Duty from Ashes (25 page)

“It seems he is looking into what happened and has been comparing notes with JAG.”

“And?”

“He’s convinced that what happened to O’Brien was meant as a message to not only him but to the others arrested with him, especially Sorkowski.”

“But that doesn’t make sense.”

Not unless there were others involved they didn’t know about yet.

“Unless we’ve missed something,” Okafor said.

Elizabeth blew out a breath, not sure what to think. She had always felt there was more to what happened to Ash and her people than they knew. Over the last few months, she’d also found herself wondering if there wasn’t more to the Callusians resuming hostilities than they thought. Could the two somehow be connected?

“What do you want me to do?”

“Meet with Santiago and compare notes. I know you’ve been looking into what happened as well.”

“Understood.”

“Good.” Okafor stood and quickly motioned for Elizabeth to stay where she was. “Keep me informed.”

With that, she was gone, leaving Elizabeth wondering when things would return to normal – if they ever did.

*     *     *

Kasun cursed loudly as an attack shuttle opened fire on the shuttles resting with cold engines at the landing field. They went up in a ball of flame no one could miss. Then that precision targeting turned to his groundside defenses. Yet through it all there was no demand for surrender, no contact whatsoever.

“Who are they?” he demanded helplessly.

“Does it matter?” Peltier countered, bracing himself with a hand on the wall as an explosion rocked the building. “We’re dead no matter who they are.”

Kasun knew the guard captain was right. Even if the invaders should somehow decide to break off the attack, the POWs were still there. He knew they wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if they managed to get their hands on him. He had to prevent that. But how? He had lost any advantage he had when the prisoners decided to fight back.

“Captain, have your people make sure the POWs are locked down. Barricade the gates and the underground access. We can’t worry about them and these damned invaders as well,” he snapped. “Make sure everyone’s armed, support staff as well as your people. Then get back here. Hopefully by then someone will figure out we need help.”

Assuming they aren’t in the same position we are.

*  *  *

“LT!” O’Donnell yelled from across the arena.

Hearing the disbelief in the woman’s voice, Joss quickly turned in her direction. As he did, the unmistakable roar of an attack shuttle streaking across the sky filled the air. It was followed almost instantly by the sounds of several explosions. A huge fireball shot across the sky only to disappear in the distance.

“Get under cover!” Joss ordered. “Run!”

Joss moved as quickly as he could toward the meager shelter offered by the walls of the buildings. The POWs might not be able to get inside but at least they could stick close to the structures as the fighting raged around them.

Without pausing, Joss grabbed O’Donnell as she stumbled and dragged her forward. As he did, he thanked a God he wasn’t sure he still believed in. At least so far they still lived. Hopefully, that wasn’t about to change.

Another series of explosions rocked the compound. Joss stumbled, pain tearing up his left leg. Before he could fall, O’Donnell steadied him.  Then they slid the last few feet to where the others waited in the shadows of the administration building.

“What’s going on?” one of the politicians who had been captured during the initial invasion wanted to know.

“Someone’s decided they hate Kasun as much as we do,” Joss replied as he looked around to make sure everyone had found cover. “Sharra?”

The sight of the bloody makeshift bandages at shoulder and abdomen worried Joss. Somehow, he had to get medical help for the woman, and for the other injured, as quickly as possible. But how, when he didn’t know what was going on outside the arena?

“I’ve been better, Joss,” the blonde replied.

“You just sit still and try to rest.”

“The LT’s right, Sharra,” O’Donnell said gently as she knelt at Joss’s side. “I’ll sit with her. The Gunny thinks he’s found something to get those chains off you.” She nodded at the chains still hanging from each of Joss’s wrists.

For a moment, he hesitated. Then he nodded. Like it or not, he was needed elsewhere.

“All right. I’ll be back.”

*     *     *

Kasun stared at the scene below and shook his head. He didn’t feel anything. No longer did his brain register shock or fear. Why should it? He was a dead man and he knew it. It was only a question of when he would die and by whose hand.

He released the breath he had been holding. There were no words to describe the carnage below. Marines wearing midnight black battle armor relieved only by the insignia of those thrice damned Fuerconese Devil Dogs swept across the grounds. They killed anyone and anything that appeared to pose a threat. Now they were bearing down on the administration building.

Time was up. If he didn’t try to get to the bunker now, he would never have the chance.

Turning, he took two steps and then stopped as the sounds of fighting in the outer office reached him. A moment later, the office door blew open with a deafening blast. The force of the explosion knocked him back several steps and he fell to his knees. If possible, he would have tunneled out of the office.

Instead, before he could look to see where Peltier was, pain exploded in his ribs. The heavy boot connected once and then again and he sprawled on the floor. Tears burned his eyes and he gasped for breath. Looking up, he found himself staring down the barrels of four battle rifles and he once again cursed High Command for stripping away most of his defenses.

Gods above and below, he didn’t want to die like this.

*     *     *

“Loco, secure these pieces of scum,” Ashlyn ordered as she removed her battle helmet. She tossed it onto the nearby desk before activating her comm. “Sir, Admin’s now under our control. Squads One through Four are continuing to sweep the other parts of the outer area. As soon as the area’s secure, we’ll move to the inner compound.”

“Excellent, Angel,” Admiral Collins replied. “As soon as you have the building secured, move on to the grounds.  There are injured out there who need our help.”

“Understood, Sir,” Ash responded and glanced out the door as the sounds of several people approaching reached her. A moment later, she nodded in satisfaction as Corporal Donnelly and Captain Nichols appeared. Both looked ready for anything and Ashlyn found herself pitying the two men now cuffed and kneeling on the floor a few feet away.

“Report,” she said simply.

“This floor is secured, Ma’am. Teams are moving on to their next targets.”

Ashlyn nodded. Then she once again turned her attention to the two prisoners. Her upper lip curled back as she recognized the older man. They had lucked out and found one of their primary targets without really trying. All she had to do was make sure the man told her everything she wanted to know.

“Name?” she snapped as she stood over him. When he remained silent, even refusing to meet her eyes, she nodded to Talbot who signaled for two of their team to move behind the prisoners. “Your name,” she repeated as one of the Marines forced the man’s head back by the simple means of grabbing a handful of hair and pulling.

“K-Kasun,” he stammered.

“Rank and assignment?” she asked even though she knew the answer.

“A-anton Kasun. Occupational Governor.”

“Well, Occupational Governor Kasun, I am Lt. Colonel Ashlyn Shaw, First Battalion, First Division, Fuerconese Marine Corps. It is with extreme pleasure that I inform you that we are now in control of this planet.”

“No!”

The gasp was torn from Kasun as he stared at Ashlyn in disbelief. She simply returned his stare, giving him time to accept the fact that they really were there and not haring off to the Nystrom System.

“Yes,” she countered coldly. “I really don’t care whether we keep you alive or not. That’s up to you. Give us the information we want and you’ll live. Refuse and I’ll leave you here to explain to your superiors what happened and how you managed to lose an entire system. I’m quite sure they won’t be as understanding as I am.”

Both Kasun and Peltier blanched at her words. Nothing could be truer. They were dead men. The Callusians didn’t suffer losses well. And this was, in so many ways, worse than a loss in battle. The Cassius System was supposed to be their advanced base of operations for when they launched the final attack on Fuercon.

 “What do you want?”

“It’s really very simple. Give us the computer access codes and the locations of every POW on planet as well as those shipped out,” Ashlyn said. Her voice was clam, but the way her hand rested on the pulsar at her hip spoke volumes about what would happen if he failed to comply.

“I can’t!”

“You can or you die. It’s that simple,” she countered coldly. Then, before Kasun could say anything else, she turned her attention to the second prisoner and an unholy delight appeared in her eyes.

“This one?” she asked Talbot, her voice dripping with cold contempt.

“Name’s Peltier, Ma’am. The security chief,” the Marine replied with disdain.

“How appropriate that we have the two of them,” she mused, a sardonic smile touching her lips. “Let me make it easier for the two of you to come to the right decisions. The corporal here – ” She waved her hand and Ryan Donnelly stepped forward. – “has a very personal matter he’d like to
discuss
with you. But he’s a Marine. He’ll hold back if ordered,” Ash continued coldly. “What he would dearly love is to take apart, piece by piece, anyone who’s hurt his brother and I have a feeling he wouldn’t mind one bit starting with the two of you. Isn’t that correct, Corporal?”

“It is, Ma’am,” Donnelly growled, pinning the two with the hard, hot gaze of pure hatred.

“Now, he’s been told he can’t do as he wants. However, I have no compunction about reversing that order.” Ashlyn’s voice was almost casual now and all the more fearsome because of it. “But before I ask for your
assistance
again, let me tell you something else that might help you make up your minds.

“Every Marine present, every Marine who has taken part in this mission, has one order. We are to take back the system. If some of us die to do so, that’s part of being a Devil Dog. That means we will do whatever it takes – whatever – to accomplish the mission and return home with our people.

“So, Occupational Governor Kasun, what will it be? Are you going to answer my questions or do I turn you over to Corporal Donnelly and his friends?”

The resulting babble from both of the prisoners came even quicker than Ashlyn had dared hope.

*     *     *

“Sir, we just received confirmation from Captain Monroe that Gamma Company has secured the port. Beta Company is now moving on to the outer defense complex. Enemy resistance has been minimal, all things considered,” Captain Jareau reported, satisfaction clear in her voice.

“Excellent, Jules.”

Collins forced himself to relax. The news was good. Hopefully, once they had the chance to examine the data banks and other records, they would have a better idea about what the Callusian battle plan might be. He would welcome anything FleetCom could use to bring this latest war to a quick and decisive end.

But none of that eased his concern over what was happening at the administration complex. The fighting there had been much more intense than elsewhere. He hadn’t factored in the knowledge that the Blood repaid failure or defeat with death and not just the deaths of those directly involved. No, whole families would be killed unless the evidence showed their loved ones died a “righteous” death fighting the enemy.

At least the injuries to the Devil Dogs hadn’t been serious – so far. There really was something to be said for superior training and equipment. But that didn’t make those injuries any easier to accept.

Worse, they had yet to reach the POWs. At least the visual feeds no longer showed the prisoners fighting the guards. But the way they appeared to be bunkering down didn’t particularly reassure him either. He couldn’t tell who was in charge of the prisoners any more than he knew if any of the
Tarrant
’s crew still lived.

Damn but he wanted to be dirt-side!

“Sir.” Captain Jareau’s voice interrupted his reverie. “Captain Monroe requests that we send some computer techs as well as a spook or two down. She seems to think there is more to the data they are recovering than appears at first glance.”

Maybe they were about to get lucky after all. “I believe Commander Hickson has a team standing by to begin a complete download of the data banks. Get them on their way. Then let Captain Monroe know.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Ben, get me Colonel Shaw on the comm.”

“Aye, Sir,” Lt. Commander Levy replied. “You have an open channel to the Colonel, Sir,” he reported a few moments later and Collins nodded his appreciation.

“Angel, talk to me,” he said simply.

“Sir, we have secured the administrative buildings. I thought you might like to know that we have the so-called occupational governor and security chief among our prisoners,” Ashlyn reported. She paused and Collins heard the tell-tale murmur of someone reporting to her. “Admiral, we will be moving on to secure the outer area where the prisoners are next. There is one problem, the main gate leading to the area where they are has been barricaded on both sides,”

Collins nodded to Levy and waited. A moment later, the holo screen image shifted and split. One half continued to display the system, pinpointing where all their ships were. The other showed what Collins assumed was the gate Ashlyn referred to. Machinery, furniture and debris had been piled high before the heavy gates.

“Ashlyn.” Now that he knew her position was secure, he switched away from her call sign. “I want that compound secured ASAP. Use one of the shuttle’s tractor beams to move what you can’t by hand,” he ordered firmly.

“Ash, we can’t go in with guns blazing. These are our allies and they’ve been terrorized enough. Put your head together with your people and decide the best way to proceed. But hurry.”