There was no time to think! Aaen snapped, broke from cover and kicked with the tip of his boot the flashing grenade across the corridor into a longer corridor adjacent to where Aaen was standing. The grenade exploded in mid-air ten feet from where Aaen was standing. He felt two searing shots from his right miss his face by two inches as the blinding blast from the grenade threw him backward and into the air on a horizontal tumble. His mind went blank from the panicked shock of being airborne. He frantically and hopelessly threw his arms and legs out hoping for stability amidst the airborne chaos as his left shoulder bounced him off of a few metal walls and bulkheads on a tumble, feeling sharp piping hot metallic debris brushing over his face as he landed bluntly front-first on the deck twenty yards away from the firefight ahead.
His gut was somewhat sore from the impact, as were his knees, elbows and shoulders, a sensation that was dulled by pain-killing brain chemistry. He already forgot there was any pain there at all as he was coming-to. His ears were ringing and he winced as he was confused as to where he was in the darkness, hearing the muffled booming exchanges in the adjacent corridor ahead. He felt a prickly sensation dancing all over his face, and then the left side of his face felt like he had a bad sunburn. A flicker of worry scored his thoughts for a second, a feeling that rapidly escalated to an alarming swell of panic as he pushed himself up off the deck and looked up. His vision had blurred as he squinted at the raging firefight ahead. He looked around for his rifle, feeling around the floor. The flashing weapons fire created just enough light for Aaen to see within two feet around him. He reached out to his right and picked up his rifle and checked the rifle’s power cell as he stood up. The rifle’s power cell was showing solid green. He shook his head, crouched, raised his rifle and marched down the corridor, panning right and left as his hearing began normalizing. He could feel the sharp spikes in heat as shots were exchanged from the right and left. Aaen leaned against his cover. He wanted to keep shooting back, but his arms suddenly felt tired. He could hold his rifle, but he didn’t feel like he could raise it to fire—he took a deep breath, at least not yet. He was hoping the rest of the Force wasn’t too far behind him as he turned his head and blinked away from a few shots in his direction. He found he couldn’t give too much thought about that.
The Commander had had enough. The Deltas’ were running out of time, and options. He snapped, leaned right around the corner to his left, raising his rifle. The flashing fire from the Deltas’ cast two or three small shadows at the end of the corridor. . . He aimed right and high. . .he set the red dot laser sight on what looked like a target—and fired!
The forehead portion of the pirates’ helmet exploded with a sharp thundering boom as the pirate’s head snapped back as the pirate violently flipped backward and onto its face onto the deck five feet away. Bits and pieces of faintly glowing armor scattered in every direction like shrapnel.
“HE’S DOWN!” another pirate yelled from around the corner on the opposite side of the corridor. “HIS HELMET’S ALL OVER THE PLACE!”
“IS HE ALIVE?” another pirate growled.
“I DON’T KNOW, I CAN’T GET TO HIM!”
“URGH!—KEEP FIRING! KILL THEM ALL!”
“WE”VE GOT TO ALERT THE BRIDGE! WE NEED TO GET REINFORCEMENTS DOWN HERE!”
That-won’t-happen! The Commander sharply decided. “DELTA! BREAK COVER! FIRING-LINE FORMATION! FORM-UP, ON-ME! NOW!” He snapped, broke cover and raised his rifle and started a tactical march down the long corridor, firing shots as he marched. The rest of the Force joined him on both sides, matching his movements and actions. The end of the corridor filled with blinding, searing bolts of particle fire. Unrelenting shots peppered the end of the corridor with black smoking burns and variable dents in the metal wall plating. All of the Deltas’ felt almost completely exposed despite the darkness—the pirates’ weren’t missing by much anymore, Aaen realized.
Amid the flashing chaos, The Commander gestured to direct more fire on the sides of the corridors.
Aaen snapped, shifting to fire more on the right side of the corridor. The deputy was on The Commander’s left; Aaen was on The Commander’s right, with the rest of the Force.
A dark figure appeared on the right, kneeling down, reached around the corner and fired a shot seemingly at the ceiling, sparking against an overhead bulkhead.
Aaen snapped and fired at the glowing barrel. The shot struck the pirate in the chest, sending them backward against an adjacent wall, visibly motionless.
At the end of the corridor, the Deltas’ stacked up behind each other and tactfully leaned around each corner at the same time. The Commander noted a fully-lit corridor to their left, with two darkly-dressed pirates running away, looking behind them for signs of pursuit. “Your target’s on the left,” he commanded to another member of the Force in front of him kneeling down and leaning right.
“Yes, sir,”
They lined up their targets as the targets spun around and aimed deliberately as they marched backward to cover.
“Fire.”
Two bolts fired in near-perfect sync as the pirates fired. The bolts struck the pirates variably center-of-mass; both pirates’ crumbled instantly as their fire struck the walls adjacent to the Deltas’ positions.
The Commander activated his communicator. “Delta Lead to Captain.”
Minor static levels filled the communications channel for a few seconds, and then a familiar voice could be heard, “Go ahead, Commander,” the captain whispered.
“Multiple pirates have been neutralized. We don’t have much time. We all need to move quickly.”
“Understood and agreed. We’re almost there. I’ll contact you in a few minutes. Captain. Out.”
“Out.” The Commander said deactivating the communicator and replacing it.
“We gotta hide these pirates. Quickly, before more of them come through this part of the ship. They’ll be looking for them instead of us. It will buy us some time.”
This much of the work didn’t take more than three minutes. The Deltas were glad to have the door to the computer lab securely locked. The Commander adjusted some settings on his rifle and then fired a concentrated energy beam along the doors’ edges for fifteen seconds. Now, the only way to open the room to get to the pirates, or for the pirates to get out, was by breaching the door to this room.
The Commander checked his weapon and then snapped, “We’re gonna have a lot more pirates’ to deal with real soon, Deltas. Form up on me; diagonal line formation. Move.” The rest of the Deltas, Aaen especially, noticed the sharp change in the commander’s tone. He sounded darker than he had an hour ago like he was reading the pirates’ actions like a wild desert predator stalks its prey before bolting for the final strike. They reasoned this military action was somehow personal to him—possibly unbeknown to Command—but the Deltas didn't ask for specifics. The rest of the Deltas were more focused on when the next firefight was going to be. Their guts and their intuition told them it would be soon.
The Deltas snapped, following the commander in a diagonal line formation along the width of the corridor as they raised their rifles and began marching toward the lit section forward, cautiously and sharply panning in every visible direction—
The Commander stopped and sharply raised his left fist to a square. The rest of the Deltas stopped near-instantly, glancing intermittently at The Commander, waiting for the next hand signal, wondering why he was gesturing to halt in a position that was mostly tactically indefensible. The Deltas remained standing in a tactical stance . . listening . . . They realized why The Commander was gesturing to stop: there were footsteps ahead, and closing-in on their position fast!
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
DANIEL STORM, a Jordan Foutin eBook, is available for $8.99 at any of these fine online retailers:
smashwords.com (Remember to like and share!)
apple iBooks (This link is best viewed on iPhone or iPad)
Make sure to buy your copy today, and like and share!
Make sure to like the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page for the latest, including when DANIEL STORM will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle eBook and softcover! Coming soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment