Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (26 page)

"Captain I suggest you start coming up with some intelligence that is helpful or I am going to send you upstairs with the Legionnaires and maybe a face to face meeting might be helpful."

Knott's face turned white at the thought of facing the aliens.

"Ma'am."

"Find me something soon
, Captain. You were awfully sure in the briefing, now put that mind of yours on finding this command something it can use to defeat these fucks."

Knott could only nod formally. He had never heard the Admiral use that tone with anyone before. He had heard stories of her famous temper and apparently he was now on the receiving end of her fury. He might be better off facing the aliens.

Usiche watched as Knott turned back to his console and begin to work. She stared at him for some time knowing he would be able to feel her attention. Usiche hated officers so sure of themselves before the battle began, but who could not adjust to a new reality once the dying started. She glanced at Istas, who met her glance with one that seemed to say the same thing that the Admiral was feeling. Istas was proving to be a valuable asset in more ways than one. 

Finally she turned her attention back to the display scene and the battle at the Space Port. The red arrows representing the attacking aliens w
ere almost covering the Port. More and more were appearing on the screen but the Legionnaires had not given ground yet.

LYTEN SYSTEM

RIFT

SPACE PORT

TERMINAL 7

CHARLIE COMPANY

WARDOGS

2
ND
PLATOON

FIRETEAM 3

Fighting pairs. That was a last resort order. Hu was not ready for this. He had barely gotten used to firing his weapon. He bumped Nani to let her know he had her back when there was a huge explosion. A hole appeared in the ceiling throwing concrete and steel everywhere. The concrete bounced off of his suit, but when it did he thought he was in a bass drum it was so loud. Aliens began dropping through the opening created by the explosion. Hu was firing his rail from his hip at the aliens as fast as he could bring it to bear. Each round made the rifle jump in his hands. He saw his rounds score hit after hit on aliens as they dropped through the hole in the roof. Some went down immediately, others were blown across the Terminal and some continued to come at him even
when badly wounded until he fired another round into them. Dolan was more disciplined with his shots and Hu saw an alien thrown across the terminal into the seats for passenger with each of his shots.

"Danger, danger tango closing from your left flank."

That was the only warning Hu got before he was slammed to the deck by an alien tackling him from the side. The alien moved skillfully as they fought for control - it was well trained in hand-to-hand combat. Hu had managed to counter every move it made yet it managed to mount him. Hu was on his back with the alien straddling him. It was stronger than anyone Hu had ever fought in or out of armor.

It jerked his rail away and began raking at his neck and faceplate with clawed hands. They sounded like fingernails on a blackboard as they scratched the armor of his helmet.
The alien's helmet had a red horizontal crest and what looked like a dragon painted on it. Hu could see his own reflection in the faceplate of its helmet, it was strange to see an armored trooper instead of his face. It was such a startling image that Hu almost hesitated but his training kicked in instead. Hu grabbed the alien by its front armor and pulled it close until their faceplates were almost touching. With his right arm he hooked the alien’s left arm at the elbow and with the right leg he hooked its left leg. Then Hu drove his left fist into the alien’s right side with all the force of his armored suit behind the blow and rolled.

H
u should have been able to roll on top of the alien with its arm in an arm bar that would allow him to break  it, but it was too quick and strong. It countered the move and rolled off of him and stood. It pulled out what looked like a long laser-like knife.  As the knife glowed a menacing red, the alien jumped at him. Hu started to roll onto his side and stand up, and then he remembered what Aijuba had drilled into them hour after hour in their hand-to-hand armored suits combat training.

"If you go down stay down when you
’re in armor. It'll take too long to stand. Stay down. Fight from the ground."

Hu spun on his back
and kicked upward to meet the alien. He caught it in the chest and with the power of his suit it threw the alien across the terminal. It seemed stunned for a second, long  enough for Hu to stand. Hu reached for his rail pistol but it had been lost in the fight. He grabbed his shovel out of the harness on his leg.

When Hu had been a boy and first started working in the mines
, his father had taken him aside and shown him how to fight with their small escape shovels. The men and women in the mines would settle arguments with sharpened shovels; it was their preferred weapon. Hu's father had made him practice the moves he had shown him until he could no longer lift the shovel. When he was assigned to his unit Hu had gone to armorer and told him what he wanted. The armorer had made him a shovel out of the same nano metal his armor was made of. Then he, as Hu had requested, had sharpened it until it had an edge like a knife. Now that training his father had put him through was about to pay off, the weight of his new shovel felt natural in his hand, he didn't need a pistol.

The alien held the laser
knifepoint down, blade forward. They rushed each other. It swung the knife across its body trying to cut Hu's abdomen open. Hu moved just enough to avoid the knife but took a glancing blow from the laser on his left arm. The knife cut through his armor as if nothing was there and lacerated his arm. Without stopping the alien brought the blade down for a backhanded killing blow into Hu's neck.

As fast as the alien was
, Hu was used to a similar move with a shovel. He grabbed its arm before it could stab him and swung his shovel. The alien tried to block the blow but Hu changed the angle in mid-strike and struck at the weakest part of its armor-the flexible joint. With the weight of the shovel and his suit’s power, Hu cut the aliens left arm off. Dark red blood flew everywhere, covering Hu's faceplate. Unfazed by the loss of the arm and thinking it now had the upper hand, the alien stepped back and went to swing  the knife down in another stabbing blow but Hu struck first. He struck the alien in the helmet, with all the strength that Von Fleet had engineered into him, all the skill his father had drilled into him, and all the strength his armors enhancements gave him. He drove the shovel through the helmet and into the skull of the alien, blood splattering everywhere. It dropped to the floor.

Hu turned to see an alien on top of Nani
, its laser knife raised for a killing blow. Without thinking Hu sunk the axe into the skull of the alien. Blood flew everywhere again and it fell dead on top of Nani. He grabbed the alien's body by its armor and with one hand Hu threw it across the Terminal. Hu extended his hand to Nani, she grabbed it and Hu pulled her up. Sim and Dolan were still standing back to back, four aliens lay dead around them. Dolan and Sim each had a pistol in one hand and an axe in the other.

Hu's suit had already begun to treat his arm. It had injected
painkillers through his medical lock in his subclavian artery. Then it was closing the wound with medicated nano sealant. The damage to his suit was minor enough that his suit’s nano's were repairing his armor and the damage would soon be gone. The fireteam all stood there for a second looking for more aliens. There were none. Outside another wave was crossing the runway about to make the terminal, jumping over the bodies of their fallen without a second look. Explosions were again covering the outside walls.

Hu's team's mission had been to be a fighting Observation Post. They were to put up a fierce fight then scoot to one of the strong points
hoping that the aliens would waste time and troops continued to attack their position. Their fight would provide some Intel about weapons and tactics to the commanders. All of their videos and combat readouts were being sent back to the command post to help create a good common combat operating picture. Hu was scared the aliens were coming from all directions, they would have to move soon or they would be over run.

"All OP units, repeat all OP units. This is Storm 6
Charlie; fall back to your first scoot. Fall back to your first scoot."

The Company commander was gone as was his XO, Storm 6 Charlie sounded like Bourguin
, and she was only a staff sergeant. Everyone else must have been killed if she was ordering them all back to their next position. The command structure was breaking down. Hu felt real fear, without coordination the units could be isolated and picked off one by one.

"Mad minute first. Empty a magazine into those
shi's
," Dolan said.

The fireteam began firing their weapons as one and emptied them into the onrushing aliens. Many fell but it did not slow the onslaught. Dolan pulled out what he called instant
-hole that he had been issued just for their scoot, and threw it on the Terminal floor. The shaped charge blew a hole in the floor, then the second part of the charge blew a hole in the floor below and the final charge blew a hole into the tunnel.

"Mini mines
," Dolan shouted as he moved toward the hole.

Each member of the fire team reached
for his suit’s leg pouch and pulled out a hand full of movement sensitive mines. Hu closed his fist to activate them then tossed them around the room. The mines were small enough that they were not easily found but powerful enough to kill someone. In addition, they did not explode individually but were networked so if they sensed more troops near by they would explode in groups. The mini mines provided a truly deadly barrier. Hu tossed a second hand full around as he waited his turn to drop into the hole.

He stepped into the hole and dropped three stories to the tunnel. Hu's suit retros fired a short burst just before he hit the floor. He landed and began running down the tunnel behind the rest of his fireteam
, to their next assigned position in Parking Garage 7. The tunnel was still lighted by florescent lights down it length. Hu could not see the end, only that it eventually curved away to the right. Large numbers were painted on the walls in front of hatches that lead to compartments and other tunnels. Trip hazards were painted yellow, as were some panels. Hundreds of cables ran overhead in trays; clear plastic protected panels with systems control and readouts were along both walls. All  the systems needed to run a spaceport seemed to run through the tunnels.

Sim threw sticky sensors against the wall as he ran. Hu was Tail End Charlie so he dropped more
handfuls of mini mines every few feet. The tiny mines would explode in groups based on the sensors readings Sim was planting, more surprises for the aliens.

It was only then that Hu had time to realize he had just been in real combat and had survived. He was not sure if he could do it again. He hoped he would be less scared the second time around. He ran behind Nani as they headed down the tunnel. When Hu glanced up at his screen there were not nearly
as many troopers as there should have been from the other OP's moving to their scoot positions. There were too many missing from the other fire teams. He dropped another handful of mini mines and ran on behind Nani.

LYTEN SYSTEM

AREA OF RIFT

DESTROYER CAPELLA

Well Steiny Man you have got yourself into a real fix this time. Following this idiot back to what you thought would be a large vessel of some kind obviously has not proven to be your best move. Lt. Steiner chuckled to himself, he really didn't mind being an enlisted man but he hated the brig time that always came with getting busted. Captain Grogen would throw the book at him. He had done the only thing that you could not do and get away with without a bust and brig time, he disobeyed a direct order from a superior. To make it worse it was not the usual order from some idiot like the times before; no, he had to disobey the order of someone he liked and respected as an officer. In fact he thought she was the best officer he had ever served under.

He had just known he was onto something but
he had come up empty. No one would launch from this distance, it would take too long to recover and rearm the waves. Granted this guy was poking along, in fact he was getting slower and Steiner could not afford to get ahead of him if he was going to sneak a peek and still get away. He had to stay in the wake of the alien fighter; now he was leaking all kinds of radiation too, which helped him hide in the aliens wake. If things did not change soon he would have to turn back empty handed and start working his way back up to Lieutenant again.

Steiner glanced at his instruments. His mission clock showed he had been on station or following this guy for almost two hours. No problems there. His crystal temperature was in the green, given how slow he was going
, it would last for days. Countermeasures were off. Then he noticed his targeting advisory indicator light had begun to flash. He was beginning to pick up signals from something ahead. His targeting advisory indicator was a passive sensor, it only lit up when you were being scanned or something was radiating various types of sensors in your direction.

Oh, please be something. I do hate cleaning the
head; I really want to stay an officer. He glanced at his situation display. He was beginning to pick up reading at the very edge of the range. His beat up friend he had been following was heading directly for it, like it was his momma. Then his targeting approach indicator began tracking a target. It was close now. The target kept getting larger and larger on his display. It was so large he thought he might be able to actually see it.

He switched his display to window and dialed up its largest magnification. He could see the engines of the alien fighter in front of him, one was bright white, another much duller and one was black. The one that had been damaged was spewing debris as well as venting some type of liquid. No wonder this guy was heading home. In
the distance Steiner began to see flashing lights, then lots of lights in an area that was so large he thought it was more than one ship but as he got closer Steiner saw it was one large ship.

Steiner’s sensors
were  putting its size at close to a mile in length. It was long with a flat smooth surface with only a huge t-shaped tower at one end. Steiner throttled back until he was just drifting slowly toward the huge ship. Along the side he could see huge doors were open; they had to be hanger bay doors because fighter after fighter was entering them. Other fighters were landing on top of the vessel; elevators would lower the fighters into the interior of the ship. He could not count the number of fighters either landing or waiting to land on the ship. That is when he realized the large ship was recovering the first attack waves. They needed rearming and repairs. This was where all of their fighters came from; it carried the fighters  close enough for them to strike the anchorage then return for rearming for additional strikes. It carried fighters that was its only job. Steiner could see Scams and Plasma like cannons dotting it sides but its primary purpose was carrying fighters.

A knot of fear suddenly gripped his stomach. Where the hell was the combat area patrol that should be up covering something this important
? He glanced at his display and caution advisory indicator. Nothing, absolutely nothing. The aliens apparently were so confident that they had used the fighters that should have been protecting the ship, in the launches.

No wonder they had so many fighters. All of the fleet combined could not launch the number of fighters that this one vessel could field. Fuck these guys were smart but arrogant.
Steiner did not want to push his luck. He had found what he needed. He might just remain a lieutenant. He made sure he had video of the vessel and its coordinates. Then he reversed course and slowly increased his speed trying to sneak away. He went to near light. Let them catch me if they can he thought. He reached for his communications display; it was time to get the word out.

"Capella this
is Legion 6. I repeat Capella this is Legion 6."

A long silence. He had to be within comm
range by now.

"Capella this is Legion 6. I repeat Capella this
is Legion 6."

"Legion 6, Capella go. We thought you were dead."

"Yeah me too. I need you to patch me through to the Captain."

"
Legion 6 advise the nature of your message."

"I have identified a Threat Class Alpha target."

"Check Legion 6."

Commander Ririsa Grogen did not like hiding in the bushes as she had come to think of laying dark and waiting for the aliens to come. She preferred to fight
, especially when it was on her terms, but orders were orders and hers were to wait. She stood and began to pace. Ririsa was not good at waiting.

"Captain
, I have Lieutenant Steiner on the comm. He says he has a Threat Class Alpha target."

Ririsa stopped pacing. Leave
it to Steiny Man to come up smelling like a rose.

"Patch him through to the bridge."

"Captain, I have a Threat Class Alpha Target. I am sending coordinates and video now. Are you receiving?"

The video of the huge ship and the aliens
’ fighters landing and taking off appeared on the display.

"Yes, we are receiving. Go ahead Lieutenant and give me a report."

Ririsa could not take her eyes off the screen, the vessel was huge and it was obvious it was unlike anything they had in the Confederation fleet.

"Capella
, I followed a wounded bird back to what I thought would be a squadron of ships that was launching the fighters. There were just too many for them to carry the number of fighters they launched the way we do. Instead I found this ship. I was able to observe it long enough to be convinced that this is the single source of the alien fighters. From my observations I believe it carries just the fighters while the rest of the fleet has other responsibilities. I recommend that we make this target a priority for the fleet. I believe that if we are able to disable or destroy it we will destroy their fighter defenses of the attacking fleet around Rift. It is my estimation that they are recovering the entire first attack wave and rearming them before a second attack in force. Capella, they have no combat screen up. Repeat there are no fighters up for screening."

Ririsa stared at the video. Sure enough fighters were landing on the flat top and through large hanger bays along
its sides. Steiner was right; it did carry all of their fighters. If they could get there while they had no fighter cover they just might be able to pull off a real blow to these bastards.

"I would agree
, Lieutenant, now get your ass back here where you belong."

"Aye, aye ma'am."

"Lieutenant Steiner, you have done an excellent job but your platoon is going to need you in the next hours.”

"I am at near light
and will be at your position soonest."

"Capella out."

Ririsa turned to her communications officer.

"Get me
Admiral Rule."

Ririsa had a little clock start in her head. She knew they did not
have a big window to strike before the aliens launched another wave of attacks.