by Lucas Marcum
Elizabeth nodded and asked, “And the fire?”
The man shrugged and replied, “No idea. There’s a lot of stuff over there. Stores, the police station and City Hall, coupla decent sized office buildings.”
Nodding, Elizabeth thought this over, then replied, “Ok. So the supply depot grounds itself seem secure?”
Major Carson and Chief Yamashita traded a look and nodded, then Yamashita responded, “From casual troublemakers, sure. It’s a military supply depot. We build ‘em sturdy. But…”
“But what?” Elizabeth fixed the man with a stare.
Yamashita shrugged. “Them walls won’t stop a determined crowd, and Hellas City has plenty of troublemakers, ma’am.”
With a nod, Ikaika chimed in, “I agree. If the looting hasn’t started already, it will soon. We need to get up there and make the place look occupied and defended.”
Elizabeth tapped her chin thoughtfully, then responded, “Ok.” Turning to Captain Naga, she asked, “Who do we have?”
Naga answered in her characteristic precise tone, “We have two hundred forty-three members of Task Force Mercy, plus the six enlisted from the Hellas Army Storage Depot.” She paused, then added archly, “Amongst the two hundred forty-nine of us, we’re all combat veterans, but not a single from combat arms. We have six physicians, thirty-two nurses, two dentists, and a veterinarian. We have dozens of pharmacy techs, dental assistants, biomedical maintenance, truck drivers, mechanics, logistics, and equipment specialists.” She sighed and added, “We’re critically short of noncommissioned officers, as well as enlisted medics. Almost everyone is either junior enlisted or a medical service officer.” She handed over a data pad with the names, military specialties, and branch of service neatly tabulated and continued, “We have the rough equivalent of a full Army theater-level support hospital down here…as Task Force Mercy was intended to be.” With a sly smile, she added, “So now we know it works, at least from a personnel standpoint.”
Despite herself, Elizabeth laughed and replied, “Field testing in the most extreme of circumstances!” She turned to Ikaika and asked, “Chief, what do we have stored here? How are we looking for trucks?”
Pulling up his pad, the big petty officer replied, “We got a lot of random stuff. Big end items like trucks—Yes. We got trucks. They’ll be ok for inside the city, but I don’t know about driving in the dust. The atmo seals are OLD and we haven’t checked ‘em in a long time. Plus, we only got three of ‘em. Not enough to get us all back to Huxley Crater.” He checked the list and continued, “We have three CHUs, the new containerized hospital units, still in the factory seal and with full medical loadouts. They were set to go out last week to support the Marines someplace, but they never picked ‘em up.” He scanned the list. “We also got seven tactical field reactors, so electricity won’t be a problem for us.” He gestured at the pad. “There’s a whole bunch of other semi-relevant stuff stored here too, ma’am. Water tanks, portable shelters, commo and network equipment, but those are the big things.”
Elizabeth thought about it for a moment, then shook her head and asked, “Communications?”
Nodding, Ikaika replied, “Once we get upstairs, I can check the relay. It’s old and finicky, but I can probably get it to work, so we can talk to other UEA installations. Failing that, we can probably get Phobos Station.”
“Good. That needs to be a top priority.” Elizabeth looked at her datapad and asked, “What are we missing?”
Captain Naga spoke up, “Weapons. How are we looking for weapons?”
With a frown, the chief replied, “See, that’s tricky. I have about twenty M44s and a dozen pistols in the vault upstairs, but I ain’t got no ammo for ‘em. Just the one energy magazine for every ten weapons per the regs.”
Yamashita laughed and remarked, “Let me guess. Army regs require to store it on another site?”
Shaking his head, Ikaika responded, “You know it. The ammo is stored at the vehicle and weapons maintenance site, about ten clicks north of the city.”
Elizabeth rubbed her face and replied, “M44s, huh? Shit, those are old. My dad used those thirty years ago.” She thought for a moment, then looked at her team and said, “Ok. Here’s the plan. Let’s get upstairs, get the place manned, and get the weapons handed out. They might be empty, but people looking to cause trouble won’t know that. Once we do that, we get a generator up, get comms reestablished with Phobos Station and Huxley Crater, and see if anyone’s picking up the phone over there. Once we do those things, we sit tight and wait for help.” She looked at the small team of soldiers and sailors and asked, “How’s that for a plan?”
With an infectious grin, Ikaika replied, “Beats the shit outta sitting in the dark chewing our nails, Colonel. Let’s do this.”
****
An hour later Elizabeth stood on the hood of a truck in the dark of the supply depot’s motor pool with her hands on her hips and looked over the wall into the dark of Hellas City. She could see occasional police car lights flashing, and several more fires were burning to the north. The few people who were visible were scurrying nervously and not lingering in the streets. She turned slightly, checking that the guards posted in the corners of the block-long complex were visible. The guards stood on piles of pallets stacked up against the wall to give them a platform to see over. Seeing them made her frown worriedly. She sat down on her backside and slid off the hood of the truck.
She looked at Ikaika and asked, “Any of our scouts report back in yet?”
The big man nodded and replied, “Yes. The ones we sent south just got back. They made it to the south lock. Say the main locks are shut tight due to the power loss, but they got out a personnel lock. This stuff,” he gestured at the dark dome overhead, “is from a massive dust storm, one of the worst they’d ever seen.” He paused and frowned. “And I sent Martian natives, so they know dust storms.”
Elizabeth nodded. The Martian storms were serious this far south, and no one went out in them unless it was a life or death situation. After a moment she said, “Ok. So we’re sitting tight.”
With a shrug, Ikaika nodded, “Looks like it.” Hearing footsteps approaching, they turned to see Chief Yamashita and a skinny lieutenant in an Army uniform. Elizabeth vaguely recognized him as one of the information technology officers. He saluted awkwardly.
Yamashita turned and growled, “Knock that shit off. You don’t want to identify her to the bad guys.”
The lieutenant looked nervously at the dark city beyond the walls and replied, “I’m so sorry, ma’am. I didn’t…”
“Don’t sweat it.” Elizabeth replied, trying to keep her amusement from showing. “What do you have, Lieutenant?”
The young officer took a deep breath and replied, “Well, ma’am. I’ve been working on getting our sat relay up and running. I can’t seem to get anything. I can’t get Phobos, I can’t get Huxley Crater, I can’t get Alba Mons, or any of the deep desert repeater stations. I can’t get anything.”
Elizabeth frowned and asked, “Is it our equipment?”
Shaking his head confidently, the young man replied, “No, ma’am. We’re broadcasting. I just don’t know if we’ve got the power to punch through all the crap in the atmosphere.”
“Shit.” Elizabeth caught herself drumming her fingers on the truck fender as she thought. After a moment, she looked at the three men looking back at her and asked, “Recommendations, gentlemen?”
For a moment no one said anything. Yamashita looked thoughtful, and Ikaika scratched his head. Suddenly the lieutenant said, “If we can’t call for help from outside, why not from inside?”
Cocking her head at the young officer, whose nametape read ‘Davis’, Elizabeth motioned for him to continue.
Encouraged, the nervous young man added, “There’s almost fifty thousand people here in Hellas City, and it’s a major rail thoroughfare. There’s gotta be police, fire, local government. Other UEA military passing through, maybe.” He pointed at the antenna system
on top of the two-story depot office and declared, “Give me forty-five minutes, I can make that thing into a local broadcast tower. We can send an encrypted signal out to all UEA units in the area and see if they’ll come help us.”
Elizabeth looked at Yamashita, who shrugged and replied, “If we can’t call out of the city for help, it’s the best we can come up with, Colonel.”
Elizabeth nodded and looked at the IT officer. “Do it. Let me know when it’s online.”
The young officer nodded. “Right away, Colonel.” He turned and hustled off into the dark of the motor pool.
Out of the dark, two more figures emerged and resolved into Captain Naga and Major Carson. The two women looked grim. Karen said, “Ma’am, we got problems.”
Turning to face them, Elizabeth gestured humorlessly around them and replied, “Do tell.”
Shaking her head, the stout woman retorted, “Worse. Our scouts to the north have returned. The hospital’s overflowing. They’ve got patients stacking up on the sidewalks, and there’s looting all along 38th Street to the north. The hospital is smack in the middle of it all. Their security and some cops are holding the looters off, for now, but they can’t hold long.”
“Shit.” Elizabeth thought for a second and replied, “Where are all the cops?”
The two women traded a look, and Captain Naga replied, “Good question. Some of them are at the hospital trying to hold off the crowds, others are out trying to get a handle on the looters. Seems like a lot of them are trying to keep a mob of those red masked guys out of City Hall.”
With a grimace, Elizabeth replied, “Yeah. I had a brush with them before.” She rubbed her head. “What can we do to help the hospital? Could they use more staff?”
With a shrug, Naga responded, “Almost certainly, but what good is more staff when your building is unsecure? Plus, it’s a very small hospital. It would likely be overwhelmed no matter how many people we send.”
Narrowing her eyes, Elizabeth responded, “We’re not letting them drown. Think, people. What can we do to help with what we have here?”
Chief Ikaika, who had been staring off into space, suddenly said, “The containerized hospital units! We can get the CHUs up there, no problem.” The three officers turned and stared at the supply chief, who suddenly looked at them with a gleam in his eyes. “Yeah. This’ll work. We can get the CHUs on the trucks and get them to the hospital. They’ll help a lot, and we got the staff right here.” He pointed at the looming bulk of the containerized hospital unit across the yard.
As one the three women turned to look at the containers, then Elizabeth laughed and replied, “Chief, you’re a lifesaver! Let’s get started!”
The man grunted. “Only one problem. Our forklift is at the bottom of that tunnel, and there ain’t no power to the elevators.”
With a snap of his fingers, Yamashita replied, “That’s too easy, Chief. We got tactical reactors down there. Set one up and power up the elevator. Get the rest of the gennies up and linked together, and we get the forklift up the elevator.”
Ikaika’s face grew thoughtful. “That’d work. Take a few hours to online the reactors, though. I’ll get started.” He turned and disappeared into the gloom.
They heard shouting from the direction of the main gate. Elizabeth turned and looked at the gate, then after a moment, started walking rapidly toward it. As she approached, she could see the two guards they’d posted pointing their rifles down into the dark.
One of them was speaking in a loud voice, “I don’t give a fuck who you are. Without an ID, you ain’t getting in.” There was apparently a response from below, and the sailor with the rifle responded, “Take a hike, fuckface.”
Elizabeth looked at the heavy-duty steel mesh gate and could see several figures out of it in the dim light. She’d turned to go when she heard someone exclaim, “Hey! Look! It’s her! Angelo, look!”
There was more indistinct yelling, then the guard shouted, “I ain’t fucking telling you again! Get the fuck outta here!” He picked up a brick from a pile next to him and cocked his arm back.
Taking a step, she heard more shouting, and then hesitated, listening to the commotion.
There was more shouting, then suddenly, as clear as a bell, she heard the words shouted through the gate, “VALKYRIES NEVER DIE, COLONEL!”
She turned and took several steps toward the gate. Chief Yamashita said with a note of warning in his voice, “Ma’am…You shouldn’t…”
Elizabeth held up a hand to silence him and approached the gate. She held out a hand to one of the sailors now standing at the gate and ordered, “Flashlight.” A flashlight was placed in her hand, and she approached the gate, shining the light through it. She shone the light into the faces of three dirt-covered young men and said in a hard tone, “Who said that?”
One of the young men stepped forward and said in a clear, calm voice, “I did, Colonel.”
She shone the light in his face and ordered, “Step closer.” The young man stepped close to the thick mesh gate and waited impassively. Elizabeth examined his face, feeling that she’d met him before. After a moment, she said, “Who are you?”
The young man said calmly and confidently, “Sergeant Michael Gagarin, First Battalion, Seventeenth Spaceborne.” He smiled slightly and gestured at the two other men, one a stocky Hispanic man, the other a lanky redhead. “These are my buddies, Staff Sergeant Angelo Delgado and Sergeant Paddy McCormick. We met a couple weeks ago at Chesty’s.” He paused and then added, “And again, before that, on Desolation.”
Elizabeth slowly nodded, remembering the young man from the bar. She stepped back, turned off the flashlight, and motioned to the sailor on the wall. “Let them in.”
The sailor nodded and gestured to the sailor on the gate control. The massive gate unlocked, and the three young men walked in. As they did, Elizabeth could see that they were covered head to toe in dust and soot, and that Delgado held his side as he moved. The three men came to a stop in front of her, and then came to ragged attention.
Sergeant Gagarin saluted and said crisply, “First Squad, Alpha Company, First of the Seventeenth, reporting for duty, Colonel.”
Elizabeth returned the salute and replied, “At ease, Spaceborne. Are you fit for duty? You look hurt.” She gestured at the stocky man holding his side.
The man half grinned, then winced in pain and responded, “I got kicked in the ribs a couple of times by those red masked bastards right before they took our wallets at knifepoint.” He winced and moved his hand, then put it back and grinned again. “I’ll be fine as long as you don’t ask me to run, ma’am.”
Elizabeth nodded and then said, “We’re in a tough spot here. We’ll take all the help we can get.” She turned to Yamashita and ordered, “Since these guys are actually combat arms, get them rifles with ammo, and get them on the walls.” She turned back to the three men and said softly, “Glad to have you here, Spaceborne.”
Sergeant Gagarin smiled back and replied, “Glad to be here, Colonel. I owe you a favor anyway.”
Elizabeth turned and walked toward the low office that was being set up as the command post.
The small group of enlisted watched her leave, and then Delgado turned to a nearby sailor. “You guys don’t have any fucking ammunition? Jesus Christ.” He glared at the sailor. “Give me that fucking rifle.”
Another sailor nearby remarked, “We damn near didn’t let you guys in. Next time tell us you’re military.”
Sergeant McCormick replied hotly, “We were trying to, you fuckhead!”
The sailor recoiled and replied, “Ok, sorry! Jesus.” He paused a moment and then asked, “What was that bullshit about Valkyries?”
Gagarin gave the man a hard look, and without a word, climbed up onto the gate and began scanning the darkness.
Delgado replied for him, “Listen, squid. I know you don’t know how big of a dumbass you’re being, but we’re gonna let it go this time.” He paused and regarded the direction Elizabeth had disa
ppeared in, then continued, “Valkyrie Six back there saved Mike’s life on Desolation, and probably another dozen Spaceborne, in an aid station that was being overrun. She killed two of them with her pistol as they tried to storm the place. She’s harder than fucking iron, with the heart of an angel.” He stepped close, leaned right next to the sailor’s face, and continued, “She’s a legend to the Spaceborne, so you’re gonna be respectful, or we’re gonna have a problem.” Staring into the sailor’s face, he quietly asked, “Do we have a problem?”
The sailor nervously moved to the position of parade rest and replied, “Uh…no, Sergeant. No problem.”
With a friendly smile, Delgado leaned back and replied, “Good. Now pick up that empty piece of shit rifle and get to your fucking post.”
The young sailor leapt to assume his post, as Delgado watched with a grim expression on his face, then sighed and muttered, “Some fucking leave. We’d have been better off getting shot at by the Elai.” He turned to Sergeant McCormick, who was standing nearby, and said, “Paddy, why don’t you get to the ops center and see where we’re needed most.” McCormick nodded silently and moved quickly into the darkness.
****
Inside the first floor of the depot building, Elizabeth folded her arms and stared at the paper map spread out over the table in the common area. The map showed Hellas City in detail, with streets, hospitals, fire stations, and police stations marked. There were also symbols indicating the major infrastructure points. Around her stood Major Carson, Captain Naga, and the two Navy chief petty officers. McCormick slipped in and quietly joined them at the table.
Elizabeth listened quietly as Yamashita, tapping the map, said, “So the hospital is here, and the police station here.” He tapped the map again. “This area here…” he circled an area with a red pen, “is all on fire.” He paused and looked up. “Unfortunately, that’s where the Southern Fire Station was.”
