While Kiera slept the cadets gathered at the site where the battle between the crag wolves and diceros took place. The diceros herd had been driven off from the site and the mammoths moved down river, but that was because they had exhausted the supply of berries. The area was deemed to be better situated as a rendezvous point than the previous medical camp; water and food were more plentiful, in part thanks to the deciros attack and there were caves they could use for shelter. Most of them had been crag wolf dens which meant they were safe from inclement weather. Someone took the wolf corpse that Kiera had been using as a pillow and replaced it with one made from sponge moss.

Kiera woke up confused where she was, but nothing hurt. She was wearing an undershirt and a survival blanket covered her legs. As she sat up , which was rather difficult, she heard someone say they were going to get the medic. The cold feeling in her right leg was gone. She felt off balance and couldn’t feel her toes on her right foot. She started to push herself to her feet; Kiera had always been a terrible patient.

“Stay right where you are, Kiera Elise Sol!,” she heard Tamalyn say. She sat down next to Kiera and hugged her.

“Tamalyn! I’m so glad that you’re safe!” Kiera exclaimed, returning the hug as tightly as she could.

“More or less, this whole thing has been a farking mess.”

“That’s an understatement,” Kiera said, “How many people are in the camp?”

“South of sixty,” Tamalyn said, “A quarter of whom have some kind of injury. You win the prize for the worst one. Mostly broken bones from falling out of trees, a couple of people were attacked by a karg pack. We’ve…had some deaths, too. One idiot got spooked by whatever that thing in the woods is and shot his partner, a few tree falls resulted in a broken neck and back rather than a limb. Shock grass is hampering all of our communications and we’re running out of flares.” Tamalyn sat down, “There were Special Forces cadets that attacked everyone else, some of the navy guys that made it here said some of their guys turned, too. There’s a group from a lifeboat that brought some light rifles and survival kits. Lucky thinks that anyone who has established a base camp won’t move, the weather is just too bad. Unless we see danger flares we’re staying put, too. Do you remember what happened?”

“What happened?” Kiera asked.

“With your leg.”

Kiera looked down, she couldn’t feel her right foot and saw the blanket was flat on the ground on the right side, “I lost it,” Kiera whispered.

“I’m sorry, Kara. I was able to treat it and prevent it from getting infected. Riley said one of the wolves probably took it off after it was crushed. On accident digging you up or on purpose because it was already turning bad I don’t know. There’s a beacon but we need IR to reach it and it’s probably a trap. We have food and shelter for now, but the temperature is steadily dropping and storm clouds are rolling in. I’m just not sure what we’re going to do. There are a couple parties searching for lifeboats. We had about two hundred people on the ship…”

“We’re going to survive,” Kiera said, “I trust that the Major and his squad were not complacent in this attack. If we can get a beacon into the air maybe they can find and rescue us. Is Gargax here?”

=+=

“Where’s Gargax?” Isaac asked, looking over the rolling hills. The last time he’d seen the ork he was fighting the Kalashtar, and Isaac wasn’t sure who was going to win. The copse of trees had both the sponge moss and the snapbranch trees. They used one of the dead traitor’s helmets as a mixing bowl. By the time that they had the poultice ready both Hailey and Jin were pale. The pain of applying the poultice had knocked both of them out, their belts were used to ensure they didn’t bite their tongues off.

“We can’t wait for the greenskin,” Vincent said, “We’ve got a decently defendable spot right here so we can camp for the night but then we gotta get moving. Who knows how many more of those things there are or if that greenskin will even win.”

“Have some respect for him!” Isaac snapped, “He’s out there fighting that thing unarmed. He saved both of their lives and even left his rifle behind, we have three people who can shoot, four when he gets back.. He may have a steep learning curve but once he gets it, he’s golden.”

“You know, we might be better off in the forest. We can use our jetpacks to get into the trees,” Vincent said.

“Dick move to change camp when one of our own is fighting for us,” Koda said, “Besides, Jin and Hailey lost a lot of blood they need to rest. We’re not moving them..”

“There’s something off about that forest,” Isaac said, “It was too quiet, no birdsong or anything. Oso’s right, we need to stay put.”

“We can at least start a fire, I’ll go get some branches and more of that moss. The forest might have a lake or other water source in it, that’s on our priority list.” Vincent walked away without waiting for either cadet to respond.

“Hates orks, huh?” Koda commented.

“He thinks Gargax is lying about dating Kiera and she was just putting on a show. Wouldn’t believe either me or Tamalyn when we both told him that yes, Kiera’s dating him and slept with him. Kiera’s a great person, I get so damn flustered around her though,” Isaac said.

“Yeah, she’s the best. Super nice and sweet, flirts with you if she likes you. That girl is something else. Gargax is a pretty lucky guy and man does he have my respect. Must be hard carrying balls that big.”

Isaac chuckled, “I wouldn’t know.”

Koda turned his head and gave Isaac a long look, “Dude, no need to self own like that. We should go look for him.”

“Self-” Issac groaned at the realization of what he said, “I didn’t….I’m going to go look for him.”

Isaac walked away from the camp towards where Gargax had been last seen with the kalashtar. He crested the hill and looked down into a rocky gulch. The kalashtar and Gargax were lying at the bottom and neither one was moving. Isaac made his way into the gulch, keeping his weapon trained on the deadly animal whenever he could. Gargax’s arm was shoved into the cat’s mouth up to his elbow. There were no indicators that the ork’s power armor was on and it had deep cuts all over it.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Gargax?” Isaac asked, “Are you alive?” He nudged the ork with his foot.

“I alive!” came Gargax’s muffled voice, “I hand stuck in beast throat. Armor no power. Cat heavy. Stuck in rock, land hard use rocket.”

“Emperor’s Beard, Gargax. I thought our jetpacks weren’t working.”

“I believe work,” the ork said, “Maybe too much. Still need power. Sun give power, but sun low. I may be stuck.”

Isaac got Gargax out of his armor and lost the argument to bring the kalashtar back to the camp. Koda used his claws to start skinning and dressing the animal, mentioning the meat was going to likely taste terrible but when they were in survival mode they didn’t really have a choice. Gargax seemed suitably impressed with Koda’s claws and his skills. Soon Gargax had a fire going and a knife fashioned out of one of the kalashtar fangs, making Koda’s work easier.

The moon provided enough light to see by and as the night progressed the temperature dropped. Koda dressed Hailey in his AFU and laid the untreated Kalashtar hide over both her and Jin A. scream pierced the night coming from the woods. Koda was jerked awake and aimed his weapon at the forest. Isaac scrambled backwards so fast that he tripped and fell onto the ground.

“Emperor’s Beard! What was that!” Isaac asked, panic in his voice.

“I don’t know,” Koda said, “It sounded like something from the Void. That’s where your buddy went.”

Gargax stood and looked into the woods with a frown on his face, “Demon. No go,” he said.

“Skirting around the forest isn’t going to be an option, Gar,” Isaac said, “Jin and Hailey need medical treatment, especially Hailey if she gets an infection…”

“I hate to say it, but I agree with Zac,” Koda said, “Those bastards that tried to kill us packed garbage in those survival kits you guys grabbed. The only flares that replied were on the other side of that forest,” he looked at his squadmates, a frown creasing his face, “But we shouldn’t move them, either.”

“I go. Find Tam, bring back. Save them,” Gargax said.

“Not alone,” Isaac said, “Koda, if that demon cat Gax killed is an apex predator then there shouldn’t be anything else around here, right?”

“Some big game, maybe a crag wolf pack with that scream in the woods—” Another scream filled the air and all three cadets with dread, “Emperor’s Beard. I’ll be fine, there shouldn’t be anything that I can’t handle and I’ll spread some of the cat’s scent glands around. Then it’s all but guaranteed that nothing will bother us,” Koda said, “Unless you want me to go instead of you, Zac.”

“No, I have armor. You stay. One question, Gax, how are you going to find Tamalyn? Our sensors are crippled and our communication is shot.”

Gargax picked up his rifle, “Belief.”

=+=

“Kiera you really should be resting,” Tamalyn said.

Kiera was sitting on top of one of the dens where a large slab of rock prevented the spark grass from growing. Several jetpacks were on the ground and she was trying to remotely connect to them, “I need to be doing something, Tam. Lying in a cave not contributing would just drive me crazy.”

“She’s right, Kiera. You lost a limb, well half of one, that’s some serious trauma. It’s not like you were being stupid about it, either,” Corbin said. He had been the one that carried Kiera to her current spot when she said she needed fresh air, and had brought her the jetpacks.

“I’m resting, I’m just not sleeping,” Kiera argued, “I’ve got the little guy pressed up against me, I’m in the sunlight and I have people around me. I have to keep my mind off of it.”

The connection timed out. This style of jetpack wasn’t the kind you could just put on someone and activate, which is what they should have been, but one that linked to armor. All the powered armor seemed to have been made for a combat drop instead of a rescue drop, which would be appropriate for survival training and dropping cadets into freefall needing to be rescued.

She looked around the camp again. The cadets who had power left in their armor were guarding the perimeter of the camp. Others were using the springtree bark and branches to make buckets for water, were tending to a signal fire, taking trips to the forest to gather supplies, drying the hides and cooking the diceros meat. There were two other dedicated medics who were in the Med Corps itself like Tamalyn. They were prepping poultices in case of further injuries. It seemed like everyone was busy. The de-energized armor had been placed in front of the dens and along the camp perimeter acting as decoys. Normally the armor would just lay where it was taken off, but Corbin was able to carry them without much issue. None of them were equipped with the solar panels that would allow them to be recharged, which was yet another green flag.

“Okay,” Tamalyn said, relenting, “You can sit up here for another hour and then you’re going back into your den and resting. Either Riley or Kinsley will come and cuddle with you.”

“Hey, what about me?” Corbin asked in mock outrage.

“We need your muscles to help get the camp ready for the storm that’s inevitably going to happen,” Tamalyn said, “and I need to help Bradley and Jerome prepare the poultice in case of any more injuries.”

Everyone was keeping busy. The realization of what happened was settling in. Some of the ASF cadets wanted to go search for others, especially at the camp to the northwest that sent up the black flare. It was close to the ridge where the IR signal came from. Locke wouldn’t allow them to go; he wanted to make sure that the material they had was put to use and they were prepared to bring in more people with plenty of supplies. He also didn’t want anyone caught out in the weather, he didn’t know what it was going to be like but two cadets succumbed to hypothermia the previous night. Then there was the possibility that they were from Delta or Gamma and might attack people from other squads.

Riley relieved Corbin, and sat next to Kiera with her arm around her. None of the jetpacks were connecting and their scanner range was decreasing; now it was down to one hundred feet. “How are you holding up, Rae?”

“I don’t know, trying to keep busy and my mind on working on getting us home and not dwelling on the situation. Seeing you not giving up especially with your injury has been a good thing for morale. You’ve won some respect, O’Connel thinks you’re the most badass princess in imperial history,” Riley said.

“I’m just a terrible patient. I always hated wasting the day in bed when I was sick. Wasting the day in bed with a lover is completely different. Speaking of…” Kiera said.

“I know,” Riley said, “Gargax told me when we were in class. He lost it when he heard that you’d been kidnapped. Lixy and I were able to calm him down…Lixy actually flashed him and I just took his hand and asked him to tell me everything about his Sunbeam. He talked about you a lot, how you have multiple mates and how he thought Lukka would be a good mate for you, and that he thought Lukka would be a good mate for me, or Tamalyn. When I told him that I wasn’t interested in guys he said then you would be a good mate.”

“Just pimping me out, huh?” Kiera said, putting her head on Riley’s shoulder.

“Only a little,” Riley said, “He’s such a goofball. I enjoy hanging out with him.”

“Thank you for looking out for him, he mentioned that he hurt Locke?” Kiera asked.

“Yeah,” Riley said, “He went berserk and Lukka tried to stop him from going on a rampage by challenging him. Gargax threw him out the third story window of the dorms and then jumped after him. Lixy and I were headed back to the dorms when it happened. Lukka actually rolled to his feet when he hit the ground and took Gax’s first hit, got one in of his own and then was put through a tree. That’s when Lixy flashed him and I ran to get his attention. Locke was in the hospital for three weeks while they put his spine back together.”

“So…Lukka’s a badass?” Kiera said.

“Total badass. Guy’s honestly something else. Ask him to show you his tattoo sometime, you won’t be disappointed. I may not want to sleep with him but even I have to admit he’s delicious eye candy,” Riley grinned.

It was nice to sit with a pretty girl and talk about guys, it helped distract Kiera from everything else. She briefly closed her eyes. They were going to get through this, she’d get to see Gargax again, they’d find the rest of the cadets and get out of here. Kiera didn’t remember being carried into the cave, she blinked to find Riley pulling a blanket over them. With a small sigh Kiera closed her eyes. They would survive.