Uncommon Loyalty

by Toby Neighbors

  “The kind where I let my guard down when I shouldn’t have. It won’t happen again, Sarge.”

  “We can take it up with the captain if you want?” Tveit suggested.

  “No,” Nick said. “I prefer to face things head on.”

  “Like a bull,” Ember said. “How completely surprising.”

  “It’s probably better all around,” Gunny Tveit said. “But next time, you don’t go anywhere alone. That’s an order.”

  “Yes, Sarge,” Nick said.

  “Well, there is a bit of good news,” Kal said. “Our girl here won first place in the shoot-out.”

  Nick turned to Ember. “You won?”

  “She sure did. Who knew she was such a great shot?” Kal exclaimed. “You should have seen the looks on the faces of those goons from Thirteen. She blew them all away.”

  “Wow, Em, I wish I could have seen it,” Nick said.

  “Me too,” she said.

  Nick caught a note of sadness in her voice. He didn’t like hearing it, but he couldn’t see what alternative he had. Donny had pushed him past the limit of human endurance, he had even threatened Ember. Nick couldn’t stand by and let that happen.

  Back at the common room, Nick got himself a shake; the protein, amino acids, and energy matrix helped clear the last of the mental fog left by the narcotic.

  “Hey, buddy,” Ty said. “Glad to see you on your feet again.”

  “How’s the arm?” Jules asked.

  “Good as new. What’s going on here?”

  The room was filled with marines in armor. The infantry had a pared-down version of the Recon battle armor. Members of Dragon Team Thirteen were huddled in their corner, and Nick saw Donny looking at him. None of the man’s spitefulness was gone, and Nick felt his own anger heating up.

  “Dragon Team Four is prepping for insertion,” Gunny Tveit said. “They’ll launch as soon as we hit orbit. Depending on what they find, we could be next.’

  “Or we could just be stuck here for days, waiting to find out what’s going on,” Jules said.

  “Only the officers are privy to the intel coming up from planetside,” Gunny Tveit said. “There’s nothing we can do about that.”

  “Why can’t humans be officers in the PMC?” Kal asked. “We’re the ones putting our lives on the line.”

  “The Proxy pay the bills, they get the final say. We’re just the grunts on the ground,” Tveit said. “Better get used to it, Phillips.”

  A few hours later, DT4 launched. An hour after that, Captain Dex’Orr called the other Recon teams into the Ready Room. It was crowded, but everyone was anxious for news.

  “There are clear signs of a struggle at the mining site,” Dex’Orr said. “But no bodies. Not in the facility nor in the mine itself.”

  “Which means they took prisoners,” Gunny Tveit said.

  “Or they killed and devoured everyone,” Donny Calloway said with a smirk.

  “That is what you are going to find out,” Captain Dex’Orr said. “Dragon Team Thirteen will join Team Four on the ground to carry out a search of the surrounding hives. Dragon Team Seven will provide overwatch and help if necessary. Team Seven, report to the technicians’ workroom for adjustments to your armor. Team Thirteen, gear up for close combat.”

  Gunny Tveit led the way out of the small room where their arms and ammunition were kept. At the workshop, their armor was rigged for atmospheric flight. As soon as their armor was ready, and each of them had the appropriate weapons for aerial combat, they met with Captain Dex’Orr again.

  “You will enter the atmosphere with Team Thirteen,” he explained. “But your team will exit at six thousand meters. You will parachute into this row of spires.”

  He brought up a hologram of the planet. Nick could see the mining facility, which consisted of a half-dozen buildings. The spires around the facility looked to be several hundred meters tall and made of crumbling rock.

  “Will they hold us, sir?” Ty asked. “They don’t look too stable.”

  “They should,” Dex’Orr said. “Our reports are that the spires around the mining facility are secure. Once you are in place, you’ll be able to provide assistance as needed. Get in place, cut your chutes, and bring your weapons to bear.”

  “And if we have to go down to help the others?” Nick asked.

  “You’ll have to use your reserve chutes in that case,” Dex’Orr said.

  “From four hundred meters?” Jules asked. “Is that safe?”

  “It’s not ideal, so let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” the alien said. “Check your chutes and report to the shuttle. It’s refueling in the docking bay now.”

  “Roger that,” Gunny Tveit said. “You heard the man, let’s move with a purpose, people. Everyone, check your gear. I want telescoping sniper muskets and short-range eliminators. No big guns or cannons. We go in light and fast.”

  Soon Dragon Team Seven joined Team Thirteen onboard the shuttle. There wasn’t much room on the small craft, and the two groups didn’t mingle. Nick caught Ariel Summers’s eye at one point. She looked focused but nodded to him.

  “DT7, this is control,” a mechanized voiced that Nick recognized as coming from a universal translator came in over their helmet com-links. “Be advised, ground radar had thirty-knot winds, I repeat, ground radar is reporting thirty-knot winds and shifting wind direction.”

  “The wind bounces through those spires,” Gunny Tveit said. “Give yourself plenty to space to make your landing.”

  “And if we miss?” Jules asked.

  “Then rally at the base of the spire nearest to the mining complex,” Tveit said. “They may be scalable, we’ll have to see. Just remember to stay flexible. Things rarely go right on a mission. Don’t get discouraged if you miss the primary landing site. Just get down safely, and we’ll take it from there.”

  “Roger that,” Kal said.

  “Dragon Team Seven,” Donny Calloway said with a sneer. “Looks like they’re letting the kiddies on this ride. You’re going in kind of light, aren’t you? What’s wrong, they don’t let you carry real ordnance yet?”

  “Can the chatter, Calloway,” DT13’s staff sergeant said. “Don’t cause more trouble.”

  “Don’t worry, Staff Sergeant,” Goreman said, holding his assault rifle in a provocative pose. “We’ll teach the newbies how to get it on.”

  “That’s right,” Hicks said with a sneer. “We wouldn’t want them to wet their pants.”

  “What a bunch of idiots,” Jules said over the team com-link.

  “Just ignore them,” Ember said. “I thought we graduated high school already.”

  “They’re too dumb to graduate,” Ty said. “I’ve heard better trash talk from computers.”

  The shuttle left the interstellar’s gravity well suddenly, and Nick felt himself lift up against the straps of this jump seat. They were all in safety harnesses, and the shuttle didn’t dwell long in orbit. They went from artificial gravity to zero gravity and finally to planetary gravity in a matter of minutes.

  “Man, that was weird,” Kal said. “Kind of made me queasy.”

  “Don’t get sick,” Nick said. “Those idiots would never let you live it down.”

  The shuttle bounced through the planet’s atmosphere before finally settling down and flying smoothly. The marines in the cargo space were in full armor, so there was no reason not to open the rear hatch and let the compartment pressurize before reaching the jump altitude.

  “Dragon Teams, secure all gear,” the pilot said over the command channel of their com-links. “Cabin pressure initiation in five, four, three, two...”

  Nick held onto the straps of his harness. As soon as the rear hatch unsealed the air in the shuttle was sucked out in a whoosh that would have taken anything not secured. Nick missed having a rifle to hold onto. His armor held the telescoping sniper rifle to his chest plate with electromagnets, and he had ten magazines of the small cobalt rounds the compact weapon fired in loops around his waist. He al
so had his pistol, but he couldn’t draw the weapon and hold it while they flew down to the planet, and he wasn’t even sure having it at hand would give him any sense of security in the first place.

  “Hey, Gunny?” Kal asked. “If the locals are like termites, is there any chance they fly?”

  “Anything’s possible,” Tveit said.

  “Dragon Team Seven,” the pilot announced, “We are approaching jump altitude. Stand by for egress orders.”

  “Alright, unstrap those harnesses and get ready to move, people,” Gunny Tveit ordered. “Be prepared for wind gusts and be careful.”

  “Yes, Sergeant,” the team said in unison.

  “Hey, Nichols, would you like to leave your girlfriend with us?” Donny Calloway asked. “We’ll take real good care of her while you’re gone.”

  “I hope he dies,” Kal said.

  “I wouldn’t mind helping him do it,” Jules said.

  “Just ignore him,” Ember said. “He’s a coward.”

  Nick looked over his shoulder at Calloway. “She said she would, but you look like a boring ride. See you on the ground, Calloway.”

  The light turned green, and Gunny Tveit shouted for them to go. Nick was the first one off the shuttle and into Uni Five’s atmosphere. He dove out of the shuttle and shot toward the ground like a rocket.

  Chapter 25

  Nick had grown used to free falling. He could control his descent and even use his body to change his trajectory. But he had never jumped in gusting winds. If it was thirty knots on the deck, it had to be fifty in the air, and Nick felt like a leaf in a hurricane. Every time he controlled his tumble and got his body stretched out and somewhat stable, a gust of wind flipped him and sent him spinning out of control. It was a constant battle to focus on his designated landing site, which was like looking at the tip of a sword a thousand meters below him.

  “This is crazy!” Kal shouted.

  “Stay focused,” Gunny Tveit said, her voice strained over the com-link.

  Nick kept a close eye on his altitude. He wanted to open his chute at a thousand meters, but hitting the top of the spire in the gusting wind would be extremely difficult. If he could get closer, he might have better luck, or he might not have time to slow his descent enough to avoid injury. If his chute failed, he might not even have time to deploy his emergency backup chute.

  His helmet beeped at fifteen hundred meters. Nick had just enough time to reach up, grab the chute release handle, and give it a tug. The sudden pressure of gravity was a feeling he’d grown accustomed to over the past two weeks of training on Delphi Brown. But with the craggy spires rising up below him, Nick felt an uneasiness he hadn’t expected. It was like they were dropping into a field of blades and there seemed to be no logic to it.

  Nick was looking for his specific landing site. The heads-up display on his helmet showed the number the spires directly below him. His designated spot was lit with a fluorescent yellow, and he began adjusting his trajectory toward the narrow mountaintop. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew Nick sideways and actually lifted him up several meters, then left him swinging like a pendulum below the chute.

  “This wind is crazy,” Nick declared.

  “Watch your landing,” Gunny Tveit ordered. “Don’t try to be fancy. Get on the ground and cut your chute.”

  Nick was less than five hundred meters above his landing site, and nearly that far off course. He knew under the right circumstances he could adjust his trajectory and probably make it back to the designated spire, but in the uncertain atmospheric conditions on Uni Five, he decided to land on a narrow plateau that was almost directly below him.

  Another gust of wind rocked him but didn’t blow him completely off course. He was almost to the ground and had just flared his chute, when a gust blew him several meters back up and sent him flying toward the edge of the plateau. Everything happened so quickly that he had no time to consider his options. As soon as the gust ended, Nick cut the lines to his parachute and dropped to the ground. He hit, fell to the ground, and rolled. The landing hurt, but Nick was pleased that he didn’t injure himself. He got to his knees and pushed off to rise to his feet, which sent a stab of pain up his arm. The Proxy physician had warned Nick there would be pain, but he wasn’t prepared for the severity of it. Fortunately, the wave of pain passed and he could still bend his arm and use his hand.

  “I’m out of position, but safe on the ground,” Nick said, looking up.

  “Roger that, Nichols,” Gunny Tveit said.

  “Nick, you’re in my spot,” Ember said.

  “Careful on the landing,” Nick said. “The crosswinds are harsh.”

  “I missed my landing,” Ty said, his voice tight. “I’m working toward a different spire.”

  “I’m off track too,” Jules said.

  Nick watched Ty shoot past him. He seemed to be moving too fast, but there was nothing either of them could do about it. He dropped beneath the tops of the spires and flew into the side of a craggy finger of rock. The big Recon specialist cut his chute free using the safety release, then clung to the side of the spire. Nick wasn’t sure what the spires were made of. It looked like rock, but it was softer and less solid. It reminded Nick of dried mud, crumbling beneath his feet. A virtual avalanche dropped beneath Ty, but he was able to find a small shelf and hold on.

  “I’m down safe,” Ty said.

  “Landing now,” Jules said. Nick peered over the edge of the plateau and saw Jules landing safely on the ground. She flared her chute and stayed on her feet. It was hard to tell for certain, but it looked like she was a few hundred meters from the mining complex.

  “I’m down!” Kal proclaimed. “And in the right landing zone. I don’t know what the rest of you were complaining about it.”

  Ember touched down on the far side of the plateau from Ember, but as soon as her feet hit the ground, a gust of wind yanked her sideways. The parachute was caught in the wind and dragging her toward the edge of the plateau.

  “Cut your line!” Nick shouted.

  “I’m down,” Gunny Tveit said. “Gracie, report!”

  Nick was already sprinting to help her, but he knew if she didn’t release her chute, she would be pulled off the plateau. His legs felt like rubber, and he cursed his slowness. It was like a bad dream, watching someone he cared for in trouble and not being able to reach them in time.

  Suddenly, Ember’s chute fluttered away. Nick’s heart soared with hope. There were dust and debris kicked up as Ember was dragged across the plateau. Nick kept running, hoping to see her, but as the dust settled Ember was nowhere in sight.

  “Em!” Nick shouted.

  “Nick! Help me.”

  Ember’s voice was strained. Nick dashed to the edge of the plateau and looked down. Ember was clinging desperately to a ledge two meters down from the top, her feet dangling in midair beneath her where the spire curved inward.

  “Hold on,” Nick said as he tore the emergency parachute from his pack. He used his karambit to cut the paracord lines. There wasn’t enough for the proper climbing protocol. Nick simply wrapped the cord around his hands and dropped the other end toward his friend.

  “Can you reach the line?” Nick said.

  “Got it,” Ember said.

  Immediately there was weight that threatened to pull Nick off the ledge. He fell back onto his butt, digging his heels into the ground and pulling hard.

  “It’s working,” Ember said, the relief in her voice urging Nick on. He slid one hand past the other and pulled. The paracord was digging into the soft edge of the plateau, making the rescue even more difficult. But nothing else mattered at that moment. He kept pulling the cord, over and over until he saw Ember slap a hand onto the top of the ledge. Nick held the paracord with one hand, with the other he took hold of Ember’s wrist.

  “I’ve got you!” he declared.

  “You got her, Nick?” Kal asked.

  “Yes!” Nick said through clenched teeth as he pulled Ember’s upper body onto the ledge.
They both lay there for a minute, breathing hard. Ember threw one leg onto the ledge and rolled over.

  “Private... Gracie... down... safe,” she said.

  “Outstanding,” Ty declared.

  “I guess you’re kind of glad Nick landed in your spot now,” Jules teased.

  “Focus, people!” Gunny Tveit declared. “This is combat, not a training mission. Tell me what you see.”

  “I’ve got the mining facility in sight,” Ty said. “Securing my position now.”

  “Ty, you should climb down and join Jules,” Kal said. “You’re a sitting duck on that ledge.”

  “He’s right,” Gunny Tveit said. “Move down if you can, Lonzo. Nichols, what’s your situation?”

  “Gracie and I are on her landing site,” Nick said. We have a view of the shuttle touching down, and the mining complex. No movement.”

  “Alright, people, we know the natives are here. They’re probably watching us, so keep your head on a swivel,” Gunny Tveit ordered, before switching over to the command channel of her com-link. “Shuttle is clear. No sign of the enemy.”

  “Roger that DT7. Thirteen, you are good to go.”

  Nick watched as Dragon Team Thirteen jogged out of the back of the shuttle and moved toward the mining complex.

  “Dragonfly One is dusting off,” the pilot announced.

  The shuttle rose up smoothly into the air, lurched a little as a gust of wind rocked the ship, then accelerated away from the mining camp. Everything was suddenly quiet.

  Nick pulled the telescoping sniper musket from its place on his chest. The weapon was like a large pistol. The barrel was only as long as his hand until he extended the telescoping pieces, which extended the barrel over a meter in length. The buttstock had to be unfolded and locked together. Once the weapon was activated, Nick’s HUD synced with the weapon and allowed him to focus in on small details nearly two thousand meters away.

  He and Ember stretched out on their stomachs and used the edge of the plateau to support the barrels of their weapons. Nick could see each individual of Dragon Team Thirteen clearly, and when he swung the weapon toward the mining complex, he could even see into the windows.