himself. And he breathed.
The skies above him were black. It made him wonder how long he was out. He looked down and around only to realize everything was black. But my eyes should’ve adapted.
He needed a moment to lift his good hand over his visor and try to wipe it out. Slowly, the light started creeping back into his eyes. Only it wasn’t daylight. It was flickering light from countless flames that burned and crackled around.
Ailios found himself lost and confused. He couldn’t recognize his surroundings. Before the explosions there were shacks and streets and Cyons. Now there was only rubble, fire, and smoke. He looked up again. Not a single drop of rain fell. Instead of rain, beam weapons were exchanged high above, streaking the sky with red and blue flashing lights.
Ailios then tried to push himself on his feet only to fall back again, completely out of balance. His sore hand hurt the moment it touched the ground. He turned to the other side and with his good hand he pushed himself up and then grabbed a rebar that was embedded in the concrete where he rested. He held it and straightened his body to give himself few seconds to adapt. Once he did, he looked around.
“Olivia!” he called out. The shouting came like a pressure from inside his head.
The responses he got were moans and screams. But none of those belonged to her.
“Olivia, where are you?”
He took a step toward a burning shack and then he noticed a foot under a rough chunk of concrete to his side. Ailios staggered there and dropped to his knees. His teeth were pressed together and he let out a heavy groan as he tried to push the concrete over. He realized his back hurt just as bad as his hand did, but somehow it didn’t matter as long as there was someone trapped under the rubble.
The foot slid into a small hole in the ground. It turned out it was only a foot. A metal foot. He suddenly remembered there was a Cyon inside the building. It was curled on the floor, probably hurt. Now it was only his foot that remained.
Ailios stood up and looked around. “Olivia! Luthis! Frisieal?” He repeated the names louder. “Where are you?”
Ailios tried to focus – Olivia, can you hear my thoughts? Please, respond if you do.
He got no answer.
Then he remembered, the HUD. His finger touched series of buttons on the side of his helmet. His heads-up display flickered inside his visor. He waited for images and numbers to appear; of his suit, of his air supply, and most importantly the distance to his teammates. However, no image appeared, no numbers, only blinking, formless lights. He smacked the buttons with his palm, and yelped. His head started to hurt even more as the HUD flickered off. It seemed the explosion damaged his suit.
“Olivia!” Ailios tried again, squinting his headache away. “Luthis! Can anyone hear me, dammit?” Gigantic shadows moved over the rubble, the burning shack playing tricks with his mind.
“Over here!” someone called. It sounded like Friseal.
Ailios spun around. “Where are you, Friseal?” His eyes moved back and forth to find out where the voice came from.
“Behind you,” said Friseal.
Ailios turned. A smeared, gloved hand waved at him behind a big chunk of concrete. Ailios staggered closer. Friseal smiled behind the hand. His body was pressed vertically between the concrete and what remained of a wall.
“Hold on,” Ailios said to him. He put his hands on the chunk, and he put his feet on the wall. He took a deep breath and pulled, grunted, shouted even, though the concrete didn’t budge. Ailios let go. He cursed.
“Let me find a piece of metal,” he said and started for the ruble on the street. He remembered seeing couple of thick rebars back there. They would serve as a nice lever if he could cut them out somehow. Instead of cutting though, he decided to chop through the concrete with the metal foot he found earlier.
“Friseal, are you hurt?” Ailios called as he chopped.
“My legs are numb, but I think I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, hold on.”
The foot proved to be quite the tool. Ailios managed to loosen one of the rebars enough to pull it out. With the help of the newly made lever he managed to move the concrete back for Friseal to slip through. And then he let it thump back as it was.
“Gods,” Friseal gasped as he took a seat on the ground. “I thought I was going to die there.” He started to rub his legs from his thighs down and back. “I owe you for that.”
“You saved me on Timor, so we’re even now,” said Ailios.
Friseal winced, probably rubbing a bad spot on his legs. “Good enough,” he said.
Ailios turned to see if maybe Olivia was waving from some other place in the ruins.
“Any luck finding the rest of our team?” asked Friseal.
Ailios was looking around intensely, not saying a word.
It took few more seconds of rubbing his legs for Friseal to say, “Okay, I think I should be able to walk now.” He stood up. “Let’s find them.”
They started calling names. Friseal went one way, Ailios the other. But even covering more ground didn’t help them find their pilot or the rest of their team. They were probably buried under the rubble, or burned in the fire.
I got them killed. The thought was bitter. If I listened to Olivia we wouldn’t have come here in the first place.
Luthis was annoying son of a bitch, it was true, but Ailios didn’t want him to die. The mover saved his life more times than Ailios could count. And now Luthis was dead because of him. What a thank you. And Olivia … Ailios never slept with a telepathic pilot before, it would’ve been quite the accomplishment. But he knew it was more than that. There was something in her that he liked more than he was willing to admit. Was that what people called love? He couldn’t tell; he just didn’t know. All he ever felt with a woman before was this animal urge to sleep with her no matter what, and to have her among his trophies. But once he would satisfy that urge he would forget about the woman, quickly as that. Somehow he knew that with Olivia things would be different. He didn’t just have the urge to sleep with her, but there was a desire to be with her, to smell her skin, to taste her lips…
It doesn’t matter now, does it?
He dropped to his knees, desperate. Faragar died because of him. Olivia died because of him. Luthis died because of him. Every human on Talam will soon die because of him, because he failed to find a doctor and discover the sect’s main base and learn their secrets and–
Could you stop being pathetic and get me out? – Olivia’s voice spoke in his head.
You’re alive? – Ailios tried to hide his happiness, but he knew he failed.
I thought you knew me better than to think otherwise – Olivia said.
Ailios exhaled – When were you going to tell me? After I died of depression?
He could feel her amusement along with her words – I wanted to see how much humiliation you will inflict upon yourself.
He sprang to his feet, not the least humiliated. “Tell me where you are?”
If I knew that I would’ve get myself out. It’s damn dark in here.
Ailios spun around. “Can you hear my voice?”
Barely.
Ailios kept talking as he moved in one direction and then the other until she told him he was getting near. He approached something that used to be a house, but now its walls were crumbled under its weight like a pile of cards. Only the doorway and the wall on the same side remained standing.
She was there.
“Friseal, over here!” he called. They started moving pieces from the pile one after another. Some chunks he would pull down and let them roll away, others he would enthusiastically lift and throw behind. He didn’t even feel his injured hand or his hurting back. Olivia occupied his thoughts and gave him strength to keep going.
There was a moment when he felt tired. He would pause, draw a deep breath, and then move on to throwing chunks. There was still more to go.
Soon he drew another deep breath, but he found it difficult to do so. He then realized that he was get
ting tired faster than usual. It didn’t take long before his visor started to fog and his body to hyperventilate. This shouldn’t happen. He pressed some of the buttons on his helmet to get the HUD back on and do a suit check. The images flickered again without any useful information, so he turned it off again.
Ailios stopped and took some heavy breaths, and then he loosened his helmet to let some of the heat out. He quickly sealed it back and hurried to help Friseal who was laboring to get Olivia out.
At that very moment an explosion detonated somewhere behind the doorway. A cloud of dust arose like a gray shadow in the darkness. Ailios searched the sky but no ships appeared in the vicinity, except for those that fought the battleship high above. As the dust settled, someone cursed in his language. It wasn’t long before a figure covered in dirt appeared couple of steps away from Ailios. He stopped in the ruined doorway. Ailios moved his hand to take out his pistol. He groped at his waist, one side, the other, the back. There was no weapon.
“Friseal!” Ailios called. It was the only thing he could do.
The dirt-covered figure raised his hand. “Don’t shout,” he said. “Please. My head will explode.” The man moved his hand over his helmet. Ailios couldn’t help but notice that the fingers were bending freely as if there was no hand under the glove. And there was only one man that he knew of who had lost his hand in the recent events.
“Luthis?” Ailios uttered.
“Damn right it’s Luthis,” said the man as he staggered forward.
Ailios felt a weight lifting off
First Assault Page 26
