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Day of Reckoning (Book 2) Chapter One

Ensign Monica Samuels dispassionately watched Clint Morrison, in his engineering enlisted uniform, tap the butt of his pistol on the door frame before quickly bringing his prisoner back in its sights. The hatch opened and he eyed the young officer as she passed into her own quarters. The barrier closed again, and the metallic click indicated that it would not open again until someone on the other side came for her.

Finally alone, she dropped the brave front she'd maintained since she had reentered the ship. Her impassive face slid away, to be replaced by a snarl of anger. She looked about for something she could kick without breaking her toes, but there was nothing that fit the bill. Navy beds, navy footlockers, navy doors. If this were one of her own family's ships, at least there would have been carpeting!

Blast it, what did the captain mean? Is it possible that he knows why I’m here? Is that why he told me to stay? Uncertainty clouded the young officer's expression as she looked into the navy mirror secured to the wall above the room's sink. The mirror held no answers and offered no solace to her personal pain. Instead, it showed the bunk belonging to her missing roommate, Ensign Jherri Roberts which just accentuated her own situation. Jherri had been one of the officers who had been exiled to Antoc A3 with Captain Brighton aboard the shuttle Vanguard.

Samuels grabbed the rim of the sink, and closing her eyes, leaned forward to rest her head lightly on the mirror. Man, what a mess I’ve gotten myself into now! I finally think I have it all worked out, I know where my duty lies. I get on board Vanguard, and then Captain Brighton sends me back! Why would he do that? Does he feel that I belong with the traitors?

How could things have gone so horribly wrong so quickly? she wondered.

Six hours ago, her world was precisely what she wanted it most to be. She had been a newly promoted ensign posted to one of the most sought after position in the fleet, serving a tense watch on the bridge under the exacting scrutiny of her captain. Well, perhaps not precisely what she wanted. If it were a perfect universe, when she had graduated from Warner Naval Academy six months before, she would have gone straight back to school for Advanced Cyber-Warfare. Rules were rules, though, and a "middy tour" was mandatory before she could apply for further study.

Going back to school was not likely to happen now, any more than Any more than she could change the last six hours. She was done as Officer of the Deck on Captain Brighton's third watch. The odds that she would ever see Captain again, or any of the eighteen others exiled with him, were vanishingly small.

Monica Samuels opened her eyes and leaned away from the mirror. There were tears threatening to spill over, and the weakness they represented embarrassed her, though no one was there to see them. She wiped the moisture away and put her hair back in place where the mirror had disturbed the laser line of her black bangs. Next, she willed her pale face back into its calm mask; she was getting good at living behind a mask.

Samuels found that putting herself physically back into good order was helping to restore her mental and emotional equilibrium as well, which she desperately needed. She continued her efforts, removing the hair clip that held her ponytail, shaking out the hair that didn't quite reach her collar, and then clipping it tightly back in place. She still had on the officer's uniform of a Warner Space Navy ensign that she had donned for her rotation on the bridge that had started at 0000 that morning.

Unbidden, the morning scene replayed itself in her mind.

* * * * *

Ensign Samuels looked around the bridge. The captain was occupying the astrogation console. Tim O’Neill had moved around to the scan board on the port side of the bridge just aft of the Environmental station manned by Drew Le Vesconte. Everything was quiet. She turned to walk toward the unmanned cartography console on the other side of the bridge, but she never made it there. The bridge hatch slid open and two engineering crewmen jumped through, holding pistols. Samuels knew that she should do something, but she stood frozen in place. She watched Captain Brighton hit a button on his console then he stood to face the threat. He stopped suddenly, as frozen as Samuels, when Lt. Commander Teach, the man who the captain thought was his friend, came through the hatch behind the crewmen, Kasdorf and Morrison she thought their names were.

“Everyone sit back down," Teach ordered, waving his pistol. Just then the ship was shaken by several small jolts.

He stood there and looked at the captain. Indecision showed plainly on his face. He had not expected the explosions so he appeared unsure.

Samuels herself was not sure what the jolts were but they felt like very small explosions in multiple points on the ship’s surface. She briefly considered whether she were about to die but Captain Brighton stood there, unfazed and patient, so she calmed her quavering stomach and tried to follow his example.

"I said to sit down, Captain," Teach repeated finally, and waved his gun at the watch crew. Samuels took the last few steps to the cartography console and sat down slowly, never taking her eyes off the captain. He would know what to do.

Brighton folded his arms across his chest and stared at the renegade officer.

"What was that noise?" Teach asked as he moved over to stand in front of Captain. The captain made no reply, but the fury in his expression was strong enough that she was surprised that Teach didn’t recoil.

Getting no answer from Captain Brighton, he turned to the bridge crew. "I am taking command of this ship. All officers and crew who wish to stay on the ship will be welcomed and receive the respect they deserve. I will no longer allow the kind of abuse and harassment that has been the norm under the previous command," he said.

Samuels sat back in her chair, stunned.

What was he talking about? Brighton was tough on the crew when they didn’t measure up to his expectations but she had never seen any abuse.

She wasn’t sure to expect, but she certainly had not imagined mutiny. The comments about abuse were also confusing, Captain Brighton was an intimidating presence, especially to an Ensign just out of the academy, but he had never been abusive to any of the crew in her presence.

Teach grinned at the captain as if he had scored critical points in some game. Samuels remembered wanting to scream at him. She wanted to pound her head on the console, anything to make this nightmare end. Instead, she sat frozen and silent in her chair trying to decide what to do.

Captain Brighton stepped forward quickly and slapped Teach hard enough to make him stagger back a step. The two startled crewmen raised their pistols but took no further action nor did Commander Teach move to use the weapon held loosely in his hand. The captain took a step back and said to the bridge crew, "Take no immediate action. Do as you're instructed. Loyal members of the crew will no doubt be here soon to collect these misguided lunatics."

The watch standers visibly relaxed as they received their instructions, but Teach seemed to swell with rage and his eyes flashed.

"You are no longer in a position to give any orders on my bridge, Willy," he said, before turning to face the helm.

"Ms. Williams, you will set a course to Antoc-A3," he said to the helmswoman. She never made any response.

"Did you hear the order, Ms. Williams?"

"I heard some noise come out of your mouth, but I haven't heard any orders. Orders come from the captain," she said, with insubordinate venom.

Samuels watched with horror as the rage exploded across Teach’s face and he swung his pistol around to fire at Williams. Captain Brighton lunged after the weapon but he was grabbed from behind by crewman Morrison who was standing just behind him. Williams threw herself out of the chair as the flechettes tore a large hole in the seat back.

Teach didn’t fire again, even though the pilot lay on the deck beside her chair staring daggers at him. Samuels shivered as if ice slid down her spine at the XO’s sudden mood shift. Was he even sane? she wondered.

He turned calmly to Morrison and said, "Take them down to the shuttle bay. Put the captain on one of the lifeboats and don't let him talk to anyone."

"Aye-aye, sir."

The armed crewman nearest Samuels, Kasdorf his nametag read, grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to her feet while motioning to Le Vesconte and O’Neill with his pistol. He held his weapon pushed into Samuels’ head while the rest filed out of the hatch and then pushed her through to follow them.

Exiting the bridge, she watched as Major Chowdhury, the head of Pathfinder’s Marine security team, was marched down the central passageway in front of them. She had both hands manacled behind her back. Crewmen Trendle and Green were behind her with drawn pistols trained on her head. As she went by, Samuels could see that her uniform was covered in blood. How had they gotten so many of the crew to go along with this insane mutiny?

They were followed by two other engineering ratings carrying the unconscious form of Sergeant Burton, one of the other Marines. Her right side was blackened from some sort of blaster fire, but Samuels could not tell if she was living or dead from the brief look she had. Two other engineering crewmen followed them all with weapons drawn. Both were also covered in blood. They all continued across the main walkway toward sickbay.

Similar scenes were repeated as far as they could see along the corridor, as crew and officers were being herded down to the boatbay, already filling with tense, angry men and women.

The captain was pushed in first, followed by Morrison, who seemed have become his personal guard. Kasdorf pushed Samuels to the starboard corner away from the captain.

Morrison tried to undog the seal on the access hatch to lifeboat nine but found that it would not unseal. It was only then that he noticed the red light on the side panel indicating that the pod was no longer there.

The bay was noisy and all the rest of the crewmen and officers were moved to starboard, completely isolated from the captain. Elle Williams looked at the cluster of mutineers and shook her head. She moved from her group toward the captain. There were murmurs among the pirates, but no one moved to block her way. Drew Le Vesconte followed her after a slight hesitation. Both moved to stand next to Captain Brighton and glared at their captors.

As the doors opened again to admit Teach, the room quieted slightly in anticipation. He surveyed the bay and singled out Dr. Ward who was standing with the other loyalists. Ward looked disoriented and stunned as he moved hesitantly to stand near Teach when instructed to do so. The Executive Officer said something to him that Samuels could not hear. They stood and looked at each other and Ward clearly answered. Teach looked stunned, barked some orders to one of the guards, Simon Chin, and Ward was escorted out into the starboard corridor.

Once the assistant medical officer was accompanied out of the bay, Teach seemed to collect himself and turned to address the larger group. As he did so, more crewmen and officers were pushed into the bay to join the huddled group with Samuels, nearly doubling its size. She saw her friend Jherri Roberts at the front of the group, but was too far away to dare trying to speak to her. Amber Sullivan was standing next to her with fear and confusion covering her thin features. At a quick glance, it looked like nearly all of the crew was assembled.

"Respect is a hard thing to earn," Teach said in a voice that brought the attention back to himself. "It is also impossible to live without. For the last nine months we have been working as slaves to the ambition of a heartless captain without any proper respect, recognition, or acknowledgement. That ends now!" He stood and surveyed the group as if waiting for applause. None arrived.

Samuels snuck a quick look at the captain to see how he was reacting to this slander, but he acted as if he could not hear what was being said. For herself, she wasn’t sure what she was hearing. Just like the pronouncement on the bridge, Teach’s claims didn’t seem to have any basis in fact. Had she been that isolated from what was going on in the rest of the ship? Had there been abuses she was unaware of?

"Soon you will be called upon to make one of the most important decisions of your lives. Brighton will be sent down to a nearby planet. He will have food and water enough to support life. Those who will not acknowledge me as rightful captain of the Pathfinder are welcome to join him there. You can stay here and be free of the tyrant, or you are welcome to share his meager existence. You must choose now. Those of you foolish enough to reject my generosity, please join him. If you wish to take part in this venture as free men, stay where you are."

Monica’s mind raced as she considered what she had just heard. The venom in Teach’s pronouncement left her wondering if he would really allow Brighton the chance at life that he had claimed. It felt more reasonable to assume that he was lying to cover the murder of the captain and all those who followed him. Samuels realized that to follow him would mean her death as well. This thought froze her in place just as the pistols had done on the bridge.

The group shifted uncomfortably on their feet but no one made a move toward the captain. Finally, the large bosun, Derrick Mackey, took two steps toward Teach and spat on the deck plates at his feet. He continued to stare at the traitor as he moved purposefully to join the captain’s small group. He stood in front of him and snapped a parade ground salute. Nearly two thirds of the remaining people, led by Lt. Fyonna Johnson and Major Chowdhury, her hands still handcuffed behind her, quickly followed him. Only Samuels and eight other people were left in front of Teach. Next to Monica, Sullivan started to cry and fell to the deck.

The young ensign looked at the captain, trying to evaluate where her duty directed her. She had a duty of loyalty to the captain and to the Warner Fleet but she had other responsibilities, and other loyalties, as well.

If she went with the captain, she might die and fail in her ultimate responsibility to her parents and immediate family, but if she stayed she would be numbered as a traitor and a thief and would never have a career in the Fleet. Then she would have failed both duties.

The captain looked back at her with the first compassion that she had ever seen him show. He looked into her eyes and nodded as if in agreement with her decision to stay.

She knew she could delay her decision no longer. She hung her head as she contemplated the death of her career and her dream of helping her family and she began to cry softly along with Sullivan, as she made the hardest decision of her life. With that decision made Monica Samuels threw her head back and acted.

She reached down and grabbed the hand of her friend and whispered, “I can’t protect you if you stay.” Sullivan came to her feet and they both walked over to join the captain.

There were seven who chose to remain behind with Teach; one officer, Ensign Omundson and six crewmen.

Teach sent those seven to their quarters, under guard. He then approached the remaining group standing loyally with the Captain.

"Each of you crewmen will be allowed to return to your quarters to grab clothing and whatever personal items that you cannot live without. You will be guarded at all times. If you come to regret your rash decision, simply inform your guards that you wish to stay and you will be allowed to remain in your quarters. All officers, security and bridge crew will remain in the boatbay."

The nine technicians and crewmen loyal to Captain Brighton departed, guarded by Trendle and Green, the two assistant cooks.

When everyone had returned to the boatbay, Teach began the unlock sequence on the nearest lifeboat. The hatch stayed closed, and the indicator stayed red. The lifeboat was gone. Not believing the evidence of his eyes, he had his toadies check each of the other lifeboats. All of the lifeboats in the bay were gone. Samuels knew this had been the cause of the small explosions she had felt just after the pirates had entered the bridge. She remembered that she had seen Captain Brighton activate a switch as soon as he had seen the two crewmen.

He had planned for this, she realized.

We may survive after all.

Teach’s reaction was shocking to Samuels. He stood there ranting and raving at his crew, at the group of exiles, and at Captain Brighton, specifically. Throughout the take-over Teach had remained calm. Well, except when he shot at Williams, she thought. Now, however, he was completely out of control.

At one point, he had to be physically restrained by the crewmen standing next to him. The chief engineer, Katherine Leung, had a haunted look on her face as she pocketed the pistol that her engineering crewmen had taken away from him. Samuels could not feel sorry for her.

Teach finally seemed to regain some control. "Bezates, Danis," he called. "Get into Vanguard and disable the long range transmitter. Jettison the communication pods and pull enough batteries to disable the jump engines."

This surprised Samuels. She had forgotten about the auxiliary vessel docked to the belly of Pathfinder. Vanguard was capable of taking all of the loyal crewmen and officers but with the jump engines disabled, it would only take them to the nearest planet.

The crewmen assigned to disable Vanguard returned quickly. They did not carry any batteries or equipment, so doubtless they had simply sent it all out the launch's starboard airlock. Dr. Ward returned to the boatbay with medical boxes and carrysacks loading him down. He was added to Brighton’s crew and they were all marched at gunpoint to the deck hatch and down the ladder that led to Vanguard's port airlock. The gunmen soon returned for the officers and they were all secured behind the inner airlock door.

Teach stepped forward and offered one last chance for anyone else to save themselves from the fate that awaited them.

"I need you to stay aboard. I'll be back for you," Brighton said quietly to Samuels. She was stunned. It was like a reprieve at the foot of the gallows. She had been ordered to stay. She stood quickly and pulled Sullivan back out of the hatch without ever acknowledging the captain’s remark or looking back at her abandoned fellows. Aichele stood from his seat next to Chowdhury, and moved out of the hatch with his head down, as if in shame. They didn’t look at each other as they made their way back into the boatbay and under guard back into the main living section of the ship. Samuels was separated from Aichele and Sullivan and Morrison took her to her quarters.

* * * * *

She tried not to think of her fellow officers and crew who had been abandoned to their fate, but with limited success. Abruptly, she realized that Brighton was the only one who knew she had been ordered back. If he didn’t survive, she would still be branded a traitor. Why did he order me back?

She had lost track of the number of times she had made such an evaluation while leaning on the meticulously clean fixture.

She had been in her quarters almost five hours now, with nothing to do. She had talked to no one. Her only contact with the outside world was a muffled sobbing from the quarters just forward of her own. It sounded like Amber Sullivan, even though those were not her assigned quarters. This brought another wave of guilt. Poor Amber, I should have left her with Captain, but I thought bringing her back with me would look less suspicious.

Samuels was beginning to go stir crazy. She threw herself onto her bed, as she had several times in the last hours.

She stood again after a moment, unable to hold still. Her black ponytail spun behind her as she began the pacing again. Her mind continued to repeat the questions that had been plaguing her during her hours of isolation.

“Stay,” the captain had said. What did he mean? Did he mean that he didn’t want me? Was it an instruction simply to stay on the ship and nothing more? What was his expectation? Does he knowabout me? If he knows, it would change everything. Should I be trying to delay the theft of the ship? Obstruct their attempts to leave the system? If only Captain Brighton had had more than a few seconds to give me orders, then I might know what the blazes I should be doing right now.

What if the captain is aware of my history and he’s already reported me to Warner?

That could make this a very sticky situation. If he did, I am better off throwing in with Teach.

I have to know for sure, she told herself, arriving at the mirror once again.

She moved quickly to her personal computer study module on the desk by her bunk. The computers in personnel quarters were not designed to interface with the main ship computer. If they were, she was sure she would have been locked elsewhere. The lack of access was a small impediment that she had overcome soon after entering the ship. She glanced at the hatch nervously, as if, after remaining shut for the last five hours, it would choose this moment to open and betray her.

She sat at the desk and logged into the terminal. After inputting her codes she was shocked to see the level to which the system had been locked down. Even her hacks had been disabled.

Captain Brighton had done a thorough job of locking down the system. After twenty minutes of trial and error, using everything Commodore Wellesley had taught her in Advanced Cyber-Structure, she finally got access to her own files. Once she had those, she had what she needed to invade the captain’s personal correspondences. She didn’t have access to any of the ship’s systems from her cabin. Those were part of the main computer on the bridge and only terminals physically connected there could do anything with them, but she was able to get far enough into the system to verify that the only messages to Warner Fleet Headquarters from Captain Brighton had nothing to do with her. With that knowledge, she knew that her only course of action was to complete her original mission. The only way to complete her original mission was to get help to Brighton, who was the only witness to her having been ordered back to Pathfinder.

How am I supposed to do that? she thought.

Any people that might have helped her in reaching her goal had been forcibly removed from the ship, including Captain Brighton and eighteen officers and crew. That left more than thirty supporting Teach against her solitary self. How could he have gotten so many to support him? There would be no help coming from outside the ship either, since they had just completed a test jump into an uninhabited system.

Samuels rose once again and retraced her circuit of the room, analyzing what she knew, trying to formulate a plan that might allow her to provide some assistance to Brighton. Some chance of rescue had to be created for those who had been ejected from the ship, as well. She looked to the empty bunk of her friend Jherri Roberts and thought of her and the others who had gone with the captain into Vanguard against their will.

For all the confident claims to the contrary, the captain and her friends might never return from their exile. She could think of nothing she could do to help them, but that did not diminish her resolve to find a way. She would have to look for opportunities to communicate with the Warner Naval Board. Likely, she would have to manufacture such an opportunity herself. Once word got to them, a force could be assembled both to rescue Brighton and to reclaim Pathfinder. The difficulty would be in getting word out quickly enough that it would make a difference. She knew that only a limited supply of food and water had been provided to Brighton, so rescue had to arrive before that was gone. The other time constraint was that with Pathfinder’s prototype engines, they could move anywhere in the galaxy without leaving a trail to follow.

Once Teach could get past Captain Brighton’s lockouts and control the ship completely, they would disappear without a trace. Delaying that control had to be one of her primary objectives as well.

Commander Teach had said that anyone was welcome to join with him but obviously anyone who signed on at the point of a gun was not going to be completely trusted. She could still see the scene in her mind’s eye. Commander Teach had been ranting to the crew. Crewmen pointed guns at everyone else. Everyone had been looking at each other and trying to figure out what was going on. Mostly, to her shame, she remembered the gripping terror in her belly telling her that if she went into that launch, she would die. Even though Commander Teach had said the exiles would have food and supplies enough to survive on the planet that was their destination. It had taken everything she could muster to make that decision to join the captain. It shouldn’t have, but it had. Had the captain been able to see that? Was that why he had ordered me off the ship? Did he know that I was not up to the task? she asked herself as she landed on her mattress again.

All through the academy, the Leadership series had been the most difficult courses for the young ensign. Math, Computers and Astrogation had come easily. Most were second nature, having spent considerable time aboard ships during her life. Only the decision-making skills had been difficult. Monica Samuels knew this about herself. She had studied Captain Brighton on watch and envied the easy manner in which he gave commands and dealt with problems. He was an officer and a leader and he led his crew. He never over-analyzed the situations the way that she did as a matter of course, he simply acted. What was it that her command instructor had said? “It’s usually better to take the wrong action, quickly, than to make the best possible decision, too late.”

She realized that she not only had to make up her mind quickly, but she had to have a plan in place from which she could act.

Sitting up and taking a deep breath, Monica once again tried processing the information at her disposal into a course of action.

Trust was going to be the most important element, she decided. Without the trust of the other crew, she would be watched constantly and would never have the opportunity to do anything. Obviously, she was not trusted yet. How could she be? she thought. She had had no opportunities to prove herself. She had been escorted here directly from the boatbay and had had no contact with any of the mutineers since. No, I can’t call them mutineers, she thought to herself. That's not how they see themselves. Now she was, technically, one of them. There were still no answers to any of her questions.

Finally, she saw the answer. She had to become one of them. She knew that she could fool anyone with her ability to play a role. Wasn’t the fact that she was here on this ship proof enough of that?

She would need to blend in with the crew. She must do whatever she was required to do to make them trust her, and then take any chances that came along for covert action either to delay the theft of the ship or to get help for the exiles. Of the two considerations, helping the exiles had to be of secondary importance, regardless of her personal feelings on the matter.

Pathfinder was too important to the survival of the Warner Family as a viable government to allow its theft. Pathfinder was a one-of-a-kind prototype that would revolutionize space travel. Whoever controlled this technology would potentially be able to topple governments. The ability to bypass jump points and to jump from anywhere to anywhere else without going through established jump gates was too valuable to lose to another Family. If necessary, she decided, she would have to destroy the ship to keep it away from the mutineers – current owners, she corrected herself.

She began to move along the well-worn track from bed to mirror again, this time with a purpose in mind; to school her appearance to that which the others would expect and to formulate her plans.

Secrecy would be the key to everything. If she were discovered, it could mean her imprisonment or possibly even her death. Of course, that could be what the mutineers had in store for her anyway, regardless of how cooperative she would become.

The continued sobbing from the berth forward reminded her that she had to keep this secret even from Amber, who was her closest remaining friend. She was not sure what had happened to Amber during the takeover. She had always seemed so confident before but the Amber in the cabin next to her now was clearly not strong enough to handle this kind of high-stakes game, and any further stress might well push her over the edge, if she hadn’t already gone over on her own.

Once again, she felt regret for dragging the girl back into this death trap with her. She sat on her bunk and let out a deep sigh.

I don’t have time to just sit here, she chided herself. The ensign stood and moved to the desk once again. If she was to stay alive, she had to take control of Pathfinder away from Teach, Leung and Lamont. In order to do that, she had to have control of the computer. She didn’t know how to accomplish that yet but that only brought Commodore Wellesley’s favorite quotation to mind: "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

After four grueling years in the Academy she had learned a number of things about herself. She was most comfortable when she could work outside of the spotlight. This was probably logical, due to the number of activities in her life which wouldn’t stand up well to the scrutiny of the spotlight.

That wasn’t to say that she folded under pressure. No one could survive the Academy, let alone finish second in her class as she had, with that sort of flaw, but she preferred not to attract notice.

The other reason she had finished near the top of her class was that she was very good at what she did. Whether that was hiding, working, studying, or in this case, hacking.

With that thought in mind, she went to work.

Dead Reckoning (Book One) - Chapter 12

Major Sheli Chowdhury

1 July

Mama said there would be days like this, but she never said that it was possible to string so many of them together. Of course, she said that I would come to a bad end one day, so what did she know.

At first, I wasn't sure what Captain was up to when the ragged terraforming group came into our clearing.

“Stand easy, Major,” he called. “these are the friends that Commander Truman told us about.”

I perked up at the name and made a show of relaxing. Truman was the name of the CO of the commandos that sold me out and led me into a trap nine years earlier. I wasn’t aware that Captain knew about that particular episode of my career. Stand easy? Not likely.

That name told me something. He wanted me on watch. Captain and I had been together long enough that I could usually tell where his thoughts were headed. He was one of the most devious men that I had ever met. I loved that about him. He always left himself a way out of any situation. Preferably three or four ways out so he could choose the best one.

Several things were immediately obvious. These men were lying through their teeth and they had guns on us from somewhere. They claimed to be the terraforming crew that had been sent out by Warner Command but for some reason, Captain wasn’t buying it. They probably had covering fire somewhere. You could bet on it.

When Captain tasked me to gather a group to go to their camp, I felt the loss of Aichele once again. I wished, sometimes, that I hadn't sent him back onto Pathfinder. Like I said, Captain likes to give himself lots of options, and maybe I'm finally learning. But I could really use someone here that I could trust.

Even after nine months together on Pathfinder and now our short time on Vanguard, most of the crew were still unknown to me. Johnson was a known entity, as she had been together on Resolute with Captain for a short time and I had served with her on Fearless when she was an ensign, but she was still young and developing as an officer. Mackey, I had known for years. He was steady and solid but he only dealt with threats as they came. He never anticipated trouble. The ensigns were green and raw. They could probably only be trusted to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. That is what ensigns do best. Mackey was the best choice but he didn’t have the rank.

“Johnson,” I called, when I was away from the strangers far enough for them to be unable to overhear, “I am going to leave you in charge of security here at the ship. Have Mackey post guards and maintain a constant watch. Captain feels there is something wrong with this group. They aren’t what they seem. Keep everyone under cover as much as possible and protect the ship at all costs. Without the ship, we’re dead.” Her eyes got big for a moment, but I don't think anyone saw.

I selected our party and we went off to the terraformer’s encampment, leaving Johnson and Mackey with two guns to cover the group that stayed behind. While we walked with them to their camp, it became obvious that whatever these men claimed to be, they were military. There are always little clues in the way they work with each other. I would bet my next paycheck that they were either a Raider Strike Unit or Drop Marines. This made our survival much less likely.

On arriving at our destination, I could tell right away that this was either a secondary camp or they had been here a very short time. There was no evidence of occupancy. Those little bits of ourselves that we leave all around without thinking. There were no families and very little clutter. I whispered to Captain of my suspicions, but he just nodded. He knew already. That's what I love about him. He sees things. After we finished our meal and Captain told them some more lies we prepared to head back to camp.

“Well, the food was excellent.” Captain said as he stood casually. Now was the critical moment. If they wanted to take us, now would be their best opportunity. “We enjoyed this meal and we greatly appreciate you sharing your meager stores with us.”

I stood and casually separated myself from the group. Drew began gathering the supplies that we had received. He was also being very wary of our hosts.
We had secured the ship as much as was possible before we left, but I felt that they would make an attempt on us before we got back to Vanguard. It made sense to attack the groups while they were split. 'Defeat in detail' they call it. I had picked out six of the troopers that were paralleling us in the jungle on the way in. I figured that I could get three before they could cover the ground necessary to get to us unless they had armor, but I didn't know what kind of weapons they had. They might be able to keep their distance, but I didn't believe that they had any stand-off weapons, and I had seen no evidence of energy weapons at all. Of course, that could all be part of the ruse. It was best to assume that they were armored and had the normal weapons load out of a Raider unit. That put at least eight troopers in the woods in addition to the six that were pretending to be terraformers.

Just as I thought we were going to get out of the open clearing and into the cover of the trees, a bright flash and thunderous noise rocked the clearing. Heavy assault rifles by the sound. I squinted against the flash to preserve as much of my sight as possible and drew my pistol as I leapt into the woods to my right while everyone else was shielding their faces from the blast.

Everyone was scattering at the sound of weapon’s fire and the ‘terraformers’ were pulling pistols from under the mounds of foodstuffs. I picked my targets and fired as quickly as I could. The troopers in the woods were a priority target but those in the clearing were easier to get to and would soon be just as great a threat. Two troopers went down with my first two shots but the second was still moving. They did have armor, then. That had been a clean heart shot.

“Captain, get them back to the ship, I’ll cover your back,” I called and let off two more shots at the terraformers. One connected and the large trooper went down. The second connected also, but the raider had managed to roll at just the wrong time and had taken the shot in the back. He was stunned but still struggling for cover. I shot him in the head and he lay still. I scanned for the captain but they were all moving up the trail. Captain looked over to my position and motioned to those still in the clearing. Shots were impacting all around them. Roberts was down but had managed to get under cover. Le Vesconte lay face down in the clearing where he had fallen after taking that first shot from ambush. Captain pointed to me and I waved. Got it, they were my responsibility. Many would dither and risk the group to rescue those still trapped. Not Captain Brighton. Command decisions are very difficult and the mark of a good captain is the ability to make the tough decisions quickly. If I had not been available, Captain probably would have stayed behind to get Roberts out but instead he moved off with the others towards the dubious safety of the ship. The remaining raiders in the clearing were all under cover and I could hear movement behind me coming down the hill. Time to move.

I found cover near the bole of a large tree about thirty meters to my right. The raiders in the clearing had gotten daring and were trying to move on Robert’s position. One went down as Roberts let loose with a large rock that connected with the side of his head. The other kept going without firing. He obviously wanted a hostage. I got a clear shot just as he was about to reach down to grab the Ensign. My shot took him in the back of the head and he fell forward on top of her. She took his pistol and let loose a wild volley that forced everyone else back into cover. Good girl. All six of the terraformers were down, though two were obviously still alive and firing back.

I could hear movement behind me so I went up the tree. People get very used to looking at everything two dimensionally. A good trooper will be aware of what is above him but most aren’t. I holstered my pistol as I saw my target. My pistol would be totally ineffective against the heavy armor that he was wearing. His helmet made it less likely that he would see me above him as well. He was moving slowly and cautiously through the trail. His weapon and helmet were both tracking from side to side slowly and methodically. He was doing everything by the book- slow and easy. When he reached a point on the trail that was directly below me, I swung off of my branch and dropped fifteen feet to land with both boots on his upturned faceplate. His weapon was swinging up towards me but my feet got there first. The weapon went off as I hit, burning the outside of my left leg and we went down in a heap with me on top of him. His heavy armor was not much of a cushion. Luckily for me, the helmet coupling of his armor was not strong enough to take an impact at that angle and it had come apart and broken his neck in the process. Grabbing his rifle, I rolled off to my right, favoring my burn as blasts came in from three directions. They were firing blind at any noise or shot without regard for their comrade. We must have gotten lucky and taken out their officers.

I decided that it was time to bug out. I slowly moved off of the trail and cut quietly through the light brush. I stopped every few seconds to listen. It sounded like they were trying to get around behind me. I kept moving until I reached a position near the trail back to the ship. I could see Roberts as she randomly took shots at one of the fake terraformers. She had pulled Le Vesconte into the shelter of the woodpile with her. How had she managed that? The other terraformer was nowhere to be seen.

“Roberts,” I yelled as I opened fire with my heavy blast rifle, “run for it.” She looked at me and with a quick glance at the scene, she sprinted to my position and continued on to a large tree behind me. She jumped behind it and I followed her as the treeline erupted with return fire.

“Le Vesconte is dead,” she said without preamble.

The fire abruptly stopped and I could hear movement to both sides. They were moving around to cut us off from the ship.

“Let’s get moving then. Stay behind me and watch our backs.”

We ran as quickly as possible down the trail.
We moved out, but we had not gone ten minutes before I heard weapon fire from in front of us. One of the sounds was from a large assault rifle like the one that had killed Le Vesconte, but the others were the sounds of our blast pistols from the vicinity of Vanguard. We could also see occasional flashes from that direction. It appeared that I had been right in deducing that they had been headed for the ship.

I slowed down and waved Roberts into the jungle. I scouted ahead a little and came back to her. "Wait here for ten minutes," I began, looking directly at Jheri and motioning to her wristwatch, "then follow up the trail slowly. If there are any issues, I'll try to come back and stop you before you run into them. You watch our backs. I handed her the rifle. Be careful." She nodded and moved back into the brush.

I slowed again just short of the clearing, then moved up behind the men trying to take the ship. By my best count, there had been fourteen raiders between those in the clearing and those that had been covering us. We had accounted for five in the clearing, counting the one that I had landed on. I wasn’t very impressed with their coordination. If I had had fourteen Marines, no one would have gotten out of the clearing unless I wanted them to.

The one that I had landed on had been wearing heavy armor but the two that I could see from my perch were only wearing light assault armor. It was not top of the line equipment and the one directly to my left and five meters in front of me was totally oblivious to her surroundings. As I watched, I could see the reason. Her right shoulder bore a shield that was half red and half yellow divided diagonally by a narrow black stripe. That was the shoulder flash of the DaGama Family. They were not the last group that I would expect to see here, but pretty close. The DaGama family was very small and had no space interests outside of the Sol system. What were they doing here? As far as I knew, they had never conducted an actual, live, planetary assault. No wonder they were screwing up by the numbers. Of course, they would have to do a lot of screwing up for us to be able to slip through them and back to the ship.

I saw Roberts moving slowly up the trail with her captured pistol in her belt and the rifle sweeping jerkily back and forth as she tried to watch in every direction at once. I slipped quietly down from the tree and moved back towards her.

“We need to hold here for the moment,” I said as I pulled her into the heavy brush along the side of the trail. She looked very young and scared. She also looked very relieved to see me. Once again, I missed Aichele and Burton or any of the other personnel that I had trained with over the years. I was going to need reliable backup if we were going to pull this off.

“You are doing great.” I told her. “I want you to wait here until you hear my distraction. When you hear it, run for all you are worth. Run straight down the trail and shoot at anything you see. Don’t worry about hitting me, you won’t. Try not to shoot towards the ship. Once you get there tell Captain to raise ship. You are going to need to yell your name as you cross the clearing so that they know who is coming.”

“What about you. We can’t leave without you.”

“If I’m not right behind you, I’m not coming. Don’t wait for me.”

“But…”

“That is an order, Ensign.”

“Yes, ma’am”

I moved back up to my tree and continued to watch.

It appeared that they only had the one heavy gun. The others were armed with light carbines and pistols. In the time that I had been away, they had consolidated into two groups. I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t rushing the ship. As if answering my thought, two members of the far group tried just that.

They had only gotten about ten meters before a heavy rifle opened up from the treeline to our right, firing into their midst. No one was hit but they broke off their attack. The heavy rifle in front of me opened up immediately to suppress his fire. Who ever was up there quit firing but there was no evidence that he had been hit. It looked like it had been a feint to draw fire so they could locate and eliminate the sniper. More important to me were the questions, “Who was up there and where had they gotten a heavy rifle. Normal load out for a light assault unit was two heavy rifles, ten light carbines, one demolitions pack and two pistols for the CO and sergeant. I had taken one heavy and the other was right in front of me, where had the third come from? A CO that liked to carry firepower? Wherever it had come from, and whoever was firing it, they were using it to good effect. A couple of quick shots before moving to a new location.

My musings were cut short by the sound of Vanguard warming up her engines.

Captain new that he couldn’t hold for long as darkness was beginning to fall so he was getting ready to go whether we got back or not. He would hold out for as long as possible, but he would not risk the entire crew for two or three individuals.

Time for my distraction.

I slid back down from my perch as quietly as I could. Moving with as much stealth as I could manage I moved up behind the last heavy rifle. She had a good field of fire and she would be able to pick us off as we ran across the clearing if I didn’t take her out first. My pistol would be almost useless against her armor which was designed to absorb energy and disperse it without allowing it to penetrate. The same went for high velocity projectiles such as bullets and flechettes. The reactive armor would feel the impact and harden itself to prevent penetration. Oddly enough, the best weapon against the armor was a knife. The slower entry speed did not activate the reactive armor and a knife blade would penetrate. Of course, bringing a knife to a gunfight had its own problems.

Luckily for me, the raider was a newbie and had developed a terminal case of target fixation. I came up out of my crouch and had my knife in her kidney before she began to spin to face me. Her spin pulled the knife out of her back and I plunged it back in just below her ribs. I pulled her rifle away as she fell and began to target the group that stood in the path between Roberts and the ship. I got one in the shoulder and the group scattered quickly. The rifle in the treeline opened up at the same time and Captain came out of the ship with Hayes and Mitchell. Each had a pistol and they began to fire indiscriminately at the raiders from behind as they turned to face me.

They scattered into the brush even though the pistols could have no effect through the armor. Roberts came screaming down the path firing wildly in all directions. She drew some return fire but much less than I would have expected.

I started moving towards the ship as well, firing as I went. Roberts passed the three defenders as the raiders finally started a charge towards the ship.

Mackey came out of the brush to the right of the ship and let off a volley with his rifle that caused the raiders to hit the dirt. He stopped at the captain’s side and continued his rapid fire to keep the raiders pinned down. The captain yelled something and Hayes ran back into the open airlock. I quit firing and ran for all that I was worth.

The clearing was only about 300 meters long and the ship was near the far end, but it didn't seem to be getting any closer.

Suddenly, the landing lights came on and I did stumble as I tried to shield my eyes from the sudden, dazzling brightness. I continued the roll and came back up running. The pursuers were well back, and I finally made it inside the perimeter.

Both doors were open on the airlock and the crew was aboard already. Captain, Mackey and Mitchell were standing at the hatch, holding their ground against the charge. They opened fire as I went past to further discourage my pursuers.

As I slowed to enter the hatch, I could hear the sounds of the thrusters firing up. The defenders followed me in and the outer hatch closed behind us.

"Where is Le Vesconte?" Captain yelled over the noise.

"Dead."

"Are you sure."

"Yes, sir. No doubt whatsoever."

Captain yelled forward, "Lift ship, Lieutenant."