by J. A. Scorch
"Miller told me that the earlier SF soldiers have been dropping dead all over the globe."
"Dropping dead?" Mish asked. "From what?" Her voice grew louder with every breath.
"The nanites are too aggressive. They will run out of things to alter in your bodies and start to turn on you. Eventually, after a short, painful fight, you'll both die."
Mish leaped out of her chair and grabbed Porter by the front of his flight suit. "Bullshit," she yelled. Her eyes were wild with anger. He could just about see the flames in her retinas. Teve pulled her back and planted her back in her seat. "Get it together, Mish. He's only the messenger."
She continued to breathe heavily as she refused to take her eyes off him. Teve placed an arm on her shoulder and told her to relax.
Porter realized he had both arms up in a defensive position. He lowered them back down and refocused his attention on Teve. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. Not your fault. Just not what we wanted to hear. So, I guess there's one question still left to be answered above the rest, isn't there?"
Porter nodded. He knew what Teve was going to ask, so he came out and responded. "One to three months according to the UEF."
Teve's head rolled around on his neck as his gloved hand found his forehead. "One to three months. Doesn't really give us a lot of time, does it?"
"No," Porter said, shaking his head. "It's bullshit and unfair."
Teve held up a hand. "It's entirely fair. Deep down, we all recognized this was temporary. What isn't fair is that Mish has to die. She never asked to be infected. She got the damn things trying to save me. I intentionally let the virus into my system so I could travel inside a Zeal base. I should have died over a year ago and let Mish continue without this problem. Both of us will die because of me."
Mish interrupted Porter as he tried to respond, not that he could think of anything useful to say.
"I don't care. I don't believe you or trust Miller, so get the hell out of my way." She barged through past the two brothers toward the ramp. She slapped the unload button and didn't bother to wait for the tail to completely open before she left the bird.
"Should we go after her?" Porter asked as he followed Teve's eyes.
"No, let her go. She needs to blow off some steam. That last mission was a real killer for us both." Teve half chuckled to himself. "Not the best choice of words, was it?" he asked Porter with an oversized smile.
Porter shook his head. "Definitely not, but who among us ever has the right words to say? We're all pretending we have the answers when the truth is we're all scared of what tomorrow will bring."
Teve didn't respond as he took off his helmet. "I guess Miller wants this kept a secret?"
"Yeah. I wasn't even supposed to tell you. Not that it matters now. We're all charging to space on a one-way ticket. The MAF are predicting the Zeal will be here within a week based on their current speed and heading."
"Where are they headed?"
"Mars. Earth is already messed up. Guess they want to take out the ones who destroyed their fleet first."
Teve smiled. "Do they know the biggest thorn in their side is sitting down on Earth?"
With a chuckle, Porter dismissed the thought. "It wasn't just me. I was part of a few key missions. Nothing more."
"Come on, Bradley," Teve said as he slapped Porter on the leg. "Take the damn compliment. You know I don't give them out that often."
"Sorry, it's something I don't like to think about. And besides, it's not all the MAF. You guys managed to survive a global invasion and occupation. All we've done is hit their bee hive with a big enough stick to grab their attention."
Teve chuckled under his breath. "I guess none of it matters now. That new fleet is coming to clean house and finish what these assholes started."
"It does matter," Porter said. "We're not going down so easily. If the MAF and UEF work together, we can, at the very least, make this system cost the Zeal in blood. I may have just handed you a death sentence, but we can't give up yet."
Teve's knuckles tightened. He stood from the seat. "Dammit, you're right. If I'm going to die soon, I'm not going down without killing some Zeal first. We need to haul ass up to Mars and show these things what we're made of." Teve headed for the open ramp.
"Where are you going?" Porter called after him.
"To find Miller. I want to say goodbye to him before we leave. Bastard owes me a favor."
Porter went to follow, but he realized Teve needed to do what he had in mind on his own.
Feeling as if he had unloaded the worst possible news any single person possibly could, Porter remained in the ship's seat.
A few minutes passed when an alert on his e-slate called for his attention. He tapped the screen to see the transfer of the MAF pilots from Earth to Mars was already under way.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Teve stomped toward Miller's control room. The two corporals on guard saw the look on his face and stepped into his concentrated field of view to let him know he wasn't welcome.
"Out of my way, Corporals," Teve said.
"Slow down, Sergeant," the younger of the two soldiers said.
"That's Master Sergeant to you, Corporal."
The young soldier didn't flinch or acknowledge Teve's rank. "You don't have any official business beyond that door. I suggest you turn around now before things get ugly."
"Ugly? What's that supposed to mean?"
With a solid puff out, the corporal held his ground. "Simple: Turn the fuck around and go to your quarters."
Teve matched the corporal's gaze for a moment before he turned around and went to leave. The second man had the nerve to mutter the word 'freak' under his breath. Teve's hearing was far better than anyone else's. Most of the time he had to pretend he couldn't hear the comments, but this one couldn't be ignored.
"What did you say?" Teve asked as he spun around and approached the commenter. "You didn't just call me a freak, did you? I'll give you one last chance to right that and I'll walk away."
A smirk met his words as the guard loudly repeated himself. "Freak."
Teve's brows raised. "I warned you." Before he could make his move, the first corporal hit him with a non-lethal blast from a shock stick the guards had attached to their uniform. The idea was to deal with problems without resorting to lethal force when possible. The young man got a shock in return when he realized that Teve wasn't deterred by the attack.
Teve grabbed the stick and jammed it hard into the throat of the second corporal. The weapon was still live and filled the man's body with enough power to drop him unconscious to the ground.
"Yeah, those things don't work on me anymore," he said before he landed a single punch to the corporal's face, breaking his nose in an instant. The kid dropped into a heap and fell against the door. Teve shoved him aside and used his credentials to open the electronically locked door.
As Teve casually strolled down the steps with a whistle, he could hear the footfalls of several more guards headed his way from inside the control room. The security camera would have captured the conversation outside and notified the entire room of the violent altercation.
"Don't move, Sergeant," a voice called from the bottom of the steps. Another three corporals stared up at Teve with X762A1 rifles trained on his center mass. None of them had their fingers on the trigger, but if Teve made any sudden movements, all three would fill him with lead.
"Where's General Miller? I need to see him, now."
"We don't take orders from you, Sergeant."
"That's Master Sergeant," Teve repeated. "Just shut up and get Miller."
The three corporals tightened their aim on the loud disturbance. He could see their intentions from a mile away. Before any bullets came for him, General Miller showed his head from behind his guards.
"What do you want, Sergeant? This is hardly the time to come gunning for me."
"I want answers. Nothing else. I don't want to hurt anyone. I just need to know why I'm dying."
Miller pu
shed past the three guards and lowered their weapons with his hands. "Get your ass down here, Master Sergeant. Let's get this over with."
Teve nodded as he stared into Miller's eyes. The old man wasn't setting him up. Teve could see he possibly wanted to get everything off his chest and absolve himself of the collective guilt Command made him carry everywhere he went.
Without taking his eyes off Miller, Teve moved down the rest of the steps and pushed through the armed guards and followed the general into the small control room the UEF had set up a few months prior. Every tech in the room stared at him like he was on fire and about to spread his flames throughout the small space. He ignored the judgment being passed on him at face value and moved closer to Miller.
"Let's go into my office," the general said. He opened the door to an even smaller area and ushered Teve inside.
"Sir?" one of the guards said.
"I'll be all right, Corporal. The Master Sergeant here wants some answers. If he kills me, you have my permission to open fire."
Teve turned toward the guard and raised his brows with a smirk as he walked into Miller's office. Inside the cramped room, he found a single desk with two chairs sitting opposite the general's seat. There wasn't much to see apart from a few large e-slates and an empty bottle of whiskey standing beside a dirty glass.
"Take a seat," Miller said a moment before he plonked down hard into his wheeled chair. Teve did the same and scooted himself as far forward as the desk would allow.
Miller stared at Teve for a few seconds, eyeballing him from behind his thick, white mustache. "Drink?" he asked Teve as he pulled out a fresh bottle of whiskey and two glasses from one of the desk's drawers. Miller untwisted the cap on the aged container and poured out two fingers into each tumbler before Teve could answer. He shoved the glass across the table and took a swig of his own.
"So, what do you want to know?"
Teve's brows lowered. "Everything. You're in a high enough position to know a lot about the Special Forces program. I want to know exactly what they've told you and why we're dying."
Miller took another sip and bared his teeth slightly after the sting of the whiskey went down his throat. The general's bloodshot eyes told the world he hadn't slept for a few days and had been spending too much of his downtime in his office.
"The whole thing is simple, Teve. The answer was in front of us from the beginning."
"What answer?"
"The answer to why the nanites are slowly killing you all."
Teve leaned forward. "Well?"
Miller finished his glass and poured himself another two fingers. "You haven't touched your drink."
"I'm not thirsty, sir. Can you please tell me what the answer is?"
"Okay," Miller said as he recapped the bottle and put it back in the drawer. "Here's the deal: the nanites are made of millions of half-organic, half-machine alien robots. From our best understanding, we know that the Zeal utilize the technology by infecting the life they find on each planet they invade. Typically, the nanites infiltrate the system and kill the host or alter their physiology from within to the point where the body turns into one of those hybrids. Alternatively, the host survives the infiltration and is only exposed to enough nanites to become a stronger version of themselves. Thus, you have the Special Forces."
"Tell me something I don't know."
"I'm getting to that, Sergeant. The nanites were seen as a godsend at first. Here we were finding soldiers who could survive the virus and be better off for the experience. There was only one thing we never anticipated: the Zeal bases."
Teve leaned back in his chair. "What do you mean?"
Miller took another swig, letting the whiskey dribble down his mustache. He planted the glass on the table and wiped his sleeve across his mouth. "I mean that those nanites—despite being in your system—are still capable of interfacing with these giant spheres we find in each base."
"The Orbs?" Teve asked as his mind drifted to the overwhelming power the spheres held over him.
"Yeah, those things. Every time one of you SF soldiers goes near a base, the nanites go into overdrive like they've come home, or something. But as soon we destroy an Orb, they lose that connection. With the Zeal fleet gone, we are slowly taking one base at a time to rid the world of the Zeal. The only problem is, with every Orb we smash, we sever another connection the nanites rely upon for survival."
Teve placed both hands on the desk as he crept forward again. "What are you saying? That the nanites can't survive without the Orbs?"
Miller shrugged. "Yes and no. They need, at the very least, a host to survive. The nanites are found in and around the Zeal bases. When they infiltrated your system, they began to rely on your body for survival. But at the same time, you are not the Zeal and will never be good enough to house the tiny machines long term. The nanites still need the Zeal to survive. Now I'm not an expert, but my understanding is this: The longer you are away from a base, the worse they get. Once you all started to attack the bases, the proximity allowed some restoration to occur. It's like raising an endangered animal in captivity: Some species live longer out of their dangerous environment, but most do not."
Teve's head found its way into his open palms. He ran his fingers through his short hair and let Miller's words sink in. The nanites were slowly dying, but what did that have to do with him?
"What does it matter if these things die? I would be happy to go back to my normal self, I can tell you." Teve thought about X appearing in his head.
"It matters a lot. After only twenty-four hours of infection, the nanites become an intricate part of your body. They run through every system and begin to alter your organs, your muscles, your blood, and even your brain. To lose that suddenly is catastrophic. I'm sorry Teve, but if they die, so do you."
Teve felt his hands cover his mouth as he tried to find something to say. His mind couldn't operate his tongue. He abruptly realized that with every base the SF liberated, another piece of his existence died. The SF soldiers were killing themselves without knowing it.
"How long have you known this?" Teve asked, his voice increasing in volume.
"Easy, son. Not long. It wasn't until the SF soldiers began dying in droves across the globe that we saw the connection. So far it has been the first adopters to the nanites that have perished. As to exactly how long you have left, we can only estimate one to three months tops."
Teve heard himself breathing louder than before. He slammed the desk with a fist and felt the timber crack in place. "Were you ever going to tell us?"
Miller toyed with his now empty glass, rolling it around on its edge as he avoided Teve's gaze.
"Well?" Teve shouted.
The general looked up and stared into Teve's eyes. "No. The brass told us not to tell a soul, or we'd have to face the firing squad."
"But you told Bradley. Who else knows about this?"
"Just the two of you. But I guess this information will begin to spread as it should."
Teve shook his head. "Sir. What about the rest of the SF troops? They deserve to know the truth."
Miller chuckled. "It's too late for them. By now, they will have arrived at Central to be transferred up into space to fight the Zeal. The order went wide a few minutes before we hit the city the second time. Top priority. No questions asked. Just send them all on their way. Your SF friends are already heading up there to fight a battle we can't win. Maybe they're better off doing that than sitting here and dwelling on what limited time they have left."
Teve stood to leave, hearing the seat behind him slide back into the brick wall of the storage closet turned office. "This is wrong, sir. They deserve to know the truth. I know you think that. Why else would you tell Bradley about it?"
"It doesn't matter, Teve. We're all fucked as it is. Now take your girlfriend and your brother and get your asses to Central before this gets ugly."
"Sir?"
Miller shot upright and heaved the glass in his hand at the wall. "I said get to Cen
tral, right now. You've got ten seconds to get out of my sight before I throw you in the brig for the next three months."
Teve didn't move an inch and continued to stare at Miller. He could feel his own rage boiling inside him, ready to unleash a torrent of pain upon the general and anyone else who dared to cross him. As he was about to leap across the desk at Miller and end the man's life, Mish's face filled his every thought. He realized they had little time left together.
With a long exhale, Teve stepped back from the table and moved to the door. "Thank you for the chat, sir."
Miller didn't respond and instead reopened his desk drawer for the whiskey.
Teve opened the thin door and turned around. "Enjoy that bottle, sir. It might be your last after the Zeal fleet pushes past us."
"I'll be ready for them, Sergeant." Miller poured himself a full glass of whiskey and ignored Teve as he left the room. Every guard and tech in the control room stared at the sergeant as he walked toward the steps. It didn't matter who any of them were. The Zeal would kill them all.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Porter found Lieutenant Clay a few hours later resting on his bunk outside. The rest of the MAF pilots were packing their gear having all heard the news of the pending Zeal fleet. The mood was sour to say the very least.
They were all ordered to go to Central for an immediate transfer back to Mars. Central Command was a short flight from the base via one of the UEF's C130X cargo planes. From there, they would all be launched back into space and shuttled to Mars for the final battle that would see them all out. The thought wasn't lost on a single pilot.
"What a fun few days this has been," Clay said as Porter sat down on a spare chair the pilots used during downtime. "I just got settled in here, and now we're being sent back to Mars. Make up your mind, Command."
Porter couldn't help but laugh. "You know we're all screwed, right?"
Clay sat up in the lower bunk on his elbows. "Of course, sir. Still, won't stop me from complaining about it."
"Seems kind of pointless, doesn't it?"