Song of Redemption Read online

  Tomiko used the hand and arm signal to ask him, “Are you ready?”

  He signed back that he was.

  “Then let’s kick some ass.” Or, to be more accurate, she gave the hand signs for “attack-full strength-victory.”

  His thumbs-up reply was more universally understood.

  He sat in silence as the Osprey entered the belt. He had to trust the Navy autopilot to navigate through the rocks and get them to the target in one piece. But for once, he wasn’t anxious when his life was in someone else’s hands. He was excited, the blood pounding through his system, but at the same time, he was more concerned with what they were facing. Not the Centaurs. He’d faced them before. But the Frisians. He would do what he had to do, but he would really rather avoid a fight with them.

  It was a weird feeling, both amped and ready for combat but hesitant at the same time. And he didn’t like it. Conflicted Marines were likely to become dead Marines.

  “I’m uploading the survey,” the lieutenant said a moment before a 3D scan of the asteroid popped up on his face shield.

  Asteroid 6-067-442 was 876 meters along the longest axis and ranging from 140 to 358 meters at the widest point along the cross axis. Slightly banana-shaped, it was a big hunk of nickel-iron. The scan revealed that it had been laced with tunnels and several larger open sections. The mere density of the nickel-iron kept much of the detail hidden, but the paths of the tunnels, which looked to have slight zig-zags along their length, were reasonably clear.

  An entrance into the asteroid started thirty-one meters from one of the asteroid’s ends, and approximately ninety meters from that entrance, the image glowed orange, a computer aid in showing where the explosion had taken place. That was where SEALs, and presumably Frisian Host soldiers, had died.

  The asteroid didn’t look warped or damaged around the blast site, but it could probably take tactical nukes without any degree of destruction, and even a cruiser’s meson cannons would take a long time to burn their way through the mass of metal.

  An arrow appeared at one of the openings at the other side of the asteroid, then a path snaked through the tunnels until it reached another larger cavity.

  “This is our point of entry. We don’t know if it’s sealed off or not. Sergeant Incrit-Kole will conduct the recon and breach it if it looks feasible. Otherwise, we’ll be using the drill to gain egress.”

  The drill was the multi-tool breaching system on the shuttle designed to do anything from creating an air-lock breach into a ship through which Marines or sailors could board their target to a destructive decompression.

  More control symbols appeared as the lieutenant emplaced them. Second Team was the breaching force and would proceed twenty meters down the chosen passage where Third, with Rev on point, would conduct a passage of lines and become the lead element. First and Fourth would remain outside of the asteroid. Fourth, armed with a compact but powerful pack cannon, would be defending against possible Centaur reinforcement, while First would be the mobile reaction force, ready to repel Frisian troops or become the point of main effort should something happen to Second.

  None of this was new to them. Every Marine and sailor knew their task in the mission, but with the map, they now knew where everything would take place. This was getting real.

  “Give me another systems check.”

 

  “Five minutes. First wave, get ready,” the lieutenant ordered.

  First Wave consisted of the entire platoon except for Second Team. Without the need to breach with an assault airlock, the Marines would exit the back ramp under their own power, then fly to the target while the shuttle’s lone gun covered them. Fourth would debark first and set up security, followed by First and then Second. Third would stay aboard until the asteroid was breached.

  The Marines stood by the back ramp, waiting for it to open, like Earth WWII soldiers waiting to hit Omaha Beach. In their EVA suits, they were far more vulnerable should the Centaurs have a surprise waiting for them.

  “We’re getting an update,” the lieutenant passed. “Shit, another flight of Fries are on the asteroid. How the hell are we just finding out now? Standby while I get some orders.”

  Rev’s heart gave a lurch. If the Frisians were already there, the chances there would be a fight increased by a hundred-fold. To avoid that, they’d just have to get to the target chamber first. There was no other way about it.

  “Damn crayons,” Tomiko said, using her favorite slang for the Frisians. “They really don’t want to tangle with us.”

  “And we don’t want to tangle with them, if we can help it.”

  “It’s on them if we do.”

  Thirty seconds later, there was a slight vibration and momentary dimming of the lights. Rev knew what it was. The shuttle had fired its cannon. And unless it was at an approaching Centaur force, things had just gotten serious. Tomiko looked over at Rev, raising one eyebrow.

  “We just engaged the Fries with a warning shot,” the lieutenant relayed to the platoon. “Hopefully, that’ll stop them.”

  Rev was relieved. A warning shot was not war . . . yet.

  The shuttles interior lights flashed amber for ten seconds, then went a solid green as the back ramp quickly opened. The three teams cascaded out the back and disappeared from sight as they raced for their positions.

  Top Thapa passed, “The Fries are inside. I repeat, they are inside the asteroid. Should we pursue?”

  “That’s a negative,” the lieutenant said. “Third Team, debark now. Get to the opening and wait.”

  Rev was already moving. He activated his impellers as he ran to the ramp and dove forward. As soon as he cleared the ramp, he was out of the artificial gravity and in open space for the first time in his life. The vastness hit him hard in wonder, and he wanted to just drink it in, but he had his mission. He slowly brought himself around until he was facing the asteroid. Marines were already on the surface, moving around. One of the Marines from Second Team had a beacon on his suit, and Rev adjusted his course and surged forward.

  A mere nano-speck within the vastness of the galaxy, Asteroid 6-067-442 loomed huge in Rev’s horizon. Pockmarked with meteor and other asteroid hits, it looked like a war zone, something Rev hoped wasn’t an omen.

  Lieutenant Harisa passed, “There is no barrier at the entrance. We’re entering the tunnel.”

  Too quickly, Rev and Third Team arrived. Rev neatly slowed down and came to a stop three meters from the mouth of the tunnel. Despite the gravity of the situation, he felt a little surge of pride as this was his first actual EVA.

  The rest of the team arrived alongside him, waiting for the word to enter. Scattered around this end of the asteroid, the other two teams were well dispersed. Rev wondered where the Frisians had entered, and he was just about to ask the staff sergeant if he could find out when Sergeant Minnow Krill appeared at the entrance to the hole.

  “Comms are almost useless inside, so the lieutenant sent me to get you. We’re set up about forty meters in.”

  “You heard him,” Staff Sergeant Delacrie said. “Let’s move out.”

  Rev was the point for this effort, so he maneuvered his EVA, orienting himself to the tunnel, and flew ahead. His infrared lantern lit up the tunnel, making it as light as day through his face shield.

  Immediately inside the entrance, the tunnel made a hard dogleg left, then after only another ten meters, it doubled back to the right. Rev had seen the slight serrations in the tunnels on the chart of the asteroid, but he hadn’t realized they would be this severe. It made sense when considering a defensive posture, but if that was the case, where were the Centaurs? They had a habit, much like the Japanese defenders of the Pacific islands during Earth’s World War II, of allowing the assaulting force to land lightly or unopposed, then hit them while the forces were extended.

  Second Team was still ahead of Rev and Third, but in a few minutes, Rev would be the lead Marine, and he needed to be ready if the Centaurs were about to spring a trap.

  Inside the asteroid, it wasn’t just comms that were messed up. His augmented navigation was useless, of course, as it relied on a planet’s magnetic fields. But the hunk of nickel-iron made it worse than if he hadn’t been augmented at all. It was as if the little voice that told him where he was and where he needed to go was drunk.

  “I’m going to need help here if I’m going to be ready for whatever might come. I need you to keep track of the map and guide me.”

 

  One less thing for me to worry about.

  Rev was glad he was leading. Making sure everyone was oriented the same way, heads pointing in one direction, gave a feeling of up, even in weightless conditions. But moving down a tunnel like that limited fields of fire, with the Marines in the front blocking those behind. So, in a tunnel, the SOP was for the Marines to circle its cross-section, like numbers on a clock, with the heads toward the middle. This gave more Marines a lane through which they could fire their weapons.

  With Rev’s delicate stomach, though, while he’d been surprisingly fine in open space, he was a little queasy, and he didn’t want to see the rest of the team oriented every which way. And if they were behind him, he didn’t have to see them.

  But that didn’t take Second Team into account. Rev passed the second corner, and there they were, spokes on a wheel.

  “Third Team, passing through,” he sent, his voice tight as saliva started to form at the base of his jaw.

 

  He’d resisted so far, but he couldn’t let pride jeopardize the mission. “Do it.”

  He looked straight ahead, trying to block out the sight of the Marines until the medication started taking effect. He jetted down the center of the tunnel through Second Lieutenant Harisa and Second Team.

  Gizzy Incrit-Kole gave Rev a thumb’s up as he passed, Pashu extended, his tomographic scanner seeking any sign of movement. And then they were the lead team, leaving their security behind. It was on to their objective.

  With the constant zig-zagging, he brushed the smooth walls a few times as he flew, which knocked him off-kilter, but the suits had good gyros, and his quickly righted him. With their lack of real EVA time, he didn’t like going this quickly, but this was a race to the target, and he had to push it.

 

  “Will the tunnel straighten out after that?”

 

  The short bends were more than just an obstacle to travel. For one, it knocked out the Morays as effective weapons. Each of the missiles needed forty meters to arm, and the Marines had yet to encounter a single straight stretch that long. It also provided for ambush spots, and there could be a Centaur lying in wait just around the corner in the next section. Rev tried to focus on what was in front of him and watch for his sensors to light off as they swept his path.

  He reached the intersection when his peripheral vision caught motion to his side, and he immediately realized his mistake. The Centaur was in the other corridor. He tried to twist around but flailed until he reached out with his right arm and pushed away, bringing Pashu to fire . . . and froze.

  Three Frisians were facing him, just as surprised as he was. One brought up his weapon, but it was going to be too late. Rev had him dead to rights.

  “Stop!” Rev shouted over the universal frequency. Whether the Frisian heard him or if it was Pashu aiming at him at point-blank range, the soldier froze. The other two with him froze as well. They didn’t have to know exactly what Pashu was to know she had a pretty big bite.

  Radić and Tomiko saw Rev’s reaction and pushed forward, M-49s ready, but Rev held up his right hand, stopping them.

  “Slowly, Miko. I’ve got some Fries here. I never saw their light, and they evidently didn’t see mine.

 

  Whatever the reason, both sides seemed surprised, and uncertainty could result in rash action. He needed to defuse this.

  “Strap and Carp, stay just short of the intersection. The rest of you, wait.”

  He motioned the two forward, making sure the Frisians could see him. A moment later, Tomiko and Radić reached him, Tomiko going high and Radić off at an angle.

  One of the Frisians slowly motioned with his hand, and two more appeared, crowding the corridor.

  “What now?”

 

  To start a freaking war? If I fire now in this damn tunnel, it’s going to be a massacre.

  “Staff Sergeant Delacrie, we’ve got a situation here.”

  There was no answer.

  “Staff Sergeant Delacrie, Lieutenant Harisa, come in.” He hoped they could hear him.

  Dead air.

  The nickel-iron was plaguing comms, but they couldn’t be that far back in the tunnel. Regardless, Rev knew this was on him.

  And he knew what he had to do. Before he could contemplate it, Rev lowered Pashu. One of the Frisians started to raise his weapon when another put out a hand and blocked it.

  “Who are you?” came over the universal freq.

  “Sergeant Reverent Pelletier, Perseus Union Marine Corps. And you?”

  “Yellow-master Dredge Vstaleekru, Frisian Host. Why are you here?”

  “Probably for the same reason you are.”

  Rev couldn’t see inside the face shield of the Frisian, and he wished he could opaque his.

  “Did you attack our other flight?” the Frisian asked.

  “No. We were aboard our shuttle when the explosion occurred.” He didn’t say that there had been a SEAL team there at the time.

  “So, you were the ones who fired on us,” the Frisian said, his voice on edge.

  “Warning shot. Not on our command.”

  “Warning for what? We’re in uncontested space.”

  “Are we really playing that game?” Rev asked.

  The Frisian looked around, catching sight of Strap and Porter. “And I assume you have more of you stippy-do jarheads with you.

  Rev didn’t say anything.

  “OK, Sergeant. What now?”

  “What now is that we are going to proceed down this tunnel here.”

  “And I don’t think I can let you do that.”

  Rev gave a low chuckle. “I’m betting you were told to get there first, too.

  Rev couldn’t see the Frisians’ faces, but that chuckle seemed to have an effect. Their bodies seemed to lose some of their tension.

  “Miko, can you read me?” Nix’s voice broke in through on the platoon net.

  “Affirmative, but we’ve got a situation here,” Tomiko said.

  “What kind of situation?” Staff Sergeant Delacrie broke in. “Time’s of the essence.”

  “Staff Sergeant, tell the lieutenant time is OBE. We’re in contact with the Fries. The situation is tense, so please hold in place,” Rev passed.

  The staff sergeant was the team leader and technically in command, but he also realized the special situation. Rev wasn’t in his chain of command, but he called the operational shots.

  Rev didn’t know if that would hold, but the team leader passed, “Roger. Understood. I’ll try and raise the lieutenant and apprise her of what’s going on.”

  Rev switched back to the universal freq. “I’m sorry about your other flight.”

  Geez, that sounds lame.

  But the yellow-master dipped his head in acknowledgment. “Thank you, but we’re still at an impasse. “I can’t let you proceed, and you can’t let us proceed.”

  And there it was . . . unless it wasn’t.

  This is stupid, Reverent.

  But before he could talk himself out of it, he asked, “Why can’t we? I mean, let each other proceed. Together.”

  The soldier just looked at Rev for a long moment, the seconds ticking on, until he asked, “Just what do you mean?”

  “What’s Ting-a-ling’s real name? Pronounce it for me, slowly.”

 

  “Do you know Yellow-master Tjivyrtzlin?” Rev asked, hoping he didn’t mangle the name too badly.

  “No. Should I?”

  It had been probably too much to hope that this Frisian knew the other yellow-master, but that didn’t matter.

  “We served together. His flight was part of our platoon, and we fought on Tenerife, Roher-104, and Alafia. We bled together. You Frisians died alongside us.”

  He waited for the yellow-master to come to the same conclusion as he had, but the Frisian asked, “And so?”

  “And so, we’re on the same side. The side of humanity. Our enemies are the tin-asses, the Centaurs, not each other. Down this tunnel, there might or might not be some sort of tech or intel that can help us win that war. Do you really want us to fight over it, maybe losing whatever it is in the process?”

  “So, we’re supposed to just let you go grab it, so you can use the alien tech after this war is over against us? Like the Centaur prisoner you kept from us?”

  Rev wanted to say it was a dead Centaur, not a prisoner, but he wasn’t that foolish.

  “I don’t mean just our side. Yours, too. We go together.”

  The yellow-master didn’t seem convinced. Rev wondered if mentioning what had happened on the other side of the asteroid would help or hurt his chances with the yellow-master.

  Just go for it.

  “Look, we had a SEAL team that followed your flight into this asteroid.”

  The yellow-master looked to the side at one of the others, and Rev knew that what he’d just said had them talking between themselves. He wished he could eavesdrop on what they were saying.

  “I don’t know what happened between them, but given the results, it’s a fair bet that a Centaur self-detonated and destroyed whatever was there.”

  “Possibly,” the yellow-master admitted. “But what are you proposing?”

  “Rev, I’ve got Hussein back down the tunnel relaying your conversations with the Fries to the lieutenant, and she wants to know what you’re doing. We’ve got Navy and Frisian ships incoming,” Delacrie asked.