Siege of Jalisco: The Brad Mendoza Chronicles by Skyler Ramirez

Author:Skyler Ramirez [Ramirez, Skyler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Persephone Entertainment Inc.
Published: 2024-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13 – Abandon Ship

For the next two days, we stay right where we are, in orbit around Guadalajara. It allows us to lick our wounds—faking Farragut’s drive sputter to lure the enemy in actually caused some minor drive damage—and offload the survivors of King James onto the rest of our ships. It will make things a little tight—spreading over 200 spacers across four small ships—but our life support can handle it. We’re even able to tow the James into a higher orbit over the moon, which will hopefully give someone from the Navy time to come recover her for eventual repair.

Staying in the gas giant’s orbit also gives us the most options as to what to do next. With 21 moons, there are more than enough hiding places for us if the two battlecruisers of Enemy Element C—the ones guarding the Yessina jump point—make a move toward us. And if the battleship at the Farshaw jump point—the one we came through—starts toward us, we have plenty of time to flee. With our superior speed, we might even be able to get around and past it and escape through the jump point.

Of course, being way out here in the outer system also means we can’t support our Marines. But in the snippets of comms we get from Buff Menard, it sounds like things are going relatively well on the surface. The Kipling ground troops were plenty efficient bullying and killing civilians and the homegrown Jalisco militias, but against well-trained Promethean Marines, they’re at a severe disadvantage. By the end of the first day, most of the enemy are captured or killed, and the government center has been liberated. By the end of the second day, Menard and his Marines are mopping up scattered pockets of enemy resistance, but mostly just trying to get to them before the local militias arrive and tear them to shreds in vengeful violence.

“What’s our next move, Skipper?” Tyson Long asks without preamble as he sits down on my day cabin’s small couch, which doubles as my bunk when I sleep in here, as I’ve been doing since we arrived in system.

“Not sure, honestly,” I tell him. “The Kipling forces still outnumber us, and if we had to go against them as a united front, they’d wipe us out pretty easily. No way could we blast by those two battlecruisers at the Yessina jump point, and the battleship would tear us to shreds if we tried to escape back to Farshaw.”

He nods. We’ve already had this conversation a few times before, including with the other surviving ship commanders.

“So, we just wait?” he asks, his tone laced with equal measures of disappointment and relief.

I shrug. “Can you think of anything else, Ty? At some point, someone is going to wonder why TF24 hasn’t checked in since leaving Farshaw. Third Fleet was in the general area, making a stop out at the Harper Line. They could be here in a week, maybe two, if word reaches them.”

He nods again.

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