— 8 -
Tobin’s ship came in low over the large barn at the opposite end of the sinkhole from the main house, immediately descending into the middle of the compound.
Jessica watched in surprise as Tobin’s ship touched down rather quickly, without rotating first as he had done before. She had a terrible feeling that something wasn’t right-she just couldn’t figure out what that something was.
Tobin’s rapid touchdown kicked up far more dust and debris than before, which told Jessica that he was heavily loaded. The dust wash from his landing thrusters forced the others down behind the Tug’s flatbed cargo hauler. As the engines wound down somewhat and the force of the thrust-wash subsided, they came out from behind the vehicle to greet Tobin. At the angle at which Tobin had set down, they could not see him in the cockpit.
Through the unsettled dust cloud and between the underside Tobin’s ship and the ground, Jessica could see the cargo door on the opposite side come down into its fully deployed position. She noticed movement to her far right and glanced to see Vladimir as he came charging out of the barn at the far end of the compound, his weapon in hand as he made for a good firing position to his right behind a trough of fertilizer. Instantly, alarms went off in her head as she looked back towards Tobin’s ship. Peering under his ship, on the far side, she could just make out the black, armor-clad feet of troops as they quickly disembarked and began charging toward either end of the ship.
Vladimir, having a clearer shot, opened fire as he dropped down behind the fertilizer trough, spraying the enemy troops with bullets that seemed to bounce harmlessly off their armor.
Jessica pushed Nathan and Jalea back behind the vehicle. “GET DOWN!” She swung her weapon up as she back stepped around the vehicle, flipping her safety off in one smooth motion as she opened fire, aiming under the aft end of Tobin’s ship. Although she did not expect it to pierce the oncoming soldier’s armored boots, she hoped it would make them think twice about sticking their heads around the aft end of the ship to fire on their poor defensive position.
From all four sides of the sinkhole, pinpoint energy weapons fire began to rain down on them from the snipers above. Danik’s head exploded as a sniper’s energy-bolt struck him, spraying blood across Jessica as she dove behind the vehicle for cover. Vladimir saw that one of the snipers was directly behind them. He swung his weapon to his left and blasted away at the sniper above and behind Jessica and the others.
Jalea peeked under the vehicle and saw Danik lying motionless on the ground, face down in a pool of blood, most of his head missing. “DANIK!”
“Inside! Move it!” Jessica ordered as she scrambled to her feet. She knew Vladimir was providing the cover fire needed for them to get to safe cover. Nathan and Jalea scrambled for the door on the small transfer shack between the two nearest greenhouses, falling through the door. Jessica scooted backwards, firing on the far ridge line behind Vladimir to keep the opposing sniper from picking him off before he could return to cover. Vladimir realized her target, and log-rolled several times as he continued to fire small bursts at the sniper above Jessica as she too reached the relative safety of the nearest doorway.
Jessica continued firing to provide cover for Vladimir, who managed to crawl inside the transfer shack between the barn and the first greenhouse on his side of the sinkhole.
“What the hell is going on!” Nathan yelled.
“It’s a fucking ambush!” Jessica told him.
Ensign Mendez was on edge. He wasn’t sure if it was the anxiety in his XO’s voice over their lack of radio contact with Tobin and the landing party. Of course, it also could have been all the coffee on a stick he had munched on to stay awake. Either way, he was more alert now than he had been in days.
He watched as the cargo shuttle pulled into its usual position in the Aurora’s hangar bay. As her engines wound down, the workers approached to begin loading her for her next run. As the vapors from the shuttles engines cleared, and her rear cargo ramp began to deploy, he noticed something odd on her hull just beside the side hatch on her port side. There was scarring, a sort of rippling of the hull’s skin, like it had been melted. Mendez remembered seeing that same pattern on the walls in the corridors on C deck, where Jessica and the late master chief had repelled the boarding party.
Suspicious, he rose to move in for a closer look, un-slinging his weapon from his shoulder to hold across his chest in customary fashion as he walked. The rear loading ramp came down with a thud, attracting the ensign’s gaze just in time to notice a horrified look on the face of the indentured worker nearest the ramp as he looked up into the back of the cargo shuttle. Reacting instinctively to the worker’s terrified expression, Mendez immediately brought his weapon to bear.
On the far side of the hangar bay, near the main doors, Sergeant Weatherly saw his comrade’s sudden change in manner. He looked at the cockpit of the cargo shuttle and saw not the rotund face of the same pilot he had seen for the last twenty-four hours. Instead, there was the cold, ruthless face of military pilot, in a flight suit and a combat flight helmet.
Black and gray armored troops began pouring out of the back of the cargo shuttle, mowing down a handful of the defenseless indentured workers with rapid blasts from their energy weapons as the doomed workers scrambled for cover. Mendez ducked behind some crates to one side of the bay and immediately began spraying the rear loading ramp of the cargo shuttle with his close-quarters automatic weapon, most of his rounds bouncing off their armor. After emptying his first clip, he counted only one enemy soldier had fallen to his fire.
Sergeant Weatherly punched the alert button on the console next to the door as he charged to his left to try and circle around the cargo shuttle in the hope of setting up a cross-fire between himself and Mendez. But before he could reach a decent firing position, one of the first enemy soldiers to come around the starboard side of the cargo shuttle caught Weatherly in the left shoulder with a blast from his energy weapon. The blast seared his shoulder, spinning the sergeant to his left and causing him to stumble and fall.
The soldier that had caught Weatherly with his first shot came rushing forward to finish the job. The sergeant had lost his grip on his weapon and it had slid a few meters away. Realizing he had no time to reach it, he pulled out his combat knife to defend himself. But the onrushing enemy soldier had no intention of engaging in hand to hand combat, and stopped, raising his weapon to finish Weatherly off from five meters away.
Suddenly, a large rolling cart used by the workers slammed into the side of the soldier, knocking him off his feet. Weatherly watched in amazement as before the soldier could get back to his feet, the harvesting team foreman, Marcus, smashed the soldier’s helmet with a large rock from the cart. Marcus struck the soldier several more times, making sure he was dead before standing tall in triumph.
“How do you like that, you son-of-a-bitch?” Marcus bellowed. Suddenly, weapons fire from more enemy soldiers struck the cart and the deck near Marcus, causing him to flinch and duck. “Oh shit!” he exclaimed, running to get behind the same cover that Weatherly was already crawling towards.
Marcus picked up Weatherly’s loose weapon on his way, dropping down behind the crate next to the wounded sergeant. “Here! You dropped your gun!” Marcus said, handing the weapon back to Weatherly.
“Thanks,” the sergeant said, disbelief still in his eyes.
“Don’t mention it,” Marcus said. “Now, you gonna kill a few more of these bastards or what?”
Weatherly smiled. “Just gimme a second.”
“General alarm in the hangar bay!” the comm officer reported.
Cameron touched her comm-set, “Bridge to Mendez! What’s happening down there?!”
“We’re being boarded!” he reported, the sound of his own automatic weapon answering the sound of energy weapons discharge. “They came out of the cargo shuttle!”
“Sound general quarters! All hands! Prepare to repel boarders in the hangar bay!”
The comm officer immediately sounded the ship-wide alert as ordered, the lighting on the bridge immediately taking on a reddish hue.
Doctor Sorenson appeared from the starboard entrance, making way to her station, now designated Jump Control.
“Abby,” Cameron called out, “Get the drive ready to jump. We may need to exit in a hurry.”
“Understood,” the doctor responded.
