by Lucas Marcum
Assisting her to her feet and draping her arm over his shoulders, he steered them both towards the escarpment. Upon reaching it, Elizabeth saw that it had a several-foot-deep overhang. Brian helped her to the edge, then she sat down and scooted under it. She leaned back against the rock, feeling exhaustion wash over her. Brian was busily pulling a survival camo net out of the pack they had salvaged from the ruins of the hospital. It had infrared and thermal deadening capability, and when placed, would stiffen, forming a shelter.
The wind continued to whip, kicking up dust, making the sheet dance in his grip. With a few muttered swear words, he managed to get it pinned down and activated the stick seals. The netting settled in place, firming up as the nanofibers activated. He scooted under it and watched as it changed to the dusky brownish grey of the rock escarpment they had sought shelter under. From the outside, they would resemble a boulder. The wind would blow away their footprints in the dust, and so far, they hadn’t seen any pursuit.
As a matter of fact, they hadn’t seen anyone. No allied forces, no Elai. No equipment, no anything, despite the fact that, by this time, the entire area should have been crawling with UEA forces supporting the offensive.
They had heard occasional aircraft, but they were either fast movers or a long way away, and the only other activity was the distant thumping of artillery and flashes on the horizon to the south of them in the direction of allied lines.
Elizabeth could hear the rumbling, and caught Brian’s eye as he opened his pack. She grimaced and said, “Whoever’s under that is getting a hell of a pounding.”
He nodded and pulled a suit diagnostic device out of the pack. He linked it to her armor and studied the display. After a moment, he said, “I’m gonna give you something for the pain, but I can’t give you narcotics. I’m sorry. We might have to move, and I need you functional.” He punched for a powerful non-narcotic pain reliever, and instructed the suit to give her more intravenous fluids. Elizabeth laid back against the rock with her eyes closed, unmoving, feeling the pain draining out of her side. She took several deep breaths, and it almost didn’t hurt.
She opened her eyes and smiled wearily at the medic. “Thanks, Brian.” She leaned her head back in her helmet and closed her eyes again. For a moment, the only sound was the wind. Suddenly, she asked, “What are we doing here?”
Brian frowned and peered at her. Her eyes remained closed and her face looked relaxed. Puzzled, he answered, “We’re hiding. We can’t keep going and the…”
Elizabeth interrupted him, “No. On this shit planet. It doesn’t even have a name, just a number.” A pause, then she spoke again, “Victor three-three-five. What kind of name is that for a planet? They coulda asked me. I woulda named it.”
Brian glanced at her with amusement as he hooked both their suits up to the portable charger he’d pulled from the pack. “Yeah? What would you call it?”
Without opening her eyes, she responded promptly, “Shithole. Or perhaps ‘dusty shithole’. Nothing grows here except those crappy grey bushes. It’s too cold and windy for people to be happy here. People need warmth. And plants. Water, too.” She paused. “So why are we here?” She opened her eyes and scowled around their makeshift shelter without moving her body, then closed them again.
Brian spoke in an even, amused tone, “We’re here because we’re soldiers. Because we were told to. Because of the colonies the Elai wiped out. Because we were told to take this planet away from the Elai, and here we are.”
Elizabeth answered in a faraway voice, “You know, I don’t think the brass thought they’d fight for it. I think they thought this would be a pushover. But they fought. I knew they would.”
Brian chuckled slightly at her statement. “How do you figure? How did you know that when the brass didn’t?”
Elizabeth sighed, “Brian, it’s evolutionary. Look at them. They’re predators. The teeth, the electroreceptor sensory systems, the caste structure, the speed of their movements.” She shifted position on the rock and continued, “They didn’t become the apex predator on their world by their innate adaptability like we did. They did it by being a truly wicked predator in a world full of badass predators. They were the ones who got smart and learned how to use tools to take down the really nasty predators.” She looked at Brian. “You’re not from Earth, are you?”
He shook his head, “No. Mars. Hellas Planitia.” She nodded.
“So, not much liquid water. There’s an animal in Earth’s oceans called a shark. Big, nasty bastard with a lot of teeth, pretty much adapted to kill anything in the water. It’s as if those evolved and got smart because there were nastier things than them. Evolutionary pressure, you know.” She sat up, grimacing slightly, and checked the charge connection to her suit. “It stands to reason that the Elai are evolved from something like that. Except not aquatic, of course.”
Brian stared at her for a moment, then queried, “How the hell do you know about ocean animals?”
Elizabeth laughed. “I’m from California, remember? I grew up a mile from the biggest ocean on Earth, and near some of the finest surfing beaches in known space. You learn a lot about sharks if you surf.”
He grunted and turned back to begin setting up the emergency radio system. “Well, we didn’t have that problem on Mars. It’s not exactly a surf destination.” He snapped the final piece into the radio and turned it on, then manipulated a few controls. After a moment, static came out, then intermittent words which would rapidly be swept out by the static. After a moment, he frowned and glanced at Elizabeth. “Jamming?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. Not a lot we can do with it now. Just keep listening, I guess.” After a moment she asked, “Should we pop our suit beacons?”
Brian shook his head. “No. Beacons work both ways. Our guys can see them, so we have to assume the sharkies can too. I’d rather not take the chance.” Pausing, he regarded her exhausted face. “Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll take watch.” He took up one of their scavenged rifles and positioned himself with his back to the rock, his eyes scanning out through the netting. Elizabeth pushed herself further back under the overhang, made sure her rifle was close at hand, and closed her eyes, feeling the exhaustion wash over her.
As she drifted off to sleep, something occurred to her. “Brian?”
Without turning from his watch, he answered, “Yeah?”
“I know what I’m going to call this planet.”
With an amused tone in his voice, Brian asked, “Yeah? What?”
She answered in a voice thick with sleep, “Desolation. We’re going to call it Desolation.”
As she drifted off, she could hear him chuckle. “That’s good, Ma’am. Desolation. I like it. It fits.” He paused, then spoke again, “Get some sleep. Dawn comes fast on Desolation, and we need to be ready to move.”
Her slight snore was the only answer, and the makeshift camp was silent but for the howling of the wind.
-6-
“Drop Zone Kilo”
EIGHTEEN KILOMETERS WEST OF THE RUINS OF VALHALLA STATION
0845 hours, March 15, 2245
SsssssssssWHAM! The sudden sound jolted Elizabeth awake. She scrabbled for her rifle as the tremendous noise came again.
SsssssWHAM! SssssWHAM! She rolled over and sat up, her ribs and leg screaming at her. She looked wildly for Brian, who was wide awake, crouching and pointing his rifle out through the netting. The dust storm had blown up even harder, and visibility was down to about ten meters, swirling and obscuring everything beyond that distance, even in the daylight.
More of the noise came in rapid succession, shaking the ground and bouncing their equipment slightly. WHAMWHAMWHAM. After a second, there was a near constant roar that lasted for several minutes, shaking the ground, then suddenly it stopped. There was a faint metallic popping all round them.
She rolled over, trained her rifle outwards, and keyed her suit comm to Brian. “You ok, Sergeant? What the hell was that?”
He answered in a low voice,
“I don’t know. Artillery, maybe, but no explosions. Not like anything I’ve heard before.” His eyes were searching out through the blowing dust, rifle ready. He said, “The netting is pretty good camouflage, and the wind has to have blasted our tracks. We oughta sit tight. Unless someone touches the net, it’ll just look like a part of the rock.” Elizabeth nodded and licked her suddenly dry lips.
After several minutes, nothing had happened, then on the ridgeline above them they could hear crunching. It sounded like footsteps. After a few seconds, more crunching. Brian caught Elizabeth’s eye and pointed up, then held up two, then three fingers. Elizabeth nodded. At least two, maybe three bad guys right over them. She glanced at her M45, making sure the magazine was snug and the safety was off. She looked back at Brian and nodded. He nodded back and looked back up.
The crunching had stopped. Whatever was up there was looking around, and it was VERY close. She took a deep breath and waited.
Suddenly, about fifteen meters away to their right, they could see a figure—obscured heavily by the blowing dust—leap from the ridgeline. It landed on its feet and smoothly swept its rifle left and right, scanning around. After a moment, it waved its arm to an as yet unseen comrade. A crunch to the left, and another figure dropped, landed in a slight crouch, then straightened. This one was closer, and Elizabeth could make out bulky combat armor, and again a rifle. She eyed Brian, who shook his head in a silent no, and pointed at the further target, then tapped his visor over his eyes. She nodded and turned back to track the first target, which was slowly moving into the dust, as Brian tracked the closer figure.
Suddenly, the shelter collapsed in on her, ripping through the netting, and she went down hard, feeling the mass of an armored figure hitting her shoulder and side, driving her downwards. As she hit the ground, she instinctively threw her arms out to shield her helmet. Her suit, reacting faster than she could, locked her arms to protect her face, then released the lock, cushioning the impact. The resultant stiffening of her suit caused the figure to roll awkwardly off of her and hit the ground head first in front of her. The camo netting was torn, and as she struggled to her knees, she saw Brian, hopelessly wrapped in the remains of the netting, struggling to free himself. The armored figure in front of her was trying to roll over, struggling to get his arms free. Without thinking about it, Elizabeth pounced on him, drawing her pistol as she did. She landed on top of the figure right as he rolled. Elizabeth jammed the pistol towards the figure’s face, then she realized it was screaming, and that she could understand what the figure was screaming.
“HELP!! HELP! GET THIS THING OFF ME!”
She leveled the pistol at the figure’s closed visor, and it froze and rapidly went limp, putting its hands up. She could hear the crunching of running footsteps as the other figures came charging towards them.
Brian managed to free himself from the netting, and seeing a figure in front of him and having lost his rifle when the tent came down, crouched to leap at the closest figure. The figure, with an astonishing speed, brought its rifle around and up towards the unarmed sergeant.
Something clicked in Elizabeth’s head. She toggled her external speakers to full volume and screamed at the top of her lungs, “FREEZE!! FRIENDLIES!!” The thunderous sound of her amplified voice blasting from the suit speakers caused everyone to flinch. The figure rushing at Brian now had a clear firing position, but had frozen in place. Brian was crouched, tense and ready to jump. The figure underneath her held absolutely still. For a moment, no one moved.
Then, in front of her pistol barrel, the armored figure pinned underneath her moved, its blast visor sliding up, revealing a young man with a pale, freckled face. He stared at her, gasping. She stared back, then slowly lowered the gun’s position so it was pointed at the young soldier’s chest.
Fighting through the shock of realizing that they weren’t about to die at the hands of the Elai, Elizabeth spoke in a shaking voice, “Who…who are you?”
“Private McClasky. First Brigade Combat Team, 17th Spaceborne.” He paused for a moment, then looking up at her. “Who the fuck are you?” Seeing the captain’s bars painted in the middle of her chest plate, the young soldier gasped out, “I mean, who are you, Ma’am?”
Elizabeth lowered the pistol, returning it to safe, and looked up. The soldier with the rifle pointed at Brian had lowered his weapon. The third soldier, in a covering position, had also lowered its weapon.
She looked back down at the young private whose chest she was sitting on, swung her leg off of him, and trying to stand up, felt searing pain stabbing through her side, making her see spots. She collapsed onto the sand, coughing, every cough feeling like someone was stabbing her in the chest.
The young man rolled over and looked at her for a second, then she could her him speaking. “Sergeant Rogers, I think she’s hurt. Can you call Doc?”
Elizabeth managed to stop coughing and caught Brian speaking to the troopers, one of whom was plugging a fresh aid pack into her armor.
Brian’s voice was clear through her pain. “Sergeant Agawa, 378th Forward Resuscitation Team. That’s Captain Suarez. Our ‘Hawk was shot down and we managed to evade the Elai patrols. The captain’s pretty banged up, though.” A pause. “Goddamn, am I glad to see you guys.”
Another, female, voice responded, “Sergeant Sylvia Rogers, Alpha Company, 1st of the 17th. That’s Benson, and you already met McClasky.” A pause, then she asked, “ Valkyrie, huh? We’d heard there were no survivors. Glad we were wrong.”
Brian’s voice came again, “Yeah. Me too.” There was a slight pause, then he continued, “You guys just dropped in? We heard it.”
The other noncommissioned officer responded with a dry chuckle, “Yep. Nothing subtle about a Spaceborne brigade dropping in. We’re here to hurt people and break shit. The sharkheads won’t know what hit ‘em when we’re done.” Another pause, then she continued, “You know, you two are a coupla lucky bastards. You ended up right in the middle of our drop zone.”
Brian responded wryly, “Ain’t that the truth.”
A third voice said, “Sergeant, the litter is ready, and Doc says the battalion aid station is up and running. We can go when you’re ready.”
Elizabeth could hear the Spaceborne sergeant giving rapid orders to her patrol.
“Agawa, McClasky, you’re on the litter. Benson, you and me on security.” A pause, then Elizabeth felt a hand on her chest armor. She opened her eyes and saw the young sergeant’s face looking into her helmet. She was young and blonde, with a compassionate look on her face.
“Ma’am, you’re gonna be fine. We’re gonna get you back to the aid station. Doc Roe is a badass, and you’ve already proved you’re tougher than Elai teeth, getting as far as you did. He’ll patch you up. Close your eyes for a bit, ok?” Elizabeth simply nodded, not having the breath to speak.
The sergeant stepped back, checked her rifle, and looked around, then said, “Ok, Spaceborne. We have a war to fight. Let’s move out.”
-7-
“Spaceborne”
22 KILOMETERS WEST OF VALHALLA STATION, BRIGADE COMMAND POST, 1ST BRIGADE COMBAT TEAM, 17th INFANTRY DIVISION (SPACEBORNE)
1124 hours, March 15, 2245
Elizabeth woke up from the doze the gentle swaying of the litter had lulled her into. She could hear voices around her, indistinct, then the clear voice of Sergeant Rogers.
“You two, get the captain to the Aid station. Agawa, you’re with me. The colonel wants to talk to you.” Elizabeth felt a moment of panic at the thought of her partner leaving her, when Brian’s face appeared in her vision. His normally stoic face was lined with exhaustion, but he smiled gently.
“Hey, Ma’am. They’re taking you to the aid station. They’ll get you patched up. I gotta go talk to the colonel,” He gently put a hand on her shoulder. “You get some rest. I’ll be right over.”
She smiled and nodded, and worked up the strength to whisper, “Be safe, Brian. I can’t lose you, too.”
With
a slight grin, Brian responded, “Captain, if falling out of a ‘Hawk can’t kill me, nothing can. I’ll be back soon.” With a final squeeze of her shoulder, he turned and disappeared into the blowing dust. The two soldiers hoisted her litter and moved off towards the aid tent.
Brian turned to Sergeant Rogers standing nearby, waiting to take him to the command post. The blonde sergeant nodded at the departing litter and said admiringly, “She’s tough as shit. Those ribs woulda sidelined most people, and to move twenty clicks with a bum leg on top of it? Damn. you said she’s Medical Corps?”
Brian nodded. “Yeah. Nurse Corps, actually. She’s good people.”
Sergeant Rogers nodded. “She’s in good hands. We’re short an actual doctor at the moment, but Doc Roe is a badass. She’s gonna be fine. Come on. The colonel’s waiting. I’ll get you up to speed as we walk.”
Brian nodded, picked up his rifle, checked his ammunition load and suit charge, and fell in beside the sergeant. She set off at a brisk pace and spoke as she walked.
“We dropped in off the UEAN Alwyn C. Cashe. Went ok getting into orbit, but we got hit as we dropped. That’s when the medical staff bought it. The brigade surgeon and his whole team. Half the colonel’s staff, too. The Elai had some sort of anti-air missile that nailed their pods as we entered the atmosphere. The Navy greased the launch sites, but not before they hammered us pretty good. Got a few other pods, too.” Her voice was coldly matter of fact.
“It’s been going sideways since we hit the dirt. The headquarters pod landed on top of an Elai patrol. They got a couple of troopers before we overwhelmed ‘em. Iron Mike got three of ‘em himself, two with his M45, and the third with his sidearm.”
Brian glanced at the grim-faced woman and asked, “Iron Mike?”
“Yeah. That’s what they call Colonel Terrell. You’ll see why. Anyway, the other three battalions are scattered to hell and gone, we have no goddamn idea where the armor is, and there’s Elai everywhere.” She shook her head. “A real clusterfuck, no matter how you slice it.”
