Pursuing Dreams (The Young Soldier Book 1)

by MK Clark

  “We need information,” Don said hurriedly. “What was your flyby area?”

  “What’s going on out there?”

  The man studied them a little longer. “Space Jumpers?”

  Don saw York nod.

  “And pilots?” he added skeptically, eyeing their infantry uniforms.

  Again, York nodded.

  “There are no Space Jumper squadrons flying around out there. So why do you care?”

  “That’s not true!” York snapped.

  Don cut him off. “We were just dismissed. We don’t know how the main battle is flowing, and we’re looking for our platoons.”

  “Listen, I don’t have time to waste on you, and I don’t know where you got those tags, but pilots don’t have platoons. Piss off.”

  They watched the pilot go, and York sighed. “That went well. They hate us ‘cause we’re infantry, or they hate us ‘cause we’re Space Jumpers. Take your pick.”

  Don pushed past York and continued down the hall. “We’ll find someone.” He rounded the corner and nearly ran into two more pilots leaning against the wall. They looked tired, but they were still suited, helmets held absentmindedly in their hands.

  York pulled Don back. “I’ll handle this,” he whispered and took a step forward. “You are a sight for sore eyes!” he told them. “Listen, I just finished a sortie, and I’m trying to find out what’s going on out there.”

  Don could see the pilots weren’t buying it. He was about to step in when York continued.

  “Yeah, we hate the uniform, too, but what you going to do? Tell your commanding officer to shove it?”

  This seemed to mollify the pilots a little and even earned them a response. “Hell’s going on out there. If you’re really a pilot, you’d know that.”

  “If you’re really a pilot,” Don shot back, “you’d still know what was going on, no matter how crazy the fight!”

  The pilot’s partner laughed. “Fair enough. What do you want to know?”

  Relief bubbled up within him. They had won the exchange and at least one answer. He did not allow himself time to rejoice. The question flew from his mouth before he had time to consider it. “What was your objective?”

  “Now, why would you want to know something like that?” the pilot asked, and for just a moment, York’s eyes flickered over to Don. The pilot caught the exchange and began to laugh. “So this idiotic battle is a cover, after all. Don’t worry,” he reassured them. “I won’t ask, but quid pro quo, no? I learned something, so I’ll tell you. Our objective was nothing special. What you’d expect, really. Keep the eyes in the sky busy and off the thumpers’ backs.”

  “Were you able to make out the tide of the battle?”

  The pilot shook his head slightly. “They’re putting up a good fight, but it looks like we deployed everything we had. The offensive line is massive. It’s like they’re trying to take the whole planet in one go. Arrow and I had to come back to re-fuel and shit, but from what I could see, I’d say it’s a stalemate.”

  York cursed quietly, attracting the pilot’s attention.

  Don stole him back quickly. “Did you have any contact with the soldiers on the ground?”

  “The thumpers? Naw, we didn’t trade words with them. We had enough on our plates in the air.”

  Don barely held back a growl of frustration. “Thanks,” he managed, and motioned for York to follow him.

  “Why aren’t they using us?” York questioned as soon as they’d stepped away. “They obviously need us, especially if they’re trying to take the planet!”

  “I don’t know any more than you,” Don hissed. “But it makes you wonder what we dropped, doesn’t it?”

  Before York could answer, they heard a call from behind. “Hey, little brothers!”

  They turned and saw one of the pilots following after them. He quickly closed the gap between them.

  “What are you trying to get at?”

  York glanced over at Don. “Nothing,” he said.

  “A radio,” Don replied at the same moment.

  The pilot hesitated. “What do you need a radio for?”

  York rolled his eyes, and Don knew he finally understood. “He has this ridiculous attachment to his platoon,” York explained. “Don’t worry, the rest of us don’t get it, either.”

  “The rest of you?” the pilot said.

  Don frowned. “That’s not important right now.”

  The pilot opened his mouth to question them further and then shrugged as if giving up on the matter. “Listen,” he told them, “I may not understand what’s going on, but I was a Jumper once, too. I know what it’s like to not have anyone’s blessing. If you’d like, you can try my radio.”

  York’s eyes gleamed. “A Jumper,” he whispered to Don.

  “You’re going to need to suit up. Anyone in the hangar has to.”

  “We’ll be begging for questions, getting near your birds in SCARs,” he answered.

  “I know where you can find spare pilot suits; they have to keep a few for us.”

  “Are you sure?” Don asked.

  The pilot nodded. “Definitely. There’s no rule against lending a radio.”

  This brought a smile to Don’s face. “True,” he said with a wink at York. “At least, not yet.”

  The pilot led them back the way they’d come. His partner joined them as they passed him.

  “Do you have to help every stray you come across?” he asked his partner wearily, but got no reply.

  It wasn’t long before Don and York were suited up and on the hangar floor. Don had to force himself not to move his arms and legs experimentally. The suit was familiar to him, and yet he’d forgotten how it felt to move in it.

  “A few more minutes,” a grease monkey told the pilot as they approached. Arrow waved her off, planting himself protectively near the fighter. The other pilot clambered up the side and lowered himself into the cockpit. Don and York followed.

  “Okay, what channel?”

  Don told him and watched from the side of the fighter as the pilot pugged his APRIL into the console. For a moment there was nothing, and then a bunch of noise.

  “Right. Who are we, and who are we calling?”

  “Gabriel,” Don answered immediately. “We’re Gabriel, and we’re calling Third Platoon.”

  Just then, Arrow scrambled up beside them. Don and York squeezed to let him in.

  “Casey, we’ve got a problem.”

  “What?”

  Arrow pointed toward the hangar door, and all three of them turned to look. Something was causing a commotion. It began to ripple out from the door, leaving behind a sense of panic. It was approaching them rapidly.

  “Go, find out what it is,” Casey ordered. “Delay as long as you can.” He caught Don’s eye. “If I reach these guys, I’ll call you.”

  Don nodded and jumped down to the hangar floor, tinting the shield of his helmet. York saw and did the same. It was better if they remained obscure.

  Instead of waiting for the news to reach them, Don headed straight for the origin. The hangar chief had his finger pressed to a com link. By the time he arrived, the man was no longer speaking.

  “What’s going on?” he demanded, acting the part of a disgruntled pilot.

  “All outgoing flights have been canceled. You and yours need to get off this deck immediately. We’re about to have a large number of people coming through here.”

  Don didn’t move. “Canceled?” he questioned, and this time he didn’t have to fake the shock. “What the hell for?”

  “I don’t have time for your attitude! Get off my deck, or I’ll have you arrested!” the man shouted.

  Don backtracked quickly. He ran through the chaos, noting that the deck was visibly clearer now than a moment ago.

  A pilot grabbed hold of him, pulling him up short. “What d’ya got?” It was York.

  Don shook his head, “Almost nothing, except that something either went really, really wrong or really, really right.
The hangar chief said he’s got a lot of people coming in all at the same time, so the deck is being cleared. That includes us. All outgoing flights are canceled.” Don shrugged and began to move toward Casey. “You?”

  “I’m wagering on really, really bad,” York answered. “They’re evacuating the soldiers.”

  “Retreating?”

  “No, evacuating. Something is killing everyone, both sides. They think it’s airborne. In one hour, they’re closing the hangar door. The whole base will be locked down.”

  They skirted Arrow, who was arguing heatedly with one of the crew.

  “They can’t possibly get everyone back to base in an hour!” Don protested.

  “I agree,” he answered grimly, and Don followed his gaze to find Casey jumping down from the fighter.

  “Did you get ‘em?” Don asked when he had joined them.

  Casey shook his head. “But our welcome has run out.” He caught Arrow’s eye with a wave of his hand. The pilot broke off his argument and headed toward them, leaving behind a very confused grease monkey.

  They didn’t speak again until they were out of the hangar and a safe distance away. Don and York quickly told the others what they had heard.

  Casey pulled off his helmet and nodded. “That explains a lot.”

  “Oh?”

  “Well, I couldn’t get a hold of your guys, but I did hear some things on some of the channels. Some kind of cloud is expanding rapidly and no one knows anything about it except what you said. It’s dangerous. If the cloud gets to you, the filters in the suit are worthless.” He looked at his partner. “Got your tablet?”

  Arrow flashed him a knowing look. He reached for a pouch on his leg and pulled out a tablet the size of his hand.

  “Show us the southern hemisphere.”

  In moments, Arrow had a map for them to see. Casey pointed at the tablet. “We were flying this area here. Right before we had to fuel up, the sky lit up somewhere south of us. We couldn’t pinpoint it because our HUDs blackened out to shield our eyes. We’re pretty sure it was an explosion, though, and it was followed by two others just like it.

  “From what I heard, there were reports of a cloud here, here, and here. A few made it sound like it was coming from more than one direction. Which, in my opinion, makes sense if there were three explosions.”

  Casey kept speaking, but Don no longer listened. His eyes were fixed on the small tablet. Just beyond one of the areas he’d indicated was a canyon, and beyond that, a crater.

  “―Already the clouds have closed half the distance from their epicenter to us.”

  “They aren’t stopping?”

  Casey shook his head. “It’s why they’re locking down the base. If our filters don’t work, none of us are safe outside.”

  “What about the soldiers? No transport can move that fast.”

  Casey hesitated before replying. “I didn’t hear anything about pickups.”

  “Didn’t you say they were evacuating the soldiers?” Don rounded on York.

  “Aye, and they are.”

  “I heard them broadcast something like that,” Casey confirmed, “but any transport they send out can only get to about here before they’d have to turn around.”

  Don looked where he pointed and felt his breath leave him. That wasn’t anywhere near where the Hell’s Angels had been deployed. “What about the rest? They’re just going to leave them out there?”

  “What else can they do? If they sent out a transport, then they’d only be sacrificing more men.”

  “They could send us!” Don exclaimed.

  York froze, and Casey let out a bark of laughter. “No, little brother, no matter how hard we flew, we wouldn’t make it in time. Anyway, what could we do? We couldn’t carry them all back with us.”

  Don ignored him. He missed the hand Arrow laid on Casey’s shoulder and the comment passed from one to the other.

  York shook his head. “No way, man. It’s like Casey said. There’s nothing we can do for them. We can’t carry them back.”

  “They wouldn’t be in trouble if it weren’t for us.”

  “So what? You want them to wind up like Green and Finch?” York challenged.

  Don looked away, clenching and unclenching his hands. “There’s got to be something we can do.”

  “What’s this about?”

  The question hung in the air for a moment, then York sighed. “It was us. We dropped those bombs. We didn’t know what they would do. They didn’t tell us.”

  “You?”

  “Aye, us and our comrades.”

  They watched Casey piece together his next question, clearly overwhelmed.

  “What was your target?”

  “A city,” Don answered. “We took out a whole city.”

  “They mean to take the whole planet, don’t they?”

  York nodded. “We think so.”

  “No,” Don interjected. “We don’t think so. They’re doing it, aren’t they? There won’t be a Zarwean left alive when this clears, or any of ours who’re caught out there. That’s why we have to help them.”

  Casey gave him an exasperated look. “We’ve been through this. There’s nothing you can do.”

  “That’s my platoon out there.”

  “That doesn’t change anything.”

  “I’m not going to stand here and let my best friend die!” Don snarled. “Not if I can get to him first.”

  “And when you get to him, what then? What will you do?” York questioned.

  “Are you suggesting,” Arrow interrupted, “that you actually have a fighter that’s fast enough to get there?”

  Casey was already shaking his head, “No way, Arrow. No such thing exists.”

  “You only say that because no one has told you it does,” Don shot back.

  “You still can’t bring them back!” York snapped. “Wake up, O’Hara!”

  “If you can’t bring them back, why don’t you just take them a bio-dome?”

  Don’s mouth was already open with a scathing reply aimed at York when Arrow’s words registered. He turned slowly, mouth gaping. Of course! It was so simple.

  “A bio-dome would give them twelve hours.”

  “The Wasps aren’t equipped to carry that kind of thing,” York protested, no longer making the effort to conceal anything in front of the other pilots.

  “But if they were loaded inside and then dropped out the hatch―”

  “And which poor fool would you get to ride inside and drop them out?”

  Don didn’t answer, nor did he drop his gaze.

  York swore. “You crazy man! You lucky you woke up the first time! You want to go back for seconds?”

  “The doc’s been giving us shots. It’ll be better this time.”

  “You don’t know that!”

  “You’re right. I don’t, but that’s not going to stop me.” Not now, he thought. I’m not going to lose him, too. Not if there’s still a chance I can save him. Don turned to the two pilots. Both had remained quiet during their exchange. “I think it’s best if we parted ways now. If this backfires…” He trailed off.

  “Backfires? Shouldn’t it just be a question of approved or not?”

  York grinned. “I think we’re going to take the less-traditional route on this one.”

  Don held out his hand, and to his surprise, Arrow reached around Casey to take it. Don felt something press against his palm as they shook hands.

  “You’ll need this.”

  Casey caught on immediately. “Arrow’s a man of many talents,” he explained. “Don’t worry. Whatever it is, it won’t trace back to us.”

  Don nodded his understanding and turned, clapping York on the shoulder. “See you on the other side.”

  York scoffed, “Stuff it!” He matched Don’s stride, waving a farewell to the others. “I am so in on this!”

  “York, this is not your fight.”

  “I was there, too, O’Hara, and you’re going to need my help.”

  �
��I’m not doing this because of what just happened,” Don tried to explain, but he could tell it didn’t make any difference.

  “It’s my decision to make, and I say it is my fight. Try not to forget that you’re not the only one they’ve screwed over more than once. They played God with my life, too.”

  “This’ll end your career. It’ll be a court-martial at best.”

  “Well, maybe I’ll get lucky and not wake up this time around. Then I’ll be a fallen hero who sacrificed himself for his fellow soldiers.”

  Don rolled his eyes. “That’s a bit dramatic.”

  “Since we’re going to hell,” York laughed and shrugged.

  “Fair enough.”

  “So what’d he give you?”

  Don glanced down at his hand and then held it up for York to see. A moment’s examination was all they needed. “It’s a key card.”

  “That’ll come in handy. What do you think it opens?”

  “Well,” Don mused, “since they don’t know where we’re going, I’ll bet it opens anything. If it does that, then our boy Arrow is more than just a bit talented.” “He’d be a useful guy to have around. We shouldn’t have sent them away.”

  “Wouldn’t be right to drag them down with us.”

  York sighed.“I was just saying―”

  “I know,” Don interrupted, his thoughts already miles ahead. “Listen, there’s no reason both of us need to get inside these Wasps again. We only need one person to dump out the bio-domes. The other one can fly the thing from a unit.”

  “Three guesses who you want in the unit.”

  “Seems fair that I should take the risk, since it’s my plan.”

  “Meaning I get to take the fall while you sleep it out for eternity?”

  Don winced. York was taking this all wrong. “That’s not exactly―”

  “But you can’t deny the truth of it. If that’s the case, I’d be better off in a Wasp.”

  “I don’t want you to end up like Green and Finch!”

  “But it’s okay for you?”

  “Yes,” Don answered with no intention of explaining. In fact, his answer had even surprised him a little, but he knew it rang true. Everything would be solved if he could just fall asleep and never wake up.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” he offered York. “If I don’t wake up, you can tell them whatever you want. I conned you into thinking it was a legit mission. You can blame it all on me; be creative. If I wake up, then we’ll face it together. Deal?”