'Do you need help with Andrews?' a ping flashed across my eyelid. It was a message from Kal. My contacts were displaying the same HUD information I would have had inside a combat suit or visor. Another benefit of being a part of Squad 13, we were given some of the most maneuverable - aerobatic equipment. Half the time I ran on the battlefield I felt like I was naked, my exo-suit was made from a highly flexible strong material. It wouldn't be strong enough though. As far from Andews as I was and with the rifles we were using he could pierce my armor anywhere, especially since I knew - we both knew - we had armor piercing rounds (that had been how I shot Jack in the first place).
30 seconds left.
'Django,' I pinged him back in reply. It was a coded message. Kal and I had spent quite a lot of time together and one of the few fun things we had liked to do was leave each other messages to figure out. We kind of had our own secret language. I'm sure anyone at the Hegemony would be able to decode it but they wouldn't have the time, that was the last thought on my mind. In a way it was a childish game we played but then again the two of us together were very childish. We even spent days held up in at least one or both of our apartments chasing each other around with soft air guns and confetti. Some days we would do nothing but cuddle and cook, others we would sail. I loved sailing. Sailing had been one of the few things Kal had shown me that made my mind feel at ease.
20 seconds left.
The time to make a move was now.
The slave had risen to kill the master.
I had been suppressing my childhood letting my anger for the world guide me as I fought my way through basic and off-world training. I had hidden my true feelings underneath and joined the system which had killed my mother.
Log - 20
10 seconds left.
Andrews stands and begins firing on the kids hiding inside the alley. That bastard. He was diverting my attention. He had made the first move against those that I had stood to protect. If he killed them Jack's death, my death, it would all be meaningless. Squad 13 truly was made from the worst mankind had to offer. How the hell were each of us allowed to walk the streets? I couldn't live with letting these people die and now a member of my own team had begun killing them before our time had even come to an end. Maybe Andrews knew he was done for either way. Maybe he just wanted to take all of us down with him as the two of us missed our extraction. He could have called off the strike, the drone ship would still be there to pick us up, he could have made an excuse to Reynolds just as I had planned saying that we had found valuable intel on Section 17. Bastard. Andrews. He had to do things his own way.
0 seconds left.
I shot Andrews in the forehead. He died far quicker a death then he deserved. He killed two of the eight kids (I finally counted) I had been trying to protect but it was too late. Kal, Cillian, Mizuki, Tusk had already made there way to the dropship and they were taking off. I received a ping from Kal 'get underground now, they are using fusion missiles not nuclear, if you can get six to eight feet underground or inside a shelter you can survive this, we will come for you once the fog clears'. The 'fog clears' another cryptic message. I had forgotten that Reynolds had been watching my every move via the same contacts I used to talk to my team. He had access to everyones visions. He could practically tell what we were feeling based on our pulse not to mention he was monitoring us via the other implants we had. I think I must have had twelve total at this point. Too many to name. I was just as much a cyborg as these kids though no one could tell.
I could see my team flying away and the shuttle that was coming to burn this city to the ground just as I received the ping that I was now in charge of Squad 13.
Log - 21
"Enjoying your flight?" Miguel's voice crept into my ear. It was an awkward moment but Kal - I mean Jake - quickly turned away when he realized what was going on. He didn't let on enough that I thought Miguel would be able to tell he knew about him but he did make it clear that he wanted no part of me while I had someone else's voice inside my head. I didn't blame him. I ignored Miguel's voice thinking that he was just trying to mess with me now. He knew exactly what I had been doing and knew it would make no sense for me to talk to him now - not unless he asked me to kill Jake first. He did no such thing but rather just started laughing telling me about how some time ago he had been a freedom fighter, that he had watched a city burn because of the Hegemony. I thought about Area 5. So many events from so long ago, so many echoes throughout my head.
We only had 45 minutes left until we were to enter the atmosphere. I was looking forward to it. Finally, I had, some hope that this trip wouldn't end with my head on a stick. I felt safe with Jake, safer then I had been for awhile, at least since I woke up... no, maybe since before that. I haven't felt safe in a long time if I ever felt safe at all.
Jake was putting his clothes on, his PDA rang letting us know that we would need to take our seats soon. His PDA reminded me of an alarm clock I use to have. I was so bad at getting up in the morning I was always hitting 'snooze'. I think most days when I wasn't on a mission I would sleep until noon. Either way, any alarm clock I had I made sure I set it an hour before I had to wake up that way I could hit the 'snooze' button a minimum of four times. Sure, it might have been better to just sleep in that whole extra hour but there was something comforting about laying in bed, in and out of consciousness, from one altered state to another. I wish 'stasis' had been something like that.
I wish that I had been in that altered state of mind. My feeling of being safe was quickly taken away as a man dressed in military armor pried open the bathroom door and grabbed Jake placing a gun against his head. He ordered me back to my seat and as I grabbed my clothes fumbling around falling to the ground I saw that he wasn't alone. The guards that were on board had been killed and everyone was sitting in their seats in a panic. We weren't landing, the shuttle had begun drifting in orbit around the planet. By the look of things, we wouldn't be landing anytime soon. The gun toting guard threw Jake to the floor beside me and screamed for the two of us to return to our seats. Miguel's voice played in my ear, "things are about to get interesting now, I haven't told them about you, I suspect if you want to fulfill your mission you are just going to have to play along with this little game. Tell me, Elyse, how do you feel about space pirates?"
Log - 22
"I asked are you enjoying your flight? Miguel's voice again in my ear. I felt like screaming. Jake looked up at me from the ground. I could see it in his eyes. I had seen that look far too many times now. If there was a God he abandoned me a long time ago. Deep inside my chest, I felt my heart begin to race. Long ago I had an implant that would give me small boosts of adrenaline. Most of them I had removed at this point in my career or replaced with ones off the black market. Ones that weren't military, that couldn't be hacked, detected, or monitored by anyone but myself. This was my own heart beat. I had somehow or another started developing feelings for Jake. Perhaps it was some kind of sick joke life was playing on me. He was nothing but a dog. Whatever it was I felt it didn't stick very long.
"Make an example, show them we're serious," said one of the pirates. I use that word lightly. They were terrorists being controlled by Miguel not unlike myself however they were following him voluntarily. However blind they were to what he was actually planning.
Bang. The sound echoed throughout the inside of the ship's hull. Before I knew what I was doing I had the pirate on the ground and began pushing my fingers through his eyes. Another pirate, the one that had given him the order had taken a step back. I shocked him just long enough to grab the gun from the ground. I killed him and another three rows back before the ship went dead silent. Another pirate was hiding behind the doorway to the cockpit. I could see his shadow on the other side of the wall. He was holding a rifle. If he was smart he would have fired and killed everyone in sight. Maybe I would have been lucky and come out unscathed but chances are he would have hit me one way or another.
When the pirate move
d around the corner it only took a single shot. He was slow. Probably a soldier straight from the academy. That or some refugee Miguel had just handed a gun. Did they really think they could make a difference hijacking this shuttle?
Seeing Jake's lifeless body on the ground sent chills down my spine.
I spit near his forehead and wiped away the single tear I had begun to cry.
At the very least he had delivered Reynolds message to me and given me hope.
"Great job love," his voice whispered softly into my ear like a snake hissing in the shadows. "Tell me you didn't enjoy that?" he continued, "I picked them especially for you, I thought for sure that would last a little longer. Seems I should have more faith in you."
"So I passed your fucking test then?" I said as cold as I could.
"Unfortunately yes. I only wish you could have heard their sweet martian accents, you see each one of those so called pirates had been locked up in cold storage hand picked by one of my closest. Refugees from Pergonae-3 I believe. Shithole to live in so I have heard. They begged me to let them onboard. All I asked was that they hijack a shuttle and land it on the other side of Shear." Miguel was trying hard to hit a chord. He knew more about me than I wanted him too and he was planning to use as much of it against me as possible.
"When I become king you'll make a good concubine," he said.
More words to make me sick. I wanted to talk back but no matter what I said I knew that was exactly what he was looking for. He wanted my reaction. He wanted my anger, my rage, my hate to surface. He was getting his kicks from it. Every time I said I was going to kill him I might as well have been getting down on my knees. Miguel was a monster. Worst than me. Worst than Cain. Worst than Reynolds even.
Log - 23
The first time I lost hope. The bombs fell around me. I wasn't fast enough to get everyone underground. The three that followed me began to die slowly after as a result of the EMP blast that followed. Their augmented hearts and lungs stopped working as their mechanical parts shut down. Even my own implants shut down. For the first time in years I was more human then I had ever been. Cut off. Alone. My team had taken off and deserted me. Bastards knew I was down below but they dropped the bombs anyway. Reynolds. In the back of my mind I knew he had been watching. Somehow yet he had still made me commanding officer of Squad 13.
The rescue party came three days later. It was Kal that had convinced them to finally come back for me. He argued that I was an asset, worth more alive then down in the dust. When the chopper landed I was burying the last child. I didn't know any of their names nor did I know if there was any family to contact. I had no choice but to leave their graves unmarked. They were the forgotten. Forgotten by everyone but me.
___________________
"You know I love the sound of your silence," Miguel said. He was still talking. Why the hell was he still talking? What more could he say or want from me? He had a collar around my neck. I was his slave. He could have made me bark like a dog if he wanted. It made me cringe. No I would have rather had my head blown off. He knew he could push me one way but not the other. Nothing he was having me do was something I had never done before.
"Talk to me Elyse, pretty please," he said. For a moment there was a change in his tone. Rather then a snake he sounded like some less sinister and repulsive creature.
"Tell me a story Elyse, you know, only about five more minutes till your ship breaks orbit and you land," he was asking again.
Five minutes. Five minutes and I would be unhinged. Five minutes and Reynolds message would give me the answer I needed to be set free. Five minutes and I would be the one in control just as I should have always been. Miguel wants to hear a story. I could make something up on the spot. That would be easy. "Truth or fiction?" I asked. "I already know all I need to know about you, let us see how your imagination works. Tell me a fictitious tale. Something random, Something I might read to a child," he said.
"I could tell you about Captain Strider who served onboard the UNS Argyll, or King Neptune and his battle against the Horge to re-energivz the nano sphere.
"Those sound like really horrid holos," said Miguel, "be creative, tell me something from you, from the bottom of your mind. What kind of creatures can you create?" I thought for a moment. I didn't quite understand what kind of trickery Miguel was trying to pull. This had been the most random conversation I had had in years. The last person that talked to me in this way was Kal and that was in bed late at night and the two of us were usually half drunk, half asleep, and always naked. Perhaps that was his goal. To stir up some small talk and make me think about the way I use to be. The person I was when I wasn't holding a gun to someones head. He was breaking me down bit by bit.
I began, "Once upon a time in a time after leading the tiny planet Mars, a group of trolls fly toward a distant speck. The speck gradually resolved into tiny space abbey. The trolls begin sharing their martian secrets with the surrounding alien populations. Civil war strikes the galaxy which is ruled by Chad Zeus, an industrial alien capable of theft and assassination. Terrified the handsome zombie known as Chantel Chen flees the empire with her protector. They head for Liverpool in New New England on the planet Epsilon Eridani. When they finally arrive a fight breaks out and Chen uses a spoon to kill Chad Zues and make her escape when sudden;y her protector encounters a tribe of witches."
"Stop. Right there," said Miguel.
"Are you not enjoying the story?" I said in a sarcastic tone.
"Such bullshit," he said. For a moment I wondered if this was it. Miguel had decided to kill me on account of my horrid storytelling. (I may have said I was a good liar but I was not in fact good at telling fairy tales).
"You said she makes her escape with a spoon? Impossible. I call bullshit," he said.
"Yes a spoon," I said.
"I should kill you right now and save future generations from your imagination," said Miguel. I prepared myself. I was nearly holding my breath before I realized five minutes had passed. There was a delay in Miguel's voice. A small white noise was audible through my earpiece. The moment had come. Had Jake not told me I would have barely have noticed. We were dropping out of orbit and this was my chance. Escape.
Turbulence. Of course something was going to go wrong.
"Ionize the hydrogen fuel tank or we are going to crash!" yelled the pilot from the front of the shuttle. Was he talking to me? I was the only one still standing.
"You, the chick with gun, your the closest to the back there is an electrical invariance in the conduits attached to the tank and if you don't ionize it with the thrust assembly the entire compressor could destabilize!"
"How the fuck do I do any of that?" I shouted back.
"Take out the boson microfilament inside your gun and plug it into the back flow regulators. Inside the assembly. You'll see the burnt out one inside. That will ionize the fuel tank and we'll stabilize. If not we're going to go into free fall soon as we hit break through the atmosphere.
No time now. I had to make a choice. Listen to Reynolds message and de-activate my collar and risk going into free fall or save the ship and the passengers onboard only to be Miguel's lap dog.
Log - 24
When I was a little girl I would stare up at the stars and wonder what was out there. Were they watching us? Waiting? We were caught in a Cold War with the Skrav. Animals so different from us we could only guess their next move. Years ago we anticipated their arrival and we cut away their daggers as they pierced our skies.
History will tell you we were united. Truth was the human race had never drifted so far apart. Half the population watched through eyewear and holos as the military fought the Skrav that fled to the ground. I trained on the simulations they built. To me all the enemy were Skrav. It was burned into the back of my mind. Anything not human, anyone not on my side was Skrav.
For years I trained to be the best but I was lost. We were told the threat was out there among the stars but yet I was hunting my own.
Squad 13 broke me and yet I stayed. I was under an illusion. Section 17 was the Skrav to me and I would end them. It was a secret war we fought in the shadows under the corporations that controlled the world. After Area 5 everything changed. The Aliens had faces but no names. I kept my heart hidden and let my mind race. I was under contract and it would take years to break away.
Slen offered me something different. A job I couldn't refuse. I had finally made my way but I was struggling to survive. I still remember that last sunset I saw on Earth. I had just finished a small job and I was looking over the details Slen's organization had sent me. Delivered to me in a secure message. I can still remember the clouds draped behind the power lines as I sat with my back against a small ship. The orange and blue glow that made the horizon look like a watercolor painting. I had no idea that would be the last time I would feel the soil of Earth.
Never again would I see a sunset so beautiful.
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