Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
“The
other ships are moving closer to defend the carrier!” someone
reported over the coms.
“It
doesn't matter, it's too late,” Tom told them, “Remember to get
far away once we are deployed.”
Tom
turn to the rebel soldiers who were with him. All of them were
getting into place to leave the ship as fast as they could. As soon
as the rear hatch opened they would use the thrusters on their suits
to propel themselves toward the carrier.
“Team
Two here, we're ready” The soldier named Skyler reported from
the second ship.
“Prepare
for dynamic exit!” The pilot told them.
Suddenly,
the ship rolled fast enough for them to feel it and the back hatch
opened. Seeing that the carrier was right in front of them, Tom
activated his thrusters and led the others across the short space to
the carriers' outer hull.
“This
is Team Two, we've made it to entry point, all hands safe.”
“All
ships, time to get lost!” Tom said over the coms. A rupture in
metal covering of one of the cargo bays was just big enough for them
to get through one by one. There were a few crates in the dark
chamber but there was no sign of anyone.
“I
guess they don't know we're here yet.” One of his men said.
Tom
brought up a diagram of the carrier on his HUD. “Okay, we need to
move upwards about four decks. We'll be close to the power
distribution node then. There is a lift out that hatch and about 50
meters down the corridor to the right.”
The
hatch refused to open because the cargo bay had been pressurized.
Then Tom Grier cursed himself for not thinking of this problem, and
led the team to the far side of the cargo bay to where a cargo
control room could be used like an air-lock. That was one stupid
mistake, but they had lost very little time and nobody died.
As
the air in the cargo control room pressurized Tom pulled the QBR-44
off of the back of his armored suit, the other men drew their own
weapons as well.
“This
is Skyler, I examined the wreckage that lodged into the observation
deck, there were no survivors.”
“Roger,
watch the time. Get to that forward power distro node ASAP,” Tom
said into the coms, “It's all been mapped out.”
“Copy!”
The
corridor outside of the cargo control room looked abandoned. Tom
detected some heat signatures in a small chamber at the end. If they
weren't armed or armored, then they aren't to be killed. Still, you
need to keep an eye on them.
“We
need to move as fast as possible. 50 meters to the lift, but we're
taking the stairs on the other side of the corridor instead. Four
decks up and we will near the target. You all know the drill, it
should only take one of us to reach it,” Tom Grier told the others.
The
hatch opened and Tom was the first one out, his men covered both
sides with their weapons as they made their way toward the stairs.
The Free Republic Marines could reach them in minutes, so they had to
hurry.
Oddly
they were able to reach the stairs without seeing any opposition
whatsoever, which made Tom more worried. Where were they? As soon as
Tom looked around the corner into the stairwell two unarmored
security officers opened fire with small arms. The armor wasn't even
penetrated.
One
of his men, Felix something, went around Tom and blasted the two
security officers. One shot each was all it took and they went down
like a sack of potatoes. Felix started up the stairs first, looking
to get first the glimpse of any more opposition.
“Something
is coming. Hang back,” Felix said, backing against the wall.
Suddenly a drone dropped down from above. A flashing, pulsating light
was all Tom could see, his suit tried to block this visual
interference as he tried to aim his big gun in the tight corridor. It
was useless so he swung at it, knocking the drone to the side where
it bounced off the wall. The drone started firing small rounds at
them but was dispatched by return fire.
“That
was annoying,” Felix said as he started moving upwards again. At
the landing of the next deck they were fired upon by unarmored
security officers again. These guys were more numerous but hiding
behind the corners.
The
first thing that hit them was stun grenades that had no effect
through their powered armor. The opposition was far too light and
pathetic so far. The small arms fire was no real threat, but you
can't just waltz past them and let them keep harassing your six.
Tom
designated grenade rounds and wanted to bounce them around the corner
when two more wailing, flashing drones dropped from the upper
stairwell. He heard Felix mutter something as the men started to
return fire.
“Grenade!”
Tom warned as he fired two of them, one to each side of the corridor.
The blast was loud, even through the helmet and parts of the walls
and ceiling in the corridor simply collapsed. The old carrier was
never designed to see battles on the inside.
“Light
opposition, we are three decks above designated target.” Skyler
reported in.
Obviously,
most of the Marines were on the surface of Sync, but Tom knew that at
least two platoons were kept as reserve or guards aboard the carrier.
This normally included “A Squad” which was kind of legendary to
new recruits. It was said the best Marines would be assigned to the
squad, but Tom was no longer connected to the “hive mind”, as he
now thought of it. To him, the best and most remorseless killers were
rewarded by being moved into A Squad. Of course, he had no experience
with all of that inside stuff since he had spent no real time in it
before being captured by the rebels.
They
moved up the stairwell faster this time. Tom did not know how long it
would take for the Marines to show up, but he was sure they would
eventually.
“You
don't suppose they know where we're going do you?” Felix asked,
“They might be setting up a trap for us.”
“That
is one possibility,” Tom admitted, “But it doesn't seem like
something they'd do. Why let us ransack the ship all the way there,
knowing we'd be tearing through their security?”
Then
he remembered that the Marine brass and the fleet brass seemed to be
at odds. The Marine General really had been arresting those fleet
agents back in Valla. Maybe crazy Admiral Jim Robinson wouldn't
approve letting the Marines battle Tom's boarding party? That
wouldn't make sense, though. General Gallant wouldn't follow any
orders like that from the Admiral.
“Team
Two here, no sign of enemy armor. All kinds of fleet personnel hiding
in their quarters.” Skyler reported.
“Same
here,” Tom replied. It was unnerving.
Free
Republic carrier Umbrage, Marines Command & Control Room
“General,
we have rebel activity flaring up all over Sync!” Maggie Anders
reported.
General
Gallant checked the large holographic image of the planet revolving
above the center of the room, sure enough symbols of fighting and
attacks were all over it. The engagement reports had been coming in
fast and furious since the attack on the Umbrage began.
“Drone
attacks at Fort Marsh being reported. The drones are simply diving at
the base and exploding just before they reach the ground!” a male
controller on the far side of the room announced.
“Forward
Support Base Mandarin is requesting aerial support!” another said
and then added, “I'm unable to contact Onyx Flight!”
General
Gallant walked to Colonel Mortimer, “Looks like we have a rebel
uprising.”
The
shorter man nodded, “Yes, it does. These are almost all stand-off
or hit and run attacks, though. Almost like they are trying to
distract us.”
Gallant
thought about this, “Do you think the rebels were able to board the
Umbrage?”
“Normally,
I would laugh in your face for asking such a question, if you'll beg
my pardon sir. Under the circumstances, though, I think it's likely,”
Mortimer answered.
“You
can speak freely with me, Colonel,” Gallant told him. Then after a
moment he shook his head, “You don't suppose the rebels knew that
Admiral Robinson had blocked us from leaving our area of the ship, do
you?”
Mortimer
shook his in the negative, “The Admiral is going to be mighty
pissed, just when they need us most he himself has barricaded us
away.”
Gallant
sighed, “Take some men in armor and try to get passed one of the
barricades. We need to at least try and defend this ship.”
“Aye,
sir!”
Then
the General started toward the controllers, “Order Main Base in
Sally sector to send defense drones to Forward Operating Base Mako
and Forward Support Base Mandarin. They have a dozen of the things,
it time we started using them.”
“Aye
Sir” said one of the controllers.
“Okay,
new general order. Order our drone bases to take over all aerial
operations, we can't depend on Onyx flight any more,” General
Gallant told them.
“Aye
Sir!” several of them responded.
He
walked to Maggie Anders, who was trying to get some reinforcements to
her sector.
“Anders,
if this ship has been boarded, it is likely led by someone who has
Marine armor, if you get my point. I'm thinking that Tom Grier could
be on-board making mischief,” he told her, getting her full
attention, “I want you to try and contact his suit. Not the
implants, they were removed. If you can get his attention, I want to
talk to him directly.”
“Yes,
sir. I'll try!” she answered.
The
General didn't really have a plan, but there was one coming together.
Colonel
Mortimer was coming back. He reported,“That barricade is pretty
solid, we might break through if we have enough time. I'm thinking we
send some of our guys out the airlock to get in on the fleet side.”
“If
we can't contact the Admiral's people, then we don't know if
Robinson's people would open the airlocks in their area for us.”
“That
is true,” The Colonel answered, “Just try it if you need to.”
Free
Republic carrier Umbrage, Bridge
Admiral
James “Jim” Robinson was red-faced. He had been screaming to get
ship security weapons and whatever needed to stop the boarding party.
Unfortunately ship security did not have heavy armor or the weapons
to stop it. They didn't normally have access to weapons that would
tear through the hull of a ship, for obvious reasons.
“Throw
up new barricades!” He ordered.
“We
don't have any more, we would need to get them from one of the other
ships, maybe the Hugh or Sirius. That would take a lot
of time though,” one of the other officers reported.
“Unblock
the barricades and let the Marines do their damned jobs then!” He
roared.
“Those
barricades are extremely hard to remove once they have been set,”
came the answer, which infuriated him even more. To some of the men
and women cringing on the bridge it looked like he might literally
explode, some of them thought this would be a good thing.
“Grabble!”
The Admiral called the Commander who had been pretending to be busy
doing something else that was “urgent”.
“Sir?”
“I
want you to lead a team to the forward power distribution node and
set explosives at all of the entrances. We must stop them from taking
out those nodes!” The Admiral said, “If it wasn't for those
traitors, the enemy would have never known about those weaknesses.”
Commander
Grabble wanted to point out that the power distribution nodes were
buried deep within the ship and weren't really “weaknesses” if
the enemy had been stopped from getting to them. As space ship
designs go, the carrier was a virtual fortress.
“Also
give the order to the fleet to prepare for another surface
bombardment, tell them not to launch without my explicit orders
though.”
The
Commander was shocked that the Admiral would even think of using
those again, unless he knew where the enemy ships were located.
“I'll
have them on stand-by, but I don't know how many penetrators are
left. We used quite a lot of them taking out that under-mountain
base.”
“Good,”
Then to another officer the Admiral said, “Have the Hugh and
Sirius move in closer, let us make sure that the boarding
party never gets a ride home.”
“Yes,
sir!”
Meanwhile
Commander Grabble was on his way to change into light armor while
calling some of the security team to gather with him. They would be
setting explosives aboard the ship to try and stop the enemy boarding
team.
Marine
Tech Ship, Dispensation
Lt.
Edwards and his men had mostly cleaned up the blood and bodies. The
damage to the ship itself was extensive but they managed to get basic
functions routed to some terminals in one of the aft compartments.
External
sensors had been linked to the Marines aboard the Umbrage, but
finding out what had happened inside Dispensation had taken
too long. Finally, though, they had scraped enough sensor data to
discover where the stolen Mark IV armor had been taken.
“Patch
me into General Gallant, immediately!” Edwards ordered.
“I'll
try.”
After
two minutes he was speaking to his superior,
“It
seems that whoever stole the Mark IV is aboard the Umbrage!”
Edwards reported, “That person has already slaughtered Free
Republic personnel, they are a danger to anyone they come across.”
General
Gallant rubbed his face, “I've heard nothing corresponding to what
happened on Dispensation, might be that this person is after
something.”
Edwards
looked around, “That person is a killing machine, without a soul of
any kind. Anyone who could kill all the helpless people on this ship
can do the same there.”
“Thank
you, I'll try to do something about it.”
The
connection was cut.
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