by E. R. Torre
The ghost squad was lethal and incredibly efficient.
Osborne tapped the Squad Leader’s shoulder and asked:
“Who are we following?”
“Never mind that,” Sergeant Castor said. “Just keep moving.”
They continued down the city’s main street and found more evidence of skirmishes.
“I’ve got movement up ahead,” Osborne said.
Laverna checked her sensor equipment.
“Verified,” she said.
“Got more movement than heat signatures,” another soldier said.
The section of the city they entered was filled with elegant high rises. It was one of the more affluent parts of Gehinnom and the place its wealthier citizens lived.
Unlike the other city sections they moved through, this district showed signs of struggle. A thick layer of smoke hung in the air. Body parts and blood splashed white marble sidewalks. Chunks of buildings were gone, chipped away by fusion blasts.
The Squad Leader motioned everyone to stop. He walked just past the edge of the building the Squad hid behind. He looked ahead.
Sweat formed on Laverna’s face. She eased her too-tight grip on her weapon.
“Keep cool,” Osborne told her.
“Anticipation is a bitch,” Laverna whispered back.
“Always.”
Sergeant Castor motioned forward.
“Let’s go,” he said.
They entered a market square.
It was ravaged by heavy fighting. Here and there were burnt corpses and body parts. The buildings showed heavy signs of fusion blasts and most of the building’s windows were broken.
The ghost squad they followed no longer bothered to make clean surgical strikes.
“Form a line,” Sergeant Castor said.
The Peacekeepers did. They filed down the street, their eyes on broken windows and balconies and any place a hostile could hide.
The corpses before them belonged to ordinary citizens. Some were elderly while others were infants. They saw no weapons among the carnage.
“What in Hades is this?” Harrison asked over the comm.
“Keep the fucking lines clear,” Sergeant Castor growled. His voice faltered.
Laverna approached the Squad Leader and patted him on his back. She switched her communicator off and spoke directly to him.
“Sir, with all due respect, the squad we’re following… they aren’t rebels,” she said. “They’re ours and they’re losing it. Call command. They need to have them stand down before they—”
“That’s not for us to say, soldier.”
“Come on sir, this is a massacre. It’s savagery.”
“I’ve got eyes,” Sergeant Castor said.
Laverna stepped back and returned to Osborne’s side. The newbie Harrison was with him. They too had switched off their communicators and were talking with each other.
“What is it?” Laverna said.
Harrison pointed to the buildings before them.
“Have any of you seen anything like this before?” he asked. “I mean, this damage… it looks like it was caused by a full battalion.”
“It does,” Osborne admitted. “Other than these bodies, we’d see some kind of evidence of a group that large. Footprints, discarded rations. You name it. No, this group… it’s a small force. And they’re doing damage hundreds of times greater than they should be capable of.”
“How many you think there are?”
“Phaecian special ops platoons usually have sixteen members,” Laverna said.
Harrison’s face turned pale.
“You think the group we’re following is that small?” Harrison said. “What kind of weapons and gear do they have?”
“I wish I knew,” Osborne said.
They moved through the block and found themselves beside a Market.
As it was for the previous three sections they passed, the squad found a scene of extreme carnage and destruction. Unlike the other sections, Laverna spotted a survivor.
“Three o’clock,” she said.
There, at the foot of a destroyed café, lay an elderly woman. She cradled something in her bloody arms. Next to her was another woman. It was hard to determine that woman’s age as she was a bloody mess. Gruesome wounds ran along the length of the elderly woman’s body and blood pooled around her before rolling onto the street.
“Easy,” the Squad Leader said.
“What do we do?” Harrison asked.
The elderly woman saw the Peacekeepers and raised a frail hand in the air to wave at them. When she did, the Squad saw she was holding something.
A baby.
4
A noise interrupted her memories.
It was the sound of a door opening and closing followed by footsteps. Someone entered her sterile smelling room. Something metallic –a chair– slid toward her. Its legs scrapped the slick velenum floor before coming to a stop to her right. The person who entered the room and pulled the chair to her side sat down.
“Good afternoon,” he said. He was only a few feet away from her and his voice betrayed a confused hesitancy. He was silent several seconds before clearing his throat and adding: “You hear me, right?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Please identify yourself.”
It was Laverna’s turn to hesitate. Was she a prisoner? Had she been captured by the rebels? At this point, she wasn’t sure.
“Laverna DeCastillo,” she said in a monotone. “Phaecian Peacekeeper. ID 18661905.”
The man leaned back in his chair. It squeaked.
“Could you… could you please repeat what you just said?”
“Laverna DeCastillo. Phaecian Peacekeeper. ID 1866—”
“That’s fine,” the man interrupted. “I just had to hear…”
He didn’t finish his thought and shuffled through pages and tapped on a computer screen. His movements bordered on frantic.
When he was done, all was silent for several long, uncomfortable seconds before the man again spoke.
“How do you feel?”
“Laverna DeCastillo,” she repeated. “Phaecian Ranger. ID—”
“You’re not a prisoner,” the man said.
Laverna tried to shake her head but the restraints kept her in place. She was so very helpless in this room and with a stranger she neither could see nor recognized.
“If I’m not a prisoner—”
“You’re not.”
“—then why am I restrained?”
“For your safety,” the man said. “You sustained… you sustained damage while in Gehinnom.”
Laverna’s body relaxed. The man speaking to her mispronounced the city’s name. If he was a local rebel, there was little chance he would do so.
He could be smarter than you think. Be careful.
“Prove I’m not a prisoner,” Laverna said. “Tell me the designation of the shuttle my squad landed in.”
Such information was secret and could only be found on their Battleship’s database.
“Give me a second,” the man said. He tapped on his computer.
“This is Doctor Psuche,” he said. “Request data on Gehinnom operation.”
There was silence following which a computer voice said:
“Password, please.”
The man moved away from Laverna and whispered:
“Psuche00396.”
“How can I help you Doctor Psuche?” a human voice said.
“I’m with the… patient,” Doctor Psuche said.
“Have you been able to communicate?”
“Yes but…”
“What is it?”
“She’s… uh… she’s worried she might be a prisoner of war.”
“What?”
“Sir, please bear with me,” Doctor Psuche said. “For now all I need is a bit of information and I’ll be able to continue my interview.”
“What do you want?”
“The call letters of the lander her... uh, Laverna DeCastil
lo’s Peacekeeper Squad was delivered to Gehinnom on.”
There was a pause.
“Lander Alpha 0098-A.”
“You hear that?” Doctor Psuche said. “I can have him repeat it if you—”
“Thank you,” Laverna said.
Doctor Psuche addressed whoever gave him the information and said:
“Thank you sir. I’ll get back to you when I finish with the patient.”
“Anything to help,” the person on the other side of the comm said.
Doctor Psuche shut his communicator off and for the moment Laverna felt relieved. The call numbers were correct and therefore she wasn’t a prisoner of the rebels.
But if you’re not their prisoner…
“Doctor, are you also a magistrate?” Laverna asked.
“What makes you think that?”
“Are you here to judge my actions on Gehinnom?”
Laverna was surprised by how weak her voice sounded.
“I’d like to find out what happened,” the Doctor admitted.
“Should I seek counsel?” Laverna asked.
“Speaking for the record, there’s no need,” the Doctor said. “Nothing you tell me will be used in any legal action directed either against you or anyone you were in contact with while on Gehinnom. You are not under any investigation nor will you be tried for anything we discuss here.”
Laverna considered her options just as she tried very hard to remember the events that brought her to this place.
“If you’re uncomfortable talking to me at this moment, we can take a short break,” the Doctor said. “Truly, I’m only here to help.”
Laverna again said nothing. The man spoke with sincerity and yet…
He stood up.
“I understand,” Doctor Psuche said. He pushed the chair back into its original place.
“Wait,” Laverna said. “Please.”
Doctor Psuche slid the chair back in place and sat.
“Go on,” he said.
“I was at the market. With the Peacekeeper Squad. The place was… it was completely destroyed. Bodies were everywhere. We saw a survivor. It… was an old woman. She caught my attention right away. She was the only one that moved. But there was something else about her…”
“What was that?”
“She looked familiar.”
“How so?”
“It sounds stupid but… she looked like my mother.”
Doctor Psuche tapped on his computer and sat back in his chair.
“Actually, I see the similarity,” he said.
More memories, sharp and terrible memories, flooded Laverna’s system. She let out a moan and said:
“She was staring at me, Doctor. Directly at me.”
“Go on,” Doctor Psuche said. “Please, don’t leave out anything.”
5
At that moment and in her mind, Laverna was back in Gehinnom and at that market.
Surrounding her was the Peacekeeper Squad. At her right stood Osborne.
He, like everyone else in the squad, were crouched low to the ground. All eyes were on the elderly woman.
“Sir, she’s holding—,” Laverna said.
Sergeant Castor cut her off with the wave of his hand.
“I see, Private,” he snapped. “Maintain formation.”
The elderly woman’s energy was dissipating. Her bloody arm waved at the soldiers one last time before falling to her side. Her other arm held the baby tight. Every now and again she called out for help.
“That’s when you acted?” Doctor Psuche asked.
“Not right then. The old woman begged. She pleaded. She cried. It went on for so damn long. It was… it was…”
“I understand,” Doctor Psuche said and shuffled still more pages. She thought she heard the sound of writing. “Please continue.”
“After a while, she quieted down.”
“It’s a trap,” Sergeant Castor said.
“But sir,” Osborne began. “We haven’t seen a single—”
“Look at the carnage around us,” Castor barked. “How in the name of the Heavens was everyone taken out… everyone but that lady and child?”
“Maybe it was luck,” Laverna said.
“I don’t believe in luck,” Castor said. “We do not approach the subject until we know what’s going on. Surveillance drones are closing in. We’ll have a clearer view of the area in a matter of minutes. If things look safe, we move. Not a second before.”
“So we waited,” Laverna said. “As Sergeant Castor said, it took only five or so minutes before we got the first drone recon. It was five of the longest damn minutes I’ve ever waited.”
“You got all the information you needed?”
“Yes,” Laverna said. “It was uploaded to our suits. Full thermal, electric, and weapon traces along with clear pictures of the area. Between the ground troops and the eyes in the sky, we couldn’t detect any threats. But Sergeant Castor still wasn’t sure.”
Laverna’s voice dropped.
“At about that point the old lady… she looks at me again. I don’t know why she kept… anyway, she pushes herself up and onto her elbow. She wanted me to see the child. She wanted me to see him.”
Laverna paused. Her voice was little more than a whisper.
“She was too old to be the child’s mother. She was holding her grandson. Or granddaughter. I couldn’t tell from all that… blood. The woman at her side, the one that was ripped apart, that must have been the child’s mother.”
From the safety of her metal suit, Laverna chewed on her lips. Her eyes darted from the elderly woman and back to Sergeant Castor. She then stared at the other soldiers.
There was fear in every one of their eyes. For what they had to do as much as for what they weren’t doing.
“Sir?” Laverna said.
“Not now,” Sergeant Castor said.
His attention remained on the incoming drone readings.
“There was nothing new in that information,” Laverna said. “Everything indicated whoever did this was gone and there was no reason to sit back and not help the lady and child.”
“It must have been terribly frustrating.”
“That’s a really kind fucking way of putting it.”
Laverna closed her mouth and tried to shake her head.
“Sorry,” she said.
Laverna was quiet for several seconds.
“He did what he had to,” Laverna added. “Sergeant Castor, that is. He was just as rattled as all of us. Thing is, everything around there, from the woman and her baby to the Peacekeepers, was his responsibility. I’m sure he wanted to move just as much as everyone else but we stayed put. After a while, I thought we’d be there all fucking—”
Laverna sighed.
“I –we– thought we’d watch that baby and his grandmother die in the heat and not do a damn thing about it.”
Laverna pursed her lips. When she next spoke, her words were hard as steel.
“I couldn’t take it anymore. I just couldn’t.”
Laverna felt a hand settle on her armored shoulder. The hand pulled her back. She spun around to find Osborne there. Pain filled the burly soldier’s face. He knew what was going through Laverna’s mind.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
Laverna’s stare dug into Osborne’s eyes. Her fellow soldier and mountain of a man fell back.
“Don’t,” he repeated.
It was too late.
Laverna broke away from the troops.
Her heavy metal armor clanged as she crossed the destroyed square.
Sergeant Castor screamed for her to return.
Laverna didn’t care.
She ran across the street and reached the café. When she was feet away from the elderly lady she pulled out the first aid kit from her belt and held it in her armored hand. She popped its lid open.
“The first aid kit didn’t carry much, but I figured it was enough to save the child’s life,” Laverna said.
“Yo
u disobeyed your superior’s orders.”
Laverna chewed her lip and wondered if she had just done what she so desperately didn’t want to: Admit to an offence.
She no longer cared.
“I was trying to save a citizen of the Empire,” Laverna said. “I joined the military to help our people and defend them with our lives if need be.”
Laverna was quiet for a second before adding:
“Yes, I disobeyed a direct order. I’d do it again.”
“Even knowing…?”
Laverna closed her eyes tight. She felt the muscles in her body tighten.
“Yeah, even knowing the baby was already dead.”
Laverna fell back at the sight before her.
The elderly woman’s left leg was split open. The jagged wound was instantly cauterized by the fusion blast that ripped it apart. With the last of her strength, the old woman pushed the child toward the soldier and her first aid kit.
At the sight of the baby’s remains, Laverna fought hard not to scream.
The child’s face was a raw, red wound. Dried blood filled the infant’s mouth. Much of it drained down his chin. Any number of unseen internal injuries had killed him.
She looked away from the child and at the elderly woman.
Tears fell down her face.
“We looked at each other and at that moment I knew she knew the child was dead,” Laverna said. “She already knew, I think, but she hoped she was wrong and… maybe as long as no one else told her, she could… she could lie to herself. It was easier than accepting the truth. After seeing my reaction she pulled the baby tight against her chest. She… she cried.”
Laverna was quiet for several more seconds.
“I threw it all away,” she said. “I disobeyed orders and tried to save a child.”
“What happened next?”
Laverna thought about that.
“I… I don’t know.”
“Please try to remember,” Doctor Psuche said. “It’s important. Even more important—”
“I can’t… I…”
Laverna stopped talking.
“You do remember something.”