Chapter
Twelve
Free
Republic Carrier Umbrage
The
main corridor through the center of the ship on the mid-deck was a
bit wider than the ones below it, because this deck did not have crew
quarters and associated things. This was all meant for work spaces
and at each end of the vessel, on this deck, the main power
distribution nodes and the protective field generators and the
artificial gravity systems were located.
No
enemy force had ever boarded a carrier in memory. There was no real
good reason for these critical systems to be protected from the
inside. They already had the whole ship wrapped around them, they
were well-protected from exterior threats.
Tom
Grier hefted the Quad-Barreled Battle Rifle, QBR-44, it was longer
than he was tall, and weight too much to carry without the powered
armor suit he wore. The armored suit of the Free Republic Marines,
now worn by a rebel fighting for the independence of a world called
Sync.
If
Sync won its independence, other worlds would follow. The Free
Republic was already weakened by its ruthless but not-quite competent
government. As history showed, authoritarian governments and their
repression regressed a society and crippled its ability to grow and
innovate.
“Where
are they?” Tom asked. The Marines on the carrier should be there to
stop him and the other rebels. They had entered through a tear in a
cargo hatch and had climbed the decks fighting unarmored ship
security personnel and their lightly armed drones. It had all been a
very uneven match. There were Marines on this ship who could give
them a real match, but where were they?
“Do
you think they are inside of the nodes?” Felix asked, “Would that
even make sense?”
Tom
frowned, “No way. That would be a terrible place to put up a
defensive. They need to do that as far from the vital systems as
possible.”
Tom
clicked the secure communications on his suit, “Skyler, where are
you?”
“We’re
near the forward node. It just feels too quiet,” the other
soldier responded.
“Same
here.”
“I’ve
got eyes on the entrance to the forward node, it
appears unguarded. I don’t get this.”
“Skyler,
search the area for any threat and then hold for my mark, we’ll
blow these systems simultaneously if we can,” Tom told him.
“Roger
tha…” the transmission garbled.
Tom
sighed, well it had to happen sooner or later he told himself.
“Tom!”
A familiar voice sounded in his ear. He looked around and saw that
his men were in defensive positions, waiting to move.
“Tom,
it’s me Maggie,” the voice said, “I was able to hack
into your suit. Listen to me, Tom, you need to get off this ship as
soon as possible!”
“Maggie,
can you hear me?” Tom asked, “You should head for the nearest
escape pod, I am taking down this ship.”
“Tom,
you don’t need to do this.”
“The
Free Republic has become despotic. It’s nothing like we were
taught. Everything they told us about it in school ended years ago.
Sync and the other worlds deserve their independence,” Tom told
her, “If you want to live through this, Maggie, get in a pod.”
“Listen
Tom. The Admiral put up barricades to keep the Marines isolated, but
they have found a way in now. They’ll be there soon,” Maggie
told him. He had no way to know if it was true. If it was true, then
there were no Marines waiting for them inside the node chambers.
Tom
weighed the odds. They were unknown, but he decided that she was just
being the mouthpiece of the Marine General.
He
muted his suit com, “I’ll lead the way, check your weapons.”
The
QBR-44 he carried was loaded with different kinds of ammunition. He
could fire the regular fifty caliber rounds, grenade rounds,
armor-penetrating rounds and acid rounds. The barrels hummed and they
spun up into ready mode.
“Tom.
You should escape while you have time. You don’t need to do this,”
Maggie’s voice penetrated through his skull, “The Marines are
on the way.”
Tom
began a fast walk toward the node chamber down the corridor, his men
followed on high alert for any threat. No sign of any opposition,
which was extremely unnerving. Felix checked the entrances to the
left while another soldier looked into all of the doors to the right.
The deck was completely abandoned of any personnel.
The
look of concern on Felix was more and more pronounced as they
proceeded. The entrance to the node chamber was near. Tom considered
firing his grenades into the chamber from where he was, but he wanted
to carry out the mission as it was planned.
Suddenly
five armored Marine suits walked into the corridor between his team
and the node chamber.
“Into
the workshops!” Felix said as they all ducked to the two sides as
the first rounds were fired by the Marines.
“We
are too close to stop now,” Tom said, he clicked the QBR-44 over to
grenade rounds and spun out into the corridor, he fired eight rounds
in two seconds and ducked back into the side chamber while the
Marines were reacting.
He
heard the firing of the other QBR-44’s and peeked out. They had
shot down the grenade rounds and none of them had flown past the
sentries. It was likely that the Marines guarding the node chamber
weren’t allowed to fire their own grenade rounds aboard the
carrier.
“There
is an escape pod in that chamber, Tom, use it to escape!”
Maggie’s voice interrupted his thoughts. He tried to turn off the
connection, he wanted to contact Skyler on the aft side of the ship
but nothing was happening.
“The
Marines aren’t coming after us, they’re just guarding the node
chamber,” Felix said, he had stuck the end of his gun into the
corridor. The end of the gun had a camera connected to his armored
suit, which was not as powerful as a Marine suit.
“That
makes me even more nervous,” Someone else said.
“Something
is happening. What is that?” Felix asked, activating his
holographic imager over his wrist for a better look.
“It’s
a Vike! Oh damn it’s armed!”
The
robotic “cat” padded its way down the corridor toward them.
Normally used to carry supplies or to sneak looks at enemy locations,
this one was carrying a big gun. Tom stepped into the corridor and
fired a grenade round at the Vike and it sidestepped the round which
bounced before exploding. The “Viking Kitty” was thrown but used
its legs to “walk” and push off the opposite wall and back to the
floor.
Then
it began firing at Tom was surprised to see explosive rounds inbound.
He threw himself across the corridor and through a closed hatch,
busting it off the hinges as the blast missed him. Tom got back up
the Vike stopped outside and then turned in his direction.
Tom
clicked the gun over to acid rounds.
The
Vike pounced at Tom, but he ducked under the robotic beast and moved
to the other side of the chamber but the Vike was already pushing off
the wall and flying right toward him again. Tom sidestepped and then
batted at the Vike with the gun as it passed. This gave the robot
pause, so Tom fired two acid rounds at it.
Tom
was aiming for the gun it carried on its back. The first acid round
hit the robots “head”, which Tom hoped would blind it. The second
one hit the gun but it did not appear damaged on the outside.
The
Vike stopped and slowly moved its head from side to side. Tom tried
not to make a sound. He didn’t know if that made a difference, it
was just built in caution. Then maybe its sensors kicked in because
it started towards Tom again. He fired some normal rounds at it but
it was able to dodge most of those.
It
had its own micro-radar. It could detect incoming shells or any other
moving target and know exactly where they had come from. The Vike
aimed at Tom who tried to shift his direction and found the wall was
keeping him from rolling away.
The
Vike didn’t fire. It turned and ran into the corridor though where
Felix was able to hit it a few times with his own weapon as it padded
back to the Marines.
“They
seem to be playing for time!” Felix said.
“The
longer we are here, the better chance of moving in enough Marines to
mount an offensive. I think we need to attack, as quickly as
possible,” Tom told the others over his com.
“Tom,
other Marines are on the way. I think Colonel Mortimer will be
leading the charge.” Maggie told him. Believe her? He did,
actually, this time. For some reason General Gallant was letting him
know exactly was going on. Which meant something was being left out,
no way they would tell Tom everything.
“This
is Team Two, we are pinned down. Looks like three Marines defending
the forward node.”
The
rebel device to shut down the Marine implants would work if the ship
didn’t have a much more powerful null field of its own. Inside of
the Umbrage, with the field, the range on the rebel device
must be extremely reduced.
Several
of his men carried the device, just in case.
“Okay,
we need to get close to the Marines. Maybe we can knock them out with
the device if we are close,” Tom told them, the com to Team Two was
open so maybe they could hear, but he wasn’t hearing anything from
them.
“How
would we get close enough without getting killed?” someone asked.
“Anyone
want to surrender?” Tom asked.
Carrier
Umbrage, Bridge
“Admiral,
the rebel intruders are closing in on the forward and aft nodes!”
Commander Grabble reported. The aging Admiral in his hover-chair
looked more tired than ever, the skin on his face even seemed to sag.
His whole body was slumped and his uniform was wrinkled as if he
hadn’t even thought of cleaning up.
“We
must defend the nodes. Do whatever needs to be done, Commander!”
Admiral James “Jim” Robinson ordered.
“Good
news, some Marines were able to reach the middle deck, sir!” one of
the younger officers reported, “It seems they went outside the ship
through the lander hangar and came in through an escape pod port.”
“They
know we need them,” Grabble replied, “They’ll do their jobs.”
“I
still don’t like Gallant having his men traipsing all over my ship.
When this is over, I’m going to tell the… President that the
Marines need their own deployment vessels,” Robinson said.
“Admiral,
the Free Republic hasn’t built a capital ship in a long time,”
Commander Grabble reminded him, “We just don’t have that
capability right now. The Carriers were built to carry Marines.”
“We
will redesign them. The Carrier should carry more fighters, why
should Onyx flight be the only ones?” The Admiral asked, becoming
agitated again.
Commander
Grabble held his tongue. The Admiral was just upset. There was no
doubt the Admiral knew perfectly well the limitations of space
fighters. They were barely useful in the role of ship defense, giving
the enemy more targets confuse them and to shoot at. They were mainly
used to attack targets on the surface of planets for a very good
reason.
“What
is happening down there?” Robinson demanded.
“Looks
like the Marines are guarding the nodes and the rebels are hold up
nearby.”
“Why
don’t those Marines just move in and take them out?” The Admiral
asked.
“Defenders
have an advantage over attackers. There are other Marines on the way
that will give them the ability to attack without leaving the nodes
undefended,” Grabble explained.
Carrier
Umbrage, exterior
The
Free Republic Marines made their way up the side of the massive
vessel wearing their armored powered suits. The suits would keep them
alive even in space itself, but they still had to be careful because
it was never safe outside.
“Hampton,
watch your footholds. You’ll slip away if you don’t secure it,”
Colonel Mortimer chided one of the Marines for being a little
careless.
“Aye,
sir!”
They
arrived at the lock that had been used for an escape pod. The empty
pod was three hundred meters away and still silently drifting. The
first to arrive was Sergeant Hollings, who still remembered his
combat training. The others were older and mostly assigned to
administrative duties. Most of the real Marines were down on Sync
fighting a rebel uprising.
Suddenly
Hollings helmet exploded and most of his head too. Hampton let go of
his handholds and tried to pull the battle rifle off of his back but
several holes appeared on the hull around him before his chest
exploded and the young staff officer floated away, just barely above
the surface of the Umbrage.
“Where
is that coming from?” Mortimer demanded, looking everywhere he
could. An explosion to his left had torn another of the Marines into
pieces. Worse, it had dislodged Colonel Mortimer and he was flailing
as he floated away.
Something
crossed in front of him.
Finally
Colonel Mortimer used the small rockets to get some control. Then he
turned and used the suit booster to get him back to the carrier. That
is when he noticed another armored suit that was much larger than his
own.
The
other soldier, in the strange suit, came close before reaching out
and wrapping an armored hand around the neck of the Colonels’ suit.
It pulled the colonel close to its own head as if to get a visual
inspection. Then the faceplate moved aside and allowed Mortimer to
see inside.
“Oh
God! You’re supposed to be dead!” Colonel Mortimer said as the
much larger and more powerful suit threw him against the hull of the
carrier. Then he felt the suit he wore buffet and he slowly drifted
away from the carrier. His booster malfunctioned and his attitude
thrusters just plain did not work.
“This
is Colonel Mortimer, I have a message for the General!” The Colonel
tried to call out on his suit radio. He was drifting away from the
carrier. Mortimer could see the large armored suit climb through the
pod hatch. The person in that suit was insane, he had to be, he was
killing anyone who was in thw way.
“Blade!”
Mortimer yelled, heard by no-one but himself.
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