Special Agent Drelloc swallowed. Nothing left to do now but enact the plan. She took one more quick look around and then grabbed a small box of ration bars she spotted lying on the floor before she climbed out of the turret hole. It wasn’t easy, her species was not designed to walk on land as they were still largely aquatic by nature. From her perspective the world seemed shifted onto its side, though rigorous years of mental training had helped her mind to ignore this, her currently rattled state made this training a little spotty and so she stumbled and nearly fell as she stood upon the roof of the ruined military transport.
She shivered again as the chilling wind blew through the canyon, her bodysuit was designed for indoor work. Not the stresses of field activity. She moved quickly to the side of the wreck and did as the man had instructed, placing both the grenades atop the battery. She wedged them in as far as she could and then gripped the pins with a single hand.
She took a deep breath, she was going to need to run. If she tripped or stumbled she would die, that was it. She looked around and spotted a handy boulder not more than twenty meters from her, she gulped. Her throat contracted as she visualised the distance in her mind. She wasn’t particularly fast on her feet, and with the trauma she had experienced it was likely to be even more of a sprint.
She knew that she could adjust the fuse delay time and had done so already to give her the maximum amount of time to escape, but twelve seconds might still not be enough.
She made her decision, only one way to find out. She pulled the pins with a hard yank, the thin looped metal hoops coming out with surprising ease as she heard the loup pop of the fuses igniting.
One; She stood as quick as she could and turned towards her distant target.
Two; Drelloc moved, her body not evolved for great speed on land betraying her every instinct to escape the terrible potential of what she had set in motion.
Four; She was running. Her arms swung wildly as her booted feet sought out the most optimal path to the cover of the rock. She could see the slight curl of smoke that issued from the engine compartment as the fuses burned down. She was less than a fourth of the way there.
Seven; She was breathing hard, her lungs feeling as though somebody had poured boiling water in them. She coughed and nearly stumbled, a terrible shriek issuing from her lipless mouth as she managed to right herself. She was halfway to the boulder now, she wasn’t going to make it.
Eleven; She hopped over a large rift in the soil she had not accounted for, but she didn’t stumble this time. Her four feet found solid purchase instead and with a final herculean effort she plunged herself into the cover of the boulder. Her shoulder impacted the hard packed earth heavily, but she had made it.
Twelve; She winced as two loud cracks sounded through the valley followed by a much louder roar as the promethium powercells of the vehicle were ruptured and exposed to large amounts of heat and oxygen. The resulting detonation caused the ground to leap beneath her as the breath was stolen from her lungs. The white hot shards of debris flashed by, the boulder shuddered under a heavy impact but held as the whistling scream of shrapnel assaulted her senses.
She closed her eyes as the valley was washed with harsh white light from the dazzling explosion, bright white sparks from the chemical fire fizzed and popped as they were cast dozens of meters from the blast.
She stood shakily to her feet after another moment, the wreck was nearly gone. All that was left was the twisted and partially melted remains of its armoured hull. Any evidence of the bodies it had contained had been obliterated in their totality as the man had said.
She closed her eyes and cast a solemn salute to the heavens in the memory of the man’s sacrifice. She felt a pang inside her mind, the deaths of these nameless soldiers were her fault. She felt the weight of their deaths on her shoulders like the weight of the duffel, but unlike the duffel these weights would not shed so easily.
She turned to look in the direction of the cliff, she couldn't see any movement yet. But the rebels would undoubtedly be combing the area for survivors and clues. She was glad that the hard packed rocky earth prevented footprints. She turned towards the distant friendly lines and sighed. She adjusted her shoulders and stowed the pistol in a pouch on her belt generally used for holding dataslates. It would do fine.
Drelloc started walking, her future unknown and her fate uncertain.
**********
Donner was shaken awake, his eyes searching his surroundings at first for the cause of his sudden lapse in awareness. The dark branches of some sort of bush or shrub arched over him. What had he just been doing?
He sat up suddenly as the events of the last few hours came rushing back. He had been escorting some UIA spook, then they had been ambushed and he had..
He sat upright and then grabbed his head as it suddenly filled with a thousand glowing needles. He looked around and then froze. He was on the side of a hill, his body telling him he had likely rolled a fair distance before coming to rest next to the bush he had found himself under.
He wiggled his feet, testing for injuries but found none. So far he seemed to be in remarkably good condition for having been thrown from a tumbling wreck. He stood shakily to his feet and looked back towards the burning wreckage, and then hunched back down behind the bush.
A figure was wandering away from the inferno, one that tottered slightly on four legs. The intelligence agent!
He stood to his feet, he wasn't sure the best way to approach her and so decided that he would shadow her and wait for an opportunity to catch up.
He stumbled his way down the hillside, the sound of scattering rocks and debris largely covered up by the hissing crackle of the burning Valor. Donner reached the bottom of the ravine and paused for a moment by the flaming ruins. He stopped, a sinking pain in his heart. There was no way Eieen would have let the agent out of his sight if he had been able, so he must have been unable. Most likely dead.
The self admission stuck him like a hammerblow directly to his core, he felt the panic try and rise in him but he shoved it back down through sheer force of will. He took off in the direction he had seen the razah’vool woman go. With any luck he would catch up to her soon, her people were not exactly known for their speed.
Donner scrambled over the blasted terrain, bits and pieces of still smouldering debris littered the stony ground and he noticed that there were no footprints to mark his passing. That was good, it meant that the rebels would likely think them all dead in the explosion that had engulfed the wrecked vehicle behind him. He vaulted a particularly large boulder and winced as one of his ankles twinged.
He needed to be careful, he was still running on adrenaline and might be more injured than he had initially thought. He slowed his pace slightly, now moving at a fast walking pace. His eyes scanned the ground in the rapidly dwindling light, he needed to find her fast before it became impossible. Minasdee had no moon and so its nights were debilitatingly dark usually. Night Vision did tend to mitigate such hindrances, but he found himself wandering the wilderness with a conspicuous lack of NVGs.
He shook his head and chuckled quietly. As he crept forwards he heard a slight clatter. Two stones shifting not more than ten meters ahead, he crouched low and looked around. Up ahead there was a small rock, just large enough for the short alien to hide behind.
He swallowed heavily and then called out, “Friendly! Hello? Special Agent, is that you? It’s Donner from your escort! Serial number 2N02183V89.. please, I know you are there. We need to keep moving.”
After another moment of disturbed silence in which he could feel his tense muscles freezing in the rapidly chilling air he heard a slightly gurgling reply.
“Stay where you are, hands up where I can see them. No sudden movements.” He watched as the four armed alien slowly stood from behind the rock and pointed something at him. It looked like a gun and so he complied without a sound.
She moved closer and after a moment he was able to make out her features more clearly. Her grey wrinkled skin seemed little the worse for wear though her black bodysuit did seem to be a little beat up from her speedy descent down the ravine. He himself likely looked like a pile of inside out znots. The thought made him smile, a barely suppressed chuckle trying to escape his lips.
She stopped and gestured towards him, “What is funny human?”
He shook his head and told her. “I was just thinking that I must look like a pile of dead znots. Getting tossed from the Valor really rang my bell, I probably have some mild head trauma as that would never have been funny to me before.” He did chuckle this time.
She didn't seem to move her head, but her eyes crinkled in what he surmised must have passed for an emotional response of some kind. He wasn’t sure which though, his knowledge of her people started and ended with what he had picked up on the hyperweb.
She lowered the gun after another moment. “It is you, how did you survive?”
Donner shrugged. “Luck if I know. I don’t know what happened, one second we were on the road and then the next moment I am waking up under a bush. Must have been thrown from the car.”
She shifted and then handed him the rifle. “Here, this is yours. I don't even know how to operate it anyways.”
That caught him a little off guard. A uni-spook relinquishing their firearm and their tactical advantage? That wasn’t what he had been expecting at all. Donner grabbed the weapon gingerly, as if she was going to attempt to wrench it from his hands with a screech of surprised anger. But that didn’t happen, instead her strange ten-fingered hands surrendered it without pause and he hefted the familiar weight of his beloved rifle in the cradle of his arm.
He let out a small sigh. “Alright, I feel complete again.”
He heard her make a strange noise, almost like a subtle choking that at first had him concerned. Before he could comment on it she shifted the black duffel bag on her back and his eyes widened.
“You have the survival kit from the Valor?! Oh that is good news, we need to keep moving though. Find a place to set up camp.” He started off past her and then stopped as she shifted from foot to foot. “What is it? We need to get moving?” Had she forgotten something, maybe she wanted to be in charge. UIA agents were well known for their blunt and supercilious natures. One of the main reasons he had so regretted their mission.
He coughed and she seemed to start. “Oh, I must admit that I am having difficulty seeing. Does your kind possess superior night vision?”
He chuckled again, apparently she wasn’t nearly as all knowing as many of her colleagues liked to act. For some reason this apparent humility of her own lack of knowledge struck a chord in him. Something twinged as his perspective of the woman shifted slightly. She wasn’t the callous unflappable operative he had been imagining. In fact, standing in the dark, two of her hands clasped together in front of her and her posture slightly hunched he thought she looked almost afraid. Though that couldn't be the case. He was attributing too many human qualities to the alien, she was probably just cold. He knew he was.
He answered her quickly, if his pause had been noticed she didn't comment on it. “No, not really. I suppose it might be better than yours, but I can’t hardly see shit either. Lets try and find somewhere to set up shelter, it's going to get colder.”
She made that arm gesture again, it must substitute for a nod, some manner of acknowledgement perhaps? She gestured to him, “Lead the way human.”
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He paused. “My name is Donner by the way, but my squadmates call me.. called me Ace.” He stopped that lump from forming in his throat with difficulty.
She seemed to mull it over and then muttered something under her breath, the sound issuing from the strange lipless mouth on the top of her round head. “I suppose secrecy is less important than effective communication. My name is Special Agent Drelloc. Now, please lead the way.. Donner.” She said his name almost hesitantly, as if she had needed to wrestle herself to get the word out.
He nodded. “Alright, follow me and try to stick close. If I am moving too fast then please let me know.” With that he set off at a medium pace he was sure she could match. She indeed kept up right behind him, her walking gait strange. Instead of taking steps with two legs at a time it was like each leg moved independently of the others while still maintaining a semblance of cohesion that allowed for her to navigate obstacles pretty effectively at the cost of speed.
They continued on like that for some time. He checked his assistant after a while and stopped for a breather, the small wrist worn computing device beeped insistently at him. It was nearly the twentieth hour, local time. They needed to find a place to set up shelter soon before it got too cold.
He squinted and tried to make out their surroundings. He could see rocks and some small bushes. Wait, there in the near distance, a small copse of the local equivalent of trees.
He pointed to it and told Drelloc, “There is a small stand of trees nearby, we can set up camp there. Come on, just a few more meters.”
In response she simply huffed tiredly. “You humans have incredible endurance. You aren't even breathing hard.”
He smiled to himself as she followed him grumpilly. To be perfectly fair they had likely only walked a couple kilometers from the ambush site, a pittance compared to what he had trained to run in boot camp. They reached the small grove in less than a minute and he immediately pulled out his combat knife and started to lay about them, clearing a small gap in the trees.
He pulled one of the woody stalks to the side and said, “Alright, squeeze in. I don't want to be visible from the road if they are searching for any survivors by chance.”
“In there?” She asked and he nodded. In the dark light she seemed to shiver but did as he asked.
He followed her after a moment, the small space opened up on the inside as they entered a small glade. The ground was blanketed in thick grass and the sound of murmuring water could be heard just over the whistling of the wind in the canyon. The small clearing must have been formed by a spring or something similar, he searched around and found a raised spot where the ground was firm and dry.
Donner turned to the exhausted looking razah’vool and pointed to the duffel. “Can you hand me that?” she did as he asked, shrugging her strange shoulders and passing him the heavy pack. No wonder she was so tired, he made a mental note to offer to carry the pack for her in the morning. Maybe he wouldn't make it an offer.
He rummaged around in the survival pack, intimately familiar with its contents even in the dark as he had packed and unpacked them a thousand times in training missions and in the field. Inside was a cooking station, survival gear for both cold, hot and wet environments as well as the object he was searching for.
He pulled out the small bundle and made a triumphant noise. “Yes, alright.”
He heard Drelloc move a little closer as he undid the drawstrings and pulled out the conservotarp it contained. The reflective sheet was designed to help trap body heat and would form a makeshift tent-like structure that he could use to shelter from the worst of the cold.
He set about tying it between two handy trees, the tarp falling to the ground on both sides of the rope as he tied another closer to the ground a little offset from the other to make a small yet somewhat cozy space inside where one might hunker from the frigid night air.
As he stood and admired his handiwork he heard her speak, “W-what is-s that-t-t?” He turned and looked at her. The woman was shivering slightly and he frowned. Her bodysuit was rated for these kinds of temperatures surely?
“It’s a survival shelter, it will protect us from the cold and wind.” He watched as she took a small step back.
She looked at him with two of those red pupiless eyes, each one seeming to move slightly independent of the other. “You w-want me to squeeze in there.. with y-you? T-there is n-n-no room?” Her shivering had increased slightly, he remembered reading something about her people having a higher body temperature than humans.
He shrugged. “I know it's not exactly a penthouse on Gorlich Station, but it will keep us from freezing. What, you have something against sharing the shelter?” He once more felt his opinion for the alien shift slightly. She seemed far more vulnerable than any of the other UIA intelligence agents he had dealt with in the past. Maybe she was new?
She made a series of gestures and he was forced to stand there blankly as she seemed to wrestle with herself. “Are you alright?” he asked, concern tingeing the corners of his voice. He wasn't familiar with her alien biology and so wasn’t sure if she was trying to speak some form of alien sign language or was having her species equivalent of a seizure.
He took a single step closer and then recoiled slightly as she spoke again, but something was off. Her voice was slightly different, the pitch or timbre having changed subtly. “She doesn't want you to know.”
He cocked his head. Her voice changed back, now to the one he had grown accustomed to. “No, s-stop. You can't-t d-do that.”
He was worried now, she was having some sort of panic attack? The idea of her people having different sub-consciousnesses in their mind came to him again and he felt his mouth open. Was that what he was seeing? Two of her selves warring for control of her higher functions?
The other voice spoke once more, the tone a little lower, somehow more feminine in tone in a way that plucked at his senses. “She won’t-t t-t-tell you herself, but-t I w-will. We aren't-t-t a field a-agent.” The voice cackled for a moment before the woman slumped and then went silent.
After a moment she straightened and seemed to shy away as he opened his mouth to speak. “No, I c-c-can't.”
He shook his head and stepped closer again, his concern growing. He no longer saw the powerful and aloof federal agent he had been so opposed to before, but instead another being obviously in distress. “Come, sit. At least try and get warm please.”
She shivered once more as he touched her shoulder and guided her towards the small shelter. As she crouched and stumbled inside he felt a small smile cross his features involuntarily. He paused, what was that feeling? A sense of.. protectiveness seemed to form in his middle. He thought about quashing it but then stopped. It was nice, like the comfort gleaned from glowing embers or the faint light of the morning sun through heavy drapes.
He shook his head slightly and then turned to look out towards the sky. They had a mission to complete still, and he would see it through to the end if it was the last thing he did.
**********
Drelloc was conflicted. She had been following the human named Donner for what felt like hours now and they still had not stopped to rest. The man must possess supervoolian stamina, she herself was near dead with exhaustion, but she refused to speak up and admit to her own body's weakness.
Her rebellious self took that opportunity to whisper that she had only to ask and the man would likely have bent over backwards to accommodate her needs. He was there to serve and protect her after all.
She waved an arm to herself, the equivalent of shaking her head. She was about to cave in and ask the man to halt when he suddenly stopped of his own accord. The man seemed to look around the near blinding darkness and then pointed out into the night. She looked but saw nothing but the inky blackness that appeared to press close on all sides.
He spoke up, the sudden speech after such a length of silence startling her slightly. The sensory tendrils that hung from under her head tingled at the sound of his voice as he spoke. “There is a small stand of trees nearby, we can set up camp there. Come on, just a few more meters.”
She spoke aloud, “You humans have incredible endurance. You aren't even breathing hard.” She felt a little embarrassed saying it, likely her other self had a hand in the comment. She pushed them down a little farther and they pushed back in response. After all the years she had lived she would have thought she would have better control over her selves than this, but she had always been a free spirit by her own people’s definition.
She wanted to say no, to beg that they simply rest, but she understood that they needed to find shelter and the small stand he described seemed like their best option. So she followed tiredly, stumbling slightly as her booted feet ached and her knees crackled.
They reached the trees, their dark wooded stems reaching out of the dark suddenly like the bars of some huge cage. She nearly gave a yell as he viciously hacked into them with a large knife. His actions were made clear as he gestured inside and bade her enter. She complied apprehensively, the branches scraping upon the edges of her bodysuit and leaves whipping her head as she nearly fell into the small clearing that lay beyond.
It was large enough that she couldn't see the other side in the darkness. As the world had no moon there were only the stars to guide her and she turned in a slow semicircle as the man crashed through the undergrowth beside her.
She watched as the man searched around in the dark, his strange blue eyes glinted in the meager starlight. Those dark pupils that seemed to draw her gaze when she looked too long. She shivered, not entirely from the chill either.
She heard him speak. “Can you hand me that?” he seems to be referring to the duffel bag that had been weighing her down for the last.. Who knew how long it had been. Her wrist assistant had been smashed in the crash and her data recorder was safely stowed on the inside of her suit for security purposes. Her vital military intelligence kept within.
She watched Donner as he worked. The strange musculature was so unlike her own and yet so strangely familiar in an alien sort of way. She would have cocked her head if she had been able, instead she turned slightly, the nagging of her other selves as they wanted a clearer view compelling her to move. She shivered again, the cold was seeping through the thin fabric of her bodysuit. It wasn't filled with the environmental support tech that field operatives had. Instead it was little more than a piece of fabric that covered her body without disrupting her movement.
She continued to watch him curiously as he erected some manner of shelter from a shiny cloth or tarp he had pulled from the black duffel bag.
Her throat chattered, her pointed teeth grinding together as she asked curiously, “W-what is-s that-t-t?”
The man nodded to himself in a strange manner and then turned towards her. A look of some sort covering his face, not for the first time she cursed herself for sleeping through the xeno-expression course she had been forced to take upon joining the agency. “It’s a survival shelter, it will protect us from the cold and wind.”
She looked at it. It was tiny, barely enough room for the man himself surely? She took a small step back and raised her hands in an unsure manner, her eyes crinkling as she felt a stab of hesitancy. “You w-want me to squeeze in there.. with y-you? T-there is n-n-no room?” She pointed out the obvious, but in her heart she knew that it was likely the only way she was going to survive the night.
Donner shrugged in that funny human way as his head tilted to one side. “I know it's not exactly a penthouse on Gorlich Station, but it will keep us from freezing. What, you have something against sharing the shelter?” His voice tone changed slightly and she felt another strange pang of that earlier emotion in her middle again. The thought of being that close to the man, a fluttering sensation stirred her middle and she pushed it down. Now was not the time to lose control..
Her hands rose in an involuntary gesture as at that exact moment her more rebellious self exploded out of her repressed corner and tried to seize control forcibly. She lost her awareness of her surroundings as she struggled in her own mind.
‘What are you doing? We are in danger and you think now is the time to get restless?’ She scolded herself.
Another voice, her own yet different, spoke in response. ‘If only you let me be in charge to begin with. I would have had us in the field years ago, you are a coward.’ the other voice spat at her with venom.
She winced internally. She knew she was right, she had always been a bit too afraid to let her other selves take control for fear of what they might do. It was for that reason that she had so stoically forced the others into long term submission, submission that they clearly seemed to reject as they roiled in her subconscious.
She felt her other self break free and gasped slightly as they spoke, their voice so like hers but unlike her. “She doesn't want you to know.”
Drelloc fought herself, wrestling control back as much as she could. Her body shuddering slightly from her mental exertions. “No, s-stop. You can't-t d-do that.” She spoke aloud as much as in her mind.
Her more unruly self seemed to cackle. ‘I should have kicked you off the pillar long ago, you are weak. We all feel it.’ She lost control again for a moment as she felt her body speak again. “She won’t-t t-t-tell you herself, but-t I w-will. We aren't-t-t a field a-agent.” her curved teeth chattering as much from the cold as from her mental exertion.
With that strong and staggering self admission she felt her mind once more calm. Her other self retreated as if their infiltration mission had been successful, and it had. She was utterly embarrassed, not only had she lost total control in front of the man she had allowed herself to speak openly.
She slumped forwards, he wasn’t going to help her anymore, surely he would see how weak and pitiful she was and decide that his chances of survival were dramatically improved by leaving her behind. To freeze.
She observed Donner and was mildly surprised to see how close the human had gotten. He was standing only a single step away, his face a strange mixture of emotions. She couldn't read them well, they could have been hatred and disgust for all she knew, and yet a small part of her mind compelled her to believe they were not.
She waved a hand and spoke, “No, I c-c-can't.” He was looking at her so intently. She felt exposed, like he had seen inside of her. It was strangely not as entirely uncomfortable as she would have expected such a feeling to be, her other selves handiwork she surmised.
She started slightly as the man took that final step and placed one of his wide five-fingered hands on her shoulder. She shivered from the contact, his skin was cool but not unpleasantly so. He gestured toward the shelter and pleaded, “Come, sit. At least try and get warm please.”
She complied, her will to resist the offer of warmth almost completely eroded by the exhaustion and mental fatigue. He could have told her to jump into a vat of warm mucus and she would likely have accepted the offer to try and get warm. But another part of her was strangely excited as she crouched in the small space. Her wide head brushed both sides of the shiny fabric and she almost immediately felt a change in the temperature as she settled down inside.