Jack Campbell - Guardian

She bit back an angry reply, thinking. “Maybe. I don’t see anything, though, and nobody can stealth a ship bigger than a shuttle effectively enough to keep it undetected by the sensors we’ve got. Nobody human, anyway, and I doubt the Dancers have shared their stealth tech with the Syndics.”

The nearest visible ships were all Syndic freighters, and none of them were within half a light-hour of the Alliance warships. Geary took his time examining his display but saw nothing. “Captain Desjani, I want to watch what’s happening on Invincible .”

“Sure you do. Lieutenant Castries,” Desjani called. “Keep track of how many hidden shuttles get blown away. I’m going to be watching everything else while the Admiral keeps an eye on that Syndic attack on Invincible .” She lowered her voice. “Go ahead. We’ve got it covered.”

“Get my attention if you think you see anything—”

“I’ve been fighting Syndics for more years than you have, Black Jack! I know my job!”

“Yes, Captain,” Geary said. “I’m still learning mine.” He focused back on the situation aboard Invincible as Lieutenant Castries announced the detection and destruction of two more stealth shuttles.

Invincible was by far the most important issue at the moment. Only there could another devastating blow be inflicted on this fleet if the Syndic boarding party could establish secure positions and threaten to destroy the ship from within.

With only two companies aboard Invincible , the number of images of Marines he could monitor was relatively small. Half of those images were unmoving, as the units to which they belonged stayed hunkered down in defensive positions.

But the others were moving. Geary picked one, tapping the image to get a view through the helmet of the Marine squad leader he had chosen.

The window that popped open before him offered the same vision as the Marine had, complete with the symbology on the Marine’s heads-up display overlaid on the view of the dark, empty passageways on the Invincible . Geary felt an involuntary shudder as the memory of the Kick ghosts crowding those passageways came back to him.

The Marine he was monitoring was nervous, too, her vision shifting rapidly around as she sought to see the invisible presences. But her voice stayed steady as she led her squad through the maze of Invincible ’s passageways, the Marines pulling themselves along in the zero gravity aboard the ship. “Not too fast. They’re in full stealth. Watch for the indications. ’Ski, wake up and watch our six, dammit.”

“I’m watching it, Sarge!”

“Like hell.”

The Marines pulled, kicked, and glided down one dark passageway to a junction, turned left there, floated up a ladder sized for feet and legs much smaller than humans’, then down another passageway. Familiar with the layout of the alien ship from their constant patrolling, the Marines could move with only occasional glances at the deck plans displayed on their helmet shields. “Watch it,” the squad leader warned. “The major says they’re in this area.”

“Sarge! There’s something coming!”

“I don’t have movement, Tecla.”

“There. Look. Like somebody in stealth moving a lot faster than they should, bouncing off stuff.”

“Got it. They’re coming our way. Watch for when they come around the corner.”

But the unseen Syndic special-forces soldier didn’t come around the corner. Instead, the soldier must have been staring backwards while moving fast, because the corridor resounded with the sound of the Syndic impacting on the bulkhead when he or she failed to make the turn.

“Got ’em!” one of the Marines yelled, firing.

Shots glanced off something unseen, then the image of a human in battle armor appeared, and moments later a dozen shots riddled it before the Syndic could react.

Geary rubbed his eyes, imagining what the Syndic had been running from. Kicks crowding around on all sides. Real ghosts or something generated by a last-ditch Kick defensive system or the structure of the ship as Captain Smythe had speculated? Whatever it was, it felt real enough to rattle anyone.

He switched to another Marine squad leader who was approaching the decoy main engineering control compartment. The Marines were moving in rushes, several covering their companions as they pulled themselves forward, then those Marines in turn kicking off to fly ahead while the others covered them. It wasn’t the fastest form of movement, but when faced with invisible enemies, Geary could understand the need for it despite the urgency of the Marines’ reaching that compartment.

The squad halted around the corner from the passageway holding the main air lock into the decoy compartment. The squad leader stuck the tip of one finger around the edge of the turn, the tiny camera in that finger providing a clear image of what was around the corner.

Nothing, apparently. The air lock stood open. No one was visible.

“Why’d they leave the hatch open, Sarge?” one of the Marines asked.

“So we’d go in that way,” the sergeant answered. “Old trick. Leave an easy access to where someone wants to go and hope they’ll use it without wondering why it was left open. You’d be surprised how often people fall for it.”

“What do we do, Sarge?”

“Major?”

Major Dietz answered the sergeant. “We need to get in there as quickly as possible, Sergeant Cortez. If the Syndics have nukes with them, one of those nukes is probably in there. They need to get overwhelmed fast.”

“Got it, sir. Squad, we’ll use bounce grenades to flush them out and neutralize their stealth. Fire teams one and two, ready grenades. Set them on dust.”

“Dust, Sarge? Not shrapnel?”

“You heard me. You guys need another look?”

“Yeah, Sarge.”

The sergeant poked out his finger again, letting the image linger on the helmet displays of his squad.

What’s a bounce grenade? Geary looked to one side of the Marine display and spotted a list of weaponry. He highlighted the bounce-grenade icon and got a description and an image. A grenade inside some sort of extremely bouncy coating, thick enough to let the explosive act like a superball toy.

“Got it?” the Sergeant said as he pulled back his finger camera.

“Yeah, Sarge. Looks easy. I done harder bounces in my sleep.”

“Don’t screw it up. When I give the word, fire in sequence in the following order. Denny, Lesperance, Gurganus, Taitano, Caya, Kilcullen. Got it?”

Six Marines answered up.

“The rest of you apes get ready to go. Stand by,” Sergeant Cortez said. “Ready. Fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire.”

Each designated Marine fired a grenade as the command reached their place in the firing sequence. Geary watched as the grenades bounced off the opposite bulkhead at a high angle, bounced again against the bulkhead opposite that as they went down the other passageway, then rebounded yet again through the open hatch to the decoy main engineering control compartment. He realized now why the shots had been slightly spaced, to prevent two or more grenades from glancing off each other and spoiling their bounces. As it was, there were six perfect double–bank shots, each grenade detonating after it entered the compartment.

“Go!” Sergeant Cortez yelled to his squad.

Geary watched the Marines hurling themselves around the corner and toward the open hatch, from which clouds of dust were now billowing.

Vague outlines appeared in the dust gushing from the compartment, the wavering shapes of humans in combat armor, the dust revealing the figures despite the stealth features in the armor. Realizing they were partially visible, the sentries opened fire, hitting one Marine, before a dozen answering shots tore into them.