“Boone,” I said.
“James, uh… what the heck did you guys do in there?” he asked aggressively.
“We found it Boone, we found the Beholder. But we have other issues now. The Beholder was not created by the Tredecim… it, the light stations… everything advanced was created by a race known as the Praetorians who claimed this world as theirs!”
“So where are they? We saw some tubes on the way over… creatures inside… that them?” Boone asked.
“That’s my guess, and according to the Beholder, they’ve been released to neutralize the ‘threat’,” I stated intensely.
“How long ago?” he asked, something clearly clicking in his mind.
“Maybe a minute, at most,” Nevin replied.
“Same time the door closed, this Beholder seems to not want us getting out.”
“Any other ways out?” Hood chimed in.
“We saw one… UED guarding it. We can take ‘em,” Cass announced.
“Then let’s roll,” Boone said as we turned around and made our way back again.
It was entirely possible the way would be barred as well, denying any escape. Still tired, still hungry, and still without hope of ever returning home, we put all of our effort into our sprint. When we reached the Beholder, we were not treated with its usual dialogue.
“The humans have sinned. They shall be smitten for their transgressions,” it stated, void of emotion or feeling, though clear in intent.
I glanced back at Hood as I ran, unable to help but notice his interest in the machine. We no longer had time however, we had to keep moving.
“We can take the UED, maybe we could take the Praetorians too,” Boone thought aloud.
“Maybe, maybe not. They’ve got size on us, that’s for sure,” I pointed out.
Soon we were back at the door from before. He breathed in, hoping it wasn’t locked. I softly placed my hand onto the panel. The doorway slid open, revealing the scientists’ encampment, though it was abandoned. The computers had been hastily gathered and removed, and most of the heavier equipment had been simply left behind. The brightness of the room was a nice change of scenery, but as we opened the door leading on, there was nothing but darkness.
“The UED was here, they might have soldiers nearby. And we don’t know when the Praetorians are gonna show up,” I said.
“We just need to stay sharp,” Boone commanded.
“I almost wish they’d just show up, I’m tired of the suspense… I’d rather just start shooting,” Cassidy said, pulling ahead to the front of our unit.
As a whole, we slowed down, assuming a more tactical approach down the hall, Cass on point. As we ran, I heard gunfire. It was brief, then footsteps. We were nearing a corner in the nearly pitch black hallway, only our flashlights giving us any line of sight. We slowed, nearly to a stop. I saw Cassidy steadying her gun. A figure appeared around the corner and a burst rang out from Cassidy’s rifle. The helmetless figure seemed to be in power armor. Then another power-armored soldier came around the bend. Staring at me, face pale, was Ryan. I glanced to the ground and back up. Phil appeared.
Cassidy’s rifle slumped, then it fell to her side, barely holding onto it with one hand. I walked closer, lowering my weapon as well. I heard Cassidy whisper something under her breath, then drop her rifle entirely, it clanging on the ground. She dropped to her knees, eyes fixated on the lifeless body several meters before her.
“Cass…” I said softly, also observing the man.
“I… I killed him…” she said, her voice broken.
The man’s sandy blonde hair was dripping with blood as I finally took my light off of him.
“I killed Max.”
“Gah, Cass… I… you…” Nevin stuttered.
“What the hell were you thinking Cass?” Philip yelled. “Identify your targets!”
“I… I don’t know Phil, okay? I don’t freakin’ know!” Cassidy responded, pounding her fist onto the ground.
“As if the UED and Tredecim… and now these silver skinned freaks weren’t enough, we have YOU killing our troops!” Phil continued, his fury causing him to speak without his usual intellectual forethought.
“Phil, calm down, we need to stay calm,” I said, raising my arms slightly, pistol gripped tightly in one hand.
“James, Max survived the Procyon’s explosion, he waited in that armory for hours until by some miracle we found him! And now—”
“Phil! Enough. He’s dead,” Ryan said, speaking for the first time since the incident. “People die. Get over it, and let’s get moving.”
Phil ceased his tirade, his face red with rage. Cassidy slowly rose, once more grabbing her AR-27. She said nothing, though her body language spoke volumes for her emotional state.
I wanted to tell her it was alright, that it wasn’t her fault. But neither of those things were true. The stress, the unusual conditions of the mission… it had gotten to her. She reacted too quickly, by instinct. The first member of the Rangers had fallen. With all the advantages we had always had, it had gotten to seem impossible. Our own power had weakened us. While physically adept and mentally acute, we weren’t emotionally prepared for loss. Not of one of our own, hardly of an Elonian soldier at all. Without my family, the bonds I had with the Rangers had come to replace them. They were my family.
I approached Cassidy and wrapped one arm around her. She returned the embrace, clearly near tears.
“We’re gonna make it. We’ll make it home Cass,” I said softly.
She backed up, composing herself.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. We’re soldiers…” she paused, still holding back her emotion. “Okay. Alright. Let’s keep… let’s keep going.”
I shined my light on Max one final time, three bullet holes oozing blood from his skull. Cass had made a mistake, and any mistake could cost us dearly. Each of us cast our final glances before we started walking in the direction that Ryan’s team had come from. I took a look at Boone’s face, though it was blank and expressionless. I wondered if he was thinking about when he shot Phil, how if Phil hadn’t had his helmet, he would have done the same thing as Cassidy had.
“If we backtrack our steps, we’re going to encounter the tube-monsters again,” Ryan warned as we kept moving, trying anything to put distance between ourselves and the body.
“Those are the Praetorians, Ryan, we found the Beholder,” I said.
A glimmer of hope showed up in Ryan’s eyes.
“What’d ya learn?”
“It’s a lot, it’s complicated… the Praetorians built most of the infrastructure on this planet, as well as the light stations. They took in the Tredecim as a vassal species, basically. Though there is a threat even greater than the Praetorians, and apparently we are their creation. Just as the UED are.”
Phil was listening intently, trying to refocus and continue the mission. As I explained everything I had learned, I allowed myself to forget the hurry and the pain. I even mentioned the friendly Tredecim, and my hopes that they could be of use.
“James… you’ve done good work. I hate to say it, but if your end was locked, our only choice is to fight through the Praetorians… and they’re no easy fight.”
“I understand.”
We each checked and readied our weapons. Our only choice was to blast our way out against an advanced and unknown foe. We traversed the hall as fast we could, coming upon a lighted room, it’s door damaged, and many stasis pods lining the walls.
“This is it, here’s where we fought them,” Ryan said. “We took out one pod over there, trying to open it,” he continued, pointing toward a darkened portion of the wall and mangled remains of a pod.
“You were the threat? The Beholder only released the Praetorians because it detected a threat! Might you have been that threat?” I asked, putting together the pieces.
“Unfortunately James, that sounds about right. They started opening up right after we popped the Eupholium.”
“Why did you want in
so bad? We found some and kept goi—” I started when several violet projectiles soared past me.
They greatly resembled fusion rounds, like those deployed for infantry suppression by the Elonian Marines. Looking toward the end of the hall, their source became clear. A Praetorian stood, pistol in hand, aiming toward our unit. Instinctively I raised my pistol and opened fire, hearing others do the same. To my shock, the Praetorian held out its left hand, maintaining the pistol in the right, and abruptly, our bullets slowed to a stop in midair before him. The air rippled ominously in front of his left hand.
I stopped shooting, lowering my gun just slightly to get a clearer picture. The ripples stopped, the bullets falling idly to the ground and immediately I snapped back into position and fired again. Once more the Praetorian activated its defenses, this time resuming its pistol barrage. I finally backed up a few steps and stepped back behind the frame of the door.
“Okay, so what is that?” I asked.
“You don’t know? You’re the one who talked to the Beholder!” Ryan countered.
“We need to overwhelm it, but we’re channeled down this corridor,” I pointed out.
“If we all head down the hall together, we should be able to close the gap,” Nevin suggested.
“I agree,” I said, fusion rounds still searing through the doorway.
“Then we go for it,” Boone said.
I gave the four Marines a brief look, worried for their lack of heavy armor.
“We’ve got point. Marines, you fall in behind us,” I ordered.
“Will do Sergeant,” Boone said, offering no protest.
Ryan lifted his hand, three fingers lifted.
Then two.
One.
We charged, Ryan first, then me. The rest of the team moved in behind us, all of us opening fire as we fanned out into the hallway, pushing as near to the tubes as we could. The Praetorian kept its arm extended, preventing us from having any great effect, but we crept nearer and nearer.
One of its shots nailed Phil in the chest, causing him to stumble. Two more rounds soared by, over his head. I heard a scream of pain. We kept moving, we had to.
Another few seconds and our line had reached the end of the hall. I broke rank and sprinted into the Praetorian, sliding under his field and tripping him from below. As he fell I heard numerous shots go off, my team finishing the job. I slowly returned to my feet, looking back down the hall. Lying on the ground, writhing with pain, was Hood. He had a terrible scorch on his shoulder and neck, the clothing and skin melted away. Boone approached him, then helped him to a sitting position, leaning him against one of the now empty Praetorian tubes.
“Sir, leave me. I’ve done my part… I’ve seen enough. Go save Epsilon,” Hood pleaded, though the damage to his neck caused his voice to be rough and unclear.
“We have enough dead soldiers, hang in there,” Phil said, kneeling down beside his fellow tech specialist.
“Daniel, you’re a good man. You’ve fought hard. It’s been appreciated,” Boone said to Hood, a solemn look adorning his face. “But you’re right. House and Epsilon are probably all dead by now, but every second we lose is another chance that they really are.”
“Boone, we can’t just—” Cassidy started.
“We can. He’s my man, and he’s made a request. Let’s keep moving,” Boone said, reaching down and taking the UED laptop from Hood’s pack and adding it to his own.
“I can try to patch him up, he can pull through,” Phil added, trying to change Boone’s mind.
Hood’s wound looked severe, and without medical treatment he wouldn’t live any more than an hour at best. Even with medical treatment, his situation was critical.
“Just go,” Hood said, his voice strained.
Only Boone turned to walk away.
In a surprisingly fast action, Hood reached into his holster and removed his H-81, placed it to his head, and fired the gun, his blood splattering onto the clear material of the stasis tube.
“Gah, why!?” Phil called out. “We could have…” his voice trailed off.
Boone knew. Ryan knew. They understood that war had casualties. They experienced it. Now if only the rest of us could grasp it. The ability for any one loss to tear apart the squad was perhaps our greatest weakness. It was one thing that could be used by our foes to stop us.
I turned away, focusing on what was left to be done. Our unit moved on down the hallway, pushing ever closer to escape from this capital that we had worked so hard to find. Soon though, we found opposition. A group of at least ten Praetorians had secured a position near the elevator. As we first came within line of sight of them, they failed to notice us, and I ducked back behind the corner.
“How are we gonna take down this many if a single one was so hard?” I inquired.
“They don’t all have those… gauntlet things that stopped our bullets. We killed a few before reuniting with you guys, none of them used one,” Ryan stated quietly.
“Alright, let’s make our opening count,” I said, scoping in with my SF-42.
I peered around the corner from a crouching stance, while Nevin assumed a prone position beside me. I sighted in on my target and waited a few seconds more for everyone to ready themselves. Hoping they were ready, I took the shot, a single round soaring through the air and tearing into the Praetorian’s skull. Upon hearing my round, the rest of our team opened fire on the sizable unit. Three or four went down in our opening attack, but two of them extended their arms, once more catching incoming fire. The others moved for cover throughout the room. I moved my rifle quickly between targets, trying to put more fire down on any of the Praetorians who had yet to take cover. Several of them had already begun to return fire, forcing me to time my shots between taking full cover.
It was then that I noticed one of the Praetorians seemed to have more elaborate armor and be absorbing many of our rounds using both hands to catch them. Perhaps it was some sort of leadership figure.
“Ryan, I think that one’s the leader,” I said, popping off a few rounds at the Praetorian in question.
“Might that be… Messor?” Nevin proposed, looking up from his firing position.
“The one the Beholder mentioned? I guess it’d make sense. Let’s bring him down and maybe we can put a halt to the Praetorian escape,” I returned.
Many of us shifted our targets to Messor in an attempt to bring him down, though with incredible skill and agility he kept us from securing many hits. To make matters worse, the few hits we could get were unable to pierce his powerful armor.
“Prex,” I heard Nevin mumble as we continued to barrage him to no avail.
“This guy is certainly good, if nothing else,” Ryan called out over the constant sounds of gunfire.
I paused, my rifle empty, dropped a mag, then reached down for another. As I did so, I saw two Praetorians moving in from the side, crouched down, weapons raised. In a rush I pulled the new magazine up quickly, missing the slot and fumbling it to the ground. Thinking fast, I drew my pistol with my left hand and fired a few loosely aimed rounds in their direction, trying to prevent them from closing in. The one in front took a bullet to the chest, but the other dove to a prone position in response. From there it immediately opened fire on me, so I pulled back behind my cover.
I holstered my pistol and scooped up the fallen magazine. I then locked it nicely into the gun before peeking out again. The Praetorian I had been firing at was dead, one of my teammates having nailed it in the head. A quick glance at Messor confirmed that he still wasn’t down.
“I don’t think we can take this guy!” Nevin yelled.
“Let’s board the elevator, we can evade him if we’re fast,” Phil suggested.
Ryan looked back at Boone, who nodded. Four of the Praetorians were left, two of them armed with the defense mechanism.
“I’ve got point,” I said, hoping to use my superior speed to dodge incoming fire, while still drawing as much as possible from my allies.
I then
bailed from my cover point, sprinting across the open room toward the elevator. Messor and the remaining Praetorians were close to the far wall, giving us some space to get in and activate it before they boarded as well. Behind me I heard Nevin and Ryan, all three of us firing rounds toward the Praetorians to minimize their ability to fire at us.
I reached the elevator first, swinging in and taking cover behind the edge. Within a second however I was exposed again, laying down a blanket of SF-42 fire by rapidly pulling the trigger. In a quick motion I switched it to full-auto, allowing a devastating flurry of bullets to be unleashed. One of the Praetorians went down as the final group, the Marines, made their way into the elevator.
Messor released the tremendous amount of bullets he had amassed and removed a sizable rifle from his back. With only one hand on it, he opened fire with a mighty stream of fusion rounds, multiple striking the Marine in the back of the formation.
Out of instinct I stepped forward to help, but then Boone appeared in front of me, slapping the elevator’s activation. Without delay a doorway sealed us in, several light taps being heard as the fusion rounds melted into the other side. The elevator began its ascent.
“It had to be done,” Boone stated, perhaps as much to himself as to us.
No one said a word, each of us truly exhausted of the sorrows of war. I didn’t even know the name of the soldier left behind, but still it bothered me that he had been lost. I shook my head lightly, trying to clear my thoughts before we arrived at the top. We were nearly out of the Capital, just a little further to go.
It wasn’t long before the elevator reached the top, opening its doorway. No sooner had the doorway opened than we heard gunfire. Moving forward slowly, guns raised, we neared the sound of the gunfire. The light swish of fusion rounds could be heard amongst the hard cracks of rifles. When we reached the bend in the U-shaped hallway we encountered the rear of a UED unit. It was a mix of soldiers and scientists, possibly some of the men from the encampment we had found near the Bastion.
They were exposed and with little cover from our direction, so our entire team opened fire. Men ducked and rolled, trying anything to escape our hail of lead. The purple glint of fusion rounds could be seen soaring by at high speeds from the other direction, indicating that the UED forces were completely surrounded.
The War Across the Stars Page 20