Spectres (Æthyrium Rising - Spectres Book 1)

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  Jurol and Xario got to their feet as fast as they could, Juno on the other hand was taking her sweet-ass time and deliberately undermining my command, something that wouldn’t fly in a combat situation.

  “You hear me Rothbear!? On your damn feet!”

  “Sir yes sir.” she said sarcastically, snapping to attention.

  I wanted to address her sass, but she was on her feet and that was enough for me, “Good. Field Master Garrett, you have the command.” I said, spinning on my feet to face Garrett and shifting the responsibility off of me in the most official way possible.

  He saw right through it, but respected it nonetheless, “Alright then, let’s have a look.”

  Whether he cared or not was of little to no concern of mine, I was struggling to remember how to correctly blink as it was, so giving a continuous stream of orders seemed nigh impossible.

  We walked together in a semi-formal manner, only stumbling once as we stepped over the small jutting doorframe between the passenger bay and the DR.

  The room itself was a bit of a mess, at least it looked that way. Cables dangled from the ceiling, jump-packs, helmets and respiratory gear were hung up loosely on either wall, and there were three footlocker sized crates stacked up unevenly on the right-hand side.

  “Jurol, can you tell me what these are?” Garrett asked, tugging on one of the cables.

  He ummed and ahhed for a few seconds before giving an affirmative nod, “They’re for harnessing people who aren’t jumping, but are required in the Drop-Room.”

  “Very nice job, Private. How about you Xario, what’re these?” he as he scooped up on of the sets of respiratory gear, which was basically a black motorcycle helmet attached to backpack oxygen supply.

  “Safety equipment for those who’re staying in DR when others drop, sir.”

  “And is it safe to use beyond the confines of the ship?”

  Xario shook his head, “No, sir. Unless you’re already in a non-toxic environment on the ground you won’t last more than fifteen seconds.”

  “Shoot, and here I was thinking I’d have to show you everything. Kurla, here.” he said, tossing me a jump-pack.

  Again, it was basically a backpack, but this one was a little more complex in that it featured a chest strap instead of shoulder ones, as well as the fact that when the straps were connected and you pushed the yellow and red button you were quickly encased in an armoured suit fitted with parachutes and thrusters. They were a bit less safe when you were falling than the Feddie drop-pods, but certainly more effective in battle.

  It took me a few seconds to realise I’d been too focussed on the pack to answer Garrett’s implied question, “Jump-pack, sir, for those who are dropping.”

  “Excellent. Are they fit for use as is?”

  “No, they require a helmet that seals with the suit once it’s deployed.”

  “And why aren’t the helmet and suit one piece?”

  “The broken necks, sir. The designers couldn’t find a way to prevent the suit from breaking the pilot’s neck during fitting.”

  “Perfect. Now, Kurla, the code for the DR is five-five-five. You need to know that for if you need to drop in and I’m downed, or, you know, nappin’.”

  Our First Mission

  During our trip through the ever expanding void of space there were some more uncomfortable jokes about Garrett’s inadequacy as a Field Master, or, the more concerning option, truths about his inadequacy. At least that’s what I thought at the time.

  We returned to the passenger area and Garrett started to fill us in on the mission details, “According to our intel, there’s twenty plus targets. Standard Federation marines, no support of any kind. We haven’t got the means to take prisoners, so you’ve all been cleared for shoot to kill.”

  That’s when Xario decided to drop an interesting little factoid on the team, “I can’t kill.”

  We turned to him in unison and gave him a confused look, “What do you mean you can’t kill? You’re a soldier, it’s kind of what we do.”

  He regarded all of our confused faces apologetically before looking away and shaking his head, “I’m sorry, I really am, but there’s no way I can end a person’s life. It’s against the religion.” He paused for a second after Juno scoffed, then followed up with “I’m more than able to clip people though.” he said as reassuringly as he could.

  With each second that passed by I grew increasingly worried about our ability to do the mission, but I wasn’t about to let my team know that. “Alright, we can work with that,” I said as convincingly as I could, “what else sir? Or will you brief us on mission?”

  Garrett shook his head, “Nope, sorry guys, but I won’t be dropping with you today.”

  I blinked a moment longer in an attempt to wake up from the nightmare I was clearly in, but when it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen I gave a nod, “Right. Well… I’m sure we can do it.”

  “That’s the spirit!” Garrett said enthusiastically, “Now, I’m gonna head up front and get an ETA, you go ahead and get comfortable.”

  After Garrett left and we’d sat down I knew everyone must’ve had a million things to say, but Juno was the first to jump at the opportunity to badmouth our CO, “He has to be joking, right? There’s no way he actually expects us to drop in without at least Corporal present.”

  Xario gave a tired sigh and shrugged, “I dunno, he seemed pretty serious to me. As serious as he can be anyway.”

  “Doesn’t mean we have to stand for it, especially when our lives are at risk. And what did you mean ‘I can’t kill’?” she asked, turning her attention from me across from her to the embarrassed Xario next to her, “How’re you supposed to cover our arses when you won’t take kill shots?” she sniped.

  While Xario tried to formulate a response that wouldn’t make him feel ashamed, I jumped in with the intention of reining in my team, “Leave him alone, that’s an order. He’s watched out for all of us since we got here, and he’s been a damn good friend. When the time comes I’m sure he’ll defend every one of us here in his own way.”

  Juno snapped her attention over to me like an angered snake, “You don’t get to order me around. I don’t give a crap what Garrett says, you aren’t my leader, you’re no better than me.”

  There was a second there where a little voice in my head told me to take the blow to my ego and just move on. Fortunately, that voice was promptly shouted down by the one who wanted to pistol-whip Juno, “You really want to do this? Hmm? Do you really want to have me kick your arse up and down this ship for insubordination? ‘Cause I will if you don’t pull your whiney head in and shut your Goddamn mouth.”

  She got to her feet and started staring me down, an act that I quickly reflected, scowling and waiting for whichever one of us was going to make the first move.

  “Hope your all havin’ fun back there!” Garrett shouted over the intercom, “Just wonderin’ if I could borrow Jurol for a second. Damn computer’s playin’ up and neither one of us up here knows quite how to fix it.”

  There was a sudden drop in the cabin and Juno and I fell back on our arses, “See what I mean, good news is we’ve broken through atmo, bad news is we’re gonna be landin’ pretty damn quick. You know what I say, can’t trust a computer, trust a computer and you’ll always come to regret it. That’s the problem with Feddies, have waaay too much faith that their tech’ll bring ’em home.”

  Before he could continue on with his monologue I got up to my feet and, used the walls and no small amount of help from the very anxious Jurol to get to the intercom, “Yes sir, I’ll send him up now.”

  “Thanks team leader, ‘preciate the support.” he responded respectfully, further endorsing my command for hopefully not just me, but also for the still frowning Juno.

  The speakers crackled and shut off and I gave Jurol a nod, giving him the out from the tension filled cabin that he’d clearly wanted, running past me and into the DR before I could get back to my seat.

  Ou
t of respect, I waited for the DR door to shut before returning my attention to Juno, “Look, I know you don’t like it,” I said as calmly as I could, “but I need you to listen to me when we’re on the ground. I’m sure this is just a part of the training and you’ll get your chance to be team leader.”

  Juno went to speak but stopped right as we got hit with a massive amount of turbulence that stopped as quickly as it’d come. “I understand,” she said, clearly relieved that we weren’t all about to die, “I’m sure it’s just ‘cause I’m tired and shitty. Sorry Xario, I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”

  Xario smiled after shaking off his stunned expression, the fact that she’d apologised unprompted surprising us both, “Thanks. I promise I’ll look out for you guys. I’m not a killer, but I assure you I’m no pacifist.”

  “Hey Xario!” Garrett called through the speakers, “Mind if we get your help up here? Seems Jurol just don’t have the upper body strength required to shift this panel.”

  The speakers shut off again and Xario, unlike Jurol, needed no go ahead from me to leave.

  That left a full five minutes of silence, and another bout of turbulence, between Juno and I that ended at the exact moment Juno went to start verbally assaulting me again, “Juno! Can we get you up here? Seems even Xario’s havin’ a bit of trouble, see you in a bit.”

  Juno eyeballed the speakers for a little while, not in anger, but rather curiosity, and I was inclined to agree. Something was most definitely off.

  For one thing, the only panel in the bridge opened with hydraulics, and the only way to pry it open was by using a tool that unlocked it from the hydraulics, after that it weighed little more than a car door.

  But Juno, despite all her talk, had a strict policy about following orders, so she left and, as with the other two, was shortly followed by a bit of turbulence.

  “Let me guess,” I said with a smile as I looked up to see Garrett stepping into the cabin, “need some help with the engines?”

  Garrett smiled and shook his head, “Nope. Seems your squad wanted to get some fresh air, I promise I told ‘em that jumpin’ from a transport shuttle in low orbit weren’t too brainy.”

  At first I thought he was joking, until I remembered the type of person he was.

  Without wasting another second, I shot up out of my seat and ran past him and into the DR.

  “Hey hey hey, what’s the rush? They’re all geared up… Mostly. I’ll drop the weapons down later.”

  I bit my tongue just in time to catch a curse before it left my lips as I scanned the walls for my drop-gear. In my panicked and frenzied state the cables that dangled from the ceiling twisted around me, giving me a sudden and exceptional amount of sympathy for fish.

  “Relax Kurla. You know how kids are, one minute they’re all pudgy and adorable, the next minute their drinking and partying and diving to almost certain doom. It’s all just a part of growing up.”

  I continued to block him out as I pulled and strapped on my jump-pack and started punching in the lockdown codes into the door panel. There was a series of loud thumps as the DR isolated its pressure and oxygen.

  I pushed the yellow and red button that sat on the cross section of my straps and the pack began to envelop me. It buzzed and whirred to life as it wrapped everything from my hands to my combat boot wearing feet.

  At some point while I’d been preparing Garrett had put on a set of the respiratory gear and connected himself to the roof with one of the hanging cables, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” he said with a smile through his full-face oxygen mask as I walked to the centre of the room.

  I regarded him with confusion for a moment before realising what he meant, “Helmet!” I shouted and ran back to the gear wall. After a few seconds of searching I found one and pulled it on, breathing a sigh of relief as it sealed with the suit.

  “Good girl,” he said proudly, “you have to remember to keep your wits about you, otherwise you won’t last a second down there.”

  I was still angry with him, furious even, but I understood what he was doing. Being a good shot, being a good leader, being a good survivor, none of that mattered in a real battle. What mattered was being able to think in the worst of situations.

  Garrett activated the blaring countdown, “You gonna save ‘em or stare at me all day long girl!? Get a move on!” he shouted encouragingly, “My suggestion? Find the one that keeps dying first! It might just be the day he succeeds!”

  I returned to the centre of the room and took a few deep breaths. I’d never done a low-orbit dive before, not even for fun. It was easier when I wasn’t thinking, now I couldn’t help but imagine what was going to happen if something went wrong. I was starting to wonder if I should even be doing it.

  But then Garrett made the decision for me, “DR open!”

  Before I could do so much as scream I was sucked downward. The reader inside my helmet told me I was already moving at 190 km/h, but I knew if I left my pencil-dive stance and tried to slow down I could get caught in an updraft and never be seen again, or my suit would tear itself and me apart. Neither one of those sounded particularly appealing.

  As the forest drew closer I tried to trust my suit, I really wanted to, but my gut told me there was something wrong.

  It was fast reaching a point of no return and none of the automated systems had activated. I was about to completely give up when Garrett’s words came back to me, ‘can’t trust a computer kids, trust a computer and you’ll always come to regret it.’

  I was less than 150 feet from a whole lot of pain when I manually activated my thrusters and parachute ensuring that I wasn’t going to die, but there was still a bit of a crunch in my knees when I hit the ground.

  Time to Work

  After deciding to ditch my gear, which wasn’t worth the weight and the noise it made when I moved around, I’d started looking around for a weapon. I was surrounded by thick, dark trees and had absolutely no way to tell where I was, especially considering that it was the dark blue of early morning wherever I was, meaning that it was even earlier than when we’d left Seros. All that I knew was that I was somewhere habitable and that at any moment I could be attacked by Federation soldiers.

  I kept trying to convince myself that it was just some training simulation, something to weed out the weaker ones until all that was left were the strong, but it was getting harder and harder to believe that, especially when I took into account the fact that I almost died.

  About three minutes of searching later and I found a short but heavy stick shaped somewhat like a club, which led me on to my next objective, find my team.

  I’ll be perfectly honest, that wasn’t the idea that went through my head, no, I was honestly contemplating finding a nice, quiet place for me to sit down and think on how I was going to handle my situation. My team needed me though, and I knew that, and though I hoped Garrett had told them to stay where they were, I was pretty confident that they’d be wandering around the woods trying to get themselves killed.

  I probably wasn’t giving them enough credit, I know that, but at the same time I’d rather think they were idiots and have to save them than think they’re capable and let them do their own thing and have them die.

  A good twenty minutes passed me by as I searched the trees for strung up teenagers when I heard faint breathing coming up behind me.

  I instinctively spun on my feet and took a swing for whoever it was’ head, something that was stopped by a strong black hand catching my club and a smiling face, “Tell me, what was your plan for if this happened?” Xario laughed.

  He’d done the smart thing and taken off his armour, and no, it’s not just the smart thing because it was what I did, I’m not that egotistical. It was the smart thing to do because it was the smart thing to do.

  It also explained why he was able to get so close before I noticed he was there, making me actually quite grateful to know that there was one less person I had to worry about on future missions.

&n
bsp; “Little something like this.” I said as I let go of the club and went for a roundhouse kick that, as expected, he caught.

  “And from here?” he asked, still laughing, while holding my heel.

  The last word hadn’t even left Xario’s lips by the time I’d kicked off the ground, landed on his right shoulder with my left shin, and brought him to his knee with a swift, but relatively gentle, elbow to the head. After that he was disorientated enough that he’d let my foot go, making me able to roll off his back and land where he was standing, my club back in hand as I turned to face my downed ‘threat’.

  “You really paid attention in those hand-to-hand combat lessons, huh?” Xario joked as he got to his feet, rubbing his head and turning to face me as he did so.

  “Lil’ bit, how’s your head?” I asked with an accomplished smile.

  “Yeah, it’s fine, could’ve been a little softer.”

  “Any softer and you wouldn’t have gone down, would you?”

  Xario chuckled and nodded, “True, found any of the others yet?”

  I silently cursed my luck and shook my head, “No, I was just about to ask you the same.”

  “Damn… Ah well, least we got each other, probably find them quicker now that there’s four eyes instead of two.”

  Ever the optimist, but I supposed that that was a good thing, I needed someone like that in my team, else I’d be constantly thinking about the fact that there was a whole lot of forest out here, and five minutes travel between drops could mean we were anywhere from fifty feet to five hundred miles from each other.

  “Sounds good.” I said before pointing out a particularly unique tree about a hundred feet away, “Let’s head that way and start to make a grid.”

  “Can’t we just yodel?” Xario asked as if it were some funny little thing I should understand.

  When he didn’t take the meaning of my obvious facial cue I decided a verbal indicator might be necessary, “Yodel?”