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  He walked over to the two squad leaders, Heaton and Gilchrist, who were standing idly while their squads milling around, studying the ground, the sky, the horizon. Helmets and rifles lay in untidy heaps. Jack had never seen such an indisciplined group.

  “Marines, suit up,” Jack marched from one group to another calling out his orders. “Pick up your rifles. Form a perimeter, one hundred meters from the tac boats.” He grabbed one Marine who was staring at him and shoved him toward a helmet abandoned on the plain. “You need to be ready. We don’t know what to expect down here. Suit up and look alive.”

  Heaton walked over and called out to Jack.

  “Sir,” Heaton said with a mild tone of insubordination. “There’s nothing here. This is just some barren rock, as far as the eye can see. No danger here. I ordered my squad to relax.”

  Jack stepped up in front of Heaton. The squad leader was taller than Jack by a head and shoulders. Jack looked up at the big, grinning man. The only thing Jack was afraid of on this planet was that which he could not yet see.

  “I ordered you to arrange your squad in a perimeter around the tac boats. Do it now or there will be consequences.”

  “Consequences?” Heaton laughed. “This is a new world. I’m a volunteer. You can’t order me around like this. I have rights.”

  This was dangerous territory—an ill-disciplined and poorly-trained force loose on a new planet with a squad leader who was being openly insubordinate to Jack. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Jack needed to stop it right now.

  “You are hereby demoted.” Jack looked up at Heaton, his hands behind his back, chin out. “I’ll take over until I can find a squad leader capable of doing the job.”

  Heaton laughed. “My squad chose me. I think they’d rather listen to me.”

  “This is not a democracy. This is a Marine expeditionary force. You will obey orders, or you will suffer military justice.” Jack unclipped his pulse pistol from his hip holster. He felt the grip in his hand. He was a fraction away from raising it and pointing it at Heaton’s forehead. “Your insubordination is toxic, Heaton,” Jack said, stepping closer so they were toe-to-toe. “I am in command here, these Marines are all my responsibility, and if there’s a problem, I will fix it. If you are my problem, I will fix you. Am I clear?”

  Heaton snarled and shoved Jack back, both hands thrusting against Jack’s chest.

  “Krav you, soldier boy. I quit.”

  Jack drew his pulse pistol in a flash. As he raised the weapon, he set the power to deliver a low-yield pulse. He took aim at Heaton’s forehead, aiming directly between the eyes that in the last moment saw the consequences of insubordination.

  Jack pulled the trigger.

  Heaton’s face froze as the pulse round struck. The expression of disbelief that Jack had drawn his weapon was frozen on Heaton’s face as the low-yield round surged through his nervous system. He fell in an untidy heap on the dusty ground. Jack stepped up and grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head up close. Jack checked Heaton’s eyes. He was barely conscious. His eyes rolling back in his head, the pupils dilated, almost filling his irises so he appeared to have entirely black eyes.

  Jack dropped Heaton back to the ground and turned to Gilchrist, who was staring open-mouthed at Jack. The Marines standing around the landing site with the dust still swirling all stared in surprise, horror, and disbelief. Several started slowly to gather their helmets and rifles and soon were formed up almost like a proper group of Marines.

  “Squad Leader Gilchrist,” Jack called the man over with a wave of his hand. He pointed at Heaton on the ground, who was groaning and starting to come around. “Secure the prisoner and make sure he’s out of harm’s way. The restraining pod in the back of the tac boat, do you know how to use it?”

  Gilchrist shook his head. “No, sir. I only just finished flight training. I don’t know the other tac boat systems yet.”

  Jack realized he was rolling his eyes. Completed flight training was a joke. Gilchrist couldn’t even start the machine. If the squad leaders didn’t know how to fly a tac boat, then they probably didn’t know how the weapon systems worked. He wondered if they were able to use their pulse rifles. These men, although armed and equipped like Marines, were not even close to the real thing, and they were all a danger to themselves and those around them.

  A voice behind Jack spoke up, a small, reedy voice of a young man.

  “Sir, I know tac boats.”

  Jack turned around and found himself facing a small, sandy-haired boy. He could only have just reached adulthood.

  “What is your name, Marine?”

  “Tim,” the young man said. A ripple of laughter from the nervous Marines.

  “And do you know how to secure this man on Tac Boat One?”

  Tim nodded.

  Jack turned to Gilchrist. “Assist Tim, Squad Leader. You will be in charge of both squads. Tim here will assist you in your duties. Is that clear?”

  Gilchrist nodded at Jack and then looked down at Heaton, who was beginning to climb up onto his hands and knees, groaning like a bear waking from hibernation.

  “How do you address an officer?” Jack said, a little kinder to Gilchrist.

  “Sir. Yes, sir,” Gilchrist replied quickly, and then he grabbed Heaton by the shoulder and dragged him up onto his feet.

  With Gilchrist and Tim taking Heaton to be secured, Jack turned to the Marines.

  “A line here,” Jack said, drawing a line in the air in front of him. The Marines shambled into position. They moved awkwardly and uncertainly, but at least they moved, and at least they all had their pulse rifles and helmets with them now. Jack walked along the line and pushed them into neat order, and then he stepped back to address both squads, all ten of the men before him.

  “If this were a combat situation, we would all be dead by now. I’ve worked with some of the best Marines ever to wear the uniform. I’m not saying you all can’t become useful members of the Fleet Marine Service, but right now, you are a danger to yourselves and others. Present arms.”

  The line of Marines swung their pulse rifles in front of them, holding them vertically with both hands.

  Well, one thing that seems to have stuck is how to present arms, Jack thought as he walked along the line checking everyone’s pulse rifle. All were fully charged and ready for action. A charged pulse rifle in untrained hands was a dangerous thing, and Jack could not trust these people at all, at least not yet.

  “All Marines, deactivate electron bayonet systems,” Jack said he stepped back and watched. All Marines shifted their left hand to the top of their rifle. They decoupled the electron bayonet power system and held it aside from the rifle. Jack went to the line and pointed at the Marine on the end of the line.

  “You’ve got the duty, Marine. Gather all electron bayonet charge packs and deposit them in Tac Boat One.”

  Jack stepped back and watched as the Marine went along the line, gathering the fist-sized power packs. The Fleet Marine pulse rifle would still be a formidable weapon, but Jack could not risk any of these ill-trained Marines accidentally activating the electron bayonet and skewering one of their own colleagues.

  A light chirping sound from Jack’s wrist alerted him that he had an incoming message. Jack glanced at his wrist-mounted holostage and saw an incoming message from the Scorpio. He activated the holostage and the image of Captain Pretorius appeared.

  “Captain,” Jack said. “Can you give me just one brief moment, please, sir?”

  Pretorius nodded and canceled the message, his holoimage vanishing. Jack walked over to the line of Marines as the electron bayonet power packs were delivered to Tac Boat One. Gilchrist and Tim were returning from securing their prisoner. Jack called Gilchrist over.

  “Create a perimeter, one hundred meters all directions. Access the sensor network and display all tactical data on every Marine’s enhanced data view. Helmets must be worn at all times. Watch the horizon for movement and await my orders.”

  Sq
uad Leader Gilchrist saluted and acknowledged the order. He walked over to the line of Marines and began barking the orders to deploy the group. Jack watched for a moment as Gilchrist urged the squads into action. Concerned that Gilchrist was just the loudest voice rather than a good choice for squad leader, his concerns were assuaged when he saw Gilchrist delegate a duty to young Tim. At least Gilchrist knew how to use his people, even if he didn’t yet know how to speak to them.

  Jack turned away and walked toward the tac boats. He raised his wrist and activated the channel back to the Scorpio.

  Captain Pretorius appeared on Jack’s holostage, the image of the captain flickering in the warm air rising from the yellow plain. Fragments of grass and dust floated through the holoimage, scattering the light, but Jack could see Pretorius was smiling.

  “Is everything all right down there, Jack?”

  “If I said ‘yes,’ I’d be lying,” Jack said, “but if I say ‘no,’ you’d worry.”

  Pretorius laughed and nodded. “You are going to be on your own for a while, Jack. Is that going to be a problem?”

  Jack shook his head. “No, sir. I think I have it under control.”

  “The Scorpio has been ordered to a moon around a gas giant of the outer system. We’ve detected lakes of dense hydrocarbons on the surface. The Scorpio has been ordered to pump as much of it off the surface as we can. It’ll be good fuel to get us started on planet Blue.”

  “Hydrocarbons?” Jack said. He leaned against the tac boat and held up his arm to look at the holoimage of Pretorius. “Isn’t that dirty stuff?”

  “Yes, it’s not ideal, but the fleet’s in a bit of a mess. We can use it to get ourselves back on our feet. And it looks like we will be setting down on planet Blue. I have just had word from the Canis and the Aquarius. They have only encountered dead planets. Lava lakes, super-dense terrestrials, toxic atmospheres. They did find a couple of moons that might be suitable for the shortest of pitstops, but nothing like we have found here. The fleet is regrouping in the Scorpio System. The civilian transports are all really struggling, engine systems going offline. The Scepter is basically towing the entire civilian fleet to the system. The Canis and Aquarius will be in orbit above Blue before long. It looks like you found us a new home, Jack, and you’re the first people to set foot on our new home. Maybe they’ll name the planet after you.”

  “Planet Jack?” Jack shook his head. “Somehow I don’t think so. Blue sounds pretty good to me. That would be my suggestion.”

  “I’ll make sure I send that upstairs to the top brass. The Scorpio is leaving orbit now. See you soon, my boy.”

  As the image of Pretorius drifted away, Jack pushed away from the hull of the tac boat. He could hear Heaton shouting from inside the boat, calling out all his raging indignity at being held captive. Every curse and slur he shouted reinforced Jack’s opinion that the man was not fit to be a Marine, much less a squad leader.

  Jack found it easy to ignore Heaton’s shouting as he walked further out onto the plain. He could see the Marines arranged around the landing site in a wide perimeter, one hundred meters out from the landing site, evenly spaced in a wide circle all looking out to the distance.

  Jack checked the wider area on the holomap displayed on his wrist. The micro-drones racing out were hundreds of kilometers away by now, feeding data back to the sensor network. The westernmost drones had made it to the coast, and the holoimage showed him white breaking waves lapping against a pale sandy shore. To the north and the south, there was nothing but vast flat plains of short, yellow, grass.

  To the east, the micro-drones had entered the jungle. Their progress slowed as they mapped and charted every knot and twist of branch and leaf. The leaves were a deep green, almost blue, and some nearly black. The jungle was dark and dense. Jack halted the spread of the micro-drones and called them to hold their positions. All around, there was nothing but empty land populated only by the yellow grass and the deep, dark jungle.

  A message from Squad Leader Lane appeared on Jack’s holostage, and he opened it. It was sputtering and broken, cutting out for a moment before resetting.

  “Sir, we have freed the boat from the ground. The drive assembly is free, but I can’t restore power. There is a serious problem with the onboard systems. We are stranded, sir.”

  “Stand by, Squad Leader. We will bring a tac boat and extract your squad. We can repair your boat once the fleet arrives in orbit. Form a close perimeter and sit tight. We’re on our way.”

  Jack canceled the call to Lane and located Gilchrist. He was away to the south, checking on the perimeter guard at that location. Jack opened a channel to Gilchrist.

  “Meet me at Tac Boat One.”

  Gilchrist replied in the affirmative. Jack saw the distant dark speck of Gilchrist running back toward the landing site from the distant southern perimeter guard. He walked out to meet him, pausing in the wide-open space, the boats far behind him. Jack breathed deeply, the air was clean, and he could almost smell the salty spray from the waves crashing on the sandy shore miles to the west. He felt light and at ease. He checked the locations of all the Marines of first and second squads. He scanned the horizon in three hundred and sixty degrees. The ident data of each Marine appeared on his enhanced data view, projected on the faceplate of his helmet as he turned and scanned the horizon. Of all the Marines, barely any had active experience, and all were novices in the field.

  We are very fortunate, Jack thought, that there is no threat…yet.

  Gilchrist came forward in huge leaping bounds, using his tactical suit’s local grav field generator and onboard thrusters to cover the ground in moments. He landed, slightly awkwardly, losing his footing and falling to the ground but rescuing himself by landing on one knee and both hands.

  “Maybe some practice with tactical suit’s rapid advance systems when we get back to the Scorpio?” Jack chuckled, helping Gilchrist to his feet.

  “Yes, sir,” Gilchrist said.

  Jack heard the slight quiver in Gilchrist’s voice, embarrassed at his somewhat clumsy landing, before he continued, a little stronger this time.

  “Yes, sir. I think we could all do with a little more training.”

  “Well, consider this your first training assignment,” Jack said. “Third squad is crashed in the jungle five hundred kilometers to the east. The jungle is far too dense to attempt to walk out of there. I’m going to have to take Tac Boat Two and extract the squad to bring them back to the landing site here. You will be senior Marine while I’m away. Can you handle it?”

  Gilchrist nodded. “I won’t let you down, sir.”

  Jack nodded. He wanted to believe in Gilchrist, though right now, he had no option but to trust the squad leader. Jack remembered his first days as a Marine. An alien attack on the training base had thrown Jack straight into the deep end. It had turned him and his training squad into seasoned Marines overnight, and Jack had only been a Marine a short time before he was given the responsibility of squad leader. If Jack could do it, he was sure anyone with any sort of competence could.

  “All you have to do is maintain the perimeter. Keep a watch for any danger and use the micro-drones and the sensor net to keep a close watch. I will be back in a short while, and the fleet will be arriving in orbit soon, as the first of the civilian ships will be touching down at the landing site. You might find yourself in a lot of company very quickly.”

  Jack left Gilchrist standing alone on the plain and walked over to Tac Boat Two. He climbed in and went directly to the flight console, starting the boat in moments and lifting off a moment later. He set his heading for the crashed boat in the jungle and activated the main drive.

  “Major Forge,” Lane said over the communication console. “My micro-drone surveillance perimeter has reported movement in the jungle. We have animal lifeforms moving in on all sides.”

  “Fall back and take cover inside your boat, Squad Leader,” Jack said. He accessed boat three’s surveillance net and called up the movement d
ata from the micro-drones.

  In the dense black jungle with its twisted vines and branches, Jack saw the flicker of movement—a dark shape moving easily through the tangled trees. Jack identified the portion of the holoimage and zoomed in to get a better view of the shape. It was roughly the size and shape of a man, and it was cloaked in a shimmering sheet. Long arms with three long fingers at the end gripped the branches as it moved forward. The lower limbs ended with a similar three-fingered shape as the other hand, and three long toes gripped branches as it moved.

  The shape was cleverly camouflaged and hidden by the trees. Jack switched to a live view from one of the micro-drones, and he created a composite image of the body and displayed it on the holostage. The head of the swinging jungle creature was covered with a large, dark shimmering hood, but the shape within could be discerned. A wide face with large, dark eyes. A wide, straight horizontal slit for a mouth and in between the eyes, a deep dark gash where a human’s nose might be.

  And then over the open communication channel, Jack heard Lane’s panicked voice.

  “They’re everywhere! They took Jackson! Fall back! There’s too many! Open fire!”

  The channel cut out again. Jack tried to restore the feed, but it was dead. The atmospheric and magnetic anomaly interference had intensified and cut it off. Jack pushed the boat to greater speed. He lowered the tac boat and skimmed the tops of the trees, racing toward his stranded squad deep in the dark jungles of planet Blue.

  4

  Lou Beretta sat back on the recliner in the cabin of his civilian cruiser. It used to be a small recreational vehicle for a family, but now it was his lifeboat. He skirted between the civilian ships of the fleet, making sure always to stay in the sensor shadow of one of the huge transports, staying out of view of both the military and Fleet Intelligence.

  Having escaped from custody after his arrest by Fleet Intelligence, with the help of his criminal gang, he was determined not to be taken into custody again. But that meant he was stuck on this little cruiser. He couldn’t risk stepping foot on a transport and being detected by the surveillance net. It was not the life he was used to. It was no way to live at all. He hated it.