Spending most of his day stuck in a dank pipe wasn’t exactly Jason’s idea of a good time, but if his plan was to have any chance of success it had to be done at night. Besides, it wasn’t like he’d spent the entire time twiddling his thumbs. He’d been keeping an eye on the hospital and making note of the Interior’s patrol routes.

He’d also been intermittently checking to see if the comms had come back online. They hadn’t, but he hadn’t exactly expected them to given that he was pretty sure the source of the jamming was a ship parked in orbit. Watching the clock in the upper right of his vision, he let out a sigh of relief as the timer finally counted down to zero.

Sloshing back down the tunnel as quietly as he could, he came to the junction where Raisha and Tarcil were both napping in preparation for the heist. Part of him was internally grumbling at the fact that the pair had more or less slept through the monotony of the last few hours, but another part of him reminded himself that he was the one who insisted on it.

A Shil’vati might have had about the same amount of ‘operational’ time as a human, but their ability to focus deteriorated a lot faster if they went beyond it. By contrast, while he didn’t exactly enjoy pulling an all-nighter, Jason had more or less become accustomed to them even before he’d arrived at the Crucible.

“Get up,” he grunted, none too gently nudging each of them with his foot. To their credit, both of them snapped awake with surprising alacrity.

“It’s time?” Raisha asked as she scooped up her weapon and clambered to her feet.

“It’s time,” Jason nodded as he handed Tarcil his weapon. “Guard change should happen in about forty minutes.”

Plenty of time for them to do what they needed to do…or get shot before they even made it into the building, but that had always been a possibility. They were a trio of recruits with some basic combat training under their belt, not commandos. Jason was making this up as he went along.

“Alright,” he said, seeing that the others were ready. “Anyone got anything they need clarification on before we do this?”

He’d gone over it all earlier, but it was always possible someone had forgotten or thought of something while they’d been taking a tunnel nap.

“Just one,” Tarcil said, a hint of nervousness in his voice. “Why are we stealing the truck again?”

Jason shrugged. “It looks important and might make for a decent getaway vehicle. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be hopping that wall while being shot at, least of all if we’re trying to escort ‘cargo.’”

He figured it was pretty much a guarantee they were going to trip an alarm eventually. He didn’t want to rely purely on his intended distraction to keep the Interior off his back.

“I suppose,” Tarcil said dubiously, “though I’m beginning to think that Freyxh might have been onto something. You’re actually pretty good at this.”

Jason’s head whipped round. “You have to be joking.”

“Well…we’re here aren’t we?” Raisha pointed out. “I don’t see anyone else about to sneak into the Interior command center-”

“Because no one else was crazy enough to consider crawling through the sewers across half the city,” Tarcil pointed out.

Raisha continued as if the male hadn’t spoken. “And now you’ve made a plan that has us, you know.…”

Jason resisted the urge to scoff as she trailed off, as if she couldn’t even say it. The pair of them made it sound like they were doing something that would get them tried in the Hague. Or the Shil’vati Hague equivalent. It was ridiculous. It was a war game. They were supposed to be using whatever means they had at hand to win.

Besides, the Interior cadets would be fine provided they were all wearing their suits and masks which was supposed to be mandatory for the duration of the exercise! And if one wasn’t? Well, that was hardly his fault. He wasn’t about to pull his punches because of the possibility of carelessness on an enemy’s part.

Besides, he had little doubt that a battery of instructors were watching the exercise through their helmet cameras, and if any of them had issues with his plan, none of them had made it known.

Ignorant of his thoughts, Tarcil continued on. “I mean, I’ve heard about stuff like that happening on Earth.…”

“You have?” Jason asked, turning back to his friend in surprise. He was surprised, because he sure as shit hadn’t heard about anything of the sort.

Both of the aliens nodded though.

Jason found himself gaping, before a scowl formed on his face. Maybe he wasn’t giving Shil’vati censors enough credit? Apparently they were doing a better job of obfuscating the truth than he expected. Sure, he hadn’t exactly been looking for it, but normally you expected that kind of doctoring to be…well, obvious.

Apparently not.

Sighing, he turned his mind back to the topic at hand. Something he absently noted he’d been doing a lot lately in regards to Earth.

“I had us tromp through the absurdly spacious sewers for a few blocks and then came up with a half-baked plan when we got here,” he said. “It was hardly rocket science.”

Honestly, he might have been more comfortable with rocket science.

Raisha laughed quietly. “Would you have ever considered going through the sewers, Tarcil?”

“Not in a hundred years,” the male answered with a deadpan tone. “Not even if I was charged with saving the Empress herself.”

“Me neither,” Raisha agreed, arms crossed over her chest. “Nor would anyone else I know. It’s crazy. It’s like…Hannibal taking the elephants over the mountains.”

“It’s not…” Jason dismissed, before a thought occurred to him. “You know about that?”

“Well, yeah,” Raisha said with surprising sheepishness. “After you mentioned him, I did a little research.”

Now Tarcil was staring too.

“For pictures at first!” Raisha stammered, as if that was somehow more acceptable. “But I actually found the history, y’know, kinda cool, too. It was like something out of the Illios saga.”

Jason continued to stare at the awkward alien for a few more seconds before shaking his head. Fascinating as this was, they could talk about it later.

“Right, well if nobody has any other observations, I’d say it’s time to go.”

Seeing neither had anything else to say, Jason started walking back down the tunnel, his guts churning uncomfortably as he tried to think of all the ways this could go south.

One step at a time, he reminded himself. Encounter a problem. Work through it. Repeat. One step at a time.

--------------

Jason waited with bated breath for the Interior sentrys to turn the corner as they made another loop of the outer courtyard wall. Now, if the statistical averages held true, they had about thirty seconds before the next pair appeared. The gap between these two groups had originally been shorter, but as the evening wore on, it had gotten longer and longer as either boredom or lack of sleep affected the pairs in question.

“Go,” he hissed, sending them all sprinting toward the wall, weapons slung over their backs. Within seconds, he and Tarcil had their back pressed against it.

“Up we go,” Jason whispered as they both used their hands as footholds for Raisha to clamber up. For all that he’d cursed the wall on the obstacle course enough times, he was thankful for the experience now as he reached up for Raisha’s hand, allowing the woman to pull him over the wall from her position perched at the top. Tarcil was quick to follow and within moments they were inside the compound.

He let out a relieved sigh as he saw there were no guards inside. Which wasn’t entirely unexpected. The Interior only had so many people and he had no idea how many layers of defenses they’d bypassed already by using the tunnels to get so close to the hospital. Regardless, it seemed the outer courtyard walls were where the Interior’s innermost defenses stopped.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

…Assuming there weren’t more sentries inside the buildings themselves. Whatever. They’d cross that bridge if they encountered it.

He didn’t need to say anything, before Tarcil and Raisha darted off for their disparate tasks. Jason in turn, took off towards his own objective, the large hospital building at the center of the compound.

Slowing down as he reached the building’s massive outer doors, Jason kept his weapon raised and ready as he cautiously stepped inside, his heart pounding in his chest as adrenaline ran through his system. The sound of his breathing seemed incredibly loud in his ears and though he knew none of the noise would penetrate through the mask, he did his best to stifle it.

The hospital was just as rundown inside as any other building, mold growing on the fabric of the waiting room chairs. Fortunately beyond a tiny lizard-like creature that quickly skittered away at the sight of him, no one was there to greet him as he stepped through the foyer and into the first hallway.

Keeping an eye out for signs as much as sentries, he still found his head craning inside as he stepped past the first room in the hall. Despite the fact that he was expecting it, he still felt his heart skip a beat as he saw the rows upon rows of sleeping Shil’vati inside. The Interior cadets had commandeered the old hospital beds. A fairly gross proposition given the state of said beds, but given that all of them were wearing sealed combat suits, a marginally better proposition than the hard tiled floor.

Moving on, he kept looking for signage that would direct him to somewhere ‘important’. Something like the head-doctor’s office. Of course, the temptation was that such a place was on a higher level, but he knew that was a human bias. Shil’vati built out when they could, even if this particular building had prompted them to have multiple levels. No, when it came to showing off prestige, the ground coverage of a building was what mattered, not its height. Therefore, if you wanted to find the most ‘important’ place in a Shil’vati building, you had to go in.

Jason continued his journey, wincing every time his feet moved over loose dirt or skittered against a bit of rubble. The place felt like a labyrinth, even if he knew it wasn’t all that large.

“Alright, just down this hall and.…”

He stopped as he mentally ran through the last few moments. Stepping back, he peeked into a room and confirmed what he thought he saw; an Interior cadet, passed out on a relatively clean bed, her mask on the nightstand next to her.

“Shit,” he hissed as he glanced up at his timer. He only had five more minutes until Tarcil made his move. Not long at all.

He rushed over to her side, cursing the moron for endangering her own life for a little more comfortable snooze. The rules were clear. Suit and masks until the exercise was over. At most, they were allowed to lift it to eat and drink, and only in areas they felt were ‘safe.’

Whatever that meant.

Glancing around, he was relieved to see that the one in front of him was the exception rather than the rule. All the others had their masks on. His little rebel here had probably pulled hers off after everyone else went to sleep and planned to wake up earlier and put it back on before anyone else wised up.

He was just about to pick up the mask and begin the painfully delicate process of trying to slide it over her head without waking her when he stopped.

He recognized her.

“You have to be shitting me,” he whispered under his breath.

Of all the shitty coincidences, it just had to be one of the girls from his night out. The one that had been friends with Taranse, Hik or Helk or something.

Of their own volition, his hands moved away from the helmet and he raised his gun. He could shoot her. Leave her paralyzed in her armor. When Tarcil made his move she’d be stuck.

Vulnerable.

…In the confusion, she might even get left behind. It would be a horrific accident. It wouldn’t be his fault though. The rules were clear after all, and his plan presented no real threat to anyone who followed them.

His finger hesitated on the trigger. She deserved it. So very richly. She probably wouldn’t even be hurt. It was only a possibility after all. In all likelihood, she’d be fine.

…there was always that chance though.

“Fuck,” he cursed under his breath. Swiping the helmet off the nightstand, he watched as it rolled under a nearby bed.

That would have to do.

He sprinted out of the room. He’d get even. Properly even. Not just a haphazard attempt in the middle of a training exercise. He made up his mind. After this was all over, he’d go to the Instructors. Tell them what happened on his night off.

The thought seemed to soothe him as he clambered up the stairs, having completed his search of the first floor, only to freeze as he rounded a corner and found himself staring into the surprised face mask of an Interior cadet. Still, even if they were both surprised, his reflexes were faster and his gun came up in one smooth motion, the short barrel proving to be a boon as he put a burst of shots straight into her chest.

The armor the Shil’vati wore had a nigh mythical reputation on Earth, given the many videos of Shil’vati marines striding to gunfire with little more to show for it than the odd stumble. Still, the kit was not infallible, and Shil’vati weapon tech was just as effective - especially at close range.

The woman fell like a statue, her armor freezing up as she was killed, frozen in the act of raising her weapon.

“What the fuck?” Her muffled voice cursed as she hit the floor.

“Dead people don’t talk,” he reminded her as he jumped over her, clicking open the door she’d been standing guard against.

Inside, he found a fairly stately room, occupied by a single fancy bed and a massive window that surveyed the hospital grounds.

“What in the Empress’s name!?” the same fancily dressed Shil’vati from earlier said as she threw off her sheets.

Jason had to give her credit, barely a moment passed between her waking up, her masked gaze landing on him, and her reaching for the pistol on her nightstand. Unfortunately that was a moment too long, given that his weapon was already up and ready.

Still, he wasn’t here for an assassination and it took him a moment longer to acquire his target. The Shil’vati actually managed to grip her weapon before his first shot took her in the upper arm, and she’d managed to raise it before the limb froze up completely. Jason's next few shots hit her left arm, left leg, and right leg respectively.

The Shil’vati - Colonel, apparently – fell to the floor in an ungainly heap, each limb turned rock solid.

Threat dealt with, Jason slammed the heavy wooden doors behind him before dragging a moldy bookcase in front of them. The screech of wood being dragged across tile seemed incredible in the quiet of the night, but he figured the time for stealth had passed the moment he’d practically ran face first into the guard outside the colonel’s room.

As evidenced by the fact that he could already hear shouting and the pounding of feet from the hall he’d just been in. For the moment, they sounded more confused than angry, but he figured it would be a matter of seconds before they found the ‘dead’ guard and realized they were under attack.

With that in mind, he could only hope that Raisha and Tarcil had completed their objectives. If they hadn’t, he’d be making his last stand in the next few minutes. After finishing off the down colonel, of course.

Almost of its own volition, his mind jumped to the words of the sentries from before and he found his stomach churning. While he was reasonably sure it was just ‘locker room talk,' he still felt more than a little discomfited at the thought of being captured.

As he ran over to the bed and started ripping the sheets off, he considered that perhaps he would best be served saving his last shot for himself?

“Ma’am? Are you ok?” a muffled shout came through the door.

“What do you think, you idiots!?” the woman shouted from the floor.

Jason thought about instructing her to shut up, but decided it’d be a waste of time. Time he had little of as a powerful thump heralded the Interior’s attempts to open the doorway. Fortunately the heavy wood held, but he doubted it would do so for long.

“Honestly,” the woman on the floor grunted, craning to look at him as best she could. “I’ve no idea how you got in here, but it would be in your best interests to surrender now, male. Whatever you had planned, it’s clearly failed.”

Jason glanced up at the timer on his HUD, and was dismayed to see that the number was at zero.

“Maybe,” he admitted as he walked over to the woman, dragging her along the floor like the world’s most ungainly sack of potatoes much to her vocal dismay.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

Jason ignored her as he used the butt of his gun to break the glass of the window, though he tried to keep low in case anyone tried to shoot him from outside.

He felt a shiver go up his spine, as a crack from behind him heralded the first break in the door's exterior. There was now a gap in the wood of the door and he had to dive to the side to avoid the barrel that stuck through.

Crawling across the floor, he grabbed the downed squawking colonel, propping her up as an impromptu shield.

“If you don’t want to get knocked out of this competition here and now, I’d tell your girls to cool it with the shooting.”

He didn't need to see the officer’s face to imagine the scowl that formed there, but the woman was prompt in her response. “Quit shooting, idiots!” she instructed. “Before you hit me!”

He noticed she didn’t say anything about stopping the attempts to break the door down and he was reasonably sure she was whispering instructions into her comms as evidenced by the sound of shoulders barging into wood recommencing.

Jason momentarily considered threatening his hostage to try and get them to stop, but the sound of wheels crunching across the concrete-equivalent outside cut off that train of thought.

“Come on Raisha,” he murmured. “Don’t fail me now.”

“What are you-”

The officer’s question cut off with a shriek as Jason levered her over the ledge and out the window. He winced a little at the sound of her body hitting something metallic before thumping to the floor, but he figured she was fine. Besides, he was doing the same thing. Clambering over the ledge, he glanced down to see the APC thing parked beneath them.

“Huh, that’s a little higher up than I remembered,” he thought as he considered the two story plunge.

Then he heard a loud crack as the door behind him finally gave way, and he leapt from the window as Interior recruits clambered through the shattered doorway and into the room.

The sensation of falling was mercifully brief, though the sensation of hitting the floor lingered a tad longer. The armor he was wearing was great, but it was powerless to protect him against the power of inertia, as he very much felt his internal organs bounce around as he hit the roof of the APC.

“Jason!” Raisha’s scandalized voice shouted, and he looked over to see her bodily dragging the downed colonel into the back of the vehicle. “You said you were going to lower her on a bed-sheet rope! You dropped her!”

“She’s fine,” Jason grunted as he rolled off the vehicle and onto the floor, very much aware of the armed recruits who were bound to start shooting from the window above. Or the window across the courtyard. Or from the courtyard walls.

Lots of places, really.

“I am not fine, you insane monkey!” the colonel shouted as he clambered into the crew section and Raisha moved through the compartment into the driver's seat. “You dropped me from a window!”

“You’re fine,” he said as he slammed a button on the wall, closing the rear ramp. Then he took a moment to actually look around.

“This…This isn’t just an APC,” he murmured as he saw the many consoles, headsets and buttons built into the walls of the machine.

“Of course not, it’s a Mobile Command Unit,” the downed officer harrumphed.

That…That was good?

Then he didn't get any more time to think on it as he was knocked off his feet by the vehicle accelerating forward. Cursing as he was pressed up against the wall, he clambered to his feet once more, none too delicately stepping over the colonel as he moved to the front of the MCU.

Peering into the front compartment, he saw Raisha as the controls as she directed the vehicle towards another of the buildings.

“There he is,” Raisha murmured, and Jason glanced up to see Tarcil clambering down from the building’s fire escape. It was hard not to notice that he was limping though, or that bits of rust around him kept exploding into dust, announcing that his pod member was being shot at.

Eventually though, the male made it to the floor with a final hop - though he could have jumped the last bit in Jason’s opinion. Ignoring the officer’s complaints about him climbing over her, he opened the rear ramp pulling his friend into the vehicle before closing it again.

“Punch it, Raisha!” he shouted.

“What?” she called back.

“Drive, woman!” Tarcil ordered, a hint of shrillness in his voice.

Then they were both being bowled over as Raisha hit the gas, sending the MCU shooting forward. He didn’t hear so much as feel the vehicle smash through the hospital’s outer courtyard wall. Which was rather annoying to him, because he’d specifically told her to go through the gate, lest they accidentally run some poor Interior sentry over.

Shil’vati armor was good, but he rather doubted it was tank proof. Still, they were away now, prize in hand. He’d actually pulled it off!

“Ugh, Jason? You have your hand on my.…”

Jason looked down and realized that both he and Tarcil were locked in a fairly compromising position. It also didn’t take a genius to hear the blush in his friend’s voice.

Resisting the urge to sigh, Jason went about disentangling himself from his friend, offering the guy a hand as he regained his feet. Rather than let the male dwell on it though, he switched the subject entirely.

“We did it,” he laughed. “We’re home free.”

Tarcil’s embarrassed body language changed in an instant as he straightened up, pride pervading the smaller male’s posture as he leaned against a console.

“And it seems we stole their MCU,” he said. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

“No, it’s not bad,” the Interior colonel said from her own, less than dignified position. “Though if you think you’re safe, you're delusional. Even as we speak, my women will be gearing up to hunt you down.”

Somewhat miffed at the interruption, Jason nonetheless smiled as he bonelessly sank onto a nearby stool.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said. “I imagine they’ll be more concerned with the fire.”

“Fire? What fire?”

Jason craned his head towards the front of the vehicle. “Raisha, do you know if there’s any way to-”

He lapsed into silence, as one of the nearby screens lit up, displaying the feed from what was apparently, one of the Interior’s overhead drones. On it, he could see as one of the hospital’s buildings was already engulfed in flames, armored figures stumbling from it, as others ran around like headless chickens.

It was chaos.

Even from her downed position, the colonel could see the screen.

“But…how?”

He gestured to Tarcil who had foregone a seat entirely, sinking to the floor.

“When you get right down to it, the basics between a magnifying glass and a laser rifle aren’t all that different. Both are just a means to focus heat and light.”

To her credit, the woman was quick to catch on. “You had your comrade gain a commanding vantage and had him use his weapon to start fires.”

“Got it in one.” Jason nodded as he reclined in his seat, trying to calm the pounding of his heart.

He’d done it. He’d succeeded. Against all odds. The sensation of victory was sweet. One he’d almost thought forgotten. Instead he’d grasped it once-

“Uh, Jason? We’ve got a problem up here.”

“Oh come on!” he hissed, clambering uncertainly to his feet.