The Chief Engineer broke into her group’s channel to ask her to return a few minutes later, and she jogged where possible to move quicker. There had been a breathless quality in the chief’s voice that she’d never heard before.

  Rushing into the Engineering substation she was based in, she found the Chief Engineer and the Waterloo’s captain talking while half a dozen of her coworkers loitered around them trying not to be obvious in their eavesdropping. Rafferty, the crewman who had first warned her, was standing by an open locker and tossed her a thumbs up as she entered.

  Brow furrowed, she came to a stop in front of the captain and came as close as she ever could to a sharp salute. Shows of that nature were more for the command staff and officer corps, while the average member of the crew found it demeaning to always have to give a salute when called before an officer.

  “This is Natalia Avila, sir,” the chief said, patting her on the shoulder with a heavy hand. “One of our best down here in Engineering.”

  The captain nodded and stood erect with his hands in the small of his back. “Miss Avila, I have been hearing your name quite often the last several weeks, so I thought it was about time I met you in person.”

  “Sir?” she asked in surprise, trying to figure out why her name would be anywhere near the captain of the ship.

  Captain Andrews smiled, setting her at ease slightly. “Lieutenant Richtaus has been with me on every boat for the last ten years, so she and I have become friendly and often share a drink in the lounge. She’s spoken highly of you, says that you’re one of the few that she can always count on to get the work done right and on time.”

  A shadow crossed his face. “It was a shock to hear that she was hit by one of the railgun rounds, but had it not been for your quick thinking with a tourniquet I’m told she would likely have lost too much blood and could have died.

  “On top of that, you were the one to keep a cool head and answer the call on the bridge for urgent repairs. The fact that you made your way through the ship in the middle of a battle speaks volumes about your courage, Miss Avila. I would be proud to serve with you at any time.” His hands appeared from behind his back, holding a small box. The captain held it forward, opening the lid to reveal a small round white pip that looked much like one of the four on the captain’s chest that denoted his rank.

  “As part of the war powers act, a ship’s commanding officer is allowed to make battlefield promotions to reward extraordinary service. I can think of few who would deserve it as much as you do, Ensign Avila, and the admiral is in full agreement.”

  Nat’s eyes had grown larger with every word, and she could only stare down at the pip she’d never thought it would be possible to wear. Non-commissioned officer ranks had been the extent of her dreams, the square rank badges that set them apart from the officer corps. She tried to swallow, but her mouth felt as dry as a desert as she raised her eyes to meet the captain’s. “Thank you, sir,” she croaked.

  Captain Andrews chuckled softly, pulling out the white circle and clipping it to her uniform as the rest of the room broke out in applause and whistles. With shaking fingers, she reached up to rub at the smooth enameled surface of the rank pip. She felt a beaming smile spread across her face as she shook hands with the captain.

  Twenty

  Anders entered the briefing room, and threw a fist against the wall. Davis looked up, one brow raised inquiringly. “What is it, sergeant?”

  “The bastards destroyed our frigates, sir. Both of them completely smashed, everyone aboard killed. More than fourteen thousand dead from the impacts when the second ship fell from orbit.”

  Davis took a deep breath, leaning back in the chair and steadying himself. He had expected retaliation for the attack on Mars, but not something this big. “How many ships did the Coalition lose?”

  “None,” Anders spat. “Observers say that one of the frigates took heavy damage, but the others were barely scratched.”

  “Well, I should say I’m surprised even one of their ships was damaged. Eight against two are not good odds.”

  “Four against two. The other frigates were seen heading to Luna.” Anders sat in one of the chairs that the assault soldiers filled during briefings, a grim smile spreading across his face. “Looks like the bomber is back, and he destroyed the docking complex at Aldrin. The reports I’ve seen are a bit slim on actual information, but we know there were explosions there.”

  Davis was even more surprised at this news. When the first bomb went off in New York, he had shared the conviction of many on the Indomitable that the Syndicate had been funding the attacks. With the Coalition being targeted with each blast, he had been more positive. However, when the bombings stopped and the Syndicate committees still didn’t take credit or even let it be known amongst their own senior officers, he had begun to question his conviction. Undoubtedly, there had to be many groups on Earth that would be more than willing to take advantage of the chaos of the situation to try and force their own agenda. It was even possible that each attack could be the work of a different person or group.

  Turning to the terminal on his desk, he pulled up the latest reports trickling down from the cruiser’s command staff. He saw a mention of Coalition ships approaching their frigates over Hong Kong, but nothing about an attack on Luna. The latest report was more than half an hour old, even after he put in a refresh request with the ship’s servers.

  He was closing out of the terminal when a message with the highest urgency level appeared on the screen. “I’ve been summoned to the admiral,” he told his sergeant, rising to pull his tunic and remove any wrinkles from long hours of sitting at the desk. “I don’t know how long I’ll be, so run the team through more ship boarding sessions. I feel certain that will be our next mission now that the Coalition seems to have found some spine.”

  The assault team’s quarters and training area were far from the bridge and the admiral’s office, so it took half an hour to traverse the cruiser and arrive outside the door. Two Marines stood beside it on sentry duty, each carrying a lethal flechette rifle at attention across their chest. It was an action that signified the ship was at war, the Marines given permission to fire as necessary if someone tried to forcefully enter the admiral’s office or bridge. One of the men saluted, and Davis snapped his hand to his temple in reply.

  “The admiral is expecting you, sir.”

  “Thank you, Marine.” Davis waved his hand over the sensor and waited a few seconds as authorization was granted from within and the door hissed open. Once inside the large room, more spacious than the cabins that two to four crew members shared throughout the cruiser, he found the admiral sitting at a large desk reading reports on a curving holo display. Davis snapped to attention, presenting a sharp salute. “Reporting as ordered, admiral.”

  “Lieutenant, please sit.” Admiral Yumata pressed a button to turn off the displays, and swiveled to face Davis. “Excellent work on Deimos, by the way. Your team performed admirably, and I have noted in my reports to the Military Committee that you should all be commended. Not one Syndicate citizen harmed, and only minor damage to the airlock and warehouse facility. A much better result than the original plan, though we did still confiscate almost all hydroponics equipment. The colonies must be dependent upon Earth again, to maintain our control over them.”

  “Thank you, sir. My team followed through on the plan exactly as we rehearsed.”

  Clasping his hands together on the desk, Yumata leaned forward. “Have you heard about the attack on our frigates in Earth orbit?”

  “Sergeant Anders told me about it just before I received your summons, sir. Such a move had to be expected after our actions on Mars.”

  “Yes, it should have been,” the admiral sniffed. “Such a possibility was in the brief I sent to the Military Committee, but they choose to believe the Coalition would continue holding firm in a defensive posture. Now they’re also making moves to secure Luna.”

  Davis stiffened. “How so, sir?”

  “Four of their frigates have entered orbit around the moon, with the freighter trash they are desperately arming. Our sources tell us that Marines will be landed as soon as the docking facilities can be repaired.” Yumata smiled with satisfaction. “Whoever bombed them not only destroyed the landing pads and docking facility, but they also obliterated five of the freighters that were having railguns mounted. If we ever find out who’s doing that, we should give them a commission to serve the Syndicate.”

  Davis considered the information. “They should be able to jury rig something within a few days, sir, and begin dropping their Marines. Will the Military Committee send more Marines to Armstrong to help defend against the incursion?”

  “No, the frigates have arranged themselves to cover any approach. Our troop transports have light weapons for ground assaults, not ship-to-ship battles. It would be a slaughter.”

  “How many are in the garrison of Armstrong dome, sir? It can’t be more than a handful of squads.”

  “I believe there are six, with two majors in charge of the operations.”

  “Fifty Marines,” Davis mused. “The Coalition will send in several hundred, perhaps a thousand, to sweep away any resistance.”

  A challenging light appeared in the admiral’s eyes, and he smiled. “How would you handle the defense, lieutenant?”

  “I’ve only been on Luna a few times, no more than a couple of days each time as I changed ships for new assignments.” Lips pursed, Davis paused to picture the layout of the two domes in his head. Surprisingly, he knew more of Aldrin than Armstrong since he’d spent most of his time in the Coalition dome sampling the entertainment options there. He narrowed his focus to the long underground tunnel that connected the domes. “I would hope that the checkpoint at the dome entry has a stun field. Two, if I had set it up, one in front of the guard post and one behind. That would be the first line of defense, with Marines firing from behind cover as the Coalition troops approach. With proper leadership and a bit of luck, our troops could inflict several dozen casualties on the enemy before they are overrun, and the stun fields would slow the advance.

  “My memory is of a tight street at the entry point to the dome from the tunnel, a perfect place to create fallback positions and keep up a steady fire on the Coalition soldiers. The rooftops would provide vantage points that could give devastating effect if used properly.” Davis grimaced as the battle played out in his head. “Armstrong administration would try to prevent it, but I would bring down buildings at side streets to extend the single approach for as long as possible. The rubble would also give opportunity to place mines and focused claymores that could be activated by motion or remote detonation. Done properly, the enemy will have lost a couple of hundred soldiers at this point, though I would fully expect to lose half of our own. Such ferocity in defense would also slow their advance.”

  “Excellent tactics so far,” the admiral said quietly. “What happens when the Coalition troops are out of this funnel of death?”

  “At that point, sir, the fight is well and truly lost. I’d advise my Marines to take shelter where they can within the dome, melt into the populace, and look for opportunities to strike from the shadows. Place improvised explosive devices where the enemy tends to cluster, sabotage their equipment if possible, poison their rations. It would be a war of attrition at that point, but each small victory would give heart to the citizens within Armstrong. It would keep them strong in their support of the Syndicate as we work to reclaim our rightful position and eject the Coalition from both domes and the planet below.”

  Admiral Yumata raised his eyebrows. “This is something I did not expect to hear from you, lieutenant. Are you not the one who always urges caution and acceptance of the enemy’s viewpoints?”

  “Yes, sir, that has always been my position. Until recently. The Coalition’s actions are proving that they have no regard for our people. Attacking our frigates is one thing, but letting the shattered remains fall to the planet and kill countless civilians is too far. Arming freighters is just as bad, a group that is supposed to be neutral in all respects.”

  “Mmmm…. The Transport Guild will need to go, of course. I have the full backing of the Military Committee on that, and one of our first actions after reclaiming Luna will be to track down and execute any member of that institution. They made the mistake of choosing a side in the war, and then choosing the wrong side.”

  Davis felt his lips quirk up in a smile as he focused on the admiral’s words. “We’ll go to Luna, sir?”

  “Yes, lieutenant. Our work on Mars is complete. The planet and its moons are fully under Syndicate control. We have made a strong statement that our power cannot be resisted. I will give the order in a few hours to set course for Luna. I fully expect the Coalition frigates will finally advance to meet us as we approach.”

  “Sir, I’d like to ask permission to use my team to assault an enemy frigate. Ghost Squad is ready to infiltrate and destroy, and I feel confident that we can use our skills and training to strongly hinder their effectiveness at the very least.”

  “This brings me to the reason for calling you to my office, lieutenant. Our sources in the Coalition government have passed information that their Fleet Admiral has stationed himself on one of their frigates. This gives us a stellar opportunity to cut the head from the snake and stomp the rest as it writhes.”

  Yumata smiled, relishing the thought. “It will take us nineteen days to reach Earth and Luna, but if the Coalition moves to intercept as I expect, then we should be in battle within two weeks at the most. I plan to launch your team in the insertion pods a day in advance, to give you time to work. I want you to kill their admiral. The captain of the frigate as well, if possible.”

  Davis stood and snapped a sharp salute. “Admiral, my men will be ready when the time comes. I thank you for your confidence in our abilities. We will do as requested, have no doubts.”

  “Excellent, lieutenant. Do this job well, and I feel certain I can finally force through a promotion to captain. I’m tired of the Marine command refusing to advance you just because I coerced them to let you work for me.”

  “It is an honor to work with you, sir, whatever rank I have.”

  “We will do great things together, lieutenant. Great things.” The admiral nodded in satisfaction, and then waved a hand. “Dismissed. Get your team prepped for their mission.”

  Davis saluted again, and then turned and strode from the room. As he walked through the corridors to return to his team’s section of the ship, he felt joy at the prospect of the mission ahead. He would still have to decide which of the team would remain behind since they were one pod short, but felt confident that nine members of the team would be more than enough to infiltrate the Coalition frigate and eliminate their admiral. With a bit of luck, they could cause a great deal of chaos in the enemy fleet and disrupt them enough to allow the Indomitable to easily wipe the last resistance away.

  Twenty One

  The Vagabond had spent a week in orbit around Luna, the freighters clustering around the four Coalition frigates that still watched as repairs were made to the docking facilities for Aldrin. The leader of the work crew on the surface of the moon had assured the captains of the frigates that he could have the docks ready to receive the Marine shuttles within two days, three at the most.

  That had been before the constant sabotages that set back the process almost every day and left them no more than halfway to completion so many days later. So far the Marines on the ground had been unable to determine who was working against the process, but felt sure it was a Syndicate spy from Armstrong dome.

  Erik was starting to feel impatient with the government establishment, frustrated that the Coalition military chose to see Syndicate spies or saboteurs behind every little malady and issue. He had floated the idea that the Marines could put on pressure suits and then be dropped off by the shuttles on the surface of Luna for a short walk to enter the docking facility that was still exposed to the vacuum of space. But he’d been told to stay out of the discussions. The frigate captains were making it very clear that they felt the freighter crews were untrained hindrances to the war effort, no matter how many railguns they carried.

  Unfortunately, that was not as many as they had hoped for. Only eight of the twelve freighters in orbit had been armed, with four awaiting their turn before the shipyards were destroyed. They had enough firepower to be the equivalent to a frigate, however, a powerful addition to the defense of Earth and Luna. That was without including the two other ships that had been given the same heavy railguns as the Vagabond, capable of firing a fifty kilo slug at twice the speed of the lighter variety.

  His display chimed, alerting him to an incoming message. Erik tapped the screen to open it, smiling when he saw that the message came from Dex. Erik, Meyers said it’s time to put the plan in place. The Syndicate cruiser left Mars three days ago, and the Coalition fleet will be departing within the week to meet them at a safe distance from Earth. Stay safe. I have lots of kisses saved up for when you’re back on Luna. By the way, Robert’s research was right. The team on Deimos sent a copy of their work before the colony was “sanitized”, and the team on Earth was able to combine that with their work to clear the hurdles. They’re starting to build a prototype.

  Erik felt elated at the news. As long as the Syndicate cruiser could be stopped, the system would receive a fantastic gift to honor the memory of a man who had worked in anonymous obscurity on an asteroid mining colony most of his life. He would make sure that everyone knew who was responsible for the new technology when it was introduced.

  “We just got the thumbs up,” he said to Mira.

  “Time for a little of the old razzle dazzle?” she asked with a grin.

 

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