War dead, p.1
War Dead, page 1
part #5 of Marathon Series
WAR DEAD
MARATHON
BOOK 5
DANIEL YOUNG
CONTENTS
The Marathon Series
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Also by Daniel Young
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Bad Cargo
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Trapped
Lost Star
War Dead
CHAPTER1
F our Velocity-class fighter craft wheeled out of the atmosphere and came screaming in close to the ground. They unleashed their guns on five freighters parked over the planet Rulara's Black Mountain compound.
"Bring it around to the west, Squadron Leader Five," Adam Eckhart called.
"All over it," his friend Bing replied.
The freighters opened fire, and their lasers sliced back and forth across the sky. They traced Bing's trajectory as he and another ten Velocities wheeled hard to the left to circle Black Mountain.
"You're with me, Squadron Leader Two," Eckhart ordered.
"Right with you," Eckhart's Bion pilot Alice rasped from the next Velocity in line.
Eckhart and Alice hurtled in a steep curve and streaked over the ground to rocket closer to the freighters. The four behemoths hugged the planet, spitting lasers in all directions. They rarely missed their targets.
Eckhart and Alice unloaded on them, with fifteen more of their squadron fighters hot on their heels. They blasted the freighters chewing into their hulls, but the giant ships still didn't budge.
The three squadrons raced past Black Mountain, taking dozens of hits, but the Velocities flew too fast to suffer much damage. The squadrons rocketed away, and all four freighters rotated on the spot to gun them down.
"Now, Squadron Leader Five!" Eckhart yelled.
"Surprise!" Bing cheered as he and the rest of Squadron Five blasted over the mountain from the west.
They unleashed hell on the freighters, and one of them exploded in a hail of gunfire. Cheers went up from the squadrons following Eckhart, and he brought his fighter back around for another pass.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Dallas Eldridge crowed from the seat behind Alice. "Come on, Squadron One Alpha! You're missing out here."
At his word, another squadron charged in with guns on fire. Innyria's squadron streaked past Bing's crew and pounded the remaining freighters from behind.
Another one detonated in flame. That left two. "All in!" Eckhart ordered. "Give 'em a little taste of how we do things on the Marathon."
"That's what I've been waiting for!" Alice husked, and Squadron Two dove for the freighters.
The rest of the squadrons veered hard, and converged on Black Mountain from all sides. All trace of formation or order vanished as every Velocity opened up at once. The remaining squadrons surrounded the freighters, flying in such wild, random patterns that the freighters' guns couldn't keep up.
Eckhart trained all his attention on the freighter nearest him. He couldn't even see the other one with both Alice's and Innyria's squadrons burying it in gunfire. Smoke and venting plasma obscured it in a curtain of sparks and flashes.
Eckhart slammed his controls hard to port and cut quick, tight circles around the freighter. Its lasers spat everywhere, but he kept his Velocity moving at top speed to stay out of their way.
He pounded the freighter with all his firepower, only altering course to avoid colliding with his squadron members. "Get out, Squadron Leader One!" Bing yelled in Eckhart's ear. "It's about to blow!"
Eckhart yanked his helm back to starboard and pulled out of the battle just as the freighter boomed in a deafening shockwave of noise and energy. The blast hurtled most of the Velocities away, and Eckhart's fighter spun clear.
He paused in the atmosphere and looked down at Black Mountain. Two spheres of debris spun over the compound where the freighters used to be. Alice, Innyria, and Bing led their squadrons clear of the mayhem, and the friends reassembled in the atmosphere.
"I guess they were the last stragglers," Innyria replied. "That's the end of the Lion Tribe. I never thought I'd live to see the end of that gang."
"If there are any more stragglers out there," Alice added, "they won't be able to stand against us. It's finished."
"We might as well go back to the Dothea system," Eckhart ordered. "We'll rendezvous with Aistenz Trotaer's fleet, and we'll finally be free. We can go wherever we want without worrying about the Lion Tribe coming after us."
"Congratulations, Squadron Leader One," Innyria told him. "It must feel pretty good after twenty years of running and hiding from them."
Eckhart smiled to himself. It did feel pretty good not to have to constantly look over his shoulder for the next enemy hunting for him.
He'd pulled his Velocity away from Rulara when Bing's shrill voice set Eckhart's hair on end. "Not so fast, people! We got company, and not the good kind."
Eckhart looked down at the instruments, and his blood ran cold when his readouts showed him ten giant Colossus-class battleships crawling toward Rulara, with at least twenty smaller Banshee-class fighters.
"What the hell do they want?" Alice hissed through her gas mask.
"Aren't they supposed to enforce the law and keep order on the fringes?" Innyria asked.
"This is no time for jokes!" Dallas cut in. "What do you want to do, Squadron Leader One?"
"Fall back to Aistenz's fleet," Eckhart replied. "We don't want to mess with the United Collateral Regiment."
The whole group wheeled away from Rulara, and Eckhart put on speed to get as far from the Regiment as possible. The Lion Tribe might have been out to kill him, but they never struck terror into Eckhart's heart like the Regiment did.
He raced out of the system on a dead course for the Dothea system, but no matter how fast he flew, the Regiment kept gaining. "What the hell is the matter with them?" Innyria asked. "Why are they so hot to enforce the law now?"
"Don't you know?" Alice replied. "They have reciprocal arrangements with every criminal organization on the fringes. They're coming in to take revenge on the people who killed their friends."
"Are you sure they're out to avenge the Lion Tribe?" Dallas asked. "They had a deal with the Bloody Blossoms, too. Which one do they want to avenge?"
"Probably both," Eckhart replied. "Here they come! Stand by to defend yourselves!"
The words barely left his mouth before the Banshees streaked forward and overran the squadrons. Blasts and booms rocked Eckhart's ship, and he skidded backward to fire into their midst.
The Colossuses couldn't fly as fast, but they could still shoot. They rained gunfire into the squadrons. Eckhart had to fly at his fastest just to dodge their shots.
The Banshees plunged into the squadrons, firing fast and sure. Velocities exploded on all sides.
"Pull back to the fleet!" Eckhart ordered. "We can't beat them."
"To hell with that!" Alice punched her throttle to engage the Banshees, but she only ended up flying headfirst into the Colossuses' fire.
"Break off!" Eckhart yelled. "Lead them to the fleet! Get out of there, Alice!"
Eckhart and Bing pulled away, but Alice's charge got her caught in the swarm of Banshees. She couldn't escape.
"Go on, Squadron Leader One!" Innyria told Eckhart. "I'll get her out."
"No way." Eckhart pulled his fighter back around. "Let's go, Squadron Leader Five. Alice needs a babysitter."
Bing laughed. "Just wait till I tell the rest of the Marathon crew about this!"
"You bastards!" Alice bellowed through the communications system, but Eckhart couldn't see her anymore with the hail of Banshee gunfire targeting her squadron.
He hurtled into reverse, shooting every Banshee in his path. Bing and Innyria turned their squadrons to the other side. The squadrons formed a knot around the Banshees to draw their fire away from Alice and her squadron.
Her Velocity erupted from the swarm, and the tight formation of fighters took off into black space. "Retreat!" Eckhart ordered. "Beat it out of here, all of you!"
The squadrons broke away, but the Banshees tracked their every move. The Banshees drove their engines to the wall and hounded the fighters every inch of the way back to the Dothea system.
Eckhart had to seriously concentrate on flying instead of returning their fire, but getting into a full-scale battle against the Regiment would only get him and his friends killed faster.
"Battlecruiser Atera Command to Squadron Leader One," a familiar voice chirped in his ear. "Looks like you picked up a case of space fleas on your trip."
Eckhart laughed in relief when he heard Rixby's voice. "Can you help us out with that, darling?"
"Arming the fleet now," Rixby replied. "Bring 'em in. We'll gas the bastards for you."
"You heard the lady, Squadrons Two and Five. Head for the Atera."
The moment Eckhart entered the Dothea system, his controls showed the giant battlecruisers of Aistenz Trotaer's fleet powering up their Triorium drives. The Banshees realized the ruse first, but they were already too close to save themselves.
Eckhart gunned his eng ines and punched through the fleet line as every battlecruiser opened fire. He and the rest of the squadrons vanished behind curtains of fire that enveloped the Banshees in explosions.
Eckhart wheeled hard and aimed his fighter for the Atera's open hatch. He gunned it inside as the Colossuses thundered into the Dothea system and the whole world erupted in a raging space battle.
CHAPTER2
E ckhart's Velocity skidded to a halt, and he hopped to the ground. Deafening concussions rocked the battlecruiser all around him.
Mechanics, fighter pilots, and random personnel from dozens of species raced all over the landing platform. Some scrambled more Velocities to join the battle, but most of the crew worked non-stop to secure anything not already tied down.
The Atera pitched and rocked as the noise escalated to thunderclaps. Another Bion raced over to Eckhart and yelled in his ear, but Eckhart couldn't make out any words.
Aistenz Trotaer's majordomo Squids gesticulated wildly, and Eckhart pointed behind him to his Velocity, but neither he nor Squids could make themselves heard.
Squids tugged Eckhart's arm. Eckhart didn't want to leave, but it didn't look like he had any choice.
Squids towed him over to the elevator, and the doors shut out the noise. The walls still resounded with muffled booms coming from all sides, but at least Eckhart and Squids could hear each other here.
"I need your help, Squids," Eckhart began. "We found something at Black Mountain. It's sensitive. I think the Lion Tribe might have been--"
"Excuse me for interrupting, but this is an emergency," Squids cut in. "I need you to come up to the command center immediately. I need you to take over running this battle until we clear the Regiment from the system."
Eckhart's jaw dropped. "Me! Why do you want me to do it?"
"You have the most experience fighting the Regiment. You have the most experience fighting anybody. Please, Eckhart. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. The survival of the whole fleet depends on you."
"That's impossible!" Eckhart exclaimed. "This is Aistenz Trotaer's fleet. How can I be the most experienced in all of Aistenz's service? I'm nobody. I'm just a mercenary."
"Please, Eckhart," Squids begged again. "I'll explain everything to you. I promise, but right now, we need an experienced captain in charge of the Atera. Please just finish this battle against the Regiment, and I'll explain everything afterward. I swear it."
Eckhart passed his hand across his eyes. "All right. If you really want me to."
Squids grabbed his hand. "Thank you! You're a lifesaver."
Eckhart squinted sideways at the old Bion, but he didn't argue. He found it impossible to believe that Aistenz Trotaer, one of the most powerful criminal overlords in the galaxy, if not the most powerful, didn't have someone in this fleet better qualified than Eckhart to take over.
Eckhart didn't have time to think about that. The elevator doors opened and he stepped out into the Atera's command center. He'd only been in here a few times, and his heart lifted when he spotted Rixby standing on a control station in front of the command podium.
"What do you have for me, sweetie?" Eckhart asked.
Rixby acted like she didn't hear him. She waddled back and forth across her station, snapping orders right and left. She stepped on her instruments, jabbed them with her fingers, and read streams of information running across dozens of screens.
"Gunners fourteen through seventy-five, target Colossus eighty-seven-forty-eight. Fire at will! Paostea Command, bring your ship four hundred and twenty-four degrees ascendent, eighty-two degrees latitude. Target Colossus thirty-nine-sixty-five and fire."
Eckhart stepped onto the podium and checked the readouts flowing in front of him. The other command center workers raced to keep up with Rixby's orders and the readings she sent back and forth from one station to another.
She worked a thousand times faster here than Eckhart had ever seen her act on the Marathon. Information streamed past her antennae faster than Eckhart could read it, but she never once broke off.
He didn't know what to do with himself until another panel blinked alive in front of him. "Captain on the bridge!" she squealed. "Atera active!"
"What?" Eckhart asked.
"Bring the Atera about!" Rixby shrilled. "We're dead in the water without a pilot. Get us out of the firing line to lead the Colossuses deeper into the system."
He realized a moment too late what she was talking about. His eye snapped from one display to another in front of him and he realized what she wanted him to do. The helm and throttle controls reverted to his podium. The Atera couldn't move without someone actually piloting the ship.
He seized the controls, and the giant ship reacted instantly. Piloting a ship this big felt strange after his many years on the Marathon, but the Atera didn't let him down.
He slammed the engines into reverse and Rixby went wild. "All ships, Shika formation around the Atera! Execute!"
The rest of Aistenz's fleet responded without a moment's hesitation. They twirled on the spot, still trading heavy fire with the Regiment. The fleet retreated deeper into the Dothea system, and the Regiment followed.
Eckhart steered the Atera into a complicated flight pattern, dodging and weaving from one Colossus to another. They couldn't move nearly as fast, but their weapons outmatched Aistenz's battlecruisers easily. Regiment shots pounded the Atera's hull, and Eckhart's instruments registered damage on all decks.
"Seventeen hundred megameters from the EM field!" Rixby squeaked. "Brogor formation, execute!"
Eckhart had a split second to read the instructions she transmitted to his readouts. He hit the throttle and the Atera streaked between two Colossuses. A trick like that would have been a day at the park for the Marathon, but the battlecruiser was too damn big to pull it off.
The Atera's massive sides crashed against both Colossuses, and spine-chilling screeches of metal on metal set Eckhart's teeth on edge. Rixby screamed, but the next second, the Atera crashed through on the other side, along with the other cruisers from Aistenz's fleet.
"Wheel!" Rixby ordered. "Full spin!"
Eckhart hauled the Atera into a full turn to face backward. Now the whole Regiment force stood between Aistenz's fleet and the EM field blocking off more than half of the Dothea system.
"Now!" Eckhart ordered.
"Triorium drive active!" Rixby called. "All ships active!"
The Regiment opened fire to bombard the fleet with every gun, but when their shots struck the Atera, the blasts rebounded and smashed the Colossuses backward. They staggered and pitched across the EM field.
Eckhart relaxed as every Regiment ship went dark, cold, and lifeless. They rotated in midair as the planet Sorix's gravity dragged them down.
The Colossuses got smaller and smaller as they fell through the atmosphere to the surface far below. Whether their crews survived didn't matter anymore. No power system could make it through the EM field. None of those ships would ever get off the planet without power.
Rixby brought Eckhart back to the present. "Is it true? Did you find Clifton on Rulara?"
"Yeah." Eckhart shook himself. "I gotta go. Can you keep things under control here, Rixby?"
"Yes. You don't have to worry. We just needed a pilot."
Eckhart took one more look around the command center. Aistenz Trotaer could afford the most highly skilled people in the galaxy. He didn't need a damn pilot. Something weird was going on here, but Eckhart didn't stick around to find out what it was.
He would have interrogated Squids, but Eckhart didn't see Squids anywhere, either. He stepped back into the elevator and went down to the landing platform where he'd left the rest of the Marathon crew.
He stepped out onto the floor, and his heart seized up when he saw the Marathon parked to one side. The ship had been completely repaired and was ready to fly again. Aistenz had promised to restore the Marathon, but Eckhart didn't expect it to happen this fast.
He walked over to Dallas, who was climbing down from Alice's Velocity. "You okay?"
"Yes," Dallas replied. "Rixby is sending me instructions through my helmet for disconnecting the anionic elasticity quantatid from my systems. You'll be able to reconnect it to the Marathon. The ship will be as good as ever."
"Maybe you should keep it. We can get another quantatid somewhere else."
"Are you sure?" Dallas asked. "Rixby seems to think it won't be as easy as that."
