And the only reason you’re not drifting out in the void is because I need those codes in your head.” Beretta tapped Pretorius’s temple. “And if you give those codes up now, maybe I won’t throw you out of the airlock. I can always find use for a good officer when I make this ship my own.”

Pretorius laughed a low, grim chuckle. He looked up into Beretta’s cold eyes.

“You would not know a good officer if he punched you in the face.”

“And you would not know a good deal from a bad one, old man.” Beretta pressed a thumb into Pretorius’s side, catching the broken rib perfectly.

Pretorius yelled out and twisted away, but Beretta kept his thumb on the broken bone.

“I see the pain you’ve been hiding from me,” Beretta said. “I can make it worse—” Beretta pushed harder. “—or I can make it go away.”

As Beretta removed his thumb, Pretorius collapsed to the deck. Waves of pain ebbed and flowed, subsiding from a sharp peak to a background discomfort.

Beretta pressed again briefly before shouting into Pretorius’s face. “The codes!”

Pretorius laughed.

Beretta stood up and clicked his fingers to summon over a large pirate with cold, dead eyes and scarred fists.

“Take the captain here and encourage him to give me the codes. But don’t kill him. If his heart stops beating, all command codes automatically revert back to the flagship.”

The large pirate grabbed Pretorius by the collar and dragged him across the command deck to a door that led to the officers’ lounge. As soon as the door closed, the dull sound of heavy fists hitting a tight abdomen came through to the command deck along with stifled yelps of pain.

Beretta climbed up onto the command chair and tapped another hack code into the Scorpio systems. It was not the first time Beretta had taken a fleet ship, but nothing as sophisticated as a destroyer. The command codes were well protected, but he was hoping he could access some secondary system that would give him a back door and some chance of cracking the main codes. He had already cracked the surveillance network and reopened it. It gave him a good view of the position his thugs were in. It was useful, but it wasn’t giving him the back door he was after.

A different system unlocked and gave him access. It was not exactly what he was looking for, but it was a start. The cooling systems to the hail cannon batteries all around the ship were available to him.

The gun crews at those locations were still a threat to him if they left their positions and attacked the command deck. Beretta could eliminate that threat now. With a few swift taps of the holographic control panel on the command chair armrest, Beretta initiated an instantaneous cooling system temperature surge across the entire battery network. He looked at the map of the Scorpio on the main holostage. The huge green holographic skeleton of the ship showed him every detail. At the locations of the hail cannon batteries, he saw confirmation that the cooling system peak had been activated. Every firing position had almost instantly been superheated to 500 degrees Celsius, killing the gun crews in mere fractions of a second.

“And that’s the last we will see of them,” Beretta said, rubbing his hands. “Now all we have to deal with is that pitiful little handful of Marines. Shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Beretta grinned and turned his attention back to the fight in the corridor. His gang soldiers were holding the Marines at bay. With a few well calculated moves, he could crush them.

The Marines were advancing one corridor at a time. There were only a handful, and Beretta had sent double that number to hold them at bay first, and then to kill them dead. But the corridor was negating the effect of his superior numbers. It came down to two or three rifles standing abreast. The Fleet Marines’ training and organization was proving more useful than the superior numbers of Beretta’s gang.

But all Beretta could do was send more gangsters, and more weapons. He had to hold the Marines off. As soon as he had the command codes, he could take total control of the Scorpio, and then the handful of Marines wandering the corridors would be of no concern. A few bulkhead blast doors closed here and an airlock opened there and Jack Forge and his squad would be blown out of the Scorpio, left floating among the stars.

Beretta clicked his fingers and called five of his gangsters over. They were dirty, sweaty, and unshaven, and all were carrying military-grade pulse rifles.

“I want you to intercept that group of Marines. Take the long way around and come at them from the side.” Beretta stepped over to the holostage and pointed at a section of the Scorpio’s corridor where he could trap and kill the Marines advancing on his position. “Come at them from this side,” Beretta said, his finger touching the green holoimage. “We are going to catch them in a crossfire in this corridor between the defensive positions here—” Beretta pointed again, his finger jabbing at the image. “—and you guys in this corridor here. Get this done quickly and I will make sure you are set up for life. You will want for nothing. Do you get me?”

The gangsters replied in gruff tones, indicating that they all agreed and approved of Beretta’s plan.

Beretta tapped the holoimage of the squad in the corridor. The red dots indicating their position expanded and showed the holoimage from the Scorpio’s surveillance net. Beretta pointed at Jack Forge.

“Kill him first,” Beretta said.

The gangsters agreed and moved off at a jog, filled with determination and enthusiasm, and an eagerness to kill.

Beretta looked at the image of Jack Forge as he fired at the gangster’s defensive position. Soon, Forge would be dead. Beretta would enjoy standing over the corpse of the Marine he hated more than any other man, dead or alive.

Beretta’s only regret was that he could not kill Jack himself.

He stepped back up to the command chair and continued his attempt to unlock the Scorpio’s systems.

Soon, he would have an interstellar warship under his command.

2

The wreck of the Scepter was still burning as the Skalidion builder drones moved in to begin devouring the enormous carrier. The drive systems were venting huge plumes of plasma fire from the ruptured main reactor, and the Scepter was tumbling through space scattering debris as it turned. Every fragment of matter from the enormous ship was seized upon and consumed by rasping bite by the builder drones. The main carcass of the once proud carrier was now swarming with hundreds of them, grinding away at the hull composite, breaking the material down, and gathering it.

Once fully laden with fresh matter, the drones raced back across Skalidion lines to the nest asteroid that waited far from the battle. Here the builders began to regurgitate the matter gathered from the broken wreck of the Scepter and laid it on the outside shell of the nest asteroid, extruding the captured matter through excretion glands to build the swarm queen’s nest. Every gram went to making the huge nest asteroid even bigger, creating more pods ready to gestate fresh Skalidion drones. Fighters, builders, observers, and nurses, all Skalidion drones hatched fully-formed and ready to take their place in the queen’s million-strong swarm.

Skoldra sat in the central chamber of her nest and watched the battle through the eyes of her forward observer drones scattered outside the battlefield. The huge carrier at the center of the human fleet was destroyed. It had been a powerful ship with powerful weapons that had destroyed many of her fighters in the first wave. Now with the largest ship destroyed, only the smaller fighting ships of the human fleet remained.

And they would be destroyed next.

The two biggest of the remaining fleet, the destroyers, were themselves huge weapons platforms and now were doing most of the damage to her swarm. But powerful as these ships were, they were nothing without the massive carrier vessel. All the human ships were on the run, falling back deeper into the blue giant star system toward a massive terrestrial planet.

Scattered amongst the two human destroyers were smaller craft. They were also powerfully armed and highly maneuverable, but they too were falling back, staying in formation with the two largest ships and laying down a defensive fire pattern to hold her swarm at bay.

But Skoldra had the numbers, and she had the determination to smash through the defensive fire and destroy the remaining warships. Beyond those warships lay the real prize: the unarmed civilian fleet that was falling back deeper into the system and gathering in orbit around the massive blue planet.

These civilian ships were larger even than the now-destroyed carrier, as large even as Skoldra’s nest asteroid. Some of these vast civilian craft were far ahead of the rest and already landing on the planet, while others were drifting and falling slowly toward it.

Soon, Skoldra would have destroyed the entire fighting fleet and all that would be left would be the civilian craft packed full with their live human cargo. A store of fresh human bodies for her to savor, for her to devour. This was all she craved. This was all she wanted now.

Skoldra quivered at the thought. She had tasted human flesh and craved more. She felt an urge to eat. She reached out and snatched a nurse drone as it scuttled by. The nurse drone chittered and squirmed as Skoldra picked it up, pressing it to her rasping mouth and devouring it. The nurse, like all other nurse drones, was Skoldra’s clone, her twin sister, prevented from growing too large by the queen’s dominant pheromone field. Skoldra felt no remorse at destroying the nurse and drinking in the soft tissue. If Skoldra was ever weakened, the nurse drones would eat her from the inside out and then fight to dominate the swarm. Skalidions were ruthless. That was how they grew their vast empires.

Skoldra wiped the fragments of nurse drone from her mouth. It was a brief fix for the craving she had for a fresh human. She would feast soon.

Skalidion swarm queens were programmed by nature to crave territory more than anything else. They butted up against each other’s space and created the vast Skalidion Empire that was ever expanding and consuming all before them. But Skoldra had tasted human flesh, and she had chased them across the stellar void, taking her far from her original territory and into this new region of the galaxy, all purely in pursuit of this delicacy. This feast.

Human corpses from the smashed Scepter were brought to her whole. All had been killed by the vacuum of space, in the explosion of their ship, or burned by Skalidion green fire. But at least these bodies were fresh. Skoldra snatched one from a builder that brought it into her central chamber and bit deeply. It erupted in flesh and gore as she pressed it to her rasping mouth. She pulled away, drunk on the flavor and on the power. There was nothing greater in the universe than the taste of human flesh.

3

Captain Bob Stuart sat in the command chair of the destroyer Canis. With the Scepter destroyed, the flag fell to him. He took the burden of responsibility without hesitation. There was no time to mourn the loss of the Scepter or its crew. There was no time to think. The fleet was in battle, and someone had to take command. It fell to Bob Stuart, Group Captain. He leaned forward in his command chair and looked at the battle displayed on the main holostage.

To call it a battle was incorrect. It was a rout. The Skalidions were winning.

Stuart opened a channel to the surviving ships of the fleet.

“All ships, form up on the Canis. It looks as if the Skalidions are more interested in the broken wreck of the Scepter than the rest of us right now, so we can take the opportunity to give them some fire. I want a combat drone launch from every ship with any available. Target the Scepter. The Skalidions are swarming all over it. We can vaporize a hundred thousand of those bastards while they are swarming over their kill. I knew Group Captain Tanaka better than many of you and I promise you, she would rather be turned to vapor than let the Skalidions consume her ship. You have my orders. Wait for the Canis to open fire first. Group Captain out.”

Stuart climbed down from the command chair and walked over to the fire control console. The officer standing there had already queued up a combat drone and loaded it into the Canis’s rear tube. He looked at his captain as Stuart stepped up beside him.

“I’ll take it from here,” Stuart said and stepped in front of the young officer. Stuart’s hand hovered for a fraction of a second over the holographic launch key. He tapped it and the button turned red, indicating the launch tube had fired its combat drone into the burning wreck of the Scepter and the thousands of Skalidion drones hovering around it like flies on a honeypot.

Stuart looked up to the main holostage on his command deck and watched the tracer lines of the combat drones racing away from the fleet towards the stricken wreck of the once-mighty carrier.

He stepped away from the fire control console and back to his command chair. He opened a channel to the fleet as he climbed up.

“All ships, fall back. Adopt a tight formation around the Canis and the Aquarius so we can concentrate our firepower. All hail cannon, throw up a kinetic hail curtain to protect our retreat.”

Bob watched the fleet fall into a tight formation. In the distance, the Scepter, and the Skalidions swarming all over it, were moments from total annihilation by the salvo of combat drones racing in. Before the drones reached their target, the fleet set up their defensive hail curtain. Huge blasts of kinetic hail shot out from every hail cannon battery, creating a vast curtain that hung between the fleet and the enemy.

As the combat drones closed in less than a meter from their target, their antimatter containment fields collapsed and released the small star-sized detonations. The detonations occurred in a synchronized blast that consumed the Scepter from her forward section to her drive. The Scepter was engulfed in a seething plasma fire that vaporized the hull composite and all the Skalidions around it. Within the massive blast of a dozen combat drones detonating in unison came a secondary explosion. One of the Scepter’s many reactors that had not yet succumbed to the punishment from the Skalidions finally gave way to the mercy kill from its own fleet. The rippling cloud of plasma ballooned out further as the reactor erupted.

Group Captain Bob Stuart watched the image on the holostage. The cloud of plasma cooled quickly in the void of space. And within that cloud, he could see movement. The fleet’s tac boats provided the flagship and the entire fleet with accurate, detailed sensor images of the wider battlefield. Already a fresh wave of Skalidion fighters was pouring forward to replace those destroyed by the blast. They came streaming through the cooling plasma fire where the Scepter once lay, racing toward the retreating fleet

The forwardmost Skalidion fighters slammed recklessly into the hail curtain and were destroyed instantly as they collided with the shimmering shards of the kinetic hail. But their destruction punched holes in the curtain, opening space for their fellows to come streaming through. Within moments, the hail curtain had utterly collapsed and the Skalidion fighters came racing in for the kill, their green fire weapons glowing and building, ready to give fire, the burning green that would vaporize the hulls of the remaining fleet warships.

The small command deck of the frigate was lit with the emergency lights as all power was diverted to battle systems. Commander Gerat Bale leaned forward in the command chair and looked at the small central holostage in front of the bank of command consoles.

The frigate was fully crewed, fully armed, and still had enough firepower and enough fight in her to take down many Skalidion fighters. But with the swarm still so huge, Bale was unsure if he could have any real effect on the outcome of the battle.

Lieutenant Ellen Ripper loaded another combat drone into the launch tube and prepped it to fire. She checked the functionality on the hail cannon and the main laser assembly. The ship was fighting well. But now they were falling back, and she needed to divert power to the main drive systems. The ship was operating well but was nowhere near its peak efficiency. Even so, the little battleship was still faster than the massive destroyers, and it was as maneuverable as the Skalidion fighters even at twice the size.

The holostage showed the massive Skalidion swarm as it came racing toward the retreating fleet. Orders from the Canis came in, instructing all ships to lay down a rolling barrage of kinetic hail. And then they heard the orders from the group captain himself, his voice coming over the main communicator and echoing around the frigate’s command deck.

“As soon as they are in range, lay down fire with all laser weapons,” the group captain said, his message relayed to all ships.

Ripper looked back at Gerat Bale sitting in the command chair.

“If we hold formation, we are done for,” Ripper said. “I’m telling you, Gerat, inform the group captain. Tell him the small gunships are better used as strike runners. We are maneuverable, and fast. We can hit them on the flanks. We are not using half our capabilities lumbering along with the destroyers.”

“You think the group captain hasn’t thought of that?” Gerat asked, looking at the holoimage. He rubbed his chin, a clear sign of the stress he was feeling.

“He has been a destroyer captain for over ten years. He has been group captain for about ten minutes. He doesn’t know group tactics yet. I’m telling you we are fast, we are powerful, but we are wasted sitting in formation. We need to be released so we can engage them. Open a channel, Gerat, I’m telling you. Inform the group captain the frigates and corvettes need to engage, not fall back. Let the destroyers lay down the hail curtain and let the smaller gunships hit the Skalidions on their flanks.”

“We’ll be exposed,” Gerat said as he scratched at his unshaved face. “We’ll be vulnerable. It’s better if we stay with the fleet.”

Ripper pushed herself off her console and turned and faced Bale. She pointed behind at the holostage that was showing the Skalidion swarm blasting through yet another hail curtain.

“We are vulnerable now. We will be destroyed in a matter of moments if we keep just falling back. We can engage the Skalidions and evade their weapons if we are released from formation. And, if we are going to die anyway, I’d rather take some of those bastards with us.”

Ellen Ripper had grown in confidence under enemy fire where many had lost their heads. She was familiar with her frigate commander and although he wore a commander stripe and was her commanding officer, they had crewed together since the fleet first fled from their home world. They had crossed the stellar void together. They had faced battle together. Ripper was simply accustomed to speaking her mind.

“Contact the group captain and tell him. We need to use the frigates and corvettes offensively. It might make them pause in their attack, which might give the fleet a little more time to fall back. It’ll keep them off us for just a little bit longer. And that is all we can hope for at the moment, just a little bit more time. Look at them, Gerat. There are a million of them against a handful of old frigates and a couple of destroyers. We have even got the tac boats in the fight now. We are so kravin’ busted here, what’s the harm in trying to punch these bastards in the nose before they knock us on our ass?”

Bale tapped the controls on his armrest and opened a channel to the flagship. The holoimage of a communications officer aboard the Canis appeared on the main holostage.

“Put me through to the group captain right now,” Bale said.

And just as the communications officer on board the new flagship was about to complain, he was cut off and Group Captain Bob Stuart appeared.

“What is it, Commander Bale? And be quick, please,” Group Captain Stuart said.

“The frigate arm of the fleet is fast, sir,” Bale said, standing and stepping toward the holostage. “My weapons officer tells me we can do more damage and have a greater impact if we are released from formation. I’ve been a frigate commander for a long time now and I’m well aware of the maneuvering abilities of these craft. Let us have a crack at the Skalidions, sir. If nothing else, we can buy you more time to establish an effective defense.”

Before Bale could continue making his case, Stuart held up a hand to silence him. Ripper leaned heavily on her console, shoulders hunched as she prepared to hear her orders from the group captain that they were to continue in formation with the combined fleet even though she knew they could have better effect if they were let off the leash.

Gerat stuck out his chin and prepared to take the refusal from the group captain.

“Agreed,” Stuart said. “I hope you are right. I’ll pass command of the frigate arm to you, Commander Bale. Good luck and good hunting. Go and punch them in the face and buy me some time to set up some sort of defense for the civilian fleet.”

The image of the group captain shrank away on the holostage and was replaced by the image of the fleet in formation and the Skalidion fighters slamming into another defensive hail curtain. A set of orders appeared on a small holofile giving Commander Gerat Bale authority over the entire frigate arm of the fleet, twenty frigates and corvettes under his direct authority.

He immediately climbed up into his command chair and called over to the communications officer to open a channel to all frigates and corvettes.

Bale sat down in the command chair and looked at the main holoimage of the fleet falling away to the blue planet and the Skalidion fighters punching their way through the hail curtain.

He split the frigate arm into two sections and allocated one to the port flank of the retreat and the other, including his own craft, to the starboard flank.

“All ships of the frigate arm, prepare to attack. Ready all weapons, maximum power to hull stability field, reactor output to maximum, and engage on their flank. Move in and hit them hard with all weapons, then drop back before they can get a shot on you. This is a hit-and-run operation. We don’t have the firepower for a toe-to-toe slugging match, but if we keep on our toes and keep those weapons firing, we can make a difference here today. My ship is the lead. Follow my maneuvers, but if you see an opportunity, take it. And do try and stay out of the fleet’s hail curtain. Bale out.”

Ellen Ripper smiled and winked at Bale, then she turned back to the weapons console and prepared for the fight.

“Nice one, Gerat,” she said. “I’ll make an admiral of you yet.”

“That’s if you don’t get me killed first, Ellen. I just hope we don’t run out of ammunition.”

“Why, what are we saving it for?” Ripper said. “Coming into range of the Skalidion flank now. Firing all weapons.”

Group Captain Stuart watched on the holostage as the frigate arm, including all frigates and corvettes in the fleet, whipped out to the flanks in an arcing maneuver, like a pair of bullhorns pointing at the sides of the hail curtain and the Skalidions concentrated there. He could see the benefits of the strategy now. The Skalidions were piling up behind the hail curtain waiting for the forward fighters to punch holes in it. The concentrated fire from the frigates and corvettes on both flanks had the Skalidions boxed in on three sides. The strategy was already impacting the enemy numbers.

A wave of explosions rippled across the holostage as Skalidion fighters were destroyed by the blasts of hail cannon and flickering high-energy lasers from the frigates and corvettes before they turned and retreated.

“Throw a salvo of combat drones into the heart of that Skalidion mass and then give me another hail curtain. Watch out for the frigates. Order the tac boats to stick tight to the destroyers and make sure we are targeting accurately so we don’t hit any of our own ships.”

Through the fading wall of the previous hail curtains came the Skalidions. They ran headlong into the salvo of combat drones with each drone detonation accounting for over a hundred Skalidions, vaporizing them in an incandescent fireball.

The enemy charged on with reckless determination, the swarm taking fire on the flanks as the frigate arm swept in for a second sortie on either side. The outer fighters in the swarm were destroyed by hail and laser, a fresh kill every second. But in the center of the swarm, a mass activation of the green fire weapons grew into a huge green glow hundreds of meters across. It hung in front of the swarm for a moment before it leapt away, heading towards the Canis.

Group Captain Stuart saw the ball of green fire roll across space directly at his ship. “Incoming fire. Angle the stability field and deflect that mass off us.” Stuart looked at the holostage and the green fire closing in by the second.

With the tac boat sensors connected to the Canis’s main sensor network, he could see the entire blue giant system. The frigates and corvettes were fighting hard. The ball of green fire was falling in towards the two destroyers with the tac boats and fighters holding formation. Stuart’s eyes darted this way and that, taking in all the information, looking for any opportunity to turn the tide in this battle.

One Fleet signal far away in the outer system caught his eye.

The Scorpio was in orbit around a moon of a gas giant in the outer system. It was still not responding to communication, but Stuart knew there was a Marine on board—a Marine who could be trusted and who could get the job done.

“Open a channel to Major Jack Forge on the Scorpio. Direct channel to his tactical suit. I hope to krav he has got it on.”

The communications officer turned and nodded to Stuart letting him know the tunneling communication beam was focused on the Scorpio.

“Major Forge, this is Group Captain Stuart. We’ve lost the Scepter. We are falling back to planet Blue. We need the Scorpio in the fight. Report your status, Major.”

And then the rolling ball of Skalidion green fire hit. It boiled over the surface of the Canis, knocking it off beam. The ship tumbled forward, pitching onto its nose. The hull stability field sent most of the energy from the fire spilling off into space where it was already breaking up and boiling away in tortured arcs of green energy. But the initial hit had still been great enough to send the Canis tumbling.

The lights on the command deck flickered, and the holostage blinked off before coming back on a moment later. The holoimage flickered rapidly until it settled, but the usually clear holoimage was replaced by one that was scarred across the midpoint and blurred at the edges.

“No reply from the major,” the communication officers said. “But we’ve got distress calls coming in from the civilian cruisers. They’ve entered orbit around planet Blue but many of them are falling out of orbit. There appears to be a magnetic anomaly emanating from the planet, and it’s playing havoc with the navigation systems. We have two civilian transports that have already crashed. We have some other transports who are taking it as a sign to begin their landing. Those that are in orbit are crashing to the surface or are making their landings. It’s utter chaos.”

Bob Stuart clenched his fist and pressed it into the armrest of his command chair. The fleet had only been his for less than a single watch rotation and already, it was out of control. The civilian fleet that he was honor and duty bound to protect was landing on the nearest planet with an atmosphere. Planet Blue had only had the most basic of surveys. It might be habitable, but it also might not be suitable for a permanent colony. The civilian ships that were landing, however, were unlikely to make it back into orbit. Furthermore, they would be sitting ducks for the Skalidion once they crossed the system. Those civilian ships were trapped on the surface and at the mercy of the Skalidion swarm.

And then a second rolling ball of Skalidion green fire slammed into the Canis. The lights on the command deck went out, and Group Captain Bob Stuart was plunged into darkness. The only sound to be heard over the emergency warning alarms were the cries of concern, fear, and in some cases sheer panic from the command deck crew.

Commander Scherer sat in the cockpit of his Blade in the center of the fighter squadron. The nose of his plane was pointing toward the hail curtain and the Skalidion fighters punching holes through it. His drive system pulled him backward along with the retreating fleet. He checked the holostage on his flight console and saw the frigate arm of the fleet race away to the flanks in an arcing bullhorn attack formation. Their strategy was clear: to slam the Skalidions in the flanks.

But the Skalidion fighters were taking the damage inflicted by the frigate arm seemingly on the chin. The swarm was still punching through the kinetic hail curtain. Hundreds were lost, but the swarm still appeared as big and powerful as ever. They were moving in and already firing their green fire weapons into the retreating destroyers.

“Attention fleet flagship. This is Commander Scherer of the Blades. We are not doing any good back here. Permission to break formation and engage the Skalidions that are punching through the hail curtain.”

Scherer watched as more Skalidions battered their way through the curtain, even as the retreating destroyers and their tac boats fired another salvo of the kinetic hail. The rounds detonated, throwing out the deadly shield of hail with high-yield explosive capability to defend the retreating fleet.

And still, the Skalidions threw themselves at the curtain, slamming headlong into it, punching holes through with their own destruction. Their deaths created the path for the others, who were already amassing their green fire as they advanced.

“This is fleet command,” the reply came over Scherer’s cockpit communicator, a crackling and squeaking reply from the flagship—a sure sign their communication systems were taking damage. “Negative, Commander Scherer. The Blades will hold formation.”

Commander Scherer slammed his fist down in frustration. “Krav it all, Command. We are getting a beating. Put me and my Blades in the fight.”

“This is Group Captain Stuart. I appreciate you want to get in the fight, Commander. Your time will come. We’ll all get a chance to face the Skalidions. You will have your chance, but not yet. Hold formation. Don’t let me down, Commander. I know the Blades are eager. I know you will do us proud when the time comes. Canis out.”

Scherer hoped the group captain knew what he was doing. For now, Scherer would have to follow orders. He flipped his fighter and pointed the nose toward the planet. He checked the fight going on behind him. The fleet had deployed another hail curtain, but this one was more diffuse and limited in intensity. The hail cannons across the fleet were clearly not operating at peak efficiency anymore. The frigate arm was sweeping across the flanks of the swarm and firing their own hail cannons. High-energy lasers flickered on and off across the frigates and corvettes as they sliced through the Skalidions. The assault created tiny green flashes of death with every flickering beam as the Skalidion fighters were destroyed by the dozen.

Scherer couldn’t do the math in his head, but he guessed with such overwhelming odds, the fleet could fight like this for days and still be left vastly outnumbered. The fleet did not have days; it hardly even had an hour. Soon, they would be at planet Blue, their backs to a wall. Then the Blades would be called into action. Scherer knew he would be sent to close with the swarm and to take them on ship-to-ship, outnumbered a hundred or even a thousand to one.

It would be a great victory for the Blades, or a rapid defeat.

The frigates and corvettes moved independently in wild maneuvers, flipping end over end and pouring fire into the swarm. Scherer could see one frigate was already damaged, slow and being left behind. And then it was destroyed, its reactor giving way to a sustained barrage of green fire.

The remaining frigates turned their drives to the swarm and accelerated back toward the massed fleet, laying down retreating fire against their pursuers. And then the frigates flipped and swerved and gave fire, hail cannon and high-energy lasers blasting into the swarm.

Even with the destruction, the swarm was still vast and came on with reckless abandon, throwing themselves willingly into destruction, drawing ever closer to the destroyers.

4

Riya Henson could not sit in her cabin and wait. She needed to know what was going on. She had too much of her father in her. Admiral Henson had been the senior officer of the fleet her entire life. If she couldn’t get answers from the captain of a civilian transport, then what was the point of being the daughter of the admiral? She ran along the corridor toward the command deck dragging Bren, her younger sister, by her hand.

Being the daughters of Admiral Henson, they were able to run past the guards posted outside the civilian transport’s command deck. Bursting in, the girls saw the image on the holostage, of the terrestrial planet Blue.

The crew’s panicked chatter filled the command deck with a constant noise. The girls had spent plenty of time on Fleet ships, including the flagship carrier, and they were used to a more orderly command deck. The air of panic from the civilian crew seemed to feed off itself and create further panic and concern.

Riya read the data on the holostage in a fraction of a second. The civilian transport was caught in the gravity well of the planet and had already entered the upper reaches of the thermosphere. Data streamed across the holostage, showing hull temperature, descent curves, descent velocity, and the estimated time to impact on the planetary surface.

Surrounding the civilian transport were other ships, the same kind of vast civilian transport, all entering the atmosphere of planet Blue. Others were still arriving in orbit, but all were heading for the planet.

Riya turned as she heard the navigation officer talking to the civilian captain.

“I know we didn’t have orders to land, but our drive system is misaligned, and I can’t reset it to symmetrical field geometry. Before I am halfway through the reset, it just flips out again.” The navigation officer turned back to his console. “We are caught in some sort of gravitational or magnetic anomaly coming from the planet surface. We are going down, Captain, whether we have been ordered to or not.”

“I thought we were supposed to be escaping from these kravin’ Skalidion.” The captain squirmed in his command chair. “If we touch down on the planet, we’ll never get this ship into space again. Do everything you can to make sure we don’t fall into the atmosphere.”

Riya looked at the landing pattern on the holostage. She could see immediately that there was no way this ship could avoid a landing. It was on a one-way course to the surface. The drive system was underpowered, and the velocity far too high. It was going to be a rough landing, if not catastrophic.

“You need to put everything into the hull stability field,” Riya said, turning to the captain. “You’ve lost control of the ship, Captain. She is going down.” She pointed at the holoimage and a location on the planet where she was certain the ship was going to land. “In a few minutes, we will be on the ground—there.”

The area on the surface that Riya had indicated was dominated by a vast archipelago, with thousands of small islands separated by a shallow sea. The civilian transport would cover an entire island should it be lucky enough to land on one. But even if it landed in the sea between the islands, the water there appeared shallow enough that it would hardly even cover the lower decks of the massive vessel. The ship would become a vast ocean-bound city. Eventually, the lower decks would become flooded, but only after the power from the drive main reactor failed, and that could be centuries yet. If the civilian ship did not need to use its power for its drive systems, it could maintain the hull stability field for generations.

“Who let these children in here?” the captain said, pointing at Riya and Bren.

Bren Henson folded arms across her chest and stuck out her jaw as she looked up at the captain, defiance fixed on her youthful face.

“I’m not a child,” she said petulantly. “And I don’t need permission to stand here. Just ask my father and he’ll tell you where I can and can’t stand.”

The captain looked at the girls. Riya saw his features crumble under the weight of sudden sorrow.

“What?” Riya asked. The captain looked away as Riya step forward “What?” she repeated more firmly. “Tell me.”

“The admiral…” the captain began and then trailed off.

“What? What about the admiral? Answer me, Captain. I demand you tell me now.”

“Get these young women off my command deck,” the captain said, standing up. “Direct all energy into the hull stability field and put us down next to one of those islands in the archipelago. Let’s be sure to put her down as gently as we can.”

A pair of militia guards posted outside the deck were the only security. They stepped in and stood on either side of the Henson girls. One guard laid a hand gently on Riya’s shoulder, speaking calmly and gently.

“Come with me, miss. Let’s get you somewhere safe. The ship will be landing soon.”

Riya shrugged the guard off and stepped up to the captain. She looked up at him, her face determined but with a hint of sadness that was growing by the moment because she knew why the captain was reluctant to answer her question. Somewhere deep down, Riya Henson knew her father would not be joining them on the planet surface.

“What is it?” Bren asked her sister, stepping up alongside her and taking her hand for comfort.

The captain stepped down from his command chair. The man was old, and his eyes were red. He looked at the girls and then at the floor. He shook his head.

“I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but the Scepter was destroyed a short while ago. There’s been no word from the admiral. There were no escape pods, no survivors at all. All officers and crew, including the admiral, have been lost.”

Riya jutted out her jaw and took the devastating news with a determination that it would not upset her in front of others. Her father had been a Fleet officer her entire life, and she had always known he had been in danger every time he set out on a warship. They had all been in danger during the evacuation, all under constant attack by deadly enemies. It was astounding that any of the ships had survived this long.

And the more Riya thought about it, and the more she tried not to show her emotion, the more the emotion insisted on showing itself, threatening to burst out of her chest.

A single tear gathered in the corner of Riya’s eye. Bren turned to her sister and looked up, tugging on her sister’s arm.

“What does he mean, Riya? Tell me what he’s saying.”

Riya took one last look at the holostage. Planet Blue filled the image. The data streaming in showed the waves breaking on the shores of the small island they were heading toward. She put an arm around her sister’s shoulders and walked her toward the exit.

“Come with me, Bren.” Riya Henson walked her sister away. “Father is with Mother now.”

Bren was emotionally strong like her sister, just like their mother, but she held her sister’s hand tight.

“So are we all alone now?” Bren said.

“No, little sister, we have each other. We have everyone in the Fleet. They are going to need us, and we are going to need them. Let’s go and get somewhere safe. We’ll be landing soon.”

5

Jack moved silently forward with his Marine squad close on his six. A message had come in from the flagship that the fleet was under attack, but Jack was unable to send a response. He knew the fleet was under attack. The Scorpio had to rejoin the fleet and engage the Skalidion.

One battle at a time, Jack thought. First retake the Scorpio, then join the fleet.

A silent signal from his wrist-mounted holostage alerted him to movement in a corridor to his left shortly before he heard the sounds echoing toward him. A new group of Beretta’s pirate thugs were moving to engage Jack’s squad on their flank.

Jack checked his position on his holostage and called a halt. He took a knee and pressed himself to the side of the corridor, making best advantage of the only cover available—a thin conduit running down the side of the otherwise smooth wall. Sam Torent took a knee next to him, pulse rifle aimed down the length of the corridor toward the oncoming noise.

Then Jack’s holostage detected movement on their right. They were heading into a trap, a crossfire. Jack split his squad into two sections with a few swift hand gestures and sent them to cover both attack fronts.

Jack had been outflanked, but not taken by surprise. With a little time to prepare, he was sure they would win. He watched as the Marines moved quickly into position.

Sam unclipped a grenade from his tactical suit and showed it to Jack.

Jack nodded. He turned to the Marines in the other section and indicated for them to also deploy grenades. Jack held his hand up, holding the squad’s actions while he checked the holostage. The two groups of pirates were moving in a coordinated manner, both about to close the trap on Jack and his men. A moment before they came out of cover, Jack dropped his hand.

Sam activated the device, paused, then threw it down the corridor. As the grenade flew away from Sam’s fist, a small propulsion charge kicked in and propelled the grenade right to the far end. Just as the gangsters came charging around the corner, the grenade detonated.

As the thugs were flung aside by the blast, the pulse rifle fire came on. Jack, Sam, and their squad poured fire into the gangsters, and within seconds, the fresh wave of pirates was down.

Jack walked to the end of the corridor and checked that the pirates were down. Sam was at his side.

“There are still a few chokepoints before we get to the command deck corridor,” Jack said, nudging a fallen pirate with his toe. “If Beretta has thought this through, he will have men waiting for us at those locations. And then there is the command deck corridor itself. The only way is through that hall. And it’s designed to make it virtually impossible to storm the command deck.” Jack, satisfied the pirates were all finished, marched back to the squad.

“Let’s form up and get ready. The only way in is down that corridor. Failure is not an option.”

Jack waved to the squad and formed them up, ready to advance.

“Hold up, Jack,” Sam said.

Jack stopped and took a knee, his eyes fixed on the way ahead.

“What is it, Sam?”

“The matter transport device. Agent Reyes was working on it here in the Scorpio’s maintenance section. Maybe we can find one. A prototype, or some blueprints. I’m sure you could fix up one of those devices real quick.”

Jack looked at Sam and shook his head.

“I’m a pretty good engineer, Sam, but Reyes has a special knack with alien tech, and she was working on it for weeks, months even. I can’t just bash together a Devex matter transport device. We proceed on task.”

Sam was tapping into the Scorpio’s equipment manifest on his wrist-mounted holostage. “I’m sure there’s one on board,” he said.

“We haven’t got time, Sam,” Jack said, his attention returning to the way ahead. “And I don’t want to start messing around with alien technology right now.”

Sam tapped Jack on the shoulder with his Mech cybernetic arm. His human arm had been lost in battle long ago. His first prosthetic had been Fleet issue, a sophisticated piece of engineering that had linked directly to his muscle tissue and nervous system, and he had hated it. That had been lost during the evacuation all that time ago, and then Sam had been given his new arm. It had been implanted as much as given, a gift from the Mechs—a part-organic, part-synthetic alien species encountered during the early days after the evacuation.

“I’m always messing around with alien tech,” Sam said with a big grin. “Let’s find us a Devex matter transport device and we can materialize on the command deck and take Beretta out. No need to risk an assault along that command deck corridor.”

“Negative, Sam,” Jack said. “The command deck is close. I don’t want to go hunting through the Scorpio for a device that might or might not be here.”

“That command deck corridor is a very difficult defense to break down,” Sam said. “They can hold that position with a handful of guns, even in the hands of amateurs. You know it’s easier to defend a position than take it.”

“True.” Jack stood. “But if we move in hard and fast, we can dominate them with speed and aggression and infiltrate that command deck before they can organize themselves. We need to move. Your idea is good, Sam, but we don’t have the time. And I can’t send you off looking for the device on your own. I need every gun in the fight. Time is short. Let’s move.”

Jack started to walk to the end of the corridor. Sam fell in step beside him and signaled to the Marines to fall in.

A gangster was squirming, blood pouring from wounds all over his body. He looked up at Jack, groaning and reaching out to beg for assistance. Jack fired a pulse round into his chest as he walked past.

“Believe me, Sam, that’s the only thing I could have done to help him.”

“Well, I would have let the scroat bleed to death,” Sam said. “Admit it, Jack, you’re a soft touch. How you ever made it to be a Fleet Marine officer I will never know. You’re just too kravin’ soft, and a tender heart isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

“Move up, Sam,” Jack said, adding a hand gesture for a stealthy advance. “Make sure it’s clear and make sure not to give your position away to Beretta on the command deck. When we go in, we go in all together, all weapons firing. The only chance we have is to keep their heads down while we advance down the long corridor into the command deck. We need to get the Scorpio back under our control. The fleet needs us.”

Pretorius was on the floor of the officers’ lounge on his hands and knees. Another blow landed on the side of his face, sending him sprawling. He tried to stand up, but only made it as far as his hands and knees again before another punch landed. Pretorius took the blow this time. He spat blood onto the thin carpet and felt one of his teeth come loose.

A heavy kick to his abdomen sent him back to the floor. He rolled over and looked up to see the huge pirate advancing on him, fists clenched and a grin on his ugly face.

Pretorius tried to get to his feet. He was not one to lie down in a fight. He made it back to his hands and knees as the gangster stood in front of him.

“Get up,” the gangster said in a deep, menacing voice. He grinned darkly. “I don’t like to hit a man when he’s down. What am I saying?” the gangster laughed. “I don’t mind one little bit.”

The fist came flying and connected sharply with Pretorius’s forehead, knocking him back to the deck. The tooth came out and swam around in the blood and saliva. Pretorius looked up at the gangster and spat in his face as he moved in again.

The gangster recoiled and groaned as he wiped his chin. Pretorius crawled toward one of the room’s large chairs. He climbed up the side of the chair and got up onto his feet, turning to face the gangster that was advancing on him once again with huge, clumping strides and two thumping fists ready to strike.

Pretorius let go of the chair—a large, plush leather piece—and stepped out into the center of the lounge. He turned himself so his back was to the small drinks cabinet and raised his hands as if to fend off the blows that would surely come. He staggered back. And the blow came.

The captain fended off the blows as best as he could, turning and staggering away, partly driven back by the powerful fist, partly because this was the way he wanted to go. He fell forward onto the cabinet, striking its lower door with his knee. The door popped open, and Pretorius slid down in front of the cabinet, knocking the clear composite tumblers and a large bottle of Amber onto the deck. Pretorius reached inside and grabbed a small but heavy shot glass. He held it in his palm.

“No, please,” Pretorius said with an exhausted sigh. “I’ll tell you. Please stop.” Pretorius held his left arm up behind him, his palm open as he begged the big gangster to leave him alone.

The gangster grabbed him by the back of the collar and yanked him to his feet with a chuckle.

Pretorius spun around. The shot glass in his hand faced outward, and he slammed the open end into the gangster’s eye. The thug wailed and staggered back, his hands up to his face with the shot glass embedded in his eye socket. Pretorius unsteadily made his way to a small safe on the far side of the officers’ lounge. He fell against the wall near the safe and pressed his thumb to the lock. The small door popped open. Pretorius reached inside and pulled out a pulse pistol. He walked over to the gangster, who was staggering half-blind toward the exit to the command deck.

Pretorius stumbled over to the big gangster, crashing into him and pressing him into the wall next to the door. Pretorius pressed the pistol into the back of the gangster with his right hand and wrapped his left hand around the man’s mouth. He fired several rounds, and the pair fell to the deck in a mass of blood.

Pretorius wriggled out from under the heavy corpse. He activated the electron blade on the tip of the pulse pistol and cut a piece of cloth away from the gangster’s shirt, using it to wipe his face clean. He spat again, clearing the blood from the socket where his tooth had once been. The bleeding hadn’t stopped yet. It filled his mouth and flowed freely from the cuts on his lips and over his eyes. Everything hurt.

Pretorius threw the torn piece of blood-soaked shirt over the dead man’s face.

Pretorius opened the door to the command deck and took a quick look. As he suspected, Beretta’s gang was a disorderly bunch, a sorry excuse for a bridge crew. Barely any of them were operating the command consoles. Beretta seemed preoccupied, moving from one console to another. There were only four of the gangsters attempting to make themselves useful.

Pretorius took aim at Beretta and fired, but with his vision blurred and likely a detached retina, his aim was off. The pulse round slammed into the gangster standing next to Beretta. The gangster fell as the shot tore a chunk out of his shoulder. The three other gangsters turned and looked. Beretta turned and raised a pistol.

Pretorius ducked back inside the doorway of the officers’ lounge as Beretta fired. Several pulse rounds slammed into the doorframe just centimeters from Pretorius’s face. The captain aimed blind around the corner and let off a stream of wild rounds. He heard the familiar sound of pulse rounds striking composite and one dull thud as a shot struck a body.

Pretorius risked a look, hoping to find Beretta down, but Beretta was taking cover behind the command chair with his pistol aimed towards Pretorius. The two gangsters were edging forward using the command consoles as cover. Pretorius ducked back into cover a moment before a pulse round fizzed past. Pretorius knew his command deck better than anywhere in the galaxy, and he knew exactly where the consoles were in relation to the lounge door. This time, his blind firing would be a little less blind.

He reached around the corner with the pulse pistol and laid down a series of rounds in the general direction of the navigation console where one of the gangsters was taking cover. Pretorius risked a look and found the gangster slumped dead over the console. Pretorius knew his aim had been partly due to his knowledge of his ship and partly luck.

Pretorius heard someone running away, so he risked a look and saw a gangster running off the command deck. Beretta was shouting at the gangster, telling him to come back, to stand and fight. Pretorius broke cover and took aim at Beretta through his blurred vision, firing several rounds that struck the command chair, while others sailed past and slammed into the bulkhead behind. None hit Beretta.

Beretta returned fire without even looking, then turned and fired a pulse round into the back of the fleeing gangster who had already made it to the long, straight.

Pretorius dove out of the officers’ lounge and took cover behind the corpse slumped over the navigation console. He aimed at the command chair just in time to see Beretta backing away.

Beretta let off a few poorly-aimed rounds at the captain before turning and running off the command deck.

Beretta’s footsteps disappeared down the command deck corridor as Pretorius staggered to the command chair. Even with his vision blurred and eyes stinging from the blood running into them, he didn’t put a foot wrong. He could find his way around his command deck blindfolded. He reached up to the command chair armrest and activated the security door.

The inner door of the command deck slid shut. Pretorius was in command of his ship again. Several dead gangsters littered the deck, and Pretorius stepped over one as he walked to the main holostage. The large image was easier for him to see than the smaller holoimage on the armrest. He anxiously checked the status of the Scorpio.

The drive system was still powered down and its weapon systems were offline. The Scorpio was still in orbit around the gas giant’s moon. Pretorius zoomed out and revealed the map of the entire system.

The fleet was falling back with the Skalidion swarm pressing hard. The civilian fleet was gathering at planet Blue, several already scattered across the surface while others were in the process of landing.

Pretorius opened a channel to the flagship of the fleet. He saw on the holostage that the flagship was now the Canis. It took Pretorius a few moments to realize this was not a mistake. In that instant, he knew that the Scepter must have been destroyed and the flag had passed to Bob Stuart.

“Fleet Flagship Canis, this is Pretorius.”

The reply came after a moment.

“Captain Pretorius, good to hear you. This is the Canis. The Skalidions are pushing us back toward planet Blue. We are fighting a rearguard action and a rolling retreat. The civilian fleet is landing on the planet. We will reform the fleet in orbit above planet Blue and make our last stand. If you can get the Scorpio into the fight, we might have a chance. We don’t have much time. Hope you can make it. Canis out.”

Pretorius zoomed the holoimage in on the Scorpio and called up the ident codes of every crewman and officer left aboard. The Scorpio was empty, apart from two small squads of Marines. And the highest ranking of them all was a name that gave Pretorius confidence that maybe the Scorpio could be brought to action and join the fight against the Skalidions. He tapped the ident code of Major Jack Forge and opened a channel.

“Jack, this is the captain. I have secured the command deck. I can’t run the ship on my own. I can barely see. I need you up here now. Do you copy, Jack?”

Jack checked the location of the Marines on his holostage. He was moving in toward the central beam of the Scorpio from the starboard side. The squad under Lane’s command was several corridors over on the port side, caught in a fight with a group of pirates holding their position.

Jack called in his small group and showed them Squad Leader Lane’s position.

“Go and join Lane’s squad and put those pirates down. Good work, Marines. Go.”

The Marines ran off. Jack turned to Sam.

“Have you ever crewed a destroyer before, Sam?” Jack asked.

“No,” Sam said. “But I’m prepared to give it a go.”

“You have been my copilot on the tac boat a hundred times. Helping me and Pretorius move this destroyer will be no harder than that,” Jack lied. Piloting a destroyer was going to be virtually impossible, but Sam and Jack would be under the command of one of the greatest captains ever, Captain Pretorius. If anyone could turn them into a successful command deck crew in a matter of minutes, it was Alistair Pretorius.

Jack opened a channel to Squad Leader Lane.

“Squad Leader, this is Major Forge. I’ve sent you some reinforcements. They will be approaching your left flank any moment now. Also, there are a few pirates fleeing from the command deck. Pretorius has taken control. We have the Scorpio. I’m going to assist the captain, and we are going to get the Scorpio back in formation with the rest of the fleet. You and your squad are free to hunt down the last of these pirates. Capture them if you can. Kill them if you must. Watch out for your squad. These pirates are beaten, but they don’t know it yet, and they won’t give up easily. I know you can do it. Good hunting, Squad Leader. Forge out.”

The reply came in over Jack’s communicator. Lane was stuttering as he had the first time Jack met him, but he replied in the affirmative.

“Y-yes, s-sir. I have a group of pirates pinned down. I w-will neutralize them and get after the others. You can rely on me, sir. I will g-get it done.”

“I know you can do it. Focus on the task. I know you will do the Fleet Marine Service proud.”

Jack checked his pulse rifle, then turned to Sam.

“Move fast. The captain is waiting for us. If we encounter any pirates, put them down hard.”

Sam swung up his pulse rifle. “You don’t have to tell me twice. Let’s go.”

Jack moved along the corridor at a steady run. He had been the fastest in the battalion and only Sam had been able to beat Jack in a foot race, albeit by using a few dirty tricks. Jack never held it against Sam for cheating in their races when they had been recruits. A good Marine got the job done any way he could.

Jack turned a corner at full speed, swinging across the corridor and almost colliding with the far bulkhead. The short corridor turned again, and Jack was running along one of the main halls that ran the length of the destroyer. He was heading toward the bow section and the command deck where Pretorius was waiting to get the ship underway and back into the fight against the Skalidions.

Jack didn’t need to check a map. He was as familiar with this ship as he was with any place he had ever been. He had spent weeks and months inside the ship. It had been his home. It had been his base of operations. He had been a Marine here since his first days in the service. He knew every twist and turn. He’d defended it against enemy boarding parties. He had defended it against enemies within the service. This was more than a workplace, it was part of who he was. This was his ship.

Jack sprinted to a security door across the central corridor. On the far side was a junction with stairs up and down to the decks above and below. As he ran forward, he tapped on his wrist-mounted holostage and called up a holofile of the internal security systems. The door was locked, and it would not open. Jack slowed to a jog and then finally a walk and then he came to a halt in front of the sealed security doors.

He opened a channel to Pretorius.

“Captain, this is Jack. I am at a security blast door. I need you to override your security and let me through.”

“Copy that, Jack.”

Jack heard the strain in the captain’s voice.

“Just making my way to the security console now. I’ll deactivate them all. It’ll be quicker.”

Jack watched the security panel beside the blast door anxiously, waiting for it to activate and slide open.

And then the control panel beeped, lit up green, and the doors slid back rapidly, opening the full two-meter width of the corridor in a fraction of a second.

And standing in the corridor, Jack found himself looking at Lou Beretta only a few meters away, trying to open a side door.

Jack and Sam raised their rifles and took aim. Beretta pressed himself into the doorway and into cover.

“Hey, Jack. Good to see you,” Beretta shouted. “Have you changed your mind? You ready to join my crew yet?”

Jack took a step forward, his pulse rifle held lightly to his shoulder. He took another step, making sure to keep the same steady pace, his weapon targeted on the pirate just out of view. Sam walked alongside him in the same pose.

“No, Lou. I don’t think so,” Jack said as he took another slow step forward. “I am already committed to the crew of the Scorpio, you know. Why don’t you give yourself up? Looks like you have come to the end of the road. There’s no way out. That’s a maintenance hatch you’re trying to get through. There is nothing on the other side of there for you.”

Jack took another step forward.

“Just take him down,” Sam said quietly. He pulled a grenade off his suit and held his thumb over the arming button. “Low yield. We can just blow his legs off.”

Jack put his hand over Sam’s grenade and pressed it back down.

“No, Sam, we don’t want to give him a live grenade, even on a short fuse. It might well end up at our feet. We’ve got him cornered. No need to give him an advantage.”

“You know, Jack, I’ve been in a tight spot a couple of times,” Beretta called back, “and not many people ever try to take me alive. Mostly they try to kill me when they want me out of the way. Do you know what happened to them?”

“No, Lou. I don’t know, but I am too busy for you to tell me right now.” Jack took another step forward, slowly closing the distance.

The sound of the maintenance hatch door sliding open echoed along the corridor, a screeching and hissing of servos firing. Beretta ducked inside and called, “Anyone who has had me cornered has usually wound up dead, Jack. I don’t want to kill you, Jack, but I will if you make me.”

When Jack and Sam stepped forward again, they had Beretta trapped in a small maintenance area. There was no way out.

“Oh wait, I do want to kill you,” Beretta said, and he stepped out of the doorway and threw something along the corridor. A fizzing white meter-long electron blade cartwheeled along the corridor. The blade struck Sam in the chest, sliding through and out his back.

Jack opened fire with a rapid barrage of pulse rounds. Berretta ducked back into the maintenance area, and Jack advanced quickly, firing as he went. He reached the opening to the hatch and pulled a grenade off his tactical suit, tossing it inside. He slammed the control panel for the door and slid it shut. The grenade exploded inside.

Jack opened the door and stepped into the doorway, pistol aimed. He looked for Beretta amongst the debris, but all he could see was the broken maintenance equipment and a missing panel at the far side of the hatch at floor level.

Beretta was gone.

Jack pulled a microdrone off his tactical suit and tossed it toward the opening. The drone raced along the small maintenance conduit and caught Beretta, attaching itself to his back.

With Beretta tagged, Jack turned and ran to Sam. He knelt next to his friend. The electron bayonet was still fizzing and sticking out of his chest. It had been detached from a Fleet Marine pulse rifle. Only the power unit and the blade emitter were standing above the fizzing blade. Only Beretta would be so reckless as to detach the electron bayonet from its parent pulse rifle.

Jack carefully gripped the emitter and deactivated the blade. It disappeared instantly from Sam’s chest, leaving only the cauterized wound.

Jack saw Sam’s bio readings stream over his helmet’s enhanced data view. All systems were showing critical failures.

Sam was dying.

“It’s okay, Sam,” Jack said. “I’ve authorized your tactical suit to begin emergency medical procedures. We’ll get you to a medical facility right away. Just hang in there.”

Sam lifted his arm to his helmet. The Mech tissue of his right arm was losing cohesion; the fingers were losing their shape. The hand was becoming a single paddle-like structure as he tried to remove the helmet.

Jack shook his head. “No, Sam. Leave the helmet on. Keep the tactical suit sealed. It’s the only way you are going to survive this.”

Sam’s voice was weak, barely a whisper, and he clawed at the jawline of the helmet as he tried to remove it.

“No, Jack. Nothing can save me now. Take this kravin’ helmet off. I hate these kravin’ things. They make me feel like I’m drowning.”

Jack nodded. He unclipped the helmet and pulled it off. His heart beat hard when he saw his friend’s face. Blood erupted from Sam’s mouth as he coughed weakly. The Marine’s eyes were filled with tears, but as always, there was a steely resolve behind Sam’s expression.

Jack took Sam’s hand.

“Live by the sword,” Sam said. He smiled and coughed, a splatter of blood erupting from his mouth. And then his eyes rolled back in his head.

“No. Sam! You do not have permission to leave. Do you hear me, Marine?! You are not allowed to go!”

Jack was becoming overwhelmed with the emotion of seeing his friend slipping rapidly from life. And then the medical data appeared on Jack’s data view.

Commander Sam Torent. Deceased.

Jack punched the deck plate. All the weight flowing through the gauntlet of his tactical suit slammed into the deck and cracked the composite. Jack screamed in rage. He stood up and punched the bulkhead. He growled and shouted his refusal to accept that Sam was dead. He threw a rapid flurry of punches at the bulkhead and then dropped down to his knees next to his friend. He took off his own helmet and held Sam’s head in his hands.

Sam was gone.

But Beretta was not.

Jack stood up, his entire body quaking in fury. He located Beretta with the microdrone he had attached to the fleeing pirate’s back. Beretta was moving fast through some small channels hidden behind the Scorpio’s bulkheads, but Jack knew exactly where he was. And Jack knew where he was heading. Beretta would be attempting escape.

The nearest way off the Scorpio was the starboard side of the Marine hangar deck. There may still be a tac boat or squad transport there. Beretta was running like the cowardly criminal he was. Jack would not let him escape. He sprinted along the corridor, driven by hate and anger. He didn’t know exactly how he would kill Beretta, but he hoped it would be slow. Jack hoped he could pour out all his fury in killing Beretta. He hoped that by murdering his enemy, he would somehow salve the pain of the loss of his oldest friend.

“Jack. This is the captain. I need you on the command deck. Now.”

“Negative, Captain. This is something I need to do. You have to cope on your own.”

Jack came to a junction with the stairway down. He dropped down the stairs, half-tumbling and half-running, his tactical suit’s local gravity field keeping him upright and moving fast.

A new message from the captain came over Jack’s communicator.

“Now you hear this, Major. You get your kravin’ ass to the command deck right now. I don’t care what else you have to deal with, you will deal with the Scorpio first. That is your duty. That is an order. Do you understand me?”

Jack slowed as he heard Pretorius’s. Surely the old captain was aware that one of the Marines had just been murdered. Unless of course he was too busy with trying to get the ship back underway and into the fight with the Skalidions.

“No,” Jack said as he stopped running. “I have to catch Beretta. I’m going to kill him.”

“Listen, Jack…” Pretorius sounded calm, but his breathing was labored. “We have our duty. That comes before everything. We need to get the Scorpio back to the fleet or everyone will be lost to the Skalidion. I can’t do this without you, Jack. You need to get up here now.”

Jack watched the signal of Beretta moving further and further away with every second. But the captain was right. Beretta was one man. Revenge would have to go unclaimed. Jack had work to do. He turned and ran back toward the command deck. After a few turns, he passed the fallen body of his old friend and ally, Sam Torent.

Jack had never felt so alone. He had never felt so lost. He forced himself to move past the body of his friend and toward the command deck of the Scorpio.

There was still a battle to be won.

Beretta burst out of the conduit and into the side corridor. He paused to get his bearings, then picked the way towards the hangar deck. He paused to listen for any one nearby. Satisfied he was alone, he ran off.

Turning a corner, Beretta skidded to a halt when he saw a Marine lying on the deck. They looked dead. Beretta ran on, but as he passed the prone body, he saw they were alive but trapped in a confinement field generated by the tactical suit itself.

Beretta kneeled and pulled off the helmet. He smiled and laughed as he saw Heaton’s face, a mixture of relief and anxiety.

“Ah, boss,” Heaton said, his voice quivering, “thank you for freeing me.”

Beretta smiled. “They used your own suit to confine you. Those Marines are a bunch of scroats.”

“Yes, boss,” Heaton said. “Glad I left and joined your organization.”

Beretta nodded. “But you kind of had no choice. I mean, I was going to kill you, wasn’t I?”

“But I helped out, didn’t I, boss?”

Beretta patted Heaton on the head. “Yes, you did. And you failed. I sent you to kill Jack Forge. I thought a Marine could get close to him.”

“Sorry, boss. Give me another chance. I’ll get him this time.”

Beretta nodded. “Maybe. Let’s get you out of this suit first.”

“Yes, boss. Thank you, boss.”

Beretta patted along Heaton’s tactical suit and found one last grenade strapped to the webbing. He pulled it off the strap and pointed at the arming switch. “So I can set the length of the fuse here?”

Heaton nodded nervously.

Beretta set a long fuse.

“This should get you out of that suit,” Beretta said.

“No. Boss, no!” Heaton panicked.

Beretta set the grenade down in front of Heaton, then he took off his jacket and found the tracker Jack Forge had sent after him. He plucked the drone off and set it next to the grenade.

“There, the grenade should take care of this drone for me,” Beretta said. “I’d like to see Forge track me then.”

Heaton struggled inside the suit’s confinement field, but he could only move his head and neck.

Beretta stood up.

“I had better get to a safe distance. I think I have selected a high-yield detonation. Once you are out of that suit, come and join me on the hangar deck. We’ll be leaving soon.”

Beretta started to walk away, the shouts of fear and panic from Heaton fading away as he turned one corner and then another. The blast, when it came, rocked the corridors. Beretta stumbled slightly and then walked on, untroubled by the blast any further.

6

Jack staggered onto the command deck still reeling from the shock of Sam’s death. Pretorius looked around as the security door slid aside.

“Take over at navigation, Jack.” Pretorius pointed to the navigation console. He limped over to the command chair, cradling his broken rib. It was difficult to climb up into the chair, but with effort, he made it, collapsing into the seat with a wince of pain.

“He’s dead,” Jack said, standing in the doorway and looking up at Pretorius.

“Who is dead? Berreta?” Pretorius said. He waved Jack toward the navigation console.

“No,” Jack said, standing, feeling uncertain, lost. “Sam. He killed Sam.”

Pretorius looked over a shoulder. “Navigation console, now, Major. It has been a long time since I set a course directly on the navigation console. I need you to check my numbers while I try and get some of these weapons online.”

Jack looked up at Pretorius in the command chair as he walked over to the console. His feet felt heavy. His stomach sinking.

“Move!” Pretorius shouted.

“Yes, sir.” Jack shook the empty feeling and took a few steps across the command deck. The feeling of loss was like nothing he’d felt since he lost his brother in the weeks before he joined the Fleet Marines. It was as if his guts had been pulled out. He felt like he was collapsing under his own weight as he shuffled toward the navigation console.

A course was set to rendezvous with the fleet. The small holodisplay blinked and showed the course the Scorpio would take through the system towards planet Blue, including the slingshot maneuver around Blue’s moon and on to join the retreating fleet.

The numbers were meaningless to Jack. The blinking holographic schematic was meaningless. He heard his name being called again, but the voice was distant. Only when the shout came louder did Jack turn. Pretorius was leaning forward in his command chair, glowering down at Jack.

“Pull yourself together, Major. It is not the first time either of us lost a colleague. You can mourn your friend later. Now we need to get in the fight. Check my numbers and make sure I’m not going to fly us into a moon or an asteroid. I need to get the Scorpio alongside the Canis and the Aquarius before the Skalidions can tear the fleet apart. Do you copy, Major?”

Jack nodded. He felt himself surface through the heavy, mournful regret like a diver coming up for air. Suddenly, his task seemed clear. The Scorpio was needed. Jack Forge was needed. He may never fully recover from the loss of his friend, but for now, he needed to focus on the task at hand.

“The Scorpio’s course is good, sir,” Jack said as he looked at the console again. The data, the flight schematic, it all came into focus. Everything made sense. It was familiar. It was comforting to be engaged in a task that he knew he could accomplish. He had felt himself drifting into self-pity as he realized that capturing Lou Beretta was something he’d failed to do on so many occasions. And on this occasion, it had cost him his friend’s life.

“Get to the drive console, Jack,” Pretorius said. He was tapping away furiously on his armrest. “Make sure we’ve got our drive systems online and there is no corruption in the network. I don’t want us flying the ship apart. Get us to that rendezvous point.”

Jack marched to the drive console and tapped a few buttons to call up the layout for the drive system. The reactors were online and all conduits to the assembly were showing green and ready for action. But even as he was working and concentrating, he again felt the crushing sadness of having seen his friend cut down.

“Activating main drive,” Jack called out as he tapped the holographic button hovering over the drive console then moved to the main weapons console.

A holoimage of the Scorpio’s hail cannon emplacements along both flanks showed red against the green holographic lines of the Scorpio schematic. All hail cannons were offline and out of commission.

“All hail cannons out of action, sir. I can’t get them back online.”

Pretorius climbed down from the command chair and went over to the main holostage, calling up a schematic of the Scorpio. All along the port and starboard sides, the hail cannon batteries were burnt out.

“Sabotage,” Pretorius said bitterly. “We are going to have to find some firepower if we are going to be effective when we rejoin the fleet. I’m going to try and get some power to the laser assembly. Jack, get to the communications console. Activate communication channels. We need to get a message to the fleet and let them know we are on our way.”

Pretorius zoomed out the image of the Scorpio and called up an image of the blue giant system. At the center of the holoimage, the star appeared as a fist-sized ball of blue fire. Real-time data showed its boiling surface and the arching streams of churning plasma fire billowing out into space. Further out from the star was planet Blue itself. A large super-terrestrial covered in oceans and scattered green islands. And moving toward planet Blue were the hundreds of points of light representing the ships of the fleet. Forming the rearguard of the retreating fleet was the small group of battleships. And just on the edge of weapons range and filling a huge portion of the holoimage, Pretorius could see the Skalidion swarm.

“We have got to get some firepower,” Pretorius said, his voice almost silenced in awe at the fearsome, imposing threat. “How is the communication channel coming along, Jack?”

“Communications open, sir. I am connecting you with the flagship command deck now,” Jack said.

The short whistle sounded across the command deck, informing Captain Pretorius that the Scorpio’s command deck was connected to the flagship’s command deck.

“This is Pretorius. We are heading in system. The Scorpio will rendezvous with you at these coordinates.”

“This is Group Captain Stuart. Good to hear from you, Captain. The Skalidion are pressing us hard. Most of the civilian fleet is in orbit around planet Blue. Some are falling behind. We can’t save them. Get here quickly, Scorpio. The fleet needs you.”

Jack closed the channel and looked over at the holostage. Pretorius was watching the data coming in from the battle and the retreat. A civilian transport was veering off to the fleet’s port flank and drifting further from the protective cover of the destroyers. The Skalidion fighters swooped in on the civilian transport the instant it fell outside of the destroyers’ weapons range, and soon, it was crawling with Skalidion fighters. The ship was utterly lost and at the mercy of the voracious alien predators.

“We don’t stand a chance,” Jack said, his head dropping.

“What the krav is the matter with you, Jack? Of course we don’t stand a chance with an attitude like that! Shape up. You are Marine, so let me see the Marine! If you want to mourn your friend now, we will certainly lose this fight. Pull yourself together, boy!”

“Sir. Yes, sir.” Jack felt his heart beat hard. He felt the pain, but he also felt the pride of being a Marine. He felt guilt at his recurring self-pity, and for allowing it to take control of him and distract him from his duty—his duty to the fleet, his duty to all humans in the blue giant system, humans at the mercy of an unstoppable Skalidion swarm.

“Let me take a look at the laser assembly, sir,” Jack said with a renewed energy. “I think I can get it online. We can’t take the Scorpio into battle without some firepower.” Jack looked at Pretorius. The old captain was bruised and bleeding from a cut above his eye. He was unshaved, his hair was untidy, and his uniform was torn at the collar. Jack knew that if Pretorius could function under the pressure then so could he.

Jack was in the fight.

Pretorius nodded and walked back to the command chair, clutching his ribs in pain. “Do what you can with the laser assembly. Focus on the upper assembly and I’ll try and get all power from the hull stability field concentrated on the upper hull.”

Jack noticed Pretorius’s awkward movements. “Sir, you are injured.”

“I haven’t got time for a trip to the med-bay, so don’t even think of it,” Pretorius said, and he tried to climb up into the command chair

Jack pulled a med-pack off his tactical suit and tore it open. He stepped over to the captain and pulled the captain’s shirt up. Dark bruises, red and purple, covered his abdomen. Jack couldn’t see what area needed treatment through all that bruising.

Pretorius pointed.

“The rib. There. It’s broken, I think.”

Jack pressed the med-pack into place. Fine tendrils moved out from the pack and pierced the captain’s skin, pulling itself in to place.

Pretorius yelled in pain as the pack positioned itself. Then he relaxed. He flexed his arm.

“Good?” Jack asked.

Pretorius nodded. “Back to work,” he said and climbed up into the command chair with a new pain-free vitality.

Jack moved over to the weapons console with a sprightlier step. He tapped away at the controls and accessed the laser assembly systems. The laser assemblies were offline, but the systems had not been sabotaged or burnt out like the hail cannons. Jack knew he could bring the laser assembly up to full power from the command deck. He turned to Pretorius

“I can have upper and lower laser assemblies up to full power in a few moments. How long before we reach the Skalidion swarm?”

Pretorius looked up with a smile. “We are coming up on the fleet and will be back in the line in a moment. The Skalidions will be in weapons range in a few moments more. Let’s give them something to think about. Fire when you are ready, Jack.”

Group Captain Stuart punched the air as he saw the Scorpio slide into the battle line. The frigate and corvettes under the command of Commander Bale were swooping across the front of the swarm that had punched its way through the latest hail curtain. They arced around and came back and fell into formation with the massed fleet. Three destroyers in line. Tac boats and Blade fighters peppered throughout and in between. And on the flanks, dozens of frigates and corvettes.

“Attention all ships. Combat drone launch on my command. I want every tube and every combat drone in the fleet targeting the Skalidions. When this hail curtain has failed, we launch and detonate the drones. I want an antimatter eruption at full spread across their line of advance. That’ll hold them, and then we fall back at best speed and regroup at planet Blue.”

Jack, standing on the command deck of the Scorpio at the laser assembly console, looked at the main holostage and the map of the fleet. All ships were reporting ready to fire the combat drones.

Pretorius called out, “We don’t have the crew to manage the combat drones, but we can at least launch one. You can run fast, Jack. Get down to the nearest launch tube and pack it with a combat drone. We fought hard to get back in the fight, I’d like us to get at least one drone off with the rest of the fleet.”

Jack turned, pushing himself away from the console. He responded as he sprinted past the command chair.

“Yes, Captain. I’ll be back in time to man the guns up here as well.”

Jack ran through the corridors of the Scorpio to the nearest combat drone launch tube. It was on the forward quarter just below hail cannon batteries one and two. He could have picked either port or starboard side, but he knew where the body of his fallen friend was lying and chose to ignore that route. This route led to the port-side tube.

Jack moved quickly and came skidding to a halt outside the tube room. The door was sealed, but he opened it using his Marine command codes. Being a major, he could bypass many security systems that automatically kicked in on the Scorpio.

Inside the room, he saw the racks of combat drones, each one four meters long and a meter in circumference. They were painted white, and each one was designated with the code name for the Scorpio and the drone production number.

Racks on both sides of the tube room had five drones in a stack, two deep. With so many combat drones available, it seemed a terrible waste to only be able to launch one at their attackers. Jack activated the hoist system and grabbed the first drone. He maneuvered it to the tube and loaded it.

Jack hit the communication panel and put himself through to the command deck. He selected the open channel so Pretorius wouldn’t have to interrupt his work to receive the call—it would just simply come out over the main speaker.

“Combat drone ready for launch, sir. Do we have time for me to load a second on the starboard tube?”

“If you are quick. I’ll call you if you run out of time. Move.”

But Jack was already running. He sealed the tube room door behind him and sprinted across the ship. The passage to the starboard-side tube room took Jack along a corridor heading back before he could hit a cross-corridor to get there. As he ran, his breathing became heavy. He checked the atmosphere in the Scorpio on his wrist-mounted holostage. The oxygen levels were low. The Scorpio had taken a beating, and the atmosphere was bleeding out from somewhere.

When fully crewed, a small atmosphere leak would be detected and patched within moments. The full maintenance team would be constantly alert for fractures or puncture wounds from micro meteorite impacts or weapons strikes. But the Scorpio had been under-staffed for too long. The leaking air was not hugely dangerous to Jack, and the pressure drop was measured in a few microbars per minute. It would take hours for the oxygen levels to reach a fatally low level. But the thin air made running hard. Jack loved to run. Back on his home world, he had run for hours over the rolling grasslands. Running through the corridors of this warship had never been the same, but Jack had run every one of them. Now he was doing it with less oxygen to power his muscles. But it wasn’t going to stop him from making it to the combat drone room before the fleet group captain gave the order to fire.

Jack turned the last corner that would put him into the corridor for the tube room. His breathing was heavy as his heart pounded, pushing more blood and oxygen to his muscles. He could feel his pulse in his ears as he ran. And then he heard another noise—footsteps in the corridor behind him.

The flicker of a shadow at the far end of the corridor caught Jack’s eye. He turned and took a few cautious steps. And then the shadow moved again, darting around the corner. The figure came into view.

Jack saw the weapon. He saw it being raised and aimed at him. He instinctively knew who it was before he could consciously identify the figure.

It was Beretta.

Jack hit the deck and pressed himself to the corridor wall as the pulse rounds fizzed overhead. Jack grabbed his own pistol off his thigh holster. He rolled to the other side of the corridor as the pulse rounds zeroed in on his position. He aimed with both hands as he rolled across the width of the corridor, firing as he went. The pulse rounds were poorly aimed but came at such a rate and intensity that they caused Beretta to back into cover.

Jack was on his feet. He aimed at the corner around which Beretta had disappeared. He fired one pulse after another as he ran forward. The barrage had the effect of keeping Beretta in cover as Jack closed the distance.

Reaching the end of the corridor, Jack turned and gave fire. The corridor was empty. Jack called up the local surveillance nodes and patched the data through to his wrist-mounted holostage. A figure was running along a corridor not far away.

Jack chased.

“Jack, this is Pretorius. Just had word from the flagship. We will be launching the combat drone salvo into minutes. How’s that second tube looking?”

Jack slowed his run. He was about to tell Pretorius that he was pursuing Beretta. Then he realized he’d been distracted. The old pirate was making Jack lose sight of his priorities. The second tube needed to be loaded. Justice for Beretta could wait. But as Jack turned and ran back toward the starboard-side tube room, he knew it was not justice he was interested in. It was revenge. Revenge had blinded him to his true duty. He ran harder, panting in the thin oxygen of the low-pressure atmosphere. But with thoughts of Beretta and revenge out of his mind, he was able to cover the distance quickly.

Jack ran into the tube room and loaded a combat drone in seconds. He slammed the tube door shut just as Pretorius’s voice came over Jack’s communicator.

“Launching combat drones now. Get up here, Jack. We’re not out of this yet.”

Jack stepped out of the tube room and glanced cautiously along the length of the corridor. He would not put it past Beretta to sneak up on him and be ready to shoot him down the moment he stepped into the corridor. But Beretta was nowhere to be seen. Jack checked the local surveillance feed. There was only one figure moving through the Scorpio. Berretta was running away.

“You can’t hide on the Scorpio for long, Beretta,” Jack said to himself as he set off at a run toward the command deck and slapped his pulse pistol back into his thigh holster. Jack moved quickly and was running down the command deck corridor after a few breathless moments, just in time to see the combat drone salvo racing away from the fleet on the central holostage.

He stepped into the command deck and sealed the security doors on either side of the long, straight command deck corridor, ensuring Beretta could not sneak up on them and again take control of the Scorpio. Even though it was virtually impossible for one person to control the vast destroyer, Jack knew that would not stop Beretta from trying.

The holostage showed the fleet and the red lines marking the salvo of drones. The Scorpio had fired only two of the deadly, high-yield antimatter devices. The Canis and the Aquarius had launched a full salvo each and had followed it up with a second. Red lines streaked away from each of the ships in the frigate arm, over a dozen frigates and corvettes launching from their single launch tube. Altogether, a full spread of dozens of combat drones was streaking across space towards the Skalidion swarm.

The combat drones detonated within a nanosecond of each other across their vast spread, each creating a short-lived micro-star that ballooned out in a raging maelstrom of plasma. The stars burned and merged as they expanded and created a vast swathe of incandescent plasma.

“Put everything into the drive assembly,” Pretorius said as he climbed down from the command chair. He walked over to the navigation console and input the heading. The fleet was falling back to planet Blue. The last stand against the Skalidions would happen there.

Jack diverted all power to the drive system, and the Scorpio was flung across space towards planet Blue. That planet was either going to become the fleet’s new home or their final resting place.

The sensor net from the combined fleet showed a glimpse of what was happening on the far side of the plasma fire. The Skalidions had halted their advance. They weren’t going to punch through the plasma fire as easily as they had the hail curtain. But the fire was fading fast. It would only hold the Skalidions off for a short time, enough time for the fleet to form its final defensive formation. A formation that would either succeed or fail. Either way, this was going to be their last fight against the Skalidions.

And then, on the far side of the plasma fire, a new eruption of plasma. Jack knew it was the civilian transport that had fallen out of formation being destroyed.

“A hundred thousand souls,” Jack said.

“The Skalidions didn’t destroy her,” Pretorius said, leaning toward the navigation console. “The Skalidions want to take the civilians alive. The captain must have set the reactor to overload. That’s a drive core collapse.”

“Poor bastards,” Jack said.

“Some things are worse than death,” Pretorius said. “Get on the weapons console, Jack. Make sure that laser assembly is warmed up and ready. I’m going to put as much power as I can spare into the hull stability field and put us at the center of the fleet. We are going to be a sitting duck, so we had better make ourselves as strong as possible. I’m not giving up the Scorpio easily.”

“They’ll know they’ve got a fight on their hands, sir,” Jack said as he brought the laser assembly up to full power.

The Scorpio slid into orbit around planet Blue and took its position amongst the fleet. A message from the group captain came over the Scorpio’s speakers.

“Combat drone plasma field is fading. We bought ourselves as much time as we can, but this is the last stand. Make no mistake, here we stand or here we fall. The civilian fleet is falling to the planet. The civilians are already leaving the transport where they can. There’s not one transport among the civilian fleet that could make it out of the star system. There’s not one ship in the military fleet that could stand alone, but we can do this if we work together. Good luck, everyone. Here they come.”

Pretorius stepped up to the command chair. “I’ll do my best with the targeting, Jack. You make sure the laser assembly has got everything it needs. We are down to the one weapon. Let’s make it count.”

“It’s only one weapon, but I have got a few tricks up my sleeve. We can have an impact on this battle, sir. I still think we can win.”

“I admire your confidence, Jack,” Pretorius said with the briefest of sighs. “Skalidion fighters moving into weapons range. Targeting systems on a rolling pattern. The nearest Skalidion fighter will be automatically selected for you, Jack. Get ready.”

Jack’s fingers hovered over the fire activation controls. He looked at the main holostage and the swarm of Skalidions pouring in towards the fleet.

He activated the laser assembly and destroyed the first fighter to come within weapons range.

Jack moved quickly, focusing on recharging the laser assembly before he activated another lancing beam. Laser beams flickered out from the fleet. The three destroyers, the frigates and corvettes, and the tac boats blasted out rounds of kinetic hail.

And Jack could see it was all futile. The Skalidions punched through the fire from the fleet and closed in.

The message went out from the flagship for the Blades to break formation, advance, and engage the Skalidions in ship-to-ship combat. The green dots on the holoimage scattered throughout the formation were the fighters of the Blade Squadron. They raced headlong into battle, ready to engage the Skalidions. Their forward-mounted laser assemblies blinked on and off as they connected with their targets, tearing chunks through the Skalidion fighters as they danced and avoided the return fire.

Flashes of green fire rolled forward from the Skalidion ships. It slammed into the Blades, destroying them as it evaporated the outer composite and burned down to the Blade reactors. The small ships erupted into balls of fire and debris.

A burst of green fire from a Skalidion fighter that had fought its way past the fleet’s laser fire and the Blades slammed into the Scorpio at the rear end near the drive assembly.

“Hull stability field at drive assembly holding,” Pretorius said.

“I’m switching laser assembly to short-range laser sheet. I’ll sweep our sectors of fire and clear out any Skalidions who come too close.”

Jack refocused the laser emitter so that instead of a lancing beam that blinked on and off, delivering superb high-energy laser beams to an individual target, it formed a laser sheet that swept across a wide swath. Where the sheet connected with the Skalidions, it delivered heavy damage, sending the Skalidions tumbling off course and disrupting their green fire weapon. Where the laser sheet connected with a Skalidion green fire weapon during its charging cycle, it caused critical damage to the fighter. The laser sheet swept across the Skalidions in a rapid side-to-side maneuver, delivering damage to dozens of Skalidions racing in for the kill.

The image on the holostage flickered off, and the lights on the command deck blinked out momentarily. The ship rocked and nearly knocked Jack off his feet. He clung to the targeting console to keep his balance. The gravity plate on the command deck momentarily deactivated, and Jack felt himself drifting.

“Direct hit to the drive assembly. Just had a power surge through all systems. Recalibrating now,” Jack said as he moved to the power control console.

A few taps and Jack rebalanced the power throughout the ship. He felt the gravity grow and drag him back to the deck. He ran back to the weapons console and checked that the laser sheet was still sweeping its arc across the area in front of the Scorpio.

“Brace yourself, Jack,” Pretorius said. “Skalidion green fire incoming. I’m going to try and angle the blast away.” Jack gripped the console as the green fire slammed into the Scorpio.

The laser assembly console erupted in front of Jack, sending showers of sparks and console casing flying across the command deck. Jack turned away and shielded himself from the blast. He felt himself being flung across the command deck. He staggered and tried to keep his feet but fell to his hands and knees anyway.

Jack refused to give in. He clambered back to his feet and went to secondary weapons control console. He was not going to give up as long as the Scorpio had power, as long as he had a pulse pistol on his hip. As long as he had breath in his lungs, Jack was going to fight.

7

Jack steadied himself against the console as another round of green fire slammed into the ship. Jack reduced the range on the laser sheet to concentrate in a smaller area and maintain the power delivered by the laser emitter.

“I’ve taken power from practically every system to put it through the hull stability field. I’ve angled against their main vectors of attack. We should be able to hold them off for a while longer, but this field could collapse at any time.” Pretorius was furiously swiping at the controls on his command chair.

Jack shouted to Pretorius that he’d heard him just as the ship rocked again. Jack glanced at the holostage, which was flickering in and out as the green fire played havoc with the Scorpio’s power systems. The fleet was falling back into a tighter formation. The three destroyers were practically within arm’s length of each other. The Canis and the Aquarius blasted out salvo after salvo of high-ex kinetic hail, their laser assemblies flickering in a hypnotic display as they delivered devastating fire into the Skalidion swarm, creating green balls of death where they struck the fighters. Second by second, the lasers beams were smashing apart one Skalidion fighter after another.

But even with that level of destruction, it had no discernible effect on the swarm as a whole.

Then a massive, seething ball of green fire slammed into the underside of the Aquarius. The lower laser assembly blew out with tortured strands of energy arcing away into space, throwing the Aquarius off beam. When the billowing clouds of energy died away, Jack could see clearly that the lower laser assembly on the Aquarius was out of action.

The frigates and corvettes were holding tight formation on the port and starboard flanks of the destroyer formation. The combined power of the frigates and corvettes were equal to the destroyer and they were giving a good account for themselves, destroying dozens of Skalidion fighters by the second, although they were not as robust. Their main defensive capabilities came from their high degree of maneuverability. The frigates and corvettes danced and weaved, firing when they could, always on the move.

Targeting across the fleet was augmented by the tac boats scattered throughout the formation, which were also lending their fire in the close-quarters engagements. Jack saw the losses mounting as yet another tac boat was destroyed, totally consumed by a burst of green fire from two attacking fighters.

The Scorpio lurched again, the power systems fluctuating. The holoimage flickered on and off, the focus changing randomly as the power fluctuated. Jack glanced at the holostage as the image zoomed out to maximum range, gathering all data from the combined fleet network. It showed the full extent of the Skalidion swarm that had closed in on the fleet, engaging in a brutal and desperate close-quarters battle. Further back out in the system, far behind the front of the swarm, was the nest asteroid—the command center of the Skalidion swarm.

Another bout of green fire slammed into the Scorpio, knocking Jack off his feet as the gravity plate beneath him suddenly intensified the field. Jack pulled himself back up to the console and turned to Pretorius.

“Sir, the nest asteroid. That is their weakness, their only weakness. They can keep taking these losses all day long and they will still win. We need to take down the queen. I just saw her asteroid, lurking far behind the swarm.”

The Scorpio rocked again. The laser assembly went offline as the emitter was melted down to the hull. The Scorpio was out of weapons. Defenseless.

“The combat drones, Jack,” Pretorius said as he gripped the armrests of the command chair to prevent himself from being flung across the command deck. “I’ll maintain the stability field while you get down to one of the tube rooms and fire off every last drone. Target the nest and we’ll take it down.”

Jack staggered across the command deck as the Scorpio rocked under the intense fire from the Skalidion swarm. Pretorius opened a channel to the flagship.

“This is the Scorpio. Hail cannon offline. Laser assembly offline. Deploying remaining combat drones. Targeting the nest asteroid. We’ve identified its position on the edge of the system.”

“Hold your attack, Pretorius,” Stuart said. “I have sent a detachment of frigates to engage the nest asteroid. A combat drone attack will endanger their mission. Hold position. Get ready to extend your hull stability field around the adjacent ships.”

“The frigates are fast enough to get through,” Jack said. He walked over to the main holostage unsteadily as the ship shook violently again. He zoomed in on the small group of frigates breaking away from the starboard flank and blasting their way through the swarm. A combat drone from the Canis slammed into the swarm and blasted a hole for the frigates to race through. But the moment the combat drone antimatter eruption faded, the swarm closed in around the small detachment of frigates streaking toward the nest asteroid in the distance.

And within a moment, they were destroyed.

“I’m getting down to the tube room. We need to load everything and fling it at that nest asteroid.” Jack staggered toward the door.

“Can you activate all combat drones in their weapon racks, Jack?” Pretorius said. Jack looked up at Pretorius with surprise.

“Yes, I think so. I should be able to bypass the detonator lock and activate the combat drones from up here, but if we can’t get them in the tubes, what good are they?”

“The frigates and the corvettes are not heavy enough to push through that swarm. The Scorpio might be.”

“Yes,” Jack said, clenching his fist in front of him, “we can ram it!”

“That’s right. We are doing no good here. We are dead in the water and a sitting target with no offensive capability. Get those drones activated, Jack.”

Pretorius tapped his armrest control panel and opened a channel to the flagship. “I can get through that swarm, Bob,” Pretorius said.

“But, Captain, you are all out of weapons,” Stuart replied.

“The Scorpio is a weapon.” Pretorius said. “I’m going to attack the nest asteroid. I’ve got a load of combat drones that are not going anywhere. I might as well deploy them. We might just be able to win this fight.”

Jack looked up at Pretorius as he activated the drones in the two forward tube rooms. A dozen combat drones were all primed, ready to be detonated at the flick of a holographic switch. Jack realized this was going to be his final mission on the Scorpio. And the Scorpio was going to win.

Realizing this was the last attack, Jack activated the combat drones at the rear tube room and then at the tube rooms along the length of the ship.

It was going to be one mighty blast.

“Combat drones ready, sir.”

“Do it,” Bob Stuart said. “Good luck, Captain Pretorius. You know, if you had been with the fleet when the Scepter went down, you would have been made group captain. The flag should have gone to the Scorpio.” Stuart’s voice sounded sad and full of admiration.

“We’re not changing leader in the middle of a fight, Bob,” Pretorius said. “I’ll take out the queen; you look after the fleet. Scorpio out.”

Jack looked up at Pretorius with a newfound admiration. He had always admired and respected the captain, but now he saw that other captains in the fleet held him in the highest regard too.

“Get on the drive console, Jack,” Pretorius said. “Every bit of extra power we have to hull stability field and main drive. We are going to punch our way through this swarm. The Scorpio is going to take a beating, but we’ll make it through. Activate drive when you’re ready, Jack.”

Jack primed the reactor conduits to the main drive and hit the activator. The Scorpio leapt forward, slamming into the Skalidion fighters before it. It rocked as the Skalidion fighters exploded, pouring their green fire into the forward section of the Scorpio, billowing off the hull stability field angled like an arrowhead at the front of the Scorpio.

Jack glanced over at the holostage and saw a detachment of ships racing away from the fleet to join the Scorpio.

“It looks like the fleet has sent us some company,” Jack said.

Pretorius was already opening a channel to the detachment of ships forming up around the Scorpio’s drive section, fighting off the Skalidions that were moving in to attack that vulnerable section.

“Hold them off us just long enough until we can get within detonation range of the nest. As soon as we are through the swarm, get back to the fleet and rejoin the formation. Scorpio out.”

Jack hung onto the console and watched the holostage. All he could do was watch. A frigate dancing this way and that moved in between a group of Skalidions that were concentrating their green fire onto the Scorpio’s drive section. The frigate took the fire, angling away with its stability field. It took fire from a dozen Skalidion fighters and was quickly destroyed while defending the fleet’s last desperate chance of defeating the Skalidion swarm.

The Skalidions poured green fire onto the Scorpio’s nose section, darting across the ship’s advance. Many were not able to evade the Scorpio’s headlong rush into the swarm and they collided, being smashed to pieces before exploding. The Scorpio’s forward sections of hull composite crumbled and boiled away into the vacuum of space under the assault.

Jack checked the hull integrity at the forward section. It was failing.

“Closing all emergency bulkheads. It should help hold us in one piece just long enough,” Jack said.

And then Jack was thrown off his feet as the forward hull was breached and the Scorpio depressurized violently.

The Skalidion fighters closest to the Scorpio abandoned their craft and leapt inside through the smashed outer hull.

“Intruders,” Pretorius said as the alarm sounded.

“On it,” Jack called back. He had already opened a channel to Squad Leader Lane.

The Scorpio plowed on, Skalidions inside and out. Jack looked at the distant nest asteroid and wondered if the ship could make it. Desperately, he willed the massive ship onward, even though he knew he was hastening his own destruction—the end of Jack Forge.

8

Lane and his small squad of Marines were pinned down in the corridors beneath the command deck by a group of Beretta’s thugs. The constant shuddering of the Scorpio as she plowed forward made targeting the enemy difficult. Lane used his tactical suit’s stability field to keep himself on his feet as he was buffeted around by the constant explosions on the outside of the massive destroyer.

As one thug fell to the pulse rifle fire, another stepped up to take his place. The small gang of determined, ruthless killers was not going to go down without a fight, even though their leader had abandoned them. A mixture of pride and bloodthirsty aggression kept them fighting on, and Lane would have to pay for every inch of corridor in blood.

Then a huge explosion shook the entire corridor, suddenly and violently. Lane lost his footing, even with his tactical suit stability field activated to keep him stable. He noticed his Marines staggering and falling back.

Lane called out to his squad, but his stutter prevented him from forming a coherent sentence. He felt the pressure of the situation. He needed to know what was going on. He advanced to the front of his squad, pulse rifle at his shoulder. He saw the thugs behind their barricades for a moment before they were all suddenly snatched away.

Before he could understand what had happened, Lane felt the sudden wind leap up behind him, blowing him off his feet and along the corridor. He adjusted his suit’s local gravity field and pinned himself to the deck. His squad came tumbling along the corridor toward him. Some activated their fields and pinned themselves in place, while others went tumbling past him before they were able to stop themselves from being blown away.

Lane checked his wrist-mounted holostage and tapped into the Scorpio’s surveillance network. The power was out in this section, but the environmental report told him that the atmosphere was venting violently, the pressure dropping fast. If the Marines had not been in their tactical suits, they would all be suffocating by now, killed by the vacuum in the forward section of the Scorpio.

The lights flickered as the explosion continued to quake the ship, and then the lights cut out and plunged the corridor into blackness. Lane’s enhanced data view showed him the corridor as a holographic line map. Lane was able to see clearly in the darkness. The position the gangsters had been holding was now unoccupied, the thugs blown out into space.

A message from Jack Forge on the command deck came over Lane’s communicator.

“Squad Leader Lane, this is Major Forge. The Skalidions have taken out the forward section of the Scorpio. We’ve lost the outer hull. The Scorpio is exposed to space. I’ve sealed all emergency bulkheads, but the Skalidion are entering the Scorpio through the exposed forward section. You are the only Marine force on board. Be ready to repel the intruders. I know you can do it. Do you copy?”

“I— I—” Lane started and cursed himself that he could not speak clearly. In his heart, he was confident and sure, determined he could do the job, confident that he could meet any challenge with resolve, fortitude, courage, and strength.

“Relax, Squad Leader,” came the message from Jack Forge, the major calming the new squad leader. “Check your holostage for the enemy’s position. Fall back if you must, but don’t let them flank you. You must protect the command deck at all costs. Do you copy?”

Squad Leader Lane took a breath, clenched his fist, and forced himself to answer clearly and directly.

“Copy, Major. Lane out.”

Lane checked his holostage and expanded the image of the surrounding corridors. There was movement all across the front of the Scorpio. The entire forward section of the Scorpio had been destroyed and was open to space. Every corridor from top to the bottom, from port to the starboard, was alive with Skalidions—fighter drones that had abandoned their craft and were now walking through the corridors looking to kill her from the inside out.

Squad Leader Lane identified the chokepoint he would have to control in order to stop the Skalidions from reaching the command deck.

“With me, Marines,” Lane called to his squad. He ran back along the corridor knowing that the enemy was hot on his heels. All along the Scorpio, the Skalidion were cutting their way forward through the emergency bulkheads, the dark composite being melted away by the green fire weapons the fighters carried in their insectoid hands.

Lane ran back until he came to a sealed emergency bulkhead. The power was fluctuating at the door controls and that meant it would only slide open a fraction. And when it did open, a rush of wind burst through as the atmosphere trapped on the other side blew out. The wind pushed Lane back a dozen meters. He skidded along the corridor until he came to a halt, and then he was running back at the bulkhead in a moment.

Lane grabbed one side of the door, signaling one of his Marines to grab the other side. With the suit’s power and his own will, Lane heaved at the door, pulling it open a fraction more, just enough for a Marine in full tactical gear to squeeze through.

Lane sent the first of his squad through. He turned his back to the slightly-open emergency bulkhead door and aimed his pulse rifle down the length of the corridor to cover the squad’s rear.

And then the Skalidion came around the corner. It moved fast, darting from one side of the corridor to the other. Its meter-long handheld green fire weapon, like a long three-pronged sword, was aimed steadily forward.

Lane didn’t hesitate. He opened fire.

A stream of pulse rounds ripped along the corridor and slammed into the Skalidion. The Skalidion’s chest glowed white hot as the rounds slammed home. The fighter fell, its weapon inactive.

The Marines in the corridor all turned, weapons aimed and ready. A second Skalidion came scuttling around the corner, its green fire weapon swinging around to target the Marines. The Skalidion fell immediately to a barrage of pulse rounds from the squad lined across the corridor.

“Don’t stand here. Get through that door. Move!” Squad Leader Lane watched the end of the corridor ready for the next Skalidion, which came a moment later. Lane fired another stream of rounds, knocking the Skalidion off its spindly feet, but before the Skalidion had fallen to the deck, another came, and then another. They turned their weapons toward Lane. He was mesmerized by the glowing green emitter on the end of the long three-pronged weapon.

The two Skalidions fell to a hail of pulse rifle fire, a round striking one high on its ugly insect head. Another taking several to the chest. Wild rounds struck a shoulder, forearm, knee. The result—two dead Skalidions.

But another was coming.

“Squad Leader Lane,” one of the Marines called out, “we’ve got you covered. Fall back.” Lane fired at the latest Skalidion to move into range at the end of the corridor. Then he glanced back over his shoulder. In the narrow gap of the emergency bulkhead door behind him, pulse rifles were pointing through, like pins sticking out of a pincushion. Lane stayed low and scurried across the floor toward the opening. Overhead, pulse rounds poured along the corridor. Lane didn’t waste time turning to see if the targets had been hit. He just made his way as quickly as possible towards the narrow gap through the emergency bulkhead doors and into the relative safety of the corridor beyond.

Lane scurried through the gap. He had to turn sideways to fit his helmet and chest, and once his arms and shoulders were through the gap, hands grabbed him, the hands of his squad, and they dragged him through. Lane moved to the cover at the side of the blast door just as Skalidion green fire slammed into it.

The green fire was heating the door from the other side. Several blasts of green fire shot through the gap and carried on along the corridor, finally dissipating and fizzling out as it slammed into the bulkhead at the other end.

Lane unclipped a grenade from his tactical suit and activated the detonator. He tossed it through the gap and it clattered along the floor all the way back to the Skalidions.

“Take cover,” Lane shouted as he turned his back to the door.

The detonation from the grenade rocked the corridor, and a blast of superheated white plasma erupted through the gap. The detonation died away a fraction of a second later. Lane risked a look and saw Skalidion fighters writhing in the white plasma, weapons abandoned.

Lane checked his holostage for signals of Skalidion fighters. The Scorpio surveillance network at the forward section of the Scorpio was going on and offline, giving him an incomplete view of activity there, but Lane could see clearly that the front of the Scorpio was missing.

But where the surveillance network was still active, Lane could see Skalidions already advancing on both sides on several decks, all moving toward the forward intersection that would lead to the command deck. Lane looked at his small squad of half a dozen raw recruits. All under the command of a squad leader whose only qualification for the job was that he could pilot a tac boat.

Lane moved. He ran back toward the next bulkhead and opened it. It slid aside fully and let the whole squad through. Just as it was closing, Lane saw the Skalidions coming through the small opening in the bulkhead he had just been defending. As the emergency bulkhead doors sealed, Lane looked again at his wrist-mounted holostage. There was no way he could defend the forward intersection with Skalidions arriving there from port, starboard, and the upper and lower decks. He would be flanked on all sides and his squad would be destroyed in a matter of moments.

The only way they could stand a chance was to blow these bastards back out into space.

Lane saw the sealed blast door glowing as the Skalidion green fire poured into it on the other side. He looked at his holostage and expanded the view of the forward section, the green holoimage showing him every corridor and the location of the intruders. Hundreds of Skalidions were now on board the Scorpio and advancing through emergency bulkhead doors moment by moment.

Lane had to act fast. He knew that he should contact the command deck and get permission from Major Forge and Captain Pretorius to do what he intended, but he had been given a job, and time was short. Lane had to act now. He accessed the door control systems.

He was denied command access.

Lane glanced up at the emergency bulkhead in front of him that was close to collapse under the green fire assault. He looked back to his holostage. If there was one thing he could do other than pilot tac boat, it was hack a system. If he survived, he may well face a court martial, he may face a flogging, or possibly a firing squad, but if he did nothing, he would certainly be dead.

“Stand by, squad,” Lane called out. “It’s going to get a bit breezy. I am going to blow these bastards back out the way they came. I guess we’ll get blown along with them, but at least we’ll clear the Scorpio. Good luck, squad.”

And with that, Lane hit the holobutton on his wrist-mounted holostage and opened every emergency door across the forward section of the Scorpio. The door in front of Lane opened in a fraction of a second, sliding aside instantly. The Skalidions on the other side were practically nose-to-nose with Lane, but only for a moment.

And then the atmosphere contained behind the emergency bulkhead doors shot the Skalidions and the Marines out of the corridor like bullets from a gun. They tumbled away at sudden speed, cartwheeling and tumbling, colliding with the walls, ceilings, deck plates. Some were smashed into others, and some smashed against the walls. They left green bloody slicks along the dark composite of the Scorpio’s corridors.

Lane lost grip on his pulse rifle in the whirlwind. He pulled his pistol off his hip and fired at the Skalidions even as he was blown along, tumbling toward the open end of the corridor and open space.

And then suddenly, the corridor was gone, and Lane was floating in the empty expanse. He looked at the Scorpio as he drifted away. The front section was battered beyond recognition, almost every deck open to space, but the Scorpio moved on.

Lane checked his holostage as he drifted away from the Scorpio and it drove onwards. The Marines blown out with him were drifting in all directions.

He heard a panicked communication from one. Lane looked over to where the Marine was, a tiny speck in the void. A Skalidion fighter swept down out of the swarm and poured green fire into the Marine. The tactical suit was no defense against a Skalidion fighter’s main assault weapon. The suit was vapor in a second.

And then another Marine firing his pulse rifle into the swarm was consumed by a barrage of green fire.

Squad Leader Lane pulled a grenade and activated it. He tossed it toward the swarm. The explosion hardly impacted the swarm at all. He saw one Skalidion fighter slightly alter course to avoid the blast.

Lane had given the Scorpio a chance. Now if he stayed quiet, maybe he would have a chance of avoiding the Skalidion. Maybe a Fleet vessel would pick them up after the battle.

If the battle could be won.

9

Sam Torent’s body lay in the corridor where it had fallen. Blood pooling inside his tactical suit had begun to leak out of the hole in the chest cut by the electron blade that Beretta had thrown. His body was growing cold, and the blood was coagulating.

The Mech tissue of Sam’s arm fell away from his body, losing its form, reduced to a pool of black liquid. The fine tendrils that had weaved into Sam’s flesh oozed out of his residual limb.

The Mech tissue began to move. Like a flat, black slug, it crept up the arm of the tactical suit, over Sam’s shoulder and around his neck before sliding down his chest to the open wound.

The liquid tissue flowed over the wound and crept inside, penetrating Sam’s dead chest. The Mech tissue surrounded Sam’s cold heart.

It surrounded the heart, seeping into every chamber of the still organ and coating it completely. The Mech tissue formed the plug over Sam’s chest cavity where the electron blade had punctured his sternum and joined his smashed sternum and ribs together.

Then the tissue compressed in waves around the heart. Black Mech liquid pumped through the chambers and into Sam’s body. It flowed along the arteries, absorbing the congealed blood that filled them, and then flowed, pumped by the Mech-powered heart.

Sam Torent gasped a huge, rasping breath. His eyes opened. He twisted and squirmed on the corridor floor, scurrying back until he hit the corridor wall. He clawed at his throat and neck with his one arm. He looked at his tactical suit and saw that the right sleeve was flapping around loose where his arm should be, his Mech arm, but the Mech tissue was no longer there forming the cybernetic arm. Now, it was forming his heart and his blood. His very life was being powered by the Mech tissue.

Sam climbed up to his feet. The corridors of the Scorpio appeared familiar and strange at the same time. He could see them in a new spectrum that he had never observed before. The cold corridor showed slightly warmer patches where footsteps had been. The latest of these, Sam could see the familiar gait of his friend Jack. And at the far end of the corridor, Sam identified the footsteps of his killer. Lou Beretta.

Sam ran. He followed the footsteps of his killer, driven by a cold, detached, merciless craving for revenge.

Then Sam could hear the voice of his old friend Jack Forge on the command deck of the destroyer. The tactical suit was still powered, and the communications systems were live. Now Sam began to remember where he was and what he was doing. He could hear Jack’s voice in the distance, almost like a memory. But Jack was active on the command deck, and the ship was in danger.

The Mech tissue fused with his ident chip and gave him direct access to every part of the Scorpio simultaneously. The near total neural connection with the Scorpio via the Mech-powered ident chip almost felt for a moment like Sam had become the Scorpio. Sam accessed the surveillance system. He identified Jack and Pretorius on the command deck. They were plowing the ship at speed through the Skalidion swarm.

Then Sam identified Beretta. He was moving quickly and cautiously through the corridors toward the hangar deck. Sam’s consciousness moved to the hangar deck. There was a single tac boat.

Sam ran towards the hangar. On his way, he passed the Marine equipment locker. He stopped as if a distant memory had suddenly occurred to him. He stepped inside. Recorded on the Scorpio’s classified manifest was the single Devex matter transport device. Sam located the sealed, high-security locker. Only the ship’s senior Marine, the ship’s captain, or a Fleet Intelligence agent could normally access this locker.

But with no more than a thought, Sam opened the door. Inside, a single Devex matter transport device. Sam picked up the small backpack containing the device and slung it over his shoulder.

Jack lurched from side to side as the Scorpio plowed forward through the swarm. The angled hull stability field was failing and Skalidion fighters were colliding with the front of the Scorpio as she powered ahead. Hull composite was smashed away in huge chunks, vaporizing and erupting in a superheated cloud of dust and gas.

The forward section of the Scorpio had been pulverized, exposing her to space. Bulkhead emergency doors were sealed, preventing the entire atmosphere of the Scorpio from blasting out through the ruptures in the forward section.

A group of corvettes, clinging tightly to the Scorpio and using the hull stability field in conjunction with their own, fired their weapons into the swarm to punch holes where they could. The destruction made the swarm less dense and the Scorpio powered on, punching its way forward, causing further destruction to her forward sections and the Skalidions that stood in her way.

“We are nearly through the swarm,” Jack said.

“I’m opening a channel to the support fighters. They need to protect our drive. If you’ve got any hidden secret weapons we can use, now is the time, Jack.”

Jack had become accustomed to Pretorius’s calm command style. And now in total jeopardy, the captain appeared as relaxed and at ease as ever, even a little cheerful.

“This is the Scorpio, support craft. Fall back and protect our drive assembly. The Scorpio must make it to the nest asteroid. Give everything you can to protect the Scorpio’s drive section. Pretorius out.”

Jack looked at the central holostage. This swarm was concentrating their attack on the two destroyers and the majority of the fleet sitting in orbit just above planet Blue. Civilian transports were burning through the atmosphere and setting on the surface. Others, losing control, were dropping toward the planet surface and impacting catastrophically. A small group of Skalidion fighters had broken away from the swarm and were chasing the Scorpio. They fired their green fire weapons into the destroyer’s drive system.

A squadron of Blades broke through the Skalidion lines and engaged the fighters on the Scorpio’s tail, blasting them out of the void with their flickering high-energy lasers. The corvettes holding formation on the Scorpio’s tail fired backward, catching the Skalidions in a laser trap.

But the Skalidions were too many. A corvette fell to the fire as another group of Skalidions cartwheeled and fired back at the pursuing Blades, each one destroyed in a flickering pattern of light.

And in the distance, still several thousands of kilometers away but drawing nearer, was the nest asteroid.

“There she is,” Jack said, pointing at the signal on the main holostage. “The nest asteroid. We are nearly there.”

“I’m going to put everything into the drive system, Jack. We don’t need life support, atmospheric controls. We don’t need gravity. We don’t need the drinks machine in the crew canteen anymore. Let’s put everything into the drive and get this done.”

“I’ll see if I can find another couple of megawatts of power,” Jack said as he staggered over to the next console. It was the internal surveillance console. On the small panel, Jack saw movement.

“Lou Beretta is still on board,” Jack said as he identified the movement.

“He’ll soon be very sorry he is,” Pretorius said with a smile, “but only for a brief moment. We are approaching detonation range.”

“And there is movement in the Marine hangar deck too,” Jack said. He looked up at Pretorius, slightly confused. “That’s two people aboard. Neither of them with an ident chip. Who is this?”

“It doesn’t matter now, Jack. Just put everything into the drive and let’s slam the Scorpio into that nest asteroid.”

Jack accessed the surveillance feed for the hangar deck. He could see the tac boat sitting in the cavernous hangar. And then someone running toward it. Jack zoomed in. It was Lou Beretta.

Jack punched the console. “Krav it. That bastard is getting away.”

“Focus on your job, Major.” Pretorius said. “If he gets away or stays, it’s irrelevant if we don’t take down that nest asteroid. I need you here with me if we are going to get this done. Double-check the combat drones are ready for detonation. I want them to collapse their antimatter containment field the moment we impact that asteroid.”

Jack ignored Pretorius and zoomed in on the second signal, the second person running into the corridor. The surveillance node was finding it difficult to pinpoint the individual’s location. Maybe it was just some forgotten crewman, a forgotten Marine, maybe a civilian who had somehow become trapped aboard the Scorpio on her final suicide mission.

“Closing in on the final thousand meters, Jack.” Pretorius sat back in his command chair, relaxed. He slowly tugged the cuff of his right sleeve, then he swapped hands and gave the left cuff a gentle tug. “Check those combat drones, my boy. We are going to crash into that nest asteroid in the next few seconds. It would be a shame if we battled this far and failed to take it with us.”

Jack pushed himself away from the surveillance console. He saw the report from the hangar deck that the doors were opening, the tac boat taxiing out. Lou Beretta was the only occupant.

“He’s getting away,” Jack said in a gentle tone that belied his true fury.

“Ahh well, Jack,” Pretorius said. “You can’t win them all. Now let’s get ready to annihilate that nest asteroid. If we are lucky, we will take Beretta with us in the blast. Sound good?”

Jack hated the thought that Beretta was getting away with it. Beretta always got away with it. Jack had tried to stop him on so many occasions, and Beretta always slipped away at the last moment.

Justice would not be served today. But the civilian fleet and all the people in the blue giant system would be saved from the Skalidions. At least Jack knew he was saving so many souls. Even if one among them was bad. It would be up to other people to bring Beretta to justice.

Jack stepped over to the weapons console and checked the combat drones. They were resting in their racks all along the Scorpio. They were all activated and ready for detonation. The payload on the Scorpio would be enough to turn the nest asteroid into a cloud of dust and gas in a fraction of a second. The destruction would be instantaneous. Jack would not even hear a bang.

“All combat drones ready to detonate. I’ll synchronize them all with the navigation computer so they detonate the instant the Scorpio collides with the nest asteroid.” Jack stepped away from the console, having set the combat drones to destroy themselves, the Scorpio, and the nest asteroid in one mighty explosion. Jack walked over to the holostage. In the flickering image on the holostage, he saw the single tac boat leap away at high speed into the black of space.

The nest asteroid came closer and closer. The Scorpio covered thousands of meters a second. Destruction was imminent. Jack pressed himself off the holostage and stood upright, his hands behind his back and his chin up. He thought of all the people he would save. He thought of all the people he’d lost. He thought about how far he’d come from his first days in the Fleet Marine to this, his last.

Jack turned his back to the holostage and the countdown to the collision. He sat gently on the edge of the holostage and looked up to Pretorius. The old captain was sitting comfortably in his command chair. He was smiling down at Jack with calm serenity.

And then the space between Jack and Pretorius grew dark. A deep, heavy darkness starting at a small point and growing to a huge mass of black. Then the deep black shrank away suddenly, and standing there before Jack was Sam.

“Sam,” Jack said with surprise and delight. And then horror. “What you doing here, Sam? I saw you die.”

“The Scorpio is about to crash,” Sam Torent said in a strange, distant monotone. “There is a tac boat within range. I am connected to the Devex transport device. I can transport us all now.”

Sam stepped over to Jack and grabbed him by the collar, then dragged him toward Pretorius, who was still sitting in the command chair. Sam activated the matter transport device. Jack felt the air around him grow dark, and the command deck of the Scorpio faded away. He saw the countdown on the holostage count the final seconds before destruction. And then the black engulfed Sam, Pretorius, and Jack.

As the command deck of the Scorpio vanished, new surroundings appeared as Jack was transported instantaneously across space. Jack was familiar with the configuration of these new surroundings. He was in the cabin of a tac boat. And Jack knew the only tac boat in the vicinity was under the control of Lou Beretta.

Jack looked up to the cockpit and saw Beretta staring at the small holostage, which showed the Scorpio colliding with the nest asteroid to be replaced a moment later by a brilliant white flash.

Beretta punched the air and cheered as the Scorpio was destroyed. He pulled the cap off a bottle of Amber with his teeth and spat the cap onto the flight console.

Beretta raised the bottle. “Take that, Jacky boy, you kravin’ little scroat. Finally, at last, I win. And you were never even close to taking me down. But hats off to you, Jack. You were a good adversary, but not nearly good enough. That’s for killing my friend Lars, that’s for ruining my criminal enterprise, and that’s for being a total kravin’ pain in my scroat. Good-bye, Jack Forge. I think I can honestly say I’m going to miss tormenting you.”

“Oh, I think you can still manage to torment me a little,” Jack said. He stepped forward, pulling the pistol off his hip holster and aiming it at the back of Beretta’s head.

Beretta spun around, eyes and mouth open wide. He struggled to speak and looked back at the holoimage of the explosion. The flash had faded and was replaced by a glowing dull orange ball of burning gas and dust.

“I think I’ll take control of the tac boat,” Jack said. He fired his pulse pistol, sending a low-yield pulse into Beretta’s shoulder. The thug slumped forward onto the flight console. Jack grabbed the bottle of Amber from Beretta’s limp hand and slapped his pistol back onto his thigh, the tactical suit holster taking hold of it. Jack grabbed Beretta by the back of his collar and pulled him out of the pilot’s seat, flinging him back into the cabin.

Pretorius opened a supply locker and found a set of manacles. He slapped them on Beretta before securing him into a seat, then he activated a containment field and fixed the unconscious Beretta in place.

“The nest asteroid,” Jack said, looking at the holostage. He slid into the pilot’s chair. “It’s completely destroyed.” Jack grabbed the cap for the bottle of Amber and replaced it, slamming it home with the palm of his hand before stowing the untouched liquor next to his chair. “Look, the Skalidion swarm,” he said, sitting up in his seat, “it’s completely out of control.”

The image on the holostage showed the swarm adrift in orbit around planet Blue. Their orbits decayed rapidly as they plunged into the atmosphere, burning up like a thousand shooting stars as the last of the civilian fleet touched down on their new home world.

“Sam, come and help me pilot the tac boat. Let’s get back to the fleet.”

Sam dropped into the copilot seat next to Jack. He was calm and distant.

“How did you survive? Did the tactical suit med package patch you up?” Jack asked, looking at his friend with a mixture of surprise and wonder.

Sam held up his right arm, the sleeve of his tactical suit hanging limp and empty. The Mech arm was missing. He pulled the gauntlet off his tactical suit and showed Jack the missing arm.

“No, Jack. The Mech tissue from my arm reformed my heart. It wanted to live. It needed Sam Torent to survive. Without the Mech arm, I was not complete. Without Sam Torent’s beating heart, the Mech tissue of the arm could not survive. It’s inside me now. It healed my heart. It is in my veins. But it’s not enough. I need more. The Mechs will know I am injured. They will be with me soon. I am still Sam, but I am, and I have always been, Mech.”

Jack looked at Sam. The belligerent, feisty Marine had been replaced by a serene individual. It looked like Sam and sounded like Sam, but a part of Sam was missing. Jack was still happy to have some part of his friend at his side.

Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “You’ll always be my friend, Sam.”

“And Sam Torent will always be a friend of Jack Forge.”

“We are coming up on planet Blue.” Jack turned back to the flight console. He maneuvered through the drifting remains of the Skalidion fighter swarm. A Blade squadron swept through the inactive swarm, blasting the Skalidion fighters that tumbled aimlessly, destroying them as they drifted. Corvettes and frigates lined up and blasted huge shots of high-ex kinetic hail into the drifting swarm to tear the enemy fighters to shreds.

The Aquarius swept around the flanks of the swarm and pushed them up like a bulldozer with its hull stability field, sending them toward the center of the system, toward the blue giant where they fell into the nuclear fire to be consumed utterly.

“Flagship Canis. This is Major Forge aboard Scorpio Tac Boat One. Request permission to board. We have two Marine officers, one Fleet captain, and one prisoner aboard. Request you meet us with an armed Marine unit to detain the prisoner.”

The return message from the Canis crackled over the communicator.

“This is the Canis. Marine Hangar Deck One is open for you, Major Forge. Welcome back. Canis out.”

10

The boarding ramp of the tac boat slid down to the deck of the hangar aboard the Canis. A group of Fleet Marines and Fleet Intelligence enforcers was waiting at the base of the ramp. The intel agent with them stepped forward and up to Jack as he walked down the ramp.

“Major Forge. You captured Beretta and destroyed the Skalidion. I’m not sure we have a promotion that will adequately reward you for all this.”

Jack smiled at the agent in front of him. His old friend Sarah Reyes.

“Agent Reyes,” Jack said. He took her hand and shook it warmly. “I don’t need a promotion. In fact, I’d quite like to have some responsibility taken off me. Maybe I’ll start with a vacation. Maybe I’m finally ready to retire from the Fleet Marine Service.”

“Anything you like,” Reyes said.

A pair of enforcers walked up the boarding ramp and entered the craft. They came back out a moment later with Lou Beretta between them. Beretta was shouting obscenities at Jack, his face contorted in fury, but the anechoic field they’d established around Beretta’s head meant that the words only traveled into his own ears. Fueled by his anger in a perpetual loop of hate.

Jack ignored Beretta. He turned and helped Pretorius down the ramp. The old captain looked tired.

A Fleet officer with commander bars on his collar stepped forward.

“Welcome aboard, Captain,” the officer said with a salute.

Pretorius nodded and returned the salute.

“Group Captain Stuart has requested you join him on the command deck.”

Pretorius shook his head. “I think I’ll head off to the nearest med-bay first. Inform Group Captain Stuart I’ll be with him once the doctor has seen me.” He turned to Jack and patted him firmly on the shoulder. “And I think you will be able to go wherever you like right now, Jack my boy. Let me know where you get to and I’ll be happy to meet up sometime.”

Jack turned to Sam. Sam was looking pale and unsteady on his feet. Jack held Sam by the arm and supported him.

“They are on the way, Jack,” Sam said. “The Mechs never stopped watching.”

“What are they going to do?” Jack said, suddenly feeling angry, feeling aggressive. If the Mechs thought they could come here and take Sam from him, they were mistaken.

“I am Mech, Jack,” Sam said. “Ever since they gave me my arm, they have been some part of me. They won’t harm me. They will come and take me, or maybe heal me, but I will be fine. What about you, old friend?” Sam laid his human hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Where will you go now?”

“I guess…” Jack said, looking around the hangar deck of the destroyer Canis. “Anywhere I like.”

This hangar bay was familiar in so many ways to the Scorpio. It had been built on the same design as all Fleet destroyers, but this ship had its own feel and subtle differences. Jack could pretend he was aboard the Scorpio, but he could see enough difference to know that he was not. This was a different ship. This would never truly be his ship.

“Think I would quite like to get down onto the surface of planet Blue. Feel a planet beneath my feet, fresh air on my skin. Feel real gravity for a change.”

“Sounds good,” Sam said. There was a flicker of his old voice, a familiar sound that made Jack happy and content.

“I’ll be sure to come and visit you, wherever you are,” Sam said.

Jack took a knee on the deck of the Canis and rested for a moment. He took a deep breath. He realized in that moment just how close to failure he had come, and just how close to annihilation the entire fleet had come. It washed over him, a wave of relief from anxiety.

But he had won.

Jack sat on the timber bench, his face warmed by the setting sun. He looked over the rolling grassy plains of planet Blue. The huge blue star was setting in the dark red horizon, and long shadows were falling over the plains. Jack stood up off the small chair he had made for himself with some soft yet strong local timber.

He looked over to the small group of agricultural drones that worked the small fields alongside his cabin. Jack had marked out the several neat lines of tilled dark earth where now the drones were growing some familiar fruit and vegetables as well as some modified local plants. Jack’s garden was rich and bountiful. It provided him with interesting and varied meals, and a pleasant view.

He turned his back to his fields and stepped into his cabin, the door shutting behind him with a quiet but reassuring click.

The small table was laid, and the heavy pot on the stove was bubbling merrily. A rich stew was ready. Jack poured a healthy portion into his bowl and sat down to eat.

The cabin was larger than his old office aboard the Scorpio, but the timber walls were quieter and warmer. The cabin was warmed by the fire in the small wood-burning stove. In one corner, there was a small chest covered with a cloth. This chest contained Jack’s history: his Fleet Marine pulse pistol, his platinum star, and his major’s stripe that still sat on the old, dark jacket he had once worn so often.

On a small dresser next to his bed laid his pocket-watch. He didn’t need to tell the time—his days were now governed by the rise and fall of the giant blue star, not by watch rotations. Next to his watch sat his wrist-mounted holostage. It was how he stayed in touch with the friends he had made throughout the fleet.

Jack bit down on a chunk of hot vegetable in rich sauce. Real food still tasted so good after all this time on the planet surface. Jack had spent too long eating sticky nutrition bars and drinking from hydration packs. A glass of fresh, clear water and a bowl of hot stew was bliss.

A distant chirp caught Jack’s ear. He looked over to the personal holostage on the dresser next to his bed. An incoming message.

Jack stood and took a step toward the dresser. Then he stopped and sat back down at the small table and his hot meal.

A domestic drone sitting silently in the corner spoke up.

“Shall I take the call for you, sir?”

“No.” Jack sat back in his chair, his hands behind his head as he looked up at the low timber ceiling of his wonderful little home.

“If it’s important, they’ll call back.”

Thank You For Reading

Thanks for reading the Jack Forge, Lost Marine saga. Jack has done everything he can to save humanity and it’s time for a change of pace. Hopefully, he can find the peace he has fought so hard for.

And if you would like to know about the events that led to Jack and Sam being stranded in space, fighting to save humanity again, check out the Jack Forge, Fleet Marine series where Jack goes from unwilling Marine to savior of humanity.

Get the Forged in Space Omnibus, which contains the first three stories in the Jack Forge, Fleet Marine series here:

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