Jethro: First to Fight (78 page)

Firefly launched two shuttles to the station.
Two Horathian gunships that were closest to the station were drawn off to
intercept. The shuttles were decoys, all part of the Captain's divide and
conquer plan.

Once the enemy ships were far enough
from the main body they separated and then headed to the planet. The gunships
were confused but shaped for an intercept course. They walked right into the
engagement zones of the remaining fighters and were torn apart.

...*...*...*...*...

“You do know the Marines
needed
those shuttles right skipper?” Shelby asked. “They can't exactly walk across
space to the station or ships.”

“What are you kidding me? Give a Marine
a butter knife and they think they can do anything,” the Captain said. That got
a laugh. Even Janice was chuckling, shaking her head. “We'll get em back.
Eventually,” the Captain replied with a shrug. Both shuttles had made orbit of
the planet and were now safe under the PDC umbrella. What was left of it at any
rate. “For now, they're safe where they are.”

...*...*...*...*...

“Admiral!” Captain Maul snarled, one
hand on the admiral's arm. “We've got to run,” he said, parsing each word out
carefully. “Cover what we have. Retreat. It's our only option now. They are
picking us apart, one ship at a time!”

The admiral stared at him for a long
time. Beady eyes stared into Maul's imploring eyes, he felt like he was looking
into a predator's gaze. “No,” the admiral finally said, his voice raw from
screaming orders. “No, we're not going to do that.” He stood and adjusted his
suit. “Captain Maul, you are relieved of duty. The charge is cowardice in the
face of the enemy. Leave. My. Bridge,” the admiral said. He waved to a guard
nearby. “Guard, escort this man to the brig.”

“Sir!” the Captain said, eyes lost. He
knew the admiral wanted a scapegoat, knew the charge was a death sentence, but
he had to try to salvage something.

“
Now
,” the admiral growled, eying
the guard. The guard sprang to obey. He took the Captain's side arm and then
pulled him by the arm out.

“Don't you see we've lost?” the Captain
demanded.

“Come on,” the guard said, hauling him
by the arm. He felt the man's pulser dig into the back of his neck. Then the
Captain knew all was lost. His face fell and he meekly allowed himself to be
escorted out without further protest. When the hatch closed behind them there
was a buck.

The Captain frowned. “What was that?”

“None of our business. Now move along. I
don't want to shoot you sir,” the guard said.

“I...” Suddenly all hell broke loose as
the ship lurched hard over and then bulkheads were torn apart. The Captain was
knocked flat, he felt the air around him whistle past him. He clutched at
something, trying to make sense of it all and failing. The one thing he thought
of was self evident, Cutlass was done.

...*...*...*...*...

Firefly's six eggs she had dropped
during her Dazzle and Shell game were missiles. Each had been sent out with
just the initial impulse from the missile launchers, then they had gone dark,
acting like holes in space, much like their mother ship. They had tumbled for
hours until they had made it within targeting distance of the Horathian
flagship. A quick check with their computers and the game was on. They lit off
their drives and then roared in at under ten thousand kilometers range. Before
Cutlass's surprised defenders could react they were past the counter missile
engagement zone and were slamming into the ship's shields, tearing the weakened
shields down and boring into the armor of the ship. When the last one detonated
they left a drifting hulk.

...*...*...*...*...

Stunned, the surviving Horathians fled,
running for home. The warships attempted to screen the unarmed ships but now it
was Firefly's turn.

...*...*...*...*...

“By Jove it worked!” Shelby quipped.

“Don't act so surprised Watson,” the
Captain said, smiling. She turned to the resident tac witch. “Good shooting
guns,” she said simply.

“We've got a good team Captain.”

“Time to send in the Marines. Boarding
action to commence shortly.”

“I bet some people have been waiting a
while to hear that,” The AI replied.

The Captain smiled wolfishly. They'd
lost a few Marines due to battle damage, but so far so good. “Yeah, well,
they've still got a bit of a wait, we've got riffraff to clean up. But they'll
get their turn once we've overhauled the freighters trying to run.”

“It looks like our part is about over,”
Shelby said. She sounded a bit relieved and disappointed at the same time.

“No, but it will be soon enough. Let's
get in there and tear them apart.”

...*...*...*...*...

When Cutlass, their flagship was disabled,
the enemy fleet fled into the darkness of space. The retreat started in ones,
but then the others broke into a tide of retreating ships. The freighters led
the way. Ramona limped along, quickly falling behind. She was one of the first
to fall to Firefly's force beams and precise fire.

Firefly took damage but overwhelmed the
enemy during the stern chase. The smaller warships would normally have been
able to outrace the larger ship but they had been built with civilian parts and
all had taken some damage in the fighting.

Firefly isolated the fleeing force,
diving straight into their center and throwing herself into the now familiar
corkscrew. The corkscrew threw off their aim, forcing their energy weapons to
waste themselves on multiple shields, not one small sector to bore through.
Firefly of course fired back, ripping their shields down with her force beams
then following that up with precision fire.

The attack maneuver broke the smaller
ships into smaller and smaller groups. By focusing on one at a time and
pounding it into splinters or until it couldn't fight back and then changing
targets or pulling back they broke the route. The freighters that couldn't
handle the speed fell into Firefly's engagement zone. A few shots sent them
tumbling, dead in space, their engines torn apart.

Since Firefly was a modern light cruiser
fully restored she was more than a match for the remaining pirates. Having the
ships come at her piecemeal made it easier as well, without their tactical
datalink, hampered by computer and physical damage and running scared out of
their minds, the pirates just made it easier to pick each off in turn.

Firefly also had the advantage of a
fully functional AI and the blueprints and computer codes of the enemy. One
corvette cut her drive after a cyber attack hit home. Her engines sputtered and
then died. She tumbled end over end, a dead ship.

“What happened there?” Shelby asked,
pointing to the ship.

“She's dead. No need to worry about it.”

“I, dead, can she come back?”

“No. I killed her life support and her
computer. She's a dead stick. Any surviving crew are left with their suit air,”
Firefly said. That sent a shiver through the organic crew.

“War is hell,” the Captain murmured.

Firefly's AI waged a cyber war,
debilitating the enemy ships and either scramming their reactors or at least
cutting off their communications. The pirates cut off their own communications
when they figured out what was going on, forcing them to fight as individuals
furthering Firefly's advantages. Once the warships were crippled, Firefly
recovered her fighters briefly, rearmed them, and then sent them out once more.
Then they launched SAR shuttles to recover any pods or beacons. Two additional
shuttles launched, each were Warhawks loaded with Marine boarding parties.

The fighters raced ahead of the warship
and struck, disabling freighters engines for the shuttles to overhaul with
boarding parties.

“Nasty business in all that. They tried
to fight, couldn't. Tried to run, failed that. Felt sorry at the end,” Purple Thorn
said smugly, tapping at her controls.

“You are so mangling that quote,”
Commander Logan said, shaking her head mournfully.

“I am? I didn't know I was quoting.”

“Yeah,” Captain Mayweather said. “Check
your implants. Or I'll give you the original source material...
after
this is wrapped up.”

The tiny elf shrugged and tapped at her
controls. “I think it's about wrapped up now Captain. Two Corvettes running and
are out of the fighter's engagement range. They are bingo for bullets and bombs
anyway.”

“I see.”

Only two corvettes managed to eventually
escape, both headed to the Triang jump point. They didn't have the legs to
return to Horathian space so Mayweather wasn't too concerned about their
escape. She planned on checking on Triang on the way back to Pyrax though.

“Yes, it's about wrapped up. At least
our part is. Now it's all in the hands of the Marines.”

“Oh boy. Spirit of Space help us,”
Janice quipped.

“Now now, they are Marines. And they
like shooting people and breaking things. This is right up their alley. Besides
do you want to do it?” the Captain asked, indicating the tumbling wrecks on the
other side of the view screen, and then the station beyond.

Janice took a long minute to look. She
winced when a frigate flared with an internal explosion. Gases vented, turning
her into a brief cloud of tumbling debris. “Well, when you put it like that...
no,” she drawled.

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” the Captain
said. “Besides, we've got our own work to do. Damage control, then paperwork.
Gigs and gigs of paperwork,” the Captain said with a suffering sigh.

“Sadist,” the XO said with a grin.

...*...*...*...*...

Overall it was a remarkable performance
for the Federation Navy. Captain Mayweather her crew, and the Cobra fighters had
done a bang up job, destroying one destroyer, disabling two other destroyers,
killing eight frigates, disabled four more and capturing a dozen freighters of
various sizes. Most of the gunships were expanding balls of wreckage all over
the system. She had also been forced to kill a dozen corvettes and reduced two
to air bleeding wrecks. Two more were adrift thanks to the AI's and cybers.

Two corvettes had gotten away in the
confusion. CIC reported they had changed course and had headed to the Triang
jump point.

The improvised factory ship Ramora was
down, she had already signaled her surrender. The tanker had blown up, self
destructed to prevent it's capture when fighters had disabled her engines
according to their report. Two other freighters had been torn up, but the other
seventeen had cut their engines and were quivering in fear, waiting for the
Marines. It was a bit of a twist, pirate freighters being seized.

All for the loss of two fighters, one
damaged, twenty navy dead, another thirty seven injured, and a dozen Marine
dead or wounded. But the Marine body count was about to get higher. Much higher
indeed. “Their turn,” the Captain murmured, looking at the Horathian ships,
then back to the image of the station. 

During the action the Marines tried to
keep up with the damage control parties before being ordered to suit up. A
dozen Marines had been killed in the fighting, there were just too many bodies
and not enough places to cower when the ship started taking hits.

All the Marines were in their skinnies,
now they resupplied and then hit the armory. Less than a third of the Marines
had powered combat armor though. They waited nervously in the boat bays and
shuttles. Some were strapped to the outside of the shuttles, others like Jethro
waited in out of the way places.

A half squad of powered combat armor was
assigned to each pirate boarding, they would act as the ready reserve. They hit
each ship hard, hammering any resistance into splinters.

The boarding parties assigned to take
the pirate vessels rode in the navy pinnaces or Skyhawk or Warhawk cutters.
Those that were in a pinnace had cover from the boat, it unlike the cutters,
had a laser turret.

...*...*...*...*...

With the pirates routed from the station
the two Marine Warhawks in Antigua orbit broke orbit and headed to the station.
They would cover the station with Cobra 4 until Firefly returned.

...*...*...*...*...

Marines did heroic boarding actions on
pirate ships and on station in full combat armor. They were followed by small
groups of naval personnel designated to run the systems they captured.

They found sullen Horathians and some
surviving human slaves that had been press ganged into service. Several ships
spaced their slaves or shot them before they were boarded. Those ships had the
most incidents of 'accidental discharge of a firearm' and the least number of
surviving Horathians.

One freighter managed to scram her
reactor just as the Warhawk docked and the Marines were boarding. The first
warning the Marines had was the vessel's escape pods launching. The Ensign in
charge wisely pulled his forces back.

The shuttle picked up the nearest pod
but they weren't sure what to do with it. Shortly after they picked the pod up
the freighter's engines red lined and then exploded, ripping her fuel tank and
rear hull apart. The damage was extensive, but it hadn't
quite
destroyed
the ship. It had turned it into a drifting colander yes, kill anyone, no. Just
the same, the jarheads were particularly glad to
not
be on that
particular ship at the moment. The Ensign was promised enough beer to swim in.

...*...*...*...*...

Major Zimmer heard the reports in
stunned disbelief. It couldn't be possible, it shouldn't be happening, and yet
it was. Impotent rage filed him, rage he knew now his victims had felt when
they had seen his men coming and could do nothing to stop them. Well, he could
do something, he had the better part of seven hundred soldiers and tens of
thousands of hostages!

“They're coming for us now men, mark my
words. That means we've got to get ready. Find defensible locations Captain
Red, Bronty, get me a track on the ships and let me know when shuttles are
incoming. Yang, I want a stopping force organized. They can't have many
soldiers with them in that thing, that means numbers are on our side,” he
growled. He was still a little shocked over the outcome of that so called
battle. One ship, just one, had blown their fleet straight to hell and was
barely scratched! He was bitter over the outcome, it wasn't fair! They had a
fully operational Federation Warship!

“Put a third of our heavies out front.
Nast to lead. I want them stopped hard, but set up fall backs here and here,”
he said, pointing to the image of the station. “I want teams set to get behind
them. And hit any security systems you can, take them out.”

He didn't know if it would be enough, he
wasn't sure what would work, but he had to do something and pray someone would
think of a way out of the crack they were in. Or they'd go down swinging.

...*...*...*...*...

Major Pendeckle tried to draw order from
chaos, managing all the various actions all over the area while watching
Valenko prep his assault team. He had wanted to go in with the bear and lead
the charge but he reluctantly realized his place was here, in Firefly's CIC
managing his far flung people. Hopefully they would get it sorted out soon,
Valenko was going in with only one squad as back up. And he had the hardest job
of all, which was why two thirds of their armor had been handed to the bear.
Thirty suits of powered combat armor and another forty eight skin suited
Marines against... the last report pegged the Horathian numbers around seven
hundred.

Talk about a target rich environment.

...*...*...*...*...

Firefly arrived and braked to match
orbits with the station. Her two wayward shuttles and Hurt Locker's fighter
recovered on the ship. Boat Bay crews rushed to refuel the shuttles and
fighter.

Hurt Locker popped her canopy but waved
off the ladder. She took her helmet off and graciously accepted the drink a
rating handed her. She smiled and took the MRE she had as well. “Damn, I can't
believe I'm glad to eat one of these. It beats mush from my life support any
day!” she said, happily digging in.

...*...*...*...*...

Just before they launched, Valenko held
a last minute briefing as they topped off the charges on their suits. He worked
through the various points they already knew, then topped that with what was
new. “Everything is in your download, so I suggest you read it. We've got maps
of the enemy, so pay attention. Log into the computer net and get an updated
real time feed.”

“I love that idea,” Fonz said, fist
bumping Asazi.

“Don't think it's all fun and games.
It's not. It's not a shooting gallery either. If someone wants to surrender,
let them. Disarm them carefully, mind IED's. But also be mindful of a trap. The
Germans played that prank in WW2.”

“Oh?”

“They'd send a kid in uniform out to an
American tank with his hands up. The crew would fixate on the kid and not see
the antitank gun that was nearby until it was too late.”

“Ah. So, I guess we can't shoot
prisoners?”

“No. We need the intel.”

“Darn.”

Valenko looked at Fonz but he could tell
the human was only partially joking. He returned to his script. “We've just
been warned of possible surviving Dilgarth too by the way, so watch
yourselves.”

“Oh lovely. Why the hell...”

“Someone wanted the pirates to have a
little fun. Apparently the natives had them on ice and decided to dust them
off, thaw them out and then let them loose.”

“Okay, now, that's just wrong. On so
many levels.”

“Yeah well, the Horathian's like killing
aliens and Neo's so much, apparently someone on the station wanted to introduce
them to someone who wanted them just as dead.”

“Perfect.”

“Hey, I'm all for that. Besides, we're
in suits. They won't scratch my paint.”

“Speak for yourself,” a Marine said,
wearing a skin suit.”

“Tough love,” Sergei said. He turned to
Valenko. “So, um, Lieutenant, just for the record and all, are we going in our
Recon role or Raider?”

Valenko rolled his eyes. “Shut up
Sergei,” he sighed in exasperation.

“I'm just saying, I can never tell these
days,” Sergei said, hefting his rifle on his hip.

“Enough,” Valenko said, shaking his
head. “Let's load em up and move em out people. We've got a date with some pirates
and some people to rescue.”

“Yeah, just remember, sometimes it sucks
to be the hostage,” Fonz said.

“You ready on your end?” Valenko asked,
turning to Jethro, prepping his armor with a pair of navy techs. Jethro looked
up and gave him a thumbs up.

“Semper Fi then.”

“See you inside,” Jethro said, saluting.
The bear returned the salute and then boarded the shuttle. Jethro watched the
hatch close.

...*...*...*...*...

Some of the pirates panicked over the
radio when reports of Marines in full powered combat armor came through on
their net. “We can't fight that!” One young terrorized pirate screamed, backing
away.

“As you were Private!” His noncom
clubbed him back into position. The Private took one look at Sergeant Nasty
Nast and stopped, eyes wide. “You will be more afraid of me than the enemy! You
read me?”

“Yes sir!”

“Get back into position. The next man
who moves I'll shoot them myself. We've got our orders, get ready to kick some
pussy ass!” Nast snarled, voice harsh with hate. One look into his visor at his
scared face and cold artificial eye was enough to get his men back in order.
The enemy coming were a distant thing compared to the killer in their midst,
just waiting for a chance to cut them down for cowardice.

...*...*...*...*...

Approaching the station, Valenko was
making last minute preparations with the squads when the pilots called him
forward. He grumbled and instead of trying to squeeze his bulk through the all
too narrow hatch to the flight deck, he tapped his link.

“What is it Ensign?”

“Sir, I thought you'd like to know,
we're on final approach for a hard dock, but we're getting readings. We're also
receiving signals from the station.”

“Oh?”

“Yes sir, but this is time sensitive, we
have less than two minutes to dock.”

“Pull back on the throttle son, let me
see what you have,” The bear said. He frowned as the copilot shunted the feed
to him. He turned and pulled his crew into it.

The first feed he looked at was the
shuttle's sensors, the enemy was piled up along their intended lock on either
side of the hull. That extended outward with a blocking force stationed to cut
them off. That was expected. What wasn't expected was the numbers, at least
fifty, nor that they would be hugging the hull.

“And this is...” he opened the second
link to see a series of camera feeds. Each quarter image was of pirates
scrambling to deploy in the halls, some setting up make shift barricades of
shipping containers and goods in various locations. “Who is sending this?” Valenko
asked, suspicious.

“The station. We're getting some talk as
well. Chatter. Want to hear it?”

Valenko looked at the time, he had less
than a minute. He frowned. “No, but give me the link. No, I want you to unzip
them. Both sides please.”

“Are you sure?”

“Hell yes! You'll be doing half our work
for us!” The bear growled.

“Sure, take the easy way,” the Ensign
said and then shrugged. “Two I'll take the port, you've got starboard. Hold off
a click out and then hose em. Start with the lock and then move outward.”

“Roger,” Two's pilot reported.

...*...*...*...*...

“Get ready. We're going to let their
point pass us and enter the basket, then we'll hit them in the middle. When
their point turns the blocking force will move in to nail the coffin shut,”
Sergeant Nast said, smiling a nasty smile. On him it was downright scary, he
had a scar running diagonally across the right side of his face and lip.
Another set of scars had torn his right eye up, a crude camera prosthetic
replaced the torn out eye. He'd tangled with a Neocat in his youth, she'd been
protecting her young. He'd been having fun with her until she'd ripped his face
up. Her fur hide now made for a nice warm rug in his latrine back home. He made
certain to dribble a little piss on it every chance he got, despite his wife's
disapproval.

Briefly his hand drifted to the loose
necklace around his neck. It was made up of teeth from that Neo, other Neo's,
aliens, a couple of the Dilgarth they had recently encountered, and even a few
human traitors. He sported earrings made out of bear canines too. He had some
of the Dilgarth claws, skulls, and teeth on ice, he was planning on cleaning
them up and then selling them to other Horathians as souvenirs when he had
time.

“These pussy's don't know what they're
getting into, so we'll just tear em a new one, right?” he snarled. They had
heard rumors of the Marines, but they also knew that the Marines were
unblooded. Combat veterans knew, if you created enough shock and awe, new meat
froze up or bolted. Either would work just fine here, frozen they'd make for
great targets, running around like chickens with their heads cut off would just
make cutting them down more fun.

He was still smiling as he flipped his
visor down, just in time for the hull to shake and then explode near the lock.
It tore inward, then the explosive decompression sucked screaming men and
equipment into a tumble as the incoming fire tore at them. Their bodies filled
the holes briefly before the hull gave way and they exploded out into the dark
void beyond.

...*...*...*...*...

The Ensign grinned savagely as he held
off about a kilometer from the lock. He took it carefully, letting his copilot
and gunner hose the hull along their side of the lock. Within moments they had
hit piping and gasses vomited out of the holes they were tearing in the hull.
Soon tumbling bodies and equipment followed. He jigged to avoid a tumbling
body.