They hadn’t seen any nurseries since getting deeper in the ship. Nor had they seen any Dreen security.
“Why aren’t there Dreen, like, everywhere?” Smith asked nervously. “All we’ve seen are a couple of dog-demons and thorn-throwers. Where are the rhino-tanks? Where are the centipedes and, I dunno, technicians?”
“A ship only has so much support it can provide,” Berg answered.
“This is a big ship, man!”
“And it’s centered, probably, on support for that main gun, the fighters, the guns along the sides, all the things that make it a warship,” Berg said. “Even the Dreen have limits to how much they can pack in a particular area. If they had those compartments filled with soldiers, that would mean less stuff for the repair pods, the fighters. Heck, with the fighters being organic and needing nutrients, they probably have less available support than a species that uses machines.”
“You done?” the staff sergeant asked.
“Sorry,” Berg said.
“No, it was a good lecture,” Hinchcliffe replied. “Reminds me why you’re along, besides killing Dreen and breaking things. But the answer to the question is: left then take the next right. Sooner or later we’re going to find something important to bust up.”
24
“Yes!” Spectre shouted as the conn erupted in cheers.
Repeated strikes by the chaos ball had worn holes in the outer skin of the carrier. Together with the secondaries from the strike on the hangar bay, the outer defenses were long breached.
A lucky strike by the generator had apparently entered one of those holes and dug deeper into the ship. The result was obvious as the carrier dropped acceleration and streamed masses of air and water. Secondary explosions were also evident. If not destroyed, the capital ship was now too sorely wounded to continue the fight. It began decelerating and turned towards the unreality node.
“Tactical, Conn,” Spectre said, then raised his voice. “At ease in the conn! We’ve still got a battle to fight.”
“Go, Conn!”
“Figure out the course on that thing,” Spectre said. “If it’s not deviating, we’ll drop some presents along the way and see if we can’t take it all the way out. In the meantime, let’s retarget the destroyers. We still don’t know the status of the Marines on the other ship.”
“Okay, we found something.”
As the Marines progressed, signs of Dreen presence had been increasing, with more of the greenish Dreen fungus in odd spots in the corridors. Experiments with it had determined that this fungus, at least, did not attack. So as it closed in, they had more or less ignored it.
The newest compartment, though, was something different. It was large and filled with alien equipment as well as huge masses of fungus.
“Yeah,” Sergeant Priester said. “But what?”
“I don’t know,” Staff Sergeant Hinchcliffe said. “But it looks important. Which means we need to grapp it up. That’s what Marines do, break things and kill… things.”
“You’re joking,” Spectre said.
“No, sir,” Captain Zanella replied. “I am not joking, sir. We believe it to be potentially possible. And there are Marines on that ship that need reinforcement.”
The Blade had to take a break. Temperatures in the ship were soaring since it had been too long since their last chill. She’d broken off the fight, dropped mines on the path of the retreating carrier then retreated to deep space to consider her options and bleed off some heat.
The Marine CO had requested a meeting and, thinking that it would be about recovering the Marines in the Dreen battlewagon, the CO had moved it to the wardroom. Spectre already had his answer in hand which was that taking out the battlewagon was the number one priority. Recovering the Marines would be nice, but was not the top priority. Taking it all the way out was.
What he had not expected was a request to commit suicide.
“Captain, right now I am in a very tight battle with a very skillful and powerful foe,” Spectre replied. “One that is slowly grapping up my ship and my crew. I do not have time to away boarding parties. Even if I thought it would work. Which I don’t.”
“Sir, it requires that the time window be opened only slightly,” the Marine argued. “And one small tweak in the assault program. If those two things occur, we have a bare minimum chance of boarding that vessel. Furthermore, we can carry extra ammunition and supplies. The Marines who made it on-board have so far demonstrated an ability to strike from within, sir. I respectfully state that the rest of us could do even more. We are a weapon, sir. I respectfully request that we be used.”
“I will take your request under advisement, Captain,” the CO said. “Dismissed.”
“Interesting idea,” Weaver said.
“If we can’t even hit them with torpedoes,” Spectre replied, “how are we going to hit them with Marines?”
“I see the hand of First Sergeant Powell in this suggestion,” Weaver replied. “With torps, we have to take the time to fire them. That’s too much time. Upwards of five seconds, no way to automate it and even if we pre-launch them they’re deadly missiles inside the warp bubble. The enemy can track onto them and take them out easily enough. With the Marines, they’ll be already at the edge of the warp bubble as we transit. While we’re in normal space, firing the ball gun, we just move a little. They’ll be outside the effect from the ship, so they won’t move. We move away from them, not very far, go back into warp and they’re left hanging in space.”
“And then the defenses of the ship shoot them down,” Spectre said.
“Maybe, sir,” Bill said. “Maybe not. Their target discriminators might not see them as a threat. The boards also are surprisingly maneuverable in space and very fast. Personally? I think it’s suicide. But that’s not a professional opinion. My professional opinion, sir, actually tracks with the captain’s. They’re a weapon. Use them.”
Carrier Unit to Gun Unit. Have sustained critical damage. 40% loss of nutrient, 60% loss of air. Leakage at four hundred cubics per turn. Retreating to warp point.
Gun Unit to Carrier Unit. Report to the Masters that Species 27314 will be destroyed or assimilated within ten cycles. Species 27264 ship will be captured and examined and their home world located. All is in hand… Internal alert. Intruders in recycling room four. Locate and terminate. Twenty percent of security units to control center defense stations.
Carrier Unit to Gun Unit. Do you require additional security units?
Negative, intruders are few in number. They will be eliminated or assimilated within a turn. Send this message to the Masters. We are loyal.
We are loyal.
“That grapping thing is roasting.”
The largest Dreen structure in the room looked something like a mushroom, one from Alice in Wonderland. Two thermite grenades had been tossed on top of it and had burned their way through and into the floor, setting the pillar of Dreen fungus ablaze.
Cables had been cut, filling the room with goo, and some of the original equipment had been engaged with machine-gun fire, exploding in showers of sparks. In general, the compartment had been seriously grapped up.
“Our work here is done,” Staff Sergeant Hinchcliffe said. “And let me just add how proud I am—”