Star Force 12 Demon Star (17 page)

“Stay back, sir,” Smith said. “We’ll handle this.”

I was about to overrule him when I realized I was doing what Hansen always accused me of. I was becoming too involved in the details of close combat. Yes, we needed every battlesuit, and yes, the open-space battle was over for the moment, but getting myself killed would be a stupid thing, and not only for me personally.

After all, if Marvin was willing to get all the other officers killed and eaten because he calculated I had the best chance of getting us home…well, who was I to argue?

As the Raptors switched to their battle-axes and leaped to attack a half-dozen Demon infantry from behind, I hunkered down and shifted my focus to my HUD.

“Suit,” I said, “tactical overview, display the entire ship.”

A 3D diagram appeared in front of my eyes, and I manipulated it with a combination of eye movements and voice commands to see what I wanted. The Demons had broken through the hull in six places, including the four standard airlocks and the two drone launch tubes. With the heavily armored beetles as battering rams, they’d chewed their way much farther in than I’d hoped.

Friendly green icons surrounded most of the incursions, but the red blotches were still spreading in some places. I tried to figure out what the problem was by examining the situation deck by deck.

In the upper area, mostly occupied by the drone storage and handling deck, it appeared that the enemy was well contained. Someone, possibly Bradley, had organized the systems there to put up a stiff defense. The many Nano-style tentacles, usually used for repair and rearmament, held heavy tools and flailed at Demons. Parked Daggers with activated lasers fired using reduced power causing a lot of collateral damage but blowing handily through the creatures.

It looked like we’d have one hell of a lot of repair work to do, but at least the enemy was being slaughtered.

On the main deck, where most of our marines and Raptors were, we were pressing them back from all sides.

Frowning, I noticed a region without green contacts where a nest of red icons kept disappearing from view. Where were they going?

The answer became obvious when I moved the “camera” to display the lower deck. The Demons must have cut through the floor and were attacking downward into areas of lesser resistance.

I located Kwon’s icon on the other side of the main level and keyed a direct com-link. “Kwon, they’re cutting through the deck to the lower level. Get everyone you can down there, now!”

“Roger, sir,” Kwon roared, and he cut out as he switched to short-range to give orders to the forces near him.

“Suit, short-range noncom channel,” I said. When the com-link icon changed to the desired freq, I spoke to the squad leaders. “This is Captain Riggs. We’ve got to keep the enemy contained, Pigs, but I need you to send everything you can spare to the lower deck.”

Without waiting for a reply I switched channels yet again to speak directly to Cornelius. “How’re you doing down there, Chief?”

“Not good, Captain. I have several casualties, and the enemy is damaging my guns.”

“Screw the beams, Chief. We can make more. Save the personnel. Help is on the way.”

“Got it.”

On my HUD, I could see clumps of friendlies working their way toward the lower deck. Most used the ramps and ladders, but there was a simpler, faster way for those with command privileges.

“Valiant, create a hatch directly to the lower deck, right here at my feet, and keep it open,” I said.

“Not advisable. Enemy is present in strength beneath you.”

“I’m counting on it. Now do it!”

“Command not accepted. The preset danger levels—”

“Override!” I shouted, staring down at the deck between my feet.

“Override accepted.”

Below me, the smart metal of the deck rippled and withdrew, exposing the bare ribs of the structural nanosteel-alloy supports. The material wrapped itself around conduits and pipes, leaving a hole barely big enough for me to fit though in my bulky suit.

“Geronimo!” I yelled, stepping into the hole. My weapons held above my head to keep them from catching on anything.

All three tons of me slammed down atop a scorpion, facing backward. The force of my landing crushed its back, but it kept struggling anyway.

The twin tails snapped reflexively toward me. I threw myself sideways and chopped at the nearest stinger with my axe.

It bit deeply, but couldn’t sever the armored tail. I rolled onto the deck, jerking the axe free. I fired my laser directly into the thing’s softer underbelly, and ichor boiled out of the hole in its chitin.

Something knocked me sideways a moment later, and I somersaulted into a handful of Demon infantry, sending them tumbling like bowling pins. Lashing out with my axe and firing wildly with my laser, I created as much chaos as I could…until something grabbed me by the foot.

I had time to see a beetle clamp its mandibles around my ankle before it picked me up and whipped me like a rag doll bashing me against the housing of a medium laser. I could feel my entire body bruise, and I saw stars, but forced myself to skitter sideways, taking cover. I dialed an injection, a hero’s cocktail of stim and painkiller, and a moment later I felt the discomfort fade as my heart pounded so hard it felt like it was about to explode.

Orange plasma bolts splashed near me, and I realized I’d lost my axe. Picking up the laser rifle dangling from its cable, I stuck it around the corner and triggered a burst to keep the enemy at bay, hating to think of the damage all this was doing to the interior of the gun deck. Fires raged here and there as a result of all the hot energy we were throwing around.

Reinforcements began to pour in from the doors and ladders, and I could see small green beams sizzle through the smoky gas. Those would be shots from laser pistols. A group of friendly crewmen were holed up in the machine shop off to my right defending the doorway.

“Hang in there, people,” I called over my short range com-link and rolled to my feet, lifting my rifle to fire a long burst at a beetle trying to chew its way inside. The laser pistols hardly bothered it, and plasma bolts striking near me kept me from concentrating my beam long enough to burn through its tough exoskeleton.

“Warning: battery low,” my suit suddenly said into my ear.

When I ducked back into cover and checked, I could see it was true. My battlesuit capacitors were down to five percent. I needed to wait and let the fusion generator recharge before I had enough excess to use my power-hogging laser, but I had no time. The gun crew was about to get an unwelcome visit from a beetle.

I slammed the rifle into its stowage clamp and eyed my fallen axe lying a few yards away in the open. Taking a deep breath, I charged out and scooped it up as I ran. Taking it in a two-handed grip, I swung it laterally like a pool bat and cleaved a Demon infantryman in half.

The monster next to it fired at me point-blank. I could feel the heat of the orange blast singe my knuckles through my gauntlets, one of the thinnest parts of my suit. I kicked out, knocking the weapon out of the Demon’s hands and then slashed it with my axe.

Cat-quick, the bug leaped back and pulled long knives from its battle harness. A moment later, it attacked me with a whirl of blades. I countered by punching at it with my broad double-bladed axe and blocked the blades with its hard metal handle. I’d never bothered to analyze what the Raptors had made my weapon from, but it was tough stuff, at least as hard as nanosteel.

I very much wanted to dispatch my opponent and get back to trying to relieve the gun crew holed up in the machine shop, but this Demon must have been one of their champions because he fought me to a standstill—an impressive thing considering I had the battlesuit and he had nothing but two short swords. If the Devil himself had designed these things, he could hardly have made better combat troops.

I backed up, trying to work my way around the room, when suddenly a huge figure loomed out of the choking smoke supported by two Raptors. He leveled a laser rifle. “Duck, boss!” Kwon roared, and I threw myself behind a laser housing.

Green beams caused my faceplate to darken as I rolled to my feet, turning my back on the Demon champion that Kwon and his flankers were gunning down.

The beetle had widened the door enough to force its way through to the gun crew. Pounding across the deck, I raised my axe over my head and brought it down with all my might on its shiny brown back. The blade bit deep but then lodged in the thick chitin. Enraged, the beetle spun, but I clamped my hands onto the haft of the weapon and hung on.

Now I was riding the thing like a bull with no saddle as it hopped and tried to twist to reach me. Using the buried axe as a solid handle, I remained beyond its clutches as it danced and crashed into workbenches sending tools everywhere.

Warrant Officer Cornelius and her people stood at one end of the long narrow room and fired their weapons, some hitting me as they tried to damage the beetle.

“Careful, dammit!” I roared as the bug thrashed. “Aim for its legs!” This would have the dual benefits of slowing the thing down and missing me, I hoped.

A dozen thin beams popped and sizzled low, having no effect that I could see, but at least doing me no damage. I kept trying to plant my feet, but the carapace was too slippery for my boots to grip. It was all I could do to hold onto my weapon’s handle like an arctic climber clutching an ice axe against a mountainside, waiting for reinforcements.

Kwon appeared in the doorway as I’d hoped he would. Assessing the situation, he clearly realized he couldn’t go blasting away with his heavy laser without endangering our lightly armored people in the room. “No beams!” he yelled to the two Raptors with him. “Attack!”

The warriors leaped, their spiked and armored tails complementing the axes in their hands. They struck and bounced upward, using their superior jumping skills to ricochet off the walls and then onto the beast. Each time they landed, they gouged out chunks of beetle armor.

In response, the twenty-ton, combat-vehicle-sized creature tried to scrape me off by slamming me against a bulkhead. This half-stunned me, but my armor was tougher than the wall so I only had the wind knocked out of me. I lost my grip on the axe and slid down onto the floor.

As I crawled along the edge of the wall toward the gun crew, I looked beneath the beetle’s thrashing legs and saw Kwon jump forward to seize my axe handle. Though he wasn’t actually stronger than I was, with his armor he was considerably heavier. Between his weight hanging off the handle and all the other damage it was taking, the big bug had begun to slow.

I checked the charge on my suit and saw it had crawled up to twelve percent—enough for a few laser shots, so I stood up in front of the crewmen and unslung my rifle. Sighting carefully, I fired at the thing’s head. My fourth shot boiled one of its compound eyes, and its relatively coordinated struggle turned into a thrashing death frenzy, the pain making it crazy.

Kwon finally ripped my axe free and slid down to land on his feet. He chopped at the beetle, the Raptors joining in. With all of us together, we managed to bring it crashing down.

-14-

“Nice work, Kwon,” I gasped, looking around the wrecked machine shop at the truck-sized carcass on the floor and the dozen gun techs putting away their weapons to begin setting things right. “Now get back out there and mop up.”

“You stay here then, okay boss?” he said.

“Yeah, Kwon. I’m done with marine stuff right now. Go.” That assurance freed him from his desire to constantly bodyguard me. Frankly, if I wasn’t needed out there, I was fine taking a quick break from the hand-to-hand fighting. My cracked ribs ached when I breathed, even with the painkillers.

“HUD, switch to ship-wide tactical,” I said to my suit, and was relieved to see that most of the red blotches had been wiped away. “Valiant, damage control status?”

“Serious damage to gun and drone decks.” That made sense as those were located top and bottom, immediately inside our hull armor. “Standard airlocks inoperative. Other internal systems degraded, but repairable.”

“Casualties?”

“Two human crew and two marines KIA, seventeen wounded but likely to survive. Twelve Raptors killed, thirty-nine wounded.”

“Damn. Put me through to Marvin.”

A pause. “Marvin is unresponsive.”

“Keep trying every five minutes. Where’s
Greyhound
?”

“Docked with the wreckage of a Demon battleship.”

I growled. Marvin was off exploring alien tech, which was all well and good, except that repairing
Valiant
was my highest priority. The robot was hell on wheels when it came to rebuilding machines. I got the feeling he regarded that function as akin to doing unpleasant chores, though, and so avoided it when he could.

Switching my com-link to the bridge, I said, “Hansen? What’s it look like in space?”

“Clear around us. The Nano frigates are hunting down the last few live Demons floating in the wreckage. What’s your feeling on prisoners?”

I thought about that. “If one of their humanoids can be taken, I wouldn’t mind capturing it for interrogation, but don’t go to extraordinary lengths.”

“Okay, well…”

“What?”

“I think I can get you one, but I have to move fast. Hansen out.”

I shrugged. I’d wanted to find out about the battle between the Demons and the Elladans, but the holotank would tell me everything I needed to know soon enough.

Someone tapped my armor, and I turned to see Cornelius in a crew suit. Her faceplate was open to show her red cheeks. I opened my helmet and sniffed the air. I smelled chemicals, smoke and an indescribable metallic stink from the dead bug that occupied half the deck.

“Thanks, Captain,” she said. “I believe we will have to change our underpants, but not until we get the weapons in order, yes?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Bust your asses, Chief, because the day’s not over with.”

I turned and left Cornelius to her work and headed for the armory.

I took a quick detour into the factory room and waved at Adrienne. It appeared she’d sealed up tight, and no enemies had gotten in.