Assault: The Globur Incursion Book 6, page 25
The first Marine planetary assault in over 300 years had landed. It was going to be an interesting next few hours. Sanderson’s suit ate up the distance to the company commander. This would be the first time the Marines actually mounted an attack against the Globur. And they would do it without their heavy equipment and supplies, still on the surviving transports that were screaming out of orbit.
Sanderson saw the company converging on James. He commed James on the command channel. “Less than a minute out, Skipper. Looks like everyone made it. I’ll bet them Globur are surprised as hell.”
James answered him right away. “Yeah, Sanderson, I see you inbound. Those Globur don’t like surprises, and the battalion commander says there is already some kind of craft inbound.”
Sanderson laughed. “Well, good thing we have a few surprises left for these bastards.”
Chapter 27
Rear Admiral Pang felt some satisfaction as the last Globur ships from Battlegroup Alpha died. The glare of the death faded, but the threat had not ended. That was something Pang knew all too well.
The armored bulkhead between the flag bridge and the command bridge retracted. The fighter recovery was well under way. On the flag bridge, her new flagship was almost indistinguishable from Dixmude. However, Ryoshi was a generation newer, built after Dixmude. She had a quantum detector and, as was the case with all new redoubt-class Fleet carriers, IFC Ryoshi carried nine fighter squadrons. She had been meant for TF16, but Brown had taken Wallachia to his new assignment.
Most importantly, at the moment, Ryoshi carried an entire company of Marines and the headquarters element for the Marine Expedition Force assigned to TF14.
“Get all the assault shuttles ready for launch,” Pang heard Captain Stutz order. He knew what she wanted him to do. They had both fought the Globur hand-to-hand in the Mongolia system before. They both knew what was happening onboard Wallachia.
Brown’s carrier had been targeted by the bulk of the Globur boarding pods. Once enough pods latched onto a ship, communications were impossible. Pang pulled up the MEF commander. “I want all the Marines you can spare headed to Wallachia,” she told the lieutenant colonel.
The Marine officer nodded. “Already loaded, Admiral,” the MEF commander shot back. “Just waiting for the word,” she added.
“Launch on your discretion, Colonel, and get me a status update on those ships as soon as you can,” replied Pang, unsurprised that the MEF commander was on top of it. She had proven a very capable replacement for the commander Pang had in TF13. He had been killed defending the engineering space aboard Dixmude.
Pang was satisfied to see assault shuttles launching from her battleships and cruisers. TF14 was closing on TF16 as they moved to support TF17. Jones was already headed for Khan. The flag plot showed 15 Marine transports coming around the far side of the planet. All were flashing damage codes. They were changing their vector so they could match with the inbound Fleet task forces.
Pang’s communication officer spun toward her. “Admiral, I’m getting a strange transmission. It’s in the clear. Sounds like someone is boosting their personal comm somehow. They’re asking for assistance. I’ve locked onto the signal. It’s a survival pod launched from Wallachia.”
Pang nodded. “Let’s hear it.”
“This is an urgent call for assistance for IFC Wallachia. The ship has been boarded and is under heavy attack by enemy forces. The Marines are being overwhelmed. We need immediate assistance. I say again, this is …”
Pang cut in. “Wallachia, this is Rear Admiral Pang. Assistance has been dispatched. We understand your situation. Marine assault transports are enroute.” Pang glanced at the flag plot. “ETA eight minutes. Can you get a message to Rear Admiral Brown?”
A short silence followed before a reply came. “Thank the gods! Rear Admiral Pang, I have no contact with anyone on board Wallachia. The jamming is simply too strong. Rear Admiral Brown sent me out in a survival pod to make contact.”
“Very well,” Pang replied. “Stand by for rescue.”
Pang saw on the holoplot that Ryoshi already had rescue shuttles out picking up survival pods. Now, if Brown can just hold on.
***
Rear Admiral Brown tried to control his horror as he watched another wave of Globur come in. The holovids did not depict just how terrifying a sight it really was.
After what they had learned from other engagements, Brown had headed to main engineering, where most of the crew were gathered. In the early days, the crew would shelter in a mess hall or supplement damage control. Now that everyone was augmented, they could fight. There was a growing body of stories in the fleet of crew who had been set upon by Globur and able to fight their way to safety thanks to the weapons built into their bodies.
Brown had no communication outside the ship and had no idea what was going on with the other ships. Scanners still worked, and he could see that the other ships in TF16 were still in their positions around the carrier, but there was no way to know how many had won the fight for their ship. He hoped the young lieutenant they had launched in a survival pod with some patched-together comm equipment had been able to communicate the current pile of shit they found themselves in.
The sheer ferocity and determination of the aliens was terrifying. The Marines were standing their ground at the redoubts built throughout the ship as long as they possibly could, but it seemed to Brown that they were falling back constantly all around the perimeter.
He had wondered what it was like being boarded and fighting for your ship. Pang and Jones did not talk about it much, and now Brown knew why. It was horrifying. Something about the Globur tapped a primordial fear. They were trapped with nowhere to run. There was only survival or death.
Brown was in a small group that included Captain Kallow. The main armored hatch to engineering was open, and a barricade had been set up outside it to defend engineering. Marines were down the passageways on either side, intending to turn the area in front of the barricade into a kill zone where they could fire into the Globur from the side, raking them with laser bolts from the heavy lasers they had set up.
If the Globur began to overrun the barricades, then the force in front of engineering would withdraw and seal the hatch. The Marines outside would have to fight and attempt to get to safety. If the Globur got control of engineering, they would overload the reactor and destroy the ship.
“We won’t be able to hold them much longer, Admiral,” said the MEF commander, breaking into the command channel. “Our assault rifles are not as effective as we had hoped. We have already had heavy close-quarter fighting, and our stockpile of grenades is running low. About a third of my Marines are down, not too many KIA, but out of action for now.”
“How long?” asked Kallow.
“Maybe an hour,” replied the Marine lieutenant colonel from somewhere on the perimeter. “We couldn’t have held this long without your people, Captain Kallow. There were significant losses. I’m sending the rest of the crew to engineering so they can get inside, behind the barricade.”
It did not take any advanced scanners to know that the Marines at the redoubts were under heavy attack. There were rows of Marine combat suits in engineering, sitting, or lying unmoving. Most had a wounded Marine inside. The suits were torn and missing entire limbs. Their once shiny surfaces were marred by the gore of Globur blood and gouged and ripped by claws. Most of the suits had sealing foam showing that had oozed into the suit breaches to protect the wearer from the vacuum in the ship.
There was a pressurized enclosure that was the aid station but taking a Marine out of their suit was not always the right call. The suits had self-repair systems, and some of the less-damaged ones were showing some signs of life. The augmentation also tended to wounds to keep the Marines in the fight.
Brown watched one of the wounded Marines sit up. I never thought it would be this bad. The assault rifles are failing to penetrate the Globur suits, some kind of adaptation since the last few battles. It won’t be long before the Marines are forced completely back to engineering, where we make a final stand.
The Marines were withdrawing again, and Brown watched in fascination on the MEF commander’s suit feed as two Marines came sailing down the passageway, firing their assault rifles on full auto while their grenade launchers were in full sprint-launch mode. A tsunami of Globur followed them.
The blinding incandescent Globur beams crisscrossed each other in the passageway, finding the Marines and hitting them several times each. The passageway erupted in a maelstrom of fire, propelling Globur and Globur parts the passageway past the Marines. It all seemed surreal in the silence of the vacuum.
Both of the Marine combat suits hit the bulkhead at the end of the passageway hard and lay unmoving in halos of gentle arcing as a result of the Globur beam hits. Some other Marines pulled the suits to safety, and Brown noticed one had an ugly black hole in the leg that was already oozing orange sealing foam. Brown linked to the internal scanners and saw that the passageway was choked with debris and Globur corpses. They somehow looked even more sinister with the smooth reflective armor they had now. It was obviously an adaptation against lasers, and it was working well.
The scanners let him see the other side of the damaged area of the passageway, where he saw Globur tear through bulkheads and into the mass of dead ahead of them, trying to get to the next Marine redoubt. These Globur also seemed well supplied with plasma grenades. These appeared upgraded as well and were much more effective than intelligence had suggested. Along with a very strong magnetic field, the grenades generated a ball of superheated plasma that did serious damage to any suits or people in the vicinity. That was what had killed most of the crew. That and the Globur getting close enough to tear into them.
Casualties continued to flow into engineering. The dead were left where they were. There was no room in the engineering space for that many bodies. Not all of the crew were in the fight. Some had been trapped in compartments by battle damage, and some had been stranded outside the perimeter when the Globur had boarded, quickly overwhelming the first line of defense, forcing the Marines back.
The captain was in sporadic contact with most of them, and they had formed into groups for safety. They had no hope of punching through the Globur to get to engineering. The hangar decks and bays were still held by the Globur. They were the most helpless of all. All they could do was wait until the battle was over.
“That’s it,” said the MEF commander over the comm in what seemed too short a time. “We’re falling back to final positions.”
Brown felt the deck tremble as the Marines let loose a salvo of grenades. A group of combat suits ran into the space behind the barricade. The surfaces of their suits were shredded and torn, smeared with purple ochre. His AI tagged one of the suits as the MEF commander.
More Marines streamed in to join the few hundred crew remaining. Brown moved to the barricade. “You better stay back, Admiral,” said the MEF commander, sounding very tired. “They’ll give us a breather while they organize for another assault, but then they’re coming. We have to seal the hatch.”
Brown felt his anger rising. “No carrier has been lost to the Globur, and this will not be the first. I came here to fight, and if these pricks want Wallachia, they will have to go through me for it! We need to hold out as long as we can. I know help is on the way.”
The MEF commander did not reply, but Brown noticed two of the huge suits take flanking positions on him. The barricade had a solid line of Marines and crew. Brown had not fired the weapons in his augmentation since testing after the process. Now he would get a chance to see what they could do.
“Listen up,” said the MEF commander. “When they get within 30 meters, let loose with grenades and plasma charges. Switch to rifles and lasers as they close. Blades for close-in and crew fall back. Heavy weapons on full auto. Wait for my word and keep your heads.”
The deck trembled as the mass of Globur moved toward engineering. Brown felt a slight tingling as he brought up his arms, and his AI placed a targeting reticle in his view and began to hunt for targets.
The shadow in the passageway became a nightmarish wave of Globur. Brown did not feel any fear, just a cold fury. Come and get it.
“Grenades!” yelled the MEF commander, and a plasma bolt shot out of Brown’s extended hand. The entire front of the Globur was lost in the sharp flashes of explosions and plasma bolts as the heavy lasers began to chew into the advancing mass, flash-burning the Globur armor, creating thick smoke. Globur beams flashed down the passageway.
Something slid out of the smoke as the gravity cycled off, and a blade slid out of the arm of the combat suit next to him. Brown felt that everything was happening in slow motion as his augmentation fed him stimulants. There was a bright flash as the Marine on his other side slammed a huge gauntlet into his chest, sending him sailing forcefully back as Brown fired more plasma charges into the Globur mass.
The grenades all detonated at once, and the mass of Globur was lost in the pulsing explosions that shook the deck. Brown heard someone screaming as the power level in his accumulated fell much too fast as he tried to keep a high rate of fire.
Chapter 28
Captain Voss was the senior company commander in Task Force 14’s MEF. He had been stationed aboard Ryoshi for only a few weeks as commander of Alpha Company. His assignment at Gateway had come immediately after he finished his augmentation. Going to battle stations aboard Ryoshi was the first time his augmentation had been activated since his initial activation testing. It still felt strange to him. Almost as strange as being given two full companies of Marines from seven different ships.
Voss monitored the transmission from the survival pod to Rear Admiral Pang. He did not like what he heard or what he saw on the scanner.
Wallachia was still underway. She was heavily damaged, and her hull was peppered with ugly Globur boarding pods like a malignant infection. There were more than he had seen in his training or the holovids from previous battles. The Globur really wanted to take over a human carrier.
Wallachia’s fighter wing was standing by, holding position a few klicks out from the hangar bays. They were waiting for the all-clear to dock with their mothership. In an emergency, a few could land on Ryoshi, but there would not be room to store all the fighters in the hangar bays already filled with Ryoshi’s fighter wing.
Voss was glad that no one could see his face because he was nervous. This was the first time he had ever seen combat. It was only the second time that an assault on a carrier had been done. The first, ironically, had been in this very system to rescue Dixmude, Rear Admiral Pang’s flagship. Now Pang was dispatching her Marines to save another carrier. He had full control of the assault, and all the platoon commanders had set up links with him.
He took a minute to evaluate what his Marines were walking into.
No one knew how many Globur the boarding pods carried. Even the lowest estimates had the Marines on Wallachia badly outnumbered. Reports from other TF14 ships that had fought back the Globur boarders and secured their ships were not encouraging.
Frantic reports from other boarded ships indicated the Globur had adapted to Fleet assault rifles, making them less effective. The Globur had a large supply of their plasma grenades, also enhanced. Now they generated a ball of white-hot plasma along with the electromagnetic pulse that made them so devastating. Like the Marines’ grenades, the Globur grenades seemed to have an autonomous seeking mode, so avoiding them was difficult.
The good news was that they, at least, were susceptible to the new assault rifles and the lasers built into everyone’s augmentation. The augmentation could track and destroy the grenades. If they were seen coming in. The battles tended to quickly fog the passageways since there was no atmosphere to blow away and debris or smoke.
Cycling the gravity helped a bit, but that was also proving less effective since the Globur seemed better able to cling to the surfaces they were on.
Captain Voss tagged one of his platoon commanders to take over Alpha Company, and they left the platoon sergeant in charge of one of the platoons. The second group was designated Bravo Company. They would run separate attacks toward engineering, hoping that one company could break through. They were going straight in. Time was of the essence. The MEF commander had made that crystal clear.
All eight assault shuttles were going to land in the same hangar bay. They chose Charlie bay because it was amidship and closer to engineering. Four at a time would be tight, but it could be done. Voss had studied the holovids and mission report from Lieutenant Colonel Blucher’s assault on Dixmude just a few months ago. This was sure to be as messy. And as desperate.
“Got movement in the bay,” the assault shuttle pilot called out. “Incoming fire.”
Voss knew his job, and he was grateful to get down to it. The nervousness and doubts vanished as he went to work, keying the command channel. “Light it up. Full assault landing.”
The turrets on the shuttles spit laser bolts into the hangar. The company commander could see the black forms of the Globur moving in the bay. The heavy lasers from the chin turret and the upper turret of eight assault shuttles hammered bolts into the bay.
Missiles streaked away from the shuttles and detonated silently in the hangar bay, turning the bulkheads into twisted wreckage and hammering the Globur that were trying to escape through the access hatches.
Voss was going in with the first wave. The shuttles grounded quickly at the edge of the hangar bay, spun, and disgorged silvery Marines in their huge combat suits. They would have preferred to just eject into the hangar, but there was no telling when the gravity may cycle on, and that would leave the Marines at a disadvantage.
They set up a perimeter like a well-oiled machine as the platoon commanders gave crisp orders. No Globur beams snarled out of the darkness as the Marines settled, waiting for the second wave to arrive.
