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Back Ark Royal
Chapters (42)
  1. Cover Blurb
  2. Contents
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty

His HUD bleeped as it signalled an alert.  Charles puzzled over the sudden detection of poison gas, then realised that one of their shots – or an alien plasma burst – had burned into a coolant conduit.  The Marines ignored it, even though the aliens retreated hastily.  Most of them had no armour.  Charles briefly rethought his decision not to blow the ship’s integrity and release its atmosphere, allowing the aliens to suffocate, then reminded himself that all the arguments against it were still valid.  But the aliens weren't even trying to surrender ...

Get real, he told himself, as he snapped off a burst at an alien soldier.  The alien tactics seemed haphazard, even random ... but with their weapons, they made a great deal of sense.  They didn't have to worry about reloading their weapons, so why not spray at random like a primitive machine gun?  The worst that could happen was that they forced the advancing enemy to keep their heads down.  We don’t even know how to ask them to surrender.

The thought nagged at him as he saw his target fall to the deck and lie still.  If they’d been facing humans, they would have been shouting demands for surrender in every language they thought their opponents faced.  Not that it would have been enough, for some humans; insurgents and terrorists knew what to expect if they fell into military hands.  They rarely surrendered – and, unless there were hostages or human shields, they were rarely given a chance to fight back.  But the aliens ... how could they tell them to put their hands up when they couldn’t speak to them?

We have to fix this problem, he thought.  Another series of explosions shook the deck as the Marines blasted their way through an alien strongpoint.  It looked as though the aliens were organising their defence on the fly, which was fortunate.  Given time, they could have stalled the Marines long enough to blow the ship.  Somehow, we have to get them to surrender.

“I’ve found a tube, sir,” one of the Marines called.  “That’s how they’re evading us.”

“Snaky little bastards,” another Marine observed.  “We couldn't fit in that tube.”

“Not unless we start recruiting children,” Charles agreed, as he saw the alien tube.  It looked like a Jefferies Tube from a human starship, but it was alarmingly thin, too thin for the Marines to use even without armour.  The tubes on Ark Royal were wide enough for human adults to use; the alien tubes were simply too thin.  But, given their biology, it probably wouldn't be a problem for the aliens.  “Send drones up it, then seal the hatch and hope they can't break out again.”