by Lee Stephen
Jayden grinned and cocked his sniper rifle. “‘Bout time I get to do somethin’.”
“Hell yeah,” Becan said.
Inside the structure, David roared as a plasma bolt struck his left arm and knocked him backward. “What did they just say?” he asked, jumping back into position by the corridor.
Kevin reloaded his assault rifle and resumed fire. “Three Noboats just materialized!”
David inspected his shoulder. His armor was sizzled, and charred flesh reeked underneath. He gritted his teeth. “We’re not going to hold them here forever!”
“Just gotta keep firing!” Kevin yelled back.
“Any orders?” asked Novikov through the comm as the underground fight continued. “Is anyone up there?”
The comm channel cracked with quiet. A solitary voice resonated over the airwaves. “This is Thoor. Prepare the facility for detonation.”
For several seconds, Novikov looked dazed. He glanced at Max before returning his attention to the comm. “Yes, general!” Next, he addressed the technicians. “Can you set the explosives from this position?”
“Da, lieutenant,” the chief technician answered. “We have a chamber freed up down the hallway. We can set it up there and they will probably never find it.”
“Do it.”
On the surface, the Third was in pursuit of the structure when the two Noboats landed behind them. Snow churned from the ground as the vessels depressed. As their metal ramps lowered, the airborne Noboat made its attack run. Bodies flew through the air, white bolts colliding in their midst.
Farther away, the Vindicators finished their loops.
“We cannot stay here!” Baranov said as Bakma emerged from the Noboats on the ground.
Keldysh spoke through the comm a moment later. “This is Captain Keldysh requesting an evacuation!”
Thoor’s voice responded. “Request granted. All Vultures, rendezvous with the ground team for evacuation.”
As the Pariah descended on the ridge, Clarke rushed into the cockpit to join Travis. “Let us off here then loop back around to the structure! Please pick us up on your way out! Boris, stay with him! You too, Varvara! Svetlana, come with us! I want a medic with each team!”
The operatives acknowledged the instructions, and Clarke’s drop-off team was released, leaving Travis, Boris, and Varvara alone in the ship. The Pariah revolved to face the structure.
While the remnants of the underground strike team battled the Bakma, the technicians secured the explosives. Novikov’s attention was a constant shift between the techs and the Bakma. “How long until it’s in place?”
“Almost set, lieutenant!”
Max growled as he reloaded his assault rifle. “Tolya, we’re not going to be able to hold here much longer!”
Novikov glared at the technicians. “Faster with the explosive! Time is what we do not have!”
Outside and above, two flights of Vindicators began their attack runs. Two more Noboats materialized north of the valley. Pilot chatter erupted again.
“God!”
“What is that, five?”
“We have two more Noboats inbound, I repeat, we have two more Noboats inbound!”
“Red Flight, we’re breaking off of the ground assault and engaging the twins!”
“Copy that, Green, we’ve engaged the strafer.”
“Watch for more distortions.”
“Ground team, we can’t help you down there, you’re on your own with the evac!”
Behind the structure, Fox yelped as a plasma bolt skimmed his shoulder armor. He fumbled his gun and it dropped to the snow. “C’mon, where’s the trashing Vulture?”
“It’s coming,” Baranov answered. “They’re coming around!”
The survivors from the Third joined the Fourteenth and Twelfth as they covered behind the structure.
“We have to stay by the lift,” Baranov said. “We must cover the underground team as the lift rises!”
Below the surface, the chief technician spun around to Novikov. “Explosives set, lieutenant! We can detonate from outside—all we need to do now is get out of here!”
Novikov was on the comm immediately. “Structure ready for detonation!”
“About time we can get the hell out of here!” Max said.
Thoor’s voice resonated through the comm. “What is your overall situation?”
“Explosives are set, general,” Novikov answered. “We have a clear path to the lift, and we are good to leave!”
“Very good. You will remain with the explosives to ensure their detonation. The rest of your team may leave.”
Clarke’s team froze on the ridge. Svetlana gasped and covered her mouth.
Underground by the lift, David and Kevin stopped dead in their tracks.
Max’s trigger finger went rigid, and he spun to face Novikov. Silence struck amid the gunfire. The comm channel went quiet.
At the corner of the T-junction, Novikov’s mouth sunk open, and he droned into his headset. “I am sorry general, could you repeat your last order?”
“You are to remain with the explosives to ensure their detonation. The rest of your team may leave.”
Scott’s jaw dropped as the surface battle raged. The rest of the team may leave? No…that couldn’t have been what he said. Could it?
Over the private comm of the Fourteenth, Travis’s voice crackled. “What the hell? Did we just hear that right?”
Becan and Jayden swiveled around as Svetlana dropped to her knees on the ridge. Her hand shot to her chest. “Nyet…” she breathed as her eyes widened with moisture. “Nyet!” Panic struck as she clutched her helmet mic. “Tolya, ne slushay! Ne slushay!”
“Do you understand your orders, Lieutenant Novikov?”
Below, Novikov fell silent as both voices—Thoor’s and Svetlana’s—cut through the comm channels.
Max faced him head on. “Tolya, don’t tell me you’re actually thinking about doing this…”
Thoor spoke again. “I will ask only once more…do you understand your orders?” Silence brooded over the channel. “You know the price of disobedience…”
Novikov’s face froze. His eyes trailed to the floor, and he swallowed nervously. Before Max could say another word, Thoor got his answer.
“Yes, general,” Novikov said. “I understand.”
“Nyet!” Svetlana collapsed to the ground. Her hands smashed into the snow. “Tolya, nyet!” Tears poured down her face.
Max erupted. “Like hell you understand those orders!”
Novikov closed his eyes and murmured through the comm. “Sveta, ya dolzhen.” He turned to Max. “I have to. I have orders and I must follow them. It is not my decision.”
“Anatoly!” David yelled through the comm, “you’ve got to be kidding me!”
Svetlana screamed. “Nyet, Tolya! Nyet!”
“If I do not stay, the mission could fail,” Novikov answered. “The explosives must go off!”
“Can you hold this hall by yourself?” David asked Kevin by the lift.
“Yeah,” Kevin answered. “Where are you going?”
David backed toward the left hallway. “To insert common sense!”
“How in the hell are Bakma going to disarm human explosives?” Max said, slamming his fist against the wall.
Novikov shot back, “The same way humans can unlock Bakma doors!”
“If the bombs don’t go off, so what? We come back and attack the base again! It’s not like this is the battle for the end of the universe!”
Clarke knelt beside Svetlana as she continued to wail. “Tolya, nyet!”
“This is bloody insane!” said Becan as he spun around to Jayden and threw his hands up.
Dostoevsky watched Svetlana from the edge of the ridge.
Beneath the structure, David rounded the corner nearest to Novikov and Max. He shouted as soon as he saw the lieutenant. “How can you hear that voice pleading with you and still stay?”
“If I do not stay…!” Novikov b
egan. He cut himself off. His glare first fixated on David, then it blazed at Max. “You know,” he said off-comm. “You know what will happen.”
Max opened his mouth to reply, then bit back the words. The three men fell in silence.
“What?” David said. “What in God’s name is going on here?”
“This is not like the rest of EDEN,” Novikov answered. “Orders must be followed. This is not my decision…”
“Why does this order have to be followed?” said David in frustration. “What the hell could be worse? They’ll kill you when you get back to base? Well great, add an extra hour to your life, but give it a trashing chance!”
“Tolya, nyet!”
“…there is much worse,” Novikov said gravely.
David stared at Novikov. The blank look lasted for several seconds, as gunfire rallied around them. Then David’s expression changed as realization dawned on him. His eyes widened, and he took a sharp breath. “No…you have got to be kidding me…”
Novikov pointed to Max. “Ask him. Ask him what will happen.”
“You have got to be kidding me!”
Max turned to David and said solemnly, “If Tolya doesn’t listen, he’s not the one who’ll get killed…she will.”
David lost it. “How? How can that happen? How can—”
“This is how it has to be!” Novikov cried. “I do not do this for me! I do this for her! You know this now! I have no choice!”
“It has to be this way,” Max said.
David tore off his helmet. “No! How can he get away with that?”
“It’s the truth!” Max answered. “You don’t like it, it doesn’t matter! This isn’t EDEN you’re dealing with! You might have thought that when you got here, but you were wrong!”
Novikov said to David, “You hear? There is not even time to think about it.”
“It’s the truth,” Max said again.
Before David could respond, Novikov said to Max, “Can you lock me in the chamber with the explosive?”
“Yeah…” Max muttered. He retrieved the suction device from his belt and moved to the detonation chamber. “You can close the door from inside. It’ll lock when you do.”
Novikov nodded and lowered his assault rifle to the ground. His eyes began to glisten. “Max…I have to ask you to…”
“I’ll watch her. I promise.”
“Thank you, Max. You were always my favorite capitalist pig.” Novikov feigned a smile.
Max offered a failed smirk. “Whatever, communist.”
David listened in silence as the lieutenant said, “Now get out of here. Before we all die.”
Max adjusted his comm. “All underground operatives, congregate and hold the lift area. We’re going back up.”
Baranov was silent on the surface as Max’s evacuation order broke through the airwaves. None of his team had spoken a word since Thoor’s order. Before they could, an explosion shook the ground in front of the structure. The Bakma were on the attack.
“No time to think about it!” Baranov said. “Get ready to get them out of the lift!”
Svetlana lay crumpled on the ground at the ridge, her pleas reduced to quiet whimpers. Dostoevsky knelt beside her, his hand falling against her back.
Becan’s face reddened. “I can’t bloody believe this!”
Clarke interrupted before a discussion could begin. For the first time, his voice quivered. “Come on. We’ve got to engage. We’ve got to.”
He, Becan, and Jayden took position at the edge of the ridge, as Dostoevsky whispered into Svetlana’s ear. The medic nodded, rose to her feet, and joined the others.
Scott ducked behind the structure as a plasma bolt seared past his head. The Bakma were closer, and with every shot he fired, the intensity of their oppression grew heavier. Not only was EDEN outnumbered, they were out-positioned. This was not going to last.
He shrank behind the structure to avoid fire, when a scream rang out. Konstantin. Scott surveyed the immediate area, where he caught sight of the soldier. His thigh had been struck dead on by a plasma bolt.
“Hold on!” Scott said as he darted from the structure, through the mass of soldiers toward Konstantin. He wasn’t a doctor, but he knew as soon as he saw the wound that it was serious.
Konstantin winced and clutched his leg. The once-white snow beneath him was stained with red.
Scott scanned for Galina, but she was overtaken with other wounded. The medical staff was overwhelmed. He grabbed the injured soldier’s armpits. “Hang on—I’ll get you to cover!”
Max’s voice emerged from the comm. “We’re coming up and we’ve got wounded!”
Scott growled under his breath. Everything was happening too fast. The Noboats. Novikov and Svetlana. Konstantin. The lift. He didn’t know what to do. As soon as Konstantin was behind the structure, Scott scanned the area to find his teammates. Fox was on his own on the other side of the fight, where he continued to fire his sniper rifle. Baranov was nowhere to be seen.
Max’s voice emerged again. “We’re coming to the top! We’d better have cover!”
Scott abandoned Konstantin for the front of the structure, where the lift exited. Konstantin was safe where he was…now they had to secure Max’s team. The doors were going to open in a dead stare with the oncoming Bakma. When Scott arrived on the scene, Baranov and several others were already in mid-battle. The mechanical clunks of the lift resonated in the background.
“Assist the wounded first!” Baranov said. “Draw the fire away!”
Before Scott could fire a shot, the door to the structure slid open. Soldiers crammed the lift.
The wounded were ferried from the lift first as EDEN defenders held off the Bakma. “How many are in there?” Baranov asked.
“Everyone!” Max answered.
“I thought only eight could go down at a time?”
“Necessity is the mother of compromise!”
Atop the ridge, Clarke and his team rained fire upon the Bakma, though their efforts were dwarfed by the timed strafes of the Vindicators.
Dostoevsky once again whispered to Svetlana as they took their positions on the ridge. She shook as she drew her sidearm.
Scott was in the middle of the transfer of wounded when a scorching blast slammed into his left shoulder. His feet left the ground and he landed flat on his back. For a moment, his vision flashed white. There was silence. Pain. The reek of burnt skin. He had been shot. As suddenly as it disappeared, his vision returned. The overcast sky loomed above. He was alive, but he could hear his armor sizzling. His teeth clenched as he attempted to peer at his shoulder. His armor was torn almost completely open. It burned like fire.
Before he could muster the endurance to stand, a pair of hands grabbed him and jerked him to his feet. They were David’s.
“Scott, you all right?”
Scott winced as he regained his balance. His assault rifle lay sprawled in the snow. “Yeah.” He lied. “Veck!”
David hurried him to the side of the structure. “If it makes you feel any better, the rest of us are shot to hell, too.”
It took a few moments for Scott to register David’s presence. David was okay. Shot, but okay. But what about…? “Where’s Lieutenant Novikov?”
David’s expression shifted. “I’ll tell you about it later. There’s nothing we can do.”
Before Scott could reply, Travis’s voice cut through the comm chatter. “We’re landing—get everyone in quick! This place is getting ugly fast!”
Scott and David turned their faces skyward, where the trio of Vultures began their descents. The Pariah led the pack.
The rush to the transports was frenzied chaos. Where the wounded were not escorted, soldiers waved for their comrades to fall back. Konstantin was the first of the Fourteenth to be assisted into the Pariah, followed by Fox and Kevin. Varvara was quick to give them attention.
Baranov and Max were the last two in, as the commander carried Max against his shoulder. Max’s armor smoldered and there w
ere dots of blood on his face. Fox stared at them. “What happened?”
“He got shot—what does it look like happened?” Baranov snarled.
Max gave the okay sign. “I’m all right, I’m not dying. I was almost behind the structure when some lucky dregg hopper caught me at the last second.”
“Where is everyone else?” asked Baranov.
“We dropped them off on the ridge,” said Boris as Travis readied the Pariah for ascent. “They’re giving us cover.”
“Where is Galya?”
“I am too busy!” she answered through the comm. “You go! I will catch ride with Keldysh!”
Plasma bolts slammed into the Pariah‘s hull as the operatives strapped themselves in. “Is anyone back there critical?” Travis asked.
“No, let’s go!” Max clenched his teeth.
“I’m keeping the back door open till we pick everyone up at the ridge!” Travis said. “Don’t fall out!”
Baranov glared. “Do not make us fall out!”
Clarke rolled to his knees behind the ridge as the Pariah took flight. “Everyone! I’m sorry, sink back! Travis will be here shortly!”
A round of acknowledgments followed as Dostoevsky, Becan, and Jayden abandoned the ridge’s edge. The battle between the Noboats and Vindicators was still fierce, as occasional explosions rocked the sky.
Becan slung his assault rifle over his shoulder and knelt in the snow. “Abou’ time we can get out o’ here.”
“Be grateful you weren’t down there, gentlemen,” said Clarke. “We got the better end of the deal.” The men nodded in agreement.
At that moment, the captain frowned, and he turned to face the men. He passed a fleeting glance over each one—Dostoevsky, Becan, and Jayden. Dostoevsky. Becan. And Jayden. A second after, his eyes shot wide.