Thank God they haven't got shields.
The weight of gunfire was too much for his, and it buckled over his arm. He knew it could only take another shot or two and it was done for. He increased to a sprinting pace and rushed at the defenders. They looked terrified by their unflinching aggression.
With one swing, Jones' shield passed over a support joist a marine was using for cover. He smashed the edge of his shield into the man's head, snapping his neck with the impact. It sent Jones into a spin. As he recovered, he fired a burst into one of the other's faces, just as Jafar and Parker reached his position still firing. Jones drew out his Assegai and turned to face another, but was too late. An Assegai of one of the enemy marines drove through the breastplate of his armour and into his flank. The pain forced him to release the grip of his weapon, but he soon recovered. He grabbed the marine's helmet and quickly snapped his neck.
Jones reached down to the Assegai and pulled it out while facing away from the others. The helmet at least hid his gritted teeth and pain from them. The Assegai had his blood on it, but he holstered it as his before turning to the others. Parker immediately noticed the hole in his armour.
"How bad is it?" she asked.
"I'm fine. Come on, we're running out of time!"
He didn't feel fine at all. Even the burning hot Assegai had not completely sealed the wound, and he could feel the clamminess of his own blood expanding within his uniform. He knew he couldn't hide the wound from the others for long, but it didn't matter to him in that moment. He looked back at his Mappad; they were just a short distance away.
A broad corridor-width blast door lay ahead of them. As they approached, it opened to bring a shocking sight that brought them to an instant halt. More than twenty enemy marines had deployed hard defences across the corridor width and were set up with heavy weapons. Jones no longer had his shield, like many others in his unit. Their hasty rush for the target had cost them assets, which now they regretted. They might as well have been standing in front of a firing squad.
"Lay down your weapons!" one of the enemy officers cried.
It was a line Jones was getting all too bored of hearing. Everyone wanted Taylor alive. You would have thought they would have learned by now?
"What do you want to do?" Parker asked quietly.
Jones looked back and could see there was no cover at all.
"We can't give up, or it was all for nothing," said Herrera.
"And if we die here and now, is it any better?" asked Parker.
"Put your fucking weapons down!"
"We surrender we are dead anyway. We rush them, and some of us might live. You know what to do," said Jones.
They knew he'd say that, but none wanted to hear it.
"Ready on my go."
He looked back to the gun line and knew it would probably be the last thing he ever saw. "Why on earth do I volunteer for this shit?" he grumbled, which brought a few smiles from the others.
"Now!"
Jones leapt forward, but as he readied his rifle to fire, the line up ahead lit up with gun flashes. Jones expected to die any second as he rushed forward, but then through the muzzle flashes he could see it was not them firing, but their position being hit by a volley of fire from behind. A few of the marines tried to turn back but were cut down with no protection at all from their defences.
The platoon reached the line to find it was utterly devastated, and there stood Silva and his platoon. Silva's faceplate was up, and he looked more than a little pleased with himself.
"Damn that's some fine timing, Sergeant Major," said Jones sternly.
"Always."
Chapter 10
Taylor’s breathing was slow and he appeared calm while watching them pass the vast hull of the Nassau. He had to keep telling himself to breathe. They were passing so close to the battleship they could see the gunports, which was more than a little disconcerting. He was standing over the pilot and realised he didn’t even know his name, despite knowing his face well. He couldn’t see his nametag from where he stood either.
“How long till those systems recover?” Taylor asked.
“Not long now.”
That’s a big help, he thought. Though he knew the pilot wouldn’t have any better idea than he did. They reached the far side of the hull and passed on out into the blackness once more. As they did so, the defence grid was revealed to them. It was a vast complex and many kilometres wide. It looked like a chain of ships orbiting the planet, which it effectively was.
"Nobody thought EMP shielding on the grid would be a good idea?" asked the pilot.
"It has backup systems as protection, but nothing like the Nassau. It's expensive kit that nobody wanted to pay for."
"Serious?”
It was the rumour he had heard, and it made as much sense as anything else, so he simply agreed, although fully aware that was exactly the way ridiculous scuttlebutt spread, but it at least brought a small smile to his face to know for once he was the one perpetuating such rumours.
“The other two still with us?” asked Taylor.
“Affirmative.”
“All right, bring us in slow, as little power as you can manage.”
Taylor saw just a small amount of light from the side of the cockpit from one of the other ship’s engines firing up.
“That’s not good,” said the pilot.
Taylor turned to look ahead and saw a frigate float into their path.
“We’re on a collision course unless we do something. Too much power, and we’ll easily be spotted with the amount of light we’ll put out.”
“Just do what you can.”
The pilot made just a few adjustments as they soared towards the warship.
“I hope this is gonna be enough.”
A bright light flashed beside them, as one of the pilots reacted more vigorously to take evasive manoeuvres.
“Idiot,” said the pilot.
They both knew the other pilot had gone too far, but there was nothing they could do about it now. It was every crew for themselves. They watched the nose of their ship passed within a few metres of the top deck of the frigate. Taylor waited for the sound of impact any second, but they had made it past. Just as he thought they had got through without a hitch, he heard the last thing he wanted to.
“We got a problem.”
Taylor looked down at the console but didn’t know what he was looking at.
“The Nassau’s systems have fully recovered. We…” A bright flash cut him off, and the ship with them that had taken evasive manoeuvres exploded. Taylor looked out. There was nothing left bar some debris floating about space. He dipped and shook his head.
Twenty-five souls lost, many of them members of Inter-Allied who have served with us for years.
The thought made him sick to the stomach, but the pilot interrupted his thought process.
“They’re tracking us. Almost got a lock…”
“What? I thought you were flying under the radar?”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Colonel. We’ve been had.”
“Full power now, evasive action!”
The pilot hesitated after what had happened to the other ship.
“Look, we either sit here and die, or we take our chances!”
The pilot quickly reacted this time and put full power to the engines. There was another frigate up ahead, and they were sticking to it like glue.
“They’ve got a lock on us. This is gonna be close!”
Taylor felt helpless, knowing they were all in the hands of the one pilot and luck now. A flash of light zoomed past them, and they knew it was a shot from the Nassau that would have ended them.