Dreadnaught: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Omega Taskforce Book 5) Page 16
Sterling smiled. He couldn’t blame his weapons officer for being mistrustful of him. In fact, he’d be disappointed if she wasn’t. Tapping his interface again, Sterling widened the link to include his first officer.
“It’s okay, Lieutenant, the Captain is still the Captain,” Banks cut in, correctly guessing the reason why she’d been added to the conversation.
“Understood,” replied Shade, crisply. “Sorry, Captain, but I had to be sure.”
“I’d expect nothing less, Lieutenant, now what’s the status of the Invictus?” Sterling cut back in.
“There’s still heavy fighting in the docking garage, sir.” Sterling could feel flashes of anger and savagery from his weapons officer and guessed she was still engaging the enemy while talking to him. “They’ve set up plasma cannon emplacements and taken out the Invictus turrets on the port side, so we’re limited to personal weapons only.”
“Send me the location of the cannon emplacements,” Sterling said, as Banks unleashed a volley of plasma fire along the corridor. The powerful shards of energy punched through the gut of one warrior and blasted the leg off another.
“Aye, Captain, transmitting now,” Shade replied.
Sterling saw the data appear on his computer and smiled. The aliens had set their gun emplacements almost directly ahead of where he and Banks planned to enter the docking garage. “Hold fast, Lieutenant, we’ll take care of those guns for you.”
“Understood, Captain,” Shade replied. “We’ll hold the fort until you get back.”
The link went dead just as Banks unleashed another volley of plasma along the corridor, pulverizing two more Sa’Nerran warriors and leaving them in a pulpy mess on the deck.
“Clear,” Banks called out before moving up to the next intersection to cover Sterling’s advance.
“I’ve marked the position of the gun emplacements on our maps,” Sterling said, resorting to speaking out loud, since neural comms were still patchy. “If we can take out those cannons, the rest of the Sa’Nerra should be easy pickings.”
Sterling moved ahead, then covered the corridor while his first officer caught up with him. Another blip of movement appeared on his computer screen and his pulse spiked. Moments later, the contact was gone.
“I had a brief contact on my screen, ten meters ahead, but it’s gone now,” he warned Banks.
Banks dropped to one knee and checked her computer. “I don’t see anything,” she replied after staring at the display for a few seconds. “Could it have been a glitch?”
“Maybe, but stay on your toes,” Sterling replied, as Banks began to move ahead again. “These dreadnaughts are like rabbit warrens. An alien bastard could spring out from any one of these rooms or connecting corridors.”
No sooner had Sterling spoken the words than a door to Banks’ side swished open. She turned and fired, but a warrior had already driven its shoulder into her gut and slammed her against the wall. The impact stunned Banks and the warrior smashed the Homewrecker rifle from her grasp. A split-second later, a serrated Sa’Nerran blade was slashed across the mid-section of Banks’ armor. Sparks flew, but the blade didn’t penetrate. Sterling raised his pistol, but in the extra second it took him to aim with his off-hand another two warriors had charged through the door. The first came at Sterling, while the second joined its comrade in fighting Banks hand-to-hand.
Sterling fired but missed the warrior. At the same time a blast of plasma fizzed past his head, so close he thought he could smell his own singed hair. Reacting quickly, he adjusted his aim and squeezed the trigger. This time the blast caught the alien in the face, burning a hole straight through to its brain. The warrior fell on top of Sterling, its arms stretched out ahead of it like a zombie. He cursed and shook the dead warrior loose before trying to take aim at the warriors grappling with Banks. Suddenly, a door to his side opened and he was grabbed around the neck. Sterling’s pistol discharged but the blast thudded harmlessly into the ceiling. He was then struck across the chest and sent tumbling into a metal storage cabinet. The pistol in his left hand cartwheeled into the corner of the room.
Pushing himself up with his bladed hand, Sterling saw the alien come at him, pistol raised. He slashed out with the serrated weapon, deflecting the pistol moments before it fired. The alien hissed wildly and Sterling saw the alien weapon drop to the deck, along with three of the warrior’s long, leathery fingers. The creature’s wide, yellow eyes fixed onto Sterling and it drew a serrated blade of its own, flashing the metal edge toward him with deadly intent. He dodged back and lashed out for a second time, but the blade danced off the warrior’s armor, creating a shower of sparks. The alien retaliated, burying its weapon into Sterling’s chest armor and splitting it open like a lumberjack cutting wood. Sterling grabbed the alien’s wrist and tried to prize the blade away, but the warrior was now leaning in, putting all its weight into the attack. Sterling felt the blade start to cut into his flesh and in an act of desperation he thrust his fingers into the creature’s bulging yellow eyes. It hissed wildly and pulled away, clamping its hand to the burst eyeball.
Sterling saw his chance and advanced, feinting an attack with his left then sidestepping and thumping his bladed hand into the warrior’s neck. More hisses bled into the room along with the alien’s crimson life essence. The warrior flailed its arms wildly at Sterling, but he knew he’d already struck a death blow. Pulling his opponent’s serrated blade out of his armor, Sterling then brought his scythe-like weapon hand down hard across the warrior’s wrist. The alien’s hand fell to the deck with a dull thud and the warrior dropped to its knees, cradling the injured flesh to its body.
“See how you like it, asshole,” Sterling spat at the warrior. He collected the alien’s pistol off the deck, aimed the weapon at its head and blasted the warrior’s brains across the wall.
Cries and thuds from outside the room alerted Sterling to the fact Banks was still engaged in combat. Running back to the door, he saw his first officer struggling with three aliens. Two warriors already lay dead at her feet, and based on the look in his first officer’s eyes, he was confident the remaining three would soon follow. However, as much as he enjoyed watching Mercedes Banks work, there were other aliens they needed to kill.
Sterling gritted his teeth and marched toward the group, pistol raised. Squeezing the trigger, he blasted the nearest warrior in the back of its head, splattering bone and brains all over the other combatants. One of the warriors spun around then came at Sterling, but Banks caught the alien and slammed its temple into the wall. Sterling heard the crunch of bone as the warrior’s cranium collapsed. The final warrior then landed a solid right cross Banks’ face and she rocked back. Sterling raised his pistol, intending to kill the alien, then saw the look on his first officer’s face. He lowered the weapon to his side, realizing that discharging it would merely be a waste of ammo. Banks’ eyes were wild and furious.
Banks dabbed the blood from the fresh cut to her cheek onto her hand and examined it before turning her wrathful gaze to the warrior. The alien advanced – it was either unaware of the mistake it had made, or simply unable to be intimated. The warrior struck out again, but this time Banks caught its fist in her hand and twisted the alien’s arm savagely. There was a sharp crack, followed by a wild, spine-chilling hiss. Still holding onto the warrior’s now broken arm, Banks thumped punch after punch into the alien’s face. First its stubby nose collapsed, then its jaw snapped and its eye sockets caved in. Eventually, even the warrior’s dense forehead couldn’t withstand the power of his first officer’s blows. Chest heaving and teeth-bared, Banks allowed the mangled alien to fall to the deck.
“Let’s get to the docking garage and end this,” said Sterling, glancing down at his computer. “Assuming there are no more surprises, we have a clear run right up behind the gun emplacements.”
Banks spat a globule of bloody spittle onto the deck then picked up her Homewrecker. Slapping a new power cell into the heavy plasma rifle, she then picked up one of the
fallen alien weapons and met Sterling’s eyes. She was no longer wild, but she was clearly still pissed off.
“I hope Shade has left some of those alien bastards for us,” Banks said, setting off in the lead again. “Because I’m not nearly finished killing Sa’Nerrans yet.”
Sterling followed his first officer, finding it a struggle to keep pace with her. The drugs were starting to wear off, and he could feel the niggle of pain all over his body, not least from his missing hand. However, he had no choice but to press on. Until they destroyed the Sa’Nerran threat, there was no chance of getting his wounds properly tended to. Close to the entrance to the docking garage, Banks threw up a hand signal, letting Sterling know there were enemies ahead. Sterling slowed and crept silently to his first officer’s side.
“I see three plasma gun emplacements, with two aliens apiece,” she whispered.
Sterling looked over the top of Banks’ shoulder and saw the heavy weapons. Each cannon was firing at will, pummeling his crew’s defensive positions with blasts of plasma strong enough to punch a hole through the inner walls of the Vanguard.
“You make the call,” Sterling said, drawing back and meeting his first officer’s gaze. “I’m fading fast, Mercedes. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.”
“Just hold on, Lucas,” Banks said, confidently. “Stay close to me and let me do the hard work.”
“A straight-up power play?” Sterling said with a knowing smile.
“What else?” Banks replied. However, there wasn’t even the hint of a smirk on his first officer’s face. She meant business and the business in question was dealing death.
Chapter 21
The last stand
Sterling grabbed a replacement energy cell from the body of a dead warrior, then struggled to reload his pistol. Finally managing to insert the cell into the weapon with his one good hand, he sucked in a deep breath and waited for Banks’ instruction to begin the attack.
“On three, follow me,” Banks said, readying both of the powerful weapons in her hands.
Sterling tightened his hold on his pistol as Banks counted down. Adrenalin was surging through his veins, helping to counteract some of the rapidly-encroaching fatigue and weariness that he was feeling. Banks then advanced and immediately opened fire with the Homewrecker and the alien plasma pistol. The two alien warriors manning the first gun emplacement were pulverized by her first volley, both reduced to pulpy, smoldering splats on the deck. Sterling aimed and fired at the third emplacement, but the warriors manning it had already ducked behind the gun’s protective shielding.
The roar of Banks’ heavy plasma rifle erupted beside him for a second time and the middle gun emplacement exploded. Debris from the heavy weapon flew in all directions and Sterling felt a chunk of broken metal clip his leg. He staggered into cover and checked the wound. It hurt like hell, but his leg was still attached to his body, and that was all that mattered.
Blasts flew toward them from the two warriors at the final gun emplacement. Banks tried to dodge into cover but was impeded by the smoldering debris from the second gun. A blast hit her chest armor and she fell. Cursing, Sterling aimed and fired, managing to suppress the two aliens, but his shots failed to put either of them down. Then to Sterling’s horror the gun emplacement began to turn. Instead of aiming out toward the Invictus, itself pockmarked with blast holes and set ablaze in several places, the powerful plasma cannon was now bearing down on him.
Biting down against the pain in his leg, Sterling pushed himself up and looked for a way to evade the gun, but he was already twenty meters into the docking garage and fully exposed. He looked to Banks, but she was still down on the deck, slowing pushing herself upright with her hands. The fall had clearly winded her and Sterling knew she would not be able to intervene this time. Turning back to the gun emplacement, he rained plasma blasts into it from his pistol, hoping to score a lucky hit that might disable the weapon. However, it was like shooting arrows at a tank. Sterling’s power cell gave out just as the barrel of the cannon lowered and set its sights on Sterling’s chest. One blast from the gun, and all that would remain of Sterling would be a fuming pile of ash. He tossed the weapon to the deck and stood tall.
“Take your shot!” Sterling yelled down the barrel of the gun. “I already killed your precious Emissary!”
Suddenly an explosion rippled through the deck and Sterling was thrown through the air. He landed hard and was pelted by more burning fragments of metal and flesh, some landing inches from his already-battered body. Pushing a burning hunk of alien meat aside with his bladed-hand, Sterling sat up and saw that the gun emplacement had been completely destroyed. All that remained of it was a raging inferno, like a Fourth of July bonfire. Banks appeared at Sterling’s side, shielding her eyes from the blaze. Grabbing his first officer’s thigh armor for leverage, Sterling hauled himself to his feet and saw Lieutenant Shade approaching, flanked by two Obsidian Soldiers.
“Plasma grenade, sir,” said Shade, explaining how the gun emplacement had met its end in her usual matter-of-fact tone.
“I figured as much, Lieutenant,” said Sterling, managing a weak smile. “Good work.”
Shade glanced behind and indicated toward the Invictus. Drones were now circling around it, putting out the dozens of fires that were raging across its surface. The bodies of alien warriors littered the deck between them and the ship, and amongst the carnage Sterling could also make out the fractured remains of at least as many Obsidian Soldiers.
“What’s the final butcher’s bill, Lieutenant?” Sterling asked, finding it necessary to lean on Banks for support. His first officer slung an arm around his waist and helped to prop him up so that he didn’t look quite as ruined as he felt.
“I’m down to my last three commandoes, sir,” said Shade, in her usual calm and precise manner. Sterling could see that his weapons officer had taken several hits, but her armor had spared her from serious injury. “We also lost twelve Obsidian Soldiers, but another dozen are missing.”
“Missing?” Sterling said. “How the hell are they missing?”
Shade shook her head. “Unknown, sir,” she replied, frankly. “All units were engaged in the battle, but mid-way into the fighting we lost one off the scanners. A few minutes later another eleven had gone, but none of them are confirmed as destroyed.”
Sterling cursed. “Stay on it, Lieutenant, we need those machines,” he replied.
“Aye, sir,” said Shade. The weapons officer looked up at the battered hull of the Invictus. “The ship took the brunt of the assault. Razor is inside, coordinating repairs as best she can.”
“Forget the Invictus for now, she’s not going anywhere soon,” Sterling replied. “Our priority is to get the Vanguard online. That’s the only way we’re going to make it to the rendezvous.”
“I’ll see to it, sir,” Banks cut in. “Right now, we need to get you to Graves, and we need to get you there fast.”
“I’m fine,” Sterling hit back, waving Banks off with his blade-equipped hand. His first officer ducked back to avoid being cut and Shade did a double-take. Sterling then felt his legs give way and if it hadn’t been for Banks’ hold around his waist, he’d have fallen. “Okay, maybe I need Commander Graves to give me a quick once-over,” he conceded.
“I think that would be prudent, sir,” said Banks. She was wisely dealing with the matter of Sterling’s injuries with a light touch so as not to prompt an ego-driven refusal from her captain.
Sterling began to stagger toward the Invictus with Banks’ help, while Shade reached out to Commander Graves over a neural link to prepare him for a new arrival. While they were walking, Sterling found his mind wandering again. This time, however, he wasn’t focused on the events that had transpired between himself and Emissary McQueen, or those that had followed with his first officer. There was something else that was nagging at him.
“Just how did you find me, anyway?” Sterling decided to fill the time by asking the question that was on
his mind. “You couldn’t have known where McQueen had taken me.”
Banks smiled and flashed her eyes at Sterling before letting out a long, shrill whistle. Sterling frowned at his first officer, wondering what the hell she was doing, when the clatter of a small metal foot on the deck began to approach. Sterling turned toward the ship and saw Jinx the Beagle bounding toward them, tail wagging violently.
“You’re kidding me, right?” said Sterling, frowning at the dog, who was now jumping at his heels.
“She followed your scent and led us right to you,” Banks said, still smiling. “Once we were close enough to figure out where McQueen was holding you, I had one of the crew take her back to the ship.”
Sterling laughed and shook his head. He then glanced down at the dog, who was yipping and barking playfully. “It looks like acting Ensign Jinx is bucking for a promotion,” he said.
“Junior Lieutenant Jinx has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” said Banks.
Both of them laughed, despite the act of doing so causing pain to shoot through Sterling’s body. Lieutenant Shade cast a sideways glance at them, before raising an eyebrow and turning back toward the ship.
“Lieutenant Jinx it is then,” replied Sterling, after he’d stopped laughing. Then he looked at the body of a dead commando as he walked past it en-route to the Invictus. “Hell, we could certainly use the extra crew,” he added, more somberly.
“McQueen is dead, and the Sa’Nerra have been wiped out,” Banks replied, meeting Sterling’s eyes. “The ship is ours, Captain. We did it.”
Sterling nodded, then winced as more pain flooded throughout his body. “There’s a long way to go yet, Mercedes,” he replied, thinking about what they still had left to do. “But if we can get this ship back to Omega Four and back to Griffin, we might just have a chance to even the odds in this war.”
Chapter 22