Phil started up the stairwell, Ryan and I following close behind. Nevin and Cassidy waited near the hatch that led underground. As we neared the top I heard hushed whispering. Phil was the first to the top, his head poking out above the floor. Immediately a loud crack sounded, followed by the sound of a shotgun pump. Phil flew back against the tower wall, his visor strewn with cracks. Ryan was next to the top, but held his hands above him, one clutching his AR-27.
“Friendly! Friendly fire!” he beckoned, gazing upon Elonian Marines clad in black.
“Whoa, stop. Put the gun down. Put it down,” the soldier with the shotgun ordered.
I also rose into sight, and slowly lowered my H-81 to the floor.
“Lieutenant Ryan Dunkelman, Elonian Rangers,” Ryan said calmly.
Phil, having recovered from the shock of the hit, held his own shotgun pointed at the lightly armored Marine.
The shotgun armed Marine remained still for a moment longer, before lowering his gun.
“Sir. First Sergeant Dakota Boone. I’m sorry. We thought you were the enemy,” the lead soldier defended.
“Phil, you good?” Ryan asked, looking over his shoulder to see Phil had lowered his gun as well.
“Yeah. Though I’d immensely prefer not to be subject to attempted fratricide again.”
“Understood sir,” the Marine said obediently.
Phil was only a standard sergeant, so the Marine either hadn’t taken note of his rank patch on his armored shoulder, or was simply showing respect for us being Special Forces.
Ryan’s COM clicked, likely Nevin checking on the gunshot.
“Hey Rye? You good?” I heard his voice ask.
“Yeah we’re good. Just a misunderstanding. Hold position.”
“So Boone,” Ryan started, looking around at the twelve men standing in the room, and the one sitting on the floor clutching his stomach. “Status report.”
“Baker gave the order to get off the Procyon and Alpha and Epsilon squads made their way to evac. I’ve got the whole of both of those squads, and a crewman from Procyon. Alpha’s my team, Epsilon’s under Sergeant House, but he isn’t combat ready. On impact with the planet, Private Wells’ rifle discharged, shooting the man directly across from him… his own CO,” Boone explained.
“I’m sorry! I’ve already said I’m freakin’ sorry! You keep bringin’ it back up an’—”
“Private. Shut up. You need to keep it together out here,” Boone told him coolly.
The private didn’t reply, but closed his mouth, which had been left hanging open, then tried to regain his composure.
“So, we saw this structure and made our way to it as quickly as we could, helping House along. It is frigid out there sir. Absolutely frigid. We arrived here and killed the guards. We then took over the tower and camped here since. Far as supplies, we’ve got a water apiece, excluding the swabbie, and a small amount of food,” Boone concluded.
Boone was wearing a pair of sunglasses, which seemed out of place, though it added an air of command to him. In addition to aesthetics, at least it provided him something to keep the snow out of his eyes. His face was clean-shaven, and he seemed to have a bandana around his neck for face coverage.
“Well, it’s good to see other Elonians,” Ryan said. “We don’t plan on just waiting around to die, so will your team join us?” Ryan asked, giving the squads a choice. “We’ll have platoon numbers then, and can really inflict some damage on the UED.”
Boone looked back at Sgt. House, still reeling in agony against the wall. He then looked at all of the soldiers standing behind him, and looked back at Ryan.
“What about House? He can’t keep moving around. He needs rest… heck he needs medical attention but we don’t have any med supplies.”
“I have basic medic training,” Phil said, stepping forward. “But I only have a few bandages as far as supplies are concerned.”
Boone looked back at House. I could tell they knew each other, likely good friends.
“Anything. Just do what you can. Lieutenant?” he said, turning back toward Ryan. “Alpha’s behind you. I’d like to have Epsilon hold here and stay with House. We can run this like an HQ, a base of operations.”
“Our numbers don’t really constitute an HQ, but given the circumstances… We’ll make it work. We will need a way to communicate back. All of us have a COM system, but I don’t intend on leaving a Ranger here to run COM duty,” Ryan said.
“I understand sir. It appeared the UED may have some form of advanced COM device. Maybe we could use those.”
Ryan reached into one of his ammo pockets and extracted the communicator from the sergeant he had interrogated.
“Phil. Figure this out. We’re gonna go get some more,” he said, flicking it over to Phil.
Ryan began down the stairs, and I recovered my pistol and followed closely behind. I was elated to see friendly faces, even if our initial encounter wasn’t so pleasant.
We moved down the stairs hastily, and with a purpose. When we reached the bottom I saw Nevin and Cass, still hanging around the hatch.
“Hey, go check it out down there. Give us a better idea of what we’re settlin’ into. This is our Base of Ops for a while,” Ryan stated.
“On it,” Cassidy said, lifting the hatch and descending the ladder into darkness.
Ryan and I exited back into the ferocious snow and moved around to the mound. We then dug away at the snow, finding the heads of the dead soldiers. It somehow seemed wrong, despite all the times I had taken weapons of the men I had killed, something about pulling these earpieces from their skulls didn’t seem the same.
After we had collected three of the devices, we returned to the tower. Climbing the steps, I toyed with the two devices in my hands. They seemed to be an incredible piece of technology, much like the COMs we had in our suits, though cheap enough to be deployed to all soldiers.
When we reached the top, most of the men had dispersed. House appeared to have been bandaged up, presumably by Phil, who now was standing near Boone holding the earpiece Ryan had given him.
“Phil, Boone. We’re back. Three more. This’ll give us a total of four. I’d say two on Alpha squad and two here at HQ with Epsilon.”
“Good with me, if they work,” Boone replied.
“I think they do. I just required another to receive and send to prove it. Hand me one,” Phil asked.
I handed Phil one of the ones I had collected, and he flipped it around in his hand until he found what he was looking for. A small button juxtaposed to an equally small screen displaying a number. He tapped the button several times, before stopping. He motioned for one of the soldiers on the floor to come, and he did. Phil handed it to him, and then gave instructions.
“Put it on your ear. Then hold your hand up to it, and apply a light pressure to the device.”
The soldier immediately did as he was told.
“Did it work?” he asked.
Phil glanced back at Boone, whose helmet was in his hands and the device in his ear.
“Yeah. I heard him loud and clear straight in my ear,” Boone replied, a smile splashed across his face.
“Knew you could do it Phil. You always can,” Ryan said, patting Phil on the back.
“We simply had to adjust the frequencies to be the same, and the pressure activation was fairly obvious,” Phil said modestly.
“Obvious may not have been the word I’d have used,” I pitched in.
Boone replaced his helmet on his head, fitting it snugly over the device. “Let’s hit ‘em.”
“Well, before we found your pod, our plan was to find the Tredecim capital. We assumed it would be valuable in information and targets,” Ryan said.
“Wait… Tredecim?” Boone asked, perplexed.
“Natives… basically huge bipedal creatures with razor claws. Probably about two to three meters tall. We found some UED intel on them in another one of these towers, then we found a cave full of the things about an hour ago.”
“Their capital is supposed to hold some sort of supercomputer known as The Beholder,” I said. “It was like a god to them.”
“So these things… Tredecim… they built a computer then decided it was so great they started worshiping it?” Boone inquired.
“From what I gathered from the UED data logs… yeah.”
Boone laughed for a moment, then his face became serious again.
“So, this computer might help us?” he asked.
“We don’t know. We’re just going to find out,” Ryan answered before I had a chance.
“Eh, alright. Let’s make it happen,” Boone said casually. “Just gimme one sec.”
Boone walked over to House, who seemed to have fallen asleep.
“You hang in there soldier. We’ll be back for ya,” Boone whispered quietly.
Boone then stood up and approached the stairs, the men affiliated with Alpha squad filing in behind him. I tossed the other COM device to one of the soldiers in the room before turning for the stairs myself.
“Nev, what’s it like down there?” Ryan asked into the COM.
There was a several second pause, creating a bit of concern in me.
“Writing. More Tredecim writing. UED looks like it was tryin’ to set up another decoding station, but the guys manning it are gone. The place is only halfway set up, several crates with more parts in them. Literally no sign of the eggheads though,” Nevin replied at last.
“Any escape routes?”
“Yeah, a single tunnel, just like the other one. We haven’t gone down it, should we?” Nevin asked.
“Negative. Regroup up here. We’re headin’ out.”
“Copy that, on our way up.”
We waited for the two to make their way up the long ladder back to the surface. When they arrived, we were ready to move, and proceeded into the snow. I felt bad for the Marines with us, as their standard issue BDU with an assault vest would do little to keep out the cold.
We tread through the snow for at least half an hour before spotting anything of significance. We saw it from afar before ever closing in, but it appeared to be mighty tower at least three times the height of the observation posts we had grown accustomed to. As we grew nearer, I looked back at the group. It was then that I realized how severely Phil’s visor was messed up. I was surprised he could still see well enough through the cracks and fissures. It looked worse than the damage done to Nevin’s, but I knew Nevin’s was pierced, whether Nevin felt it was or not, I could tell. Phil’s, having only been hit by a shotgun, had held firm.
“You sure you wanna keep that thi—” I started, before being cut off by a scream and a spray of blood from the Marine behind Phil.
“SNIPER!” Boone called, diving into the snow.
I immediately crouched and pulled my SR-4 off my pack. I took aim at the tower through its Oracle scope, but couldn’t seem to find the shooter. Every second I wasted could have been the life of another Marine. My heart started beating quicker as I searched for my target.
Another shot was fired, but I didn’t hear any soldiers scream in pain. The shot had given away his position however, located on the fourth story. He appeared to be wearing a white ghillie suit, well suited for sniping in snow.
Quickly as I could, I lined up a shot. My crosshairs hovered over his head when I saw it go off again. I took the shot, the bullet soaring through the air before planting itself in the sniper’s brain, causing his body to fly backwards. I looked around, trying to see where the last shot went. Then I saw Phil, his visor shattered, and blood running down his cheek.
“Phil?” I asked, looking at him as he raised his hand to feel the wound.
“I’m… I’m good. He only grazed me. My injuries are insubstantial. Let’s keep moving.”
“You sure Phil?” I asked him, blaming myself for his pain.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Really,” he said, rubbing the line of torn skin along the side of his face.
“Boone, how’s your guy?” Ryan asked, looking at the soldier on the ground, a circular hole of blood placed precisely on his forehead.
“Dead,” Boone replied plainly.
“Alright… Let’s keep moving. We’ll make ‘em pay.”
Our unit moved forward rapidly, approaching the doorway to the obelisk. We closed in quick, stacking up at the door. Ryan was on one side of the door, and Boone on the other. Phil hung back, still assessing his own injury. I stood behind Ryan, and another Marine stood behind Boone.
Silently, Ryan raised his hand and put up three fingers. He reduced it to two, then one, then turned in, aiming his rifle through the doorway and pressing in. I heard him open fire… it wasn’t clear. Boone was next in, then it was my turn. I moved forward, pistol in hand. Looking in, there were five enemies, two of which were already in the process of dying. I turned to my left and fired two shots into the chest of the soldier waiting there and then looked back to my right.
The last man ducked back behind his cover, concealing himself from our fire. In a single quick move, Boone ran forward then slid, progressing rapidly across the floor, shotgun raised. As he passed the cover he immediately put a burst into the man, and from the doorway I saw him jerk upward into the air.
“Clear,” Ryan announced as more Marines continued to enter the doorway.
“You two… hold here. Watch our six while we take the rest of the tower,” Boone said, eying the last two soldiers to enter.
“Got it, Top.”
We began to move up the stairwell, intent on capturing the tower. Again Ryan was on point, and when he reached the top of the stairs he turned and unleashed a powerful spray onto the foes who waited in ambush. Boone placed his shotgun blasts primarily on a tight group of UED troops that were in cover behind an overturned table. A single burst from Boone nailed multiple targets, dropping them.
I bolted forward, taking a few bullets to my armor, distracting them away from the lightly armored Boone. I felt as if it was somehow my responsibility to take the bullets, being as my armor was so superior. Overtaking the enemy cover I fired several rounds into the white-clad men.
“We’re clear,” I proclaimed, scanning the room.
I reloaded my pistol slowly and precisely. I began to feel as if something was going to go wrong. We were doing too well.
“Hood, Rush, watch the stairs up. We need to investigate,” Boone called to his men.
I began to wonder what he meant by investigate, when I noticed several carefully stacked laptops near the wall.
“This place had to be important to these guys,” Boone pointed out, grabbing a computer and opening it up. “Password. We need to catch ‘em before they get packed. Let’s move!”
Boone charged forward, pushing between his two men to take point.
“Hold up Sergeant!” Ryan called, chasing behind him. I moved in behind Ryan who was alongside Hood and Rush. I could see Boone reach the top and take a shot. Immediately after, two clouds of rock burst off the wall behind him before I saw a puff of red come from his shoulder.
“Boone!” Ryan yelled, himself reaching the top.
Boone yelled in pain but continued the fight relentlessly. Moments later we had seized the third story. That marked the halfway point on the tower. The moment it was clear Boone proceeded full charge up the next flight of stairs. I heard the click of a grenade’s pin being removed as Boone bounced one off the wall and onto the next floor. The following explosion was mixed with the sound of electronics fizzing out and screens shattering.
As we moved up, the room was free of enemies, all of them dead and strewn about the room. The sniper from earlier still remained on his back near the window. Boone ceased his rampage when he saw an intact computer near the edge of the room.
“Hood, secure that computer,” he ordered.
He then glanced at his shoulder, and ran his hand over it. Despite the cloud of blood that I had seen burst from it at first, the injury seemed insubstantial. We were getting lucky, but at the same time, it had been ages since I
had seen a mission like this.
The Rangers generally operated alone, making use of small team tactics to take out larger forces. Thanks to our power armor, casualties and even injuries were almost completely eliminated. Fighting alongside Marines reopened the opportunity for death. Even those I thought were safe… those of us in power armor… weren’t as safe as we thought.
“Boone, what was that?” Ryan asked, walking closer to him.
“We needed to secure a computer sir. The information on them could be vital. We had to move as fast as we could.”
“Right, well next time you might check with me before you go on a suicide run. But it worked. Good work,” Ryan replied.
Boone was probably used to being the top guy on the field, not having to confirm with superiors for quick battlefield judgments. I looked at Boone and could tell he wasn’t trying to be a hero. All he wanted was success, and to defeat the UED. It was nice to have a soldier like that with us.
“Top,” Hood said. “I got somethin’.”
“What is it Corporal?” Boone asked, dismissing his injured shoulder and approaching Hood.
“We’ve got access to all sorts of data. Multiple logs left by one of the scientists… UED fleet data… and presently we have access to some sort of data server,” Hood explained.
“Excellent. Reset the password, close’r up and let’s get moving,” he said, a faintly distressed look on his face.
Ryan and I were the first up the stairs to the fifth story, ready for another fight. As we each popped up over the top, we were treated with a vacant room, computers broken and desks overturned.
“It’s empty,” I murmured.
“Either a trap… or they’re all on top,” Ryan returned.
Carefully fanning out and checking behind the desks, we confirmed it to be the latter.
“This’ll be it. They’ve got everything on top. We take them down, then we’ve secured this post.”
Nevin moved up beside me, his visor scarred horribly from that first encounter with the Tredecim.
“These guys aren’t so tough,” he said plainly. “I expected more of a fight.”
“Doesn’t it seem… too easy?” I asked him.
The War Across the Stars Page 16
