“General.” Olikmoved closer and then nearly knocked the man tothe ground. The two embraced and then turned to the Navycaptain.
“You came,” said abloodied and exhausted Navyofficer.
The two approached the Captain and stopped before him. He almostdropped to his knees in relief.
“We thought you’d never come.”
He looked to his people, a tough andalmost broken group of men and women.
“This is all that’s left of mycrew. When the fighting started, we tried to knock out thedampening fields to reach you, to warn you to keep away. We made it to what we’re sure is their commandcentre when we were caught and attacked. We’ve been fighting arear-guard for the last thirty minutes.”
He shook his head.
“If you’d been a few more seconds we’d all have beenkilled.”
General Rivers shookhis head with sadness.
“I’msorry it took us so long, Captain. Believe me, we’ve been upagainst it.”
“General?” said the stunnedCaptain, recognising the man’s voice,“You came here, for us?”
“Not just for you, Captain. We’rehere to stop this ship. It’s pouringtroops to the planet below.”
“Yes. We’ve been in hiding since we came aboard. But we’ve learnta lot.”
“Anything that can help us?”
“Well, it’s their home, that much we’resure of. It’s massive, filled with civilians and thousands ofslaves.”
He wiped his lips before continuing.
“The Ski’ligs. There are less ofthem here than the slaves. We’ve been talking aboutthis, and we’re sure they use the slavesto…”
“Captain. Save the anthropology foranother time. How can I stop this ship?”
The Captain looked to the General, and then to the bloodiedmarines and Novas.
“It cannot be stopped. There must bemore than a million Ski’ligs aboard, and as many slave workers andwarriors. It would take an army to capture this place.”
“The command centre.”Valentine moved closer. Her voice was muchsterner than normal, and when Alexis tried to hold her shoulder tokeep her back, she simply pushed on, “Can we reach it?”
“What are you thinking?” GeneralRivers asked, “You’ve got something inmind?”
Valentine’s mind rushed as she tried to come up with aplan.
“I don’t know, General. We could tryand move the ship away from the planet.”
“Impossible,” said CaptainZacharias, “Even if you succeeded, theywould get to you eventually and bring the ship back. You would buyminutes, an hour if you’re lucky.”
“Then we destroy the ship,”said Captain Olik.
“How? If you try to overload the numerous power systems, theywill simply shut them down at the source. It will take more thanone to destroy this thing, let alone cripple it. My crew havealready collected vast amounts of data on the ship, its systems,and its people. This is a colony, not a warship.”
“Okay. There’s one other option, but you’re not going to likethis.”
All attention turned to GeneralRivers, the hero of a hundred battles. Hemight have a legendary reputation, but there was also a downsidethat went with it. He was known as a risk taker, and risks meant ahigh degree of losses.
“Surprise us,”said Captain Olik.
“We disable their primarythruster systems and then hold thecommand centre for as long as we can.”
“Why? That just stops them from leaving. How does that helpus?”
Captain Zacharias wasalready smiling and nodded to himselfrepeatedly.
“Of course. This ship is in alower orbit than normal to get troops to the surface without being intercepted by our fighters andships. Disable the power systems, and the engines willstop.”
Olik still seemed confused, but Lieutenant Fletchercontinued.
“And with nothrusters, this colony ship will beunable to escape the planet’s gravity well. It will pull usdown.”
“You’re mad,” said Olik,“But I like it.”
Captain Zacharias wiped his face and pointed to several steps leadingoff into the distance. At the same time, he lifted his brokenSecpad unit. In seconds, fresh data transferred to Captain Olik andthen to Novas. Valentine could see passages, compartments, halls,and all kinds of internal structures. It was incomplete, but stillan incredible piece of intelligence.
“Wow. You’ve been busy.”
“We recorded everything while we were here,” said the Captain’sengineer. The man was bloodied and wore a captured Ski’ligbreastplate over his chest. He stumbled as he moved closer, andTsarkov and Bandu, the last survivors of their half lance helpedsupport his weight.
“I’ve recorded datastreams, encoded traffic, plans of their systemsand the ship, and physiological data for more than nine differentspecies enslaved and trapped here.”
“We need that data,” said theGeneral, “It could be even more importantthan winning this battle.”
“General Gun,” said Olik, “He still needs our help.”
“I can give you directions,” saidCaptain Zacharias, “But understand thatthe command centre is well guarded, and there are garrisons allaround it. If you get inside, they will come for you. There is noescape.”
He then stepped closer.
“There are Ski’ligs in there,some sort of elder or leadership class.They’re bigger and stronger. We encountered one, and it killedfifteen of my people before we escaped.”
“Yeah,” said Valentine,“We’ve seen them before.”
“Theyare deadly warriors,” agreed Bandu, “But no enemy will stop ustoday.”
“I will show you the way,”he said to General Rivers.
“No,” said Olik,“The General needs to get you and your peopleoff this ship, “You won’t survive the battle we’re heading for. Andthe intelligence you’ve collated, it has to be taken back to thefleet. If you all stay, we might lose everything.”
He reached out and graspedGeneral Rivers’ arm. It was somethingnobody else would dare to try, but not him.
“We need you, and the fleetneeds you. I will take1st Platoon to the target. Get everybody else back to thedropships, and draw away as many of the Ski’ligs as you can. Makeone man seem like twenty.”
General Rivers smiled as he listened tohis old friend.
“Spartan and Khan, theywould be proud to see the leader you havebecome.”
A Marine Corps officer whistled, and they grabbed weapons,dog tags, and ammunition from the fallen before heading back to thebreaches in the walls. As they moved away, the bloodied engineerstopped and moved back.
“I can’t go.”
“What?” Captain Zacharias said.
He grabbed the man’s arm and turned himaround.
“Chief
