For a long moment, she refused to believe her eyes. The ship couldn't have been boarded, could it? But then the alien lifted a weapon and pointed it right between her eyes. Nancy froze, smelling – for the first time – a hint of something fishy, then tried to duck back out of sight. It was too late. There was a flash of bright green light, then nothing but darkness.
***
“We’ve definitely got unwanted guests,” James muttered. The security reports from a handful of crewmen, several of whom hadn’t reported in since, were impossible to misinterpret. He cursed the timing under his breath. Half of the Royal Marines who should have been onboard were on Target One, no doubt utterly unaware of the fleet’s desperate struggle for survival. “Captain, can you and your men handle them?”
“We believe so,” Captain Greenfield assured him. Technically, he was Royal Marine Reserve, but James hadn't heard any complaints from Major Parnell about Greenfield and his company of reservists. The Royal Marines worked reservists to the bone just to make sure they were up to scratch when the shit hit the fan. “But you might want to evacuate the boarded sections, just in case.”
“Understood,” James said. He cursed again; deliberately or otherwise, the aliens were holding parts of his ship that desperately needed repair. The only upside was that if the alien starfighters decided to try to pour fire into the gash in the hull, they’d be killing their own people as well as human survivors. “Get rid of them as quickly as possible.”
“Understood,” Greenfield said. “We will handle it.”
***
Captain Luke Greenfield closed the communications link and looked around at his makeshift command post. No one in their right mind, at least prior to the war, had seriously expected to have to board a starship or counter a boarding party. But that old certainty had fallen apart, just like so many others, when war had finally broken out. Right now, his Marines were all that stood between
Ark Royal
and enemy hands.
And if they’ve brought a nuke with them
, he thought grimly,
we’re dead anyway
.
He glanced down at his terminal, silently thanking God that the Royal Marine radios weren't completely dependent on the ship’s datanet serving as an exchange hub. In hindsight, that might have been a serious mistake, one that had ensured they had no real intelligence from inside the compromised area. If there were no more gashes in the hull, he should have the aliens penned up through the establishment of some carefully-positioned checkpoints, but if there were – or the aliens simply used their weapons to burn through the inner hull – the aliens could simply outflank him. He’d already had to detail too many Bootnecks to guard the bridge, CIC, Main Engineering and other vital sections of the ship.
“Open the hatch,” he ordered. “We’ll sweep through the hull from one side to the other.”
As soon as the hatch opened, he released the first set of nanotech drones. The tiny devices, utterly invisible to the naked eye, would sweep for alien intruders, perhaps even kill them if the aliens didn't have their own countermeasures. They chilled humanity to the bone, not without reason; it was quite likely the aliens felt the same way. He monitored their progress as he led the first platoon of men into the occupied section, watching for any sign of the aliens. But he saw nothing.
“Bodies,” one of his men muttered. “And the air is leaking faster now.”
Luke nodded as he quickly examined the bodies. It looked as though they'd been smashed against the bulkhead, probably when the bomb-pumped lasers had sliced into the Old Lady’s hull. There were no bullet wounds or plasma burns that might have suggested the aliens had killed them. Besides, none of the dead crewmen had drawn their personal weapons.
“They must not have managed to seal the hull,” Luke muttered back. Standard practice for a forced boarding, insofar as it existed, was to burn through the hull, rather than risk using an airlock. Normally, the hull would remain sealed afterwards by the presence of the boarding pods, but the aliens had used bomb-pumped lasers to open the way for them. Chances were that anything they’d done to seal the hull had been insufficient, particularly if the ship’s structural integrity had been weakened. “Keep your armour closed.”
He scowled inwardly as they slipped into the next compartment, then stopped as they saw motion ahead of them. Moments later, four crewmen – two wounded – staggered into view, holding their hands in the air. Luke smiled in relief – at least there was no need to secure the crewmen – and pointed them towards the guarded hatch, then checked the links to the nanotech. It should have picked up the human survivors, but it hadn't.
“I’ve got an unusually powerful ECM field ahead of us,” one of the techs said, after a long moment. “It’s pervading the hull, sir.”
“So we can't rely on the nanotech,” Luke muttered. He briefly considered calling the other ships and requesting support, but abandoned the idea after a moment’s contemplation. The United States Marines or the French Foreign Legion were good – he’d trained with them while the fleet was preparing to depart – yet they didn't know the interior of
Ark Royal
as well as his men. “See if you can get a list of crewmen with weapons experience, then round them up to reinforce us.”
Something moved ahead of them. This time, a bolt of plasma fire stabbed down towards their position, narrowly missing a Marine’s head. Luke switched his rifle to automatic and fired a long burst down the corridor, then followed it up with a grenade or two. The deck shook as the grenades detonated, then the Marines moved forwards rapidly, trying to get to the aliens before they recovered. But the aliens were clearly dead by the time the humans overran their position.
“Interesting,” Luke said. Their tactics were odd. Were they just trying to delay the Old Lady or did they have something else in mind. “I ...”
“Sir, this is Rigby at Five,” a voice snapped. “They’re breaking through the guardpost!”
Luke swore under his breath. The aliens were pushing towards the bridge ... but how did they know where it was?
Ark Royal
wasn't a modern carrier ... he cursed again as he understood just what had happened. The Old Lady was old enough that quite a lot of information about her was available freely. Given a cursory sweep, the aliens could have picked up enough about her from New Russia to plan their missile strikes perfectly. They’d certainly done well enough.
“Move a blocking force into play,” Luke ordered. “We’ll try to take them in the rear.”
***
Offhand, James couldn't recall any moment in living history when a Royal Navy starship had been boarded by enemy forces. Hell, the wet navy hadn't lost a ship to a boarding party since the end of the Age of Sail. But the aliens had managed to set foot on
Ark Royal
...
“Commander Williams,” he said formally, “you will prepare to assume command of the ship if the bridge is compromised.”
“Yes, sir,” Amelia said. “And the Admiral?”
James hesitated. The CIC wasn't under threat yet, but the aliens would no doubt start to expand outwards once they’d taken the bridge. It was odd that they didn't seem to be making a charge towards Main Engineering, yet it was quite possible that the aliens had lost the assault teams that were supposed to take the compartment.
“Will move when the CIC comes under attack,” he said, firmly. “Continue to monitor internal security as long as possible.”
***
“The last enemy carrier is gone,” Lopez reported. “She was hit by a mass driver projectile.”
Ted smirked, despite the worry, fear and outright rage clawing at his heart. The aliens had been too busy evading his starfighters that they’d forgotten the other threat. Now, with all of Force One’s carriers either destroyed or badly damaged, Force One was falling back in disarray. But they still had intruders on
Ark Royal
.
And Force Two is still there
, he thought, grimly.
Still there and no doubt trying to decide what to do
.
“Prepare the decoy drones,” he ordered. “I want them ready to launch the moment we are outside their sensor locks.”
“Aye, sir,” Lopez said. Sweat was pouring down her face, but she’d never looked more beautiful. Whoever married her, Ted knew, would be a very lucky man. “We should be able to deploy in thirty minutes.”
“Good,” Ted said. “Launch a second set of recon probes towards Force Two. I want to know if they so much as blink.”
***
Luke felt sweat running down his back as he passed through Guardpost Five, without more than a moment to acknowledge three of his men who’d given their lives for the Old Lady. The Bootnecks were dead, their bodies raped by plasma fire ... angrily, he promised their ghosts revenge as he kept moving forward, drawn onwards by the sounds of plasma and automatic weapons fire directly ahead of him.
He paused as the alien position came into view. They weren't very good, he noted, but perhaps it wasn't too surprising. Their wars were probably fought below the waters, rather than on the surface; hell, maybe they found the surface world more than a little uncomfortable. He’d read the reports on the alien battlecruiser and, even though it hadn't been filled with water as some analysts had expected, it’s atmosphere was moist enough to cause real problems for the maintenance crews. The Old Lady’s atmosphere was far drier than anything in Britain, or even on Earth outside a desert.
“Fire,” he ordered.
The aliens barely noticed before the first rounds slammed into their bodies. Two of them spun around desperately and fired back towards the Marines; the remainder died where they stood, caught between two fires. Luke braced himself and ran forward as the sound of shooting faded away, checking the alien bodies one by one. Nothing, he told himself, could survive so many rounds through their most vulnerable sections. Still, he checked them anyway. There were quite a few animals who could soak up a great deal of damage and keep going, even without cybernetic modifications.
“I think we killed them,” one of his men said.
“Leave the bodies,” Luke ordered. They’d have to be removed by the ship’s crewmen, after careful precautions were taken to avoid any biological hazard. The scientists believed that there was no chance of an alien disease moving into a human host, but there was no point in taking chances. “We need to get back to their shuttles.”
He led the way back into the damaged section, keeping a careful eye out for any surviving aliens. But they found nothing until they reached the shuttles themselves, all of which seemed to be completely useless. Their drives and sensors had been reduced to dust by – he assumed – microscopic self-destruct systems. The aliens evidently hadn't wanted to take the risk of any more of their technology falling into human hands.
“We’ll sweep the section,” he said. In hindsight, the alien attack seemed odd, as if they’d been experimenting rather than committing everything to the raid. There was something about it that didn't make sense. Had the aliens put it together in a hurry or was there something else they hadn't seen? “But it appears we got them all.”
“Good,” the Captain said. “But make sure you check everywhere an alien might be hiding, including the outer hull.”
“Yes, sir,” Luke said. He did have
some
experience, after all. But he couldn't blame the Captain for worrying. “It will be done.”
There was a click as someone else joined the conversation. “This is the Admiral,” a new voice said. “I want you to check for any other surprises the aliens might have left behind.”
“Understood,” Luke said. He scowled, inwardly. It wasn't going to be easy. The ship’s interior had been badly mangled by the lasers. Something out of place might well be missed completely. “We’ll start looking now, but we’ll need assistance.”
“I’ll detail crew to assist you,” the Captain said. He sounded grim, but resolved. At least he understood the problem, which was more than Luke expected from some senior officers, and wasn't bitching about needing to keep his crew to repair the ship. “Inform us the moment you find anything.”
“I’ll launch the alien craft into space,” Luke said. “I don’t think we’ll pull anything useful from them and we don't have time to take them apart.”
“Do so,” the Admiral said. “And good luck.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“We have lost sensor locks from the remains of Force One,” Lopez reported.
Ted sighed in relief. A careful search of the damaged section of the hull had found nothing, apart from dead bodies and plenty of destroyed systems, but he doubted it could be taken completely for granted. Civilians said the military was anal about making sure that everything was in order, yet it made it easier to spot anything out of place. Now, with the hull torn open and badly compromised, anything could have been left there in the wreckage.
“Deploy decoy drones,” he ordered, taking a long look at Force Two. Given the battering his forces had taken, he had few doubts that Force Two could finish them, if the aliens chose to leave their station and drive straight for the human fleet. But that would open up the risk of the humans managing to evade them and slipping back to the tramline. “And then recall all fighters.”
He looked down at the display as the fighters slowly returned to their motherships, then settled into the landing bays. There were over a hundred new radio sources where the alien starships had been, each one – he assumed – an alien lifepod. If there had been time to pick them up ... he shook his head, dismissing the thought. Even if there
had
been time, it would have been far too dangerous. The aliens might well attempt to resist recovery efforts.