“James, you’re always thinkin’ of some sort of disaster aren’t you. We’re the best. We’re the Rangers. These guys haven’t fought anything like this,” Nevin said confidently.
He was right, we did represent the greatest that the Elonian Empire had to offer. We were picked for this operation for a reason. It was time to fulfill it.
“Go, go, go,” Ryan ordered, taking point up the final staircase.
Nevin and I were behind him, with Boone and members of Alpha trailing us. The moment we reached the top there was a hail of gunfire from the entire room. Every soldier there had their rifles trained on us. I felt my suit vibrate intensely as bullets hit me. I desperately hoped that none would find their way to the lighter mesh that was located at all my major joints.
Then everything seemed to slow down. I noticed small, light brown packs stuck to the walls all around. There was a small panel attached to the package, the defining sign that they were what I feared… Explosives.
“FALL BACK!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
Over the chaos of the battle I heard a voice come from a UED soldier.
“It’s been an honor servin’ with ya boys.”
Those were the last words I heard before a split second beep followed by the roar of an explosion. I felt the substantial addition of heat from inside my armor and immediately I grew concerned for the Marines. Before I had another thought I was struck by a collapsing chunk of rock propelled by the explosion. Everything went dark for a split second, but I could see again seconds later as I fell backwards out of the tower. Above me I saw the sky and around me was snow. Then I felt a thud as I hit the ground.
Everything became blurry, fire still rolling lightly out of the top story. The deep snow covered most of my peripheral vision. I tried to take a breath but realized I couldn’t. Panic started to set in as I began to contemplate how badly I was hurt. Immediately my memories began to play back Phil’s fall on Vorga.
At last I managed a gasp of air, unsure how long I’d been without it. I breathed heavy and fast for several seconds before calming. I tried to get up, but found my body unresponsive. Then I saw Robert. He reached down, as if offering his hand to me. I felt around in the snow for my pistol, but couldn’t find it. Instead I grasped his hand, ready to pull him down hard, when suddenly my view4 cleared.
It wasn’t Robert I saw holding my gauntlet, but one of the guards that Boone had stationed at the entrance.
“You okay?” he asked, pulling.
To my surprise, I could feel my body again, and stood up as he pulled. His hand likely did little considering the weight of my armor, but something about the contact had restored some of my energy. I felt at my visor, hoping it had withstood the blow… It had. Looking back up the explosion was over and it seemed only the top floor had been affected.
“I… yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” I stuttered to the Marine.
I hated the sound of my words. They didn’t come across as confident or noble. I was a Ranger. The best. We had to seem as if we were more than we were to keep the Marine’s morale high. I shook the thoughts out of my head and started walking. It was fairly painful… the fall had certainly done some damage. I saw the silhouette of my pistol in the snow and reached in the hole to grab it. Pulling it out, I observed it, noticing a large scratch on the left side of it, likely from the rock that had struck me.
“James… come in. You there?” I heard Ryan’s voice say over several rough coughs.
“Yeah. I made it,” I answered softly.
“Good to hear you’re voice. I thought you were dead,” Ryan said solemnly. “Nevin and I got blown down the stairs, Boone and Hood weren’t in the blast radius yet…”
There was a brief pause.
“So we’re all good?” I asked.
“Not quite,” Ryan said. “Rush had just reached the top, he’s got some severe burns all over. He’s barely breathing… gah, I don’t think he’s gonna make it.”
Another man down. Two KIA, two WIA… this was definitely a throwback to the Vorgian War.
“I’m on my way back up,” I said.
My body ached all over and I still didn’t feel like I was walking straight. Then I realized I was glad it was me instead of a Marine. Without my armor, that fall would have meant death.
I made my way to the fourth story, where a majority of the men were huddled. Not seeing Ryan or Boone I proceeded up the next staircase. Ryan looked fine, but Boone looked rough, having several cuts and bruises from the pressure knocking him down the stairs. On the floor at the base of the ascending stairs was Rush. His helmet was on the ground beside him, scorched, but not noticeably so due to its black shading. Rush’s face was a revolting mix of red and black, to the point he didn’t look like he should be alive. He seemed to be mouthing something, but no words came out. Phil was crouched beside him, holding a canteen. Carefully he moved it to Rush’s cracked lips and let some water into his mouth. He swallowed, then began to choke. Phil stopped the water flow, and Rush calmed down.
He tried to speak again, seemingly trying to convey something important. His left arm moved over and reached into one of his assault vest’s pockets. Then his hand grew still and his craning head fell back onto the rock. Phil reached down and closed the dead man’s eyes before moving the hand and reaching into the pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper, likely a letter, with singed and curled edges.
“Trisha?” Phil asked, reading the name written in excellent calligraphy on the front of the folded paper.
“Ah, dang it…” Boone muttered. “His wife. He always talked about her.”
Boone reached out his hand, taking the letter from Phil. He carefully slid the letter into his own vest’s pocket before turning to head down the stairs.
“You alright Phil?” Ryan asked, looking down at Phil, still crouched beside Rush’s body.
“I’m fine. Never like to lose a soldier, but this is war. It happens,” Phil said plainly, standing up and following Boone down the stairs.
Only Ryan and I were left in the damaged room. Several pieces of rock had broken from the ceiling above and fallen in. Snow was filtering in through the newly formed holes and what was left of the staircase now led to nothing.
“We did fine James. Look how many of their guys we brought down. We took the ground, we did more damage… we won,” he said, trying to move on from the loss of two men.
“And every victory has its price… it’s just been a while since we’ve paid in blood,” I said, hobbling toward the stairs.
“James. This is real war. Get used to it,” Ryan said in an unexpected reply.
I looked back and nodded grimly, then carried on down the stairs.
Chapter 15
Discovery
We waited around the tower for nearly an hour. Several of the Marines took advantage of the time to sleep, though the Rangers chose to stay awake and discuss what was to come. Ryan felt we should keep our momentum and keep pushing for the Tredecim capital. Cassidy wanted to focus on finding Max. Phil wanted to stay low and conduct research on the area and extract more data from the captured laptop. Nevin and I were open to anything.
“We’ve already decided our objective. If we see signs of Max and the armory, by all means we’ll investigate it. Staying passive has its advantages, but we are already prepared for that. We have an HQ now, and they can handle the research,” Ryan explained.
“May I stay with them? Help with the data combing?” Phil asked.
I could tell Phil had other reasons to avoid the frontlines, most likely a result of coming a centimeter from death.
“I’d prefer to keep the team together Phil,” Ryan replied.
Phil looked at Ryan thoughtfully.
“Alright. I understand. I was just thinking Hood could use some assistance.”
“So how do we find this capital?” Cassidy asked intensely.
“How do we find Max?” Ryan countered.
Cassidy opened her mouth, then closed it again, understanding wha
t Ryan had said.
“Finding the capital has to be easier than finding one life pod,” Ryan finished.
With that, Ryan had shot down every opposing idea, which clearly showed why he made a strong leader. He knew where our priorities had to be, and what to reasonably expect.
“When do we roll out?” Nevin asked.
“I say now. We ought’ta contact Epsilon again… Let them know we’re leaving,” Ryan said.
Ryan moved over and woke Boone. Despite his minor wound having been patched up, he looked a little pale.
“Sergeant, we’re moving out. Call up Epsilon, give ‘em the heads up,” Ryan ordered.
“Yes sir. Right away,” Boone said, quickly standing up.
He reached his hand up to the small device in his ear and began to speak.
“Epsilon, this is Boone, come in.”
“Private Wells here sir. We’re good,” the voice replied, though barely audible to me.
“We’re packin’ up and about to make another move… hopefully toward the Tredecim capital.”
“Copy that sir, you’re on the move. Over.”
Boone pulled up his bandana over his mouth and made his way toward his Marines.
After we woke up the soldiers and checked our gear, it was back into the snow for us. We exited the damaged tower and were hardly thirty meters out from the tower when I heard a loud engine roar. It grew louder quickly, then I saw it. A single UED fighter like the one that had shot us down earlier zoomed across the sky. Its thin and sleek design tore through the air effortlessly. Just before it passed over the tower it deployed a barrage of four missiles, two from each wing. The missiles almost instantly connected with the structure, blowing it to pieces. What was left groaned under the stress and soon collapsed straight down.
“What just… What just happened?” one of the Marines asked.
“No way… No way they were that close,” Ryan stated, shaking his head in disbelief. “They couldn’t have been that close.”
“Wait, are you suggesting they deliberately missed?” Boone asked. “That doesn’t make sense, there’s no point!”
“But surely they saw us. Why didn’t they shoot us? Why still shoot the building?” Ryan questioned.
“We don’t know they saw us,” Nevin pointed out.
“Yeah, like they won’t notice almost a dozen people thirty meters out the front door,” Cassidy added. “I don’t know which side to choose on this. They should have seen us, and they should have shot us.”
“Let’s not build ourselves some over-hyped conspiracy here. Let’s just get moving and drop the topic,” Boone suggested forcefully.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right. We can deal with it later—” Ryan admitted.
“If it becomes relevant. With all due respect sir, I believe it was just our luck,” Boone interjected.
We tried to push the issue out of our minds. Considering we had been in control of the tower for over an hour without consequence, an attack the moment we leave did seem suspicious.
The wastes of Marzoc were repetitive. Everywhere it seemed to look the same. White snow everywhere, with occasional towers of stone jutting forth. Natural rocks and caves bursting forth from the ground in some areas.
After another half hour or so of searching for signs of their capital, we finally spotted something unusual. One of the observation posts appeared heavily damaged. A large hole was torn in both sides of it, as if something had pierced through. Immediately my mind shot to the possibility of another lifepod.
We quickly made our way to the broken structure, and as we reached the top of the small hill before us, we could see a large, rectangular box planted in the ground beside the tower… the deployable armory.
“Sir, that’s—” I began.
“I know. That’s Max.”
“Who?” Boone asked.
“Our sixth guy. He stayed behind on the Procyon to unlock the armory for launch. I honestly thought he was dead but… that’s got to be him,” Ryan said calmly.
We approached the armory and soon reached the hatch in the back. It was about a meter off the ground, with the front of the armory dug partially into the ground. Ryan and I both pulled ourselves up and stood on the angled pod. Ryan tapped the button to release the door, but the thin screen above it displayed “Armory Locked”. I tapped the door several times, hoping to get a response.
“Max? Max, come in,” I said into the COM.
“If he’d have lived, he would have responded to our contact attempts earlier,” Nevin said, looking disappointed.
Ryan kicked at the doorway while holding on to the edge of the pod.
“Max! It’s us! Friendlies!” Cassidy screamed at the armory.
“Well, I guess we blow the door to get the supplies…” Ryan murmured, seemingly giving up on Max’s survival.
Suddenly, the doorway slid open, revealing an armored figure, helmetless, standing before us. The man before us had a crooked smile and sandy blonde hair.
“You miss me?” Max asked.
Despite my uncertainty of Max, I couldn’t help but smile to know he was alive.
“Yeah. But it’s just like you to still be in the safety of the armory,” Ryan said, smiling as well.
“Hey, I have an excuse this time. Had to keep the weapons safe for you guys,” Max replied slyly.
“Are the 42’s in here?” I asked, getting back on task.
“Yes. A few of the weapons broke out of their bindings on impact… my helmet’s busted bad… but the 42’s are fine.”
“That explains the lack of COM,” Cassidy added.
“Well, let’s arm up,” Ryan suggested, slipping by Max into the armory.
“Did you go through that tower when you landed?” Nevin inquired.
“I’m pretty sure I did, ya know, judging by the giant hole and the huge crash that came before I hit the ground,” Max replied matter-of-factually.
I followed Ryan in, looking at the compact, yet well supplied, armory. Weapons lined the walls, attached using the same magnetic binding that was employed on our packs. A single Sparker Rocket Launcher was placed on the wall. Near it was a collection of AR-27D’s and two BR-26’s. The single shot battle rifles were quality guns, I had used them extensively during our enhanced training. A twenty round mag coupled with precision accuracy made it an excellent marksman rifle. Then I saw what I was looking for: the perfectly crafted SF-42.
I reached out and removed it from the wall, turning it over in my hands. This one was loaded with attachments, including a silencer and an ACOG scope. I scooped up some ammo for both the 42 and my pistol. I moved back to the raised end of the pod and jumped out into the snow.
“Nice,” Nevin said, looking at my new gun.
I nodded as he climbed into the pod to grab one for himself. Several of the Marines followed him in, all hoping to restock their ammunition.
“Alright, so we need to get movin’,” Ryan stated. “I take it you’ve explored that Observation Post, Max?”
“Now why would I do that?” Max asked, smiling. “Yeah I did. Nothing to report though. Empty second story and a dark basement.”
“So still no clues as to where this capital is… This is proving to be difficult,” Ryan muttered.
“Capital?” Max inquired.
“Native population. They have a capital and some sort of AI. We’re going to find it.”
Max did a three-sixty spin and then spun once more, stopping in a random direction. It happened to be the same direction that his crashed drop pod was facing.
“That way,” he said with a grin.
Boone looked at Ryan, who actually seemed to be considering the idea.
“Max is alive right now for one reason, and one reason only,” Ryan said. “Luck. We’re goin’ this way.”
“Hey, I have a little bit of skeel, don’t I?” Max asked, his grin only partially dampened.
Ryan casually ignored the question as he began to walk in the direction Max pointed. We fell in behind
him as he proceeded through the snow. As we slowly walked away, many of the Marines rushed in and out of the armory, trying to rearm and get the best weaponry for their own skill sets.
Again I observed my new gun, checking for any sort of settings such as fire mode. In the end I had adjusted my scope, set it to semi-auto, and loaded the gun.
“So how’d it go down Max? How’d you make it?” Nevin asked.
“I left you guys and bolted in the direction of the armory. I’m glad we looked at it as much as we did over the trip here… I knew right where it was. I got to it and turned off the lock, and then it was all whoosh and I was hurtling toward the planet,” Max replied. “Then after a rough landing I just stayed inside for a while before checkin’ out the tower.”
“The chances of us finding you in this wasteland were pretty slim,” Phil pointed out. “It’s a miracle we found you.”
The thought of finding Max had bolstered my hopes, that perhaps we stood a solid chance out here. Already we had a fighting force capable of standing against the UED. It wasn’t long before we were met with another shocking surprise.
A large wall made of the same stone material as the observation posts towered before us. A part of it was blown out by missile fire that was coming from two nearby Corsairs. On the surface was a Paladin tank, supported by a sizable team of Elonian Marines. The tank was rolling toward the hole punched in the wall.
“You seein’ this?” Ryan asked, looking in awe at what would soon be our reinforcements.
Boone just nodded his head, acknowledging his own satisfaction to see our own guys. In their wake I saw a number of bodies, some half buried by snow.
We moved closer to them, keeping our arms over our heads, Ryan even swinging his and calling out. Several of the soldiers at the rear of the unit turned toward us and began approaching, rifles raised, though not firing.
“We’re Elonian! We are friendly forces!” Ryan called out over the brewing blizzard. “We are the Rangers and what remains of Alpha!” Ryan yelled.
The oncoming Marines slowed down and lowered their weapons when they could tell we were telling the truth from our uniforms and armor.
The War Across the Stars Page 17