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I WOKE UP THE NEXT morning to a klaxon blaring, with a boot in one hand and my foot in another.
Not wearing pants, much to my chagrin.
I pulled my foot out of my boot and grabbed my pants. Mallory was already ahead of me, pants on, bare breasted, but already on the comm. “Status report.” She said, pulling her undergarments on and then a shirt as I finished with my pants and bent for my boots.
“Gilbaglian fleet, directly ahead.” The officer of the watch replied. “They are powering weapons.”
“Raise shields,” She said, tossing me a clean shirt. I caught it in stride and pulled it over my head, then caught the incoming jacket that followed it, a black and blue camouflage pattern that was our standard daily wear. “All hands,” She said, as she exited the door, I was only a step behind her. “Battle stations. Phelb ships, prepare for combat.”
I pushed my earpiece into my ear and listened into voice traffic. “Night stalkers, report to hangar bay one.” I said. Mallory stopped at the open lift door and swung around. I had to continue left towards the hangar bay, but I stopped, put my arms around her and kissed her. “I love you.” I said.
“Come back to me.” She replied, then stepped back and let the doors shut.
I continued down and Vearse, Kelis, Lieutenant Grace and to my surprise, Captain MacKenzie fell into step behind me and marched towards the hangar bay, making up the entirety of the command staff of the Night stalkers on the Eternity, others were scattered on other ships to make sure we weren’t wiped out with one good strike.
The doors cycled open and we strode in to the bay. Dropships were being fueled and loaded with warheads and ammunition, small arms and soldiers. A handful of Marauders were hovering near some Night stalkers, and I walked right up to them. “What are you doing?” I demanded. “Why aren’t you gearing up?”
“Uh, sir...” One answered, looking around nervously. “We...did not want to impose on the Night stalkers...but we would like to combat load with a Special Operations unit...”
I chuckled. “Gear up and get onto transport one.” I turned to MacKenzie. “You’re commanding two,” I pointed at Ivata who had just walked up. “What?” I asked.
“Going with you.” He replied.
“No, you’re not.” I said. “You need to stay here.”
“You need another officer on the Spec Ops dropships.” He said, his voice flat.
“I have one,” I pointed at Grace. Vearse and Kelis dropped my duffle at my feet and I bent, opened it and began pulling on my combat armor. “You stay.”
“Sir,” Ivata began. “You’re going to need...”
“You wanted to train.” I said, standing up and looking at him firmly. “You are my best friend, do not make me order you to remain behind.” I said with the same firmness in my eyes.
He nodded and stepped back as I pulled my vest onto my shoulders. “You are the only brother I have left.” I said, more softly. “Don’t ask me to bring you into Gilbaglian airspace.”
Ivata still had a family on Vandor, his parents and both of his sisters had survived the entire Phelb war without a scratch, Vearse, Kelis, Mallory and I were orphans. He nodded. “Be careful.”
“Of course,” I replied, staring down at the ballistic helmet I didn’t usually wear. If I’d been wearing one on Earth, I might not have been knocked down by a blow to the back of the head and disabled. I pulled it on and locked the ballistic glasses into place. I glanced up at MacKenzie who was fumbling with Marauder gear, with his Marauder patch plainly in view on the red, orange and tan dappled camo pattern on his uniform. I walked over and ripped the patch off his arm. He looked at me oddly for a moment.
“Sir?”
I slapped a new patch onto his shoulder. It wasn’t a Nightstalker patch, not yet, but the 11th Infantry division of Vandor, one of the stronger strike units represented on the Eternity.
“You were out of uniform, Captain.” I replied. “I’m taking your Marauders with me.” I pointed at the group.
He nodded. “Try to bring them home.”
“I’ll do my best.” I pulled the charging handle on my rifle, then felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Vearse.
“It took the armory four days to get all the...people parts out of the barrel and the chamber. But here it is, sir.”
He handed me the long barreled heavy sniper rifle I thought I’d lost on Earth.
“First Sergeant,” I said, taking the rifle and inspecting it fondly. “You are phenomenal.”
He nodded with a grin and headed off to his assigned ship. I turned and cycled the bolt action on the big rifle and smiled fondly. I’d killed a lot of Phelbs on Earth with this beautiful weapon. MacKenzie looked over at me and I smirked at him.
“That’s the one, isn’t it, sir?” He asked, snapping the buckles on his combat harness closed.
“It is.” I replied.
He shook his head, his blonde hair swaying slightly. “Does it have a name, sir?”
“Doesn’t need one.” I replied. “Vandorians don’t have silly naming customs like you do, Captain. We just like things that work. This weapon, without a doubt, works.”
He nodded. “Fair enough, sir.”
We finished gearing down and boarded the transport, and I thought back to a couple of years ago, when I had first loaded aboard a dropship for a combat drop and how terrified I was of going into combat. Since then, I’d killed more than a million people, fought on three different planets in three different star systems, and now here we were, taking on a technologically superior and ancient race.
I flashed my brows at Sergeant Kelis. “Ready to do this?” I asked him, settling into a seat and pulling the crash harness around my body.
“Sir, does it ever seem to you that we just keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result?” He asked with a grin.
“Of course,” I replied. “But I’ve been called insane since I was just a child, and now I might as well make it all come true.” Kelis and Vearse laughed.
MacKenzie radioed from the other dropship. “I admit to nerves, sir.” He said.
“Yeah, and?” I replied. We all spoke over an open comm channel and I grinned at him. “You’ve never done a hot drop before?”
“I’ve never boarded a ship before, sir.” He replied.
“Oh.” I shrugged. “Well, we’ve taken a few. This will probably be...alarming.” I said. “I’ve never been inside of a Gilbaglian ship, so, it’ll be a learning experience for all of us.”
“Apocalypse one,” Came the voice of the pilot over the comm. “Ready for launch against target alpha.”
We were launching a total of twelve dropships from four different ships at twelve different targets all at once, to maximize our efforts and the chance of successfully boarding and capturing a ship.
“Launch approved,” Mallory’s voice came back over the comm repeater. “Give them hell.”
The dropship tilted as it lifted off the deck and then gave a shudder as it fired its big engines and shot into open space. I brought up the hull camera feed on my HUD and stared in awe as the battle played out in front of us. The Gilbaglian fleet had been waiting for us here. They were arrayed in a defensive grid, with their heaviest ships in the lines behind smaller vessels, so they could stand off and fire at us from range. Their weapon technology was similar to ours, with smaller projectiles being flung across space at just below light speed, which was an exceptionally slow process.
“Admiral Valentine is supposed to unleash some new tactic on them.” Kelis said softly, he must have also been watching the camera view. “I hope it works.”
“It will be a guessing game.” Peter said, making me snap my head around. He had a strange way of appearing in places I least expected him to be in. “Because we’ve never fought Gilbaglians before, in space or on the ground.”
“They’re birds,” Kelis said. “How bad could it be?”
—-
