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  Lost Marine

  Jack Forge, Lost Marine, Book 1

  James David Victor

  Fairfield Publishing

  Copyright © 2019 Fairfield Publishing

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.

  This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Thank You

  1

  Commander Gerat Bale gripped the arms of his command chair, barely holding himself in place as the frigate rocked under another salvo from the Mech attack ships. A shower of sparks from a ruptured transfer node rained down over the deck just in front of him.

  “Deactivate that node,” Bale shouted as another energy pulse from the attack ships slammed into the upper hull. “Reroute all power to the upper laser assembly.”

  The frigate rocked violently again as another blast slammed into the hull.

  “Return fire, krav it!” Bale leaned forward in his chair and shouted the orders down to the only officer operating the command deck, running between consoles. “What are you waiting for?”

  “Rerouting power, Commander.” Lieutenant Ellen Ripa gripped the console in front of her as the frigate lurched again. “Power transfer matrix fused.” She dashed to another console, staggering as the ship lurched another time. “The upper laser assembly is offline.” She slammed her hands down onto the console. “Port-side hail cannon down to ten percent load.”

  Commander Bale climbed down from his command chair. He dashed to the navigation console, gripping the console as the frigate took another heavy blow. “Calculating a retreat heading. I’m getting us out of here.”

  Chief Harry Stone staggered into the command deck, sweat and dirt on his hands and face.

  “The primary drive injectors are failing,” Stone said.

  “Drive injectors failing?” Ripa asked sarcastically. “The whole kravin’ boat is failing.”

  “Focus on your job, Lieutenant,” Bale snapped. “We need to throw every last flicker of power into the drive systems and try to escape.” Bale steadied himself against the navigation console as another blast rocked the frigate, sparks scattering across the command deck all around him.

  Stone picked his way across the deck and stood next to Bale, elbowing the commander aside. He accessed the thruster controls. “Activating thrusters. Bringing her about. Stand by hail cannon.”

  “Cannon ready to fire, Chief,” Ripa said, her hands dancing over the controls. She loaded the last high-ex into the central cannon and kinetic hail to the forward and aft cannons.

  “Did you hear what I said, Chief?” Bale shouted over the noise. “We can’t win. But we can run.”

  “We’ve run before and they just keep finding us.” Stone pushed Bale away from the navigation console and back toward the command chair. “We need to destroy them. It’s our only hope. Get ready to open fire.”

  The frigate lurched violently to starboard as another blast from the Mechs slammed into the hull. Another node ruptured and showered more sparks across the command deck.

  Commander Bale crossed the deck back to his chair. He pulled himself up and activated the holostage on the chair armrest. The image of the attacking ships flickered on the small holostage. The lead ship twisted this way and that as the frigate opened fire. The high-ex rounds detonated and flung the Mech attack ship sideways, presenting the port side of the lead ship where the kinetic hail struck. The ship broke apart, spilling debris—fluids and gases—as it tumbled, creating a new, tiny, short-lived nebula.

  “The lead Mech attack ship is destroyed. Maintain the fire.” Stone turned to Bale. “I need to get back to the drive room before the reactor drops offline. Keep firing, Commander. We won’t last much longer if we don’t destroy them all now. Are you listening to me, Bale?”

  Bale glowered at Stone. A blast from the remaining attackers sent Stone staggering. He just barely kept his feet as he ran toward the command deck exit, out onto the main deck and back toward the drive room.

  Bale climbed out of his seat and joined Ripa at the weapons console. Yellow and red system alert lights were lit up all across the console. The offensive capabilities of his boat were reduced to practically zero, but maybe the chief was right; the Mech attack ships kept on coming and maybe fighting them off was their only hope for survival.

  “Rear hail cannon ammunition feed jammed, sir,” Ripa said, her voice quivering. “Hull stability field failing. Artificial gravity failing.”

  “That’s it,” Bale said. “We’re getting out of here. Throw all power into the main drive.”

  “If we accelerate with the artificial gravity failing, we’ll be thrown about like rats in a barrel.” Ripa grabbed hold of the console.

  “Drive to full,” Bale shouted. “Brace. Brace.”

  2

  Jack Forge forced his aching muscles onward as he climbed the gentle slope. The gravity on the planet was only slightly stronger than the artificial gravity on board the corvette, but it was beginning to take its toll. The feeling of solid ground beneath his feet was strange, as was the vast open sky above him. Having spent weeks cramped inside his small corvette, the vast open space was both welcome and disconcerting.

  The hill was covered in blue, wispy vegetation, very much like the short grasses of his old home. The blue had also been strange at first, but after only a few hours, it looked as natural as any other color.

  Sam Torent dropped to the ground, his legs quivering from the slow march up the blue hills.

  “Hold up, Jack,” Sam said, breathing heavily in the thin air. “Take a break.”

  Jack dropped down next to Sam. He broke out a canteen of water and handed it over.

  Sam took a deep drink. Jack could see the effort was becoming too much for his friend. The thin air and hunger conspired to turn what had first looked to be a gentle walk into an extreme and exhausting climb.

  “How are you holding up?” Sam took another deep drink from the canteen, then put the cap back on. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his Fleet Marine jacket.

  “I’ll live,” Jack replied.

  Sam stood up. “Do you need to rest, or should we continue?”

  Standing was difficult. Jack moved first to all fours and propped himself up on his hands and knees, preparing himself to rise and carry on with the walk. The blue grass beneath his hands felt like the softest fur. It was tempting to lie down and rest on the soft ground. But this was no pleasure trip. They were there out of necessity. He pushed himself off the ground and stood up.

  Looking up the hill, Jack guessed there were still a few hundred meters to go to the target destination: a large pond on the top of the hill. In the valley below, Jack could see a herd of large tripedal creatures moving toward the corvette. They moved slowly with a strange hopping gait. The animals were huge and made the corvette look small as they moved around it. They showed no interest in the spacecraft, though. Their only concern was to graze the soft blue grass, eating as they continued their slow procession across the valley floor.

  “Maybe we should have positioned the corvette over the pond,” Sam said through heaving breaths. “We could have scooped up a sample without all of this
effort.”

  Jack breathed heavily. “Aren’t you enjoying the view?” he asked with a smirk.

  Sam turned and looked down at the corvette. “I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t so tired. I can’t believe how out of shape I am.”

  Jack pressed on up the hill. “Not much further. Let’s keep going.”

  The top of the hill flattened out into a wide circle, at the center of which was a pond of thick blue slime. Jack kneeled next to the pond and dropped in a small drone.

  The drone analyzed the slime and confirmed what the remote scans had reported.

  The pond was a nutrient-rich soup. It was raw, currently smelling rotten and looking deeply unpleasant, but after some processing, Jack knew it would yield a ration block equally as nutritious as the Marine ration blocks they had been eating for the last few weeks.

  “Why don’t we just take one of those three-legged cow things and make some burgers?” Sam asked, looking down at the herd moving across the valley below. “That looks like a year’s worth of meals on just one of those things.”

  “How much burger do you think we can carry?” Jack checked through the drone data again. “We know this goop has everything the body needs, and we can carry a lot of it. We don’t know if those things are even edible. Do you really want to kill one only to find out it tastes worse than this goop?”

  Sam held his field scanner up and watched the herd. He spotted one creature at the back walking slowly, limping on its rear limb. The back end of the creature was lower to the ground than the others of the herd, and it was clearly struggling.

  “What about that one?” Sam said. “It’s injured. I don’t know how life works on this planet, but if the normal rules apply, that one will be eaten by something sooner or later. Why don’t we put it out of its misery and try a steak?”

  Jack shook his head. “No. We can’t store it, and I’m not killing that massive beast just so we can eat a tiny slice of it. We’ll stick to the plan. Pump up some of this goop and get on our way. This isn’t a hunting expedition, Sam, just a quick pitstop. We grab the goop and go. Agreed?”

  Sam put his field scanner away. “Agreed,” Sam replied gloomily. “So let’s get that pumping gear up here and collect the goop. I can’t wait to see what processed blue slime tastes like.”

  “Anything tastes better than hunger.” Jack lay on the ground, the soft blue grass again inviting him to sleep. He tapped his wrist-mounted control panel. A drone came out of the corvette in the valley below, trailing a fine, flexible tube. It flew up the hill quickly and brought the end of the tube to Jack.

  The drone settled on the grass and fed the hose into the pond. Tapping away on his control panel, Jack activated the drone’s toxin filter. He calibrated the device to screen out the toxins that had been identified by the initial scan and then set the drone into action. The goop began to move down the tube to the storage tank on the corvette.

  Sitting down and looking at the herd below, Sam began to grumble to himself.

  “What?” Jack said, leaning back on the grass.

  “I’d kill for a burger. Nothing but nutrient bars to eat. And now we’ve got alien goop nutrient bars to look forward to.”

  The sounds of the herd drifted up the hill on the thin air. They made a low rumbling noise that was almost constant in pitch and volume. It was continuous and seemed to be made by every member of the herd.

  A sudden change in the sound drew Jack’s attention. He picked up his field scanner and looked down at the herd. Their low rumbling call was now being made in short bursts, and the herd seemed to be moving faster. The one limping member of the herd was falling further behind while the rest moved off at a faster pace. It was still a lumbering, plodding motion, but there was urgency in their movement, and in their call.

  “Looks like the corvette has them spooked,” Sam said. “Maybe the sound of the storage tank filling up with this blue goop surprised them.”

  Scanning the valley, Jack wondered if maybe there was some other reason for the change in the herd’s behavior. Then, at the far end of valley, he saw dark shapes moving over the blue-covered valley floor.

  He zoomed in on one of the dark shapes. It was about the size of a wolf, covered in short black and blue hair. It had a wide mouth set in a wide flat head and a single black eye that covered the top and the sides of the head. The creature leapt forward with a bounding motion similar to a running dog.

  The front legs of the wolf were muscular like that of a massive ape with wide paws that were armed with one huge curved claw. It scuffed up the dirt as it bound toward the herd. The rear leg was short and powerful, and it launched the beast forward, covering several meters in a single bound, the large front legs taking the weight of the landing.

  Jack set his field scanner to count the number of wolves in the pack.

  “Let’s get ready to move.” Jack tucked away his field scanner and drew his pulse pistol. He checked the power and readied the weapon to fire. “Arm yourself, Sam.”

  Sam pulled out his pulse pistol. He held it in his right armpit, under the short remains of his upper right arm, while he checked the weapon with his left hand.

  Jack looked over to Sam, concerned about his friend.

  “Do you need me to do that for you, Sam?”

  Sam flipped the pulse pistol around in his one hand and set the weapon ready to fire before flipping it again and catching it by the handle. He took experimental aim and then looked to Jack.

  “I’ve got it. I can still handle a pulse pistol, Jack.” Then Sam looked down the hill. “If those hounds attack us, are we allowed to kill them?”

  Jack didn’t answer. He tapped the controls on his wrist. The drone pump had nearly filled the corvette’s storage tank. Deciding it was enough, Jack deactivated the pump operation and sent the drone back down the hill. The hose wound back into the corvette rapidly with the drone following high above the ground.

  Sam stood up. “Ready?”

  Jack remained seated on the soft blue grass and looked down into the valley. “Just wait. If that pack moves off, it’ll be easier for us. Let’s see what they do.”

  The pack was focused on the herd and particularly the individual falling behind. The pack began to spread out in a wide arc. They moved fast and had already reached the corvette. They raced past it, disinterested in the boat parked in their blue valley. The pack closed in on the limping three-legged cow. The rest of the herd had moved off and were barely visible at the far end of the wide valley.

  The pack of wolf-like creatures moved in, and the cow turned to face them. It dropped its head low to the ground, the wide, boney skull aimed forward in defense.

  The first wolf to leap was knocked aside by a wide sweep of the cow’s head. The second was also sent flying, but the third latched on, its wide, tooth-filled mouth clamping down on the bony skull. Then another jumped and clamped on. Soon, six or more of the wolves were hanging onto the wide bony head of the enormous beast.

  Then the attack came from the side as the rest of the pack rushed in. They leaped at the side of the cow, their hooked claws ripping into the cow’s flesh.

  The kill was mercifully quick. The cow fell as its sides were slashed from top to bottom on both sides by a dozen leaping wolves. The innards of the beast spilled out to form a glistening slick on the soft blue grass.

  Then the pack descended in a frenzy of slashing and biting. The biggest of the wolves moved in on the huge carcass while the smaller members of the pack fought over the spilled guts that glistened under the massive blue sun above.

  “They get burger,” Sam said. He sat down heavily next to Jack. “And they’re blocking the way back to the corvette. We have to sit and watch them eat while we sit here hungry?” He checked his aim again, pointing his pulse pistol at the wolves.

  “I think we had better stay still and be quiet, Sam,” Jack said. “I hope those wolves move off after they’ve eaten. Shouldn’t be too long at the rate they are tearing into that cow.”


  The arrival of a few spiraling shapes in the sky caught Jack’s attention. The hovering shapes of flying creatures with the same tripedal form appeared in the sky. The vulture-like creatures were being attracted by the kill. The wings were huge and swept back like a reverse delta wing, wide at the front and tapering to the single rear limb. Jack looked up with his field scanner. The bird’s head was squat but streamlined to a sharp point. A single dark eye wrapped over the head. The tips of the wings were armed with a small claw, a vestige of what might have once been a huge and dangerous weapon. The rear of the wing was tipped with a larger single claw.

  The first of the vultures began to land on the upper hull of the corvette, one perching on the laser emitter. They all looked down at the feeding frenzy below. Others landed on the valley floor, out of reach of the feasting wolves.

  The drone was returning to the corvette’s topside as the last of the hose was drawn inside. As the hatch opened for the drone to enter, the vultures leaped away in surprise. The wolves on the ground looked away from their meal momentarily, then returned to the carcass.

  On the fringes of the kill, the smaller wolves were trying to muscle in but were being bullied off by the larger wolves that were in some cases more than twice as large. The larger wolves’ heads were soaked in the glistening fluids oozing from the dead cow. They kicked back with their rear limb and held back the push from the more numerous, smaller members of the pack.

  Jack watched the scene below. Although the creatures were strange, the behavior was all too familiar. He began to wonder if the wolves would set up camp at the kill for as long as it took them to strip every last morsel of edible flesh from the massive creature. He began to realize the wolves could be resting underneath the corvette for hours, maybe even days. And in that time, there was always the danger that he and Sam would be discovered.