Forged to Lead (Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Book 3) Read online

  “If we sit here the whole time,” Terry said, “maybe they will die of boredom.”

  “Keep your voice down,” Jack hissed. He swiped his hands across the ground and opened a holomap, the locations of the Chit sentries appearing as small pink dots on the flickering green map.

  “Call in an orbital strike on that hole,” Terry said, “and let’s get out of here.”

  “Orbital support is not responding to fire mission requests. The simulation stated that all orbital guns are defending the carrier group from a sustained Kraken assault. We are to neutralize the surface Chitins and then request evac.”

  Osho pointed at two of the sentries. “We can take these two out and then lay some charges at the cave mouth.”

  “Sounds good. Who’s laying the demolition?” Bubble’s voice quivered. Every Marine knew it was only a training simulation and no one was going to get hurt, but the simulation was so real that it was making Bubble nervous.

  “No one is bombing that cave entrance until we find out what is in that cave.” Jack cancelled the holomap.

  Terry grabbed Jack by the shoulder and twisted him around. “Bomb the bastards and let’s get out of here.”

  Jack spoke slowly. “I’ll listen to all suggestions, Terry, but countermand me again and I’ll shoot you.”

  Terry removed his hand.

  “They gave us the demolition charges for a reason, boss,” Osho said. “Maybe we should lay the charges quickly. I bet the other squads are already taking down the sentries and getting the charges in position.”

  “Yes,” Jack said. “I hope they are.”

  Jack had met too many Chits to underestimate them. They were not as stupid as some Marines thought. Just because they came on in huge numbers, it didn’t mean they were mindless. They were always focused on their task. The Chitins had plans and they worked to achieve them.

  Digging out the small antimatter charges from the field supply cache, Jack scanned the horizon for any movement. He checked the yield on the explosives and then handed one to each of his squad.

  Terry turned his over in his hands. “We can increase the yield on these. Let me boost them up, boss.”

  “No,” Jack said. He clipped one of the demo charges to his meat suit and reopened the holomap. “We are going to get in that Chit facility. They are covering the entrance, but look at this terrain—it’s jagged and broken. There must be more to that cave system. We can find another way in.”

  “Why bother?” Terry said. “Seal the kravin Chits inside and the job’s done. All we have to do is kill the Chits, right?”

  “No,” Jack said. He put a hand on Terry’s shoulder. “All we have to do is beat the other squads. And that’s even harder.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Osho asked.

  Jack signaled his squad to come closer.

  “Here’s what we do.”

  Jack reached his position on the south side of the Chits’ sentry perimeter. Osho had reached the west side and reported in. Bubble was moving slow, but Jack could see he was nearing position. Terry had held the first position to the north of the perimeter and directly in front of the Chit cave entrance.

  Bubble reached his position and reported ready.

  “Sixth Squad, stand by,” Jack said quietly into his communicator. “Lay demo and fall back.”

  The squad each laid their charges five hundred meters out from the Chit cave entrance and then fell back a hundred meters. Jack checked the locations of his team on his map and then detonated the explosives.

  Jack studied the holomap. The Chit sentries were moving toward their nearest detonation site. Jack saw the greatest number closing in on Bubble’s position. Terry was moving toward Bubble.

  “Krav it, Terry. Hold.”

  “Bubble won’t be able to hold that many back. He’ll be killed.”

  Jack bit his lip. It didn’t matter if Bubble got killed. All that mattered was infiltrating that Chit position and killing whatever lay inside.

  “Boss,” Osho messaged Jack. “These Chits are getting close.”

  “Data coming in now. Just processing it.”

  The detonation had rippled through the loose rock of the simulated environment and was reflecting back off subsurface density changes at different speeds and angles, all revealing the subsurface structure to the sensors in 6th squad’s meat suits. All data was relayed back to Jack and he quickly created a three-dimensional map of the area. The cave structure was revealed and Jack spotted what he was looking for. A small entrance a kilometer away from the main entrance. He relayed the surface coordinates to Osho.

  “Osho, move. Terry, Bubble. Attack.”

  Jack was up on his feet and running as the sound of distant pulse rifle fire filed the air. The crackle of plasma spears joined the din of battle, a hundred flashing lights flickering across the jagged hills of the simulated environment.

  “There are too many of them,” Bubble wailed.

  “Advance on the cave mouth,” Jack said. “Light up your EBs and advance. Cut through them and attack that entrance.”

  Jack ran. He checked Osho’s location on his helmet data overlay. She was moving fast but had a Chit on her tail.

  “Osho, you’ve got a Chit on your six. Draw the thing away from our rendezvous point. I’ll have to do it alone.”

  “Copy, boss,” Osho replied. Jack heard a burst of fire from Osho’s position. He saw that she was backing away slowly.

  Jack was on his own. He ran even faster than before. The firefight with Bubble and Terry was not going well. Jack had wanted a cross-fire from two positions. Terry’s decision to move gave the Chits one target. If only Terry had listened. Jack pushed the thought from his mind. All he had to do was get to that small rear cave entrance.

  “They got Terry,” Bubble wailed. “He’s down. They are all over him.”

  “Keep fighting, Bubs,” Jack panted. “Give me a minute of hard fighting. You hear me, Bubs?”

  Bubble’s reply was replaced by his screams of terror as he was overcome by Chits.

  “Osho,” Jack said, “can you get to the main entrance? I need someone to attack it.”

  “Moving now, boss,” Osho replied.

  Jack saw on his overlay that she was moving at an impressive speed, given she had already run a kilometer and was fighting a Chit pursuer.

  Jack’s data overlay showed him the location of the rear cave entrance. It glowed on his helmet’s enhanced view, but on the ground, he could see nothing but jagged rocks. He fired up his electron bayonet and began cutting away at the ground. A small cavity appeared. Jack fell to his knees and began digging his way into the small tunnel. He got his shoulders in and was crawling furiously forward. Ahead, through the twisting, jagged little tunnel, was the central cave where Jack was sure the Chits were holding some vital piece of equipment. If he could get a demo charge in there, it wouldn’t matter if Bubble died, if Terry died, if Osho died, or even if he died. If he could destroy the reason the Chits had created this fixed, defensible position.

  Then, Jack felt a firm grip on his ankle. He was suddenly pulled back out of the tunnel. He was held upside-down by a thick Chitin tentacle, his helmet before the black shiny head with the ring of white rasping teeth. The antennae on the head twitched and the teeth clamped down on his helmet.

  The simulation ended and Jack was in the small VR pod, his vest soaked in sweat.

  “Yeah, nice plan, boss,” Terry said, clambering down from his pod. “Split us up so we are easy pickings.”

  Climbing down, Jack had an urge to punch Terry on the nose. He guessed it wouldn’t show good leadership qualities to beat on his subordinates, even if they were disobedient and thickheaded like Terry.

  “I told you to hold position.” Jack walked out of the VR pod stack.

  “Cobra Company, make your way to the Marine deck,” Commander Griff’s voice came over the muster area communicator.

  “Next time I tell you to hold, you hold.” Jack looked up into Terry’s mean eyes.r />
  “If there is a next time,” Terry said. “They’ll probably demote the whole squad to the laundry after that disaster.”

  Osho came alongside Jack. “I think I know what you were doing. It was a good plan, I think.”

  6th squad walked into the Marine deck. The holoimage on the holostage flickered on and drew a sudden round of applause and laughter from Cobra Company. Jack looked at the image. It was him, suspended upside-down, with a Chitin biting his faceplate.

  “Nice plan.” Allen came forward and slapped a firm hand on Jack’s shoulder.

  “We should call you digger from now on,” said Laidlaw as he stepped forward.

  “That was my idea,” Folau added dourly.

  “Break it up, you guys,” Navidi shouted. And then as Commander Griff marched on to the Marine deck, Navidi called for attention.

  “How many of you got their ordnance at the Chit cave entrance?” Griff stood in front of the company, at ease with command.

  Five hands went up; Navidi, Horan, Folau, and Laidlaw.

  Griff turned to the holoimage of Jack. “And who is this, being used as Chit dental floss?”

  Jack put up his hand to an outburst of laughter from Cobra Company. But Jack was unabashed. He had devised and had almost executed a plan that would have discovered what the Chits were doing at that position.

  “And what did you think you were going to find down that rabbit hole, Mister Forge?”

  “Sir, I don’t know, sir, but I thought it best to see what I was attacking so I could be sure to kill it, sir.”

  The laughter died away.

  “And you nearly got it. If only you’d had a full squad. Maybe if the Marines under your command had actually followed your orders.” Griff fixed Terry with a cold stare. “But you—” Griff waved his arm in a wide arc. “—the rest of Cobra, you went knocking on the front door. You could have put the entire orbital carrier group in jeopardy because you lashed out at the first thing that looked like a target. To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. When you are on the ground, you need to think. Just because you got a pulse rifle in your hands doesn’t mean you can stop using your brain.” Griff tapped the side of his head. “The top two inches, Marines. That is your most deadly weapon. That is how we are going to beat the Chitins.”

  Griff paced along the front ranks of Cobra, glancing to the roof of the Marine deck, hands behind his back. He stopped in front of 6th squad.

  “Mister Forge, I have extra work for you today. Take sixth squad through this simulation once again and take these squad leaders with you. Then Cobra Company will repeat the simulation while sixth squad grabs some VR and R. Do you get me, Cobra?”

  “Sir, yes, sir,” Jack shouted out along with Cobra Company.

  8

  Jack felt a renewed confidence in his ability as he climbed out of the VR pod this time. He’d taken the other squad leaders of Cobra Company through the simulation and this time, they had infiltrated the cave system and destroyed a mass of Chitin soldiers with strategically-placed explosives, some well-aimed pulse rifle fire, and a lot of close quarters electron bayonet work.

  “When it comes to the real thing, we won’t know what we are going to find in such a place. Better to check it out first,” Jack said to the squad leaders as they came out of their pods.

  “I heard you made a habit of annoying your commanding officers,” Navidi said. “But you got Griff on your good side.”

  Jack took a sip of water from a cold bottle and then poured a slug over his head. He wiped water, sweat, and the stress of a long day of training away. “I won’t blindly follow an officer if I think there’s a better way. And a good officer won’t ignore a Marine if they have a better plan. Griff seems like a good officer to me, so far.”

  “How did a cocky scroat like you make it to the Marines?” Navidi asked.

  Jack offered the bottle to the 1st squad leader. “I failed my midterms.”

  Navidi took the bottle and laughed. Taking a sip, he looked Jack in the eye. “Good to have you in Cobra Company. Guess you got some VR and R coming to you now?”

  “No,” Jack said. “I’ve got someone to go and see.”

  The corridors were empty. Only the occasional creaking bulkhead or squeak of strained pipe behind the corridor panels broke the silence. The way to the med bay was becoming familiar to Jack. He wandered around the maze of empty corridors, hardly noticing where he was going until he came upon the wide double-doors of the med bay.

  Inside, a nurse stood at the nurse’s station. A person in the black jacket of Fleet Intelligence stood, leaning against the desktop and toward the nervous nurse.

  Then Jack recognized Agent Visser, and he felt a sudden pang of guilt. Commander Finch had been a bad officer, Jack had not liked the man, but he did not want to see Finch get killed. Then Jack felt a sudden rush of nerves. It crackled over his skin like a wave of burning hot pinpricks. The agent was still investigating the disappearance of Commander Finch and knew his knowledge of events leading to that officer’s disappearance could land him in trouble and could land his friend on the gallows.

  Visser turned around and Jack thought it was almost as if she had detected his hidden nervousness and guilt.

  “Jack Forge,” Visser said, squaring up in front of him. “What brings you to the med bay?”

  The nurse glanced at Jack. She seemed grateful to have been let off Visser’s hook, but sorry that Jack was now firmly on it. She averted her eyes and buried herself in work.

  Visser seemed to study Jack. Fleet Intelligence agents were the most suspicious people in the fleet, if not the entire system. They suspected everyone of something. Jack knew Agent Visser suspected him of holding back information.

  Jack stood his ground. He told himself to relax. He tried to convince himself that Visser had no evidence that would condemn him. He drew himself up to his full height and stood confidently. Inside, he felt like he was withering like a lush plant under the fierce heat of a supernova.

  “Sir, I’m here to check in on my friend,” Jack said. His voice broke slightly. He knew it was because he’d been shouting orders in the heat of a simulated battle for the last few hours and then had not spoken a word for the last thirty minutes, but to anyone listening, particularly a Fleet Intelligence agent, it sounded like nervousness and guilt.

  “Reyes is still in a coma,” Visser said, still studying him.

  Jack had been ready for this and made an effort to not give away any hint of emotion at the mention of Reyes’s name. “Not Sarah,” he said coolly, “Sam. Sam Torent. Squad Leader of Sixth squad.”

  “I thought you were leader of sixth squad now,” Visser said.

  Krav it all, Jack thought, Visser knows everything. “Yes, sir,” Jack said. “I’ve just been promoted today.”

  “Carry on, Marine,” Visser said and returned her attention to the nurse, who quivered under the attention.

  Jack walked along the corridor. Through the clear composite panels, he could see the Marine guards still standing in front of Reyes’s door. Jack averted his gaze from that distant compartment, fearing Visser would see him looking and read some critical and condemning evidence in it. Instead, he looked for Torent.

  Sam Torent was propped up in a bunk cover in white sheets, looking at his new right arm. The prosthetic limb had not yet been covered in synthetic skin and Jack could see the black composite sinews that made it. Torent was turning his arm this way and that, watching it move. He clenched and unclenched his fist, as if hypnotized by it.

  “Sam?” Jack opened the compartment door. “Good to see you in one piece.”

  Torent looked up at Jack and gave a half-smile before returning his attention to his prosthetic arm.

  “They just attached it. It feels strange,” Torent said. He spread his fingers and turned his hand at the wrist. He bent his elbow and then straightened his arm.

  “You can feel it?” Jack said, stepping closer. He watched as the composite sinews stretched and twist
ed across each other.

  “Yeah, kind of,” Torent said, studying the arm’s movement. “But it feels artificial. Like the difference between a battle and a simulation. Simulation seems real, but you know it’s not.” Torent put the arm through its full range of movement, watching all the while, then he looked at Jack. “Throw me something.”

  Jack looked around the compartment for anything he could throw. In his pocket was his watch. It was still without a case and the clockwork mechanism had stopped. It was wrapped in leather to prevent any damage to the delicate mechanism. Jack held it up for Torent to see.

  “No, not that, Jacky. I don’t want to break that.”

  Jack put the watch carefully away and then spotted a water bottle on the small table next to Torent. He picked it up. “This okay?” Jack asked and backed away as far from Torent as he could go. He held up the bottle, ready to throw, and waited for the nod from Torent.

  Torent nodded and Jack gently pitched it to Torent. The black arm snatched the bottle out of the air, the fist clenching tight and crushing it.

  “Krav it all,” Torent said. He shook his hand and tried to release the bottle, but his fist remained clenched tight. Water leaked out and ran down Torent’s arm. He shook his arm to shake the bottle away from his grip, but only succeeded in splashing water everywhere.

  Jack almost laughed but then saw the distress on Torent’s face. He let the arm drop next to him on the bed.

  “Stupid, kravin arm,” Torent said. “I’ll never get this thing to work.”

  Jack stepped up and took hold of one of Torent’s fingers. He peeled it away from the bottle. It came away easily and then the others unfurled, releasing the bottle. It fell from Torent’s hand and clattered to the floor.

  “They said I can rejoin the company in a few days, or as soon as I can work the new arm.”

  “You’ll get back in no time, but what’s the rush?”

  “Oh, I see.” Torent reached over with his left arm and tapped the squad leader’s badge on Jack’s chest. “You’ve finally got my job and you don’t want to give it back, is it?”