Last Stand Boxed Set Page 9

  Beretta laughed. “Nothing common about what I’ve done. I’ve come from nothing and now I am the proud owner of this vast piece of interstellar hardware, and I am the de facto ruler over a hundred thousand helpless civilians. They wouldn’t last five minutes back with the fleet. I’m giving them a chance.”

  “You are giving them nothing, Lou. You never thought about anyone but yourself.”

  Beretta took two quick strides toward Jack and delivered a stinging punch. Jack steadied himself, taking the blow, and remained kneeling. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard the low, dark laughter of Beretta’s gang.

  “I thought about Lars Crook. I don’t know if you ever met Lars, but you killed him, Jack. I’ve never forgiven you for that. That’s why I’m going to kill you. That’s why I’m going to enjoy it.”

  “I didn’t kill Crook,” Jack said. “He wouldn’t have been in danger if he hadn’t followed you. If you are angry about his death, Lou, then you should look to yourself. You’re to blame. You killed him as sure as you killed those people you just flushed out into space.”

  Beretta looked down at Jack with a fierce snarl, his eyes growing red with fury and pain. He reached to the small of his back and pulled a pulse pistol. He checked that the weapon was ready to fire and then looked at Jack with a grin.

  “If you want to beg, go ahead.” Beretta walked around to stand behind Jack. He pressed the muzzle to the back of Jack’s neck. “Beg, Jack. Beg for your life like you begged for the lives of so many others moments ago. I’ll enjoy hearing you beg, but not as much as I’m going to enjoy seeing your blood pump out of your broken body.”

  Jack took a breath of the stale air of the civilian transport’s command deck. He looked at the holoimage of the Scorpio under attack from hundreds of Skalidion fighters. So many times, he’d been onboard that destroyer when it had been in the thick of the action. Seeing them struggling now, Jack’s only regret was he couldn’t die fighting to save the Scorpio, fighting for the Fleet Marine Service. He was always in danger of death, from the first day in Marine training until now. He had accepted the danger, and he accepted that any mission could be his last. If he was to die here at the hands of a psychopathic criminal then so be it, but he would die as a Marine—brave, honest, and disciplined.

  Beretta would not hear Jack beg, but he did have one more thing to say.

  “It doesn’t matter what happens to me. It’s the people that matter. Save them, Lou. Save yourself too. Surrender to me now and we can go and rejoin the fleet. This is a last chance, Lou.”

  The laughter that filled the command deck came after a slight pause. Beretta’s charismatic laugh boomed over the rough, low guffaws of his henchmen. The sound of so many people laughing had an infectious quality, and Jack could not help joining in. He looked up Beretta with a smile.

  Sam Torent kneeled on the deck above the command deck. He ran his hand over the deck, searching for any fissure. The Mech tissue in his hand and arm began to unravel, fine threads spreading out over the deck plate composite, the strands so fine it appeared almost like a dark mist. And then Sam found the tiniest of cracks.

  This was his way in. The Mech tissue threaded into the crack. Sam could feel the edges of the plate of composite that had been molded to appear seamless. It almost was. Sam gripped the hull composite with the fine threads. He checked his wrist-mounted holostage for the signal from Special Agent Kitt and waited to tear the hull apart.

  Beretta’s laughter stopped, replaced by a dark menace. He turned Jack’s face away and pressed the pistol back to Jack’s neck.

  The sight out of the corner of Jack’s eye was strange, but also familiar. A darkness appeared to either side of him. A tall, dark, indistinct shape. It grew darker, sucking the light out of the air around it. And as the darkness collapsed into its center, a small fragment of brilliant light appeared at the dark core. In a sudden flash, the bright spark grew to fill the dark shape, and two Fleet Intelligence enforcers appeared.

  One snatched the pulse pistol from Beretta’s grip as the other fired a pulse round into his chest. The dull hum of the rifle told Jack that the rifles were set to low-yield pulse. Jack took aim with Beretta’s pistol at the nearest of Beretta’s gangsters. He pulled the trigger.

  Beretta’s pulse pistol was not set on low-yield pulse, and the gangster was flung back to the bulkhead with the force of the shot.

  Jack looked up as he heard the ceiling plates being torn aside. Looking up, he saw Sam Torent with a section of composite in his Mech hand. A Marine dropped through the breach, firing as he fell. Before the Marine had landed, two of Beretta’s gang were lying on the floor. A second Marine was dropping, closely followed by a third.

  Beretta’s men attempted to flee or surrender. The last of the Marines dropped in, followed by Sam Torent, to finally overwhelm Beretta’s gang. Getting up off his knees, Jack reset the pulse pistol to low yield and walked over to the command chair. Climbing up, Jack began to access the ship systems.

  Accessing navigation control, he set a new heading and swung the civilian transport back toward the Scorpio. Then he accessed environmental controls and began pumping the Dox vapor into space, replacing the toxic air with clean oxygen. Jack sealed all hatches and bulkheads to stop the wild civilians that still roamed around the corridors from going too far.

  Working quickly, Jack diverted power to the civilian transport’s stability field.

  Special Agent Kitt came running down the corridor and stopped next to the command chair. She looked at the holostage and the image of the Scorpio, the range finder counting down.

  “Major, we can’t help the Scorpio. She is a battleship. We are just a civilian craft. We have to get back to the fleet.”

  “The Scorpio is dead in the void,” Jack said. “Her drive systems are offline. She’s taken a beating. We can assist. Besides, we stand a better chance of making it back to the fleet with a destroyer in support than if we try and go it alone.”

  Jack opened a channel to the Scorpio.

  “Be advised, Scorpio. Civilian transport moving to assist. Major Forge out.”

  Captain Pretorius appeared on the holostage. He was being buffeted in his command chair. There appeared to be a fire somewhere on the command deck.

  “This is the Scorpio. We are taking heavy damage. We can’t maneuver. Weapon systems are holding. We can hold them off, but if we can’t get to the fleet, they will overwhelm us eventually. Save yourself, Jack. Get back to the fleet. We’ll hold the Skalidions as long as we can.”

  Jack watched the holostage as the image of Captain Pretorius shrank away to be replaced by the image of the Scorpio in a desperate battle with the Skalidion swarm, green fire pouring onto the old warship drifting through the void.

  13

  “Those Skalidion fighters will tear this ship apart,” Special Agent Kitt said, appealing to Jack.

  Jack, consumed with moving the massive civilian ship across space as quickly as possible, barely acknowledged her.

  “Jack,” Kitt said. “This is crazy.”

  Looking at the holostage, Jack could see the civilian transport closing in on the Scorpio. The drive systems were at maximum power, throwing the millions of tons of starship across space. Jack deactivated the hull stability field as he came even closer.

  “Scorpio, this is Forge. I’m approaching your position now. I dropped my hull stability field. If you deactivate your field, we can synchronize the fields and create a single field bubble around both ships. Do you copy, Captain Pretorius?”

  The image of Pretorius appeared on the holostage. The command deck of the Scorpio was filled with thin, black smoke from a recently extinguished fire.

  “You know we’re both going to be extremely vulnerable with the fields deactivated. I will wait until the last moment when you are in position. I’ll transfer the Scorpio’s field control to your command deck the instant I deactivate. I’ll be relying on you, Jack.”

  As the image of Pretorius shrank away, Lou Beretta writh
ed on the deck in front of the command chair, groaning as the low-yield pulse round wore off.

  “Planning on getting everyone killed are we, Jacky?” Beretta asked as he squirmed.

  Striding over to Beretta, Sam called to a Marine.

  “Get that pirate off this command deck. Secure the prisoners in the command deck corridor. Post guards on either side. Sam reached down and grabbed Beretta by the collar, yanking him up sharply. “You are very lucky I’m not in command here, Beretta.”

  Agent Kitt, standing next to Jack and the command chair, looked down at Beretta. “Don’t hurt him, Commander Torent. Fleet Intelligence has got a few questions for this criminal.”

  “Approaching the Scorpio now,” Jack said, focusing on the command chair armrest. He was the only person on the deck able to crew the enormous ship. He had no time for anything else. “Cutting drive and bringing the transport into formation with the Scorpio.”

  Quickly glancing at the holostage, Jack watched the image of the civilian transport slide underneath the Scorpio. And then the Skalidion fighters slammed into the forward section of the transport ship and detonated in a green flash of fire. Jack felt the collision from his command chair. Marines and criminals were rocked by the collision.

  Jack activated the hull stability field. He watched the image on the holostage, and the rippling field bubble formed around both ships—the massive civilian transport underneath and the Scorpio above.

  As the Skalidion fighters took more fire from the Scorpio, dozens being destroyed at a time by the high-energy lasers and the kinetic hail batteries, Jack heard a hull breach alarm sound on the civilian transport.

  “Scorpio, this is Forge. I have formed the hull stability field shell around both ships. I am creating a field tether to the Scorpio’s lower hull. I can use the civilian transport drive to get the Scorpio back to the fleet.”

  “Jack,” Captain Pretorius said, speaking from his command chair on the Scorpio. “I think I can lay down enough fire to hold them off. I’m deploying my Blade squadron to cover the underside of the civilian transport. I have word from the fleet that two corvettes are moving in to assist.”

  Jack sat back in the command chair and let out an exhausted breath. He’d faced death once today already. It looked like he’d have to face it again.

  “I have Skalidion fighters boarding near the civilian transport’s command deck, Captain. Do you have any Marines you can send over to reinforce my group?”

  Pretorius shook his head. “Negative, Jack. I have one squad of Marines to protect the entire Scorpio. Three at the drive room and three on the command deck. If the Skalidion board the Scorpio, I do not think with my current strength I can hold them. You really need to see about getting some new recruits trained up, Jack.”

  Jack nodded. “If we get back to the fleet, I’ll see what I can do.”

  The internal surveillance node on the deck above the command deck alerted Jack that Skalidion fighters were moving toward the breach just above the center of the command deck.

  “Keep those Skalidion fighters off us, Captain. I got some intruders to take care of. Forge out.”

  And then Jack saw the movement in the breach above him that Sam had opened only moments before. Jack took aim with his pulse pistol, Special Agent Kitt on his right aiming her pistol up at the breach. Taking position around the edges of the command deck, the enforcers and Marines all had pulse rifles aimed at the breach.

  And then the Skalidion fighters dropped in.

  The Skalidions were small, smaller even than Kitt. They took a barrage of fire as they dropped in. The pulse rounds glowed brightly on their dark green shell-like skins. They raised their meter-long green energy weapons to open fire, but they were all dropped by the withering hail of pulse rounds.

  Shouts from the command deck corridor behind Jack drew his attention. Kitt was already looking there, her pistol aimed.

  “They’re taking the prisoners,” Kitt said

  Lou Beretta came running back toward the command deck, shouting as he came.

  “Come on, Jack, I know you love to save the day. Come and save me from this hideous little thing. Throw me a pulse pistol, and I’ll help you fight them. Come on, Jacky, you know you can trust me.”

  Jack climbed down from the command chair and aimed his pistol along the corridor. He fired a pulse round that missed Beretta by a fraction of an inch and slammed into the Skalidion fighter chasing him. A second Skalidion leapt and grabbed Beretta around the neck and head, its thin fingers as long as its arm wrapped around Beretta’s face. It pulled him back sharply, snatching him off his feet. The Skalidion scurried backward, dragging Beretta with him.

  Jack took aim at the back of the Skalidion’s head, its long green antennae twitching as it ran. Jack fired a well-aimed round, which burned into the back of the Skalidion’s head and dropped the creature to the deck. Beretta began tearing at the long thin fingers wrapped around his face. He screamed in panic as he failed to drag them away. Jack ran forward and cut the Skalidion’s arm off with his electron blade, dragging Beretta back toward the command deck. At the end of the command deck corridor, another pair of Skalidion fighters ran around the corner. They met a hail of pulse rifle rounds from the remaining Marines.

  “Stay there,” Jack said, pressing Beretta to the bulkhead just inside the command deck. A Marine stepped up and pushed Beretta down to sit on the floor.

  “I’ll make sure he does not move, Major,” the Marine said. Jack could hear the determination and commitment in the Marine’s voice. He had no doubt that Beretta was thoroughly contained.

  A call from the Scorpio appeared on the holostage as Jack moved back to his command chair.

  “Fleet corvettes moving into position on the underside of the civilian transport. We are fighting off the Skalidion swarm. They’re falling back, Jack. How you holding up over there?”

  Jack checked the internal surveillance network. No Skalidion fighters were left aboard. Only a small handful had made it past the hull stability field, and those now lay dead around the command deck.

  “We all clear over here, Captain.” Jack clipped the pulse pistol onto his hip holster and climbed up into the command chair.

  “See you back at the fleet, Major,” Pretorius said.

  “Copy that, Captain,” Jack said. “Forge out.”

  14

  Skoldra watched from the edge of the stellar void as her swarm of a thousand fighters engaged the destroyer and the massive ship that contained over a hundred thousand humans. She knew the humans would fight. She knew she had to overwhelm them quickly with the weight of numbers if she was to take her prize of living human flesh. She sent her pheromone wave through her new swarm. The fighters responded in a lazy manner, and she realized her pheromone signal was not yet strong enough to fully control the drones she had captured from the dead queen.

  If she spread herself too thinly now, she may suffer the same fate as her fellow queen.

  Watching through the dark eyes of her observer drones, she saw a mass of humans floating in space. They had been jettisoned from the larger ship and were just lying there, just waiting for her to pick them up. She sent a signal to the attack swarm fighting the destroyer. She directed them to disengage, to swoop in on those humans floating and freezing in the empty void, and to bring them back to her nest asteroid. They would not be fresh, but it would be a taste. Soon, with complete control of her massed swarm, she would move in on the humans and crush them, capture them, and feast.

  The fighters powered down their weapons and disengaged, racing away at high speed towards the small cluster of floating bodies. Each fighter snatched up three or more of the dead humans, their skin frozen, their eyes bloodshot red, foam still bubbling out of the mouths.

  Skoldra received the message from the fighters that they had captured fifty dead humans and were returning to her. She ran her forearms over her rasping mouth in anticipation of her first genuine taste. Soon, the frozen human flesh would be hers. Soon, she woul
d be rasping away at their cold flesh.

  Skoldra’s nurse drones were moving from her old nest asteroid to her new, much larger conquered nest. They began taking away the spawn for the new fighter generation. Skoldra was strong, having dined on the body of the dead queen. She was producing a new fighter generation to join the massed swarm at an accelerated rate. It would not be long before she had a million drones. She would have enough to pursue and crush the humans.

  A line of observers stretched from her swarm across the void toward the human fleet. Staying out of range of their surveillance network, the small observer drones watched and shadowed the fleet. As they raced further and further across the stellar void, Skoldra imagined they felt that they had escaped. But she was watching and waiting, she would pursue them in time.

  She watched them for the longest time, and when her fighters returned to the nest asteroid bringing the dead frozen bodies of humans with them, she seized one immediately. Holding it before her, she studied the strange form. She pressed the human to her rasping mouth and chewed on the frozen body.

  There was a strange taste to this smooth-skinned creature. It was not the taste she had expected from what she had learned from the pheromone memories of Phisrid. It was different.

  Skoldra felt herself grow anxious, lively, eager, wild. All logic, all caution, all curiosity left her. She was overwhelmed with an urge to rush after the humans and destroy them. It was a sensation that grew stronger, crushing her own sense of self with the unstoppable urge to rush in for the kill.

  The sensation swept through the swarm. The orderly social structure of the swarm stretched to breaking point. The swarm raced forward, the nest asteroid at its center. The whole swarm buzzed with excitement and fury.

  Skoldra snatched another frozen body. It also had a strange taste. It was not entirely human. This body had been corrupted, tainted by some strange substance that she could not identify, and it drove her wild. She accepted the taste and wanted more. Now.