By midafternoon, we reached the base of the mountain, deep in the valley where the original entrance to Havvar had been found. Luck was with us, and we discovered a spring in a small cluster of short trees that offered shade and some cover for a night of much-needed rest. There wasn’t as much game in the valley, so we didn’t bother with a fire.
The following day, we hiked out of the valley. The entrance to the tunnel was blocked from the inside by a massive slab of stone; it looked like just any other part of the mountainside. Having seen the interior of the tunnel, I could tell that part of the valley had been widened by the same process. It made me wonder what the creators of that place had intended to do.
When we reached the edge of the valley, where the mountains spread out to either side but there was nothing in front of us except flat expanse, I called a break.
“What now?” Barker asked.
“Now you climb up that hillside and find a good watch position.”
“And what are you going to do while I do the actual work?”
I turned to him and fixed the sergeant with an angry glare. He stared back, unmoved.
“Trip and I lost the scout drone out there,” I said, pointing to the field. “I’m going to look for it. You’re going to keep an eye out for Orrkasi troopers.”
“And what happens if I see them?” he asked. “I don’t even have a battery pack for my LAR.”
Giving him a power supply was a risk. He might just shoot me in the back and say that the Orcs killed me. While I hesitated, I knew I couldn’t build rapport with him if I was always suspicious. I pulled out two batteries.
“One for your LAR, one for the Gnashii,” I said.
“Thanks,” he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“You see something, say something,” I told him. “Don’t shoot unless you have to. If the Orcs come by and spot me, I’ll move away from you.”
“You want me to just let them take you?”
“I don’t go down without a fight. I would have thought you’d know that about me by now.”
Barker grunted and turned away, but it felt like I had scored a point with him. As he started back, ascending the lower portion of the mountain that fed into the valley, I began to walk in what I hoped was the correct general direction. I had no idea where we had lost Scout 2. The little drone was about the size of my fist and wouldn’t be easy to find. Odds were high that the Orrkasi had already discovered the drone and taken it back to their camp. If the device were still in the area, it would be worth taking back to Havvar. I had a feeling Trip could get it working again.
One hour passed, then another. I walked back and forth, trying to remember where we had been. It was an impossible task: Trip and I had sped through that part of the desert, all while Orrkasi ships were trying to drop troopers in front of us. I had even managed to kill some of them before we raced into the valley. One of their ships lay in pieces at the bottom of the mountain on the far side of the valley, now nothing but blackened metal and rotting corpses. I still found it odd that the Orrkasi didn’t retrieve their dead, a frightening practice that made the Orcs seem all the more savage.
I shook off the thought and resumed my search. I had seen several rocks that looked promising as I searched. Anything of the appropriate size was worth checking out. Of course, a rock at twenty meters that looked round and could have passed for the drone became clearer as I got closer. My spear thumped the ground at my feet as I walked, taking my time. Flat terrain was much easier on my artificial joints than uneven or sloped ground. Occasionally, I checked in with Barker to make sure he was awake and to keep our systems active. There was always a fear that the com-link would malfunction, and no one wanted to be left stranded. Having been on my own in the desert, I didn’t want to repeat the process.
Mook and his companions joined my search. It was Kilv, the shaggy Polytrot with black fur, that found the drone—undamaged, albeit unable to power on. This was to be expected: something had knocked it out of the air over a week before. It would need repairs and recharging.
I called Barker down to regroup. Together, we skirted the mountain as carefully as possible. There were hills that blocked us from view most of the time, but we were forced to take cover twice when ships flew past. Neither came close to us, or the mountain where Havvar was hidden. It was still unnerving to be reminded that we were in enemy territory.
That night, the Polytrots went hunting in a canyon while Barker and I made camp on the surface above. I knew the canyon would have been more comfortable, but I didn’t want to have to climb out again.
“How much longer will we be out here?” Barker asked. It was a fair question, since we were finishing the last of the rations I had packed. Splitting them between two people had only left us with a couple days’ worth of food. If not for the Polytrots supplementing our supplies, we would have run out earlier.
“I think we’ll make it back to the city tomorrow,” I said
“You know Burrows will just come up with a reason to send you out again,” Barker said. “He’s afraid of you.”
I knew that Burrows was desperate to appear in command at all times. Good leaders found a way to inspire confidence; Burrows didn’t have that gift. “He’s afraid of looking incompetent,” I replied.
“And having you wrest command from him,” Barker added. “I was privy to the conversations. Your hero act at the base camp scared him.”
“That’s his problem, not mine.”
“It’s all our problems with Malone whispering in his ear all the time. You know that guy? He was a royal pain on the Rihla —thinks he can lay down the law because he’s a maintenance supervisor. There was nothing he loved more than catching someone in an infraction, no matter how minor.”
“There are people like that on every ship,” I said. “Weak people are drawn to positions that offer them power of any kind.”
“You’re preaching to the choir here,” Barker said. “Maybe listen to your own warnings. I’m telling you, he doesn’t want you around, and he’s got Burrows convinced that you’ll take over.”
“I’m not concerned. Trip will have the communications equipment ready by the time we arrive. Burrows won’t need an excuse to send us out—I’ll volunteer for that mission.”
“Better you than me,” Barker said.
“Oh, no, you’re with me, Sergeant,” I said. “We’ll be taking the cargo hauler and at least one other person, probably Trip. I’ll need all the help I can get securing the equipment and making sure that we don’t get caught by the Orrkasi.”
“I don’t take orders from you,” Barker said. “Besides, Burrows needs me to oversee the security of the city.”
“Negative. The city is secure. The priority is getting word to the Fleet, which requires our best operators. That means you and me.”
Barker shook his head. I noticed, however, that he didn’t argue the point.
“Tell me: how does a TAC team operator make it to sergeant without any combat engagements?” I asked.
I was looking up at the sky, trying to give Barker a shred of privacy. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that he tensed at the question. My time with the touchy sergeant was running out, and I had yet to really build rapport with him.
“Luck, I suppose,” Barker said. “I wasn’t afraid of going to war, but I didn’t see the need to volunteer for it, either.”
“Ever get close?” I asked.
“A few times. For one reason or another, my engagements were always canceled by the brass. After a while, it just didn’t even feel real. I spent all that time training and never got called into action.”
“Like it’s all a game,” I said.
“Exactly—just a charade—so I played along. It was a job, and I was good at it. No one questioned me. The ladies all swooned and the guys bought me drinks, thanking me for my service, wanting stories of heroics. I never bothered to correct them.”
“It could happen to anyone,” I said.
“Not to you,” Barker said. “Orange is eight, right?”
I nodded. “Seven combat engagements without a scratch; then on the eighth fight, I get crushed under some rubble trying to get to my fire team. It was hell.”
“And they wouldn’t let you out of the corps?”
“They might have, if I’d let them,” I said. “I’ve got two years of enlistment time left, and I wasn’t going to quit. TAC team never quits.”
“Yeah, but you’re hurt,” Barker said. It was the first time he’d referred to my injuries with any kind of compassion.
“I’m working through it,” I replied, flexing my bad leg without really thinking about what I was doing. My knee was stiff and aching.
“And now you’re here,” Barker said. “If it weren’t for bad luck, you wouldn’t have any, Staff Sergeant.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve killed more Orcs since we ended up stranded here than I did in all eight combat engagements combined. I’ve never fought outside of urban environments before. With all this space, our weapons have more reach and give us a huge advantage.”
“It’s not usually like this?” Barker asked.
“No. Most of the time we end up fighting through a colony, street by street, avoiding air strikes and trying to hold back the savage tide.”
“I don’t envy you,” Barker said. “Not just because you got hurt…I don’t want to get anywhere near those monsters. I thought they were going to torture me to death. Instead, they left me in a cage like I was an animal. They paid more attention to disposing of their refuse than to those of us they captured.”
“Make them regret it,” I said. “Make them rue the wasted opportunity. Become the monster they fear in the dark, Sergeant. I know you have it in you.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” Barker replied softly.
“I know you made it through TAC Q-school. That makes you my brother.”
“I tried to kill you, Staff Sergeant. Not that I would have done it myself, but I wanted you dead.”
“I wouldn’t have missed you if you had died on the Rihla ,” I said honestly. “You were an arrogant bully. Since you survived, we’re in this together. Maybe it’s fate, or providence, or just plain luck—but it can mean something more than coincidence if we work together.”
“I’m not a warrior.”
“You are—you’ve just never been tested in battle. Trust your training, Sergeant. When the time comes, trust your training. Don’t let your brain get in the way. Your body knows what to do.”
He fell silent and eventually went asleep. I stayed awake, keeping watch until Mook returned and offered a small, lizard-like animal to me. After gutting it, I butchered the animal, put the meat into a small cook pot with some water, and let it simmer with my survival heater. It was the easiest way to prepare food without building a fire. I slept for a few hours, and when the sun rose, we had the boiled meat for breakfast. It was tasteless and chewy, but it sufficed.
The march back to our canyon took longer than expected. We ran out of water, and it felt like the mountain we were circling had no end. Early in the afternoon, the canyon came into view. We checked in with the person on watch, then made our way down to the entrance. I was expecting to find the cargo hauler waiting to carry us down and was surprised when it wasn’t.
“The CO wants it down there,” explained the Marine on guard at the mouth of the tunnel. “They’re doing something to it.”
I thanked the Marine and limped into the mountain. The darkness of the tunnel was a welcome change from the harsh sunlight. Barker and I removed our helmets and carried them tucked under our arms and we descended into the city—a beautiful sight from the elevated platform, although a long walk down the spiral ramp. I was exhausted by the time we reached the lower levels.
Even before we reached the main level of the city, I could tell something wasn’t right. Trip was outside his workshop setting up the portable communications unit in the back of the cargo hauler. I passed several people with vacant expressions. Nearby, Malone stood at the entrance to the gallery like a guard.
“Welcome home, Staff Sergeant,” Trip called out when he saw me.
“Good to be home,” I said, holding out the scout drone. “Do you think you can get this working?”
“You found Scout 2!” Trip said. “Now that is something. I’ll take a look and see if I can get her flying again.”
“Staff Sergeant!” Malone shouted at me. “Report to Lieutenant Burrows on the double.”
I looked over at Malone and held eye contact briefly before letting my gaze sweep across the courtyard. Something was going on.
“We’d better go,” Barker said.
“Is everything all right, Trip?” I asked under my breath, putting my helmet in the bed of the cargo hauler.
“Not really. We’ve had some issues. We’ll talk as soon as you’re done with the CO.”
I nodded, then headed toward the gallery. When we got close to Malone, I saw that he had a gold bar on one side of the collar of his uniform. Beside his name, the letters ‘LT’ had been added.
“Staff Sergeant,” Malone snarled, “I gave you an order. The only reason you’re not docked a day’s rations is because I’m sure you aren’t aware of my promotion to acting lieutenant.”
I tried to hide my shock and dismay. “We’re here to make our report,” I said, “sir.”
“Captain Burrows is waiting for you inside,” Malone said, stepping aside. “You’ll need to leave your weapons with me.”
It was odd to be asked to hand over our weapons within a military group, but I didn’t want to make waves. The fact that Burrows had promoted himself to captain and made an enlisted man an officer was shocking enough; if they thought that taking our weapons would make us helpless in the event of violence, they were in for a rude awakening.
“Let’s give our weapons to acting Lieutenant Malone,” I said to Barker.
Malone held out a hand, and I dropped my LAR and Gnashii onto it. Barker did the same. One by one, we handed over our sidearms. As they piled up, the acting lieutenant began to fumble with the load of weapons. Enjoying myself just a bit too much, I pulled out my tactical shotgun and handed it over. Finally, Barker and I drew our combat knives. Malone’s eyes grew wide; we waited while he propped the rifles against the front of the building and took our knives by their handles.
“That’s everything,” I said.
“Very good, Staff Sergeant,” Malone said. “The captain is waiting inside.”
I stepped through the doorway and was shocked to be met with the sight of Trix out of her heavy armor suit. Her uniform was ripped across the midsection, and one sleeve was missing. She was leaning away from a pillar, her arms tied awkwardly behind her around the support beam. It looked like she could barely stand. The skin on her face seemed thin and tight. Most surprising of all, she didn’t look up, just stared at the ground. At the far end of the room, Burrows was sitting on a stack of crates arranged to look like a throne. Even from a distance, I could see the scratches on his face, four parallel red lines across his cheekbone and down his jaw. The eye opposite the scratches was swollen.
“Corporal Finnegan,” I said, ignoring Burrows and going straight to my friend. She didn’t even look up when I said her name. “Trix?”
“Leave her,” Burrows said. “She’s under arrest and will remain so until a formal court martial can be convened.”
“What the hell is going on?” I demanded, my voice booming off the stone walls.
“She attacked me,” Burrows said.
“No,” Trix said, her voice a ragged whisper.
I reached out and lifted her chin. She looked at me, her eyes glazed. I knew the look: I had seen it often enough in the mirror after loading up on painkillers, when my injuries were at their worst.
“Stay with her,” I told Barker.
He nodded, a short bob of the head. To my slight surprise, I could see the muscles of his jaws working furiously. My own anger was boiling just beneath the surface, and I struggled to keep control: losing my head wasn’t going to help me sort through what had happened in my absence.
“Why would Corporal Finnegan attack you?” I asked Burrows as I strode down the polished floor toward his makeshift throne.
“I suppose you would have to ask her,” Burrows said. “I’m sure she was trying to remove me from command—a mutiny. She’ll be tried for her part in it.”
“Her part? There were others?” I asked.
“Lieutenant Holly was the ringleader,” Burrows said in a haughty tone. “I’ve suspected her for some time. There were others, too. We’ll ferret them out. Lieutenant Malone is on the case. I took command from her because I’m the senior officer, and obviously, that didn’t sit well with Holly. When Corporal Finnegan failed, Holly tried to kill me.”
“That’s impossible,” I argued.
“Watch yourself, Staff Sergeant. This city is under my direct command. I will not tolerate subversive attitudes. What do you have to report?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Sergeant Barker and I surveilled the surrounding lands, and there is no sign that the Orrkasi know we’re here.”
“Finally, some good news,” Burrows said, sighing in relief. “Your new orders are to take the communications unit and begin transmissions. Don’t do it anywhere near the city—I don’t want you bringing the Orcs down on our heads again.”
“Again, sir?”
“I know you didn’t mean to do it, Staff Sergeant, but surely you can see that your retaliatory strikes on their base camp and the mining operation were the impetus for the assault on our own base camp.”
I had been around enough people who could mold the facts to their favor that I recognized when someone doing it. Burrows was obviously the type of person who didn’t want to take responsibility for anything negative. It might look bad on a report, and he certainly couldn’t have it on his personnel file. The only question in my mind was how much of his delusion was of his own making and how much came from Malone.
“Are you suggesting that we shouldn’t fight back, sir?” I asked.
“Fight back? Sergeant, you must admit that going into their base camp and disrupting their mining operation wasn’t fighting back. You could have avoided it all together.”
“If I had, you’d still be in a cage,” I said.
“Lieutenant Malone and I had already begun to work on a plan to escape the Orrkasi. Believe me, Staff Sergeant, it would have been far better for all involved if you had stayed out of it.”
It took all my willpower and years of discipline not to laugh in Burrows’s face. He was delusional, and that didn’t bode well for the city. When the Fleet came and rescued us, we could hash out who had done what and to whom; until then, I knew I couldn’t leave Burrows in charge of the city.
“That’s not how I remember it, sir,” I said, moving around his stack of crates to find a pallet made of several blankets, along with most of the food supplies that Trip and I had salvaged from the wreckage of the Rihla. There were wraps and trash strewn about. It was obvious that Burrows had taken the best of the supplies for himself and was treating the city like his own private fiefdom.
“Staff Sergeant!” Burrows growled. “What are you doing? These are my private quarters.”
“Of course they are,” I said, returning to his seat. “I’m just helping out…I think it’s time we clean up around here.”
He opened his mouth to speak. Before he could get a word out, I reached up with my good right hand and grabbed hold of his collar. One hard jerk sent him sprawling to the stone floor. I had just committed the cardinal sin in any military: assaulting a superior officer. Given the circumstances, I would gladly face whatever punishment the Fleet saw fit to levy on me. At least it would mean that they would have to rescue me first. In the meantime, I was done letting Burrows or anyone else twist the catastrophe that had befallen the Rihla into their own selfish fantasy. I wasn’t the senior officer among the survivors, but it was time that I took charge and set things right in Havvar.