Spartan Valor

by Toby Neighbors

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “There’s a settlement ahead,” Aurora said.

  “You’re attacking?” Gloria asked.

  “No,” Aurora said softly.

  I remembered what Money had said about the odd equipment the MI platoon had carried into the jungle. Aurora no longer had a laser designator. I couldn’t see much in the darkness, even with my night vision on, but I could see the two women next to me. The realization of what the Military Intelligence platoon was doing came to me in a flash. Despite my hatred for the aliens on Apex Venandi, I felt a wave of revulsion at the thought of the MI platoon’s covert work.

  “Are you going to tell us anything?” Gloria said.

  “I can’t,” Aurora said.

  “They’re designating native villages for airstrikes,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Who told you that?” Aurora said, her voice louder than it should have been.

  “No one,” I replied. “But I saw your platoon leave the Base Camp with laser designators. You no longer have one. I’m assuming you’re mounting them in the trees outside the villages.”

  “The Fleet is going to bombard the natives from orbit?” Gloria asked.

  “I don’t know what the plan is,” Aurora said. “I’m following orders, just like you.”

  “It isn’t right,” I said.

  “That’s rich, coming from you,” Aurora countered. “From what I hear, you’ve killed more natives than anyone.”

  “I’ve fought them,” I said. “I’ve killed the warriors. I won’t deny it. But what you’re doing is targeting the innocent — women, children, non-combatants.”

  “We’re targeting the villages around the volcano,” Aurora explained. “The natives have an entire world to occupy safely. If you’re so fond of the locals, you can warn them. Who’s stopping you?”

  “What happened to you, Aurora?” I asked. “I thought I knew you.”

  “I’m following orders, Orry. Don’t get so high and mighty. Is what you’ve been doing any different? We all know the Fleet is coming in to take the IX gas, one way or another.”

  I knew she was right. The rarity of the gas made obtaining it the Fleet’s highest priority. Apex Venandi and the intelligent species that lived there were simply an unfortunate footnote in a report that came across the desk of a high ranking official. It wouldn’t have mattered if the gas had been found on a highly populated colony world. If mining it caused the entire population to die horribly, the decision to obtain the rare gas would have been the same. I didn’t have to like it, or even agree with the decisions being made by the Fleet, but I was duty-bound to follow the orders I was given.

  “How long until you head back to BC?” I asked.

  “We’ll continue our sweep until we meet up with first and second squads,” she said.

  “Which could be da-“

  I was interrupted by a sudden and terrible impact. It smashed into the armor at the center of my back and flung me forward into Gloria. My helmet hit her in the forehead and we both fell to the ground. I was semi-conscious, struggling to breathe. A red light flashed in my Command Helmet alerting me that I had been wounded, which seemed oddly redundant, but at the same time helped me to make sense of what had happened. My armor was compromised, but whatever had struck hadn’t penetrated through the sturdy plate that protected my spine. The impact had driven the air from my lungs, and from the pain in my neck and shoulders, I guessed it had caused whiplash too.

  A scuffle took place while I was trying to clear my head. I heard Aurora grunt, then everything was quiet again. A long-fingered hand wrapped around my upper arm and rolled me over. The pain was excruciating, but I saw my attacker. It was a Vena hunter. The alien had Aurora’s body draped over its shoulder and was reaching for my rifle when movement in the jungle made the hunter look up. The alien growled softly then dashed away. My Command Helmet automatically translated the Vena’s growl and flashed the words across my HUD.

  NOT OVER

  I lay on my back. The muscles in my neck were bunched tight, and electric currents of pain radiated down my back and into my head. The night was a murky, green blur above me. I knew I needed to get up and go after Aurora, but I wasn’t sure I could even move on my own. I saw people moving close to me, bending over and staring at me. They may have even been talking, but I couldn’t hear them. I wanted to check on Gloria, but felt certain she would be taken care of. Then, to my utter disbelief, the MI squad left us there.

  One minute they were staring down at us, the next they were gone. I forced myself to roll onto my side. The muscles in my back and neck felt as thought they were cramping. At times it hurt so bad, I thought the spasms would snap my neck. I had to move slowly and stop often as the spasms hit hard. Once I got onto my side, I was able to take hold of a vine and slowly lever myself to an upright position on my knees. The pain eased a little, as long as I didn’t turn my head too quickly. I was relieved to see Gloria stirring on the ground nearby. She had a cut above one eyebrow, and there was blood on her face. She groaned and opened her eyes.

  “Don’t get up,” I said. “Just stay there and try not to make much noise.

  “My head,” she whispered. Her fingers probed the gash gingerly, her face wrinkling with pain.

  “Is it bad?” I asked.

  “Hurts like hell,” she complained. “I might be sick.”

  “Roll onto your side,” I told her.

  She struggled a bit, obviously dizzy. She whimpered a little, then threw up. I knelt beside her, keeping one hand on a vine for balance. I got a gauze pad and held it against her forehead until she was able to hold it herself. In my pack, with the other medical supplies, was a small bit of the Vena healing paste.

  “This is going to burn,” I said. “It may hurt pretty bad tonight, but it heals faster than anything else I’ve got. Odds are you won’t even have a scar.”

  “I can take it,” Gloria said. “What the hell happened anyway?”

  “From what I can tell, I was shot.”

  “What? Are you... bleeding?”

  “No, my armor stopped the bullet. But the impact knocked me into you,” I said, tapping my forehead above my eye, which was the same place she had been been injured.

  “So I owe you one?”

  “I guess so. I was pretty out of it right after the shot. I saw a Vena hunter carry Aurora away.”

  “Oh, no. Is that where the MI platoon went?”

  I took a deep breath. “I don’t think so.”

  “But they must have heard something,” Gloria said.

  “They did. They were coming back and scared off the hunter. Probably saving our lives in the process.”

  “So then, they know Aurora is missing, but they didn’t try to rescue her?”

  I shook my head. It was careless of me. The simple gesture sent a wave of pain cascading down my back, and the muscles in my neck spasmed again. I was thankful that my Command Helmet hid my face so that Gloria didn’t see me grimace in pain.

  “That makes no sense, Orry.”

  “She must have been vouching for us more than it appeared,” I said. “Her squad found us, saw that we were wounded, and left us to fend for ourselves.”

  She started to object, and then a puzzled look came over her face, as if she didn’t understand.

  “I’m a little punchy here, Orry. I thought you said they left us to die.”

  “That’s right,” I said.

  “No, that isn’t right,” she replied angrily. “Marines don’t do that. We don’t leave people behind.”

  “You and I know that,” I said. “Apparently that value isn’t honored by Military Intelligence.”

  “The bastards,” Gloria said. “What do we do now?”

  “Your cut will be better by morning, but I’m pretty sure you have a concussion. We’ll find a place to hide until sunrise, then reassess.”

  “And in the morning?”

  “You tell me,” I said. I knew what I wanted t
o do, but my orders were to bring Gloria back, not rescue Aurora.

  “We have to go after her,” Gloria said, sending relief flooding through me.

  “I agree. Let’s get you on your feet and find a more secure location. Hopefully we’ll feel better in the morning.”

  Chapter 29

  We spent the night between two massive trees surrounded by soft, verdant bushes that hid us from view. I sat with my back against a tree trunk, my head just above the foliage so I could keep watch for any signs of danger. Gloria rested beside me, sleeping through most of the night. When the sun rose I was stiff and tired, but ready to get moving, not just because I was anxious to find Aurora, but because I needed to move. Walking would be the best therapy for my back and neck.

  “Can you find Aurora the same way you found me?” Gloria asked.

  She seemed sharp-eyed and well rested. There was still dried blood in her short hair and down the side of her face and neck, but she was hoisted my pack effortlessly.

  “No,” I admitted. “She doesn’t show up on my locator the way you did.”

  “So, we have no way of knowing where the Vena took her?”

  “Not really. I’m still willing to try though. Are you?”

  “Of course,” Gloria said.

  “Let’s go back where we were attacked. Maybe we can find some clues to help us find where they took her.”

  In the daylight, everything seemed different. I could see footprints all around the site of the attack. We even found Aurora’s assault rifle.

  “At least, that’s good,” Gloria said, as she pulled back on the charging handle and checked the rifle’s breech.

  “She must have dropped it when she was attacked,” I said. “The hunter didn’t have time to pick it up. There’s also something I didn’t tell you last night.”

  “Don’t start holding out on me, Porter,” Gloria said.

  “My helmet has a translation app,” I confessed. “The Vena language is almost like a canine’s growls and barks. I was pretty out of it when the hunter took Aurora, but it said something. And my helmet picked it up.”

  “What did it say?” Gloria asked, looking fierce with the rifle in her hands and blood streaked across her face.

  “Not over,” I said.

  “Not over? Like, ‘this isn’t over?’ It threatened you?”

  “I think so.”

  “Well, then that gives us an advantage,” she said.

  “How do you figure that?” I asked.

  “If it threatened you, it’s probably coming back,” Gloria said. “Our best bet is to stay put, maybe up in one of the trees with a good view of this spot. When it comes back, we capture it and force it to take us to Aurora.”

  I thought about it and saw the brilliance of Gloria’s plan. The only other alternative was to wander aimlessly through the jungle and hope we stumbled onto Aurora. I didn’t want to sit and do nothing all day long, but I was tired and far from a hundred percent.

  “Okay, let’s find our spot,” I said.

  We spent most of the day in a large tree. I slept several hours while Gloria kept watch. There were Fae in the area, but they didn’t suspect enemies were close by, and didn’t give our tree a second look as they hurried about their business. Late in the afternoon, we prepared our trap.

  I emptied the contents of my pack, then we filled it with fist-sized stones. Once the bag was three-quarters full, it weighed twice as much as usual. We tied it to vine and pulled it up near the stout limb it was suspended from. After testing the trap to ensure where it would fall, we went down and left Aurora’s rifle on the ground beside the trap area. I left a small reflective tab on the ground as well, to mark the spot where the bag would drop. Hopefully, when the hunter returned, it would want the weapon, and we could spring our trap.

  “So, what’s the deal with you and Aurora?” Gloria asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean. You’re still hung up on her.”

  “I never denied that,” I said.

  “But she doesn’t feel the same way?”

  “I honestly don’t know how she feels,” I confessed.

  “She likes knowing you’re hung up on her. I’ve known girls like that. They keep a few guys hanging on just because it makes them feel good about themselves.”

  “I don’t think Aurora is like that.”

  “You’re a guy,” Gloria said with a smirk. “What do you know about women?”

  “Not much, but I trust my instincts.”

  “And what do your instincts tell you about me?”

  She slid a little closer on the limb. It was wide enough that we could comfortably sit on the stout branch, but not side by side. We were facing each other on the branch. The vine holding up my pack was tied to a secondary branch in easy reach.

  “I don’t think this is the time or place,” I said. “It’s going to be dark soon.”

  “I wish you’d take off that stupid helmet. I want to see your eyes.”

  I knew it was a bad idea, but I felt as if I owed her that much. Despite the danger we were in, sitting high above the jungle floor completely alone was incredibly romantic. I couldn’t deny that I wanted to kiss Gloria. She didn’t have the same haunting beauty that Aurora had. She was confident and funny, athletic and feminine all at the same time. And probably the biggest factor in my attraction to Gloria was that she understood me. I didn’t have to explain myself to her.

  I pulled off the helmet and wiped my face with the sleeve of my jacket. Gloria smiled and it was pleasant. She was pretty in a sense, even with blood streaking the side of her face. I reached up and brushed away the healing paste, which had dried completely. It flaked off easily and just as I had hoped, left her forehead completely healed. There wasn’t even a scar.

  “Will you look at that,” I said with a smile.

  “What?” Gloria asked.

  “It’s completely healed.”

  “That’s impossible, Orry.”

  “See for yourself.”

  She reached up and felt her forehead. The skin was smooth. She looked at me a flashed a smile that I couldn’t help but return.

  “What kind of magic are you working here, Porter?”

  “Just taking advantage of some native-know-how,” I replied. “I don’t know how it works, but I’ve used it myself.”

  “I don’t think I want to know how,” Gloria said. “I hate thinking of you being all alone out here. When the Prog had me, I thought I was going to die. I felt completely abandoned until you showed up. I didn’t even have the strength to hope for a rescue. When I saw you on those rocks...”

  “Hey, I would never abandon you,” I said.

  “Duty and honor and all that,” she said, looking away.

  “Gloria, I came for you because you’re important to me. Sure, I believe in duty and honor, but I would have come for you no matter what. I would have come against orders if I had to.”

  “Really? But don’t you love Aurora?”

  “I have feelings for Aurora, but I also have feelings for you. I don’t know if that makes me human or just a creep. All I know is, I’m glad you’re here with me.”

  “It’s stupid to think about all this,” Gloria said, suddenly interested in the bark of the tree limb we were sitting on. “When this mission is over, if we’re lucky enough to still be alive, the Fleet will send us off on different missions. We may never see each other again.”

  “True,” I said. “But that’s all the more reason why we should take advantage of the time we have now.”

  I leaned forward and kissed her. It wasn’t as passionate as I felt, but there was no sense in getting carried away. We were perched on a tree limb nearly fifteen meters off the ground. Taking my helmet off for even a few minutes was incredibly risky. The setting may have been romantic, but it was certainly no time for love.

  “What does that mean, Orry? I know I shouldn’t push for more, but I need to know what’s going on.”

  I slip
ped my helmet back on my head. The HUD powered on and the night vision setting came on automatically. I could see a fissure of insecurity in Gloria’s eyes.

  “It means,” I said as calmly as I could, “that under different circumstances we would be together.”

  “Do you really mean that?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “It’s easy to say that when there’s no chance of it coming true,” she pointed out.

  “Who’s to say it can’t come true. We both have a lot of time left on our enlistment periods, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a future. We just have to be realistic about the fact that we don’t control our lives for the next few years. But we started together, and we can finish together.”

  Gloria fell silent as full darkness settled in around us. I focused on the ground below. Vision was difficult at night, but not impossible. I knew we were in for a long wait, so I did my best to relax and practiced the memorization techniques that helped me catch sight of any changes to the murky environment. Time seemed to stand still. Gloria, with no way to see in the darkness, drifted off to sleep, and I was alone with my thoughts.

  I couldn’t help but wonder if I was leading Gloria on. I liked that she was so easy to talk to and so open with her feelings. Yet I knew in my heart that she didn’t excite me like Aurora did. Perhaps I was simply wanting something I couldn’t have, but the truth was, I couldn’t promise myself to Gloria. I had hinted that we could have future together, and that was certainly true. But that didn’t explain why I felt so horrible.

  The first shot hit the tree branch we were sitting on. The thick limb shook, and bits of wood went flying. I looked around, desperately trying to find out who was attacking us, but I couldn’t see anyone.

  “Orry, what’s happening?” Gloria said, her voice sounded oddly high pitched.

  “Don’t move,” I told her.

  The second shot flew past my head, and I heard the crack of the sonic boom from the projectile. I knew I was lost if I couldn’t see the attacker. Beside me, set out in a neat, organized fashion on the wide limb, was the contents from my pack. There wasn’t much time to act, but I snatched up an emergency flare. It was simple device. I slammed the butt of the flare into the limb and it ignited instantly. My helmet quickly changed to normal vision as I dropped the bright flare. It lit the jungle up like prolonged lightening.