Starbound (6 page)

I
let Marker p
ick the four marines
who would go up the
lifter shaft with u
s. Once we had gathe
red together at the
shaft entrance I lef
t Babayan in command
and ordered a line-
of-sight dispersal a
ll the way back to t
he shuttles. She was
n't happy at being l
eft out of the ascen
t, but we could only
risk two command of
ficers to explore th
e energy source, and
I was definitely go
ing to be one of tho
se two. Besides, Mar
ker was a great tact
ical fighter, and mu
ch better suited to
the mission and its
potential dangers th
an Colonel Babayan.

I looked at our team. They were all very young in appearance. Marker had picked two Quantar marines: a female private named Jensen and a male named Horlock. The two Carinthians were a female private, Verhunce, who seemed too slight to be a marine to me, and a huge male named Rosler. Rosler was darker skinned, almost like an aboriginal descendant of Quantar, the first one I'd seen among the Carinthian marines. The Carinthians tended to be very Caucasian as a rule, which I supposed was due to their Austrian roots on Earth. There was some Asiatic influence in their bloodlines from the Mongol invasions of Europe more than a millennia ago, but it wasn't as
strong as the aboriginal Australian traces in some of our people, like Marker.

One thing about our marine-issued EVA suits was that they enhanced and equalized physical strength so that no marine was stronger or more capable than any other, regardless of gender, bone density, stature, or any other variable. It brought us all up to about 125% of standard so that everyone pulled the same weight, literally.

I looked to Marker. “How should we deploy, Sergeant?” I asked, deferring to his marine experience.

“Horlock's great with the jets, so he'll go first. Then Rosler, Jensen, me, you, and Verhunce,” he said to our group, pointing to each of us in turn. I nodded agreement.

Horlock went out into the zero-G well first, pushing off the deck and floating up slowly a few meters. We all watched as he ascended with short micro-bursts from his cone jets. He was by far the most skilled zero-G flyer I had ever seen, maneuvering up and back down to us at will, getting a feel for the shaft and any gravitational eddies there might be. Rosler came next, and then the rest of us in order. Horlock had to slow up several times so that we could stay a cohesive unit. I did my best to keep up, but it seemed as though everyone else in the group was better at flying than I was. I even got a push in the butt from Verhunce when I couldn't get my ascent speed up fast enough.

Within two minutes we were all rising slowly but steadily up the shaft, mostly together. Despite my assurances to Maclintock, the shaft seemed to go on forever. I measured our rise at one hundred meters in the first three minutes. Then Horlock began to pull away from the rest of us.

“Hold up, Private!” yelled Marker to Horlock, who slowed, turned, and responded with a “Sorry, sir.”

A second later and an energy weapon blast cut a hole in his chest the size of a football. The next shot took Rosler's head off at the neck with a precision that was frightening.

“Cover!” I yelled into the com, adrenaline rushing and my heart suddenly pounding as I pushed Verhunce down and back to the wall of the shaft. There were some metal support beams there that looked like they could provide some cover from the incoming fire.

A second volley came, this time in multiple bursts, and we all scrambled to the walls, Marker returning fire as he jetted to the near side with Jensen. Verhunce and I were stuck to the far wall. I looked up and saw dark figures emerging from the mist, perhaps a hundred meters above us and descending quickly. From the glint of coil rifle fire off of their bodies they seemed undoubtedly made of metal. Automatons, and from the looks of them they could make quick work of us.

“Fire at will!” I ordered, and the shaft lit up with an exchange of brilliant orange and green rifle fire. I ordered retreat back to the shaft entrance into my com just as a green volley skimmed past my head so close I could feel the heat through my helmet visor. I tried to order the retreat again, but got no answer.

The main coms were knocked out. The automaton's energy weapons had a disruptive effect on our com equipment, like an EMP burst. Whatever these damn things were, they were highly efficient. We came under heavy fire again from the advancing automatons as they propelled themselves down the shaft from high above us. I sent Marker a hand signal, ordering him to suppress and retreat with Jensen to the shaft entrance on my mark. He signaled back negative. I repeated the order, this time with emphasis. I got a reluctant affirmative. I switched to my low-frequency backup radio transmitter, primitive but effective within a range of about ten meters.

“We're falling back,” I said to Verhunce amidst the flashing din of the rifle fire. “Sergeant Marker and Private Jensen will cover us. When I give the signal, you go, full out jets for the deck. And when you get there warn Colonel Babayan that trouble is coming.”

“I need to stay with you, sir,” she protested.

“Negative, Private. You go first. I'll be right behind you,” I said.
The cacophony of energy fire was lighting up the entire shaft. I looked down to the deck floor and saw marines taking up firing positions near the opening. I wanted them to retreat, not cover for us, but at this distance my low frequency com was useless. I turned to Marker and gave the signal. He, Jensen, and I filled the lifter shaft with rifle fire.

“Go,” I yelled to Verhunce. I saw her push off, making for the deck, her cone jet vapor spilling into my visor's view. I signaled Marker again. Private Jensen was next. She pushed off and flew down the shaft, chasing after the weaving Verhunce. Then Marker gave me the signal and I went without hesitation, hoping that my friend was coming close behind me.

I watched as Verhunce cleared the shaft and landed on the deck. I was closing on Jensen, and looked back to see Marker in turn closing on me. I was about to order Jensen to turn her jets toward the deck to slow down when a lance of green energy shot past me.

“Shit!” I said and twisted around to look back up the shaft.

I could now see a half dozen bronze-colored automatons coming down at us, firing all the way from perhaps fifty meters back. The way they were coming, this was going to be close. I hit my jets again and shot past Jensen, grabbing her arm on the way by. “Hang on!” I said. She nodded as Marker caught up to us and took her right arm from the other side.

I nodded at Marker and we made one last course correction burst for the deck, then we both sent out max bursts to take us through the opening. About a half dozen marines, including Babayan, were standing on the deck about ten meters below us. A burst of green fire came very close to me and I flinched instinctively. When I looked back Marker was falling away from me, but still on course for the deck.

Private Jensen had been sliced in half.

I let go of her body in the shaft as I fell, heart pounding as Marker and I pierced the gravity field and fell onto the deck hard. I
rolled and popped back up quickly. Babayan yelled to me over the low-band radio com.

“How many?”

“Half a dozen,” I replied. “But they're very formidable.” She armed her rifle. I grabbed her by the arm.

“No! We're outgunned. Full retreat, Colonel, that's an order!”

“But—”

“No!” I insisted. “Look around you! Staying is suicide.” She looked around the deck at the piles of Imperial Marine bodies. Then I pushed her backward hard. She switched to the general com channel, which I couldn't hear, and ordered everyone to fall back. I sent Verhunce up ahead to prep the shuttles.

I looked back as we headed back into the path through the fallen robot. The first of the automatons was just touching down on the deck. I turned and ran.

We'd be lucky to make it out of this alive.

We dodged and ducked all the way back to the landing bay, the automatons in a deliberate and determined pursuit. The fire from their rifles frequently vaporized parts of the massive robot body as we ran through the channel. Their weapons were clearly superior to ours, as was their aim. Occasionally, they got one of my marines. My every instinct was to stop and help, or at least recover the body, but we had no time. If we did stop, we'd all be dead.

When we got to the landing bay I counted twenty-six marines, including the pilots who were firing up the shuttle engines. I'd lost ten men and women so far. Too many.

I frantically waved the marines back to their shuttles, then ran onto the nearest one. It was chaos. There was no time for grief, no time to even strap in. I ordered us off the deck immediately.

I took a quick census and found that somehow Marker, Babayan, and I had all ended up on the same shuttle in the confusion. I was heading forward to the pilot's nest where Babayan and Marker were already getting us away when I saw a green energy burst outside our window.

I looked out and saw the second shuttle, the one I was probably supposed to be on, trailing a few dozen meters behind us as we accelerated off the deck. In the next instant three beams of green energy intersected on the shuttle's hull. It was instantly vaporized. The explosive energy knocked us off our path, which is probably the only thing that saved us—a similar combined beam of energy intersected just seconds later in the space where we would have been.

“Evasive maneuvers!” I yelled. “Marker, raise
Starbound
!” Before he could even respond a second burst hit us and I found myself holding on to the bulkhead wall, but there was no longer any shuttle behind me. Marker, Babayan, and I were spinning away from the station inside the wrecked pilot's nest. The rest of the shuttle was completely gone. I looked over to see Private Verhunce also gripping the bulkhead. Somehow she was still alive.

“We've got to get out of here! Abandon the shuttle!” I ordered.

“But how will we get back to
Starbou
nd
?” said Marker.

“We'll use our cone jets,” I said. The tiny units probably had only one to two minutes of fuel left at best, but it was all we had. I pulled Verhunce off the bulkhead wall and spun her away. Then I followed suit. Marker and Babayan followed me. “Form up!” I ordered over the low frequency radio. I didn't know if they could hear me or not, but we quickly had a tight formation, spaced at about ten meters apart as the shuttle wreckage tumbled away from us.

“What direction is
Starbo
und
?” I asked Babayan. She read off spatial coordinates and I ordered a thirty second burst in that direction, away from the damnable station.

“Commander,” said Marker after we had completed our maneuver, his voice deep and grave. “Looks like we have company.”

I looked back and saw a cluster of amber dots coming from the direction of the fast-fading station, in pursuit and closing fast.

“Shit,” I said to him. “If we don't get help soon—”

“Then we're dead,” finished Marker.