“My father will activate the shield.”
“The emitters!” Nathan realized.
“I don’t think so, honey,” Jessica told her, as she peeked out the door and saw several troops making their way around the side of the main house. Tug and Ranni were firing madly through the windows but were unable to prevent the troops from advancing.
Jessica turned back to face the girl. “Where are the shield controls?”
“In the reactor shack, in the corner,” she said, pointing toward the far door on the other side of the shack that led into the next greenhouse.”
“Straight that way?” Jessica asked.
“Yes. All the way to the end.”
Jessica peeked back out the door. The troops were getting into position to take the main house.
“They’re getting ready to charge the main house. Tug and the misses are trying to hold them off.” Jessica thought for a moment, the sound of weapons fire being exchanged about the main house in the distance. “Okay, new plan. I’ll activate the shields. That’ll get the snipers off our backs. With most of the troops headed for the main house, you guys might be able to take the ship.”
“What about you?” Nathan asked.
“If I’m not back in five minutes, then I’m not comin’ back.”
“Jess-”
“You wanna go?” She didn’t wait for a response, bolting across the room and crashing through the door into the next greenhouse.”
Jessica sprinted through the first greenhouse without a single shot being fired her way. The tables were all loaded with empty dirt trays, having been freshly harvested, which meant there was little to no concealment offered. As she burst into the next transfer shack, she knew it was unlikely she’d make it so easily through the next greenhouse.
But that didn’t slow her down, and she charged through the shack and into the next greenhouse. This time, however, she was met with rapid sniper fire that shattered the glass windows, sending shards flying in all directions. She stumbled slightly and then fell to the deck, scrambling the last few meters on hands and knees until she was through the next door.
“Jesus!” Nathan exclaimed. “She’s taking fire.” He poked his weapon around the door frame and opened up on the far ridge line, hoping to force the sniper to duck for cover, but his shots were too wide of his target to have the desired effect. He peeked out the door toward the main house only to see one soldier break out in a run between the main house and Tobin’s ship, skirting around the corner of the house and heading toward the back corner of the compound.
“Jess!” Nathan called out of his comm-set. “One of them is headed your way! I think he’s gonna to try and cut you off!” When he got no response, he called to her again. “Jess! Do you copy?!”
Jessica reached up and switched off her comms as she settled down into the darkness, tucked in behind a tall rack of watering hoses. She quieted herself and forced her heavy breathing under control as she heard the sound of the outside door in the next greenhouse opening and closing, followed by the slow, careful footsteps of an armored assault trooper on the gravel floor.
Jessica pulled out her combat knife, slowly and silently as the enemy drew closer to the door. Suddenly, the door swung open and the intruder burst into the room. The speed of his entry nearly startled Jessica, and it took all her nerve to control her reaction.
The soldier immediately checked behind the door but found no one. He searched the small, dark room, quickly eyed the rack of hoses in the darkened corner, and approached slowly. He pushed his weapon muzzle forward to part the hoses.
What a dumbass, she thought as she pushed the rack forward, causing it to fall over onto the intruder. His weapon discharged in a knee-jerk reaction, its energy blast grazing the left side of her hip as the hoses and the rack spilled forward, burying the trooper under the heavy hoses.
Screaming in pain and anger, Jessica lunged forward on top of the pile of hoses covering the enemy, pushing his weapon up and away from her as she lay atop him. Pinned on his back by the hoses and Jessica, unable to bring his weapon to bear, the soldier reached up with his left arm and grabbed a handful of Jessica’s hair, pulling her head straight back.
Jessica screamed in pain as her head was pulled backward, partially lifting her up from her position on top of the soldier. She swung her right arm under his left, stabbing wildly at his chest plate. Suddenly, one of her thrusts caused the knife to deflect slightly towards her opponents chin, and the knife tip slid up the chest plate and found the gap between the chest plate and the lower edge of his helmet’s face plate. As she felt the slight advancement of her blade, she twisted her body to her right to add downward force to the blade, and it slid into her opponent’s throat, bringing forth a sickening gurgling sound as his blood rushed into his trachea.
Her attacker immediately released his grip on her hair as he choked on his own blood, trying desperately to breathe. She fell forward, continuing her thrust with all her weight now behind her knife, as it chipped his cervical vertebra, sliding between them and severing his spinal cord.
His body went limp, and the gurgling subsided. She sat upright, straddling her now dead opponent. She reached for the wound on her left hip, wincing in pain at her own touch. “You shot me!” she exclaimed, as she punched his face plate with her right hand. “And you pulled my hair, too!” She punched his face again. Wincing in pain, she checked her wound again. “That better not leave a scar, asshole.” She withdrew her knife from his neck and had an idea.
On the port catwalk of the hangar bay, three crewmen began firing down into the group of enemy soldiers. Most of their rounds were deflected by the enemy’s black armor, however, the continuous barrage of fire eventually proved to be too much for them as they began falling one by one. The soldiers scrambled for cover, but were met on either side by Weatherly to forward and Mendez to aft.
Less than a minute later, the few surviving members of the boarding party surrendered, dropping their weapons and raising up their hands. Mendez immediately rushed forward, barking at the enemy to drop to their knees as several more armed crewmen rushed in from different hatches.
“Commander!” Kaylah called from the sensor station. “There’s another ship trying to land.”
“Where?”
“On our flight deck, sir!”
“What? Where the hell did it come from?”
“I don’t know, sir. It came out of nowhere.”
Outside the Aurora, an unmarked ship came in low over the drive section of the ship as it approached the flight deck.
“Open the outer door!” Josh, the harvester pilot called out over the comm channel! “I’ll cut him off!”
Cameron nearly jumped to the tactical display, just in time to see the track of the harvester as it came speeding toward the Aurora from the starboard side of her stern, on a collision course with the unknown approaching ship. Cameron quickly activated the transfer airlock’s outer door.
The little harvester slid in under the unmarked ship, positioning himself between it and the Aurora, forcing the unmarked ship to pull up sharply at the last moment. The unmarked ship was unable to pull up enough, and it slammed into the hull just above the bay opening to the flight deck as the harvester entered the outer bay just below the unmarked ship’s point of impact. The unmarked ship crumpled and flipped as its momentum caused it to slide up the hull before it spilled out over the top, chunks of it flying away as it continued to tumble out of control and break apart.
“Whoo-hoo!” Josh cried out. “I never flinch!”
“Oh my God. He’ll never stop in time,” Cameron declared as she watched him approach on the flight deck monitoring display. He was coming in nearly four times the normal landing speed, and he had all his thrusters burning at maximum to try and slow down before he traversed the transfer bay and slammed into the inner bay door. Cameron watched, grimacing even more intensely as she watched the harvester hurtle toward the inner doors. Suddenly he killed his thrusters and spun his little ship around, firing his main engines at full power. The harvester finally came to a stop less than a meter from the inner door, as he killed his engines.