Drelloc scrambled for her spare magazines as the starburst flares lit the surroundings like the midafternoon sun. Donner reached out a hand to steady her and she felt a tingle of calm race through her at his steadying touch. He was here, she would be fine as long as they were together. All parts of her knew this.
She felt a pang of desire to fall into his arms and close her eyes, to pretend that the rest of the war on Minasdee didn’t exist. But she suppressed it. It wouldn't do to allow herself to despair again, she had to remain strong for him if not for the mission. She gave a small start as she realised that her priorities had changed, she was more worried about Donner than the microchip in her hidden pocket. She stopped, when had that happened?
She asked her other quarters but none answered. She pouted slightly, their silence a little disheartening in the face of their current situation. She felt a warm glow of subconscious support at her disparaging thoughts though, they were still with her. But they didn’t seem to know or care about her priority shift. Oh well, she could always figure it out later when things had once more calmed down. ‘If they calmed down.’ A small part of her mused quietly in the corner of her mind.
She shook an arm, trying to get herself psyched up for anything. Combat or rescue, it mattered little. They just had to hold their position near the beacon as long as they could. She moved back into the cover of the small earthen bunker a bit more, the deep shadows cast by the overhead illumination causing stark lines between safety and discovery to become disturbingly apparent.
She observed Donner without having to move her head. The man was checking his weapon for the third time, likely a nervous tick of his. She walked over and placed a hand on one of his shoulders. “It’s going to be fine. We will make it through this, Donner.” She spoke with more confidence than she felt, but from the way the man perked up her words must have had the desired positive effect.
He nodded in that strange human way, his mouth curling into a thin smile as he spoke in return, “I know. But I can’t help but feel the tension. We just brought the proverbial hammer down on our position, if we weren't made before by that drone we certainly are now.”
She didn’t have anything to say about it so she changed the topic. “Donner, after this is all over..” She was surprised slightly when he cut her off.
He waved a hand frantically, “No! Don’t! It’s bad luck to talk about the mission like that. That's the kind of thing that brings Lady Luck’s ire down on us.”
She snorted, a sharp guttural noise. “Surely you can't believe..” She froze and went silent as the sound of gunfire erupted somewhere in the near to middle distance, voices slowly reaching them.
She hunkered back into cover as Donner took up a ready position near to the mouth of the small sheltered pit where they currently cowered. She peeked around the damaged sandbags, their fraying edges constantly seeming to leak small particles of loose soil. She gripped the pistol that Donner had given her tightly, not sure that when the time came she would be able to use it effectively.
Donner seemed to notice her trembling apprehension as the man motioned for her to move back into the cover of the earthworks more. She did so as the voices grew in urgency and volume.
After another few moments she was able to start making out individual voices.
A deep gruff feminine voice growled, “And this is the last time I listen to you. Why are we over here anyways, those Union packbreakers are attacking further to the left.”
Another one answered, this voice much higher in pitch but not in tone. It sounded slightly masculine, though not in the manner that she would have originally thought. “We follow the orders we were given. That signal is coming from this area. We check it out, if it’s nothing then we are good to go and kill some of those hornless sons of shrijs.”
A nerivith for sure, and a yeown it sounded like. There were at least two rebels coming, and where there were two there could be more. She gripped her firearm tighter and prepared for anything.
Another tense moment of waiting and then the sound of heavy footsteps. The steps were padded, likely the bare feet of the yeown. But there were other sounds too, the scuffle of boots, the creak of leather straps. There had to be more than two of them out there.
She kept her omnidirectional gaze fixed on Donner and the openings around them. All it would take was for one of those rebels to toss a grenade into the bunker and they would be toast.
The yeown’s gruff voice spoke again. “Hey, what’s that thing?”
Another voice. This one human sounding, though it was not exactly easy to tell due to the muffled nature of the speech. “What thing?”
The nerivith again, “Shut the hel up Truss. What thing Lork?”
A small sound, the clatter of metal on metal and then a series of harder to make out mutterings. After another moment she heard a voice swear, “Damn thing won't work. Alright, cover me. I’ll go and check it out.”
This time the remark was followed by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Donner hunkered and so she did as well, this wasn’t going to be good no matter what happened.
As the steps got closer she thought over the last few days of her life. If this was how it was meant to end then at least she could die happy with the knowledge that she had finally found peace with herselves. The footsteps stopped abruptly and she tensed.
Donner was knocked back on his butt as a flurry of shots impacted the side of the bunker. Bright purple streaks vitrified the dirt and sand of the outer wall and left small glass craters in the ruptured sandbags as the crackling of ionised air channels left glowing motes in its wake.
“Contact!” The nerivith voice shouted, the alarm followed quickly by a series of shots that further eroded the walls of their small earthen sanctuary.
Donner leaned out of cover and snapped off a burst of fire from his own weapon, the staccato flashes of his rifle illuminating his grim features. The wall she was leaning on was suddenly hammered by something that blew straight through the wall trailing a streamer of blue ionised air. It was some manner of railgun or gauss cannon, the weapon was likely being fired by the yeown as most were far too bulky to be comfortably carried by smaller races.
Donner railed off another series of quick shots, this time being rewarded with a yowl of pain as he hit one of the rebels. The fire slackened slightly and Donner slammed another magazine into his gun. He gave her a look and mouthed something to her that she didn't fully catch, it had looked like ‘Last’ or something. It took her a moment to realise that he was trying to tell her he was almost out of ammo.
She made an affirmative gesture and crouched low. He drew back into the corner of the bunker across from her as another series of footsteps approached.
It sounded like at least two of them. Donner peeked through one of the side portholes and then fired on something further up the hill. Just as he did so the sound of running was heard and something flew into the bunker. It was small, almost like a..
“Shit!” Donner shouted and covered his eyes, Drelloc did the same just as the stun grenade went off. A terrible noise and acrid fumes filled the space as the light seared through her closed eyelids.
If she had not managed to throw up her arm she might have been blinded more permanently, as it was her primary eyes were dazzled, so she turned and passed the 3011 to another of her arms before turning to present her undazzled eye just as two figures rushed into the bunker.
The first was tall and lean, the shadows of a pair of horns just visible over the dark raven colored hair that wreathed their pink face. They raised a short barreled beam rifle towards her but never got to fire it. Their face went from stern to shocked pain as Donner opened up on them. A starburst of bright blue blood appeared from their upper torso and throat as some of the bullets ripped through the nerivith soldier.
The second figure was about the same height but their thicker build and dark mop of curly brown hair snuck from under a dark grey helmet. They fired on Donner from near point blank range, Drelloc watched in mortification as he was thrown back against the dirt wall by the force of the impacts. His MR-12 spiralled from nerveless fingers and his face a mask of pain and shock.
She screamed, not in pain or fear but in primal anger. The dark rage that ripped its way out of her mind was chilling in its intensity. She had never before felt such powerful emotion and it scared her other selves, but not enough to stay her hand as she raised the previously unused pistol in her grip and fired it into the man who had shot Donner.
The human rebel grunted as the first two shots struck the back of his armour. He tried to turn and then screamed in real pain as one of the bullets took him on the shoulder and another clipped his temple, the strap of his helmet severing as the protective headgear was sent tumbling away. He hit the dusty ground hard, hard enough for him to lose his grip on his rifle.
She took another step towards the man as she pulled the trigger again, but it simply clicked as the magazine was spent. She fumbled at her belt with another one as the man scrambled for his own sidearm. She managed to slam the new one home right as he raised a large revolver in her direction, rather than firing she did the only thing she could think of. She dropped to the ground heavily as the wounded human fired.
She gurgled in fear as the large calibre round flashed overhead directly where she had been only heartbeats before. The rebel seemed momentarily stunned as to what had happened and she took the opportunity to shoot them in the face, the bullet taking them in the lower jaw and exiting out of the top of their skull.
The man jerked twice as he slumped and then fell still, the large pistol falling from their limp fingers as they twitched slightly. Drelloc stood on shaky and bruised legs and surveyed the carnage. The gun in her hands was all but forgotten now as her short circuited mind tried to deal with the reality of what had just transpired. She had just killed that human rebel, sure he had been trying to kill her first. But a part of her still recoiled from the barbarity of the action. She had never killed another sapient before, a cold spot seemed to form in her mind and she pushed the disgust and horror into the newly formed point. As if she could cage it away.
Oh to live in a world where violence was not a necessity, but such was not to be.
She smashed the thoughts aside as she saw Donner stir slightly, she rushed to his side heedless of any additional danger. Without him her life would cease to have any meaning, if he was injured and needed her help she would provide it.
**********
Donner jerked, the small object that clattered into the bunker immediately set off danger alarms in his mind.
He shouted, “Shit!” before covering his eyes as best he could and tucking himself into the far corner of the bunker.
The stun grenade went off with a series of loud debilitating noises and released noxious smog as the blinding light faded. Before he really had a chance to recover from the blast a pair of figures rushed into the room.
The first was tall and lean, a nerivith. Their head adorned with pink horns the same color as their skin nestled in raven black hair, a pair of violently violet eyes peering directly at Drelloc through the smoke. He saw the alien raise the sleek form of a beam rifle up and towards her.
Donner yelled in defiance and fired on the figure, his gun bucking in his gloved hands as the recoil dragged the barrel upwards slightly. As the nerivith soldier went down hard he heard another noise. Pain ripped through his side and chest as he was slammed back into the wall of the bunker with terrible force, his gun slipped from numb fingers and he felt his vision greying as he slammed into the hard packed earthen floor.
He heard more noises, distantly art first and then growing more clear as the ringing in his ears slowly subsided. He twitched and then grimaced. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe. Luck, it even hurt to think.
He tried to move again and was rewarded with one of his arms obeying his commands. He heard a thud and then a scuffle before a series of arms descended upon him. He wanted to cry out in rage or pain, but found he was unable to so much as utter a grunt. There was a great pressure in his chest, as if he had an entire ranx sitting on his chest.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
As he was turned over he was surprised to see that it wasn’t rebel soldiers determined to finish him off, but it was Drelloc. The concern writ across her strange grey features almost immediately apparent to his addled mind. He tried to speak and managed only to cough instead before sucking in a great lungful of air. The vignette that had been creeping up on the corners of his vision started to decrease as he sucked in another large lungful of polluted air. Though it was full of smoke and the scent of blood he had never tasted anything sweeter.
As the concussive force of the stun grenade faded away he heard her crying, the strange gobbing noise she made interspersed with her shivering mutterings.
He reached up a shaky hand and placed it upon one of her velvety cheeks. “Hey, you are crying.”
She stopped after a moment, a small hiccup interrupting her speech as she replied, “Yeah, no *hic* shit, genius. Why did you do that?”
He shook his head. “Do what? Get shot?” He coughed again as something in his chest rattled with his next breath.
She prodded him gently on the shoulder as the distant sounds of gunfire erupted from the night outside. “Yes. That’s exactly what I meant. No, why didn’t you shoot the other rebel first?”
He shrugged, though the action made him wince in pain as bruised muscles pulled and tore slightly. “I.. oof..” He shook his head slightly as she raised him into a sitting position. “Ouch. Thank you. I wasn’t planning on it.” He groaned as she leaned him against the wall of the bunker, something warm trickled down his arm and he saw her eyes widen.
“Donner! You’ve been shot?!?” Two of her hands gingerly reached out towards his shoulder and he grunted as she gripped the area near the bullet wound gingerly. She pressed on it slightly and then recoiled when he made a small gurgling noise at the pain.
She fumbled around at her belt as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “How bad is it? Did the bullet go all the way through?” She took a moment to examine his shoulder again, this time probing gently along the back of his shoulder. Much to his discomfort. She shook another arm and raised a small first aid kit. He stopped her though and nodded, “Is it through?”
She stopped. “No, the bullet is somewhere inside.”
He closed his eyes. “Well, then all we can do for now is foam pack the wound and apply some quickheal I guess.” She grabbed a small greenish tube from the bag and looked closely at it.
“Is this it?” She held the small tube out towards him. On it was a small cartoon of a smiling blue medical asterisk and the words ‘QTube’ written across its silvery form. She looked him in the eyes and then tensed. “Okay, this might hurt a bit.”
He nodded as she uncapped the small tube and unceremoniously jammed it into his wound. He groaned as the contents of the QTube were sent jetting into the hole his shoulder had acquired, the liquid first burning like fire then soothing like a gentle breeze as its pain relieving effects began to take effect.
He closed his eyes as the pain started to fade, but his chest still ached and his breathing was labored. He blinked a few times as the ground shook, a particularly loud rumble taking over the night. That had sounded like large bore artillery going off, that meant that there was something out in the dark big enough or dangerous enough to warrant such an expenditure of ammunition.
“Our rescue!” Donner shouted as he struggled to his feet painfully.
She tried to stop him but he brushed Drelloc aside. Stooping to pick up his gun he looked at the slain rebels. “Grab that beam rifle and the spare powercells. We might still need them before the night is through.” As Drelloc crouched to strip the weapon and its ammunition canisters off the dead nerivith he did the same to the human who had so nearly ended his own life’s journey. Their spare magazines were the same as his own as they had been using different versions of the same weapon platform.
Loaded up and as ready to move out as was possible given his condition, he leaned out from cover and took a quick peek before ducking back into the cover of the bunker.
Drelloc sidled up to his side, “What is it? Did you see more rebels?”
He shook his head. “No. But I don’t want to risk it unless we have to.” He took another shuddering breath, the tiny fear that had been haunting him ever since the landmine incident had now grown a little more. He was terrified of losing her, and not because of the mission.
He thought about his life and all of the various steps that had led him to this very moment in time. The fragile nature of reality and the impact that even small choices could make on the future. He gave her a quick nod and moved to the bunker’s entrance. The sky was still illuminated by the flares far overhead and he saw the bright streaks of tracer fire as it kicked up over the distant battlefield.
He motioned for Drelloc to follow and moved out into the trench. He stepped around the various obstacles and pressed his body against the side of the embankment as he thought he heard voices. They faded quickly into the chaos of the night as he scrambled up the dirt with his gun slung across his chest. At the peak of the incline he whistled low and quiet, impressed as he finally got a decent view of the battlefield as a whole.
The trenches and earthen works stretched for tens of kilometers till they disappeared out of sight around the various hills and gullies that separated them from him. Semi-fabricated and pre-built bunkers sat at intervals, the streams of bright fire that lanced out into the darkness often spearing from one of these duracrete behemoths. All across the nearer section he could see the lights of gunfire and explosions as what looked like indirect rocket artillery was dropped on the rebel lines, he couldn't tell how effective the indirect fire was though.
He felt something next to him and looked to see Drelloc lying awkwardly in the dirt next to him. Clearly the alien woman was attempting to be stealthy, but all she was really managing to do was look a little helpless.
Donner grabbed one of her alien hands and she froze. “I just wanted to say.. that no matter what happens tonight. You were the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Her lipless mouth worked slightly before she reached out and pulled him to her, the side of her head rested against his forehead as she looked into his eyes. Her own pupiless blood red eyes captivated him as she replied quietly, “I won’t forget everything you have done for me. I feel..” She hesitated and he placed a hand on one of her shoulders in a comforting way as she shivered. “I feel more alive when I’m around you, Donner. Like a fire that burned out long ago has been rekindled inside my heart. I don’t ever want this feeling to stop.”
He smiled as a tear formed in his eye, she was a beautiful person. Despite her strange alien appearance and seemingly standoffish manner at first, he found that he loved her deeply in a way that he had never experienced before. Certainly not in so short a span of time anyways. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, well on one of her cheeks, and chuckled as she twitched away from him, her alien face showing the creases of mild surprise.
“Don’t worry. But we need to move.” She made an affirmative gesture with her nearer hand and let go of his chest rig.
He stood and helped the razah’voolian woman to her feet as well. In the night her dark UIA body-suit made her almost disappear into the shadows. His own arm gear was well and good, but they would stick out like a sore thumb under the illumination of the starburst flares up overhead to any actual observers.
He pointed toward another nearby hill. “Let's head over there, maybe we can use the high ground to get a feel for where to head next.” She motioned for him to lead on and the two of them scurried across the hard packed ground, dodging between obstacles as best they could. He looked up and was a little surprised to see that the overhead alarm drone was gone now, maybe it had moved. Maybe it had been shot down. It mattered little, what was important was that they were no longer being directly observed and could move with some modicum of anonymity.
As they made their way across the open ground he took a minute to marvel at how things had turned out. What had originally started out as a shit escort detail had quickly turned into the kind of overdramatic nightmare adventure one always saw in the holovids. He frowned at the thought of his lost squadmates, they had been good people and even better friends. He would take the time to mourn them properly when he got Drelloc to safety, pour out a pint of whisky on their graves so to speak. Well, crecini ale for Jewels. The nerivith’s constitution for alcohol wasn’t nearly as hardy as his own.
He dodged around a particularly large boulder and then stopped, they had reached the top of the rise. Drelloc pulled up beside him, her breathing was a little heavy but she seemed well enough. Clearly the last few days of hard work and walking had had a profound effect on her endurance and general constitution. What would have had her in stitches on that first night seemed to only tire her a little now.
He tore his gaze from her and looked out over the wasteland in front of them. He scrutinised the chaos and slowly took in the scene.
The Union forces were attacking in what looked like three major spearheads. One from the east and two closer to them on the west. There seemed to be a clear motive, the main bulk of the forces were affecting the area directly adjacent to them.
He tried to figure out the best angle of attack, but there was too much sensory input for him to figure it out. He glanced at Drelloc, “Hey, your specialty is tactical data analysis right?”
She was already looking at him with one of her side eyes. That red orb stared at him unblinking as she answered. “Kind of, I am actually trained mostly on pattern recognition. But I think I get what you are saying.” She turned slightly, giving her right side a better view of the battle field.
The razah’vools compartmentalised brains made them experts at both multitasking and at learning complex tasks quickly. With one specific lobe able to specialise in a given field while the other three quartertoroids were able to themselves take on other projects. That being said, he watched in mild fascination as she turned on the spot a few times while focusing on the distant fighting.
It took her only moments to do what might have taken him much longer. She gestured out towards the gunfire, “We need to move towards that location. I cant see exactly what is happening, but the anti-vehicle fire going out would suggest that there is some manner of armoured convoy there. Maybe an escort.” She said it a bit hopefully and he winced to himself. Her last armoured escort hadn’t exactly gone as planned.
He had to agree with her assessment now that he looked where she had indicated. There was a spot in the near distance with much heavier fire coming in. It was likely that the team they had sent to extract her would be inside some manner of armoured escort. Maybe some Dreyvan Class HTTs or something similar?
Either way they wouldn't find out standing on the hill and so he motioned for them to get moving. The trek to the front lines was swift and stressful, but with the rebel’s attention largely turned to the front it seemed as if they were going to make it without too much trouble.
Donner froze in place so quickly that Drelloc slammed into his back almost knocking him over. She grunted and took a tottering step back as he cocked his head. He definitely heard some sort of footsteps, and from the way they seemed to be rapidly approaching they were unlikely to be friendlies.
“Shit!” He swore as quietly as he could. “I think we have been made, quick, get around the corner.” He practically dragged Drelloc into the cover of a nearby dried gully, the alien woman didn’t protest though. The steep embankment crumbled under his booted feet as they slid down the side into the dried riverbed.
She looked around, her weapon held at the ready as she steadied herself. “What’s going on.. why are we in a hole now?” She hissed it as quietly as she could, but he still hunkered and made a shushing noise.
He gripped her arm and pulled her along gently but with urgency. “We need to get to the front, you still have that short range radio I gave you, right?” He saw her shoulders tense as she dug into her utility belt with her rear arm. She handed him the small device as he switched it on. “We need to be fast.”
She understood his meaning, as soon as he made any manner of call on the device it would bring the entire might of the rebels down on their heads. He needed to make sure they had a good hunkering position before that happened or they would be up shit creek without any paddles but the ones nature gave them.
He grabbed the proffered radio and crouched low as the sound of pounding feet grew nearer, they were just in the shadow of the cliff’s edge though and the rebels passed by without spotting them. He sighed quietly as the noise faded and looked at Drelloc.
She was crouched low next to him, her strange four legged stance making her look like some manner of bug in the shadows cast by the gulley they hid in. Her body was omnidirectional but somehow he knew she was looking at him intently. He reached out and pointed down the dried stream bed.
“We need to move that way. Take point?” He asked.
She did so wordlessly, it wasn’t that he needed her in front of him in particular. But she had gotten a better grasp of the situation than he had and so he let her take the front with her strange rolling gait.
It took them only a minute to reach an impasse, the gully they were in ended abruptly in a small rockpile. This was likely the entrance to some underground stream or series of clefts in the rock where the water would have filtered into the world's many underground aquifers. But it meant a different thing to him, it meant that they only had two choices. Either they could hunker amongst the rocks and await a rescue, or they could try and push up into the open and test their luck amid the chaos of a night skirmish.
He opted for the former, but it wasn’t entirely up to him.
Donner turned to Drelloc, the alien woman was standing nearby next to some of the larger boulders with the looted beam rifle in her hands. She seemed to notice his look immediately as she perked up. “Drelloc, we need to make the call. I think this is as close as we are going to get.”
She tensed and he felt a pang of anticipation, what did she think? Would she try and get him to make a mad dash for it? She wasn’t the fleetest of foot and they had no way of knowing what the situation was like as they had no recon or intelligence. But his worry was in vain as she made an affirmative gesture after another second of hesitation.
She couldn't nod her head, but one of her arms made her species equivalent of the gesture as she answered him in a firm tone, “Alright. If you think this is going to work. This is going to bring the hammer down on us.. Isn’t it?” He nodded and she made a gurgling noise equivalent to a sigh.
She unclipped the short-range radio from her black bodysuit and raised it up above her head towards her lipless mouth. “Union Agent in distress, code DROP904-UI35! Home in on my location, urgently in need of assistance!”
She lowered the radio but still had it broadcasting.
“That’s it? That will get their attention?” He had to ask her. It seemed like such an innocuous message apart from the special code she had given. Was that really going to be enough to save them?
Once more she made that same affirmative gesture as she climbed over some of the rocks to get into some semblance of cover next to him. “That’s what I got. That code should get them off their asses, it’s an ‘Agent in jeopardy of being captured’ code after all. If they can't get to us then we will be wiped out with some manner of long range artillery.”
The casual way in which the woman said it jarred him. “What!”
She made a shrugging gesture. “It is necessary, Donner. The information I am carrying cannot be allowed to fall into rebel hands. If they were to discover my code-cracking sypher then all could be lost. I knew the risks before I ever left for this mission. I just.. Never thought it would ever come to this.” She lowered her rifle as they hunkered in the cover of the dusty reddish rocks. “I am sorry Donner. I want you to know that if this goes bad that you this was the most exciting thing to ever happen to me. I love you.”