Gabriella wouldn’t tear into him, but she wouldn’t comfort him, either. She left that to the others. Halsey sat next to the cyborg and placed a hand on his shoulder. He, too, couldn’t say anything. Sergeant Neeson saw he wanted to cry but somehow didn’t.
“Pat,” she said as she collected herself, ”you spot any UNR vehicles in the immediate area?”
“No, so they must have the others somewhere around the facility or even still inside…” Pat reported, “Shit.”
“What is it?” Gabriella asked. Her muscles were tightening already.
“I’m reading a whole lot of hostiles approaching from Red House City. They’ll be on your ass in less than five.”
“And Salamanca?”
Salamanca was the closest city to the Rock City Salvage Center, and it was only a few minutes away from their destination of Carrollton.
“Yes. My radar shows pretty soon I won’t be alone up here, either.”
The Peregrine was still several hundred feet up in the air. Even from all the way up here, Patrick could see beads of light in the forest ahead of the Seraph.
“They’re going to try to cut you off. Hold your position and wait for extraction,” he said.
“Hold that order!” said a familiar voice on the intercom.
“General Ominic?” Pat questioned.
“Yes, this is him speaking,” the angry voice confirmed, “and you will not land down there!”
“But, sir, I’m their best shot to get out of there!”
“Are you blatantly ignoring your radar? Enemy aircraft is closing fast and you are the only member of the invasion team who hasn’t been made. If you land right now, you’re gonna get shit-canned.”
Patrick still began to descend. Down below, the Seraph was drawing closer to its doom.
“We don’t have a choice!”
“This mission goes beyond that team! You are flying an AEF aircraft, and if it is identified, the repercussions are immeasurable! You will wait till they have a clear LZ before extraction.”
“Sir, that is bullshit!” Patrick snapped.
“The AEF must maintain a status of plausible deniability. These orders come from people higher than me, soldier. If you disobey this order you run the risk of being declared fugitives. Maybe worse.”
Everyone heard the subtle remorse in Ominic’s voice. For him, duty overruled emotion and he would not be swayed.
“We’ll get clear, Pat,” Saskia cut in confidently. “I’ll head for a secure rendezvous point in Salamanca or even Carrollton if I have to. All I need you to do is to stay posted, sir.”
There was silence on the other end.
“Okay, I’ll be waiting. Good luck,” Pat replied.
“Thank you, sir,” Saskia said.
Alex felt renewed optimism now, thanks to the Tremblay sister.
“Saskia, the Seraph has a drone mode so I can drive it from here. I believe it may come in handy.”
“What? You don’t like my driving?”
“On the contrary, I’m still rusty at stick. What I’m saying is, get clear and dump the Seraph. Proceed to a proper rendezvous point while I distract the fuckers. If we pull this off, Pat can get you the hell out of there.”
“I love it, sir. Diverting onto Newton Street.”
Newton Street was a lonely dirt road that wound through much of Rock City State Forest and eventually led to Salamanca. Driving down it would be quicker than relying on the cover of the woods. Besides, search lights from their Red House pursuers were already poking through the trees. Let’s rough ‘em up a little. Saskia began to pull left, right at the convoy itself.
The Seraph leaped out of the forest onto the road, knocking a UNR Humvee on its side. The others behind Saskia hit the brakes to avoid a pileup, the gunners cocking their weapons. The Seraph took off before they could do much, not that it mattered. Up ahead a dense road block awaited.
Not only were there concrete road barriers, there were also more UNR Humvees behind them, in essence forming a two-layered dam. As if that wasn’t enough, UNR soldiers were laying down spike strips.
The Salamanca force, no doubt, Saskia thought. Either they had moved incredibly fast or they’d played them for fools.
“Can we get through that?” Halsey asked as he finally spoke.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to see,” Saskia said as her eyes narrowed.
The Seraph fired two missiles at the blockade, causing great damage and sending soldiers flying. Right as they got to the spike strips, the Seraph hit max speed and went into a jump. Its excelled momentum proved sufficient to go clean through the rubble of the barriers as it landed, and the flaming Humvees were easily pushed aside.
Saskia felt her eyes watering, centering herself.
“Kurt would’ve loved that,” she managed to say as she smiled.
Now they were driving down a residential neighborhood. There were still UNR patrol, but far less. They don’t want a war in civvie front yards, Saskia realized.
***
“Unit 21 was confirmed at the site?” Venloran asked.
“Yes, sir, our men are in pursuit of the unidentified vehicle. There was only one getaway vehicle that we know of,” Kearney reported.
“And Salamanca’s curfew order?”
“It went smoothly. Hopefully, the city itself isn’t laid to waste during this operation of yours.”
“They’re on the run, Kearney. The end is upon them and they know it.”
Their view was from Humvee cams behind the tank-like target. Big but fast, this new vehicle of theirs will prove difficult to put down, the Chancellor acknowledged. Halsey won’t let them harm civilians in their attempted escape. Luck is on our side.
***
The streets of Salamanca were empty, not a soul in sight. The lights from windows and streetlights assured them this was no dead city. There were no blockades to speak of, and for a moment Saskia believed they could bring the Seraph to a stop and get on with the plan. Park it behind a house and make for the tallest building. It wasn’t going to be that simple, not by a long shot.
A bright light shined down on them from the dark sky, and it followed them without end.
“Motherfucker,” Saskia muttered.
From a helicopter or something like one, but she refused to open fire in a residential neighborhood.
“Alex, I got a shithawk on my ass. Where’s the best to dump it?’
“Head for Wildwood Avenue.”
The Seraph flew down Main Street. UNR soldiers atop Salamanca Mall Antiques watched as it passed by. From their perspective topside, UNR Humvees weren’t far behind but kept their distance. It was the Bell Boeing V-26 Osprey taking the charge now.
Saskia made a hard left onto Wildwood, ramming into a big rig and knocking it on its side. On the left side of the road were businesses and on the right was the tree-lined Allegheny River. The Osprey above began to unload with its GAU-17 belly-mounted minigun. The bullets hit their mark but had no effect. The soldiers within could barely even hear them connect in their haven.
Observing the strange vehicle continuing undeterred, the pilot above decided to go with the heavier ordnance. The Osprey fired a missile from a launcher on top of it.
The screen inside the Seraph instantly warned Saskia of the incoming threat. She hit the button for the secondary engine in the rear.
All around her the trees and buildings became a blur. On the winding road, this extreme speed was dangerous. One wrong turn and they could end up plowing into a building or diving into the Allegheny. Thanks to that burst of speed, though, the missile hit only asphalt.
Saskia released her hold on the button, immediately slowing down. The trees were recognizable again, as well as the Salamanca Public Library they’d just passed.
“Take that shithead out!” yelled Saskia.
“On it!” Noah said.
The trigger mechanism lowered from the ceiling, complete with a scope connected to a camera outside. All of this removed the dangers
of the gunner being exposed and allowed Noah to aim in relative comfort.
The Osprey caught up easily enough, but it was now close enough to make the shot an easy one. A horde of bullets tore apart the machine almost instantly and on Noah’s infrared scope the aircraft brightened like a star before it crashed behind them in a fireball. The pursuing vehicles screeched to a halt.
In the clouds, Pat continued to observe on his radar screen. He saw that their window of opportunity was already beginning to close. They’d taken down one UNR aircraft, but almost a dozen more were already circling the city. A cluster of smaller signals was also approaching and there were far more than a dozen of these.
“Make the drop soon!” he advised. “They got air support converging all around the city.”
Saskia looked at her GPS. Up ahead, there was a small pocket of forest between Wildwood and Linwood Avenue. It would have to do.
“All right, everybody, prep your gear and get ready to ditch!” she said.
“Hold up!” Noah protested. “We got another one comin’ up on our ass!”
“We can’t wait any longer!” Saskia said. “Sergeant, what do we do?”
Gabriella heard the fear in her voice. Noah hid it only slightly better, but his sweat told her enough. Being in charge of a team makes you accountable. It’s your duty to prep them all you can and then see them off. The best commanders strive to ensure as many of their soldiers as possible make it back.
“Get off that turret, Noah,” she said as she stood. “I’ll keep up the suppressing fire.”
Noah hesitated, a lost look on his face. The sergeant reacted with anger.
“Sit. Down.”
Noah obeyed, strapping himself back in. Something inside of Will twisted and he looked at Joe. Halsey looked sick, but Gabriella was in charge. He was going to respect that apparently. If not him, then me!
“Gabby, no, let me do it!” Will protested.
She ignored him and pressed down on the trigger. A beeline of bullets zipped past the Osprey and struck the corner of a building, the machine balancing itself again.
“Keep your distance, Zero,” warned a fellow UNR pilot on the intercom. “We’re bringing the heat as we speak.”
“Copy that, Thunder. Get them assholes good.”
Thunder was an AC-130U gunship that flew alongside the Allegheny as well, only much higher. It was much older than any of the tech in this fight, but it remained in service because it still excelled at its job: dropping devastating shits on tanks and or armored vehicles.
“Let ’em have it!” the pilot ordered.
The operators went with the M102 105mm Howitzer. They aimed right at the minigun on top of their target.
“Firing round one.”
The shell hit the Seraph with pinpoint accuracy, and the force knocked Gabby to the floor. Will managed to pull her up and began to buckle her harness.
Damaged and bleeding a trail of smoke as it went, the Seraph now diverted from the river and continued up Wildwood.
“We’ve been hit, I repeat, we’ve been—”
Another shot pounded the Seraph, this time breaching the interior as everyone shut their eyes and their ears popped along with the loud bang. Saskia lost control of the vehicle.
The Seraph ran right through the First Nations Convenience Store, luckily avoiding the gas pumps themselves. The small shop was reduced to rubble.
Saskia saw a house right in her sights. At their speed, they would decimate the first floor and bring down the second story along with it. Just one more turn for me, baby, come on!
The soldier managed to twist away from the home, driving through a vacant lot before going through a fence and into a flood channel. The Seraph slammed into the concrete wall on the other side and then slid down the sloped surface. It hit the bottom hard enough to knock a wheel off. The Seraph was down and out.
From their vantage point, all Alex and Bri could see was pouring smoke and sparks. They could also hear the approaching vehicles. Bri held her breath, her hand squeezing tightly on Alex’s shoulder. At first, he was too frightened to contact them, too fearful of the answer. But he knew he had to.
Blood was everywhere, wasting onto the floor. Will’s eye snapped open, finding the eerie quiet all too familiar. Yes, he’d been in this situation before. The day death had claimed his beloved for its own amusement, and him as well. But this time there was a voice. Before giving into faith and angels, he knew it was Alex and the distortion was because his intercom had been crushed to bits against his head and the Seraph’s inner wall. Will picked himself up off the floor, remembering now that in his mad dash to secure Gabby, he had failed to seat himself.
Will also found he couldn’t see a damn thing. The entire vehicle was clogged with a thick black smoke, and he felt around for the door area.
Of course, just my luck, jammed. Damn handle wouldn’t budge, not even with his strength, lest he rip it off, which would still leave them inside. If this had been two decades ago, back in that hell, Will’s lungs would’ve been suffocated within minutes of inhaling all that smoke. Times had changed. He began to viciously kick the door, the first one landing a huge dent in the material and by the third it was crumpled into an ugly face. With the fourth, the bastard flew off and the smoke poured out.
Will stepped out of the vehicle, finally regaining visibility. Following right behind him was Hamza, though he didn’t exactly step out of the vehicle. It was more along the lines of a flopping fish, choking and gasping for air. At the very least, they’d crashed only two yards from a tunnel entrance. It was a large, ominous, gaping hole in the concrete, but sanctuary it would be. Hamza, in spite of this, didn’t move a muscle. Will turned to find out why.
A convoy of soldiers and UNR vehicles had gathered up on the ledge, all aiming down at them. The spotlight from now multiple Ospreys cast light all around them.
Suddenly, a missile flew down at one of the Humvees and the explosion was big enough to consume two more and the soldiers standing next to them. Joining in the frenzy were a duo of missiles from the rear of the Seraph, striking two Ospreys. The UNR forces pulled back and their focus went to the sky. An aircraft few of them recognized roared as it swooped in. All fire was now directed at the interloper.
Patrick blazed away with the twin guns on the Peregrine’s nose, decimating another Humvee before he pulled up sharply. The other Ospreys nearby aimed their lights at the fleeing aircraft.
“A Peregrine?” the pilot of Zero said in stupor. “It’s a Peregrine! We need backup ASAP!”
“Incoming.”
Patrick headed upward to seek cover but the bright lights stayed on him and around him. He saw on the radar the flock of smaller signals were now all headed toward him. Their radars would be useless, but they had their eyes.
He wouldn’t be able to land and get them without inviting a firestorm on their heads, but he’d crafted an opening. Sometimes an opening is the best you can give, Patrick recounted. Already bullets were zipping by around him. He’d flown plenty of times and all kinds of aircraft, but he’d never been in the theater of aerial combat. I hope you’re watching, Ty.
***
Will looked inside to see Saskia, head bloody but all the same at the controls, slamming her fist on the damaged screen. The cyborg didn’t even bother for consent and yanked her out of the vehicle. She seemed unsure on her feet for a moment, taking off her helmet and throwing it to the ground. Luckily, Hamza grabbed her next, motioning her toward the tunnel.
“Come on, Saskia,” Hamza coaxed.
“Make sure… make sure, you get them out...” she fumbled.
Will poked inside again, most of the soldiers vacating on their own. He made out two left. It was Gabby and Joe, the sergeant doing her best to get him out of his seat. Every effort of hers failed to get him free.
“His belt’s stuck,” she explained as she kept on.
Will was instead looking at the metal in Halsey’s side. It didn’t appear large, but the blood and pain
on his face told Will enough.
“Will, help me!” Gabby yelled.
Will snapped to and ripped the harness off effortlessly. Halsey stood, but not without wincing from his agony. He held his side but was able to make it out of the Seraph on his own, Gabby and Will sticking close.
By now, the rest of the troops were out and already were heading for the tunnel. Halsey struggled to stand on his own any longer and Will caught him before he fell. Even with Joe’s condition, Will caught Gabriella heading back toward the Seraph.
“Watch their backs,” she commanded. Will looked at her with concern and then obeyed.
Gabby could now fully see the beating the Seraph had taken for them. Its hull was blown open at the top in a slit not quite big enough for a human to slip through. The jagged metal and wires made it appear as if a scavenger had ripped open a carcass and had its fill.
On the floor was a pulse rifle and Gabby slung it on her back. She also spotted something else: the self-destruct module. In the frantic chase, it must’ve slipped from her pocket and she grabbed it. She couldn’t help but notice the blood was spreading, reaching her boots. She stepped closer, only to find the person who’d truly taken the brunt of the blast.
Noah lay there, large shards of metal quite like the one Halsey had in his side embedded in his stomach, chest, and a decent-sized one had stabbed into his throat. To her shock, he was still alive; his body furious with the attempt to keep going, though his lungs were obviously choking on his own blood. His eyes settled on Gabriella, and she read them easily.
The sergeant sat down next to her soldier. She wished there was time to administer morphine. Time to say a prayer or even thank him. They’d been out of time from the start of the mission.
Gabriella shut his eyes and fired two shots to Noah’s chest. His breathing ceased and a tear fell to his cheek. The next few moments were surreal to her, almost out of body. She made it to the tunnel amidst yells to “STOP” and gunfire. She even did as Alex had ordered and kissed the Seraph goodbye.
She only came back to the real world when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Gabriella stopped staring at her boots and saw Will looking at her.
“Gabby, are you okay?” he asked.
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