Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (30 page)

LYTEN SYSTEM

RIFT

K.V. BARICCO SPACE PORT

PARKING GARAGE  7

CHARLIE COMPANY

WARDOGS

2
ND
PLATOON

FIRETEAM 3

Hu slowly regained consciousness. He had been in cave-ins before but this one was the worst. Then he saw his heads up display and realized that he was not back home in a cave-in, instead he was in the middle of a battle when the roof came down on him and the rest of the team. He still did the checks he had been taught at an early age. He slowly moved his arms then his legs. Nothing was broken. His suit seemed intact. He ran through his systems check for his suit, everything was in the green. Everything was working despite have a roof caving in on him.

Hu's heads up show
ed red arrows closing in on their position. The aliens were moving slowly and carefully. Legionnaire symbols dotted the garage. There were green, yellow and black arrows in the other Legion positions but few were moving. He saw a yellow arrow and as he watched a red arrow approached the yellow arrow representing a wounded Legionnaire then the arrow turned black. The aliens were slowly and carefully killing all of the wounded and hunting for the greens. He was not going to die lying on his back.

"Hu
, wake the fuck up!"

"Huh what?"

"Hu, it's Nani, can you move? I'm pinned."

"Hold on let me see if I can get free. What about Nolan and Sim
?"

"Nolan is a yellow but Sim is green but I can't reach them on the comm and I can't see them."

"Ok stand by. Let me see what I can do."

"Move your ass
, those aliens are killing anyone they can find."

"
I know."

Hu moved each arm and leg. He was able to move his right arm the most. He wiggled it around until it was free. Then he was able to push the concrete that covered his head and chest off and he could finally see. His armor had been a
lifesaver. He doubted the designers had built it to withstand cave-ins by thousands of pounds of concrete but it had sure worked. If he ever got a chance he would have to thank them.

He could actually see the sky now. They had three floors above them before the explosion
,
kak
that had been a hell of an explosion. With one arm free and the power of the suit amplifying his strength he was able to push the huge piece of concrete off his left arm. Now he could sit up. He looked around but couldn't see any of the other fireteam members. He knew they were under there somewhere but they were completely covered by concrete.

The piece of concrete across his legs must have
weighed a couple of tons, yet his legs were uninjured. He liked this uncomfortable armor more and more. Now he needed to see just how much strength it could provide for him. His armor could only magnify the strength the wearer had physically, so even with its help he would have to use all his engineered strength to move the slab off his legs.

He glanced at his heads up and saw the red arrows
moving closer - he didn't have much time. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and placed his hands on one side of the slab that rested on his legs. It was at least a foot thick. It moved but only slightly. He tried again - nothing. He couldn't get any leverage sitting with it across his legs. Then he remembered his shovel. He was able to pull it from his right leg where it was secured. The armorer had made it out of the same metal that his suit was made of so it should be strong enough. Hu wedged it under the slab near his right leg and pushed. The slab rose slightly. The shovel held. He pushed as hard as he could and the slab moved off his right leg.

He glanced at the red arrows
- they were getting closer.

"For
kaks
sake Hu, move your ass," Nani said.

"Nani
, I've got half the goddamn building on me. Give me a break."

"We won't need a break if those
languns
get here before we're out from under this
kak
."

Hu wedged the shovel under the slab again and put his foot against the slab and with one huge effort push
ed with his foot and lifted the shovel. The slab tipped and slid off his left leg. He was free. He immediately stood. There was nothing but rubble pile as far as he could see. He looked around for the others and saw nothing but concrete and steel. His HUD was useless at this range; on the screen it looked like they were all standing next to each.

"If you can move something
, move it as much as you can," Hu said.

"I am moving my hand
, I think it is outside of the rubble," Nani said.

Frantically Hu looked for any movement. Nothing. Nothing. Then he saw a hand. He moved quickly to the pile and began to pull off large chunks of concrete and steel throwing them across the room as if they
weighed nothing, until he had exposed Nani's upper body. One huge slab lay across her legs. It was much larger than the one that had been on his legs.

"Can you wiggle out from under it? I don't think I can move it even with my suit helping."

Nani squirmed around under the slab, nothing, no movement at all. Hu glanced up at his heads up. The red arrows were getting closer. Then he saw something that made his blood run cold, three red arrows were taking a yellow arrow away. They were taking prisoners.

"Goddam
mit, I can't fucking move," Nani said.

Hu could not see her face behind her faceplate but he thought he
hear fear for the first time in her voice.

"Look Hu
, you've got to get out of here. They will be here any minute."

"I don't leave my teammates
," Hu said.

Hu stood and carefully examined the slab that lay across Nani's legs. He had mined enough to
see all manner of rubble. It had been his job to extract the valuable ore from the slag with the least amount of work. Now he needed to use all of his experience to figure this one out.

It wasn't flat
- one end was tipped slightly resting on a piece of steel.

"Look Hu
, give me your pistol and leave. I will take care of a couple and save the last round for me," Nani said.

"Shut the fuck up Nani. I don't leave my teammates."

Hu squatted and carefully placed his hands under the slab as close as he could get to the piece of steel that held up one end.

"When I move this thing you have got to get out from under it. I am not sure how long I'm going to be able to hold it up."

"Hu you can't move that thing even with your suit. Now this is an order give me your pistol and get out of here."

"I was engineered for this shit. Now shut up and on the count of three."

Hu carefully got in the best position he could.

"One, two, three."

Pushing with legs and back Hu used all the engineered strength that Von Fleet had built into his broad body. Even he was surprised at how much power the suit gave him. Not only did the slab move but he actually lifted it completely off Nani's legs. She scrambled out from under the slab and stood.

"Fuck Hu. Remind me not to get you pissed off."

"Where are the others?" Hu said. "Get a weapon and cover my back."

The red arrows were almost on top of them. Nani looked frantically for a usable weapon
but they had all  been crushed by the cave it. She only had her rail pistol.

"Give me your pistol
," Nani said.

Hu tossed her his pistol and began to search for the others. Nolan's status light went from yellow to black.

"Shit," Hu said.

"Fuck. Nolan was the best
," Nani said.

Hu finally found Sim. His head was the only part that was exposed. His sniper's rifle was crushed around him under
all of the debris. Hu began to frantically pull at the debris. He was under more than either he or Nani had been. While he was unhurt it was going to take a long time to get him.

"Nani
," Sim said.

"Yeah buddy."

"Nani, they are taking the wounded away. You know it's not to help them. You two need to scoot. You don't have time to get me out of here."

"No, Sim. I won't do it."

"We promised each other a long time ago. You know what to do. I'm depending on you."

"Don't make me Sim
, please."

Hu stopped his frantic efforts
- he knew that Sim was right. He couldn't get out. It could but it would take hours.

"No regrets Nani. Remember we took our ticket and we took our chance."

Hu stood and looked down at the trapped Legionnaire.

"Pull off my faceplate I want to see things without the
heads-up one last time."

Hu reached down and lifted
Sim's faceplate. Sim was actually smiling.

"Nani
. I want to see you again."

Nani lifted her faceplate and Sim smiled at her.

"You know the way I feel about you Mala. You are the best. I knew I could trust you."

"Yeah, that's me
," Nani said.

Nani and Sim stared at one another for a long moment.

"Hu would you put his faceplate down."

Hu reached down and pulled down his faceplate. Nani did not
hesitate; she fired three rounds into his faceplate to make sure. Hu saw tears in those hard beautiful eyes of her. He glanced at his faceplate the red arrows were on top of them.

"We got to go Nani."

Hu slammed her faceplate down and grabbed her. Their scoot exit was still open. It had been turned into what amounted to a simple hole instead of an entrance but it was still here. Hu threw Nani down the stairs then he reached into his pocket and threw two handfuls of mini mines around the area. They would not get Nolan and Sim's bodies without suffering casualties. Then Hu leaped into the hole and followed Nani.              

LYTEN SYSTEM

AREA OF RIFT

DESTROYER CAPELLA

BRIDGE

"General Quarters, general quarters all hands man your battle stations. All crewmembers will don their evacuation suits before reporting to general quarters. Legionnaires report to ships and make all preparations for immediate launch. Load all torpedo tubes. Repeat, load all torpedo tubes."

Ririsa leaned back in her Captains chair. She needed to remind herself if she lived through the next few hours to be careful what she wished for because she sure got it.
She had wanted action now she had more than she knew what to do with.

"All ahead full. You have coordinates."

She looked at her display and saw the Bernards was falling in right behind her. At least she and Lung would go down in naval history as the two idiots who went charging into a fleet of aliens.

"Have Steiner report to bridge as soon as he able."

"Yes, ma'am."

Ririsa glanced at the young helmsmen. He returned her glance.

"Captain, if I may say I thought we had already earned our pay this month."

"You and me both there
, sailor."

They both laughed as the bridge and the ship around them almost vibrated with preparations for the coming battle. Ririsa had a plan to attack the carrier
and she hoped it would work. She was counting on surprise and audacity to buy them enough time to do some damage before.... yes before. Lt. Steiner came onto the bridge and walked up to Ririsa. He looked tired after the long flight. She was going to send him right back up, if she knew Steiner, he would never rest as long as his platoon was going out.

"Well Lieutenant
, it looks like you came up with quite a target for us. What made you take the chance?"

"There were just too many fighters for what we knew to be the size of their fleet. They had to be using something else. I found this damaged fighter and figured it would make a beeline to home. So I just tailed it and got lucky."

"What if you had run into another portion of their fleet with a combat area patrol up?"

"I wouldn't be talking to you now. You would be sending my name in to be put on the wall."

Ririsa couldn't help herself - she laughed despite trying to be stern with him, but she never could.

"Steiny Man I
am just glad to see you and you will be put in for a medal if we live through this."

"Thanks Captain. What now?"

"We've been ordered to attack the vessel you found with the Bernards. My plan is to fire all our remaining torpedoes in a single salvo. Then we go in for a gun run with your Legionnaires around us as we attack."

"Ma'am?"

"Yeah, I know, we already shot our wad when we attacked the Landing Platform on our way out of the Anchorage. We've not been able to resupply and a few torpedoes into something that size will not make much difference. That is why we are going to follow up the torpedoes with a gun run."

"Nobody's done that in...I don't know how long. What do you need us to do Captain?" Steiner
tried hard to suppress a smile. Talk about a pair of balls. Admiral Lule had a pair of balls, had them in spades. He wouldn't miss this for his home planet.

"A few hundred years
, Lieutenant. What I need you to do is go in with us, keep their fighters off my ass and get as many licks in as you can. I've been studying the video you sent and it doesn't appear that the carrier has any anti-ship weapons so I am hoping to get close enough to do some damage with our guns. If I were that Captain I would be launching everything I had at us. So I need you to keep them off my us while we do some damage."

"When do we launch Captain?"

"Not long. You will have enough time for a quick briefing then man your ships."

"Captain."

Steiner turned to leave.

"Lieutenant
, I've notified Admiral Lule of my plan and she and the other ships will be ready to recover you and your platoon."

"Ma'am
, I would prefer to return to Capella."

"So would I
, Lieutenant. Get below and prepare  your platoon for launch."

Steiner came
to attention and saluted Ririsa, something not normally done. Ririsa returned the salute.

"It has been a privilege serving with you
, Captain."

"Thank you Lieutenant. It has been my privilege having you in my command."

With that Steiner turned and hurried down toward the Hanger Bay. Ririsa touched the button on her command chair that gave her the all-hands communications for the ship.

"Men and women of the Capella
, we along with the Bernards are about to attack a much larger vessel that is carrying all of the aliens fighters for its fleet. We are facing overwhelming odds. The rest of the Task Force that escaped the anchorage will follow our attack, but we will be attacking long before they reach us. This carrier ship must be destroyed if we are to prevent a successful invasion of Rift. We will fire all our remaining torpedoes in a single salvo, launch the Legionnaires and follow our torpedoes in for a gun run on the ship. Make all preparations for a gun runs. Remember that you are some of the best spacemen in the fleet. We have been chosen by history for this mission. I have every confidence in your abilities. Good luck."

Ririsa sat silently for several moments staring out of the window display at her ship as it stretched out in front of her. Robot walkers were everywhere repairing the damage of the last battle and now they were heading into a battle with little hope
of surviving. She loved her ship and the men and women of her crew. She knew whatever happened they would uphold the highest standard of the naval service.

Jakob Petrussen and Nicole Fremont had just finished running practice firing runs with the new crew of Gun Mount 13 when they heard the Captain's message. Jakob stared at Nicole opened-mouthed in astonishment. After everything that had happened today he had begun to think that nothing could ever throw him for a loop but the announcement did.

"What's a gun run?"
the cook asked.

"Well, it means we are going in close enough to fire this nice big scam at that ship."

"But no one's done that in...I think I read about it in history books."

"Yeah, well looks like we are going to do it so let
’s get our ass in gear so we are ready. If I know our Captain she is wasting no time."

"What do we do? Are there different rounds for this?"

"Negative. Something going close to ten miles per second carries quite a punch no matter what it hits. The rounds we have are designed to penetrate the armor of fighters now, so it will penetrate a ship’s armor," Jakob explained..

"We
're going to do some damage but those five incher's topside." Nicole said.

"Look we're already in our evac suits
, let's button them up and run through more drills and get used to working with the helmets down," Jakob said.

"So everyone knows
. The closest escape POD is two compartments forward. The closest lifeboat is one deck directly below us," Nicole said.

"You don't think we'll need them
, do you?"

Jakob and Nicole exchanged a glance.

"All right, prepared to load," Jakob said.

"Captain all tubes are ready. The Bernards Captain is on comm for you."

"Put him through."

An Lung's face floated in front of hers on her comm panel. He looked tired and had a nano patch on his forehead. He had taken more of a beating than she had.

"An
, how are you? You look a little worse for wear," Ririsa said.

An touched the nano patch on his forehead.

"Yeah, it got right festive there for a while. Ririsa, I was thinking if we go in side by side it makes it too easy for them to concentrate their defenses. I am going to make my torpedo run from above and then my guns run from below. It will give them more to worry about."

"Good idea
, An. If nothing else we'll dazzle them  with our tactics."

An let a wary smile cross his
face.

"Yeah. Look Ririsa
, I'm going to use the Bernards like a big fighter. I'm going to try and make as many gun runs as I can before...all my sims say the same thing and I think that will allow us to do the most damage."

Ririsa knew what he meant, she had run every tactic through her simulations and they all returned the same outcome. They were destroyed. It did not matter how they tried to run or what evasive maneuvers they used the outcome was always the same. An was right
, get in close and stay there till you couldn't.

"Good idea
, An. I was considering the same thing. It's going to put quite a strain on the ships as they were not designed for those kind of turns."

"The contractors keep tell
ing me she can do anything I ask. So I am asking her to do what she was not designed to do. She has held up to everything they have thrown at her so far. Let see how our friends like a fifteen thousand ton fighter."

Ririsa laughed.

"Good luck, An. It's your turn to buy when this is over you know."

"Yeah it is. Good luck Ririsa."

"Captain."

"Go ahead CIC."

"We have just picked up the target. It is a big one, we are going to designate it 5934."

"Check. Full speed ahead and let me know when we are at the outer limits
of the Long Lance range."

"Check."

"Launch Legionnaires."

"Aye, aye ma'am."

Ririsa had been studying the area of operation around her before the engagement began. There was nothing anywhere other than one big assed target with a whole lot of fighters. She couldn’t learn anything else. Now it was time get it done. She switched the bridge wraparound display to window. The Capella stretched out in front of her. Lights began to flash on both the port and starboard sides of the ship. Then the Legionnaires began to emerge from their hangers. They formed up around the Capella, matching her speed. It was quite a sight, those tiny lethal one-man ships moving expertly around the ship. Everything was set.

"We are in range
," CIC reported.

"Fire all torpedoes."

"Fire all torpedoes, aye."

The torpedoes appeared out of their tubes
, some headed straight ahead while others had to turn to come on the proper heading. They all accelerated away from the Capella, their engines a white-hot living dot as they raced toward their target. The Capella normally would turn away from the target now but this time she was following them in, with her Legionnaires. It was quite a sight from this end. Ririsa could only imagine what it must look like from the receiving end of things. Alarms must be going crazy in the aliens CIC.

"All batteries fire as you come to bear. I repeat do not wait for an order to fire. When you have a solution
, fire."

The biggest scrams the
Capella had were the five-inch turrets on the top deck. She saw them rotate toward the target. A fast ship going in harms way on a dangerous and vital mission. She had dreamed of this moment since she was a little girl. Now here she was, heading into the biggest battle in the history of mankind. There was a very good chance that she would die in the next minutes or hours. If she did die, she realized everything she had accomplished as a naval officer was for this moment. She would not have traded places with anyone else. She thought that history had placed the right person and the right ship in the right place for this battle. No, she felt calm as the stars began to race by her on the ships forward display. The stars became blurs as the Capella reached her maximum speed. Things were the way they should be.

"Captain
, I think I can get a visual of 5934, we are just a thousand miles out," CIC said.

"Put it up."

The display showed the ship that she had seen in the video - it was not just huge, it beyond any scale she could imagine. The hanger decks were so large; Ririsa thought she might be able to slip the Capella into one of them. What were a few Long Lances going to do to that thing?

"Captain, the first torpedoes should strike in five, four, three, two, one."

The carriers defenses lit up as the torpedoes neared. The crews and auto defenses desperately tried to destroy the torpedoes before they struck home. Ririsa saw one, then another of the Long Lances explode in a rainbow of colors. Then another and another struck home. Then still another. The explosions were tiny compared to the ship but they were doing damage. More rainbows of colors as other torpedoes were destroyed before reaching their target but nearly half of them had struck home. Now it was time for the surprise.

The starboard scram fired first at close to seven hundred miles.
Then on the port she saw one round strike what she assumed was the bridge area. A very large explosion was visible on the screen. Good shooting, damn good shooting, now she saw the alien fighters begin to swarm out of the ship and head toward the Capella.