Parker's Folly (43 page)

“Roger that, Folly. We are on the way.” Switching to the squad's frequency Bear rumbled. “OK boys, let's go before Lt. Curtis kills all of the bugs and we are left standing around with our dicks in our paws.”

A pair of spiders came out of the hedgerow behind the squad. Feldman and Sanchez quickly put them down with short bursts of 5mm. “We're supposed to cover them,” Feldman said to Sanchez on suit-to-suit, “who's going to cover us?”

The Captain had just signed off with Lt. Bear when Chief Zackly called from the returning hover sled. “Folly, this is the Chief Zackly in the skiff. We're almost out of the tunnel and headed for the ship with three souls on board, two KIA and a shit pot full of antimatter eggs.”

“We read you, Chief. Where are the others?” Jack had not heard from Lt. Curtis since sending the Chief's party to help retrieve the antimatter and rig the station for destruction. The only update the ship received was the unwelcome news that Lt. Bear's party was under attack.

“They should be close behind, Captain. We started takin' fire from assorted bug nasties and the LT told us to head back ahead of them.”

“Roger. Be aware that Lt. Bear and company will be coming out of the hedgerow on your starboard side. They have also been under attack by alien entities.”
Damn, this whole operation is starting to head south.
You have too many balls in the air,
Jack scolded himself,
what ever happened to Keep It Simple Stupid?

“Aye, Captain. We'll be along side in five minutes.”

Jack looked forward through the ship's transparent bow in time to see the Chief's hover sled burst from the core tunnel opening, accompanied by bolts of plasma fire.
“
Ms. Hamilton, Ms. Betts, make ready to fire on the aliens pursuing our boarding party. Do not fire until I give the word.”

“Yes, I mean aye aye, Captain,” Jolene replied nervously. “How do we identify the aliens?”

“They look like large metal spiders and will be shooting orange bolts of fire at us.”
I have untrained
people about to
provide supporting fire using gigajoule X-ray lasers. Luda's first impression was right, I must be insane.

On the Moon the enemy was farther away and clearly separated from our own people, plus that was in the open. Here we are boxed up in the docking bay, surrounded on all sides by metal that could scatter and reflect the laser radiation. As soon as the boarding party is back on board we will sterilize this place, but right now the last thing I want is to irradiate half of the ship's complement.

“Engineering, Bridge. Mr. Medina, bring the reactors back to full operational capacity and make the engines ready for departure.”

“Aye aye, Sir.”

“Helm, be prepared to back Folly out of here as soon as we recover the boarding party. Mr. Vincent, we may need a few rounds from the forward battery to cover our egress.”

As the hover sled exited the dark tunnel, Col. Kondratov was still laying down suppressing fire. Glowing bolts of plasma flew by on both sides of the speeding skiff, while Ivan's fire, the tracer rounds glowing like green flares from a roman candle, provided no noticeable deterrent to the alien attack. Still, since Tommy was killed the aliens had not managed to hit the fleeing sled. “Not the best of shots, are they?” Kondratov commented.

“I think that they are trying to avoid hitting the eggs, Colonel,” Yuki answered. “If they breach one of the large ones the entire station will be destroyed.”

“Keep yer heads down,” the Chief snapped, jinking the skiff from side to side as fiery orange death rained down from above. “We're almost home free.”

* * * * *

Sizemore and Washington, crouched down on either side of the tunnel opening, saw the hover sled flash by, accompanied by attendant plasma bolts. Following the speeding skiff, three stubby bodied flying aliens emerged, long plasma cannon snouts ablaze. “Take those flying things out, Washington,” Cpl. Sizemore ordered, himself loosing a long burst of flechettes at the nearest of the rapidly receding creatures.

Washington was forced to wait until the skiff cleared his line of fire. Then he too blasted away at the flying hostiles. His target came apart under repeated impacts by 5mm tungsten-steel flechettes traveling at 4,000 fps. His feeling of triumph was short lived as a score of spindly legged metal spiders entered the bay from the hedgerow to his left. “Corp! We got spiders on the left.”

Sizemore finished off his second flying target and looked right. “I hear ya. They're coming from the right too.”

* * * * *

As Bear's party broke through the last hedgerow between themselves and the ship's docking bay, they saw the Chief's skiff speed by. They also saw a phalanx of spiders moving into the bay on either side of them. “Hose 'em down!” Bear growled, unlimbering his flechette mini-gun.

Sanchez and Feldman on the squad's left, sent quick aimed bursts into the mob of six legged critters between their position and the central column. Between them and Sizemore, they had the spiders in a crossfire. JT and Reagan did likewise on the right, where the two crewmen who had been standing guard outside the port cargo door were also engaging the massed formation of spiders.

Seeing that the spiders coming from the nearside hedgerow were being neutralized, Bear concentrated on the far hedgerow. He fired a long burst, slowly sweeping his foreleg from left to right. The mini-gun's impact point moved in a continuous arc from the hedgerow wall near Washington to a point just off the ship's starboard bow. Over two thousand flechettes, every fifth one a bright green tracer, cut down the advancing spiders like a scythe cutting wheat. “The fire hose of death,” he chuckled. “Hey JT, I really like this gun!”

“I'm happy that you're happy,” the ex-green beret turned weapon's designer replied. “Now make us all happy and kill something, a lot of somethings.”

“With pleasure.” Hidden by his helmet, Bear wore an expression of pure feral joy.

* * * * *

As the rest of the boarding party was engaged in thinning the ranks of alien combatants, Gretchen, Kwan and the Gunny were arriving at the tunnel's inner platform. Making the awkward transition from the spiral pathway to the platform the Gunny stumbled, rolled and ended back on her feet.
I couldn't have done that if I had planned it
, she said to herself.

Gretchen, who's transition was not nearly as spectacular as the Gunny's, reached out and steadied PFC Kwan, who had also stumbled but not fallen in the changing gravity field. “Inside the tunnel mouth,” she ordered. “Then we'll pause for a minute while I check with the ship and find out what we will face when we get back to the docking bay.”

The two Marines moved quickly to comply. Though the gravity was light, running in the bulky armor was tiring. Without being asked, their suits' environmental units had boosted the oxygen levels in the air they were breathing and stepped up CO
2
removal. Even so, it was not enough to keep the three from becoming winded. “Folly, Lt. Curtis,” the Lieutenant called between panting breaths.

“Lt. Curtis, Folly. What is your location and status?”

“We are just entering the tunnel back to the docking bay. We've been under attack since we left the egg room. Interrogative the Chief's status?” Fumbling because of adrenalin and her suit's heavy gauntlets, Gretchen began loading more HE rounds into her launcher.

“The sled is coming along side now. Be advised that the docking bay is being inundated by alien creatures. Lt. Bear's squad and the rest of the boarding party are holding them off, but I would suggest you hasten your return.”

“Roger that, Folly. We are on the way.” Gretchen, who had dropped down on one knee while catching her breath and reloading, stood and told her companions, “come on Marines, we need to haul ass!”

“Belay that fire, you deck monkeys!” the Chief called to Hitch and Jacobs. “I'm going to fly the skiff into the cargo hold.” As he spoke he circled the hover sled to the right, swinging its tail wide to point the craft back in the direction they came from.

“Aw, Chief. We wasn't going to hit you,” complained Hitch. “The Captain said we was to give you covering fire.”

“Like I trust yous with loaded weapons,” the Chief shot back. He then raised the heavily burdened sled so it could clear the cargo door's threshold and slipped sideways into the hold. “So now what are you waiting for? Help keep those bug things off the Marines!”

As the two crewmen resumed firing at the milling mass of spiders, inside the cargo hold the Chief grounded the sled well way from the door. “All right, everyone out of the boat.” Noticing corpsman White standing by with a gurney next to the lift, the old boatswain motioned for the medic to come forward. “We ain't got any live one's for you Petty Officer, but we have some remains you might want to remove before the rest of 'em get back.”

“OK, Chief,” Betty answered, moving the gurney forward. With some trepidation she asked, “who are they?”

“The Marine called Two Can and that Wendover kid,” the Chief said. Then, seeing the pain in the corpsman's eyes, he added, “Sorry about your squad mate. If it's worth anything he died quick. Come on, I'll help you load 'em.”

The Chief, Yuki and Col. Kondratov all helped to place the remains of the two men, such as they were, on the medical gurney. The gurney floated frictionless above the deck, suspend much like a hover sled. Without a word, Betty pushed the gurney with its grisly cargo to the lift, rose to mid-deck level and into the airlock leading to the medical section.

Standing arms akimbo, Chief Zackly watched her go. Shaking his head sadly he turned to Dr. Saito and Col. Kondratov, menacing hulks in their black armor. “Gentlemen, I'll take those weapons if you please. In a few minutes there will be enough people waving live weapons around in here without adding a couple more.”

“Certainly, Chief,” replied Yuki, handing him the rail gun. After a moment's hesitation, Ivan also complied. “Should we exit the hold?”

“Negative, stand to. Don't want the airlocks tied up as you cycle through. Besides, we might need some extra hands when the rest come back on board.”

The scene that greeted Lt. Curtis and her companions as they exited the tunnel was pure pandemonium. Gouts of flaming plasma shot in all directions, showers of sparks and molten metal spewed where they impacted the deck. The red-orange alien plasma was interlaced with the green stitching of return fire from Lt. Bear's party, who were hunkered down in the middle of the docking bay.

Closer by, Washington and Sizemore were also firing on the aliens, trying to keep them from blocking the tunnel entrance. “We're coming out!” Gretchen yelled over the squad frequency, as the three tardy expedition members pounded out of the tunnel and headed for the ship.

On the left, Washington headed for Bear's squad and the saftey of the ship beyond. On the right, Cpl. Sizemore turned toward them and raised a hand signaling recognition. The Gunny waved back just moments before a gigantic crab shaped alien dropped on top of Sizemore from overhead. “What the fuck is that!” the Gunny shouted, raising her weapon and firing a short burst of 5mm at the crab-thing. Seeing her rounds ricocheting in all directions, she stopped firing, afraid of hitting Sizemore.

Beneath the crab, Sizemore managed to roll over onto his back. The looming metal monster raised a heavy front leg and brought it down like a spear on top of the helpless Marine. The Corporal's armor shell went rigid under the impact and the pointed end of the crab's leg slid off without doing any harm. The creature made repeated attempts to skewer the man pinned beneath it, to no effect. The crab-thing went to plan B.

Underneath the crab, Cpl. Sizemore was trying to bring his weapon to bear on his oversized assailant, lucky that the weapon had not been torn from his grasp when the alien tried to make a Marine-kabob out of him. The crab lifted its body above the trapped Marine, gaining clearance so its carapace could open. From the opening in its underside a large plasma cannon extruded. Seeing the emerging muzzle aimed at his head, Sizemore finally managed to raise his rail gun into firing position. Selecting HE, full auto, Sizemore pulled the trigger,  repeating “shitshitshitshit...” over the open comm.

In the end it was a dead heat. The first two rounds left the barrel of Sizemore's 20mm launcher before the crab fired. At point blank range, the plasma bolt vaporized the unfortunate Marine's helmeted head. The shock of the blast, however, stiffened the remaining unvaporized armor, holding the Corporal's weapon in position as it emptied its magazine of high explosive rounds into the creature's exposed underbelly.

A rapid string of exploding HE rounds propelled the crab-thing upward and away from Sizemore's body, before blowing the alien into a shower of tissue and body parts. The Gunny ran forward, hosing down three spiders as she ran. Gretchen looked toward the ceiling and saw another of the huge crab-things falling toward the deck. She selected HE and fired on the descending creature, calling out, “BEAR!”

Three hundred meters away, Bear snapped around and instantly raised his grenade launcher. A syncopated stream of HE rounds lept from its barrels. The four rounds from Gretchen's partly empty magazine managed to blow the crab sideways as it fell, the last round taking off a leg. Then Bear's salvo struck—explosions so close together that they formed a single prolonged blast ripping the crab to pieces.

“Kwan, grab an arm,” Gunny Rodriguez ordered. Kwan shifted his weapon to his left hand as he trotted up, then bent to grab his former comrade's arm. Together, the two Marines ran toward the ship, carrying the headless body of the fallen corporal between them. Where the body had lain, the metal surface of the dock cooled, fading to a dull cherry red. Gretchen brought up the rear.

As they reached Lt. Bear's squad—which was punishing the pursuing aliens with a withering fusillade—Kwan and the Gunny handed Sizemore's body off to Reagan and Feldman. As the entire party lit out for the ship, Gretchen said to Bear in passing, “thanks, I owe you one.”