K Constantine [Constantine - Worthy of Time

Worthy of Time

By K. Constantine

Copyright 2019 K. Constantine

All Rights Reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any real person, place or event. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission from the author except in cases where brief quotes are included in articles or reviews.

Chapter 1

First contact

Star System: Virgils Star (VGL 191)
Force: Marine Company One dispatched from the Alcmene naval vessel Nemean
Location: Two klicks inside the Structure

Fall Back! Major Lewis shouted into the general channel. All units fall back!

His Marines raced through the tight corridors, flashes of green laser light mixing with their headlamps to illuminate the darkness.

Gravity here was heavy, but the Marine EVA suits were designed to compensate so that the wearer would feel Earth-normal. Despite that, Lewis felt his feet dragging.

He switched to the command channel and began giving orders.

Wessler! Duffy! Youve got four squads coming your way. Unidentified hostiles on our tail. Have your men ready to fall back behind the squads. Execute defensive retreat. Dont try to hold your line once we are through!

Corporal Duffy here, sir! Acknowledged.

Well be crossing your position in about sixty seconds. Wessler, acknowledge!

Sir, said Duffy over the comm, static muffling his voice. Wessler took a squad to explore one of the side corridors. We lost contact with his unit about ten minutes ago, sir.

Shit!

Should we send scouts after them, sir?

No time. Execute as ordered. Once the squads are through, you are to fall back in full defensive retreat. Understood?

Yes sir!

Lewis closed the command channel and gave a signal to Waverly.

Waverly was his commands official liaison to ISAT, the Institute of Science and Technology, a pan-governmental organization whose original function was to monitor and control potentially destructive technologies. These days ISAT had a monopoly on technology and dolled it out or forbid it as it saw fit.

Lewis opened a private channel to Waverly. Waverly, we need to slow those hostiles down. What have you got in your TSAC?

Waverly placed a hand on his backpack and another on his utility belt, thought for a moment and replied, A round of GGs ought to slow those things down.

Great! Ill cover you from here. Martinez and Lotte will cover your flanks. Get those things ready now!

Lewis gave orders to Martinez and Lotte to lay down fire to the left and right of Waverly, while Lewis took point just off their central line of attack.

Wait for my order, Waverly!

Yes sir!

Last squad to cross perimeter one, Lewis shouted into the general channel, call out your position when you are through. Duffy and his team will cover your retreat back to the shuttles.

Electronic acknowledgements flashed green on Lewis heads-up display.

Lewis glanced at his watch. They should be getting through in ten seconds.

Five seconds.

Waverly, get ready!

Three seconds.

Waverly began taking aim.

Two seconds.

Lewis took in a deep breath to steady his nerves.

One second.

Squad four through, sir!

Waverly, now!

Waverly steadied what looked like a two-foot tube on his shoulder, his fingers dancing over a red keypad, and fired.

The GG landing zone seemed to turn pitch black, as gravity within a ten-meter area increased tenfold.

Good job! Waverly, get your ass back to the shuttle. Martinez, Lotte, hold your positions and keep firing at those bogies! Run like hell when I give the word.

Lewis turned his attention to his heads-up display, turned on the SITMAP and watched icons representing each squad make their way back to the shuttle landing point. Even with the SITMAP on, he couldnt see Wesslers team.

They knew coming in that this structure was heavily shielded, and communications would be difficult. But he didnt expect anyone to disobey orders and get themselves lost.

Not wanting to leave anyone behind, he reluctantly gave the order to Martinez and Lotte to retreat.

Get back to the shuttle. NOW!

Lotte and Martinez retreated in staggered fashion, with each Marine running ten meters, stopping to lay cover fire while the other Marine ran ten meters and so on, until they could get out of the hostiles firing range.

Crouched behind a twisted piece of steel, Lewis opened the general channel and called to Wessler again.

No answer.

Sir! Weve got a problem. That was Lotte.

Before Lewis could answer, a deafening roar blasted static through his EVA comm and blinded his heads-up display.

It took seconds for his visor to correct and restore his vision, coming in shadowy at first, before the visor adjusted to the lighting and compensated for damage to his EVA suits external visual sensors.

The corridor ahead of them was blocked by tons of debris.

He saw Martinezs name tag among the debris but no other signs of him.

Lotte was lying over the jagged edge of a boulder, his back bent at a painfully dangerous angle.

Lewis made his way to Lotte, plugged his suit into the Marines EVA and checked for vitals: still breathing, heart rate low, unconscious, being pumped with recovery nanos by the suits onboard medical computer.

Lotte would survive the explosion.

But with the effects of the gravity grenades fading, and blasts of green laser fire coming their way again, Lewis wasnt so sure theyd be getting out of this alive.

Dragging a piece of metal in front of their position, Lewis placed Lotte flat on the ground behind the sheet and took aim with his rifle.

Whoever whatever they were, they were coming.

Search and Rescue

System: Virgils star (VGL 191)
Location: The Structure, 350 meters from the landing zone

Corporal Duffy watched the two shuttles take off from the Structures hangar bay and fly back into open space.

Their mission to explore the Structure had quickly become a search-and-rescue mission. Duffy felt a surge of pride when he asked for three volunteers to stay behind to help him carry out the mission, and every member of his squad who wasnt wounded stepped up for the task.

Despite his ample pick of volunteers, he knew immediately who he wanted.

Private First-Class Laura Chan, formerly attached to the Flying Hornets, a combat engineering unit that specialized in rescuing commercial spacers trapped in shoddy mines dug by shady companies in Alcmenes in-system asteroid mining belt.

Senior Private Michelle Hauser, a medical doctor by training whod joined the Marines out of her deep desire to see the stars or at least thats what shed tell Duffy whenever theyd drink too much and fall asleep in each others arms.

And finally, William Buff Layton, arguably the fittest Marine Duffy had ever encountered. Rumor had it that a fully suited Marine wearing EVA-strength augmentation gear, which was standard on such missions, would still lose to Layton in an arm wrestle.

Duffy called into the command comm, still in range of the shuttles.

Falcons One and Two. This is Corporal Duffy. Get back to the Nemean and give a full report to Captain Gregory. Give us six hours to conduct our search, and then ask the captain to come and get us.

Green acknowledgements flashed in his heads-up display. The two Falcon shuttles accelerated away from the structure bound for the Nemean, station keeping one AU away.

Back to the task at hand, Duffy surveyed their surroundings with a sweep of his head. Things looked quiet a far cry from the chaos a few moments ago, when the entire Marine recon force was making a headlong retreat from an unknown, heavily armed enemy.