Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 219

(T’ler, Beta Darconyx System)

“Team Two, fall back! Team One, cover fire!”

They were falling back through the halls, heading for the bow. The freakish blue-violet monsters from some grimdark fantasy were after them at every step, however. There was no way they could fight all of them, so they retreated. But they didn’t retreat into the massive main corridors. That would have been foolish. Instead, they entered the maintenance shafts, as they had before.

The smaller creatures still followed them, but there was no way that the big creatures could enter the maintenance shafts. Even if they could, they would be sitting ducks for her Marines. She liked the idea of them being stuck in a tiny space, unable to avoid rocket fire. It was a much happier picture than those behemoths in the open, able to bring their full strength and power to bear.

“Lieutenant! We’ve got contact with Alpha! Patchy, but enough for a locator beacon.”

Sharel smiled as she heard the report. She’d ordered Alvarez to talk to Alpha’s Nomad, and see if they couldn’t toss a repeater or something into the maintenance shaft nearest them, so they had a better way of navigating than just hoping they were going the right way. Fortunately, the material the ship was made from didn’t completely absorb signals. Sure, it degraded them massively. At this distance, they should have near zero latency for realtime communications, with crystal clarity. The fact that they could only manage a nav beacon was telling.

“Right, now that we know where we’re going, we need to hurry the fuck up. Gomez, I want those instant cement grenades rigged up so the next time we fall back, we can trigger them behind us. Give us some breathing room so we can move full out for a bit, hopefully leave these bastards behind until we can get to Alpha.”

“Copy, LT.”

Team Two fell back past their position. Team One opened fire as the aliens tried to charge their position. Bullets and plasma ripped through the darkness, and forced the vile creatures back. She looked to Gomez, who nodded once. “Team One, fall back! Gomez, HIT IT!”

The instant cement grenades were more properly called X-4 Crowd Control Grenades. They worked by basically causing two materials to mix together and explosively expand like a foam, which would then harden to a strength much like concrete. Crowd control was a misnomer, since any crowds caught in the radius would likely be dead, or trapped until they could be chiseled free. It was, however, great for instant barricades, which is what they needed now.

She waited until the barricade hardened, just to be sure that none of the aliens got through before it could stop them. None did. With a sigh of relief, she turned to her marines. “All right, Beta Squad, double-time it! We need to get to Alpha so we can get the hell out of here!”

(T’ler, Bow Section, Beta Darconyx System)

“Artifact secured, Captain. Drop ships returning to pick us up.”

Captain Hardbrew nodded. “Acknowledged.” That was one worry off his plate, then. Switching channels, he called out to his Nomad. “Harkness, what is Beta’s status?”

“Beta’s Nomad reports comms are sketchy, but the beacon got through well enough. They used the instant barricades to gain some separation. Can’t count on it holding for long, but they’re hustling to try and make it to us.”

Another piece of good news. Oh, wondrous day! Hardbrew nodded. “All right then. Advise them that we’ve got a swarm of the nasties between us and them, but we’re holding the door open for them.”

“Captain, Beta reports multiple sightings of massive alien bioforms they’re calling Behemoths. Thirty to forty feet tall, otherwise built like the nasties we’ve been facing. Apparently, one of the ones they faced survived multiple heavy launcher strikes before it was finally brought down.”

Captain Hardbrew had to fight to keep the sigh out of his voice. He should have known that it wasn’t going to go that easily. “Well, isn’t that just lovely.” Shaking his head, he said, “Copy that, Harkness. We’ll keep an eye out for them. Do they have an ETA?”

“Fifteen minutes at current pace.”

Hardbrew frowned. Fifteen minutes? That was damn fast, considering the amount of ground they had to cover. “They must be pushing their suits’ enhancements to the limit, even with microgravity. They’re practically flying!”

“Negative, Captain. They’re using their grav belts, it seems. Kick start off the deck for initial thrust, and set the belts for constant acceleration in the direction you want to go. The problem will be when they need to stop, but this should allow them to get a solid lead on their pack. Maybe enough time to deal with ours and load up on the shuttles before they catch up.”

Hardbrew chuckled. That had to be from one of the humans. Possibly Beta’s Nomad. No gauz or knelfi would come up with a plan that crazy, especially when it hadn’t been tested. But humans were definitely crazy like that. “Clever. I’ll have to remember that.” He made a note in his HUD to offer a commendation to whoever it was that came up with the tactic. If they could get more efficient gravity devices, that could open up all kinds of new tactics for the Black Star Marines.

He turned his attention to the front, where the damned aliens were trying to swarm his defensive line. There were dozens of bodies on the ground. All alien, thank the Ancestors. They had been expecting the attack, not taken by surprise like Delta had been, and they’d already switched from ship weapons to heavy weapons by the time the first nasty thing showed itself.

There were dozens of dead aliens, but it looked like there were dozens more swarming the corridors. Suddenly, his external microphones detected fire coming from in front! Part of the background functions of the armor’s HUD used the mics to triangulate incoming fire. That hadn’t been a problem so far, since the aliens didn’t seem to have (or need) guns. Which meant…

“Alpha Squad, Alpha Squad, this is Beta Actual. Beta Squad reporting in. We’re advancing on the attackers from their rear. Count four-six alien bioforms between us and you. Confirm?”

Hardbrew’s grin grew feral as the communication came in patchy, at first, but then gained increasing fidelity as it went on. “Beta Actual, this is Alpha Actual. Confirm report. Glad you could join us! Survivors of Charlie and Delta confirmed evacuated already. Cut through these freaks, and we can get off this hulk. The Navy is getting itchy trigger fingers. They’re upset that we’ve been having all the fun!”

“Understood, Alpha Actual. See you soon.”

(BSMS Orgrim’s Hammer, Beta Darconyx System)

“Captain, the Marines are reporting in. Charlie and Delta squads have evacuated successfully. However, they are reporting sixty-seven percent casualties, including thirty-five percent KIA. Nomads Corporal Hicks and Sergeant York have been sent for respawn, leaving a sergeant in command of the combined group until they return.”

Slave-Captain Sehanine Darkbow shook her head slightly as she saw Slave-Major Irabalar flinch at the casualty numbers. She subvocalized over a private channel. “I was with the Jagloth Space Guard before the Legion. Trust me, it never gets easier, when you find yourself taking heavy losses for the first time. Day it does is the day you get yourself reassigned.”

“Yeah, I know that. Just didn’t expect we’d be taking such casualties on what looked like a dead space hulk. I just hope that whatever we got from this was worth it.”

“Well, we’ll let the science crowd figure that out. But initial reports indicate that the Artifact may have some keys we’ve been missing for augmentation and power generation. Might be able to make your marines better, faster, stronger. And maybe even neural interfaces for pilots. That’d allow the hotshots to do things that no normal person could pull off.”

“Have to be damn careful with that. The Legion and Deus both showed what can happen when you get augmented without having proper safeguards in place. Don’t think any of us would like to see Black Star walking that road.”

Captain Darkbow nodded. It was hard to argue against that point. “True enough. None of us would be here if it weren’t for the Legion, after all. Still, it is hard to ignore the potential benefits for Black Star if we were to embrace augmentations.”

“Perhaps. But the augmentations should be made in such a way that we have definite controls in place to prevent the problems. Rushing in will put us further behind the curve, instead of allowing us to jump ahead of it.”

“Captain! Alpha Squad is reporting in. Alpha and Beta have linked up, and have loaded up on the drop ships. Reporting fifteen percent KIA, all survivors accounted for. Drop ships have cleared the ship, now identified as the T’ler.”

“Understood, Lieutenant. Commander Shields, my compliments to the Dykhaniye Smerti, and confirm that all friendlies are clear of the ship. They may fire when ready.”

(BSN Dykhaniye Smerti, Beta Darconix system)

“Captain, the Orgrim’s Hammer has reported in. All friendlies clear from the ship.”

Slave-Captain Scott Cook smiled grimly. The situation was nothing to be happy at, and yet he couldn’t stop a bit of satisfaction from entering his voice as his Smerti was once more entering combat, even as little as this promised to be. Since they had surrendered to Black Star during the Civil War, the only combat his ship had seen was the defense of Nuevo Edo during the X’thari attack. His fighters and bombers had more than proved their worth, but as a support fleet, Third Group was fated to rarely see combat. Unfortunate, but those were the realities of war.

He took a breath, and focused on the screen in front of him. “Very well. Contact Inferno Leader, and inform her that she may begin her attack run. Wipe that ship from the sky.”

(Inferno Leader, Beta Darconix System)

Captain Sarya Heixina, call sign ‘Threnody’, licked her lips in anticipation. It was no secret within the Black Star Navy that being assigned to Third Group was a cushy, low risk job. After all, the group’s entire reason for being was to basically support the Nightforge and protect it while it conducted whatever jobs it was doing at the time. In practice, that meant a lot of combat air patrols in systems that already had other Navy units present, leaving the fighter pilots with little in the way of excitement, even if they did gain plenty of stick time.

That was just the fighters. For the bomber pilots, things were actually even worse! After all, no one needed bombing runs in secure systems most of the time. Fortunately, Command had recognized this, and essentially used Third Group as the training corps for their fighter squadrons. New recruits would complete their initial training, and then by assigned to one of Third Group’s squadrons, for ‘on the job’ training. Sometimes, seasoned pilots would rotate through after an engagement, to ensure that the squadrons weren’t completely filled with new recruits.

Which explained why Threnody was here. She’d been temporarily reassigned as Inferno Leader, giving her some ‘on the job’ training in squadron command after her promotion. They wanted to see if she had what it took for squadron command before giving her Tiamat Squadron, the bomber squadron that was going to be based on Blackstone Station in Star’s Reach. Of all the defense fleets, that was the one guarding the Black Star Company’s new headquarters, their seat of power in the galaxy. She was determined to prove herself.

“Inferno Leader, CAG. Marines confirm all friendlies are clear of the ship. You may begin your attack run when ready.”

YES! Finally, she was going to be able to show what she could do! Keeping her excitement out of her voice, she responded, “Copy, CAG. Inferno Squadron beginning our attack run.”

Switching channels, she spoke to her pilots. “All right, Inferno, listen up! We have a big target over there with a lot of really nasty aliens that Command wants eliminated with extreme prejudice. This ship survived after taking a beating that likely reduced this entire system to rubble, so we aren’t taking any chances.”

She paused, and said, “We don’t know what kind of punishment their outer hull can take, so we’re going to fire through the same holes the Marines used to get onto the ship. Working theory is that even whoever made this ship didn’t put as much armor on the inside as they did the outside. Target data is in your computer. We have not detected any shields or point defense, and power is supposed to be fluctuating internally, so we shouldn’t have any problems. Fire one Starbolt each on my mark.”

She waited until all eleven of her pilots confirmed their orders, and double-checked the computer guidance. Everyone was ready. She took a breath, pulled the trigger, and said, “Inferno Leader, Fox Three!” Eleven other voices answered her as they, too, fired on the derelict ship.

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Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

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