by J. J. Green
In answer, he swept his arm through the doorway, as if inviting her to go out.
She leapt up and yelled, “Yeah!”
A pillow thrown by a disgruntled marine hit her square in the middle, but she barely registered it. She was already running toward the door. On her way, she snatched her uniform from her rack with one hand and with her other she grabbed her boots. When she reached Abacha, she leapt up and grabbed him in a quick hug. “I owe you,” she said, before racing out.
But as she reached the junction at the end of the passageway, she remembered something and pulled up abruptly. Abacha had remained in the doorway, watching her, his arms folded across his sizable chest.
She called out, “Which briefing room?”
“Two.”
“Shit.”
She ran back the way she’d come. As she reached her friend, he held up a hand for a high five. Taylan slapped his palm as she passed him.
She was going to Earth, perhaps even to the Britannic Isles, and who knew what she might find out while she was there?
Chapter Three
As the marines who would take part in the rescue piled into the Daisy’s Briefing Room 2, Wright was struck by how young they looked. They had to be at least eighteen—he didn’t think recruitment had become so desperate the BA took on anyone younger—but some of them looked like kids.
The men and women quickly took seats.
How long had it been since he was as fresh-faced as them?
Before he knew it, Wright was rubbing the old wound in his knee. He’d received it at his first engagement, when he’d been no older than the marines in front of him, at the Battle of Queen Charlotte Bay, last stronghold of the BA on the Falkland Isles.
For more than sixteen years, he’d put off getting proper treatment for the injury. He needed the entire joint replaced, the doc had said. The lab could grow new bones and cartilage from his stem cells prior to the op, but afterward it would be two weeks before he was fit to return to duty. There had always been something happening that deterred him from taking so much sick leave; an upsurge in EAC attacks, new, illegal resource harvesting by the Antarctic Project, or influxes of new recruits, refugees fleeing lost homelands.
Time had slipped by so fast.
He took a head count. Only nineteen marines were present. Irritated, he decided to wait another minute for the latecomer.
All his life, he’d known nothing but war. When he’d joined up, the struggle had already lasted fifty-eight years. He’d been in primary school when he’d learned about its origins. The Antarctic Project had been the instigator. Intent on harvesting the remainder of Earth’s depleted resources to build gigantic colony ships, the AP had been looting the planet, and it had been invading protected zones to stock up on the finest genetic material from all species, including humankind.
As governments defied the Project, it had militarized. What it had once stolen by stealth or political machinations, it now took by force. Few had been able to withstand its march across the globe. Only the Britannic Alliance had managed to hold it back, safeguarding the homelands and historical territories. Elsewhere in the world, the AP had done as it wanted, and sovereign nations had been too cowed to stop it.
Then the Earth Awareness Crusade had appeared. When the organization first emerged, the EAC had seemed to be one of the BA’s strongest supporters and allies, sharing the ideals of conservancy and preservation. But as the months and years wore on, the Crusade had shown its true colors. The BA’s policy was to maintain the political status quo in the member states of its protectorate, never interfering in their governance. But the EAC would constantly try to subtly subvert this aim. Political leaders would die in mysterious circumstances, and their replacements would champion new and strange paradigms, ideas that happened to be central to the EAC.
After several repeats of these strange occurrences, the BA realized these events were not coincidences, that the EAC was secretly asserting control. What was more, it was turning the newly acquired country’s populations toward bizarre, cultish belief systems at odds with concepts of personal autonomy and basic human rights.
And now the BA seemed to be fighting a rearguard action. No superior officer had ever described it that way within his hearing, but year after year they lost more ground either seized by the AP or taken over by the EAC, displacing entire populations.
He frowned. He didn’t know the solution. Perhaps the higher ups had something up their sleeves.
Someone coughed, and Wright was mentally jerked back to the briefing. The latecomer still hadn’t arrived. He was annoyed and surprised. He’d chosen the best from the platoon across the skills spectrum. He didn’t have much of an idea what they would face so he’d wanted to cover all the bases. The last thing he’d expected was that one of the exemplary marines would be late.
He would find out who it was later. He didn’t want to waste any more time.
He quickly opened the briefing, and then said, “We touch down in...” He looked up and left, activating a clock that superimposed on his vision. “Thirty-eight minutes. As I explained in the comm, this is a—”
The sound of a pair of rapidly running, booted feet echoed through the doorway. A woman burst into the room and stood to attention before noticing everyone except Wright was sitting down. She jumped into the nearest empty seat, keeping her eyes forward. One of her boots was unlaced.
Her arrival seemed to send a ripple through the room.
Clenching his jaw, Wright strode to the latecomer, coming to a halt a few centimeters from her.
“Name?” he demanded.
“Ellis, sir. Here to replace Abacha.”
“Replace...?” He remembered he’d picked Abacha because the man was proficient at hand-to-hand combat. If they did meet any hostiles in the mountains of West BI, the fighting was likely to be up close and personal.
“He’s sick, sir,” continued the self-appointed replacement. “Threw up all over his rack as soon as—”
“Ellis,” chided Sergeant Elphicke, sitting to her left.
Wright looked the woman up and down. He didn’t recall seeing her before. She wasn’t young like the others. She was closer to his own age. Her rank implied she’d joined up recently, unless her performance had been so appalling she hadn’t been promoted once in fifteen years of service. She was average build, her hair mouse brown and cut just below her ears. Her cool gray eyes remained fixed forward.
The rest of the team didn’t like her. That was what the non-verbal reaction had been about when she entered the room. He wondered what she’d done to earn the other marines’ animosity.
Disappointed that he was down one of the platoon’s best fighters, he hoped Abacha’s mediocre replacement wouldn’t prove too much of a liability.
Wright returned to the front, reminding himself to check Ellis’s story later.
Addressing the room, he said, “We’re going into BI—”
Had that annoying marine jumped a little?
“Currently EAC-held territory,” he continued. “I’m going to be honest: It’s a rescue mission, but I don’t have a clue who we’re rescuing. All we have are the distress signal coordinates. This area isn’t well defended as far as we can tell, but the EAC is not going to miss the Daisy’s arrival. Once we’re on the ground, speed is going to make all the difference to our success or failure. We have to rescue this person or persons and get out of there before the EAC arrive. Flight time from the nearest military airport is thirty-five minutes, and we can expect them to detect us going in, so that leaves us with very little time.”
He went on to share as many details of the mission as he could tell them, but they were precious few. Within a couple of minutes, he was finished.
He told the marines to suit up.
Chapter Four
The Daisy’s ramp split from the bulkhead and began to lower. Instantly, snowflakes whirled through the gap. As the outdoor air flooded in, Taylan watched the temperature displayed on her HUD drop to minus two degrees C
. It was a cold night.
Along with the rest of the team, she lined up at the opening hatch. Ahead of her, a square of black night appeared, pierced by the corvette’s lights.
In the few months since completing Basic, she hadn’t got her space legs, and she was feeling like her stomach remained somewhere in the upper stratosphere. But she was jubilant. She was returning to her homeland. Despite the risks of persuading Abacha to allow her to take his place, she had no regrets. Anything she could find out while she was home could be useful.
The only downside was the short time they would be there.
So far, they’d been lucky. The Daisy hadn’t been fired upon during the descent. The EAC must have had the surprise of its life when the BA warship swooped down from open skies, but even now it would be rushing to challenge the invasion.
The ramp hit the ground.
“Move out,” came Elphicke’s order.
Taylan jogged into the night, her rifle gripped across her chest, snowflakes melting on her visor. As she left the Daisy, the ship’s lights cut out and her visor’s night vision kicked in. A gray-green, rocky landscape appeared, cracks and hollows already filling with snow. The distress signal pulsed high on her display. According to the map overlay, it originated 634 meters north-north-west and 178 meters up.
The marines in front were already running up the rising ground, seeking paths between the boulders. Others were flanking out right and left, sweeping for hostiles. Her job was to protect the core team, who would push forward and make the rescue.
As she looked from side to side, checking for movement or spots of heat that might signify enemy soldiers, she scanned for long range data too. Her suit’s computer soon began to extrapolate from the surrounding topography and narrow down the potential places. It quickly told her she was in West BI.
Yes!
It was more than she could have hoped for. The European mainland would have been good, the Britannic Isles even better, but the old land of her fathers? It was as if it was meant to be.
Her computer identified a settlement in a valley to the east, naming it Trecenyyd. She turned her head sharply right, knowing what she would find. The name Efail Isaf popped up on her HUD.
She’d been there once, as a child. It was a tiny, old-fashioned village; a place out of time. She’d gone into its only shop and bought sweets with actual cash, not via a tele-trans, or even a card, but a paper note her grandpa had handed her before she set out. And then, as well as a bag of delicious chewy gums, the shopkeeper had given her round pieces of metal he called ‘change’.
From the corner of her eye, she saw movement.
She jerked her head around.
The mountainous landscape spread out, gray-green, speckled with falling flakes, and still.
Nothing.
Had she imagined it?
She slowed to a stop and squatted behind a rock for cover. Leaning her back against the stone surface, she replayed her helmet recording of one minute prior.
There it was! She froze the recording. She had seen something.
She expanded the frozen image and brought up what looked like a shoulder and half a head poking out from behind a rock, among fuzzy motionless snowflakes.
The rest of her team was clearly marked on her HUD, the closest fellow marine seven or eight meters away. Whatever was out there, it wasn’t one of her own.
They were being watched, and she’d caught one of the watchers just before he ducked out of sight.
“Sergeant,” she commed to Elphicke, “we have a voyeur.” She relayed the image and figure’s coordinates.
“Good spot,” Elphicke replied. “Blake, Chen, McEndry, assist Ellis in dispatching the gawper.”
It seemed odd the EAC had operatives out here in this lonely place, assuming the watcher was EAC. He was suited up, so Taylan guessed he had to be.
How many more of them were out there on the hillside?
It was already too late to prevent him from sending a message to his command. If the arrival of the Daisy hadn’t been enough to trigger an imminent attack, the marines were now on a rapid countdown before the soldier’s buddies turned up.
Taylan rose and, keeping low, began to circle to the right, round to the rear of the hostile’s position. On her HUD, she saw Chen do the same in the other direction, while Blake and McEndry slowly approached him from the front. If the onlooker was alone, they would catch him easily as they closed in.
“Eyes open,” said Blake. “Don’t forget there might be more of them.”
If the soldier wasn’t by himself, Taylan might have to make and lose some new friends en route, but there was nothing of military interest in that remote place. She couldn’t believe the EAC would have many troops on the ground.
She was five meters from the man, who didn’t seem to have moved, when, as she stepped between two boulders, her right boot slid down into the gap.
She cursed and tried to pull it out, but it was jammed in.
After a couple of seconds of tugging, Chen asked, “What’s up, Ellis?” He must have noticed she’d stopped.
“I’m stuck, but I’ll be...Shit!” Her boot had slipped farther down. The narrow gap opened up at the bottom, and in her struggles she’d accidentally pushed when she’d meant to pull. Now, her foot was free below the opening, but she was trapped by her ankle.
She let her rifle swing free from her neck and shoulder and braced herself by her elbows against the rocks on each side. They were slippery with crystalline ice. With a great effort, she wrenched her leg upward. The hard stone ground into her ankle bones, but she couldn’t free her foot.
Meanwhile, the other three marines had nearly reached their target.
“Going in without you, Ellis,” McEndry said.
“No,” she protested. “Wait.” She groaned as she twisted her lower leg, feeling the bite of solid mineral and the tearing of her skin. Nothing seemed to help.
It was no good. She was well and truly trapped.
“We don’t have time,” came McEndry’s impassive reply.
Taylan swore some more.
The friendly dots on her HUD showed McEndry and the others drawing closer to the watcher. There wasn’t anything she could do to help her team now, but she guessed they would be okay. It was three against one, and they were all experienced marines.
She returned her attention to her foot and noticed that the gap between the boulders was uneven. If she could squeeze her ankle forward, she would reach a wider area where she might be able to lift her boot out.
A voice burst from her comm: “Chen, watch out!”
It was Blake.
Flashes exploded to her left.
Damn!
Her team was under attack. The EAC had closed in on them.
She desperately tried to force her lower leg forward.
More flashes erupted to her left. On her HUD she saw, with horror, the dot representing Chen wink from green to blue. He was gone. Dead in an instant.
Their sergeant had seen it too.
“Blake,” barked Elphicke. “Sitrep.”
“We’ve lost...Shit! I think, I think there’s four of them.”
Pulse rounds split the night.
Blake’s comm remained open. Everyone connected heard his scream.
His dot changed color.
Taylan yelled, “No!”
She’d managed to push her ankle forward, but now it felt like it was cemented in. She couldn’t move it a millimeter in any direction.
With a cry of frustration, she lifted her rifle above the boulder and pointed it upward. Squeezing the trigger, she let off round after round, frantically trying to draw attention away from McEndry, the remaining living marine of the three who had joined her to kill the watcher.
McEndry’s dot turned blue.
Elphicke’s curse came over her comm. “Ellis, what the hell are you doing? Why haven’t you moved for the last two minutes?”
“I’m stuck, sir. I...”
She swallo
wed.
Three fellow marines had died, and there hadn’t been anything she could do about it.
“Stuck? What do you mean?”
“My foot’s trapped.”
“Can you take off your boot?”
“Negative, sir.” Even if she’d been able to reach through the gap, her ankle was now wedged so tightly, removing her boot wouldn’t make any difference.
“Well, I can see you discharged your weapon,” said Elphicke stonily, “and announced your location to the world. I can’t send anyone to help. We’re under fire here. You’re on your own.”
Taylan could see the flashes of pulse rifles firing higher up the mountain. The place was crawling with EAC, though even sheep would see no reason to be out on the mountain in the middle of winter.
In her peripheral vision, something moved.
They were coming for her.
“I understand, sir,” she said.
Elphicke paused a beat.
“Good luck, Ellis. Over and out.”
Chapter Five
The distress signal blinked stubbornly on Wright’s HUD. Glaring at it, he adjusted his scanners, short and long-range, for the second time, but the result was the same.
It was coming from inside the mountain.
He looked up the slope. The mountain face rose above him and disappeared from sight into darkness and falling snow. Nothing he saw indicated the presence of a passage into the hidden chamber.
Behind him, farther down the mountain, EAC troops were closing in. The organization had responded fast to the Daisy’s arrival, he had to give them that. Unbelievably fast. Elphicke would keep the enemy back for a while, but not indefinitely. Wright estimated he had maybe ten minutes—fifteen, tops—to retrieve the person or people in distress.
But how was he supposed to do that when they were behind several tonnes of rock? He’d tried comming them on the same frequency as the distress signal but received no reply, and no other frequencies generated a response either.
Something else was bothering him deeply—how the hell was the signal penetrating solid stone?
