DREADNOUGHT 2165 Read Free

seemed like a
waste.
    Ram's 5th squad spat so much fire at the
Marines holding ahead of the advancing miners, that it actually
forced them to keep their heads down. The hull in front of the
forward bays where the Marines had taken cover sparked and flashed
with the practice rounds' impacts. It was good, solid, covering
fire and Lucy Elan's Marines couldn't pop up to shoot without
taking hits. 2nd squad was almost to the cover of the middle bay
doors when the advance began to fall apart.
    From his position on the bay 6 doors
on the port side Ram saw the Marines downrange begin to rise. Half
of them took hits right away and the practice rounds Hardway's crew put on target
exploded in sparking showers off their suits and helmets. It took a
second for them to fall to the hull and play dead – long enough for
Ram to note with unease how the fire that hit them came from two,
sometimes three and four of his shooters at once. Meanwhile, the
other Marines rose and charged.
    Ram barked into comms for his shooters
to shift their fire. They were already trying, but half the Marines
were trying to suppress them now and the other half had come up running over the top with
their rifles already pointed at 2nd squad. Hardway's crew got caught out in the open and so
much fire tore across them, they were almost swept off the hull by
the fusillade.
    That's when the Marines advanced in a firing
line, shooting accurately as they came.
    "We're pinned!" Hollis shouted over comms.
None of his men could poke their heads up without getting a
practice round in the helmet. Ram's forward squad was in serious
danger of being overrun.
    *****
    "Lt. Arroyo is already pushing up the
starboard side where your XO, Devlin, over-extended." Lucy Elan
knocked back her scotch like it would all be over soon. Jordo
thought maybe it looked like she was right. From their vantage
point in the tower, even he could see Hardway 's crew was outnumbered and badly
positioned. Even if they fell back now, they'd probably only be
prolonging the inevitable. They were going to get
overrun.
    "Six to one," Bolo said. "Give me six
to one and I'll put Hardway's money in the pot." He was holding money from half the crew on
the ship and when he held up the wad, Lucy's eyes
widened.
    Dana said she'd put money in on that deal,
too, and Lucy laughed. "Six to one? That's crazy."
    "Not if you really think your Marines can
finish off Ram Devlin's squads before air support decides the
battle."
    "Okay. Fine," Lucy said.
" Hardway pays six to one."
Bolo tossed Hardway's pooled
cash on the table and it landed with a thud. The rest of the bridge
officers were in, too. Lucy told them, "It's a pleasure to take
your money."
    Jordo saw the blue stars moving against the
black before anyone else – engine plasma from Holdout and Dirty
rolling in fast in Bitzers. Less than two seconds later, they
ripped past the tower in a blurred streak of guns and engines. A
quarter second later, Paladin and Gusher engaged them.
    "Air support has arrived," Bolo said.
    "They'll have to win superiority first,"
Lucy reminded him. "Lt. Arroyo will have this all wrapped up before
anyone wins the air."
    Jordo was sure neither flight would be
able to lay down effective close air support for either team until
the other fighters were out of play. It was too dangerous. But as
the four, F-151 Bitzers engaged each other over the topside of the
bays, fire from their 140mm auto-cannon rained down on the hull. At
first, Jordo thought he'd have to really chew some ass if his
pilots thought they were going to spray randomly like that into a
bunch of guys they were supposed to be supporting. Then, he saw how
the burning, 140mm dummy shells from the Bitzers were only coming
down on the figures in black exosuits – only on Lucy's Marines. The
ultra low-density, high-frangibility dummy rounds disintegrated on
impact in a shower of sparks, but the burning hailstorm knocked
almost an entire squad of Lucy's marines down to the hull. Not