by J. A. Scorch
"Wait a minute," Teve said. "Before we all rush back home, can we at least discuss our options?"
Mish shook her head as a sigh came out of her mouth. "I thought we had already made a decision."
He nodded his head, glancing from one soldier to the next as he stepped into the middle of the three. "We did. We said 'let's go home and waste a perfect opportunity.'"
Mish lowered her rifle and crossed her arms. "You're wounded, we are low on ammo, the Zeal are crawling all over the place. We'll be lucky to make it out of the city if we leave now. Us going deeper in doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe it doesn't make sense, but finding X does. We came all this way. Why throw away all our efforts? We need the man alive, and quite frankly, his life matters more than any of ours."
"You included?" Harris asked.
"Yes, Specialist." He stepped toward him, beating his hand against his own chest. "I'm willing to do what it takes to get this mission completed."
"Are you saying we're not? Because I can tell you, Sergeant, I always put the mission and my fellow soldiers ahead of my own life."
"Then you understand what I'm asking of you. I wouldn't ask any of you if this wasn't important."
Mish let out a small groan. "Fine. I'm giving you two hours in the wrong direction. After that, we turn back. Agreed?"
"Agreed. Two hours."
She pulled the rifle off her back and inspected the chamber. "This is the last time we try and find X."
"Thank you," he said before turning to Harris. "What about you?"
The specialist glanced from Mish and back to Teve. "I'm in. But after two hours, we go. No matter what."
"Done," Teve said. He turned around to a silent Moreno. "Do I even need to ask?"
The Private shook his head. "No, Sarge. I'm in. There's no way I'm gonna head back to base on my own."
"Okay. Let's go find X before the Zeal come down that ladder."
"I don't think they would fit," Harris said. "At least we've got one small advantage over those bastards."
The thought had never crossed Teve's mind before. It was probably the reason why X could continue to escape the Stiltz in the sewer network with ease.
"I'll take point," Teve said. "Harris. Cover our ass. Two hours on the clock. Let's go." He led the way with his sidearm flashlight pointing ahead as the fire team headed toward the Zeal base. He had no idea what they would find, but something was driving him forward as if the Earth's gravity had been altered. He only hoped two hours would be enough time to find X and escape back home.
Chapter Forty
A rumbling sensation filled Porter's stomach. He couldn't believe what he had agreed to. He made a choice to be Garcia's pilot thinking only of the lives the mission might save. As much as it pained him to consider, Garcia was right about the coming assault. Porter witnessed the Cyclone up close in all its glory. The massive vessel looked like it could hold as many fighters as the MAF had in its entire fleet, and the ship was only one of three the Zeal held at their disposal.
The thought sent his mind back to the seizure of Earth. The three Cyclones had been accompanied by thousands of smaller transport ships. The dropships all smashed down through the planet's atmosphere and attacked Earth's cities with lightning aggression. The divided human armies never stood a chance as the invaders swept across the globe in a matter of weeks.
He shook away the memory as he lined up in the mess hall for a quick meal. After eating, he was to report back to the control room attached to the deck the X90S lived on. Garcia transferred her operation to the room, surrounding herself with only people she trusted. Porter was going to be part of that inner circle, somehow. But he doubted trust was a factor.
He grabbed some re-hydrated slop from the self-serving trays and sat down at the nearest seat he could find. Porter dug into the specially formulated meal as Cannon came over and plonked down opposite him.
"I heard the good news you're going to be flying Garcia's mission."
"That's what they tell me, Captain," he said. "Not sure how that all came to be, but here I am, out of cuffs and working for the commodore." He let his spoon drop into the meal and gave Cannon a forced, half-second smile.
"Come on, Porter. You can't still be upset with me. We've been through too many battles to hate each other now."
"I'm not pissed off at you; I just don't know what to think anymore."
She chuckled.
"What?"
"Don't worry about it. I just appreciate how much you rely on your gut to steer you in the right direction. At least that's my understanding."
"And?"
Cannon glanced away for a moment as she chewed a small bite of food. "What if there is no right direction? You sit there and assume you're doing what's best for the people of Earth and Mars, but what if that possibility doesn't exist? What if all we are doing is trying to survive?"
He let out a long drawn out breath and picked up his spoon. "I should have taken the promotion to captain and let you be Garcia's test pilot. Then you'd be the one sitting here listening to a philosophical speech."
The two shared a laugh. Porter forgot what it was like to joke with Cannon. He forced himself not to think back to their time together, but his feelings for her resurfaced in a flash.
"So, what are you doing now?" he asked. "Any secret plans I need to know about?"
"None, I'm afraid. Garcia is working on her stealth mission while I'm running the planning for the big assault."
"You're kidding?"
"Well, not running so much as putting in my input and expertise so the higher-ups can make informed decisions. And I gotta say, some of them are a bit concerned about Garcia. I'm starting to get the feeling she climbed into that position via a few external influences."
"Of course," Porter said as he leaned back in his seat. "How else do you reach the top?"
"Not through hard work, I'm guessing. Hell, even when we are faced with extermination, we still have assholes trying to get ahead in their careers." She gave him another smile and slammed down a drink of water.
Porter smirked. "No need to be so harsh on yourself, Captain. I'm sure this promotion has come to you without any strings attached."
Cannon nodded. "Kind of like your advancement to test pilot."
Without any desire, Porter leaned forward with a groan and ate the rest of his meal. The runny mess had been the same for the last three years. The Andromeda used to have its food in a rotation, mixing up various types to sustain an interesting menu. As soon as the war hit, the cheap grub came out in full force, taking over every other dish in its path. He figured the move was implemented to either save on resources or to keep the personnel frustrated and angry.
He pushed back his plate at the same time Cannon finished eating and stood to shove the dishes on a conveyor belt for cleaning.
"What are you doing now? She asked.
"Just heading back to Garcia for the next slice of madness. I think I'll be launching sooner than later. You?"
Cannon gave him a familiar smile, one he thought he'd never see again. The two of them found the nearest toilet block and fell into an empty stall. Porter pressed her up against the wall and kissed her neck over and over as she leaned back and grasped his hair. The two pilots moved back into old habits, naturally working off each other's rhythm until they both finished.
They kissed and made out for almost five minutes after. Porter felt something coming from Cannon he had never experienced before today: love. She had never stayed longer than needed, always running away as soon as the deed was done. The prospect of the next few days had changed something within her beliefs. Porter didn't dare say a word and enjoyed being with the woman he had let himself fall for. She was another reason to push for a better tomorrow as he realized why she decided to keep him at a distance the whole time.
The two parted ways, and each went to their required locations. Porter found Garcia alone poring over the flight data from the X90S in the control room.
&nb
sp; "Commodore. Reporting for duty."
"Take a seat, Lieutenant. I'm just finishing up a report on what went wrong with the stealth ship for Command to go over. Now I need you to understand something about this operation: Command is against it."
A scoff came out of his mouth without a second thought. "You don't say?"
Garcia looked up at him and narrowed her eyes. "You don't sound surprised."
"Of course they would be against it," he said, doing what he could to contain the knowledge Cannon afforded him. "They need to be seen as leading the charge against the Zeal with military might and not some experimental plan."
She nodded. "Yes. The people always want to see results first. Nothing gives the public more confidence than an impressive fleet leaving for the front. Which brings me to my next point: we need to keep a tight lid on this operation. The data from the last mission will be slightly altered in our favor. Can I trust you will be okay to allow this?"
"How will it be altered?"
Garcia sighed. "You're a pain in the ass, Porter. You know that, right?"
"Only doing my job, Commodore."
She shook her head and glanced back down to the tablet in front of her. "We will be altering the time stamp to remove the few minutes where the ship's systems shut down. My techs have modified the footage to show you left the area without being shot at. The damage to the ship came from a few stray rounds on your return."
Porter smirked. "Clever. Do you think they will buy it?"
"Not a chance. But that's how Command works. They lie to us; we lie to them. Everyone then goes back to their offices and protests in secret."
"Lies aside," Porter said. "What are we doing to get the X90S operational? I can't have it fail on me again if I'm going to deliver a nuke inside a Cyclone."
"The ship is being worked on as we speak by a team of experts from Mars. And I'm not talking your average field techs, either. We've got specialists from every sector associated with stealth technology. Trust me when I say I've called in every damn favor I had left."
Porter nodded as he stepped around the commodore and eyed off her set up. Spread out over the whole room, Garcia had taken the time to keep her attention on Cannon's progress while running her own sideshow. He started to wonder how she came to be in such a position of authority over generals and the various political powers of Mars.
He realized something: war didn't care for the chain of command. When the people at the top of the pile began to finally understand what was at stake, the mid-range soldiers fighting in the mud had their voices heard.
"What did you want me to do in the meantime?" Porter asked as he studied the fleet's numbers. The MAF had a total number of 5000 ships, 3000 of which were Stalkers. The rest consisted of support ships like transporters, combat freighters, and drop ships should the MAF ever find themselves in a position to take back Earth.
The remaining vessels were the large battle carriers and destroyers. The numbers were nothing compared to the thousands of fighters each Zeal ship potentially held.
"We'll be launching as soon as possible. I need you to coordinate with the pilots."
"What pilots?"
"The ones that will be giving you enough time to deliver the nuke and fly the X90S back to safety."
His eyes went wide. "What? You want me to meet with the people who will be sacrificing themselves for my benefit?"
"Mars and Earth's benefit. Not yours."
"You know what I mean. You can't expect me to look them in the eye and tell them how to die."
"You won't have to look anyone in the eye, I promise, but it's imperative to each mission that you understand you will be commanding the squadrons as they cover your withdrawal."
Porter shook his head at the thought until he realized what had been said. "Wait. What do you mean, each mission?"
Garcia leaned to the side of her chair and rested one elbow on her console desk. "It means exactly what you think it does. We're going to hit the three ships in one go."
Chapter Forty-One
An hour had passed before Teve found any signs of the Zeal base in the sewer. A purple, organic, yet metallic compound covered every surface of the tunnel, slowing down the four soldiers.
"This is disgusting," Mish said. "I'd rather clean out the latrines back at Phoenix with a toothbrush than spend another minute near this stuff."
"Try not to touch it," Teve said. "Who knows what it'll do to you?"
"Turn you into X, I'm guessing," Harris said.
Teve turned back to each member of his fire team and glanced at Moreno. "No comment from you, Private? Nice to know someone on this team isn't a giant baby."
The four shared a small laugh, doing their best to stay quiet. There had been no Zeal patrols or swarms of drones in the last hour. Only the goo, as they were calling it, gave them a reason to pause, glowing of its own accord.
The light on Teve's sidearm was starting to wane and become unnecessary given the self-illumination of the Zeal tech all around them. Despite the humming glow, he kept the flashlight on in case darkness decided to reclaim the tunnel.
A deep rumble echoed up ahead in the narrowing passage, accompanied by a gust of wind.
"What the hell was that?" Moreno asked.
The noise shifted into a guttural growling as if the air, farther along, was trying to escape.
Teve signaled for the fire team to hold as he dropped to one knee, pistol raised.
"This can't be good," Mish said from the rear.
He glanced back and noticed her brows tighten as she gripped her rifle tight.
"Keep alert. If you spot a patrol, we shoot first and fall back." The three soldiers behind Teve all nodded as one.
The growl continued, sounding half-animal and half-machine. Teve stared ahead and squinted down the line with his pistol. The sidearm felt insignificant compared to a high-powered rifle, but his shoulder couldn't take the kind of recoil the weapon generated.
"It's coming closer," Harris said.
"What's coming closer? We don't know what it is," Mish added.
Teve shushed them both. "Quiet down and keep your weapons raised, dammit."
When he turned back to face the tunnel, two angular, purple eyes glowed up ahead in the shadows. "Hold your fire. That could be X."
Harris stepped forward with his scope lined up for a kill shot. "Move back, Sarge."
By the time Teve realized the eyes were too low down to be human, its lids closed and vanished into the void. The growling evaporated into silence. Nothing but the sound of dripping filled the tunnel.
Harris turned to the group. "I think it's gone."
The eyes of a mountain lion leaped out at the specialist. He fired off a few desperate rounds into the air as the animal landed on his chest and shoved him to the ground.
Teve swung around to see the mountain lion, realizing that the big cat was covered in Zeal tech. Purple armored plating protected the animal's weak spots and face, leaving the eyes free to stare out.
Harris held his rifle sideways as a buffer to prevent the creature from biting him with its modified teeth. Sharp, purple razor blade fangs snapped with fury at the specialist's face while Teve lined up his weapon and fired nonstop into the creature's head.
The first few bullets splintered and sparked as the armor absorbed the damage. By the tenth shot, the integrity of the protective layer gave way and left the animal's skin exposed. His eleventh and twelfth rounds entered the lion's skull and sent the savage beast to the ground in a heap.
Harris pushed the dead hybrid off his body and slunk backward and away from the twitching mass, scooping up his rifle in the process. He aimed at the mutant and went to fire a few bullets of his own into its body.
"Stop," Teve said. "That thing is dead. We don't need any more attention down here."
Harris could not take his eyes off the cat. "Yes, Sergeant." He stared at the creature and squinted his eyes.
Teve leaned down to the monster and studied the mutations the
Zeal had performed. For all intents and purposes, the lion appeared to be an armored version of X, as if X were still in the early stages of transformation.
"Why the hell did they do that to an animal?" Mish asked out loud.
"Same reason they are doing it to our people: to turn our world against us. That's what their bases are for. They can't move beyond them, so they are going to transform our world into their own."
Moreno stepped forward and squatted down beside Teve. "Look at this, Sarge." He lifted the lion's front paw with his rifle to reveal three long, razor sharp blades, each with a purple, crimson tinge.
"You're lucky to be alive, Specialist. Anyway, we need to keep moving. Time's ticking away." He walked down the tunnel a few paces and realized no one was following him. "Ah, guys?"
"We can't go any farther, Sarge," Harris said. "There's bound to be more of them. We need more boots to handle this situation. We're way beyond our scope of operation. Going another step would be suicidal."
Teve lowered his head and hastened over to Harris. "I gave you an order, Specialist. Now you either follow it or get the hell off my fire team."
Harris moved to within an inch of Teve's face. "You heard me. We're not moving."
Teve shook his head and maintained eye contact. "I'm getting real tired of your insubordination, Harris."
The specialist held his ground. "You've lost your way, Sergeant. This mission went off the deep end before we even stepped a foot out of the base."
"You're out of line, soldier. Now you either shut up and fall in, or you can report to the brig when we get back for disobeying a direct order." Teve spun around and continued walking down the path. He heard the sound of Harris' rifle being raised.
"Don't move, Sergeant. I am relieving you of your command. You are unfit to lead this fire team."
Teve turned around, his pistol still out. "Is that so? Well, I won't try and stop you, Harris." He tucked the sidearm into his holster. "I can't say the same for Mish back there."
She had her rifle raised in Harris' direction. She stepped forward and past him and showed her intended target. "Sorry. But he's right. Something is going on with you lately. You need to get back to base and rest."
