“Rose, go light a flare outside the hanger.” Baron worried the storm would be too rough for the Drones to land safely. The last thing he needed was a dead BDF Commander on his hands. His team had finished dragging the prisoners out of the bunker and had them collected in the middle of the old hanger next to a large pool of stagnant water. Mission had gone off without a hitch but they only managed to get 6 prisoners, damn survivors were too stubborn to know when they were beaten. This group was tough, one girl had made Mouse’s life hell as he had to carry her out of the bunker since she wouldn't stop fighting.
“Grinch we still clear?”
“A-firm sir, no signatures outside. Maybe all the Gray were inside.” Grinch replied from his snipers roost. Baron was worried a swarm would show up as the drones arrived with Burbank and his men. He had Grinch posted in the hills to give them cover while the rest of his team formed a circle around the prisoners in the hanger. Rose opened a flare and waived it outside the hanger as the humming of the drones rose up to a roar announcing their arrival. It was getting worse outside and the drones had to land fast, they didn’t do well in the muddy dirt which made them sink a few inches and lopsided. The dancing lights from the BDF soldier’s helmets made their way inside the hanger with Baron’s team waiting.
“Not that many this time, 243?” Burbank yelled over the thunder and rain that pounded the hanger roof.
“Gray took out several, rest didn’t want to cooperate.” Baron offered in return.
“Cooperate!? You started shooting us!” The fiery girl yelled from where she was laying on the concrete floor, it was the same one that had been a problem from the start. Her outburst drew Burbank’s attention and he changed his course from walking to Baron to her.
“Is that right little girl?” Burbank ghoulishly asked as he neared her.
“You bastards killed my friends, most of us weren’t even soldiers.” She hissed with poison behind every word. Burbank knelt beside her face and looked her in the eyes.
“And do you know why that is little girl?” He asked rhetorically.
“Because your value as raw organic material is greater than your value as a human.” He answered his own question with smug satisfaction. The members of Pale Horse shifted uncomfortably as Burbank's words soaked in.
Baron had walked over to Burbank and stood beside him at parade rest with both his hands behind his back and his rifle on its holster. He silently wished the girl would shut up for her own good but made sure to hide any emotion. As if the girl finally understood the abominations that surrounded her, she fell silent. Burbank stood up and eyed his prisoners while the BDF fanned out. Several went into the Bunker to see what could be salvaged while the rest stood security in the hanger.
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, I have orders to find your little home and I’m not one to disappoint.” Burbank announced to the prisoners, most of which had their faces on the concrete with their eyes shut. Likely praying to whatever God they believed in and wishing for a happy ending that they knew wouldn’t come.
“Well no sense wasting time, 243 bring that one over here!” Burbank pointed to a man in dirty green fatigues that was eyeing him with a snarl on his face.
“Wait!” One of the prisoners shouted, which drew everyone’s attention.
“I’m the highest-ranking officer here, I should be the one you talk to.” the voice yelled out.
“Good, we have someone with sense. 243, him.” Burbank ordered while Baron grimaced behind his helmet. He nevertheless followed his orders and drug the Officer over to where Burbank stood with his arms on his hips. Baron sat the Officer down on his knees in front of Burbank and held onto his shoulder in case he got any ideas.
“Oak Leaf insignia, Major?” Burbank asked.
“Yes sir, Major Mischoff and this is my expedition.” The Officer responded while trying to sound confident.
“Well then Major, I’ll ask you then. Where are the rest of you?”
“You know I can’t do that, sir.” The Officer responded in a defiant but respectful tone.
“I know you’re worried about what we’ll do to the base. It’s not what you think. We want to help you all but you keep attacking our outposts. If we can meet with your leader’s maybe we can work something out?” It was obvious he was lying but Burbank didn't care. The only thing he was doing was offering a thin veil so the Major could justify spilling his guts.
But the Major was silent.
“Very well, I didn’t want it to be like this but you’re forcing our hands. 243, his feet...”
Baron didn’t hesitate, anything but total cooperation would get him, and his team disciplined. No stranger was worth risking the lives of his men.
The Officer screamed as Baron put his armored foot on one of his ankles. Since he was on his knees he couldn’t move as the black armored boot crushed it. Muffled cries came from the other survivors behind Baron as he slowly pressed his foot down on the Officers ankle who continued screaming in agonizing pain.
“Change your mind?” Burbank asked with a smile on his face despite the torture.
“Go to hell!” The Officer yelled through gritted teeth that were starting to turn red from him biting his own flesh and blood filling his mouth.
For several minutes Baron broke the man’s ankles and then his wrists. The hanger echoed from the man screaming so loud Baron knew Grinch had to be hearing it. It wasn’t the first time he had tortured people at Burbank’s orders but that didn’t make it any easier. He had a choice to make as with every order he was given. Follow it and ensure humanity was protected through the Bastions guidance or disobey and have his team punished. Either way, the order would be accomplished with or without him. At least following the orders kept his men feed and what little privileges they had would remain.
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The dark hanger had shadows cast over its walls from the lights shining off the patrolling BDF soldiers. The rain and thunder continued to batter the walls and roof as if even the world itself wanted to stop what was happening. Barons men stood still as statues around the prisoners who most of which clinched their eyes shut and waited for when they would take the Major’s spot being tortured. Baron didn’t want this for the men he called a family but what choice did he have? This was all they knew, this was what they were created to do.
Blood soaked Barons’ hands and pooled around his feet. The Officer was mangled to the point he’d bleed out soon. White bone had broken through his arms and legs where the pressure was so intense they were crushed. As his last wrist snapped he went limp most likely from shock, making him fall unconscious. Baron let the man fall in the pool of his own blood.
“Shame.” Burbank shrugged as if he lacked any compassion, which Baron already knew he did.
“Alright, next!” Burbank yelled as the prisoners started moaning and sobbing while trying to hide their fear.
“You sick bastard! Take the cuffs off and you and me go in a room! I’ll answer any questions you ask then!” The girl with the temper just doomed herself, Baron thought to himself.
“At least someone wants to talk, 243.” Burbank motioned to the girl who was still shouting profanities.
His blood-soaked boots crunched the decaying concrete underneath as he slowly moved towards her, trying to delay the inevitable. He put his hand around her arm and pulled her to her feet as she jerked away from his grip. As she fought back he noticed a shiny necklace fall from her neck and hit the ground, it caught his attention. While still holding her with one arm he bent down and picked it up. As he turned it over in his hands it popped open, revealing a photograph.
His heart started to quicken and his mind went blank, he stood numb in the hanger still holding the girl in one hand and the necklace in the other. He knew the women in the picture. He remembered kissing her once in the Bastion. She was a scientist in the Venator program and tried to help the Venators escape the Bastion, he couldn’t remember if it was yesterday or years ago. He wasn’t sure if the memories flooding his mind were even real but he knew he had kissed her. He could still feel her lips on his, the feel, the taste, the smell, everything about her was so vivid it was as if she stood in front of him.
“Give me that!” The girl screamed which knocked Baron out of his trance. He looked down at her and tilted his head curiously. He recognized her, she looked like the girl in the picture.
“243!” Burbank yelled.
“Do we have a problem?” He added.
Baron continued staring at the girl who uncomfortably shifted in his grip with a confused expression on her face.
The rest of Pale Horse instinctively tensed more than they already had been, they knew something wasn’t right with their Captain. Decades of serving with each other gave them a keen knowledge of when something was wrong and something was very wrong with Baron.
“243!” Burbank yelled again as his patience had worn out.
Baron closed his fist around the pendant and escorted the girl over to Burbank who stood in front of the pooled blood slowly growing from the Major’s limp body.
“Let go of me!” The girl screamed at Baron while thrashing about. It didn’t matter, Baron was hundreds of pounds heavier than her and moved her with ease. Burbank motioned his head at the ground in front of him that was blood-soaked, indicating he wanted her placed there.
Baron obliged and pushed her down to her knees next to the fallen Major. She continued to grunt and squirm as Baron kept one hand on her shoulder and the other hand was still tightly closed around the pendant. He may have been following orders but Baron was miles away from the dark hanger...
Baron’s mind was at the Bastion. He was in one of the Venator testing labs but he wasn’t alone. A girl was with him in the lab, she looked like the one he held on the blood-soaked ground but older. She was terrified just like this girl was. She was telling him something. She had a plan for getting everyone out of the Bastion, the place wasn’t safe for them. The Bastion was killing its own people, it was a purge.
Her name, her name was Evelyn and I loved her.
“Captain 243?! What is going on!?” Burbank screaming broke into Baron’s mind. Burbank had been screaming at Baron for several minutes as he stood still in a trance-like state. Burbank motioned to one of his BDF soldiers who ran up to him.
“Tell Gabriel we need a recycle, 243 is obviously corrupt or something broke.” Burbank huffed.
Baron opened his fist and looked at the pendant. The girl on the ground needed him. She was staring up at him with the same fear that had gripped Evelyn, he needed to do something.
“My name is Adam.”
Burbank looked back at Baron with his eyes squinted in confusion as he didn't understand what Baron meant. The confusion quickly turned to horror and fear as the blade in Baron's first carved a hole in the soldier standing beside him. Burbank muttered something indecipherable as panic gripped him. Before Burbank could react, Baron twitched his wrist which sent his blade slashing through the soldier's body, severing his torso from his legs. The blade glided through the soldier like soft clay before meeting Burbank's own body. Burbank stared at Baron as the blade cut through his torso next, in one swift motion Baron cut the two into pieces and they fell into a wipe pile on the floor.
Baron finished with the Commander and the soldier before turning to the other BDF soldiers that went to shoulder their rifles. Pale Horse didn’t have time to ask questions, they needed to protect their Captain. Rose hefted up his repeater and let a stream of red fire cut through the soldiers aiming at Baron. Moses had a BDF soldier standing beside him that went running towards Baron but not before Moses grabbed him and pulled him in close while forcing his gauntlet blade through his chest. Rook and Mouse shouldered their rifles and started firing into the remaining soldiers that scattered.
Baron turned to the girl still on her knees.
“Get down!” He yelled as he turned to the other BDF soldiers with hateful violence burning through him. It was chaos, in an instant, the room was covered in blood from the BDF soldiers as they tried in vain to fight back but were too slow to react against the Venators.
“Contact Command get backu*!” A BDF soldier was screaming orders before being cut off. No one saw what happened to him but the light on his helmet went out the same time he stopped screaming.
“Where’d they go?!” Another yelled in the dark.
Heavy footsteps pounded the ground like a herd of wild animals while the rain fell in sheets outside. Lighting arched overhead which showed a glimpse of a figure standing above a dead soldier.
“BDF-19 2nd Platoon, Burbank is down! Venators are rogue, we need help now! Oh shi*!” Another soldier screaming into his radio was cut off by an electrical burst that threw him into a shipping container behind him. As he fell to the ground red matter was pasted to the container he had just been thrown into.
Rachel had wormed her way to Anderson, one of the older techs who was tied on the ground like everyone else.
“Your knife, now.” She whispered in the dark room. He understood and rolled over so she could pull a knife out of his front pocket. It took some work but she finally cut through the cuffs and went to stand up.
“Don’t move!” A BDF soldier jammed his rifle into the side of her head as his light blinded her. She went to put her hands up but suddenly he disappeared and his rifle clanked to the ground. She didn’t see what happened to him but didn’t have time to bother asking questions, she needed to get everyone out. She quickly used the pocketknife to free the others before grabbing the rifle which was covered in blood.
“We gotta go now!” She yelled over gunfire behind a stack of shipping containers to her left.
She led her band of escapees towards the hanger exit but was stopped. One of the black-armored figures stepped in front of the hangar door, he was silhouetted against the outside which was only barely brighter than the hanger but they could still make him out.
“Cap’n needs to give the word before we go anywhere.” The figure didn’t sound worried despite the fact she had her rifle trained on his head. She had already watched one of them torture her friend to death and wasn’t planning on letting them do it again, no matter what conflict was going on between the two Bastion groups.