Honor Bound

ground erupted across the road bridge, liberated kinetic energy turning the very air into a weapon as superheated gas turned to plasma and bathed the Protectorate lines in incandescent fire.

Shannon knew she should be hugging the ground, but she couldn’t look away from the apocalyptic vision that stretched out before them, lighting up the night with a glow brighter than day. If the attack by the orbital defense satellites had been the terrifying hand of an angry deity, this was the very end of the world by comparison. She counted at least three dozen of the groundcar-sized projectiles fall, each taking out a handful of enemy vehicles in a splash of plasma and a mushroom cloud with an impact that shook and split the very earth beneath them. Men and women and biomech troopers lay helpless, unable to walk on the trembling ground.

And then it ceased as abruptly as it had begun, leaving a preternatural silence that let Shannon hear the crackle of the flames and the pop-crack-boom of ammunition cooking off in the APCs that had been at the edge of the strikes and had only been set afire rather than being vaporized outright. An instinctive thought that didn’t reach her conscious mind made her turn and she gasped involuntarily at what she saw.

Behind them, rising into the sky from a spot over five hundred kilometers away to the southeast, a crackling thread of ionized atmosphere marked the invisible passage of an incredibly powerful laser beam, fed by a dedicated fusion reactor. Designed to launch cargo capsules into orbit, it doubled as a defense system against orbital attack… and now it was being used against them by their enemies.

“They have done what they can,” Kage said, eyeing the line of destroyed enemy vehicles… at least a third had been destroyed in the attack. “Now, the rest is up to us.”

“Ari, Tom,” Shannon broadcast on her team’s net. “Take them over the top. This is all the advantage we’re going to get… let’s take it.”

She picked up her carbine from where it had fallen and checked its load, focusing on the enemy… but she couldn’t help a glance up into the night sky and a hope that the Sheridan was still there.

* * *

Admiral Patel sighed with relief, settling back into his acceleration couch as the Sheridan headed away from Earth at one gravity. It had been way too close.

“Damage report,” Nunez said, his tone normal but sweat beading on his forehead.

“Captain Nunez,” Commander Devlin’s voice came over the bridge speakers, “we took quite a hit before the drive field came up. “Can’t tell without a survey flight, but we lost quite a bit of armor off the nose and there may be some damage to the laser emitters we’ve been using for gravimetic sensors. The sensors are still working, but I’m getting some feedback in the circuits. I don’t know how long they’ll hold out.”

“Stay on top of it, Commander,” Nunez said. “We don’t have time for repairs right now… there are still dozens of Protectorate ships heading this way.”

“Aye, sir,” the man acknowledged.

“Any word on the lander?” Patel asked quietly. Nunez looked from him to Pirelli.

She shook her head. “They entered the atmosphere before the laser fired,” she told them, “but then I lost it and we’re too far away now.”

“The battle down there is out of our hands now,” Nunez said, crossing himself instinctively. “Our battle is out here. Helm, set course for the nearest formation of Protectorate ships.”

“Aye, sir,” Lt. Ghent replied, linking his board to the Tactical sensors.

“Sir…” Pirelli began hesitantly, frowning at her display. “We’re at pretty extreme range for the sensors we’ve rigged up, but I think I’m detecting an Eysselink drive field coming from the direction of the wormhole.”

“Damn,” Nunez muttered, shaking his head. “More of those ramships?”

“No, sir,” Pirelli said, her eyes widening. “Whatever this is, it’s much, much larger than that…”

Chapter Forty-Three

Valerie cradled Natalia in her arms, feeling the jerking sobs slowing, feeling the wetness of her daughter’s panicked tears soaking her blouse over her left shoulder. There were dirt stains on her skirt from sitting on the floor and she had to fight an inane impulse to brush at them. Instead, she drew her knees up and huddled in the corner of the cabin’s kitchen, trying not to stare. But there was so much to stare at…

There was, to start with, Vice President Xavier Dominguez. She’d known the man for years, from before her father ran for President; he’d even been to their cabin a few times, been fishing with Glen in the lake. Now… now he was like a different person. His eyes were wide and red, like he was on something, and his skin was pale and clammy. He looked wired and terrified and giddy all at the same time, and it was scaring the hell out of her. He sat in a chair at the kitchen table, foot tapping out a haphazard rhythm on the wooden floor, eyes glued to the large tablet resting on the table in front of him, showing the tactical display from the orbital defense satellites.

Dominguez had flown into a rage when the Sheridan had shown up and launched an attack on the biomech ground force, screaming curses as he tried to target the ground-based lasers in an attempt to destroy the ship. He’d pounded the table in frustration when she’d put up her drive field before the laser did any real damage, but now he was back to his keyed-up murmuring, ignoring everything else around him, including Natalia’s panicked reaction to his violent outburst.

Then there were the half dozen mercenaries he’d brought with him. They were all cut from the same mold: hard-faced, hard-eyed men and women in nondescript grey fatigues and body armor, submachine guns strapped across their chests and sidearms at their hips. They were stationed in and out of the cabin, ever watchful yet ignoring her and her daughter except to make sure that neither of them made a false move.

And of course, there were the platoon of biomechs that had flown in on a tilt-rotor transport just after the mercenaries had seized the cabin. They were all outside, but she could see them through the bay windows, patrolling robotically along the perimeter of the property, three of them stationed around the dock, barely visible in the glow of the exterior floodlights. Thankfully, their helmets hid their dead, black shark’s eyes, but there was no mistaking their inhuman bulk or the graceless, mechanical precision of their movements. One of the mercenaries was their controller, she had deduced: a plain-faced blond woman who wore a backpack with a small transmission dish affixed to it, a control pad strapped to her left forearm.

But the one thing she was trying the hardest not to stare at was Charlie Klesko’s body. He’d been killed by the mercenaries the minute they’d stepped out behind Dominguez, shot on the porch outside the back door of the cabin, and they’d left his body where it fell. The back door was clear transplas and through it she could see his sightless eyes staring at her, the blood pool beginning to dry under his body. Charlie had been a friend…

She forced those thoughts down, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry. It was bad enough that they thought of her as helpless, a hostage. A surge of anger went through her, but she pushed that down as well. She couldn’t afford to give into rage any more than grief. She had to think of Natalia.

She pulled the three-year-old away from her shoulder and looked her in the eye. Natalia looked just like the pictures she’d seen of her mother as a little girl, except that her hair was blond like her father’s. Right now, her cheeks were streaked with tears, her face red from crying, her lower lip quivering.

“It’ll be all right, Natalia,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm and comforting. “Everything’s going to be fine. No one is going to hurt you.”

She thought she’d been speaking softly, but apparently Dominguez heard her.

“Of course no one is going to hurt you,” he said, his usual, smooth, politician’s tone contrasting sharply with his manic expression. His eyes flickered back and forth between them and the display from his tablet as he spoke. “You’re not a threat to us, and after this is all over, your father won’t be either. When we’re finished, we’ll leave you two here.” He attempted a smile, which was grotesque enough that Natalia buried her face in Val’s shoulder once again. “We’re not monsters, after all.”

“Xavier…” She spoke hesitantly, afraid of what reaction she might get. “Do you remember what you used to be like, before?”

“What do you mean, Val?” He appeared confused. “I’ve always been like this.”

She didn’t say anything else, just let her head rest against the wall. The man was beyond brainwashed: he was hopelessly insane. There would be no talking her way out of this. She had to keep her eyes open for opportunity and hope that somewhere out there, someone was coming to help.