22 October, 2582
The operations room was chaos incarnate. I would’ve preferred to leave my helmet on and filter out the overwhelming amount of radio chatter, conversations, and orders being given from halfway across the room, but no one else was wearing theirs. I certainly didn’t want to be the odd one out.
The room was dark, but alert lights spun constantly and threw sweeping shadows around the walls while dousing everything in a red hue. Most of the ambient light came from the far wall where a floor-to-ceiling holo screen with dozens of displays that showed various comm links, maps, sensor grids, and video feeds. I wasn’t sure how anyone could anyone make sense of it all.
“Then tell me why the fuck there are thousands of them mobilizing and how over a dozen made it past the perimeter! They're on our fucking compound!”
The sudden shouting got my attention, and many others apparently, as most conversations died or reduced to a whisper. I hadn’t seen him when I first walked in, but Colonel Noris stood on a short platform in the center of the room, the added height plus his already daunting size letting him tower over the analysts and other personnel sitting in half-circle rows of desks around the room.
“I-I can’t, sir,” came the reply. It wasn’t confident, but at least it had volume. From my interview with him the previous day I had quickly learned that Colonel Noris did not tolerate weakness.
“Of course you can’t,” Colonel Noris said before muttering what I thought was, “fucking intel.” He turned away from the answer, searching for some other poor soul. I stayed along the wall, afraid to be in anyone’s way and unsure if I was supposed to make my presence known. I’d been summoned, but the computer had failed to mention who had ordered it.
“What the fuck is the Spitfire doing?” Noris yelled to the room.
“Sir, the Spitfire is scrambling Valkyrie. ETA two mikes til launch and a ten mike transit.” I couldn’t pin who had given the reply, just a louder voice amidst the rising chorus.
“Fine. Computer! Give me Major McNamara.”
A display winked into existence on the large screen. A helmet with a dark tinted visor filled much of the window, but in the background marines ran back and forth amid flashing lights.
“Sir!” the dark helmet’s voice filled the room and the marine snapped a crisp salute.
“Major, I want you returning artillery fire within the next sixty seconds! We will not be outgunned!”
“Yes, Sir!” The window closed immediately.
“Where the fuck is Lieutenant Prafur?” Colonel Noris once again asked the masses.
“I’ve got him, Sir! Putting him up!” Another window appeared on the holo-wall and was accompanied by a disembodied voice.
“Colonel, we’re on the walls but taking casualties. I need more personnel. Request the base go to FPCON-Black.”
“Fine.” Noris looked down off to his side. “Sergeant, sound it. Bring everyone out of shelter. We all fight tonight.”
“Yes, Sir!” The dim lights flickered, the red and blue ambiance deepening in the darkness for a brief moment.
“What do we do?” Chang asked quietly.
I jumped slightly, having forgotten that my assigned assistant had followed me here. Chang, too, had his shoulder pinned to the wall in an attempt to stay out of the way.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “Wait, I guess.”
“Sir, I’ve got Lieutenant Cristescu for you,” the nearby sergeant said.
“Put him up,” Noris ordered.
A man wearing a white helmet and a visible mustache behind the face shield appeared on the wall display. Sweat was pouring down his face and I could see his eyes twitch ever so slightly.
“Colonel, they’ve got the reactor sighted in. We’ve taken a dozen direct hits and half my engineers are bleeding from the ears!” As if to emphasize his point, the video shook and the Lieutenant winced, ducking partially off screen before reappearing again. “We need some cover if you want the power to stay on!”
“Keep that shit running, Lieutenant.” Colonel Noris’s voice was surprisingly calm for this interaction. I wondered if he was trying to counter the engineer’s panicked look. “We’ll put the blanket over you.” Noris raised his arm and flicked his wrist and the window flew off the screen at the motion.
“Sergeant?” he looked to the slender man sitting off the platform to his right.
“Sir, the Aegis is already over capacity. We can’t cover the whole base against this volume of fire,” the slender sergeant answered.
“Prioritize this building and the reactor. Everything else is expendable.”
There was a brief moment of hesitation, but the answer came. “Yes, Sir.”
Amidst the various radio chatter, I recognized a familiar name and voice. “Valkyrie is skids up.”
“Copy, Valkyrie,” another voice answered. “Firefly will be your terrestrial control. Safe flight.”
A window in the top left of the massive screen appeared and I saw a small dot appear off the edge of the inset digital map. A dashed line plotted a path that ended over the square I assumed was the base. Numbers too small to read continually updated in the corner of the new graphic as the dot blinked its way down the path.
“Computer, give me Firefly,” Noris said.
There was a brief, pleasant chime before a feminine robotic voice replied, “Colonel Noris, Firefly is currently in closed communications with Valkyrie.”
“Patch us in, my voice only.”
“Yes, Colonel Noris.”
I recognized Commander Swann’s voice, but couldn’t make sense of the conversation he was having. He and another were talking quickly and were using foreign terms and numbers that represented unknown entities. I looked to Colonel Noris, but he was fixated on the holo-wall. On the large map in the center of the screen various icons were appearing, shifting location, and locking into place while lines of red, orange, and yellow were drawn parallel to the base at sequential distances.
“Computer, close comms with Firefly.”
“Yes, Colonel Noris.”
Noris hadn’t said a word, but whatever he heard must’ve been satisfactory. At least something is going well, I thought. For a moment, the volume of the operations room rose back to its original state. Colonel Noris stood, a statue in the middle of the room, arms clasped behind his back and the blue light of the holo-wall painting his face. I was sure I hadn’t moved, but he snapped his head towards me and motioned me closer. I complied, taking quick steps to arrive at the edge of the platform.
“Ensign, you’re the first thing out of here on Valkyrie. Take your assistant with you. No place for non-combatants in this fight. There are two civilians as well, inspectors of some sort, they’ll be joining you. Chief Murray and his team will escort you all.” Colonel Noris turned away just as quickly as he had looked at me.
“Ma’am?” The pat on my shoulder startled me. A tall man in full combat gear, visor opaque, and carrying an assault rifle stood just behind me. “Follow me, Ma’am.” Without waiting for a response, he began walking towards a door at the back of the room. I almost had to jog to keep up with his long strides as I motioned for Chang to follow.
“Where are we going?” Chang asked when he caught up.
“Back to the Spitfire," I answered.
The moment we stepped out the second set of airlock doors my helmet adjusted its volume with a series of clicks to dull the ambient noise. The cracks of gunfire and thunder of artillery were initially deafening, but softened with each faint pop. We followed Chief Murray around the corner of the building and into a throughway where dozens of personnel had gathered. Nearby a marine was clinging to the shoulders of another, his head thrown back as a can of flesh foam was applied to his stump of a leg. I stared as the marine thrashed, the other motioning for more to come help hold his comrade down.
“Alright, listen up!”
The voice in my helmet shook me from my daze. I broke my eyes from the man flailing his severed limb and saw a group had joined us. Two were hunched over, their hands on their knees and shoulders heaving. The civilians, I reasoned, as if their white helmets didn’t stand out against the rest of us wearing dark gray. I checked my HUD and saw I’d been placed in a comm room with almost a dozen others. Four of us were flagged, probably to mark us as non-combatants. That left the other six to be our escorts.
Chief Murray didn't yell, the comms system between our helmets wouldn't require it, but his voice was stern. "There are enemies somewhere within the perimeter. We're going to move quickly, four of us in front, then you four, then my last two. Keep ten paces between each person and no not fall behind. When we reach the landing pad we'll hunker down there until Valkyrie picks you up. Everyone ready?"
Chief Murray looked at each of us in turn. The civilians stayed bent over, but each offered a thumbs up. I offered the same. "Good."
Chief Murray turned and gave a few hand signals. The other marines formed up, each taking a slight couching posture with rifles at their shoulder and pointed outward. With two quick snaps of the Chief's wrist the first marine began to move out into the open, the others following in turn. I followed, my head whipping around to look at every explosion that reached the ground. The shockwaves rippled over me and I could feel them vibrate my gut.
I constantly checked to make sure I wasn't too close to the person in front of me and generally tried not to look like an idiot. We moved from building to building deliberately, intermixed with short sprints to cross open ground. The entire base was just a massive concrete slab with over a hundred prefabricated buildings, so I imagined it looked just like every other base on the edge of the human systems--not that I had ever been to any others. Either way, I quickly lost track of where we were.
Several times one of the civilians got anxious and moved too quickly. There was probably something instinctual in seeking comfort in close proximity, but each time they just ended up bumping someone else. Luckily neither of them ran into a marine, but I still cursed them under my breath for being clumsy. I knew I wasn't being of any help either, but my time in initial fleet training had given me some basic understanding of how a ground unit moved so at least I wasn't a complete hindrance.
“How much farther do you think?” Chang asked as we prepared to cross a large open stretch between buildings.
“I don’t know.” I briefly considered pulling a map up across my helmets HUD, but didn’t want to be distracted and temporarily blind. Chang didn’t either, I guessed.
I waited until the civilian was about halfway across before I came out of my low crouch and began to run across. Just as the civilian was about to reach the corner of the wall he disappeared behind a flash of light.
I blinked rapidly, pleading for my vision to return. Everything seemed...slow? I saw my feet materialize in front of me and I felt my heart rate spike against my ribs. Where were my legs? Did I lose my legs?! No. No, my feet were still attached to my legs, I saw, as my gaze followed my own body upward to my stomach and chest. I was just sitting. I looked forward and realized I was back behind the wall where I had been seconds ago. Two marines were shooting from the corner of the building where I’d wanted to be, muzzles flashing repeatedly against the darkness.
“Ensign!” A voice yelled. “Ensign, you good?”
A helmet appeared at the periphery of my vision. I turned to look and found a male face stared at me, fierce eyes barely visible behind the darkened faceplate.
“I-I think so,” I answered. I put my arms behind me, trying to push myself upward to stand, but my hand found something that wasn’t the ground. A thigh, I realized, as I turned to see what felt so firm and dense. Completing my quick survey I learned that I was basically sitting in the marine's lap. Had he dragged me back?
“Christ, you’d be in bits if you’d been a few steps further,” the marine said as I was hoisted to my feet by a hand under each of my armpits.
“Thanks,” I muttered. My tone did little to hide my embarrassment.
“We’ve still got to get across. Can you move?”
I lifted my legs slightly in turn. My left hip and side were stiff and my knee sent a stab of pain up my leg when I tried to use it to hold my weight.
“I-I’m not sure,” I managed. Shit. Now what? Come on Cara, I thought, you can't look like a wuss. You're an officer!
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“I’ll carry you,” the marine offered.
“No!” I snapped. “Sorry. No, I can do it.” I took a deep breath, steadying myself. I was not about to be carried out of here like some child. I bounced on my toes slightly, trying to shake off the dull ache spreading across my left leg. I braced slightly and then began my run once more. The first few strides felt like a hammer against my knee, but by the time I was halfway across it became a dull throb that caused what I hoped was a hardly noticeable limp.
Safely behind the wall on the far side, I realized the civilian had not been so lucky. He was face down on the ground with Chief Murray and another marine kneeling over him. They wiped away blood and pressed patches of cloth over what looked to be dozens of stab wounds across the man's lower back, butt, and thighs. Each bandage was sealed with a dose of flesh foam and I looked away, unable to watch the man writhe each time the foam was applied. Instead, I watched Chang sprint across, the last two marines following in suit.
“We’re all here?” Chief Murray asked. I turned back to find he had stood and the other marine had hoisted the civilian over his shoulders, his rifle slung tightly across his chest.
“Good to go, Chief!” one of the others answered.
“Let’s move.”
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We arrived at the landing pad what was probably only a few minutes later, but it felt like an hour. I sat, leaned against the side of a barricade at the pad’s edge and thankful for the rest. Chief Murray crouched down as though he were looking at his own feet. If I had to guess, he was probably flipping through various comm channels and focusing on their contents.
“OK, Valkyrie is two minutes out,” the Chief said into our channel, confirming my assumption. “Bad news, though--Firefly needs them for a bit. We’re going to stay here and stay low until they come get you.”
I saw all six icons representing the marines fade slightly in my HUD indicating they’d been pulled into another comm channel. After a moment the icons returned to their original color and four of them moved away in two groups of two, disappearing into the shadows.
“Where are they going?” I asked.
“To set up a perimeter,” Chief Murray replied.
That didn’t make sense. There was already a base perimeter. “But we’re inside the compound,” I informed him.
“So are the rebels.”
That wasn’t reassuring. Swann’s voice played in my head, reminding me of bases lost. I didn’t want to know the answer, but couldn’t stop myself from asking. “Are we being overrun?”
“No, not yet,” Chief Murray replied, “but the compound perimeter is weakening and there are reports of a small group within the walls.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know what else to say. I cursed myself for sounding so pathetic and for panicking at the thought of the base being overrun with us still in it.
Movement to my left caught my attention. The remaining marine had gone back to working on the civilian, applying more bandages overtop the ones with blood soaking through.
Explosions shook the ground more often now, it felt like. The buzz of the Aegis spewing rounds into the air to intercept the incoming projectiles was constant, but apparently it wasn’t enough. It took a concentrated effort not to bring my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around them each time the ground trembled.
The groans of the civilian in the comm channel began to wear on me and keeping out thoughts of the worst became harder by the minute. What if the next explosion was on top of us? What if we were overrun? I glanced at the pistol strapped to my right thigh. It had been a while since I’d qualified on it. I was pretty accurate on the range, but I wracked my brain trying to recall how to properly deal with certain malfunctions that might occur. Why couldn’t I remember that basic training? They said it was idiot proof!
“Valkyrie is here. Look.”
I anxiously followed where Chief Hardin was pointing, but saw little more than wispy clouds underlit by explosions and the faint glow of the outpost. Then, a blue dot appeared, turning to orange as it grew closer. I tracked it for a few moments until it disappeared behind a thicker group of clouds. Somewhere overhead a rumbling growl grew into a deafening roar that forced my helmet to adjust its volume again.
In a dazzling display of firepower, Valkyrie burst through the clouds, twin door guns ablaze like two heads of a beast. Corporal Strong had gleefully told me that there was a tracer every tenth round, but as I watched two constant streams of light spew downward I found it hard to believe every round didn’t glow. Valkyrie launched a slew of rockets and a moment later the nose cannon began strafing the ground from the lower altitude. A hail of bullets flew upward from multiple locations, strings of dotted lights swinging through the air like ribbons in the wind as guns chased the aircraft through the sky.
I tried to follow Valkyrie by sound each time it slipped back above the clouds only to have it reappear elsewhere moments later to ‘rain hate’, as Corporal Strong had so enthusiastically described it. After half a dozen iterations of this, however, several bright flashes erupted from the mountainside and lines of smoke shot upward. Valkyrie reacted immediately, taking a hard sweeping turn while red flares with delayed bangs and glittering clouds of smoke spewed from its underside. The flames from its engines tripled in length as it sped away, carrying the craft back above the clouds.
Valkyrie’s roar faded back to a faint growl and all but disappeared behind the buzz of the Aegis and the thumping from the artillery. Had they fled? I was about to ask Chief Murray where Valkyrie had gone when it tore through the clouds, diving at its last aggressor. It spiraled downward, a trail of horrid smoke from its engines the only sign of where it had been as it dodged the rising gunfire and returned the gesture. The aircraft lingered over the mountainside in a mixture of a hover and tight circle, all of its guns firing relentlessly. The assault drug on long enough that I started to believe they intended to flatten the entire mountain.
Apparently satisfied, Valkyrie’s nose turned upwards and it left the mountainside to smolder as it slipped back out of sight. This dance continued for what seemed another hour, Valkyrie darting through the sky and peppering the ground with bullets and rockets as its engines screamed into the night. It never lingered in sight for very long, each time speeding away just as the dotted lines of light seemed to intersect the rugged vessel.
“Chief, we’ve got movement.” The icons in my HUD went faint again and the marine that had been working on the civilian snapped his rifle up to his shoulder to look outward over our barricade. Chief Murray had done the same to my other side, I noted. I peered over the concrete barrier, but saw nothing save for the empty landing pad and several large containers on the other side.
My eyes darted to flashes on my left, little winks of light fighting against shadows behind a large building. One of the icons in my HUD began to flash, then two more. The marine to my right rose and sprinted towards the corner of the nearest building before quickly fading into the shadow. I pulled my feet closer under me in a low crouch, ready to follow, but Chief Murray gave an upright palm. Stay. The flashes continued, fading as though heading away, then disappeared entirely.
There was a click as a single marine reentered our comm channel. “We’re clear, Chief. Ten EKIA.”
The rest of the marines joined seconds later. Two of them came jogging back toward us, one with his arm over the other. They reached the barricade and the wounded of the two sat and leaned his back against the short concrete wall to rest. I could see that blood had spilled out over his armor from just beneath his ribs, but a small dot of yellow foam, no bigger than my thumb nail, was highlighted against the gray.
“Was that the rebels?” I asked.
“Yes,” Chief Murray answered, still surveying the area.
“All of the--” I was cut off by ten more people joining our comm channel.
“Chief.”
“Sir. Didn’t expect you,” Chief Murray said crisply.
“Seems like we just missed the fun.”
I watched as a group of marines fanned out from the shadows of a nearby building and took up positions behind barricades all around the landing pad. In the middle of them a large man strode casually over to where we huddled behind our own piece of concrete protection. The eagle next to the icon that had spoken informed me it was Colonel Noris.
The commander of the base stood fully upright, unconcerned about the explosions and snaps of gunfire all around us. Chief Murray stood next to him, a full head shorter despite his sizeable height over me. The two must have joined a private channel as they seemed to gesture oddly, pointing at nothing in particular on several occasions. When they were finished, Colonel Noris stepped away, but stopped to kneel next to the wounded marine.
“Alright, you all are on deck,” Chief Murray said. “Don’t move to the aircraft until I tell you.”
I turned to look at the sky in time to see Valkyrie swoop in over the compound, the roar of its engines chasing the vessel as it came to a halt fifty feet over the landing pad. The door guns fired tirelessly, only stopping when they could no longer hit the ground over the compound walls. The barrels went still, but glowed white as the vessel made the final, agonizingly slow descent to the ground. The moment the metal skids touched the pad I could see hands darting across hologram screens within the cockpit. I could also see that our ride to safety was riddled with pockmarks and coated in black soot.
The left cockpit door swung upward and two small cans were kicked out, rolling past Colonel Noris’s feet as the large man jogged towards the aircraft. Noris was animated, violently pointing towards the mountainside and giving other sweeping gestures. There was a brief pause in his movement as he looked at the occupants, listening to some response. Eventually he gave a thumbs up and slapped the flooring twice before walking back in our direction, the cockpit door closing at his departure.
There was a shove on my back that forced my sore legs to catch me and continue moving. Chief Murray pressed us forward while Chief Hardin waved our haggard group on from inside Valkyrie. I stepped up onto the small wing and into the vessel before my legs refused to move any further, not out of fatigue, but the sight within.
A pool of crimson suctioned my boot to the floor. Lines of brighter red meandered along the jagged paths of corrugated metal and disappeared into the edges of the floor panels. My helmet gave a click as it synced to Valkyrie’s internal channel and I was overwhelmed by a multitude of simultaneous conversations. Chief Hardin grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me into a seat along the back wall of the small cabin while the myriad of voices filled my ears.
“Denmother, Valkyrie one-one requests immediate re-kit, bay two. Black on AGM’s, red on fuel. Two-by crew wounded. Request one-by fresh gunner.”
“Copy Valkyrie, re-kit prepping.”
“Thirty-percent left on guns.”
“Copy thirty, we’re dry on rockets.”
I watched as Chang and the first civilian stepped on board and took seats next to mine.
“Outboard starboard stabilizer took a good hit, we’re losing pressure.”
“We’ll press though it.”
“Valkyrie, you’re approved re-kit, bay two.”
Chief Hardin helped a marine lift the wounded civilian into the cargo bay. The man resisted feebly as he was pressed back into the seat and fastened down. Chief Hardin stayed kneeled in front of him for a moment, probably having some private conversation about the man’s current state.
“Pelican, you’re approved engine start, bay one.”
“Roger, Denmother. Skids up in one mike.”
“One-one, need you outbound, sector four.”
“Firefly, Valkyrie copies. Exiting via sector four.”
“Ricky, you holdin’ up?”
“All good, Chief,” a tense voice replied. “Didn’t need that one anyway. Tattoos on it sucked.”
I understood the last bit against the flurry of ops-talk. I hazarded a look in the direction of the young corporal and the edges of my vision went gray and fuzzy. His dark blue and black armor was highlighted with a smattering of yellow at the shoulder. I looked to the floor, but the blood and empty canisters stuck in the crevices near the walls offered me no solace. I had already seen a few wounded, why did I suddenly feel so faint?
The voices were cut and a faint static played in my helmet. A glance at the top of my HUD let me know I’d been pulled into a private channel with only those inside Valkyrie.
“Max your suit’s dampeners, we’re going up quick,” Commander Swann said before the channel clicked out and I was subjected to more chatter.
I pushed the voices from my mind and complied with the instruction. The seat pulled against my suit, drawing me deeper and simultaneously inflating the interior material gradually. It compressed against my entire body until I thought I might not be able to breathe. A series of pinpricks down my back followed and the sharp pain turned to a spreading heat as the chemical cocktail found its way into my bloodstream. I struggled to turn my head towards Chang and saw his eyes squeezed shut and his lips reciting some unheard prayer.
“Darth, we’re going hot the whole way out.”
“Copy, Chief.”
My helmet performed a series of rapid clicks as it compensated for the noise of the engines throttling. I stared through the cockpit and preparing to attempt to make sense of which way we were flying to stave off any air sickness. The vessel shuddered, seemingly with the desire to stay on the ground. I could sympathize. I wanted to be up on the Spitfire, away from all the chaos on the ground, but I suddenly wasn’t so sure this was the best way out.
“Valkyrie is skids up.”
My stomach dropped as we broke away from the planet. Through the gap between the pilot’s seats I saw clouds fly across the glass as we spun to a new heading. I was unpleasantly reminded that my helmet was still allowing ambient noise when the door guns opened fire. The sound was ear-splitting inside the cabin and I screamed in pain while desperately opening the HUD menu to kill the noise.
I succeeded and in my new found silence I closed my eyes, hearing only a muffled rumble and my own breathing through the ringing in my ears. A bump against my foot brought me back to reality and I pulled my heels against the base of the seat to stay out of the way. Chief Hardin and Corporal Strong had swung themselves and their guns inside and the doors were closing.
“We’re sealed up, Darth.”
For a moment I didn’t think Commander Swann had heard the Chief, but his voice came across, dead calm. “Copy, good seal.”
Even with ambient noise disallowed there were several more clicks in my helmet as the engines were unleashed and the vibrations accelerated into a constant hum. I tried not to clench my jaw, fearful that my teeth might be worn flat. I didn’t need to worry for long.
We pointed what felt like directly upward and Commander Swann pressed Valkyrie for what I prayed was its maximum power. I was thrust against my seat, my helmet snapping back against the padding and becoming glued there. I groaned and strained to look down my nose at the cockpit. Somehow the two pilots were still moving their arms, albeit slowly, flipping several switches and manipulating the controls.
The smooth vibrations turned to violent jolts as we tore through the atmosphere, breaking through an upper layer of clouds to be greeted by a sea of deep black. The unrelenting pressure threatened to pull me to sleep and I gave up trying to look forward, or downward, and resigned myself to staring at the metal ceiling.
A few minutes more and I was freed from the acceleration. I slammed against the harness and back into the seat as we slipped into the vacuum of space and Commander Swann eased off the throttle. I coughed, my lungs unsure what to do with their first full filling of stale, suit-fed air in almost ten minutes.
“One-one is inbound, request Sarajevo.”
“Copy one-one. You’re approved assault landing.”
Able to see through the cockpit again I noticed a closer grouping of stars blinking steadily amidst the darkness. The sight of it was oddly serene; a warship bristling with firepower, gently floating in the boundless night and unphased by the battle below. I looked over at Chang to see if he saw the same, but my assistant was still deep in his prayer.
Our approach to the Spitfire was rapid and I began to worry we were going to smash into the side of the frigate as it filled my view through the cockpit. Our pilots, of course, intended otherwise. A bright light whitewashed the glass until the material adjusted for the added intensity. The engines, I surmised, had angled forward to counter-thrust. I was displeased to learn I was right. The opposite of our ascent occurred and I prayed the harness was strong enough to hold me back as it dug into my suit.
If I hadn't wobbled my way off of Valkyrie several minutes later I never would’ve believed we would stop in time. I puked, as did Chang, only a few steps away from the vessel. I didn’t even care who saw the officer spilling her guts like a sick child, I was just happy to be back on the Spitfire.