Tassie pulled Reya into a long, crushing hug. “I’m going to miss you,” she said dramatically. Rann and Tassie stood in the doorway of Reya’s apartment. They’d come over to watch the latest episode of their favourite series together that night but had been interrupted halfway through by an emergency communication from Jyn. They were being deployed. Immediately.
Reya swore she felt her bones creak under the immense strength of her friend. “Tassie, I’ll be fine. Nothing’s going to happen to me while you’re gone.”
“Damn straight nothing’s going to happen. I’ll send Irric to check in on you every now and then,” Tassie fussed. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Rann raised her eyebrow. “Irric, huh? Since when did you get close enough to ask him to come take care of Reya?”
Tassie let go of Reya, flushing slightly. “We’ve just been talking a bit while we worked together during our missions.”
“We know,” Rann teased. “Spending hours together over video chat will do that, I guess.” A knowing grin materialized on her face. Tassie flushed further.
“There’s nothing going on!” Tassie spluttered.
“Yet,” Reya added.
“Not you too,” Tassie complained.
“Just be sure to invite us to the wedding,” Rann cackled. “Anyway, we need to get going. According to Jyn, this is an emergency deployment. I wonder what it’s about.”
“Probably about the facility,” Tassie posited. Reya shuddered at the mention. She crossed her arms and squirmed slightly, an action the others noticed. “Hey,” Tassie said gently. “We’ll be fine. Nothing’s going to happen to us this time.”
“Please stay safe.” Reya trembled slightly. “Be careful and don’t get caught. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you guys.” Tassie collected Reya back into another hug, reassuring her friend that everything would be alright. The two stood in the front entrance for a long moment, before Rann placed a hand on Tassie’s shoulder and jerked her head towards the outside. Tassie nodded and let go of Reya.
“I don’t know how long we’ll be gone for,” Rann said, “but we’ll let you know we’re back as soon as we arrive. I don’t think we’ll be able to contact you during the mission, but you might be able to get updates from Irric if he swings by.” Reya’s expression lightened up at the thought.
Reya followed them out and watched her friends leave as they began walking back to base. There was no bus running at this time, so they would have to run back to make it in time since it was an emergency deployment. Reya didn’t envy them returning to that forsaken place. It felt very strange for her not to accompany her team, but for once, she was glad she wasn’t joining them.
She watched various vehicles and soldiers pass by long after her friends were out of sight. She eventually turned around and went back inside the tiny place she called home. Walking over to the kitchenette, she put a kettle to boil and rummaged around in her cupboards. She withdrew a small red box and opened it. It was a product from one of her favourite companies. Gingerly taking out one of the teabags contained within, she placed it in a powder blue ceramic mug and added her freshly boiled water.
She returned to her bed and made herself comfortable. Soon, fluffed pillows and warm blankets enveloped her, a veritable fortress of relaxation. Once the tea was done steeping, she got rid of the teabag and resumed viewing the show. The steaming mug warmed her cold hands, its contents reassuring. She was a bit behind in her series after being captured but was sure Rann and Tassie wouldn’t mind if she got caught up without them.
Voices rose in pitch as the drama played out before her, drowning out her worries for the moment. Reya once again marvelled at how normal everything felt after what she’d been through. The pill bottle on her nightstand beckoned, an invitation to use. Almost normal, she thought, as she fought the urge to slip into a blissful, dreamless sleep.
Forever.
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The small room struggled to hold all four teams that occupied it. Seating was first come, first served and Tassie and Rann were late to the party. They joined the rest of their team, but as the last ones to arrive, they were left standing on the sides.
Commander Cyrix stood at the head of a long, wooden table, patiently waiting for everyone to arrive before making his announcement. He faced the large group of people without fear, having done so countless times before. He counted the soldiers assembled before him, satisfied that everyone was present.
“I believe that’s everyone,” Cyrix said. With a wave of his hand, a projection lit up in the centre of the table, grabbing everyone’s attention. A picture of a slowly rotating, barren planet appeared in the centre. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” he continued. “You may have noticed the unusual activity happening around the base lately. Those of you gathered here today are permitted to learn what’s actually going on, if you don’t already know. You’ll need this information for your mission. Everything you learn in this room and during the mission is strictly classified. You are to discuss your findings with no one other than myself or the General.”
A section of the planet lit up and the image zoomed in, revealing a small mountain near a canyon in an arid region bereft of any life. The projection further zoomed into a large hole in the mountain, about one hundred metres off the ground. “We have recently discovered what we believe to be a gru’ul research facility. This information was painfully acquired by one of our own, who is now on medical leave. We have with us an opportunity to capture the facility and learn the secrets of their technology.”
The image zoomed back out, this time showing a star map. A red box appeared and began blinking. “You will be going to the Arvis sector, which is approximately three weeks away. Your mission will be to infiltrate the facility and capture it. Ideally, you will also capture any occupants found inside so that we may question them. Are there any questions?” One of the female soldiers near the back of the table raised her hand. “Yes, Nadi?” Cyrix asked.
“Won’t this constitute as an act of war?” Nadi asked, concerned over the political implications of their mission.
“Not after what they did to our soldier it won’t. Additionally, this facility has been built in our star space without our permission. We are very much eager to learn its secrets.”
“Why the secrecy then? Why the sudden deployment?” Nadi questioned again.
“Because we don’t want anybody else learning about it before we know what’s inside. Somebody may try to take it from us or use it for their own personal gain. We have a limited window of opportunity to act before others learn about it. The fleet that will be accompanying you will primarily remain in space to protect the planet while you carry out the ground operation. These soldiers are not in the know as to the purpose of the mission. We’d like it to stay that way.”
Nadi nodded, not entirely satisfied with the answer. It was clear that information was being withheld from them, but there was nothing she could do about it. Cyrix continued to explain the finer details of the mission, answering more questions – mostly from Nadi. He explained that Jyn’s team had already been inside the facility, but that they needed more personnel to capture it. He did not elaborate further on what happened to Reya nor how they discovered the facility to begin with, much to Nadi’s disappointment.
Throughout the presentation, simulations of various scenarios were shown on the hologram representing the most likely outcomes of the mission. Cyrix went through them one by one, ensuring that all the soldiers present knew exactly what to do when the time came for the actual mission. He didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Reya.
After an hour, every team but Jyn’s was dismissed. Tassie and Rann finally had the chance to sit down now that there were vacant spots at the table and joined the others where they sat.
“I’ve got a different mission for your team,” Cyrix said once the room was clear. “Your job will be to investigate the mysterious door that didn’t open despite you having a key. You’ll be provided with the necessary tools to breach to the door. Be sure to secure anything important that you might discover.”
Dismissing them, Cyrix watched the last of them leave before preparing for his own departure. This upcoming mission was deemed important enough for him to go in person to direct the army. Nessah wanted to ensure that the operation ran as smoothly as possible. It was an immense amount of trust that she was showing in assigning him his task. He would do his best not to fail her.
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An armada dropped out of hyperspace above the planet in the Arvis sector after three weeks of travel. Nessah had dispatched one of their immense flagships to aid with the protection of the planet. It was large enough to house other spaceships and single-person vessels and contained their most advanced weapon systems. It was a powerhouse designed for the sole purpose of war and destruction.
Ships of its calibre were so prohibitively expensive and long to build that Nessah only had two at her disposal. She kept one stationed near her home planet at all times to deter enemy forces from invading, opting to dispatch only one of the ships at any given moment. She’d decided that this was that moment.
Most of the soldiers present didn’t know why they were suddenly ordered to protect the barren planet below. They were all intensely curious but kept it to themselves. A good soldier knew when not to ask questions and most judged this to be one of those times.
The teams that had been selected to descend to the surface had been very tight lipped about the mission, meaning it had to be important. An air of tension filled the ships as curiosity spread a nervous energy like wildfire. Some fared better than others.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
After dropping out of hyperspace, Jyn was busy preparing his team for their sortie. Their ship had been docked inside the flagship, with scores of mechanics focused on repairing it during their journey. He was silently glad that he would have backup when he infiltrated the facility for the second time. He couldn’t afford a repeat of what happened last time.
Mentally running over a checklist of everything they needed, Jyn entered his ship and made his way to the bridge. Everyone was seated at their positions, ready to go. Each person specialized in a different system of the ship. While Tassie was their logistics and technical expert, she couldn’t do everything at once. The rest of the crew had been trained to take over when needed.
Jyn sat in his command chair and drew up a holoscreen. It was time for take off. He conferred with mission control and relegated the take-off procedures to his crew. Once they were cleared to go, all personnel exited the docking station, and the air was mechanically drawn out to be stored in a reservoir. The doors to the docking bay opened and they were exposed to the space that lay beyond.
Carefully, they undocked and exited the flagship. They were one among many in the armada that had been summoned to protect them while they performed their mission. The other ships stayed in position while they, along with three other ships, descended into the atmosphere.
There would be no hiding the entry of four ships right above the facility. Stealth had been foregone in favour of proper defenses. Each ship had their shields up, ready to intercept any incoming strikes. The first of the enemy shots whistled through the air towards them before they could even enter the stratosphere. Bolts of pure energy lanced towards the ships, absorbed entirely by their shields.
It had been a hasty affair, much to the dismay of the disgruntled mechanics and engineers responsible for it, but the shield upgrades were well worth it. Each shot they received was strong enough to place a noticeable strain on their shields, but they held fast, allowing the teams to descend to the ground worry-free.
The ships fired at the ground defenses, taking out the turrets before they had a chance to wear down their shields further. Once there was no longer any incoming enemy fire, the ships touched down in the empty clearing in front of the mountain. Some ships landed further away in an attempt to avoid the water.
Jyn, Eimir, Rann and Beor descended into the hull of the ship and prepared their hoverbikes. Tassie opened the hatch for them, and they exited. The mild dust storm outside the ship decreased visibility significantly. Relying on Tassie to guide them, the team made their way to the base of the mountain just under their entry point.
The short ride to regroup with the other teams proved difficult while the buffeting winds threatened to knock them off their bikes. According to Tassie’s scans, the hole in the mountain was still there and no real attempts to repair it had been made. Ascending to it to enter the facility was going to be a risky affair under the current weather conditions.
They joined the other teams and waited for the rest to arrive. Once everyone was present and accounted for, Nadi spoke up. As the leader of the expedition, she was the one that was ultimately in charge of the ground operation. “Alright teams, are we ready to commence the mission?” she asked. Receiving an affirmative from every team leader, she continued. “Jyn’s team will enter first in order to guide us into the facility. The rest of us will follow once we’re given the all-clear. Secure the entry point and make the necessary preparations to continue.”
Nadi gave the green light to commence the operation. Carefully, and very slowly, Jyn and his team rose above the ground, fighting against the strong winds. They made it to the entry point intact and entered the facility for the second time.
A layer of pale brown dust coated the interior of the docking bay and the ships inside it, giving the place an abandoned look in the low light emanating from the ceiling. Particles lingered in the air, kept aloft by the winds carrying in fresh dust from the outside. The destroyed ships still sat in a heap on the right where Jyn remembered last seeing them. After the fires, they had been reduced to nothing more than dust-filled piles of scrap metal.
The large ship was still visibly damaged, and the functioning ships were still neatly lined up on the other side of the bay. They didn’t appear to have been used, either. Jyn kept his eyes peeled for any sudden movements as he scouted out the location. When nothing occurred and no enemies were found, Jyn called in the other teams.
Over the next several minutes, the other soldiers filed in one by one, parking their bikes near Jyn’s. Nadi was the last to enter, bringing up the rear of the group. They all listened closely while Tassie explained the layout of the compound, sharing her self-made map with everyone. Each team was attributed a different colour, distinguishing them from the others. Jyn’s team was assigned yellow.
“It’s my favourite colour,” Tassie said simply when asked about the colour selection.
The soldiers gathered around the doorway next to the undamaged ships. Like the previous time, the door was left wide open, presenting no issue for the team to storm the compound. Nadi’s team was the first to enter. They secured the room inside and gave the all-clear to the others. The remaining soldiers filed in, crowding the room. The interior of the facility was illuminated in the same dim, low light as the hangar.
Beor still had the badge from the last mission that acted as a key. Irric hadn’t been able to reverse engineer its functionality, so the entire squad of troops was left with only one key to explore the facility with. Jyn hoped that they encountered some form of resistance soon so that they could loot another.
His wish was granted. Opening the door to grant Nadi’s team access to the room beyond brought them face to face with five other gru’ul, each one with their own badge pinned to them. A beat passed while both parties stared at each other before they opened fire, forcing Nadi to dive out of the way. With no cover to hide behind, Nadi and her team didn’t hesitate to return fire.
Soon, the smoking bodies of the creatures littered the floor. Nadi’s team suffered two casualties, forcing their field medic to patch them up. They survived their injuries but were out of the fight for the rest of the mission.
Nadi looted the badges off of the fresh bodies and passed one to each team leader. “This way, we’ll be able to spread out and explore the compound. We’re too many to travel as a group, otherwise we’ll just get in each other’s way.”
Now that the issue had been solved, Jyn and his team were free to make their way to the room that wouldn’t open and start their actual mission. He gathered his team and bid the others farewell. Eimir hauled his heavy pack filled with the equipment needed to breach the door, assuming it even was a door.
They made their way through the winding grey hallways until at last, they arrived at their destination. They opened the door that led to the final chamber where the stasis pod was found and opened it.
Only to immediately realize that they weren’t alone in the room.
Three other gru’ul were halfway across the room, on their way towards the door. Jyn and the others raised their weapons to defend themselves, only to realize that the gru’ul were unarmed. Panicked cries echoed in the chamber as the aliens flailed about, trying to make it to the doorway in time.
Eimir and Beor fired warning shots at the wall where they were running to, forcing them to stop dead in their tracks. Rann and Jyn fanned out to surround them, until the team formed a loose circle, cutting the aliens off from escape. The realization that they were trapped elicited more panicked shrieks and hisses, until one of them spoke at a louder volume than the others, cutting them off.
It grabbed the badge on its chest and held it between its spindly fingers. Rann shot Jyn a questioning glance, unsure of how to proceed. “Eimir, do we have any way to talk to them?” she asked.
“No, we don’t have a translator with us. Nadi and her team have one though.”
“Do you think they’d be willing to come all the way here to help us out?”
Eimir was about to respond when he noticed the other two gru’ul take their badges off as well. As one, the three of them spoke the same series of clicks and shrieks, before throwing the badges into their open maws.
They immediately began convulsing where they stood and dropped to the ground. White foam frothed out of their mouths, spilling onto the floor as they seized up and stopped moving. They went completely still, with the occasional involuntary twitch of a limb.
“What the fuck!” Eimir shouted, jumping back from the bodies.
“Are they dead?” Rann asked, unsure about what had just transpired. Lowering her gun, she looked around towards the others for an answer to the bizarre situation.
“I think so, babe,” Beor said, nudging one of them with his foot. There was no response. “They’re not moving anymore. Either they’re really great actors or they just all killed themselves.”
“Shit,” Jyn swore. “How are we supposed to extract information from them now? Did anybody know about this? Tassie, you and Irric were in charge of analyzing the badges! How come you didn’t pick up that they were bloody cyanide pills for aliens?”
“We tried analyzing them, but we weren’t able to figure out how they function. For all intents and purposes, it appeared to be a piece of metal with a small glass orb in the middle,” Tassie explained.
“What’s the point of having you around if you can’t give us important details, like the fact that we can’t take prisoners since they’ll just off themselves?”
“Well excuse me for not being able to crack alien technology that we’ve never seen before in only a couple of weeks!” Tassie said hotly. “If it’s so simple, why weren’t you able to do it, huh? Instead, you sat on your ass the whole time while I actually worked on the problem.”
“I was busy preparing for the mission,” Jyn shot back. “I was doing my job perfectly, unlike you.”
“That’s enough,” Rann yelled. “We’re in the middle of a mission guys, get with the program. Save this for later. Jyn, there’s no way we could have known that they would commit suicide by eating their badges.”
“I’m saying that we should have known, that’s all.”
“Drop it, Jyn. Eimir, get to work on getting us through that wall. Beor, go help him get set up,” Rann ordered, her tone brooking no disobedience. Eimir shot off towards the blue outline on the wall, Beor trailing behind. He looked back over his shoulder before fully focusing on helping Eimir.
Jyn turned to face Rann. “Since when do you call the shots?”
“Since the moment you started acting like a child.”
“Leading operations is my job, Rann,” Jyn warned. “I’m the one that should be making the calls.”
“Then start making them!” Rann said, exasperated.
Eimir withdrew a large metal disc from his backpack, trying his best to ignore the bickering between Rann and Jyn. With Beor’s help, they positioned the heavy object in the centre of the door. It stuck fast, not budging when he gave it a tug.
Satisfied, Eimir grabbed the edge of the disc and pulled, extending a section of it by an arm’s length and fixing it to the wall. Beor helped, grabbing another section of the disc, mimicking Eimir. Soon, all four sections had been properly positioned, connected to the central disc by a sturdy, metal rod.
Eimir pushed the centre of the main body, which depressed inwards with a click. The ends of the four arms lit up and emitted a strong laser that cut into the wall. Slowly, the arms turned around the main body, until a perfect circle was carved into the wall, at which point the machine stopped itself and the button in the centre rose back up.
With Beor’s help, Eimir took the machine off of the wall and stored it back in his backpack. He informed the others that he was done breaching the wall.
“This is fine and all,” Beor said, “but how exactly are we supposed to get to the other side? Because I still see a whole lot of wall.”
“We need to push it out so that it falls on the other side,” Eimir replied.
“Who came up with that idea? Who knows how thick that wall is!”
Together, along with Jyn’s help, the three men pushed the loosened portion of the wall out inch by inch until at last, it fell on its own onto the other side. Eimir sat on the ground, panting, while Beor had his hands on his knees. Jyn leaned against the wall, catching his breath. “That,” he huffed, “was heavy.”
Rann kept her eyes peeled on the other side of the hole in case enemies arrived but detected no movement. Once the men were ready to go, they gathered in front of the hole. Peering in on the other side revealed hallways identical every other one they’d seen so far. Rann was slightly disappointed at the sight. She didn’t know what to expect, but she knew one thing was for certain.
It was finally time to see what lay beyond.