As Jackson finished sweeping the room he stepped back into the hall in front of me. He held out his big hand, "Let’s go Sir. No breaks until the job is done. That’s what’s in our contract!" Jackson smiled as he pulled me to my feet.
Just as with all the Marines I had encountered under the Colonel’s command, these guys were rock solid professionals. They were tough, they were relentless and they were highly trained. Again I took some pride in being the son of a Marine.
When we reached the end of the hallway we were again confronted with laser fire. The laser’s blasts were few and far between, leaving me with the conclusion that lasers were not their primary weapons. The Durians I had encountered years before had standard blasters on their belts or the more powerful blaster rifles that they carried.
Explosions could be heard and felt coming down the cross-hall from Daniels direction. He came over the comm, "Crap Parker! We need support. We have about a dozen soldiers pinning us down. We are stuck in a room opposite from you. Franklin carried our string charges and he’s down in the hall!"
I could tell in Daniels voice that he was desperate. He was in a weak position and outnumbered three to one. Parker quickly rolled two grenades down the cross-hall towards where Daniels aggressors would be coming from.
Booom! Booom!
The blasts shredded the surrounding area but the Durian assault continued.
I reached into Jackson’s assault pack and pulled out a string charge. I raced into the adjacent room and slapped it up on the wall. Once back into the hall I triggered the explosive charge.
Booom!
A perfect cutout of the string charge now made a doorway to the next room. I ran through the breach with Jackson close behind. I kicked the door to the room open, surprising two Durians in the hallway.
Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!
The two Durians slumped to the floor and the others behind them turned to scramble for cover. Jackson dove past me and rolled to an upright squatted position in the hall.
Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak! Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!
Four more Durians fell silent before he turned and dove back towards the room, a laser bolt shearing off his left foot just above the ankle. "Arrrgh! Gaw!"
Even with the intense pain he was in, Jackson was a warrior. He rolled his upper torso back into the hallway and again let out a parade of lead.
Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak! Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!
I reached down and grabbed his other leg, dragging him back into the room just as a slew of laser bolts impacted the floor and doorway where he had just been.
"This is Grange, we have several men down. I count at least three. Daniels squad is pinned in the second section of hallways from the breach. I think we can hold this position, but we need backup for evac!" I patted Jackson on his good leg as I propped him against an interior wall.
"Hang in there man, help should be coming!" Jackson reached out and grabbed my arm. "Thanks for the assist Grange! That wasn’t my best move back there. That laser blast cauterized the wound Sir. It’s clean. Find me something to cover the stump and I am still in this fight." Jackson winced as I pulled a med pack and gave him a pain injection.
"You cover that breach behind us. Anybody tries to come through that is not one of us… cut ‘em down." Jackson nodded and rolled over in front of the breach hole, his AK aimed at the door of the room on the other side.
A voice came over the comm, "This is Vicks, we are two sections further in from your position, we are cutting through the cross-hall towards your position now. If you want to join us we should have these pukes in a cross-fire in three, two, one…"
Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak! Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak! Booom! Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!
Squad two cleared out the remaining six Durians that had us pinned in the hall.
A medic soon joined our position with Frig as an assistant. "Sir, glad to see you are OK." I replied, "Yeah, yeah, just get these guys back to the medical bay. And don’t take any lip from Jackson here, he needs that leg looked at ASAP. I think Franklin has bought it, Don’t know about Sawiski."
Daniels took charge of the combined second and third squads and we were soon back in the fight. The Durians were tough. But their numbers quickly dwindled when three more Raider ships breached the other decks. The battle for the destroyer lasted for five hours before the last two Durians gave up.
Daniels had them on the ship’s bridge. "You two need to start cooperating if you want to live! We are flying this ship out of here and you can either go with us live or we shove you out a lock and watch you bloat up. What do you say fellas? Feel like living… Barber! Go get me my bugs!"
I only glanced at the prisoners as I looked over the sleek layout of the bridge. But something stuck in my mind. I had seen one of the two Durians before. It was the Colonel who had reluctantly given me the technology to ferry to Zimmerman. He didn’t recognize me with my new face.
"Well, well, look who we have here. I believe you were a commander when we last met. I don’t think you cared much for Humans back then. I wonder what your opinion is of us now." The Durian looked at me for several seconds. "I have never laid eyes on you Human. I have no interest in your kind. But you have made a grave mistake by assaulting a ship of the Durian Empire. Our response will be overwhelming."
I laughed just to get under his scaly skin, "Overwhelming? You mean like we just did to you here? No, I would say you should be the one who is afraid. Defiant is coming for the Durians, and when we find out where it is that you call home, we will be there with a force that is so incredibly powerful that those blue scales on your back will turn yellow with fear."
The Durian replied, "You do not intimidate me Human. Our resources and our fleets stretch across many sectors. We have been following your progress as you run from the Milgari. With this transgression, we will no doubt supply them with arms that are more powerful than you can imagine. Your precious Grid will be able to run no more."
The Durian had already given up more information than I had expected. I turned the screws of our conversation further, I wondered if in his arrogance he would reveal more. "You saw how easily we took down a Durian destroyer with only a handful of small ships. And our assault force of roughly 120 Humans was able to take out a crew and garrison of more than 400 Durians."
"I will admit those chemical lasers were a big surprise. But we were able to counter them effectively. The facts before us today show that an inferior number of ships was able to cripple and then destroy a Durian destroyer and let’s say, oh, 500 Milgari warships? I’m thinking it may be the Durians who are inferior, especially on this ship here and now." My speech drew a scowl from the Durian.
Barber returned with Daniels jar of bugs and immediately began to wave it in front of the two Durians. "These little fellas are hungry… and they like Durian!" The Durian looked at the jar and then at Barber. "You expect me to be intimidated by a jar of harmless bugs? Such crude interrogation tactics were dropped by the Durians more than a thousand years ago, before your kind came into these sectors. I would have expected more from a race that can travel at more than 1,000 SOL.
Barber frowned as he looked at Daniels, "Sorry Sarge, the bugs just aren’t what they used to be." Barber looked at the glass jar as he walked away, "But they sure do creep me out."
Frig then entered the bridge behind us. "Sir, I am willing to assist the Colonel’s men on getting this ship moving. I am here if I am needed." I looked at Frig, "Absolutely, tell the Colonel’s men that I insist if they grumble. They won’t, but it is there just the same."
Frig moved over to the ship’s consoles and began asking questions of the men who had been hard at work trying to figure them out. If we wanted the Durian ship, we were going to have to figure out how to fly it. We had interrogation drugs that we would use on the Durians later. But those needed to be administered under George’s care and they would take several days of trials before they became effective.
I continued to badger the Durian until he let out a phrase that then shut him up tight. He said, "The Carnelis will punish us." After that moment the Colonel no longer spoke. We now had the mystery of whom or what were the Carnelis. I sent a recording of the phrase back to the Swift for further study.
Frig and the Colonel’s men were making little progress after more than three hours at the Durian consoles. An inadvertent attempt to access the environmental system on the destroyer led to an arming of the self-destruct. A blaring alarm went off followed by a dimming of lights that flashed to red. Every console and display on the ship was showing a countdown timer. A quick analysis of the timer told us that we had three minutes to evacuate and move our ships to a safe distance.
I barked out a command, "Evac now! Everyone, let’s move! This tub is going to blow and we don’t want to be on it!" I started waving Marines off the bridge. Frig continued his attempts at accessing the Durian consoles. Parker and Daniels took the Durian prisoners and headed for the Helix.
As the others stood and ran for the hallways I walked over to Frig who continued with his efforts. "OK, bud, we have to go, it’s not worth our lives today. We gave it our best shot and I am sure we will have other chances at one of these boats."
Frig continued to type away at a console as the timer ticked down. When it hit 90 seconds I began to raise my voice. "OK, that’s enough! We need to get out of here!" Jarrod came on the comm, "Don, get yourself out of there, we are closing the door at 20 seconds and pulling away at 12. I can’t keep the door open any longer than that. We have 48 crewmen here that want to live!"
I again prodded Frig to which he momentarily held up one hand telling me to stop. As he typed away at the keyboard the timer continued to count down. At 60 seconds I became adamant, "We gotta leave! It’s going to take us 30 seconds to get down to our floor and to that breach door!" I moved over to the doorway, placing one foot out into the hall. "Frig!"
He yelled back in my direction, "Go Sir! I am almost done! I will catch up!" I hesitated and then turned and ran. I turned the corner into the stairwell and nearly fell as I leapt three stairs at a time. When I reached the second level below the bridge I stopped and looked up the steps. No Frig!
I then ran down the cross-hall and turned into the hallway that held the breach door. I reached the door of the breach tube with 32 seconds remaining. I turned and yelled back down the hall, "Frig! Come on!"
I then sprinted onto the Helix and onto the bridge with Jarrod. "Two seconds, just give him two extra seconds!" I ran back to the breach hall and looked down the hall as the crew prepared to close the hatch. At twenty four seconds Frig rounded the corner in a full run. His speed was such that I didn’t know he was capable of. But time was short and the hallway long.
The timer hit twenty and the crewmen beside me began to close the hatch. We needed seven more seconds! "Frig! Come on!" I began to struggle with the two Marines who were attempting to close the breach hatch. They had their orders, I was giving mine!
Frig slammed through the last of the open hatch with eight seconds left. The hatch closed and the Helix separated and began to pull away. Just as the timer hit two seconds the Slaughter fired her weapons into the after portion of the Durian ship where the ion well would normally be located. An immense explosion rocked the Durian destroyer moments before the self-destruct detonated.
The Helix was only moving past the forward part of the ship when it fully exploded. The Aquamarine outer skin fractured and sloughed off as the hyper velocity debris from the explosion began to impact our hull. The Tantric layers dropped down to only two… but the armor had held.
As the explosion subsided the Slaughter pulled alongside the Helix and took her into her hold. We were safe. I walked a panting Frig onto the bridge, "What were you doing back there! Are you nuts?"
Frig took several more breaths before he spoke, "I’m sorry Sir, I was… I was accessing the memory stores for their nav and weapons systems. I… I believe I was able to download 68% of what they contained. Just 20 seconds more and I would have had it all Sir… twenty seconds more." Frig then sat in a chair and held up his hand as he continued to breathe heavily.
When he had his composure back he spoke, "I was able to break through their security using a technique the Milgari taught us back on Gambit. It is little used as it does not provide access to any active systems. But it does provide a path to access the memory stores. What I have here will take quite a bit of analysis and it will be very broken considering that we do not have access to the systems that it applies to, that and the fact that it is incomplete. With a little luck Sir, it could prove extremely valuable to our cause. It was worth the risk."
We left the Helix and met up with the Colonel on the bridge of the Slaughter. The assault on Barithia was still in full swing. The Colonel was busy barking orders at his commanders. "Fowler! Get that transport on the ground! We are behind schedule and need to make up some time if we want to continue making progress. Those troops are supposed to meet up with the second at city center. That’s not going to happen if you are still flying them around!"
When I stepped up beside the Colonel he reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder, "Grange! Glad you made it out of there. Gibbons over there had the bright idea to take out their ion well just before that destruct went off. It saved your skin! But you can thank him later. What’s the status of the Swift and the Helix? Our boys down there need extra air cover. Can you provide?"
"The Swift is ready. We can get her in the air in a few minutes. The Helix took that debris hard. She only has a couple layers of Tantric left on her port side. If there is no danger from the air she could provide cover from a cockeyed position. So long as she keeps her port side towards the stars. Just say the word and we will make it happen Colonel."
I left the bridge and headed to the Slaughter’s cargo hold. We would have to taxi out of the Helix before making our way out and down to the planet below. When I arrived and stepped aboard the Swift Frig was already hard at work on analyzing the Durian data. We were soon on our way to the surface.
Command control on the Slaughter directed us to a hot zone of Milgari activity. Two of our transports had landed and the troops had hit the ground. We had 18,000 Ground Assault Marines heading for a nearby Milgari garrison of more than 40,000 troops. The Swift’s computer quickly identified several dozen command and control towers used by the Milgari forces. They were heavily protected by light duty ion cannons and we were given the task of taking them out.
"Frig, targets should be coming up in a few seconds. Take out the cannons first and we will swing back for the towers. We have about five minutes before our troops get here to send this area into chaos. First target is now online."
I could feel the familiar rumble of our ion cannon as the first of the ground defenses were obliterated. The Swift’s hull easily absorbed the low power ion pulses of the Milgari ground cannons. That is, until we reached the last and tallest tower.
"OK, lining up for the final shot and we then sweep back to collect a few tower kills. Tower is targeted. What the…" The Swift was suddenly caught up in an electrical storm. Systems began to shut down as overpower parameter settings were passed. I felt a mild shock coming through the joystick which first caused me to squeeze hard and then to fully release.
Our ion engine then began to sputter as the control systems surrounding it shut down. I again grabbed the joystick and pulled back just hard enough for us to squeak over the top of a ridge behind the tower. I had to fight hard against a craft that was not the best at atmospheric flying to set it down hard in a grassy field just over the ridge.
There would be damage to the Swift's armor, but nothing that Gy could not fix upon our return home. My bigger concern was the alert that now showed on our proximity screen. A vehicle loaded with Milgari was on its way out into the field. Our generators were not restarting.
"Frig, how long before they get here?" Frig replied, "In less than two minutes Sir. From the way the generators are reacting I do not believe they will restart before they arrive." I flipped the rear optical sensors on and zoomed in on the wheeled transport. I counted six Milgari troopers with blaster rifles.
"I would not be concerned about those weapons Sir. They will do no damage to our hull. Of course, they do have one other option, but I don't believe that would work in their favor either. That is, unless they use the vehicle to ram our probe, rendering our cannon useless."
I rubbed my chin as I watched them coming closer. How about Yacabucci's field generator? Do you think it would knock out their truck?" Frig thought for a moment, "That is an interesting suggestion Sir. Give it a try."
I flipped on the field generator and took aim at the oncoming truck. With the press of a button the truck stalled and stopped in place. One of the riders was thrown out onto the ground. The others dismounted and charged at the Swift with their weapons.
At 100 meters distance the first of them pulled the trigger on their ion rifle, it did nothing. Then a second Milgari and a third failed at the same attempt. Yacabucci's generator made the ion weapons inert. The troopers assembled at the back of the Swift by the cargo door, unsure of what to do.
One venturous soldier then stepped out to our port side. The power meter on his rifle quickly returned to normal and he began to fire pulse after pulse into our hull. "Wow, this is actually kind of entertaining. I think they could do more damage if they were picking up and throwing rocks. Hahahaha!"
The sound coming from the cargo door was different than the typical thud of a blaster. It was the clang of a large rock. Frig immediately spoke up, "I put the blame solely on you Sir for suggesting that they do just that." I could see that Frig had a slight smirk on his face.
I then stood and walked back to my locker. I pulled out my AK-47 and checked the clip, it was full. I then walked back to my console as Frig looked on. "What do you have in mind Sir?" I pressed a button on my console and a negative ion bomb rolled out into the grass next to one of the Milgari. He looked at it suspiciously for only a moment before it triggered in a bright flash. The Milgari blasters went silent.
I triggered the rear cargo door and waited patiently as it rose up, revealing five of the Milgari standing 10 meters away.
Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak! Ak-ak-ak!
The six Milgari lay dead in the field. I walked back to my locker, reloaded my clip and then moved back to my console and sat down. "Problem solved. Now if you would be so kind as to get those generators online we can get back in this war. We still have towers that need to come down."