Battle Group Epsilon

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

March 29 2184, 05:15 Hours (Standard Solar Time)
Aboard UNSF Carrier "Hippocrates" En Route to Asteroid Belt Sector Kilo Foxtrot

Grabowski squinted open his eyes. "Leave me alone," he said and rolled back over in his bunk.
"I'm serious man," said Temple. "Get the hell up. You pulled guard duty on the bridge."
Grabowski coughed and sat up. This was just his luck, he thought, to pull guard duty on the bridge at this hour. He hated being on this bucket. The whole ship creaked and groaned constantly and he was sure that at any moment it would be crushed like a soda can. Now that he thought about it, he hated every ship he'd ever been on. He liked his feet to be firmly planted on the ground. When he signed up for the Colonial Marines he thought he was going to see the Solar System. Nobody told him he'd spend most of his time cooped up like some damned goldfish.
He stretched and climbed out of the bunk. Satisfied that he was up, Corporal Temple went back to his own bunk and nodded off to sleep. Grabowski put on his fatigues, strapped on his composite plate armor and left his squad's sleeping quarters.
The bright lights in the Hippocrates' corridors made his eyes hurt but they soon adjusted. Grabowski passed three officers along the way and saluted to each. He liked officers about as much as he liked being on space ships. After enlisting, he had quickly learned one rule of thumb about the military: people with three stripes or less were soldiers, people with more than that were assholes. Lieutenant Hornberg was no exception. Since the mission they pulled a week ago, he'd gotten to know his platoon leader a little better. He'd never seen anyone gloat so much. He had given less than two commands on the whole mission but you would have thought by talking to him that he'd completed the whole damn thing single handedly. Worse than that, he didn't even care that Chavez had nearly died. He was fine now, another week and he'd be next to him, pulling guard duty on this shithole right beside him.

He turned a corridor and saw Foster, the MAKO pilot that had flown them on the last mission. She was out of her flightsuit and he noticed her womanly attributes for the first time. "Hey," he said. "The Southern Belle."
She smiled at him for a moment and said, "Grab-ass."
"Grabowski."
"That's the one," she said. "How's Chavez doing?"
"He's fine," he told her. "Lounging around in Sick Bay like a bum. Where you off to this early?"
"Something's going on," she said and looked behind them as though there might be eavesdroppers. "I've got to make sure my bird's all set to fly. What about you?"
"Guard duty."
"Aren't you lucky?"
"I'll see you around," he said.
"Bye darling." She turned and left. Grabowski watched as she walked away with a sly grin and left as well.
He made his way to the ship's modest weapons locker and grabbed an M36A2 Pulse Rifle. He didn't bother to grab any ammo besides what was in the clip already. What the hell was he going to shoot at on the bridge? Grabowski hopped onto one of the Carrier's elevators and it took him all the way to the bridge.
The hydraulic door slid open with a hiss. He walked onto the deck with his rifle slung and saluted. Captain Archer turned to look. He was young to have command of his own ship and was somewhat stocky. "Reporting for duty as ordered, sir."
The Captain gave him a half salute and said, "Good morning private, take up position beside the door."
"Aye, Captain," Grabowski said and turned around. He saw that Private Freemen was already in position. The dark skinned man smiled and said, "Good morning, Grabowski."
"f*** you."
"What, you ain't happy to be here or something?" Freemen asked.
"Yeah," Grabowski said, "because waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to pull security detail for a bunch of squid is my idea of a good time."
"Oh come on," Freemen said, "Look on the bright side, at least we're not doing microgravity training anymore."
There was something about floating around in zero gees with a two hundred pound thruster pack strapped to his back, crashing and careening into walls and the rest of the squad with all of the grace of a monster truck that just didn't have any appeal for him. After coming back from their last mission and being debriefed, that was exactly what he had done for the last five days. He hoped he would never have to use it in combat. "I guess your right," Grabowski said. "You know, I'm feeling better already."
The two of them stood quietly for a while. Grabowski didn't even know what they were doing all the way out here. The Hippocrates had been stationed in orbit around Mars but had left last night to investigate an "Anomaly" of some kind. That's what he had been told anyway. What the hell that meant was anybody's guess. He was just here to do his job, not ask questions.
As they got closer to the asteroid belt, the Captain started to give orders. "Communications, scan all frequencies for rogue transmissions." He turned to another bridge officer and said, "Navigations, keep an eye open for any radiation signatures of nearby ships. Weapons, ready the 28th 45th and 62nd squadrons. As soon as we reach sector Kilo Foxtrot, I want them flying escort for us."
"Aye aye, Captain."
Captain Archer leaned forward over the command console looking at the main viewing screen. The Hippocrates began to slow down as they neared the asteroid belt.
"Anything on COM?"
"There's some local chatter from a pair of luxury yachts and a fragment of a secure burst transmission from the Europa Research Laboratory. Besides that, it's quiet sir."
"Navigations?" the Captain asked.
"Same sir, we're all alone out here."
"Alright," the Captain said. "Systems, give us 10% from the reactors and put us into a slow circle around the sight of the original transmission at one million kilometers distance. Heading two seven zero. Zero declination."
"Aye sir," the Systems Officer said. "Engines cooling, reading 10%, heading two seven zero, initiating first sweep around the sector."
Grabowski held onto the railing as the ship began to turn. They were on the outskirts of the belt but many asteroids were still scattered about. The Carrier had to evade several on its turn through the sector.
"I'm getting some interference from the asteroids," said the NAV Officer. "It's hard to tell what's out there for sure. The scanners are picking up some trace amounts of ionized metal."
"Remnants of the freighters?" the Captain wondered out loud. "Keep searching."
Remnants of the freighters? Grabowski didn't like the sound of that. Looking for the remains of some cargo ships and whatever destroyed them didn't sound like any "Anomaly".
Several minutes passed by without incident. Grabowski was sure they must be nearing the end of their sweep.
"I've got something," the NAV Officer said. "Wait, no, it's gone."
"What was it?" Captain Archer asked.
"The sensors picked up a power surge of some kind, Spectroscopic signatures flared, but now nothing."
"Could it have been a solar flare?" One of the Junior Officers asked.
"Whatever it was," The NAV Officer said, "it's gone now."
Grabowski was ready to leave. This place was starting to creep him out. He looked over at Freemen and saw he was anxious too. His finger tapped monotonously against the body of his rifle as he stared expectantly out the main window.
All of a sudden he heard an explosion and the whole ship trembled. Grabowski doubled over from the impact. He heard several of the officers cry out, mixing with the sound of emergency alarms. The bridge shook violently and he was sure he was about to die. The shaking stopped however and he stood back up.
"Damage report," the Captain called out, clinging to a railing. "What the hell was that?"
"Unknown," the Systems Officer said. "Long range communications have been disabled." The alarms stopped and silence retuned to the deck.
"Could we have hit an asteroid?" the Captain asked.
"I don't think so. The COM suite is gone," the officer replied. "It's been completely vaporized. No other reported damage."
Grabowski had a feeling it wasn't an asteroid. Something had targeted their COM suite. They had lost all means to call for help before they even knew they needed it.
"Sir," the COM Officer said, "we're picking up a transmission with our short range equipment."
The Captain grunted and said, "NAV, are you picking up any nearby ships?"
"Negative, sir."
"Play the transmission over the bridge speakers."
"Aye, Captain."
The speakers crackled with static and a man's voice began speaking. "Your ship, the UNS Hippocrates, is trespassing on Fist of Jupiter held territory. You are required to abandon ship immediately or we will be forced to take it from you. End transmission."
"Deploy every Marauder squadron on board," the Captain ordered. "Set ship status to combat alert alpha. I want everyone at their stations."
"Sir," said the COM Officer. "Just as we were hit, sensors picked up readings on the infrared spectrum."
"Set screen three to infrared on the fore camera," Captain Archer said. "Maybe that's the only way to see these bastards."
Freemen tightened his helmet strap and checked the magazine in his rifle. "Looks like they're looking for a fight." Grabowski suddenly wished he had grabbed the rest of his equipment from the weapons locker. He looked out into space and saw the single fighters heading away from the carrier. They were small and looked like an army of flies in the distance.
Grabowski was looking at screen three when a beam of angry red cut through space toward them. The ship shook and lurched to the side. He fell to the ground and heard an explosion. Several monitors and light fixtures exploded in a shower of sparks. Grabowski smelled smoke. The lights went out and the deck went dark. Only a few monitors and one flashing red light remained on.
"Status?" the Captain yelled out over the sound of wailing alarms.
"Decks eleven and twelve have been breached. Sealing off those areas now."
"Why the hell are the lights out?" Captain Archer said.
"We're losing power, the reactor was damaged. Emergency power coming on... now."
The darkness gave way and the lights came back on. The alarms stopped as well. "Is the reactor going to meltdown?"
Grabowski crossed his fingers as he waited for the response. "Negative Captain. They're stabilizing but only life support and other primary systems are still online. We still have artificial gravity as well."
"Sir," called the Weapons Officer, "Our single fighters are being engaged!"
The Captain ran over to the Junior Officer and leaned over her shoulder to look at the monitor. Grabowski could see the action from where he stood. Two swarms of flies collided, mixed in with the asteroids. He could see the plumes of missiles traveling toward their targets and then the eerily silent explosions as they struck. The ships became fireballs that would quickly collapse back onto themselves.
Their chatter could be heard over the speakers. "Blue Three this is Red Eleven, you've got a bogie on your six."
"I see him but can't shake him, over."
"These bastards are fast," said one pilot.
"Missile away," called one pilot. "Hey, I got him!"
"Nice shot Green Five."
"Jed, I cant-" The COM was filled with a terrible scream and then static. There was more chatter but Grabowski could tell it wasn't going well.
"Those fighters didn't just appear here," the Captain said. "Where the hell did they come from? Where's their mother ship?"
Grabowski looked over at Freemen. "That microgravity training don't sound so bad right now."
"Captain, we've got inbound ships coming toward us. Looks like troop transports, sir."
Grabowski could hear the Captain grinding his teeth from where he stood. "Ready the Marines," he called. "Tell them to be ready to repel a boarding action."