Reclaim: Books 1-3

by J. A. Scorch

  Teve intervened. "Whoa, guys. Come on. It's been a long day and night. Let's just have some silence and get through this."

  Without another word, Mish sat back down and kept her eyes locked on Sutton. The lieutenant smiled back at her. The man would probably try and write her up when they reached the UEF base. It didn't matter to a jerk like Sutton that he would have been dead in the space of an hour if they hadn't found him.

  The storm thundered in from above and shook the fragile building to its core. Torrential rains followed suit and water found its way into every crack and hole in what was left of the roof. The little back area stayed mostly dry with only the opposite end away from them being subjected to the wet.

  Teve closed his eyes and absorbed the sound of the rain pelting down on the roof above as his mind drifted away to a half slumber.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Porter woke to the sound of rain filling the night air. Huddled inside his thermal sleeping bag under a canvas roof, he and every other MAF pilot were alert and concerned about the severe weather conditions. The pending assault would no doubt be delayed if the storm locked in. Muttering to himself, Porter could only think of Teve and how this would set him back more.

  "I'd like to see the look on Miller's face right about now," Clay said after standing from his lower level of the bunk. "The general can't catch a break."

  "None of us can," Porter said. "This storm had better pass by in a hurry. I need to go out there sooner than later."

  Clay slapped Porter on the arm. "I wouldn't worry. This won't stop Command from sending us out there."

  "You're kidding?"

  The lieutenant shook his head. "Not from what the others have told me. Apparently, shit weather only encourages the brass. Guess the UEF like seeing MAF pilots fucking up as much as the next idiot down here."

  Without thinking, Porter buried his face in his hands as he closed his eyes for a moment. When he lifted his head back up, he had to suppress the rage building up inside. "Fine by me. I need to find Teve."

  "Good luck with that," Clay said as he played with one of the UEF's e-slates. "Says here you're flying co-pilot with me."

  Porter's eyes lit up. "That's good, right? You can let me search for him. We can still support the attack and—"

  Clay cut him off with the shake of his head. "I don't think so. After our last little visit into the city, I'm not risking shit on this sortie."

  "What?" Porter asked as he swiveled around and slid down to the concrete. "You have to. It's the only way I'll find my brother."

  "No," Clay said again. "I won't let you risk more lives just to suit your own. Everyone out there is someone's sibling. I'm not going to increase their chances of dying so you can find him. He's probably dead, anyway."

  "He can't be," Porter said. He wanted to tell Clay that he could sense Teve getting closer, that he could just about find him without using his eyes. It was the same feeling he got when he was inside the Zeal carriers close to a ship's Orb. Whatever it was putting Teve into his mind each time he was surrounded by the alien technology had lingered inside Porter. Now that he was closer than ever to finding his brother, the connection was growing stronger.

  "You don't know for sure if he's alive or not. You need to start accepting the fact that he's probably dead beside the hundreds of other pilots and soldiers out there."

  Porter couldn't argue with Clay anymore. The man would never believe him. Plus, he couldn't risk being taken off the mission. Even as a co-pilot he could still execute his plan without much hassle.

  "You're right, Lieutenant. I'm too close to this. I've lost sight."

  Clay nodded. "Sorry to speak like that to you, Captain, but you haven't been thinking clearly since you got here. I mean, I get it. This place is something else." Clay stared out at the half visible city. The storm had swallowed it whole. An almost horizontal blast of rain was battering the remains of Atlanta into submission. Human or Zeal, the weather was the real power at that moment.

  "Now, let's get out of this damn shower before our crappy shelter falls apart." They each rolled up their sleeping bags, leaving the waterproof layer on the outside. Porter then followed Clay toward the stable structure of the UEF base. The mess hall was the only place the MAF pilots could utilize until the poor weather passed.

  Chatter filled the room as one person after the next complained about the pending mission and the dangers the storm would place upon their birds. Clay wasn't wrong. Command would still expect them to fly, no matter what.

  Porter tried to work out how they wouldn't lose several ships to the harrowing winds alone as he felt the storm's energy pushing hard against the building. The UEF base was on the outer part of the weather and was only facing half the brunt of the wind and rain.

  "Look at it," Clay said as he stood with arms crossed next to Porter. "How do they expect us to fly into that? It's like staring into the gates of hell."

  The black clouds eradicated the light and battered what was left of the buildings. All anyone gazing into the rising thunder could hope for was that the storm faded away by the time sunrise came.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  A few hours passed by before Teve woke up. Mish stood over him, staring down from above, gazing into his soul with her focused eyes. He could see more pain hiding behind a tough outer shell. The voices had to be back, which could only mean one thing.

  "We have to go," she said as she grabbed at Teve's rising wrist.

  "Hybrids?"

  She nodded. Judging by the sharpness of her confirmation there had to be more than just three lurking around. "I can feel them here. They're trying to find us."

  Teve seized his rifle as he found his balance. The slumber he woke from had been interrupted, leaving him half confused and groggy. "I don't get it," he said. "They had us surrounded in the base. Why are they hunting us now?"

  Mish inched an eye around the kitchen corner to the main room of the café. From there one could see in multiple directions into the darkened storm washing the city clean. She turned back to face him as Sutton remained still in his chair, pistol in hand.

  "I don't think they were the same hybrids. These ones seem different like they are hunters or something. I can't explain why, but I know in my heart that the hybrids we encountered in the base never intended on hurting us."

  Teve knew she was right, too. There was no logical explanation as to why they would have been spared. The only thing that came to mind when he dared to think about it was X. He somehow knew Teve and Mish would be there at that precise moment in such an exposed manner.

  "What's the plan?" Sutton asked as his leg bounced up and down on the spot. He had one finger foolishly wrapped around the trigger of his pistol with the hammer pulled back. His eyes darted from Mish to Teve and back again, begging for answers.

  Teve slowly moved over to him and knelt to the lieutenant's level. He stared him in the eyes and snatched the pistol from his hand in a flash.

  "Give that back," Sutton yelled, standing up and kicking the seat out from behind his legs.

  Without explanation, Teve released the hammer back up and popped out the live round from the chamber. He let the magazine drop out and reloaded the free bullet before shoving the magazine back into the weapon. He handed the pistol to Sutton and said. "That thing was about two seconds away from going off. You need to get your shit together, sir."

  Sutton grabbed the gun back and holstered it securely to his upper thigh. The officer didn't say a word but held his gaze.

  Teve turned back to Mish with a huff. "The lieutenant did have a good question. What's the plan?" Out of the two SF soldiers, Teve should have been the one coming up with options, but history had taught him that she made the better decisions.

  "They're getting closer. I don't have anything useful to tell you other than that we need to go." Her eyes twitched on the last few words she said to him.

  A thought hit Teve as he leaned in close to Mish. "We could take them."

  "No," sh
e said, shaking her head. "There's too many." She closed her eyes with genuine reluctance plastered all over her face. "I count six of them screaming in my head all at once. And they are getting louder. We can't take on six of them, especially with Sutton."

  "Hey," the lieutenant said with both hands thrown out wide. "I'm not deaf, you know."

  "Neither are they, sir," Teve said, gritting his teeth. "Please keep the yelling to a minimum. They could be around the next corner, for all we know."

  "Whatever," Sutton said. He muttered something more about Mish and Teve being freaks, but he kept his voice down.

  "They're here," Mish said as she gripped Teve's forearm. Her fingers crushed into his skin as she grabbed him tight.

  "Okay," he said, breaking her hold. "We need to get out of here." He turned back to Sutton and found him already ducking down and ready to leave. "Let's edge our way out of the building and move to the next piece of cover before it's too late."

  Mish nodded and took point without asking. Teve almost stopped her, unsure if she was up to the task, but the confidence in her stance said otherwise. He kept close behind and ushered Sutton to follow as the three soldiers moved out from the small kitchen and through the overturned café. There were no hybrids in sight, but they could easily be hiding out in the rain waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

  As Mish headed to the only exit at the front of the room, a shadow swooped overhead, temporarily blocking out the light.

  "Oh, shit," Sutton said. He pointed his pistol to the roof and scanned the area while Teve pulled him along.

  "Keep moving. That pea shooter of yours won't stop them. Our best bet is to escape this place and fight them out in the open."

  Sutton stared at Teve with flared nostrils. "I didn't hear a 'sir' in that little speech of yours, Master Sergeant."

  Before Teve could feign some respect, a figure dropped down and landed firmly on Sutton's head and began clawing his body to pieces. Teve fell back with his rifle up and blazed out a full burst of ammo into the hybrid's head and watched as its armor shifted and reacted to the attack.

  Mish was already firing her weapon at another target he couldn't see as he collided with her back for a brief moment. He held his ground as the creature before him lifted Sutton's corpse and flung it across the room. Teve fired again and hit the hybrid center mass to knock it back for a moment. He yelled over his shoulder. "Mish. We have to go."

  She responded by shooting again until her magazine drained and her hybrid was dead. She reloaded in the blink of an eye and spun around to hit Teve's target with a fresh burst. He took the opportunity to raise the butt of his weapon and smash the flailing beast on the side of its damaged skull, knocking it to the ground.

  Mish strolled up and filled its head with more HE rounds until it stopped moving. "Now we can go," she shouted as her eyes stabbed into the night. She brushed through and headed for the front door.

  Teve followed on clumsy feet and almost tripped over the body of the hybrid she had killed before stepping in to help. The voices speaking into her mind must have struck a nerve based on her dominant stroll. She almost seemed to be looking for the next one to kill. Teve's suspicions were confirmed when she shouted out in the streaming rain for the next one to find her.

  "Mish," Teve yelled. "Stop screaming. They'll find us."

  "Good," she said. "I want them to find me. If they can't face me, then I'll just have to hunt them down."

  Teve's jaw dropped. "Shit." He didn't know what else to say as she continued to venture out into the open, begging the hybrids to come out and fight. With little option, he joined her.

  He charged over and put his back to hers as he reloaded the X762A1 rifle in his hands. They had to be weary of how many bullets they fired if they were going to take on another four hybrids. Teve had four magazines, and Mish was down to three. The average hybrid took at least two full magazines to take down. They would be cutting it close if the weather conditions were sunny and perfect.

  "Come on," Mish yelled. "We're right here. You know you want this."

  Teve tried to allow her war cries to inspire him, but the dark alleys and rolling thunder made it hard to focus his hyper-aware senses. In the worst possible moment for anything of the kind to happen, visions of X began to flash in Teve's mind.

  The room X had taken him to was crystal clear for a moment just as a hybrid came charging for him. A bladed claw swung out and swiped the air and rain around him, just missing as he dodged back and away. He raised his rifle and fired at the exact time the hybrid grabbed the barrel and sent his shots out into the nearest building. With its spare arm, the creature lashed out and struck Teve in the face, sending him to the ground as it held his weapon.

  Mish unloaded a full magazine into its unprotected side and killed it cold. The hybrid fell to the forming puddles, still clutching Teve's rifle. Mish helped him up in a hurry as the next one came for her. She fired into its defended front and inched back as she kicked Teve's X762A1 in his direction.

  Without thought, he scooped up the rifle and unloaded what was left of the magazine into the hybrids side, spilling its mixed blood and guts into the wet night.

  Mish moved over to him and offered a helping hand, pulling him to his feet with a swift yank. "What the fuck was that?" she asked him.

  "I'm sorry. I had a vision right when it attacked."

  She shook her head and reloaded. "Just get it together. There's still more out there."

  Teve showed her he understood and shoved the empty magazine in his ammo bag before loading up his third-last magazine.

  "We're moving," Mish said. "The fuckers have taken off."

  "Jesus," Teve said as he tried to follow her sudden sprint into the night. He had never seen her act so suicidal and explosive. On a routine mission, she was the one reeling him in for making the dumb choices. The nanites had a way of changing them all, no matter how badly they fought to remain themselves.

  As Teve followed her into the night, stomping through puddles and filling holes, he couldn't help but wonder if they would ever be the same again.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The storm raged on for hours, only ever easing up for brief moments. Sunrise was only a few minutes away as Porter and thirty other pilots stared out of the fifteen Dragonettes they were all about to pilot into hell and back.

  "This is insane," Clay said as he took control of the bird. He shifted the engines into line for a vertical takeoff and fired the master switches up. The rumble of the two turbines, each holding the potential for 25,000 pounds of thrust, warmed up as Clay gently inched the throttle forward. Once the wheels lifted off the makeshift tarmac of the maintenance station, the Dragonette automatically compensated for the rolling winds and altered its power to keep the bird level.

  "Damn. I've never seen the computer have to deal with something like this. Not even in the simulator back home. We are in for a bumpy ride, Captain."

  Porter kept his eyes focused on the city ahead. "Just get us there in one piece, Clay. That's all I ask."

  Clay scoffed. "I'll try. Guarantee we'll lose about half our attack force to the weather alone. We should put down the troops as soon as possible; otherwise, we're losing a platoon of soldiers in full battle rattle plus two pilots for every Dragonette this storm claims."

  Porter lowered his head. When he arrived, they had more aircraft than soldiers to fly into the city. Now, every spare Dragonette was going to be used for transport and ground support against an enemy their sensors would fail to find in the soup of the storm. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

  The comms channel was awash with chatter as soon as the squadron leader got the fifteen birds into line. There would be no smaller groups with flight leaders for Command's direct approach. The plan instead was to move in as swiftly as possible, drop off the troops and provide support until the battle was won. Porter almost thought he was back on the Andromeda trying to do the impossible against the Zeal Tritons that once dominated Earth's orbit.
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br />   As he stared out ahead at the four or five Dragonettes drifting out of line, Porter tried to keep his focus on the mission. He had little to do as co-pilot until they were close enough for him to give the autocannons something to kill. The sensor array in front of him for the weapons system started to go haywire with electrical interference as lightning bolts scattered across the sky.

  "This is so stupid," Clay said. "Do they want us all to die? It's that general. He's got it in for us pilots, I tell you. He wants us to crash and burn."

  "Hey," Porter yelled over their local comm. "Get it together, Lieutenant. The general has his soldiers crammed into our birds. If we go down, they do too. We're all on the same dumb team here. Try to remember that."

  "Sorry, sir. Just not as comfortable as you are with this shit. I haven't seen pilot after pilot die the way you would have up there."

  Porter's mind took him back to the cadets he had sent to their deaths on a weekly basis. The MAF never had the luxury of time to train each space jockey up until they were ready for the Zeal. He lifted his chin back up to Clay and muttered. "Consider yourself lucky."

  The lieutenant went to speak, but the Dragonette directly in front exploded with a burst of light as both of its engines were hit by simultaneous missiles from the Zeal below. The defenses were not supposed to be this far out in the city. The Stiltz on the ground had been busy.

  Clay compensated and swept the bird up and over the falling Dragonette as thirty-eight lives got snuffed out in a flash. "Dammit," he yelled. "You assholes."

  The twin VTOL engines whined as they lifted the heavy frame of the Dragonette. Porter felt the sudden gravity shift pin him back to his seat as Clay climbed higher and higher. It was the only way out of the kill zone the Zeal had built.

  Once the aircraft leveled out above the city, Porter instantly checked the comms for a status on each bird. He called it out as he saw it. "We just lost six Dragonettes."