“Yeah, yodelling, you haven’t heard of yodelling? It was this sort of… singing that people used to communicate over long distances with.”
I tilted my head in confusion, “But… isn’t that why we have radios? Shouting just seems like a really good way to give away your position.”
“Well…” he trailed off as he tried to think of a point that could use to argue mine, before having his confident smile return, “We don’t have radios right now, do we?”
I shook my head, “No, that’s true, but that’s just because our Field Master’s crazy.” I said before starting toward the tree.
“I thought you liked Garrett?”
“Yeah I do, as a person, but as far as teaching methods go I must say I’m not all that impressed, especially considering that we’ve only been trained for a relatively short time and he’s throwing us in a combat-op.”
“So you think that this is real? Not a sim?”
He was clearly nervous in his own way, not because he had a tremor in his voice, nothing that obvious, he just wasn’t the kind of person to do that. However, he also wasn’t the type to ask those sorts of questions unless he was genuinely uncertain, which I’m pretty sure was as close to nervous as he could get.
“I don’t know what I think,” I said, deciding that I could trust him not to freak out, “all I know is I’m going to act as if it is until proven otherwise. Best way to stay alive.”
We continued on in silence for a while, and Xario eventually found a stick of his own, but then we saw the slightest flash of white hair and tracked it along the tree line until a very clearly pissed off de-geared Juno came stomping out the other side, “Took you guys long enough. I’ve been waiting here for ages!”
“Good to see you too,” Xario said with a little laugh, “you seen Jurol around?”
She sighed tiredly and shook her head, “No. I thought you guys’d find him. Speaking of which, how’s our team leader doing?” she asked with surprisingly little condescension as she turned her attention to me.
“I’m holding up,” I said with a smile, “I hope you know I wasn’t trying to be nasty when we were still on the ship. I just wanted to get through Garrett’s test.”
“You think that was a test?” Xario asked, “Because from where I was sitting it seemed to be straight up jealousy.”
“That’s what I think as well, I think he wanted to see how we, the ones who all want to be the best, reacted to having someone appointed team leader. I don’t think it actually means anything, and I’m sure we’ll all get a chance to try it out.”
Juno still seemed unconvinced, but the fact that I was willing to say it clearly made her feel a bit better, “Alright, if you say so. What has been your plan so far sir?”
I let my smile broaden then pointed to the next landmark Xario and I had in our path, “We’ve been gridding for a while, and I think we’ve got ourselves some solid landmarks for north, south, east, and west.”
“Are they all visible from the centre of your grid?” Juno asked respectfully.
I nodded, “There’s a large tree to the south, biggest one we’ve seen so far, a few felled ones to the east that form a sort of X shape, a fairly sizable boulder to the west, and” I said, pointing in the direction we’d been heading, “your parachute.”
Juno threw a confused look our way then turned to see what we were talking about, “Would you look at that. That’s not my chute.” she said a bit too nonchalantly for my taste.
“What do mean that’s not your chute?” I asked as I started to break into a jog toward it, “Why didn’t you check it out?”
“Because I couldn’t see it from where I was, could I? After Garrett dropped me out of the ship I figured he’d tell you to come find the rest of us. Besides, wandering around the woods is a real good way to get lost.”
I hid an annoyed groan as we ducked through a few more trees and branches before coming to a grinding halt when we found the tree that had the parachute hung up in it.
“Oh…” Juno said in an almost sad way, “do you think he’s dead?” she asked, regarding the still suited Jurol propped up against the base of the tree.
I didn’t particularly want to do it, checking the body of a fallen friend was something I’d had to do before of course, but never someone like Jurol, nor anyone as young as him. However being leader didn’t mean that I got to choose what things I wanted to take responsibility for.
So, with a silent sigh, I handed my club to Xario and made my way over to my friend in his heavily damaged and still slightly smoking suit.
I crouched down next to Jurol’s body and went to remove his helmet to check for a pulse, but right as my hand went to touch it, electricity arced from the suit’s neck and into my fingertip, which I pulled away as if it hurt even though it barely tickled as far as electrocution went.
“I can’t touch the suit, it’s too dangerous.” I said as I spun to face the others, maintaining my crouched position, “What do you think I should do?”
The two just made thinking faces until Juno finally snapped her fingers and pointed at Jurol’s helmet, “If he’s breathing it’ll fog up his helmet.”
I nodded and turned back around. Again, I really didn’t want to touch the suit, but that was looking like an eventuality what with the way his head was slumped over onto his chest. To be perfectly honest I did consider using a stick, only just stopping myself from asking for one when I realised how inappropriate it would be.
It took some serious contorting, though I did manage to get my head in such a way that I could see his visor without touching his body. I waited there for a good ten seconds, but not even the smallest amount of breath showed up on the inside of his visor, and his chest was definitely not moving.
I got back up, dusted myself off, made sure I wasn’t going to start crying, and turned to face the others, shaking my head at the same time.
Xario was hit the hardest, his face drooping as soon as I’d started turning around, but Juno was by no means alright, her normal mask for her emotions slipping for just a second.
“He was a fine soldier,” I said, feeling that it was my place to say something, “and a friend to us all, and I promise that when this mission is said and done I’m going to make sure Garrett knows what happens when he kills one of our friends. Fall out.”
Then, right as we were about to walk off, there was a huge gasp from behind us followed swiftly by, “You arseholes were just going to leave me here!?”
I spun around to see the ‘dead’ Private clambering to his feet, “How in the Hells are you alive?” I asked in genuine shock.
“No thanks to you!” Jurol growled back.
I heard Juno snigger behind me and realised I needed to reaffirm my command, “You’ll keep that tongue in your mouth Private, or I swear I’ll rip it out.” I said slowly, each word measured as a series of events to come rather than a simple threat.
Felt really quite weird to say that right after saying how great he was and how he was my friend, but I digress.
His head shrunk back into his body and he mumbled something about apologies and then shut up.
Despite the fact that Juno had laughed a little, something I’d normally have snapped about, she’d been following my orders and hadn’t tried to fight me on anything I’d said, yet, so I figured that that earned her a pass.
“What were you doing anyway? Holding your breath like that?” I asked, confident that I had reinforced the fact I was in charge and nothing was going to mess with that.
“I wasn’t. Promise.” he said meekly, “I think the pack must’ve done something to me. I was fine, and everything worked properly, but then the second I hit the ground I feel like I’ve stuck my fingers in an outlet.”
“Do that a lot back home Daniels?” Juno asked snidely.
“Shut it Rothbear,” I snapped, “what I said to him goes double for you.”
“So… you’ll rip out my tongue twice? Ow! Why’d you do that?” she whined after Xario clap
ped the back of her head.
“You’re being rude.” he said almost flirtingly, “And to think you’d been doing so well.”
“You said you were electrocuted?” I asked before anyone else could interrupt Jurol’s story and further fill my head with the disturbing imagery of Juno one day falling for Xario’s charm.
Jurol nodded, “Yeah, it was the weirdest thing, and I swear I didn’t mess with the packs or anything.” he said, his technological antics over the course of our training having led to a ban on him touching any of our stuff, or anything we had the potential to touch.
I furrowed my brow, “Yeah, well, I’m starting to think I should’ve had you have a look at them.”
I knew full well that it was just another test made by Garrett, see how we react when we lose a brother in arms, or maybe he just wanted us to be desensitised to the idea that our friends could one day die not in battle, but in some random accident.
Whatever it was, it made me concerned for my safety, but also damn confident that I had the best teacher the Commonwealth had to offer.
An Annoying Weapon
Half hour dragged by and the forest had taken on a slightly fainter blue light, indicating that true dawn wasn’t far behind, before Juno decided she’d try her hand at complaining, “They couldn’t have dropped us closer to the facility? I mean really? How much harder could it have been to at least point us in the right direction?”
“There it is!” Xario shouted before I could make fun of Juno.
It was hard to see through the dense forest, of course, but there it was, clear as day, the facility. There was no way to know for sure that it was the one that Garrett told us about, but I for one was grateful to see signs of civilisation.
“Good spottin’,” I heard our Field Master say from behind us, “but you had all best get better at watchin’ your six.”
I glared at Juno for a second, who decided that it wasn’t her fault that she hadn’t followed the one real order I’d specifically given to her, “Sorry sir, my fault. I should’ve been making sure my squad was doing the right thing.”
“Nah, you’re doin’ fine. Good job on not touchin’ Jurol by the way, was half expectin’ you to have your first real emotional outburst and try and hug him. That would’ve been a Hell of a kick in the teeth for you and your team…”
I didn’t like the sound of that, or the fact that he’d put me in that situation, but before I could ask exactly what would’ve happened he jumped onto his next topic, “So, team leader, what’s your plan from here?”
Kind of wished he hadn’t asked me that just yet, I was still working on it. Luckily him asking me forced me to just start speaking, “I think we should skirt around the facility, look for any guards that might be posted, then meet back here.”
“Works for me,” Garrett said after a few seconds of contemplation, “let’s see how it turns out.”
I was about to divide us into pairs when Juno decided to get snarky, “Where are the guns?”
Garret gave her a confused look, “What guns?”
“You said you’d drop down guns when we reached the facility.”
“Aah… Yes, I think you misheard me June-bear, I said I’d drop down weapons, which I’m more than happy to provide, as long as it’s alright with the team leader.”
I waited expectantly, then realised he was waiting for me to give him the go ahead, “Oh, right, yes. Yes, do that.”
Garrett smiled and nodded, “Right then, there are six guards patrolling the perimeter of the facility, and they’ve all got guns.”
“… And our weapons are… where?” I asked concernedly.
“Well that’s your weapon, knowledge. Most would say that’s cheatin’, but I like to think of it as extracurricular learnin’.”
Aaand my adoration for him was gone again. Don’t get me wrong, I still thought he was one of the best teachers in the Commonwealth, but he was really starting to tick me off.
“Alright then squad,” I said, successfully hiding my bitterness, “Jurol with me on the right, Xario and Juno go around the left. Find those six guards and meet up on the other side of the facility.”
Juno was clearly displeased with the fact that I hadn’t taken the time to berate Garrett, I was a little disappointed with it myself, but I wanted to believe that it was all a very well thought out training exercise and that we weren’t about to get shot in the face.
Naïve is what I think they call that.
Jurol and I proved to be an effective pairing, neither one of us wanting or needing to engage in conversation, me keeping an eye on the very much armed Federation soldiers in their blue and grey fatigues that were on patrol, and him eyeing off each of the three power boxes around the facility.
I knew enough about them to know that they wouldn’t do anything to compromise the security of the building, based on the fact that they were on the outside and in the open, but also that they’d have to do something that would be mildly annoying for the guards.
It only took us another three minutes to circle around, where we were left on our own for a good five minutes before the others showed up.
I almost asked them what took them so long, but I decided that it was either mission important and they’d tell me soon enough anyway, or it was not and I didn’t want to hear about it.
“How many on your side?” I asked as we laid on our bellies and did our best to blend with the dead leaves.
“Two, they were talking to each other on the far corner, you?”
“Four,” I whispered as one of the guards gazes passed by us, “all fairly spaced out around the facility. Just like Garrett said.”
“Speaking of which, where is he?”
It was a fair question for Jurol to ask, I’d figured he’d have met us where we were and we’d have been able to get some more intel out of him, but I guess I figured wrong.
“Probably back at the shuttle. Anyway, tell everyone your plan.” I said almost enthusiastically.
To be fair, it was a pretty great plan.
Jurol looked around at the rest of us somewhat nervously before swallowing a lump the size of an orange and nodded, “Well I was thinkin-”
“Sounds stupid.” Juno mocked.
“Shut it!” I barked as quietly as I could.
“What? I’m playfully disarming him, makes him more confident.”
“No it doesn’t, let him talk.”
We shared a cold stare for a few seconds before Juno backed off and shrugged, “Alright, say your piece.”
“Thank you,” Jurol said, sounding a lot more confident, which pissed me off, “as I was saying, I think I can get one of those power boxes to short out, should shut off the cameras. Then we take out the guards and head over to the door, Xario can match one of their voices, and then they open the doors for us.”
Xario looked a little unconvinced, “Are you sure you can do something like that? Not trying to shut down your idea or anything, but this is military grade stuff, it’s gotta be rigged to sound an alarm if anyone tampers with it. Even if this is a sim, I don’t wanna fail before I get started.”
Jurol gave him a smile and a little nod, “I’m sure I can handle a few cameras, this isn’t exactly my first job.”
Surprise
The three of us watched as Jurol disappeared around the left corner of the building and went to work, making all of us more than a little anxious. For Xario and I it was that we couldn’t keep an eye on him and make sure he was safe, for Juno on the other hand, well, Juno was Juno.
“You think he’ll get it done?”
“Definitely, like he said, he’s done this before.”
Saying that wasn’t just for show either, I genuinely believed he had the ability to pull off his objective without a hitch.
Then the wailing alarms went off.
“Shit!” Xario seethed, “What do we do?”
“Hold on…” I said as I thought, they hadn’t made a move on his area at that point, and as far as we knew he’d
make it back to the trees before anyone spotted him.
No such luck.
The doors to the facility opened and five more soldiers came thumping out, leaving the doors open as they started jogging toward Jurol’s position.
“That guard,” I said, pointing to the solitary and slightly confused looking one closest to us, “take him down.”
We charged the soldier and tackled him to the ground before he could so much as turn to face us, Xario being the one to deliver the punch to the back of the soldier’s head that knocked him out.
“Take his weapon.” I said to Juno almost silently, the rest of the guards hadn’t noticed us yet and I wanted to keep it that way.
“What about you?” she asked in an oddly compassionate tone, “You’re the best shot.”
“I’ll be fine, I want you to stay here and keep an eye out, Xario and I are gonna duck into the facility,” I said, nodding my head to the open doors, “there’s a gun rack just inside the doorway.”
I’d half expected her to give me some reason as to why she shouldn’t be left alone, but she wasn’t a coward and instead took the grey carbine off the soldier and started scanning the empty area ahead of us, “I’ll let you know if they come back.”
I gave her a thankful nod and both Xario and I made a break for the doorway with our heads down. We stuck to either side of the frame, peeked around the corner, then ducked inside, Xario’s being the one with the guns.
“Las or bullets?” he asked from his corner as he looked over the weapons.
“Bullets,” I said with my back pushed up against wall, staying in a crouched position as I looked down the well-lit hallway that led to the rest of the facility, “if this is a sim I know that Garrett will’ve made it so the las ones don’t work, another piece in his ‘don’t trust tech’ lesson plan.”
“Right right right,” Xario said as he tossed me a carbine and put his las one back, “that thing with the jump-packs was pretty… interesting.” he said, checking that the carbine he’d just grabbed had a bullet in the chamber which reminded me to do the same.
Spectres (Æthyrium Rising - Spectres Book 1) Page 9