New Enemy (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 4) Read online

  Then the raiders attacking the Scorpio from the rear landed just forward of the drive assembly.

  Pretorius stepped down from his command chair and looked at Mallet. He pointed at the tail section of the Scorpio on the holoimage.

  “They will be boarding us very soon. They are already cutting their way through the outer hull. They will attempt to take the drive room and then the command deck. I need every active Marine in the fight. The Scorpio battalion is down to one company. They need the best leader we have available to hold the Devex off.”

  Mallet started shaking her head. “No, Captain,” she said.

  “Give me Major Forge, now,” Pretorius said. He stepped up to Mallet. He was taller than the agent and his grey eyes showed no fear.

  Mallet glanced at the holostage and the Devex ships landing on the Scorpio. She avoided Pretorius’s stare and simply nodded. She tapped her wrist-mounted holostage and sent a code to an enforcer authorizing the release of the prisoner.

  “It’s done,” Mallet said.

  Pretorius nodded and sighed. “Tell the major to contact me as soon as he is suited up,” he said to Mallet.

  “Yes, Captain,” Mallet said, looking back at the holostage. Devex ships were landing in numbers on the Scorpio. The hail cannons were maintaining the defensive curtain and holding off others, and the laser assembly was still accounting for many of the small Devex craft. The frigate had completed its maneuver and had retreated to the cover of the much larger Scorpio, a squadron of Blades dancing in the space between the two ships, firing their forward lasers into the enemy.

  But even Mallet could see that there were far too many Devex. They were hopelessly outnumbered and completely surrounded.

  It was a mistake to come on this trip, Mallet thought. She had come primarily to arrest Forge. It should have been a simple mission to scoop up a missing transport, one of dozens scattered across the region, and arrest Forge. She never thought the trip would put her on the front lines of the running battles with the Devex.

  Finding Forge had been her real objective. Now that she had him in her grasp, she feared her right to have her revenge and deliver justice would be robbed from her by a Devex boarding party.

  If she lost Forge, she could live with it, but now she also had the Marine with the alien arm. That had been a career-advancing stroke of good fortune. That Marine was more valuable than Forge, and if her science division agents could unlock the secrets of that arm before returning to the fleet, the credit would be hers.

  The Scorpio rocked as a raider exploded too close, the blast front from the detonation slamming into the destroyer’s hull integrity field. Mallet wondered if she would make it back to the fleet at all—with or without Forge or the secrets of the alien arm.

  More Devex were moving in to join those already on the outer hull, cutting their way into the ship.

  Then an alarm sounded on the command deck. Pretorius opened a ship-wide channel.

  “Intruder alert. Devex boarding parties are about to enter the Scorpio. All hands, prepare to engage the intruders.”

  Mallet drew her small sidearm and checked it was ready.

  The Devex were here.

  4

  The interview room door opened, and the distant sound of hail cannon fire rose in volume slightly. Jack looked up at the enforcer fully clad in a black tactical suit. The enforcer walked toward Jack. Behind the enforcer, Jack saw a Marine also fully kitted out in a tactical suit.

  The enforcer deactivated the containment field around Jack’s chair and stepped aside.

  The Marine spoke.

  “Major. The Devex are cutting through the outer hull, attempting to board the Scorpio.”

  Jack recognized the voice from behind the faceplate. It was his old squad-mate, Osho. Jack got up from the molded composite seat.

  “Pretorius has orders for you to take command of the defense,” Osho said, stepping aside from the open doorway.

  “With me, Osho,” Jack said.

  The nearest equipment store was the Cobra Company barracks, an area Jack knew well. He ran along the corridor, Osho close behind.

  The old Cobra barracks was so familiar. Even the smell was the same as the last time he had stood there. The equipment store held a Marine tactical suit, and Jack began to pull it on while Osho grabbed a pulse rifle. She stood next to Jack as he pulled the suit over his shoulders, the seal taking hold and pulling itself closed. Jack took the pulse rifle and checked the weapon.

  “Sidearm,” Jack said. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and picked up a helmet.

  Osho grabbed a pulse pistol. She slid out the power cell and held it up for Jack to see. It was fully charged. She slapped the cell back in and handed it over.

  Jack grabbed the pistol and slapped it onto the hip holster, the tactical suit’s holster taking hold of the pistol. He pulled the helmet on and the enhanced data view blinked to life. Now Jack could see Osho’s face behind her helmet. Alongside his old Marine friend were her medical readouts. She was calm and fighting fit.

  He held up his right wrist and activated the wrist-mounted holostage. The image of the Scorpio appeared on his arm.

  “Location of all Marines,” Jack said to the holostage. The holoimage lit up with a hundred small points of light identifying the positions of all Marines by their ident chips.

  “Osho, take first through fifth squads to the front section and prepare to defend the command deck. I’ll take eighth through twelfth squads and hold the drive section. Sixth and seventh squads can hold here and here.” Jack pointed at the Scorpio’s midsection. “These squads will be our reaction force.”

  Jack looked at Osho, who was transferring the information to her own wrist-mounted holostage. She looked up to Jack for her order to leave.

  “Sam?” Jack said. “Where is Commander Torrent?”

  Osho shook her head. “No one has seen him since you first arrived, sir,” Osho said. “He was taken by Fleet Intelligence agents.”

  He could tell from Osho’s elevated bio signs and her tone of voice that she was concealing some part of what she knew.

  “What is it, Osho? Tell me.”

  Osho looked down. “He was taken by the sci division.”

  Jack knew instantly why his old friend would be handed over to them and immediately feared for him. But he had no time to investigate right now.

  With a simple nod, he acknowledged the information from Osho.

  “Go,” Jack said. Osho ran off calling for her squads to join her at the forward section of the Scorpio. Jack knew she had always been an effective Marine and a trusted leader. He had no doubt she would hold the command deck and use her resources well.

  Jack ran in the opposite direction, heading for the drive section.

  “Squads eight through twelve. Deploy to the drive section. Await instructions. Forge out.”

  The Scorpio was a huge vessel with transit channels for rapid deployment, but Jack was already so close to the drive section he chose to run. The corridors were busy with armed Fleet personnel, all at action stations. There were doorways off the corridor that led to the hail cannon stations, all were sealed, the sounds of their fire thudding through the sealed door and filling the corridor. The sound put the hairs on Jack’s neck on end.

  The Scorpio was locked down and fully engaged with the enemy.

  “More Devex raiders on the upper hull,” the ship-wide address from the command deck echoed along the corridor. “Repel or destroy all Devex boarding parties.”

  Jack came to a junction stairway at the Scorpio’s aft section. The last bulkhead before the drive section.

  The bulkhead covered the entire aft section. Doorways on port and starboard side, and on two levels, opened into the drive room with its multiple reactor cores and drive systems. Jack had to protect this boundary or lose the ship.

  The distant pounding of hail cannon told Jack the Scorpio was still fighting. Soon it would be his turn to engage the enemy and fight.

  Jack foun
d the Marine squads he’d tasked with the drive room defense waiting at the assigned location. They came to attention as he came into sight. He called for them to stand easy as he ran a quick assessment of the Marines from his old company, Cobra.

  The idents of the Marines were all unfamiliar. The old squad leaders had all changed. Fortunately, what had not changed was the quiet determination of every Marine to fight off the attackers.

  Jack issued his instructions quickly and sent the squads to guard various drive room entrances. There were more squads than drive room access points, so Jack was able to keep one squad with him.

  Seventh squad fell in with Jack, who led them at a quick march away from the drive room bulkhead into the corridors of the Scorpio.

  He called the Marines of seventh squad to a halt only a few meters away from the drive room. He checked his holostage. A Devex raider was clamped on the upper hull just above Jack’s position. The outer hull had already been cut away to give access, and the Devex warriors were already aboard on the decks above him.

  Jack pointed up and signaled for his squad to follow. He ran to the nearest stairway up, his squad behind. Even though they all wore the bulky Fleet Marine Tactical Suit and were fully kitted for a fight, the squad moved quietly.

  At the uppermost corridor, Jack could see the point where a Devex was cutting through. Jack took a knee and aimed up at the point. The squad all took aim and waited.

  The hull plate fell in. Jack opened fire immediately, pouring pulse rounds into the dark space of the raider’s interior.

  The first Devex warrior dropped into the corridor, its huge rapid-fire blaster leveled and ready for action. But the punishment from the squad’s pulse rifle fire dropped the warrior in a moment. The body of the warrior drifted upward, drawn back into the raider by the levitation field emanating from the Devex ship.

  The Devex never left their dead.

  More Devex dropped in, their blasters pouring streams of white energy bullets toward the squad of Marines.

  Jack kept on firing until seven of the Devex warriors were dead and drifting back into their ship. Then the raider detached, the sole survivor retreating with its dead comrades.

  “Stability field,” Jack said as the raider abandoned its attack, leaving a hole in the Scorpio’s hull.

  The rush of air toward the sudden breach threatened to blow his squad into space. The section around the breach sealed and micro drones rushed in to seal it.

  Jack checked his wrist-mounted holostage. Another dozen raiders were clamped on at the aft section, near the drive assembly, on the upper and lower hull. Those Devex were already aboard and attacking the drive room access points.

  He looked up at the beach and the dark of space beyond thoughtfully.

  “With me,” Jack said. He ran toward the breach and jumped up. His suit’s grav field adjusted and let him leap through the breach. He came out on the upper hull of the Scorpio.

  The flashing of the Scorpio’s defensive hail curtain in the distance caught Jack’s eye. It was beautiful and deadly, a shimmering wall of kinetic hail detonating across a swathe of dark space. The Devex raiders caught in it were being destroyed, their destruction adding to the shimmering, fiery curtain.

  But some were making it through, more than enough to be a threat.

  Looking along the hull of the Scorpio to the active drive assembly, Jack was impressed by the size and power of the destroyer. It was not the biggest ship in the fleet, the last remaining carrier had that distinction, but the Scorpio was among the few remaining destroyers, all powerful attack vessels in their own right.

  The nearest Devex ship was clamped onto the hull a few dozen meters to his left. He ran toward it, the tactical suit’s gravity field keeping him on top of the Scorpio as he moved. He jumped toward the raider and landed on the side of its hull. He activated his pulse rifle’s electron blade and cut into it.

  The squad joined Jack, electron blades cutting through the raider’s hull and in moments, an opening large enough to step through had been cut out. Jack was the first through the breach.

  Floating forward into the dark interior, Jack found his way from memory. He had recently been inside a Devex raider and remembered the layout. He could have moved through the ship blindfolded. The flight deck was to his right. A Devex warrior was sitting at the controls, unaware of Jack’s entrance. He rushed the pilot and drove his electron blade through the back of the pilot’s chair and into the unsuspecting Devex.

  The flashes of weapons fire from the battle in the corridors of the Scorpio flickered into the Raider’s dark interior. Jack pointed down, through the breach the Devex boarding party had created in the Scorpio’s hull. He sent his squad in after the Devex warriors that were already inside the Scorpio, attacking the drive room defensive lines.

  When Jack dropped down after his squad, the Devex were already taking heavy fire. Several were floating back toward their raider, a ship with a dead pilot at the controls, a ship that would be going nowhere.

  Jack pressed forward with his squad and dropped the last of the Devex warriors from the raider just above him.

  With the Devex killed and drifting back to their ship, the squad took a moment to catch their breath. Jack checked for the location of other enemy craft on the Scorpio’s hull. There were still other raiders to deal with, and more Devex warriors to fight off. Dozens of Devex were in the Scorpio and engaging the squads holding the access points to the drive section.

  There were casualties on both sides, and the battle was far from over. The Scorpio was still not safe.

  “Come on, squad,” Jack called out, “no time to rest. With me. Now.”

  The sounds of pulse rifle fire along the corridor ahead told Jack he was nearing the fight at the drive room access. The familiar sound of Devex energy bullets raking the composite walls of the Scorpio’s corridors filled Jack’s ears.

  Accessing all interior sensors and feeding the information to his wrist-mounted holostage, Jack displayed the locations of the nearby enemy. They were taking cover in a recess along the corridor, fighting their way toward the Marine squad holding the access door to the drive room.

  Jack projected the holoimage in front of him and used hand signals to give his squad their targets. And then, with a final set of hand signals, Jack sent the squad on a lighting attack, catching the Devex in a pincer move.

  The Devex discovered too late they were trapped as a squad of Marines came rushing at them from the rear. Electron blades fizzing and thrusting through the tough Devex armor. The Devex fell to the electron blades of seventh squad before Jack came along.

  Standing and watching as the dead Devex were caught up in their levitation field and taken back to their raider, Jack counted his losses. One dead Marine and two injured.

  One of the injured Marines had taken Devex energy bullets to the arm and chest, both noncritical hits, but the Marine was struggling. The onboard medical packages treated the injuries until proper medical aid could be given. Another had taken energy bullet damage to his thigh, only a scrape but he was struggling to keep on his feet, determined to endure the pain and stay in the fight.

  Jack directed a pair of Marines to take the injured to the med-bay. He checked the locations of Devex on the ship. They were falling back, their initial thrust for the drive section having been beaten back. The battle at the forward section was fierce. Jack opened a channel to Osho.

  “Report,” Jack said.

  “They are hitting us hard, but we are holding them. The single-access corridor is making it difficult for them to press forward. We could go on like this for an entire watch rotation.”

  Jack checked the holoimage. Osho was dug in at the end of a long corridor to the main entrance to the command deck. The Devex were pressing forward but failing to make a critical gain. The corridor benefited the defenders as much as it hindered the attackers.

  “I’m sending in the reaction force to catch these Devex in the rear flank,” Jack said.

  Jack watch
ed the holoimage show the Devex raiders at the rear section of the Scorpio take off and retreat, several succumbing to laser fire as they fled.

  “The Devex are falling back,” Jack said to Osho. “Don’t take any chances. They’ll give up on the command deck attack soon enough, or they’ll be neutralized by the reaction force. Hold position. Defend the command deck. Forge out.”

  The battle-scarred corridor around Jack still glowed where Devex energy bullets had super-heated the composite walls. The wisps of smoke tugged along the open space to the breaches where the raiders had disengaged, leaving openings to outer space. Only the hull integrity field prevented a rapid depressurization. Micro drones and repair drones rushed in to seal the breaches with fresh layers of hull composite.

  Jack called in the company’s squad leaders.

  “Those breaches need to be sealed. Assist the repair teams. Get them closed up fast.”

  The squad ran off to their designated breach points to assist as best they could, leaving Jack alone in the corridor. He tapped on his wrist-mounted holodisplay and searched for the location of his friend’s ident chip. Sam Torent was somewhere on board, he knew it. He was being held, studied, or worse. Jack needed to see him, to let his friend know that he had not forgotten about him, to let Sam know that his old friend and Marine brother would help him.

  Jack found a signal. Sam was in a workshop deep in the central decks of the Scorpio.

  He knew the quickest route and ran along the corridor, which still glowed from the energy bullet barrage. Coming to a stairway, Jack dropped without breaking his stride, landed on the deck below, and continued to run toward the workshop.

  Jack sent his commander-level access codes from his tactical suit to the workshop door. The codes were refused, but he had worked maintenance and knew how to open the door. A few taps on the door release and it slid open. He stepped inside anxiously.

  In the center of the workshop, laid out on a workshop table in pool of light, was Sam Torent. He appeared sedated, his Mech arm hanging over the side.