Stolen Valor

by Kal Spriggs

  “Ah,” I blinked. Right, because someone hacked my suit to try and kill me, and if it was Imperial Intelligence, then they might just kill off the rest of the flight to be sure of getting me.

  We’d come up on a branch in our patrol route and I covered down the side path. I didn’t see any signs of recent use. The tunnels were dank and water dribbled down from the ceiling, here or there, pooling and puddling.

  The path we took wound downward and soon we were wading through murky, dark water. First it went to our knees, and then we were waist deep in it. “What are these tunnels from, anyway?” I asked Jonna in a low voice as we paused for a moment. Osmund had gone a few meters away, checking a rock pile on his implant against the map we’d been given, trying to figure out if a side passage had collapsed entirely or only partially.

  “Some were utility tunnels, some were built for smuggling back before the rise of the Emperor,” Jonna answered. “The Cult of the Dragon built some, too, just before the civil war, to let them move their people unnoticed. There’s older tunnels down here, too, from some alien ruins, but most of those…” she trailed off as Osmund came back.

  “I think the passage was collapsed intentionally,” Osmund held up a discarded magazine from a TBA-2. “Maybe recently.”

  “That side passage goes up towards the spaceport, right?” I asked, pulling up the map on my implant.

  “It does, but it’s not on our patrol route,” Jonna cautioned.

  “It’s not that far off our patrol route,” Osmund answered. “And we’re supposed to look for signs of recent use. I think this qualifies.” He waved the empty ammo drum.

  “That could be from years ago,” Jonna growled. “We could report it when we get back up and they’ll assign another patrol to look into it.”

  “If it’s one of the missing patrols, they could be hurt or in need of help,” Osmund said. “They might have got ambushed or something and dropped the passage to buy some time.”

  Jonna made a face, “We shouldn’t be worried about them, we should be worried about ourselves.”

  “There’s a side passage two hundred meters along that connects up that way,” I pointed out.

  Osmund shot Jonna a look and after a moment, she gave a slight nod, “Fine. We’ll give it a look. But mark my words, this is only going to bring trouble.”

  As we headed in that direction, I tried to tell myself she was wrong.

  ***

  Chapter 8: Sometimes It’s Better To Cut Your Losses

  I consulted my chrono as we circled towards the bypass. The water was deeper in this tunnel, I was wading in water up to my waist and Osmund and Jonna were up to their chests. We were already running a little behind on our patrol. If we ran too late, then we might miss our check in at the lift. I didn’t know what would happen under that circumstance, but I would guess they’d leave us down here until the next patrol.

  “What happens if we run into something time sensitive and we need to call for help?” I asked in a low voice.

  “What like some kind of invasion force or something?” Osmond scoffed.

  “Yeah, exactly,” I had to duck under a low part of the ceiling, my face only a few centimeters above the surface of the water. I really hoped this tunnel wasn’t blocked, or else we’d have to come back this way.

  “There’s no repeaters for signals down here, too much water and the scavengers just steal them anyway,” Osmund answered. “But there’s a hardline connection at the lift. If we really need to call for help, we can do it from there.”

  “This is it,” Jonna snapped, pointing at a low tunnel entrance. There was only about fifteen centimeters of tunnel above the level of water and just looking at it, I realized I’d have to walk hunched over even more, barely able to walk.

  “You sure about this?” She shot me a look. Osmund got his back up straight at that, clearly not happy at his presence being discounted. Then again, what was he going to do about it? We were off our patrol route, if he reported it, he’d probably be questioned on why we had deviated.

  “Yeah, sure,” I flashed a fake smile.

  “You go first, then,” Jonna told me.

  I didn’t argue. Osmund, I noted, didn’t offer to lead the way, instead.

  I had to almost put my face in the water to bend over and fit in the tunnel. The floor, from what I could feel with my boots, was uneven and more than a couple of times I stepped in holes and rolled my ankle. The water was chill and the smell was harshly chemical. I tried not to think about what weird toxins I was probably absorbing into my skin as I waded through it.

  With only the light from my rifle, it was an uncomfortable, nerve-wracking walk. Anything could be waiting for me down this tunnel, and it was with a huge breath of relief that I turned a final bend and the ceiling opened up over me.

  Of course, that relief died as several lights stabbed into my eyes and a cold voice snapped, “Hold it right there.”

  I froze. But behind me, Jonna and Osmund had brought their weapons up. With the mix of light, I could make out five other figures, three ahead of me and two more off to the side. All of them stood on a ledge that kept them up, out of the water. None of them spoke. They had their weapons leveled on us, Jonna and Osmund were aimed back at them. Here I was in the middle, with my rifle aimed up at the ceiling. Great job, bro, Shadow whispered to me.

  They were kids, I saw, or at least, not much older than me. They wore stained black uniforms, just like me. “You’re the missing entrants,” I spoke up after a moment. Shadow fed me their names: Hem, Kenyon, Gell, Argur, and Bones, all from Garnet Flight.

  “You’re all from the same flight,” I looked between them, noting how nervous they appeared. Something clicked in my head, “You’re trying to desert.”

  “We should have killed them while they were in the tunnel, before they could have reacted!” Bones hissed. “I told you we should have killed them!”

  “You couldn’t have been sure of getting us all, not with how the tunnel twisted, and turned, not until we all came out here,” Jonna noted, her voice cold. “Nice little ambush you have,” she nodded at the two off to our side.

  “You could have opened up on us right off,” I spoke up. “But you didn’t. You don’t want to have to kill us. Maybe we can reach a compromise.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” Bones hissed again, “we can’t trust anyone—”

  “Shut up, Bones,” Kenyon snapped. She squinted at me, then at Jonna and Osmund. “I don’t want to have to kill you, but I will.” I took a moment to study her. She was a stocky young woman, with a set expression that told me she wasn’t going to be forced into anything.

  “This tunnel runs to the spaceport,” I said. “You have a straight route, but you’re still here. Either you planned to desert and something went wrong or else you’re waiting on something.” I was careful to keep my rifle pointed at my ceiling as I looked around. Shadow provided me the name of their sixth member, “Vivar went ahead to scout and hasn’t come back?”

  “How does he know—” Bones started.

  “Shut up, they were probably given our identities when they came down here,” Kenyon snapped at him. I could see worry cross her face, though.

  “Desertion is a crime,” Osmund snapped. “You’ll be caught, tried, and executed before you could possibly get off world.”

  “Then we might as well add murder to the charges if that’s the case,” Gell spoke up from the side. He was the one that worried me. Bones was nervous, but I didn’t think he was a killer. Kenyon seemed to be in charge and willing to talk. Gell, though, he was quiet, calm, his finger on the trigger of his TBA-2. He wasn’t going to hesitate to fire, not if he thought we were a danger.

  “Look,” I spoke up, “we’re way off our patrol route—”

  “Which means you were either searching for us or looking for your own escape,” Kenyon interrupted.

  “We saw the collapsed tunnel,” Osmund bit out. “We thought you might be in trouble, maybe you ran into somethi
ng and needed help.”

  “Well, as you can see, we’re fine,” Kenyon gave us a tight smile. “Now just lower your weapons and—”

  “You’ll shoot us down?” Jonna snorted, “I don’t think so.” I could feel her shift stance behind me, her body tensing as she prepared to shoot. “Osmund, you have the ones on the side?”

  “Yeah,” Osmund bit out.

  I had to head that off unless I wanted to end up as a human shield. “Why are you deserting? We’re all volunteers, here, right? You’re all from the same flight, you hate the rest of your flight that much?”

  I could feel Jonna’s frustration behind me, but I saw the five deserters shift slightly. It was Bones who answered, his high-pitched voice wavering a bit. “You’re in Jade Flight, I recognize you, Vars. Got a bit of luck there, eh? But we didn’t get selected for a good flight. You know how many times Garnet Flight has survived Second Screening in the past ten years?”

  I shook my head.

  “Once. One in ten. Our instructors joke about it. It’s a dumping ground for those who are unlucky, injured, or who don’t have connections,” Bones’ face was gaunt. “The past two weeks, half our flight is down with injuries. We haven’t been able to get any food. You know what quick heal does when your body doesn’t have any calories to feed it? It starts eating you from the inside.”

  “You’re a coward,” Osmund sneered.

  “I signed up to serve the Empire, I didn’t sign up to be killed by it for no good reason!” Bones snapped. I saw his hands clench on his rifle so hard that his fingers trembled.

  Kenyon reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. “We didn’t have a choice. If we go into the final phase of Second Screening, we’re just as dead. Vivar’s uncle owns a freighter, he figured if we make it to the spaceport, he might smuggle us out.”

  Maybe he’d have room for me. The thought surprised me in that it didn’t bring a wave of relief. For one thing, I knew just how much security there was at the spaceport. For another… well, the thought of just leaving Jonna and Princess Kiyu behind felt wrenching.

  “Why tell us?” Jonna asked.

  “The two of you,” she bobbed the tip of her rifle between Jonna and I, “have your share of enemies. Everyone’s heard that the Prince has his sights set on Vars, and you… well, we’ve all heard what happened to your father, Hayden.”

  Everyone but me, apparently. I really needed to find out more about that.

  “I’m not leaving,” Jonna snapped. “Drakkus is my home.”

  “Well, it’s not like we have a choice,” Kenyon shrugged. “So now, the only question is if we’re all going to shoot one another or if you care that some of your competition takes itself out of the game, right?”

  “You’re abandoning the rest of your fight,” Osmund grated. “They’ll need anyone they can get for Second Screening.”

  “Half of them are too injured to survive in the first place, and the last three days before we left, we didn’t get any rations. They’re not going to make it to the final phase,” Gell answered. “They’re already dead, they just haven’t died yet.”

  “Alright, everyone,” I said, “how about we all lower our weapons? I don’t think we,” I shrugged my shoulders at my two companions, “get anything out of shooting you. You don’t get anything out of killing us—”

  “Dunno, maybe you have something to eat,” Gell interrupted.

  “—how about we all just lower our weapons and let us see if we can help one another?”

  “Help?” Osmund hissed. “They’re—”

  “Shut it,” Jonna and I both snapped. I lowered my rifle first, even though it wasn’t aimed at anything. Jonna did the same.

  The five other entrants lowered their weapons, one after the other, followed by Osmund. “This is a bad idea, we could be charged with aiding them just for—”

  “Be quiet,” I growled, turning to give him a glare. To his credit, he didn’t back down from my look, but at least he shut his mouth. I turned back to Kenyon, since she seemed to speak for the others. “The sixth one, Vivar, he went to see if he could talk his uncle into smuggling the rest of you out?”

  Kenyon gave me a nod. “He hasn’t come back, yet.”

  “He’s a deserter, he probably abandoned them,” Osmund muttered. Thankfully, it wasn’t loud enough for the others to hear.

  “Do you know about the spaceport security procedures?” I asked.

  A couple of the entrants looked at one another. Bones glanced at Kenyon and then me, “No?”

  “They scan your implants throughout the spaceport,” Jonna sighed. “If you don’t have the right visas uploaded into your implant, they’ll lock an area down and send the red badges.”

  “Vivar should have known about that,” Kenyon told us, “He worked with his uncle before.”

  “Yeah, but he may not have realized that all our implants are logged,” Jonna told her. “If we’re picked up outside of the Institute, other than assigned areas like,” she waved her hand around at the tunnels, “this place, then it flags your implant.”

  Bones swallowed, “You’re saying he was probably arrested.”

  “I’m saying going to the spaceport is a bad idea, unless you have the right codes,” Jonna answered. “But there’s a good chance, yeah, that if he’s not back already, then he was arrested. In which case, he might well have already tried to cut a deal with the red badges and told them where all of you are.”

  It was hard to tell, what with the light coming from the reflected lights from the surface of the water, but all of them looked very nervous.

  The smart thing was to tell them good luck and leave them to their fates. Either Vivar was captured and the rest of them would be shortly or else he’d been killed and they’d all wait down here until they got hungry or desperate enough to venture out and got themselves caught or killed as well. I didn’t owe them anything. They wouldn’t have tried to help me. They were technically willing participants of the military system that had killed my parents. You should walk away, Shadow confirmed in my head.

  But I’m not going to, I answered.

  Shadow chuckled in the back of my head, Yeah, I know. You and Jiden both are a special kind of stupid, but then again, I guess I am, too.

  “How about we help each other,” I said.

  ***

  “This is really, really dumb,” Jonna growled at me as we walked quietly down the tunnel.

  “We have some deniability,” I told her. “We can claim we found the empty magazine and were looking for the missing patrol. If we come across some red badges or another patrol, we should be fine.”

  “We’re helping deserters,” Osmund protested.

  “They could have killed us,” I noted. “Besides, maybe they can help us in return.”

  “What, help us desert?” Osmund scoffed. “I’m here to serve. You have no idea what I went through to get papers to attend the Institute, Vars. I wasn’t handed a pass like you.”

  You have no idea, I thought to myself. Then again, it was probably better that he didn’t.

  “They’ve been down here a few days. They may be able to warn us of threats,” I answered.

  “We’re pushing it close to get back on time as it is, and we’re not going to finish our patrol route,” Osmund bit out. “We should go back and report their presence.”

  “Do you want to be responsible for their deaths?” Jonna asked quietly.

  It was the first time she’d said anything since I’d offered to go look for the missing Vivar. I didn’t look back at her, but I could picture her tight expression.

  Osmund didn’t answer for a long moment. “I guess not. But still, we’re putting ourselves at a lot of risk. Even if the red badges haven’t already caught Vivar, one of the entrants could be an informant. This could be a setup and we’ve just marked ourselves as untrustworthy.”

  I stopped and looked back at him, “You think Imperial Intelligence would do something that convoluted?”

  Jonna
and Osmund both looked at me like I was stupid. “Of course,” they both said at the same time. Jonna was the one who explained, “They do sting operations all the time. Half the smugglers down in these tunnels are probably informants. They’ve run operations for years just to identify all the possible traitors and then arrested them all in one night. No one is above suspicion.”

  “Given how hungry, tired and scared all of them looked, do you really think any of them are informants?” I asked.

  “No way to tell,” Osmund pushed past me and led the way, clearly wanting to just get this done with.

  “He’s right,” Jonna told me as she gestured at me to get moving. I fell in behind Osmund. “Some of their people are in deep cover, total fanatics. Others are just… desperate. One of them might have realized how Second Screening was going and been offered a way out as an informant, then been told to bring up the idea of desertion.”

  “Vivar is the most likely one,” Osmund growled. “He abandoned the others. He might be back at the Institute eating nice meal and getting his paperwork signed on a transfer to another flight, right now.”

  “I thought flights were locked?” We’d just come up on a major branch and the tunnel widened out even more. I wasn’t sure, but it looked like this section of tunnel saw more use. By the map on my implant, we were just under the edge of the spaceport, now.

  “They’re supposed to be, but Imperial Intelligence has special leeway. Or maybe they’ll kill him as soon as he came back. Hard to tell with Intelligence, they want loyalty, so if they feel he’s a backstabber, they might just kill him to be safe,” Osmund said that thoughtfully.

  Messed up society these people live in, Shadow whispered in my mind. I couldn’t argue.

  We kept moving. This tunnel was in fairly good shape, with a higher ceiling. Here and there there were side tunnels, but my implant showed most of them wound off in directions I didn’t want to go.

  Osmund froze ahead of me, “Kill your lights,” he hissed.

  I did so, using my implant to kill the light on my rifle. A moment later I caught a glint of light ahead of us in the tunnel. At first, I was hopeful that it was the missing Vivar, but then I saw several other lights, followed a moment later by a bigger glow.