Triumphant (Genesis Fleet, The) by Jack Campbell

Author:Jack Campbell [Campbell, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

The burning curtain drifted into contact, and Mele felt a faint shudder through the structure of the orbital facility as the burning thermite triggered the mines concealed on the outside of the facility.

The claymore mine was a very old concept, a weapon designed to hurl a blast of projectiles in one direction like a giant shotgun. Very old, but still very effective. The mines the Marines had planted could’ve been set off one by one by remote command or by contact, but the thermite had set them all off at once. The barrage of metal balls from all of the mines filled space between the facility and the freighter, the space where Mele expected the first wave of the enemy assault to be located, concealed just behind the chaff curtain.

The explosions of the mines also scattered the remaining chaff barrier a bit. Using a few surviving pinhole visual sensors, Mele got a look at the aftermath.

Dozens of enemy soldiers in that first wave had been hit as they flew through space toward the facility, the impacts of the balls from the mines knocking them back toward the freighter, or if the soldiers were really unlucky, pitching them outward either toward empty space or down toward the planet. The arms and legs of those killed by the mines dangled motionless or swayed with the rolling of their bodies. Those only wounded were triggering emergency thrusters on their armor to get back to the freighter, or to reach the facility where their luckier uninjured comrades were alighting on the dock and advancing toward the side of the facility. Mele watched the smooth, professional movements of the enemy soldiers, some standing and aiming their weapons to cover their comrades who rushed to breach the bulkheads facing them. The first wave of attackers had lost a lot of soldiers to the mines, but they knew what they were doing, and they were doing it well.

She wanted to be there, to be among the forces concealed a little ways back from the bulkheads that were about to be blown open. She wanted to be able to fight, to let her fears and worries be forgotten in the rush of battle. But that wasn’t her job. She had to stay back from the fight, had to remain functioning and overseeing everyone else as they fought, giving the orders that would allow the defense of the facility to be as coordinated as possible while communications were still easy.

Sensors viewing the outer bulkheads from the inside showed the holes being blown into existence by enemy breaching charges, the atmosphere in the adjacent areas venting into space, the enemy soldiers tossing in EMP grenades to disable automated defenses, then coming through in a rush of battle-armored shapes.

A rush that almost immediately faltered as the enemy soldiers found themselves facing the barriers and blocked passages that the defenders had created in place of the original plans that the enemy had expected to reliably guide them in this attack.

But they found ways ahead and charged into them, ways that had been designed as traps.

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