by J E Loddon
Cal continued to jog for a minute, then began to speed up. After a couple of minutes, he’d broken out into a full sprint, which finally worked to convince the others that actually, yes, we did need to make haste. We made our way through the rocks that Casper had disappeared through, and followed the flattest ground, assuming that that’s what he would have done, in his search for a suitable landing site. We were heading towards a small forest, and Casper emerged from it. He held a hand up in a wave, then his cheerful face fell when he realised how quickly we were sprinting towards him. He began to look worried, and gripped his rifle.
“What’s going on?” he asked nervously as we drew near.
“It’s time to go,” I shouted to him. He looked towards Liberty, and she nodded.
“OK. Well, good. Follow me,” he said. We followed him through the trees, into the forest. The trees were fairly sparsely distributed, and after a minute or two I caught sight of water through them in the direction in which we were headed.
“Where are we going?” I called after him.
“It’s a beach,” he shouted back. “It’s wide and flat, its perfect.” We followed him out of the forest, and hit the sand. “This is a good place, right?” he asked.
“It’ll do,” Liberty shouted at him, “call the transport.”
Casper pulled the extraction rocket from his belt, and carefully planted it on the ground, sending the rocket flying into the air. We all watched it fly up, then began looking around for cover.
“The forest is the best place,” Cal told us. We fell back into the forest, and tried to find a couple of trees that were reasonably close together.
“I really hope the transport doesn’t take long,” Casper said.
“You’re telling me,” I replied, shaking my head.
“What I mean is,” he said, “the tide seems to be coming in. If the transport takes too long, it won’t be able to land.” Cal held his hands up to his head, wide-eyed.
“Why didn’t you tell us that before you shot the rocket up?” Liberty demanded.
“You said it was a good place,” Casper replied defensively. “It’s the only flat, open space anywhere near here. If the shuttle takes that long to land, we’re gonna be in trouble anyway, right?” Liberty closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples. Cal just shook his head, and resumed scanning the vicinity for enemy contact.
“Cal?” I asked, something dawning on me. “Where are they likely to land those boats?” Cal looked at me.
“The nearest beach, I gue…” He froze, then looked back out at the beach.
“Boats?” Casper asked accusingly. “Boats?! Nobody mentioned anything about boats!” This time, it was Casper with his head in his hands.
“Well, like you said,” Antonia pointed out. “This was the only area of flat, open space.”
“Uh.. Yeah,” Casper replied.
“All right, focus people,” Liberty said. She looked pale and worn. “We’ve got enemy contacts potentially approaching from all sides. We’ve got a wait of potentially hours for extraction. We’re starting to run short on ammunition. She stopped. We all sat staring at her, waiting for her to continue.
“OK..?” I asked, trying to prompt her to finish. She just looked back at me, then after a pause realised I was looking for a response.
“Oh. Well, that’s it. Anyone got any ideas?” I stared at her in disbelief. Was it a joke? She continued to look around at everyone.
“OK, what’ve you got?”, I asked Cal, turning my attention to the rugged commando who had gotten us into the position in the first place.
“Sit still, wait,” he replied, still with eyes everywhere. I shook my head.
“Tasia?” I said, turning my gaze towards the Strategist. “Please tell me you’ve got something a bit more positive?” She frowned, and started to look around, either for ideas or help.
“Well, I guess Antonia could find a higher position, so she can give us some warning if enemy units begin to approach,” she suggested.
“Done and done,” I said, gesturing to the tree above us. I’d spotted Antonia shimmying up a few seconds after we’d crouched down. Tasia gave a look of surprise, and looked up, spotting Antonia.
“Well. I guess…” Tasia started.
“What is this facility?!” Liberty suddenly blurted out, as if someone had suddenly turned a switch on her side. “Cal, what is going on?” Cal turned from his surveillance, Liberty’s tone catching his attention. He looked at her, then glanced over at me.
“It’s classified,” I said on his behalf. “But I’m no spy so I’ll tell you what I know.”
I filled her in on everything that we’d been able to see across the sea. I didn’t go into Cal’s rhetoric on the ineffectiveness of the probes, or his general negative view of the situation.
“That explains why the silos weren’t heavily guarded, then,” Liberty said. “This is just an outpost. The real threat is across the sea.”
“And headed this way,” I reminded her. “Right now, we’re sitting ducks here.”
“We don’t know for sure anyone’s going to come though?” Tasia said. “The boats might not land here. The extraction rocket is only visible for a few seconds before it disappears into the upper atmosphere, it would be difficult to tell where it came from.”
“We’re on a coast,” Liberty pointed out. “On the corner of an island, by the sounds of it. Anyone else on the island that saw the rocket will know roughly where we are. Not to mention any ships that fly overhead looking for us.”
“I don’t think we need to worry about that too much,” Cal replied. “They’ll be reluctant to use flying craft here for fear they’ll be picked up from space. It’s much easier for probes to see machinery that isn’t attached to the ground.” Considering Cal’s outlook on the limitations of the probes, it seemed odd that he would say this. When we’d looked across the water, though, there had indeed been no sign of aircraft of any kind.
We all hunched down in silence for a while, the dread fear building with every minute. There’d been no sign of any enemy activity, which was obviously good. There was no sign of the transport either though. As quietly as I could, I checked my gun, making sure all the moving parts still were moving. Then I took an inventory of our ammo. It wasn’t great. We had enough to shoot our way to the shuttle should it ever arrive, but if we were attacked before then, we’d soon run out.
“How long do you think it would take the boats to get here if they were going to land on this beach?” Liberty asked. I shrugged. I had no experience of judging distances. Or speeds. I’d never even seen a boat, and couldn’t really even comprehend how they worked.
“They were a way out,” Cal told her. “They probably won’t be particularly fast boats, either. They’re likely designed for transporting heavy loads across the water, not for combat.”
“Is that just a guess?” Liberty asked him.
“An educated one,” he said with an air of superiority. He looked around again, still seeing no sign of an enemy approach. He relaxed his posture a bit, sinking down onto the floor from his knees. Liberty gave him an odd look. “If we get attacked before the shuttle comes, a few extra seconds isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference,” he said in explanation, noticing her look. “Giving my knees a bit of a rest will make up for any delay I might have in responding to an attack.” He started to rub his knees. “So what’s your deal?” he asked her. “How did you end up here?”
Liberty went into her story, one that I’d heard a couple of times now. She didn’t mention her dream, which seemed wise. I wasn’t sure Cal would get it, and he certainly wouldn’t be impressed if she started crying like she had the night before with me. Cal listened, seeming genuinely interested, and for the first time, I started to wonder what his deal was. No doubt it was classified, so there didn’t seem to be much point in asking. Still, it’d be fascinating to hear, I was sure of that. He’d said he was thirty. If that was actually true, then he would have joined the Division during t
he forced conscription years. He struck me as a volunteer. He’d certainly looked impressed when Liberty had told him that was how she’d joined. What, though, if he was a reluctant recruit like I was? Maybe he had been taken away from a great life, kicking and screaming. Maybe he had screwed up multiple times when he’d begun his training. I looked him up and down. Height-wise, he wasn’t really much bigger than me. He was incredibly well-built, looking tough and powerful. That was just a product of training and time, though. He’d done hundreds of missions, he’d said? If I, somehow, survived, would I become a Cal?
Risking my life for the next decade only to become gruff and cynical didn’t seem to me like something I really wanted to aspire to. In order to survive, though. In order to emotionally cope with taking lives, and seeing those around you lose theirs, maybe that was what you had to become. Perhaps it was inevitable. I hadn’t thought before about the possibility of lasting more than a few months before I was killed. I had just assumed that I’d be slaughtered almost immediately. If we survived this mission, though. If that shuttle appeared from the heavens above, and carried us home, then I might have to start thinking more long-term. I’d killed two people that day. The mere thought of it still made me sick. Already, though, it didn’t seem completely real. Would the horror fade? Would I just go on to do it again, and be less unfazed with each kill? It didn’t seem likely, but there were millions of Galactic Division soldiers across the galaxy. Surely they couldn’t all be having nightmares about the lives they’d had to end?
“You have to tell us something, though?” Liberty was saying to Cal. “You were obviously here for a reason. It’s no coincidence that there’s a huge enemy facility here. What is it for? What else are they building on this planet? We need to be prepared for what’s to come next. Our friends and family at home are depending on us for protection!” She was starting to sound hysterical. She was looking very strained, and I could see blood was slowly seeping out from the med-patch she’d fastened over her gunshot wound. I considered moving across to her, trying to calm her down. I wasn’t sure she’d take kindly to this though.
“Look, I’ve already told you, its classified,” Cal retorted. “You’re a squad leader, you know how it works. When we get back to your ship, I’ll tell the people who need to know the things that I need to tell them.”
“And what if you don’t make it back?!” Liberty was shouting now. “What happens if only one of us gets out of here alive? Toni? Or Tasia? You need to tell us what you know. Someone has to report it back. If it dies with you, this whole mission becomes completely pointless.”
“You really think one of your rookies is more likely to survive than me?” Cal taunted her, his patience now completely lost. “You’d be trapped here forever if I hadn’t convinced you to hit those missile silos.”
“We were only here because of you!” Liberty screamed back. “Your left arm is hanging off. You wouldn’t have gotten within a hundred meters of that silo if we hadn’t helped you.”
“Guys?” Casper said.
“No, Casper, this has to be said,” Liberty spat at him.
“Guys?!” Casper said again, panic in his voice. Hearing the inflection of fear, we all turned to look at him.
“What is it?” Liberty hissed at him.
“We’ve got company,” he replied, readying his rifle shakily.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
We all followed Casper’s stare, and there, across to the far West end of the beach, a squad of enemy soldiers were cautiously approaching. They were slowly advancing across the edge of the forest, a few hundred meters from where we were sat. The only reason we could see them was because the forest line was curving around to the North. Within a couple of minutes, we wouldn’t be able to see them again through the dense forest until they were a lot closer.
“What do we do?” Casper asked. “If we attack them now, we’ll have the element of surprise.”
“They’re too far away,” Liberty pointed out, “we’ll have to wait ‘til they’re closer.”
“What if they see us before we attack,” Casper protested. “The forest isn’t that thick on this edge, they might catch sight of us through the trees.”
“The only other option would be to drop back deeper into the trees,” Liberty replied, “but then we’d be quite far back if the transport came. And we wouldn’t see it ‘til the last minute.”
“Well we can’t just sit here,” Casper snapped back, ”they’re heading straight for us.”
“We chose this spot for a reason,” Liberty reminded him calmly, though her voice sounded strained. “Cal needs that log to rest his rifle so he can fire one-handed. Antonia has a good spot up there in the tree. We have trunks on all sides. It’s really not a bad position. We can defend it.” She was trying to sound convincing, though I guessed that was probably as much for her own benefit as it was for Casper’s. He looked frustrated at this reply, but didn’t say any more. He didn’t seem to be coping well with the situation. I was amazed at how well I was, though. It was what it was. We had a job, and we were just doing it. The cynicism seemed to be creeping in already on me, which I found worrying.
We watched the enemy squad approach, catching glimpses of them through the trees every minute or so. There were six of them. Antonia signalled to us to let us know that she couldn’t seem them very well from her position up in the tree at all, but had a good view of the sea, and there was no sign of the boats. The cliff to the North-East of us jutted out quite far into the sea. If they were headed to this beach, they’d be sailing up and around it, so she’d spot their approach as soon as they crested it. By that point, though, they’d be less than a kilometre away. As the enemy squad got closer, I started to feel the tension. The very real possibility of having to take another life began to weigh on me. In order to survive the encounter, we’d have to try to shoot first, before they even noticed us. To me, this was basically killing in cold blood, and I wasn’t sure I could commit pre-emptive murder.
We hunched down behind what cover we had. In order to not be seen, we’d had to give up our own visibility, relying on Antonia to let us know when the time was right. Whilst she couldn’t see them very well from her vantage point yet, she’d have a good view once they were close enough to shoot at. We lay there, dead still. My stomach tightened, and my hands began to sweat and shake. I tried to dry them off, but couldn’t do so without moving too much. I heard rustling, and tensed myself for Antonia’s first shot, the signal that meant it was time. The rustling grew louder, and it was almost too late when Liberty realised the sound was not coming from in front of us, but behind.
I saw her eyes suddenly grow wide. As far as I could tell, nothing had happened, so I thought she’d maybe been bitten by a wild animal or something. Then, she twisted around, and pulled herself up to one knee, facing the opposite direction to the rest of us. I followed her gaze, and saw what had spooked her just as she was firing her confetti gun. The sound at this close quarter was almost deafening, ringing out through the forest. The element of surprise was now well and truly lost, and I began to move.
There were three hostiles approaching us from behind, as far as I could tell, though two went down from Liberty’s shot. Concerned she wouldn’t be able to get a shot off before the third hostile fired back, I opened fire in that direction. The third figure dived down to the side. Fully trusting Liberty to be able to handle that situation, I turned my attention to the other squad. The commotion had taken Casper and Tasia completely by surprise. They hadn’t had the benefit of seeing Liberty’s expression of realisation, and had immediately turned their attention towards the sounds of gunfire. Thankfully Cal and Antonia, though, had retained their focus. The other squad was already scattering, as Antonia fired off a second shot, having seemingly already dropped one of the enemy soldiers. Cal was firing his rifle at two of the diving hostiles, following their rolls with great skill. He winged one of them, but the other was already returning fire, forcing me to drop down behind cover.
I started to get up, but gunfire peppered the air around me and I had to throw myself down once again. I wasn’t able to see who had gotten hit and who had escaped. I had to instead pull myself up and stumble into the trees, desperately trying to get away from the line of enemy fire. I ran deeper into the forest, all the while conscious that I was abandoning my team behind me. I didn’t have a choice, though, as the barrage didn’t let up. Once I was deep enough into the trees to take the time to breathe, I found cover and tried to look back at what I’d left behind. I couldn’t see anything from where I was, though. Staying low, I made my way towards the edge of the forest, but further away from the gunfight. Moving as fast as possible, I made it to the beach, then began to approach the combat site again.