Ascendant (The Royal Marine Space Commandos Book 3) Read online

  Ascendant

  The Royal Marine Space Commandos Book 3

  James Evans

  Jon Evans

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Thank you for Reading

  Also by James Evans and Jon Evans

  About The Authors James Evans

  About The Authors Jon Evans

  Prologue

  Atticus shrugged. “I don’t know, Colour Jenkins, I imagine Lieutenant Warden thought you’d make good use of an Ogre clone, given your combat experience.”

  Colour Sergeant Jenkins muttered something under her breath and Atticus stifled a smile. There wasn’t much he could do; he could hardly haul Warden over the coals because of his assignment of clone body types.

  “We’ll be able to reassign some clones shortly, so if you want to be redeployed into a different model, I’m sure we can do that for you.”

  “Thank you, Sir, much appreciated,” Jenkins replied, the basso voice her clone produced somehow fitted her reputation as a gruff presence.

  “Now, it looks like we’re approaching the Deathless base. Let’s see if we can’t turn this place into something useful, hmm?” Atticus said.

  The base loomed ahead, still huge and impressive despite the devastation caused by Warden and his assault team during the attack on the so-called ‘mothership’. With more Marines being deployed, they now had the bodies to make use of the base and recover more of the potentially useful equipment the Deathless had been forced to abandon. That meant getting to the base with a team to properly catalogue whatever Warden and Marine X hadn’t turned to rubble.

  More importantly, Atticus wanted to garrison the base before the Deathless colonists, who had landed only eight hundred kilometres to the south-west, could re-take the site and settle back in. Warden had offered to lead the group, of course, but Atticus had overruled him and now led the mission himself.

  Lieutenant Warden was now extremely busy with his new task; overseeing clone redeployment, work assignments and logistics. Warden had winced visibly when Atticus had given him the good news but he hadn’t complained; the job had to be done and handling Councillors’ complaints about deploying Marines ahead of colonists or arguing with politicians about what types of clones to grow was just an unfortunate part of it. Atticus couldn’t help grinning at the thought of Warden getting involved in local politics and dealing with the ‘personalities’.

  “And it’ll look good on your resume, Tom,” Atticus had said, “the General likes to see his officers taking on these sorts of responsibilities and while you get stuck in here, I can take A Troop on a nice easy road trip.” Warden hadn’t been keen but they had talked it over and, by the time Atticus had left, the Lieutenant was deeply into the detailed planning.

  Which left Atticus out in the field, doing the job he loved. HQ claimed he had been a Captain for too long, but they respected his lack of interest in promotion. If he had gone much higher in the ranks, he would have been stuck behind a desk for the rest of his career. There just weren’t any large scale wars in this day and age, so nobody above the rank of Captain saw any interesting action at all.

  The troop carrier ground to a halt and bumped him out of his daydream. He went to crack his knuckles then realised it wasn’t going to work with the fingers of his Deathless officer clone. He pulled on his armoured gauntlets and ran a diagnostic check to confirm the power armour was functional.

  Around him, the Marines were piling out of the enormous Deathless troop carrier and deploying across the plain. Colour Sergeant Jenkins was in the van, leading a Section forward at double-time to secure the area and take control of the remains of the gatehouse.

  Behind the Marines, the civilians pulled up, their rovers hauling sleds to take back to Fort Widley anything of value that wasn’t required to get the base up and running.

  sent Jenkins.

  Atticus checked his rifle, suddenly wary.

  sent Jenkins then a moment later,

  Atticus paused, watching the Marines fan out as Jenkins and her team, about two hundred metres ahead, sprinted for cover.

  He turned to the civilians and waved at them, contacting their lead vehicle by HUD.

 

  He found Sergeant Millar.

  “Get Section 3 back there in the APC to babysit the civilians, in case there are any Deathless out here. I don’t want an ambush.”

  Then he gathered up Section 2 and moved out with them, sprinting to catch up with Jenkins.

  Atticus dove for cover as the head of the Marine next to him disintegrated under the impact of a railgun projectile.

  “Railgun,” he bellowed, and around him, the Marines sought cover.

  “Smoke out,” he said, grabbing a grenade from his webbing and lobbing it forward. A cloud of concealing smoke spewed from the grenade, growing quickly as more grenades were thrown.

  “Lance Corporal Mills, get me drone footage, I want to know where that sniper is,” Atticus yelled as an enfilade clattered across the rocks they were sheltering behind.

  Another railgun round boomed through the morning air, shattering a boulder and exposing the Marine who had taken shelter behind it. The trooper sprang forward, rifle returning fire as he bolted for cover. He almost made it but another round took him in the shoulder, spinning him around and separating his arm in a shower of blood.

  “Bollocks to this, these rocks aren’t as tough as they look. Jenkins, I need covering fire,” he shouted, “keep moving.”

  sent Atticus,

 

 

  Sergeant Mills responded. The air was filled with fire from the Marines around Atticus, and then the cannon on the APC opened up too, rounds sparking off the foamcrete of the walls.

  “Drone’s up, Sir,” shouted Mills.

  Atticus flipped to the drone’s viewpoint, watching as the rounds suppressed the Deathless bastards. Time to move in three, two… one.

  He sprinted out from behind the rock, rifle slung over his back as he wasn’t planning to use it. Four hundred metres. Four hundred metres and the enemy had at least one railgun. If they kept their heads down, he might make it.

  No such luck, he thought, as his leg went out from under him. Bugger. Damage reports flashed across his HUD, but he barely had time to register them as he crashed to the deck, throwing his arms out in front of him. He turned the dive into a forward roll and came up running, or at least stumbling quickly.

  “You alright there, Sir?” Jenkins asked.

  “Just a scratch,” Atticus replied jovially through gritted teeth, “but I wouldn’t m
ind if someone could get those buggers to keep their heads down.” He ran on, zig-zagging toward the wall.

  “Roger that, Sir. Come on you lot; who wants to live forever?” Jenkins roared, rising to her feet and pounding after the Captain. The enormous power armoured bulk of her Ogre shook the ground as she sprinted forward, the shotgun in her hand pointed forward like a pistol. She fired at the top of the wall, where the enemy had to be, but the range was huge. The Deathless up there weren’t immediately cowed and they returned a barrage of fire.

  At two hundred metres, Atticus ordered an emergency cocktail of painkillers and stimulants from the suit’s casualty support system. He put on a burst of speed as the pain lessened but the warning symbols were now blinking angrily in his HUD. He made it to a large rock and slid into cover, panting into his helmet for a few moments before righting himself.

  The stimulants had kicked in now and he surged back to his feet, ignoring the alarms. Bullets ricocheted from the rock as he broke cover, sprinting forward as fire from his own team roared overhead. One hundred metres to go.

  Atticus pulled a grapnel from his webbing as he ran and hooked the line to his harness as he drew closer to the wall. He switched direction again then took the shot as he fell under the shadow of the great wall. The grapnel looped over one of the foamcrete spikes that thrust out from the top of the wall and Atticus was pulled into the air by the winch even as he leapt at the wall.

  He rose rapidly as the line was winched in. He pulled a flashbang from his webbing and lobbed it over the wall. It detonated as he neared the top of the wall. Then he dragged himself over the lip of the wall onto the parapet and unclipped from the line to free himself. As the grapnel swung free, Atticus unslung his rifle, shouldered it and fanned to the left.

  Clear.

  He turned right, rifle at the ready.

  Contact.

  Three rounds into the torso of a Deathless trooper still reeling from the grenade. Two more in the head of his mate.

  Not his target though. He heard the railgun spit its lethal projectile again and wondered if he had lost another Marine to the brutal discharge. Fuck.

  Where was the sniper? The bastard had to be here somewhere. Atticus pressed forward, his weapon kicking against his shoulder as he cut a bloody swathe through the Deathless troops.

  Then he saw a flash from the roof of one of the buildings near the wall and heard the tell-tale sound of a railgun. He emptied his magazine toward the building and lobbed another grenade for good measure. He jogged back a few paces, swapped in a new magazine and slung his rifle. Then he turned to face the building, gritted his teeth and took a running jump.

  Even as the power armour pushed him further than he could ever have jumped unaided, he knew he wasn’t going to make it.

  He wrapped his arms around his head and crashed through a window on a lower storey, rolling across the floor in a shower of glass and curses. Atticus staggered to his feet, shook himself free of the remains of the window then unslung his rifle and made for a staircase. The death knell of the railgun sang out again, and he yelled in frustration, taking the stairs four at a time.

  The painkillers weren’t doing much to suppress the punishment he was putting his leg through anymore and it burned like a red-hot poker. Well, like a bullet wound really, and he’d had lots of those. Never a red-hot poker, at least not to date, but it would surely be similar, wouldn’t it?

  The door to the roof was propped open, a sensible precaution if you wanted to get easily off the roof.

  But not too smart if you’re sniping at my Marines you bastard, thought Atticus. He charged out onto the roof and ducked almost immediately as some cocky bugger tried to stab him with a glowing knife. Bloody hell, who gave these kids knives?

  Atticus left the Deathless trooper with three ugly holes in his chest and throat, gurgling his last. The railgun fired again, revealing the sniper’s location and Atticus crossed the roof as quickly as he could, one eye watching for any other jokers trying to stick things in his face.

  He moved between two ventilation units and went left. The roof was clear, all along the wall. He swung quickly the other way. and saw the sniper was crouched near the wall.

  But he wasn’t aiming out over the wall, he was bringing his weapon to bear.

  Atticus snarled and leapt. His rifle spat fire. The railgun boomed.

  “Colour Jenkins, how goes it?” Atticus asked.

  She crouched down, her power armoured bulk casting a welcome shadow over him. Reaching out, she helped him remove his helmet. There was blood around his mouth and his face was creased with pain.

  “They retreated, Sir. The lasses and lads gave them a good seeing-to and they backed off. We lost a few, though, even after you put the railgun out of action. These ones are putting up a better fight than the others. They’re more cunning, more resilient,” Jenkins said, offering him a canteen. He shook his head and spat blood onto the roof.

  “Maybe more experienced,” suggested Atticus, “where did they go?”

  Jenkins shrugged, the gesture incongruous in the huge Ogre clone. “Not sure, Sir, they legged it to a dropship and took off before we could catch up and put it out of action.”

  “A dropship? They must be from the ship Warden scuttled. They only captured three of their dropships, we thought the fourth had gone down with the ship.”

  “Looks like it survived, Sir. And I think they’ve been stripping the base. Not just today either, lots of stuff is conspicuous by its absence. They must have their own Fort Widley somewhere,” Jenkins said.

  Atticus nodded or at least tried to.

  “You look a bit peaky, Sir, if you don’t mind me saying. Not that it’s easy to tell with these Rupert clones,” Jenkins said with a grin that didn’t really hide her concern, “they all look the same to me.”

  “Har de har har, Colour Jenkins,” said Atticus, blood dribbling down his chin. He tried to wipe it away but his arm wasn’t working properly. “I do feel a little under the weather. I think I’ll just lie here for a bit and get my second wind.”

  “Pretty sure you’re missing a major chunk of your lung, Sir. I don’t think you’ll be getting your second wind any time soon.”

  “Figure of speech, Jenkins,” he whispered, “figure of speech.”

  “Sorry, Sir. Any preference when we redeploy you?”

  “Marine standard, please, and tell them you can go up to HMS Albion and have your pick too,” Atticus said, voice almost inaudible as he coughed and spat out more blood.

  Jenkins shook her head, “Actually, Sir, I think I’ll stick with this one for a while. It has its advantages and it looks like we aren’t done with the Deathless on New Bristol yet.” He nodded.

  “No, Colour Sergeant. I have a nagging feeling that that dropship is going to be a thorn in our side…” he coughed once more and his head lolled to one side.

  Jenkins sighed. It wasn’t the clone that made the Captain tough. Atticus had the record for the most deaths of any serving officer in the Royal Marine Space Commandos. Not because he was bad at it, far from it, but because he led from the front and didn’t ask his Marines to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself. She reached out and closed his alien-seeming eyes, whispered a short ‘Fuck you’ to the Deathless and stood up.

  The base needed tidying up and the Captain wouldn’t thank her when he was redeployed if they had stood around all day just wailing and whining. She walked over to the side of the roof and bellowed down at the troop, “Right, you lot. The Captain’s dead!”

  “Again?” some joker remarked.

  “Yes, again, and just for that you can detail all the Deathless bodies and gather them up to be taken back to Fort Widley for recycling. I want this place checked for boobytraps before we let the civilians move in to requisition equipment and supplies. Load anything the colonists need and we don’t onto the transports to go back to Fort Widley,” said Jenkins.

  “Are we falling back, Colour?” someone asked.

  “No, we
’re going to turn this mess into a forward operating base,” Jenkins said, “and I want it operational before the Deathless come back.” She paused, looking over her troops. “Get ready, ladies and gents. When the Captain is back on his feet, we’re going to war.”

  1

  “Is that another new clone, Edward?” said General Bonneville, leaning close to peer at the image of Atticus.

  “Yes, Sir, fresh and clean.”

  “What happened to the old one?”

  “Railgun round to the abdomen, Sir, bled out before there was a chance to receive medical attention.”

  “Nasty. Was it at that Deathless colony?”

  “No, Sir. We have that under surveillance but the colonists appear to be civilians and we haven’t approached them yet. They’re too far away to get there easily on the ground and we don’t know what their anti-air capabilities are like yet, so we’ve not tried dropships for scouting. This was at the military outpost the Deathless had set up while we were there foraging for supplies. Unfortunately, so were they.”

  “The colonists?” Bonneville asked, clearly confused.

  “No, Sir. We think these were some of the original Deathless troopers from the initial invasion. Warden captured three dropships when he destroyed their capital ship but the fourth was assumed to have gone down with the ship. It seems some Deathless troopers got off the ship and have been in hiding ever since. They used the dropship to retreat from the base, so we’re pretty sure that’s the scenario.”

  “I see. So you have one colony town that needs to be kept in check and a roving band of Deathless you need to find.”