React Read online

  REACT

  By

  J.A. Scorch

  Copyright © 2016

  All rights reserved.

  www.jacorch.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  AFTERWORD

  Chapter One

  Sergeant William Perez slapped a full clip of high-explosive rounds into his X762A1 rifle. The empty magazine that had been in its place hit the ground a second later. "How long was that?" he asked Private Roger Lindgren. The rookie stared at the weapon, his mouth half open.

  "Almost less than a blink, Sarge. How the hell did you do that?"

  Perez smiled as he went to give a response but got cut off in the process.

  "Your commander has too much time on his hands," Sergeant Alicia Willis said, interrupting as she shoved him and walked through. "That's why he never gets laid."

  "You wish, Daisy," Perez said, eyes focusing on Willis. "Keep on moving." He bent down and scooped up the magazine. Eyeballing the plastic clip, he shoved the lightweight rounds back into his ammo belt. Perez sat opposite Lindgren, slumped down in one of the fixed bench seats of the small vessel he'd been stuck in for the last eight hours. The X20T light transporter was attached to a long Martian science vessel known as the MSV Invictus as part of a potential rescue mission. To say the soldiers on board were getting a bit antsy was an understatement.

  Willis continued down the line of Marines who belonged to the Mars Armed Forces, slapping shoulders and dropping jokes as she passed through the squad of twelve headed for the outskirts of the heliosphere of the solar system.

  "Ignore the lower-class trash, Private," Perez said, raising the volume of his voice the further Willis ventured in the small craft. "They only want you to sink down to their level."

  Daisy didn't answer and waved him off without looking back.

  Only two hours ago, the MSV Invictus had cleared a waypoint on its way to a distress call received three days prior. Perez and his team had linked up with the ship on their way back from a training operation.

  "Sarge. I gotta question," Lindgren said.

  Perez lifted his brows as he scratched at his short beard, letting the kid understand he could go ahead and talk. The blue-eyed soldier was squeaky clean and fresh out of the academy, keen as ever to charge into the Marine life. Perez didn't want to be the one to break it to him that service in the MAF was mostly a series of mundane tasks with the occasional need for violence.

  "Why are we hauling ass all the way out here to the end of the system? Seems like a waste of fuel to me."

  "Probably is, Private, but Command doesn't pay us to think. We're hired to do a job, so don't ask questions above your pay grade. Trust me."

  Perez gazed at Willis again. It wasn't clear from the thick, armored space suit she wore, but Daisy had a perfect figure hiding beneath those layers. He faded back; half smiling as he remembered the few lucky occasions he managed to spend some quality time with her.

  "Do these distress calls come up often?" Lindgren asked.

  "Ah, yeah," Perez replied as he refocused on the soldier. "All the damn time. Usually, it's nothing. People break down out in the middle of nowhere for whatever reason. An emergency call gets received by the Outer Heliosphere Patrol. They handle everything most of the time, but on occasion, we are called up for security."

  Lindgren's brow tightened. "How are we supposed to help a stranded ship with security?"

  "You're doing it again, Private."

  "Doing what?"

  "Thinking out loud. Don't let Command see this side of you." Perez stared into the private's eyes until a smirk burst across his face. "Just messing with you, kid."

  Perez stood from the fixed seat and stretched in his fitted armor. He grabbed Lindgren's shoulder. "When we arrive, you'll see why they assign us to these things." The sergeant went to take a stroll down the transporter, but the kid held him up.

  "Sarge. One last question. I swear."

  "Hurry up."

  "What's with the science vessel? Doesn't seem like the kind of ship you'd send out for a rescue job."

  Perez grinned back at the twisted features on the private's face and said, "Kid, if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't be on this hunk of junk on its way to the ass end of the system. Now sit tight. We'll be there within the hour."

  Moving past Lindgren, Perez ducked his head beneath a support beam on the transporter. The seating arrangement existed in the center of the ship for maximum protection from external forces, but the MAF never thought to conceal the inner workings of the craft. Thick cables, blinking lights, and sections of electronics hung exposed inside the X20T. The spacecraft was currently docked to the outside of the Invictus, enveloped into the larger ship's shields.

  When Perez reached Willis, he nudged her in the arm for a chat. They were the only sergeants on board, leaving the twelve to fall under their command. The two experienced soldiers shared the burden of leadership, each controlling one of the three fireteams forming the squad. The third fireteam came under the supervision of Corporal Serrano at the far end of the X20T, but ultimately every call had to go via Perez or Willis.

  "The rookie's asking a lot of questions," Willis said. "Anyone would think you were his role model or something."

  "Good one, Sergeant. But seriously, the kid's as green as they come. It's one question after the other. Why Command puts the newbies on my fireteam, I'll never understand."

  "Because you're so perfect, Perez," she said, half patting his face. With his faceplate open, Willis got her jab in with ease. "So what's he asking about?"

  "What do you think?"

  "The mission?"

  He nodded.

  Willis scoffed. "Tell him to get in line. Command won't say shit about it. Neither will the nerds on the MSV."

  Perez chuckled. "You're terrible. Those 'nerds' are making three times our salary a month. Besides, don't you love going on these crazy missions with the barest of intelligence?"

  "Like our carefree trip through the belt three months ago. Those rogues put up a decent fight, all things considered."

  "You're not wrong," Perez said as his mind drifted back to the mission that almost killed him. The year had just ticked over to 2120 when he took a slug in his left arm. He still felt the bullet wound. "Anyway, we'll be there soon. My money is on a huge pile of nothing."

  He stepped away, ducking under another beam as he held his rifle level with one hand.

  Before Perez could take a seat, the Chief Science Officer on board the Invictus pinged through a comms request to his field tablet. The small screen embedded in his forearm armor flashed bright with the alert as he groaned away. "What does this asshole want now?" Perez raised a finger to the display and accepted the incoming signal. "This is Sergeant Perez."

  CSO Aksyonov filled the small window. His two beady eyes stayed hidden behind a pair of goggles that only served to make the man's face bulge out even more. "Sergeant. As you know, we are fast approaching the derelict craft. I need to know something before we arrive."

  "What do you need to know, sir?" Perez asked, holding back an urge to disconnect.

  "Can I count on your squad for complete discretion? I've been warned we may find a few things on the Verminus that have been classified by the MAF."

  "Sir, I can assure you my entire squad have signed non-disclosure agreements as required. I can personally vouch for—"

  "I don't care about your personal feelings for your team, Sergeant. Just get your Marines in order. Our scanners have found the precise location of the distress call originating from
the MDSE Verminus. The Deep space explorer went dark a few hours ago, but we calculated her whereabouts based on data collected over the last three days."

  Perez waited for the CSO to continue. A silence formed between them. "Is that all, sir?"

  "No. I want this done by the book. No one steps out of line, or they'll be answering to the MAF disciplinary committee I sit on. Understood?"

  "Yes, sir. By the book. We'll—" The connection dropped out before Perez finished groveling. "Asshole," he muttered.

  "What did you say to piss him off, Sarge?"

  "Nothing I said, Private; it's who I am. The man hates grunts. We're the ones who pushed him around in school. Society is finally allowing him to play out some revenge."

  "What a dick," Lindgren said.

  "Yes, he is, but that dick is also the boss, so let's keep up the feigned respect until the day is through. Understood?"

  "Yes, Commander."

  Perez smiled as he sat back down. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Wake me when we get there, kid. Who knows when we might get another chance to sleep?"

  Chapter Two

  Perez woke up to the sound of Willis' voice as she relayed orders to her fireteam. A kick in the leg added extra weight to her words, prompting him into action.

  "What have we got, Sergeant?" he asked Willis as he rubbed one of his eyes and shook out the sleep still lingering in his eyes.

  "Not sure. Aksyonov hasn't started shouting over the comm yet. All I can say for certain is we've arrived at the distress signal's location."

  Perez gave her a short nod and activated the faceplate on his armor. The lid sealed tight, enveloping him in the final piece of protection. "Get your fireteam prepped, Daisy. Tell Serrano to do the same. We need to be ready to go at a moment's notice." His words became stifled by the suit and were being delivered to the comm in Willis' ear.

  "Yes, Sergeant," Willis said with a nod. She left his side and started barking orders down the line.

  Lindgren stood and tried to show Perez he was eager for action by sealing his faceplate and standing to attention.

  "At ease, Private. We might not be leaving the transporter for a few hours. Be set to go when I say."

  "Yes, Commander," he said louder than necessary.

  Perez ignored the rookie's spirited performance and rounded up the other two members of his fireteam. Specialists Grego and Tarva moved over to Lindgren's side. Tarva bumped him in the ribs. "You ready for this, kid?"

  "Yes, Specialist. Ready as I'll ever be."

  She narrowed her brow and leaned in closer to the private. "Not good enough, rookie. We need you to be set for anything. When we head out those doors, and the shit starts flying, I want to know you can handle whatever they throw at us." She held her gaze.

  "Tarva," Perez said. "Stop scaring the kid. Concentrate on not fucking up this mission. The CSO will personally burn the career of any soldier who causes a problem."

  Lindgren's mouth dropped open. Tarva put her arm around the private's shoulder and said, "Guess I don't need to say anything, Sarge. I can tell you're already in his head."

  "Just sit there and shut up, Specialist. We're about to board this other ship any minute now."

  The pending moment Perez spoke of turned into a full hour of waiting. Not a word had come from the Invictus since they arrived at the Verminus' location.

  "What do you think the holdup is?" Willis asked. She came over from her fireteam to ask him the question on everyone's lips.

  "Don't know. Maybe Aksyonov is busy covering up whatever it is we're not supposed to discover."

  "Yeah right," she replied. "His crew is probably ransacking the ship."

  "A science vessel raiding a deep space explorer? You've seen too many movies, Daisy."

  "Just saying," she said, both arms shrugging. "Wouldn't put it past them. Anyway, how long do they expect us to wait on standby? We've been stuck inside this sardine can for too long now."

  "Hopefully not much longer. This ship wasn't designed for such a long—"

  Some static washed over the general comm, interrupting Perez.

  "What the hell was that?" Willis asked.

  Before anyone answered, the static erupted again. "Hello ... Anybody ... Help."

  Perez and Willis gave each other a look. Both soldiers had their mouths open and turned to Serrano. Perez spoke first.

  "Corporal. Can you clean up the signal?"

  "On it, Sarge."

  "Tell me where the call is coming from. We need to contact Aksyonov for an update on the situation." He turned to Willis. She cut him off, knowing what he was going to ask her.

  "I can't hail the CSO or the Invictus. No one's answering any of the channels."

  Shaking his head, Perez popped open his faceplate to give himself some breathing space. "We need to board the Verminus, now."

  "How? We're still attached to the Invictus. Unless we can override the docking computer, we're stuck."

  Perez let out a breath of recycled air and pulled up a program on his tablet. "I may have something to bypass the controls. It's not strictly legal, but it'll do the job." He tapped a few commands into his system and pressed a button to initiate the program. The ship rocked and groaned as the large clamps of the MSV Invictus released the X20T.

  "I don't even want to know why you have that. I'll pretend you didn't just hack into our ship and order Serrano to fly us over." Willis brushed past him, muttering away. Perez understood her concern. Possession of illegal hacking software was something capable of landing a soldier in a Martian prison for at least ten years if convicted.

  "Sir?" a voice said behind him. He turned around to find Lindgren's face white as a ghost.

  "Relax, Private. We'll be underway soon."

  A few minutes later, Serrano piloted the X20T over toward the stranded ship. From inside the transporter, Perez could see the view coming from the front of the light vessel via a camera array on his tablet. As the corporal flew them closer to the Verminus, Perez focused in on the ship using the optics embedded in the small craft.

  Willis stared over his shoulder. "Not much to see from the outside. Seems like a regular DSE."

  "Except for one thing: the lights are off. None of the external identifiers are lit up. She might be running dark." He zoomed in on one of the Invictus' light transporters docked with the Verminus.

  "They still have a hard seal, though," she said.

  Perez groaned. "Means there's some power. Maybe reserved auxiliary. We'd better move, now. If we're lucky, the gravity will still be working; otherwise, it's going to be slow going."

  "Magboots should do the trick if the power is not serving the dampers."

  He gave her a stiff nod. "I also think we should breach instead of docking. Can't chance their system shutting down mid cycle."

  Willis stepped back, muttering again. Perez turned and said, "Problem?"

  Her face twisted up with wrinkle lines as she frowned at him. "First you use hacking software, now you want to punch a hole into a ship worth a billion credits. What's next?"

  Closing the gap between them, Perez leaned down towards Willis and kept his voice low. "I'll take full responsibility for the situation. If it turns out everything is fine, and they've managed to forget about us, my ass will be on the line. No one else's."

  Willis didn't blink as she stared back up at him. "Whatever. I'll ready my team with the breaching kit. You better be right about this. Command will want to know why I didn't stop you from making the call."

  A smile formed on Perez's mouth as he shook his head. "Just tell them I overpowered you before losing my mind. The MAF enjoys a bit of drama."

  "Screw you," she said as she moved back down to her fireteam to give them an update.

  Looking back to his tablet, Perez realized Serrano had reached the ship. The corporal radioed for his next task and didn't complain when Perez asked him to find a thin spot to breach the Verminus. Within a minute, Serrano discovered a weak section close to the dock using th
e X20T's onboard scanner. He magnetically docked the transporter to the MDSE and launched the soft-seal bridge to allow Willis' team to cut their way into the Verminus.

  "Look alive people. We breach in two minutes. Seal your face plates. Check your breathers. The ship may be out of oxygen." Perez activated a program on his suit that closed every one of its vents. Oxygen flooded the environment wrapped around his body as he checked his X762A1 rifle and ammo count. "No HE rounds, people. Keep 'em light." He swapped out his high-explosive ammunition for lighter standard issue bullets to minimize ship damage. The last thing they needed was to destroy something critical inside the expensive deep space explorer.

  Serrano came down from the pilots' deck and loaded up. He moved over to Perez and said, "When is Command going to issue us with some laser rifles? These things are too dangerous to use on board a goddamn DSE."

  "Load out with the usual, Corporal. Hopefully, we don't have to fire a single shot. It's probably just an emergency shutdown. The CSO will have my ass for this, but better to be sure nothing else is going on in there."

  Serrano stepped over to Perez before he sealed his face plate. "Whatever this is, I've got your back. Command can go to hell if they think they can put this bullshit on you." The corporal closed his helmet and slapped his commander on the arm.

  "Thanks, man. Now move your team into play. You stack up after Willis. I'm out last. I'll seal the ship up with the security gate."

  "Yes, Sergeant," Serrano said as he rallied his fireteam into position.

  Perez turned around to face his own. Lindgren stood back from the group. Despite the kid's face being hidden behind a protective layer, Perez swore he felt the fear coming through the private's armor. "Lindgren. You're with me. Once everyone is out, we'll lock the ship with the security gate. Go find it."

  Lindgren stumbled backward in the wrong direction.

  "Other way, Private. Come on." Perez turned to Grego and Tarva. "You two. Cover our asses. I want you to watch out for the private. This will be his first mission."

  "Yes, Sergeant," Grego said as he shuffled left and right. Tarva didn't say a word and shook her head instead.