The Squad Novelettes 1-5 Read online

  I yelled at Tanner when we reached the halfway point. "Flood this hall, Mister!"

  Corporal Herbert Tanner took aim at a point just above our heads that would give maximum bounce to the free-ion bolts he was about to unleash. The stairwell in front of us flashed blue as a parade of deadly ions left the repeating rifle. Barnes and Collins opened up as soon as we reached a point where they could safely fire around us. I pushed Penelope hard in front of me as we dove toward the stairwell opening. As she reached the stairs, she slammed into the far wall before starting downward, a mag-tag stuck to her shoulder.

  Collins, with a reaction time I found to be uncanny in any human, dove down the stairs following her as he pulled his blade from its sheath. "Go! Go! Go! Don't stop!"

  I pulled myself into firing position on the stairs as the next tags impacted the wall behind me. Maxan soldiers were exploding all over the hallway from our fire as they pushed forward.

  I yelled. "Down! Move it! Barnes! Over that rail!"

  As I turned down the next flight of stairs, I heard the heavy combat boots of Corporal Bo Barnes slam into the stairwell floor at the turn. I stopped at the door sill and began to fire upward at the hallway door above. When Barnes passed my position, safely into the hall behind, I stepped back and turned to run as I activated two ion grenades. At five meters down the hall I spun around, flinging the grenades into the stairwell opening, praying the move would buy me that one extra step into the next stairwell I was certain I would need.

  At the halfway point of my sprint I heard the thuds of the grenades as they detonated. Now, fifteen unending meters stood between me and my next moment of secure life. As I looked toward my goal, Tanner, Barnes, Collins and Penelope, were taking up firing positions. A fleet of blue ion bolts was quickly passing by my muscled legs when I entered the next stairwell opening. As I descended out of tag-sight, Barnes again leaped over the rail, boots slamming into the floor as he landed beside me.

  A flood of bodies was soon racing at me. "Go! Go! Go! Deck six is gone!" Collins yelled as the three Marines headed my way.

  When the others had jumped down, five steps at a time, I had a sudden feeling of immortality come over me. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. Without hesitation, I turned back toward the deck six hallway door, pulled two more ion grenades and set them aloft. Three unlucky Maxans entered the doorway in perfect sync with the small explosions. My ion blaster served to clean up any unfinished business.

  I began to trek up the steps one at a time as I spewed ion death from my blaster. Two more Maxans fell to my barrage. For an instant, I had the insane notion to charge up the steps and push the enemy back up to deck four where they belonged. That moment of insanity quickly vanished as an at-first quiet— but quickly growing louder voice in my head—began to scream.

  "Ruuuuun!!!"

  I turned, jumping down a flight of stairs with each leap. I hit the floor of deck seven in a full sprint. The others had taken up firing positions in the next stairwell. Again, my run went into what seemed like a slow motion scene from every battle movie I had ever watched. Each step, even though covering four meters in length, dragged on for an eternity, time only returning to normal as I hit the next stairwell.

  "Everyone, up! Were falling back to the pipe! And hustle! I don't think we have much time!"

  As the others rose and burst down the stairwell, I turned back to the one I had just come from. I fired five ion bolts into the far wall before heading down the stairs. My gut told me we were now in a race to get back to the ship before being overrun.

  I shook my head as I launched forward in thought. Would this be my first unsuccessful boarding of a Maxan ship? Would we embarrass the Corps? Would some Maxan Sergeant be lauding over his kill as he planted a boot on the chest of my dead body for a photo-op? With the loss of lives that had already come with the assault, those thoughts were not sitting well.

  Chapter 7

  * * *

  As we rounded the corner into the last room, the room we had first stormed through the breach tube we called the pipe, my eye caught sight of a dead crewman by the breachway.

  I yelled as private Nellis was the first to enter the pipe. "Wait!"

  The private's insides soon became his outsides as a Maxan ion bolt ripped through his chest. Montague dropped to the floor as the next bolt sizzled just over his head, impacting the wall beside me. Collins ran forward into the pipe, firing relentlessly as he went. His first bolt took out the Maxan soldier who had killed Nellis.

  A blue bolt from a second Maxan struck Collins in the left wrist and the bones in his arm erupted with a bright blue bloody flash. As the ion energy from the Maxan bolt spread outward, he was thrust to the left as a second bolt slipped past his location. Barnes followed up with a kill shot on the second Maxan as he too entered the pipe.

  I looked at Penelope and gestured toward the tube. "Go! If we don't retake that ship we are dead anyway!"

  The veteran sergeant nodded as she turned to rush inside. I pointed to Tanner. "Go! That's an order!"

  Tanner laughed. "Yeah, like I'm following that. We stand here together or we die together. They'll clear the ship if they haven't already."

  I growled as I took up a good firing position to cover the hallway outside the pipe-room door. "When we get out of this—if we get out of this—remind me to kick your ass for staying."

  Tanner grinned. "You want to do that before or after you thank me for saving us both?"

  I opened up on the first Maxans that emerged from the far stairwell. Guts from two more of the near-human-looking soldiers splattered across the walls. Tanner repeated the story with a burst of bolts down the hall in the other direction. After nearly a minute of assault, the Maxan progress had been stopped. I glanced back to see Montague carrying a case of ion grenades.

  I spoke over my shoulder. "What are you planning to do with those?"

  Montague grinned. "I'm gonna roll these right up to those stairwells as the two of you keep 'em from charging out."

  Penelope was soon standing behind me. Her combat suit was covered with blood. "Balls, thanks for the hand up top. I owe you one. The ship is secure. We can leave whenever we want."

  I fired off two more ion bolts. "These Maxan ships, their generators are always on this level, are they not?"

  Penelope thought for a moment. "On every one I've been on, yeah. What'ya thinkin'?"

  I fired again. "What I'm thinking is we find the generators and rig 'em to blow. If we can make that happen just as we disconnect we can still call this mission a success. Not all of the scientists will be coming back, but the Maxans don't extract any more information."

  The sergeant slapped me on the shoulder. "Sounds like a plan. Do you think you can hold them here while I look up the schematics?"

  "You have three minutes." I nodded. "Go see what you can find."

  Corporal Herbert Tanner and I continued to hold the Maxans in the stairwells as Wilhelmina Penelope searched for schematics of the lower decks. Three minutes later, to the second, she returned with good news.

  "Generators should be right through that wall in front of you."

  I pointed. "Across the hall?"

  Penelope nodded. "Yep. Barnes is bringing out a cutter. We're gonna have to stand in that hall to get through that wall though."

  Montague stepped up. "I can run the cutter, sir—Sarge. I did that for three years in a scrapyard before joining the Corps."

  I winced at the thought of one of my Marines standing in full view of a possible mag-tag. But this was Montague's time to step up and show his mettle, and we had a mission to complete.

  I gestured as I fired off three bolts. "Make it quick, Private. Those Maxans are gonna start feeling real bold any minute now."

  Barnes emerged seconds later, with two grunters pulling him forward. "Thought I'd have to kill them to get them through the pipe with all the Maxan guts back there. Here, Sarge, thought we might put this pair to good use."

  The grunters were shoved i
nto the hall, one heading in each direction. The scent of Maxans had them in an instant craze. Both skittered down the hall toward the stairwells at either end. The thumps of ion bolts were followed by Maxan screams as they arrived.

  Montague grunted as he pulled the heavy cutter out into the hallway. "Give me sixty and I'll have a door we can march through while standing upright."

  I replied, "You've got forty, and just make it big enough for us to ram a charge through. I don't want the Maxans pulling it out as we're trying to leave. Barnes! You've got thirty seconds to rig up a charge big enough to blow a large generator. I want a twenty second trigger!"

  Barnes turned and sprinted back into the pipe, heading toward the weapons room on the ship.

  Penelope glanced down the hall in each direction. "If we could make it to each of those doors, we could push 'em further into those stairwells."

  I shook my head. "Not gonna happen. We set a charge on those generators and we're outta here. Too many have died already. That crew and all those new recruits are dead because of one imbecile lieutenant. If that's the best Command can send us, the Maxans are gonna push us all the way back to Alday."

  Penelope offered a dejected look. "Alday? What a bloodbath that was. You know, that's where I earned my stripes. I was a private fresh out of boot camp. I don't even think I knew which end of a blaster to stand on. On the first day I went through three different squads where I was the only one left alive. How many recruits can say they got a corporal's rank after one day of fighting? Yeah, you can keep these stripes if you want to send me back to that slaughter. You know, we lost more men in that single five day battle than in any other Alliance war?"

  Penelope began to chuckle.

  I fired off three rounds as I glanced back. "What's so funny?"

  Four ion bolts were fired. A Maxan attempting to peer into the hallway had poor timing. His guts coated the far wall.

  "I was just thinking about the recruiting films I saw before I signed up. Spreading freedom, saving lives—man, if that were all true I would be gung-ho for this job. As it stands, I'm not sure who's really free and who's really saving lives."

  "You know, I've had my moments of doubt too. All you gotta do is look back at the Galton massacre. Twenty million innocents slaughtered because one disabled freighter entered the restricted zone. As far as I'm concerned, we should keep pushing the Maxan all the way back to Firebox or whatever it is they call their home world."

  Penelope laughed. "I think that's Firebond, but yeah, I get what you're sayin'. I just get a little fed up with the lack of leadership sometimes, that's all. I mean, it really doesn't seem like it would be that hard to find people with a little common sense, does it?"

  Barnes tapped me on the shoulder. "Charge is ready when you are, Sarge. This bag should have enough to take out half this deck. Trigger is set for twenty seconds, just as you asked."

  I fired off three ion bolts. "Montague, tell me you are almost done!"

  The private spoke from under his torch shield. "Another ten seconds and we're in."

  When the torch died, Montague stepped back and kicked at the steel plate. The plate broke free, but immediately impacted a second structure half a meter on the other side of the wall.

  Montague looked back. "We gotta problem, Sarge! That's not an open room. Looks like a bulkhead!"

  Barnes pulled at my shoulder. "There should be enough explosive in here to end it all, but it might be close, depending if that really is a bulkhead or not."

  Montague stepped across the hall, grabbing the satchel of explosives from my hand before turning toward a Maxan inhabited stairwell.

  I looked up in dismay. "Private? What are you doing?"

  The private took four further steps into the fray before firing his blaster and kicking in the door to the generator room. "I'd say you've got twenty seconds to get your ass on that shuttle, Sarge! This place is about to blow!"

  Sergeant Penelope burst past me, taking up a position in the generator doorway. "Get your ass out of here, Balls!"

  Maxans began to pour into the hallway from either end in an endless stream as it became obvious the grunters were no longer active. Blaster fire began impacting the floor and walls just in front of our door.

  Barnes grabbed my shoulder and pulled me hard backward. "Gotta go now, Sarge! They made their decision. Let's go!"

  We raced down the pipe. I turned and flung two ion grenades at the breach opening before slamming shut the airlock door on the other end. Barnes pulled on me again as I stood staring at the closed door.

  After pressing a button, Barnes closed the inner hatch as he spoke into his wrist-comm. "Go! Go! Go!"

  The pipe tore from it's mounting as the Fracker moved to twenty-meters-distance before a brilliant flash from the explosives could be seen through the hatch windows. The Fracker rocked, throwing the two Marines to the floor. The five lowest decks of the Rohox disintegrated with a bright fury. We had somehow managed to finish the mission... and some of us had even managed to survive.

  I stumbled as I walked, deep in thought, following Barnes, as he made his way to the bridge. Montague and Penelope had sacrificed themselves for the mission. It was as selfless and honorable an act as I had ever witnessed. I mourned their loss and at the same time celebrated their monumental bravery. Heroes only came along once in a great while. To me, Montague and Penelope were each one of those heroes. Theirs would be names I remembered until the day I died.

  As we walked onto the bridge, Collins was sitting with a tourniquet on his stump of an arm and a dumb grin on his face.

  I gave a confused look. "What are you so happy about? You just lost an arm."

  Tanner shook his head. "No sense in talking to him, Sarge. He administered his own painkillers in the dispensary. You could chop off his other arm right now and he wouldn't know the difference."

  I looked around as I plopped down in a chair. "The crew? Anyone else make it?"

  Tanner entered coordinates of the home base into the nav computer and set us on our way. "Nope. They popped the crew and then savaged the scientists with one of those laser blades they carry."

  Tanner began to laugh.

  "What's so funny?" I felt I had to ask.

  Tanner dropped down in a chair beside me. "When I got in there, the admiralty had the video comm open. They had been talking to the scientists when the Maxans came in and started cuttin' 'em down. Man, you should have seen the look of shock and horror on their faces. I bet not a one of them has ever seen any more blood than you could cover up with a single bandage. Priceless!"

  I frowned. "Hmm."

  Tanner looked over at Barnes. "What's eatin' at the Sarge?"

  Barnes shrugged. "Could be that we just lost a lot of good people?"

  Tanner scowled. "The only good people are the ones who survive. The rest no longer matter."

  Bo Barnes shook his head. "Man, Tanner, I knew you were cold, but that's absolute zero."

  Tanner shrugged. "What's the big deal? We lose people every raid we go on. Goes with the job. It wasn't me, so pardon me if I go on living."

  I reached into my chest pocket and retrieved the short stogie, placing it firmly in my mouth. I then pulled out a lighter and set the end of the stogie ablaze.

  Tanner turned back with a look of disbelief. "You're lightin' that today?"

  I drew in a deep puff and then slowly blew the smoke out of my nostrils. "Today I saw what it was to be a hero. Private Montague and Sergeant Penelope, they showed me. I'm lighting this cigar in their honor. My father gave it to me when I turned thirteen. He said 'Son, one day you're gonna see something special, something you have probably seen a hundred times before, but it just never registered. Take this stogie, save it, and when that day comes, I want you to light it, smoke it, and think about life and what it all means.'"

  "Well, today's that day, Mr. Tanner. Today I saw something special for the first time. The Marines that did that special thing? Mr. Montague and Ms. Penelope. May their selfless deeds live
long in our memories and add purpose to our lives."

  I stood with my lit cigar planted firmly in the corner of my mouth. It was time to reflect on both who I was, and how I had gotten to be that way. I knew any peace I would have would only last a short while. I hoped it would last at least until the next Maxan assault shocked me back to reality.

  ~~~~~

  The Derelict

  (THE SQUAD Novelette 2)

  Chapter 1

  * * *

  I scratched the side of my neck with a finger. It was a nervous habit, something I did whenever a new assignment was due on the comm. It wasn't that I was in fear of whatever that assignment would be, far from it. It was more of a nervous anticipation. Would we be doing some milk-run on escort duty or a much-preferred assault on a Maxan ship? The comm signaled the assignment's arrival with a single bleep.

  A new lieutenant read from the display. Lieutenants were almost always new, seeing as how they never seemed to last more than a few missions. "Command says an unknown vessel has been detected on long-range sensors coming from the vicinity of the Veil Nebula. Still several hundred light years from Confederation space, but it is heading our way."

  "No more info than that?" I asked.

  Lieutenant Pierre Dumon shook his head. "That's all they gave us. We are to intercept, assess whether or not it's a threat, and report back."

  Tanner slapped me on the shoulder. "Better than babysitting some wide-eared diplomat."

  None of us understood why, maybe we had been out on the front lines for too long, but the latest surgical fad among the elites of the populous had been to pin their ears forward, making the ears stick out perpendicular to the side of one's head. We thought it comical in appearance, but back in the Confederation it was all the rage.

  The lieutenant turned to face the navigator. "Mr. Hash, set us a course for intercept."