Recruit (14 page)

Chapter 1
9

“Team B, pass through C, but keep it tight,” the lieutenant’s voice came over the platoon circuit. 

“Team B” was the assault element, the bulk of it made up from First and Second Platoons.  Third Platoon was the security element, Weapons and the attachments the support element.  The support element’s job was to make the initial crossing to the
Robin
and secure the breaching chamber.  The security element’s mission was to breach the ship, then secure the breach.  The assault element would immediately follow, pass through Third, and rush to take out any pirates and secure the captives.  Speed was of an essence.

“Assault, assault, assault,” the Marines of the
assault element muttered as they shuffled through the line of security element Marines.  The movement was complicated even further by the Stork and the
Aidelaide’s
two shuttles filling the hangar deck.  The Marines shuffled to the far bulkhead and stopped, still facing outwards.

“This has got to be quicker,” the first sergeant broke in on the company circuit. 
“Much quicker.  If we are too slow, those fuckers will smoke check each and every captive.”

“You heard him,” Capt Light Chaser’s unique voice cut in.  “Element
leaders, get them back and go through this again.  Time’s getting short, and we could get the go ahead any minute now.”

The company had given out the op order in record time, and the Marines had gotten suited up and were ready to go within an hour.  Staged in the hang
ar bay, the company commander had started rehearsals.  Walking around in the bay was a far cry from actually flying through space and breaching a hostile ship, but Ryck had to admit that it still helped. 

Because of the imminent threat to the captives, a decision had been made to conduct the assault in bubble space.  This was highly unusual and extremely risky.  Normally, a vessel would be tracked t
hrough bubble space, then taken when both ships emerged back into real space.  However, once they were in real space, at distances close enough to board, the
Adelaide’s
presence would be extremely difficult to mask, and with any warning, the SOG could massacre their prisoners.  So it had to be surprise.  The SOG would not be expecting it, and their first indication that something was up would be when the breach was made. The fact that a ship takedown could even be accomplished in bubble space was something kept under wraps.  Some rumors had leaked out, of course, over the years, but the Naval Civil Information Service had counter-propaganda employed to make those rumors seem ridiculous.

They had been putting on their EVA suits when the word was passed that the
Robin’s
spoor had been acquired, and a cheer had echoed throughout the armory.  EVA suits were custom made for each Marine, and one of CWO2 Slyth’s primary missions in life was to make sure the suits were continually adjusted to keep the fit right.  Ryck had just gone through his standard 30-day check two days before they had pulled into Vegas, so his was pretty much right on.  But the chief warrant officer, his gunny, and his two sergeants had been pinging back and forth in the crowded armory, taking readings and making last-minute adjustments.  Ryck had gotten out of there as soon as he got his OK and made his way to the hangar deck. 

Normally, the bay was pressurized
, with the Stork and the shuttles passing through a magelectro field.  However, with speed as a priority, the only way to get so many Marines and sailors out into flight was through the hangar bay doors.  The ship’s two airlocks just couldn’t cycle the assault force quick enough.  And with the shielding of the EVA suits not sturdy enough to fend off the field, it had to be turned off.  So the hangar bay was open to bubble space.  The Navy deck crew, the assault force, and the Navy prize crew were all suited up, ready to step out the door.

Ryck couldn’t help
glancing out the huge doors.  No stars were visible, of course.  There was only a murky, greenish glow.  Like every single sailor and Marine there, he knew that no matter what happened, he had to stay within the glow.  Drift out, and he would be lost in the emptiness of space, probably lost for good.  He didn’t have the luck of Derek Housa, a Legionnaire who had gotten thrown out of bubble space, only to be picked up by an ore miner who happened to read his distress beacon, something that had to be a million-to-one shot.  Ryck had seen the flick about that when it had come out a few years ago, and the scenes of the Legionnaire floating around all alone in the vastness of space still gave him the heebies.

The
Robin
was not in view yet, either.  As soon as it was, the assault would be launched.  The Navy bridge crew would be maneuvering the ship closer to the
Robin
, then if they were successful at that, the external projector pods would be extended, effectively spreading the bubble.  The pods would move towards the
Robin
, eventually enveloping it, where like two bubbles in a bath, they would merge.

This was the most difficult part of the mission from a technological standpoint.  Ryck had heard the process likened to balancing a maglev car on a string of straws, one straw jammed in another until the car was a kilometer in the air.  The cybos might weird Ryck out when he saw them out and about the ship, but he wished them well as they tweaked and shifted the pods, more by feel than any hard and set calculations
.

Ryck shuffled with the other Marines back to the far side of the bay for another rehearsal.  The ship had stopped its rotation in preparation for the assault.  Having centripetal force as they exited the hang
ar was not a good idea. The ship had rotated so the hangar faced the expected direction of where the
Robin
would be, then stopped.  With no gravity in the hangar, which unlike the bridge and many of the other spaces had no artificial gravity, the Marines and sailors shuffled their feet to keep in contact.  It was considered poor form to have to turn on the EVA’s jets to get back into place.

Ryck had just gotten back to his starting point when a voice came over the circuit, “Look, there she is.”

Ryck looked out the bay doors, and off in the distance, the
Robin
was appearing as if through a mist.  She was nothing out of the ordinary.  Like all bubble ships, she was round.  A ship did not have to be round to project a bubble, but the shape was far more efficient, and  it took far less power to keep the bubble formed around a sphere than any other form. Inside the greenish light of the bubble, she took on a somewhat eerie tone.  This appearance was why some people referred to a ship travelling through bubble space as “ghosting.”

As expected, the ship was not under rotation.  Pirates usually kept captured ships in null G as it kept more passengers uncertain and unwilling to resist.

“Element leaders, get your men in place.  Stand by for the go,” Capt Light Chaser passed.”

“All hands, this is Major Paulen.  Do us proud.  It’s time to earn your big paychecks.”

Ryck knew the major had to be chomping at his bit.  He would be coming over with the Navy prize team, the sailors necessary to run the
Robin
and affect any required repairs.  This would be Captain Light Chaser’s assault, and the major had stepped back to allow it, but he had to have been tempted to take the assault himself.

The hang
ar crew moved into position.  They had their own EVA suits, unlike the prize team who were in standard suits.  The two officers had their suits shifted to yellow, the enlisted to green.  Ryck had though the colors a bit odd at first, but with all the men in the hangar, it really did help to sort things out.

The support element got to the front of the open doors.  Two Marines had their hands on
each of the four breaching chambers, ready to fly them across to the
Robin
.  The other Marines in the team flanked them.  Directly behind them, the security element was lined up.  They would actually enter the breach and hold it for the assault element to exploit.  Ryck took his place behind them, about two meters from the edge of the door.  Two meters from open bubble space.

Between the Marines in front of him, Ryck could see the Robin looming larger.  It was difficult to tell in space, but it couldn’t be more than a couple of hundred meters away.  That though
t alone was mind-boggling.  Both ships were hurtling through bubble space, covering light years in real space, yet they were just meters apart.  Real space speed meant nothing.

Ryck felt his excitement rise.  This would be his first EVA since the near-disaster during recruit training. He popped his M99 free, checked it, and popped it back into the holster.

Suddenly, the yellow-suited deck officer wheeled and pointed out the doors.  For some inexplicable reason, he could not talk on the Marine circuits.  The Navy working and Marine tactical circuits were incompatible.  The Marines knew the signal, of course, and the first rank stepped off and started flying. 

Thousand one, thousand two, thousand three, thousand four
Ryck counted in his mind. On “four,” the next rank stepped off.

Now was the wait.  If all went well, the breaching teams could set up and breach the ship within 30 seconds after reaching it.  The breaching chambers were adjusted to their shortest length as they were not going to be acting as airlocks.  They would be opening the ship up to space.

The security element was given another 30 seconds to secure the breached rooms.  The breaching points had been selected compromising between where the air loss would be minimal and where the assaulting Marines could quickly reach where captives were probably be being kept.

At 60 seconds, the assault element
would be arriving at each of the four points, ready to dive through the breaches.  As the assault element arrived, the breaches would be closed off, extended, then converted to air locks for the follow-on forces.

It was a long, long minute until the deck officer wound up and sent them on their way.  Ryck stepped off into space.  Ryck was on the left flank of the assault element’s line, with only
T-Rex outside of him.  They would be flying to breach “Tennison.”  Inside bubble space, it was almost impossible to tell exactly where the bubble “skin” was.  It sort of swirled and shimmered, defying comprehension.  From what they’d been taught, a person wouldn’t know that he had reached the bubble until he was out of it and injected back into real space.  Ryck kept glancing towards his left.  He figured, though, that if they were drifting too close, Hu would disappear first.

Up ahead of him, the breaching teams had already reached the ship and attached the chambers. 
With that, the pirates would realize that something was up.  This was real, now.  Ryck flew on, keeping in formation with the others.  What the captain didn’t want was to have everyone bunching up at the ship. The four breaches were the bottleneck, and he didn’t want confusion to take over.

Ryck was getting closer when the security team around Tennison started to dive into the chamber.  They would be reporting back what they found, but that was not on the general assault element circuit.  If there was something Ryck needed to know, he would be told.

  Ryck glanced over at the other two breaches that were within his view, the fourth being behind the curve of the ship and out of sight.  Marines were already inside at “Jakarta,” but at “Capetown,” there seemed to be a problem, with the security team still outside while the assault element was arriving.

“Team Tennison, get ready to enter.
  Security has cleared the immediate entry.  Stick to the plan and move forward into the passageway.  There are two enemy KIA and one rescued hostage,” Sgt Piccalo-Tensing passed over the team circuit.

Ryck was running pretty true, and it took only a few minor jets to correct his aim and slow down in order to get into his position in line for entry.  He looked down at the telltale on his left gauntlet.  Unlike the team leaders who had the positions projected onto their faceshields, just as with the
PICS, the riflemen had only repeaters on the flexible patch screen that most wore on their forward shooting arm.  It wasn’t as detailed as those for the leaders, but it did indicate friendlies.  Ryck could see the security team icons as they moved into position within the ship.

Quicker than expected, Ryck approached the ship.  He
fired two quick jets to slow his approach and took care not to jostle anyone else, sending them tumbling, but he had to keep on the ass of Wan as they dove through the chamber.  He crashed into the lance corporal inside the ship as they hit the deck, but Wan was up and moving within seconds.  Ryck grabbed his M99 and got his feet under him, pushing forward to the far hatch, just where he’d been briefed it would be.  He took in the two dead men, both in various degrees of undress.  With their skin exposed to the cold touch of space, it was easy to see where they both had been stitched by the security team’s M99s.  A naked woman was inside a zip-lock, the clear, flexible emergency pouch that could keep someone alive in the vacuum of space for up to 20 minutes.  She was hyperventilating, and a Marine, or probably Doc Stanton, the corpsman with the security element, was with her, trying to calm her down.

Ryck took all that in during the few seconds it took him to cross the compartment, go through the ne
xt hatch, down one deck, and turn left to his assigned position.  He crouched there, weapon at the ready, waiting for the order to move.  The ship’s emergency reaction AI had closed off the passages as soon as the breach was made, so no air was rushing out.  Gravity was gone, but nothing was trying to push the Marines back out into space.  No move would be made to breach the closed hatch 10 meters down the passage until the breaching chamber closed off the initial entry and became a working airlock.  Ryck silently counted down the time.  The plan was that all the security and assault elements would board the
Robin
within 90 seconds.