Authors: Thomas DePrima
"No keylock or keypad," a nameless voice on Com-Three said. "Must be a wireless entry."
"Burn it."
"Back. Igniting."
Suddenly, red lights began flashing on the roof and sirens began blaring. An alarm had been tripped, and the SO team hadn't yet gained access to the house.
"Damn, second door inside."
"Blow it," a voice that sounded like Blade's said.
"Back."
An explosion on the roof disturbed what little was left of the nighttime silence a few seconds later as the SO team blew open the second, more heavily armored door. At the same time, the Major gave the order for the Marines on the ground to assault the house. From Sydnee's vantage point, she could see Marines scaling the three-meter wall and dropping into the gardens. She lost sight of them at that point. Expecting that she would be needed soon, she lifted the MAT a couple of meters off the ground, ready to zoom to the roof. There was a lot of chatter on the com channels now.
"Clear," a nameless voice said loudly on Com-Three.
"Move," another said.
"Watch that door."
"Nothing. Clear."
"Next level."
"Female cowering in closet. No weapons."
"Stun her."
"Clear.
"Empty bed in here," another voice said. "Residual heat. Must have been occupied."
"Find them," Blade said.
The SO Marines continued to move from room to room in the mansion, calling 'clear' as they checked each room for occupants.
"Safe room," someone finally shouted on Com-Three.
"Blow it."
"Damn," another voice said. "This looks solid."
"This is taking too damn long. Speed it up."
Suddenly, a Marine screamed over the Com-One channel, "Ahhh! Something's grabbed me. It's wrapping itself around my legs."
Then another yelled, "Something's got me too. It's coiling itself around me like a boa."
The two calls for help were immediately followed by a chorus of voices all reporting generally the same thing, and the situation worsened as some voices said they had been pulled down to the ground and were now totally helpless.
"I managed to get to my knife," someone screamed. "I cut the thing in half. It's still holding me down."
"Damn, I shot it with my pistol. It made no difference."
Others were also reporting that they had either stabbed the monster or shot it but that their defensive acts had had no effect.
"Kelly, this is Syd," Sydnee said quickly on the officer frequency, "What's happening?"
After an interminable period of silence on Com-Two that lasted a full three seconds, Sydnee heard, "All my people are down. Something's wrapped itself around us. It's like a hundred Lampaxa Vorheridines. But when you shoot them with a laser or cut them with a knife, they split apart at that point and become two separate snakes, or whatever they are. We need help Syd. We can't get out of this on our own."
The threat console on the MAT suddenly came alive with flashing lights and messages of vehicles approaching at high speed. The display indicated that as many as twenty were on their way towards the home of the package. They were still at maximum distance, but the threat board had picked them up because they were headed directly towards the MAT's location.
"Back. I'm blowing the door," was heard over Com-Three.
"That him?"
"Yeah, that's him."
"Stun him."
"What about the woman with him?"
"Stun her and leave her. He's all we want."
"Both stunned."
"Let's get him to the roof."
"Captain, this is the Major, we have the package and we're almost ready to be picked up. Bring the MAT."
"We need to help the Marines on the ground, Major. And we have at least twenty emergency or security vehicles headed this way. They're coming from the distant city, so they're about twenty minutes out."
"Pick us up, Captain. We must vacate the area before the police or military can reach us here. We have the package and must bring him back at any cost. We don't have enough time to free the people on the ground before the enemy arrives. The fire teams are lost to us. But my observers are packed up and waiting to be recovered before we head to the
Justice
."
"You expect me to just leave our people behind?"
"We can't help them. There isn't any time. Now come pick up my team. That's an order."
Sydnee gritted her teeth and raised the ship above the height of the house before pushing the throttle forward slightly and moving towards the roof, then remembered her conversation with Kelly MacDonald when MacDonald had spoken of the detachment the SO Marines exhibited towards the
Denver
's Marines. She wondered momentarily if this was part of Blade's plan from the beginning. Could he have foreseen this difficulty, or one similar, and instructed his people not to form attachments with MacDonald's platoon because he fully expected to desert them if trouble arose? If the forces headed this way stopped to collect the Marines, the SO teams with their prize would have no problem getting clear. If they stopped to help the Marines on the ground, the forces headed towards the house would probably arrive before they could clear the area. Sydnee leaned forward and pushed the throttle to the stops as she lifted the ship ten meters. Selecting the special frequency for the
Justice,
she reached Chief Lemela. "This is the captain. Let me speak to Lt. Weems."
Weems was on the line almost immediately. "This is Weems, Captain. We've been monitoring the com frequencies. Caruthers is next to me and listening. What are your orders?"
"Hop into MAT-Two and pick up the Major and his people on the roof, then the observation teams. I'm going to see what I can do to help
our
people. Lieutenant Caruthers, under no circumstances is the
Justice
to leave the lakebed without my explicit orders, unless I'm captured or down. Is that clearly understood?"
"Understood, Captain."
"I'm already climbing into MAT-Two," Weems said. "I should reach the house in sixteen minutes."
"Negative, Lieutenant," Blade suddenly screamed into the com line. "Remain where you are. Captain, you will return here immediately and recover my team. That's an order. If you fail to comply, I'll have you court-martialed when we return to GA space. Now get your ass in gear, lady, and pick us up."
"Lt. Weems, carry out my orders. I take full responsibility."
"Aye, Captain," Weems said.
"Captain," Blade screamed, "I'm in command here, and I order you to return immediately."
"Sir, Major Burrows said that you were in command on the ground, but I'm in command in the air. Well, sir, I'm in the air. And up here,
I'm
in command. There's a MAT coming to pick you up and will arrive in fifteen minutes. I'm going to see what I can do about those emergency vehicles headed towards the house. You should be safe until MAT-Two arrives."
The Major may have realized the futility of further discussion because the channel went silent. Sydnee concentrated on her flying and watching flight information about the approaching oh-gee vehicles.
Mat-One encountered the first of the approaching oh-gee vehicles some twenty kilometers from the house. Sydnee could see numerous other lights in the distance headed in her direction. The house was in such a remote location that all respondents had to come from the city.
The MAT was armed with a large, remotely controlled laser weapon that could raise up from a hidden gun port in the roof, but Sydnee had a better idea for clearing the oncoming traffic. There was virtually no chance that the Dakinium-sheathed MAT could be damaged by contact with an oh-gee vehicle. At most, the only evidence of a collision would be some scrapes of paint from the oh-gee cars and trucks.
Sydnee aimed the ship directly at the lead vehicle. It wasn't a heavily armored military vehicle. It looked more like a standard police or security company vehicle. She didn't really want to kill anyone— she only wanted to stop them. So at the last second she swerved and sideswiped the first car. It effectively knocked it off its path while caving in the passenger side. The damage was sufficient to send it spiraling down towards the surface, some ten meters below. Since it was a moonless night, and the MAT was black, it was doubtful the driver and any occupants of the vehicle even knew what hit them.
As the seconds and minutes ticked by, Sydnee lined up on the next vehicle and knocked it out of the sky as well. Fortunately, the vehicles were pretty well spread out, so she had enough time to target them and meet them on her terms. It became like a game of billiards at one point when, upon being sideswiped, a vehicle crashed into another, and both went down. One vehicle got past her because two came at the same time on different vectors, so after knocking the first down, she chased after the second. When she caught up, she ducked low and then hit it on the stern from underneath with enough force to actually cause it to cartwheel several times before dropping to the surface.
When all vehicles responding to the alarm had been knocked from the sky and her threat screen was clear, Sydnee headed back to the house. She had learned from listening in on the com channels that MAT-Two had arrived and recovered the SO team and the package from the rooftop. MAT-Two was presently retrieving the two observation teams.
Once at the house, Sydnee positioned the MAT high over the gardens, then set the MAT's computer to circle the house while dropping a dozen hover flares. Set to float at ten meters above ground level until used up, the flares would light up the entire property.
As the incredibly brilliant lights turned night into day, Sydnee could see the Marines writhing on the ground in the grasp of untold hundreds of snakelike creatures. The doom and gloom chatter on the general com channel was suddenly replaced with someone yelling, "I'm free. It let me go and disappeared back into the ground." Then a "me too," was heard. Then another. In minutes, everyone was free and running for the perimeter wall like the devil himself was behind them. Within another minute, they were over the wall and safely outside the compound. Whatever the creature was, it hadn't been able to penetrate the personal body armor worn by the Marines, so everyone was still perfectly healthy.
Sydnee set the ship down in the field next to the house and Marines began climbing in as soon as the hatch was open. The rear compartment was soon filled with the sounds of exuberant voices. As one of the Marines in the rear compartment closed and sealed the hatch, Kelly MacDonald entered the flight deck and dropped into the copilot chair. Sydnee depressed a contact point and all of the flares winked out.
"Thanks, Syd. You really saved our asses."
"You would have done the same for me."
"How did you know those flares would frighten those things back into their holes?"
"I didn't. Not for sure. But there had been no reports of those things during the daylight hours when the gardener was tending the grounds. I thought perhaps they were nocturnal and didn't like daylight. I admit they disappeared even quicker than I dared hope. Is everyone accounted for?"
"Yep. Everyone's aboard."
Looking at the threat console, Sydnee saw that a new group of vehicles was headed towards the house. "I've had enough excitement for tonight," she said. "But I don't want to head directly back towards the lake."
"But I thought they couldn't track this ship because of the Dakinium?"
"They can't. But as we've seen at the lake, there always seems to be eyewitnesses on the ground, even in the most remote places. And those sirens have been sounding at the house long enough to draw the attention of anyone within earshot, such as the estate gardener. Let's take a little side trip in a direction that suggests an alternate destination for anyone who might observe us from the ground."
"Why not."
As Sydnee raised the ship into the air, a new chorus of happy cheering could be heard from the rear compartment. She and Kelly shared a smile as she aimed the ship in a direction that was about ninety degrees off the course to the lake. It would take them over mostly woods and mountains, but there were a couple of housing developments on the way.
After traveling about a hundred kilometers, Sydnee said, "What say we head for the
Justice?
"
"Works for me," Kelly said. "Ya know, I'd really begun to think we weren't coming back from this one. Thanks for ignoring the Major."
"You can be a character witness at my court-martial."
"No matter what they do to you, Syd, always remember that you saved the lives of twenty-eight Marines today by disobeying the Major's orders."
"Those things probably couldn't have killed you, thanks to the body armor, but they may have held you incapacitated until the Clidepp military got here."
"We've all heard stories about the Clidepp death camps. Being taken by the Clidepp military is said to be an immediate sentence of death."
"I'm glad we didn't have to find out."
When MAT-One arrived at the lake, MAT-Two was sitting on the shore. The MATs didn't have ballast tanks that could be filled with water, so they were unable to sink down into the lake to link up with the CPS.
After Sydnee ordered Caruthers to bring the ship up, he had the engineer start the pumps and force the water from the tanks mounted on the sides of the ship. In minutes, the
Justice
was floating on the surface. Weems and Sydnee moved their ships into position and linked to the CPS.
Once Sydnee had shut down MAT-One's engines and all power systems, she left the small ship. As she emerged into the CPS corridor, she was greeted by the six fire teams of Marines who had been incapacitated in the garden. Grateful to have been rescued, they whooped and hollered and clapped as she passed them. She was moved by this spontaneous expression and smiled as they passed through the corridor, but she had to get to the bridge, so she didn't pause to address the platoon.
At the T-junction in the corridor that led to the bridge, Sydnee encountered Blade coming the other way from MAT-Two.
"I want to talk to you, Captain. NOW!"
"I'm sorry, Major," she said calmly. "I'm needed on the bridge right now. I have to get this ship up and off the planet. Once we're clear and are on our way back towards GA space, we'll have time to talk." She left Blade there in the corridor, fuming. She expected him to follow her to the bridge, but perhaps he didn't want any witnesses to what he intended to say.