Dark Arrow Ch. 05

She could almost hear her father's voice admonishing her about being quiet just as she'd admonished Ren. Years of memories came rushing back over her as she let herself remember the time spent with her father for the first time in years. So a moment she stood frozen as the past bounced around in her head. Finally she gave herself a shake to break the reverie and moved forward again.

"The forest isn't just a landscape," she whispered just loud enough for Ren to hear as she echoed the lessons her father taught her. "It's a living breathing entity. You don't move through it, you move with it. If you try to fight the forest you will lose. There are paths through the trees you just have to learn to read the way the ground changes and flows with them."

It was such a small thing to say, and yet instantly she noticed a change in their motions. His steps no longer thudded down as harshly as before. As she moved forward she noticed she wasn't paying attention to Ren anymore, but instead had started scanning the forest in front of them as she would if she were on her own. Whether it was her words or Ren was just watching her movements more carefully she wasn't sure.

As they moved forward though it became clear Ren was adept at matching his movements to his partners. He might not be able to move silently on his own, but he could follow her movements as if he'd been trained as thoroughly as she had. She figured that being able to move as a unit was probably paramount in special ops. He might not be able to read the ground as well as she could, but he could match her step for step with ease.

Silently they slid through the trees as the sun rose behind them to their left. When they reached the cliffs she stopped and removed her shoes and socks. Ren raised an eyebrow, but followed suit. Stuffing her socks into her shoes she tied the laces together and slung them around her neck before leaning down and rolling her pants up to her knees. The river banks here were rocky and nearly impassible, but the river bed itself was sandy. She sucked in her breath as she stepped into the cold clear water and started trudging against the current.

She heard a light splash and a curse behind her as Ren stepped into the river after her. Despite herself she couldn't stop her smile as she thought about how many times she'd walked this path alone since her father died. Thoughts of her father brought her back to what Ren had said. The idea that her father was a former Marine... she didn't want to admit it, but it made a certain amount of sense. Her father knew history and politics as well as law and math well beyond the level that made sense for a factory worker from the outskirts. Then too he'd had tattoos, and good ones too as she recalled, which was almost unheard of among the workers.

Getting inked took money, and to get a decent artist took even more. Tattoos were a luxury of the upper class, not something that one saw on a working man. Something she was more familiar with was his unerring aim and knowledge of the woods and animals. He could track better that she was ever able to, and she'd never seen him have to take a second shot to put his target down. Such lethal precision was not something that happened without training.

There were others who braved the wilds to hunt, but they didn't venture deep into the trees. On top of that they were lucky to take down a deer with a rifle and often the animal was only wounded with the first shot. Yet her father never seemed to fail to bring something down, and she couldn't remember anyone ever claiming to have seen her father miss. She'd been around the fire at several hunting camps and even seasoned hunters considered among the best in the city looked up to her father as the best among them. They all ribbed each other about missing one shot or the other, and joked about being better than each other. No one she'd met ever claimed to be better than her father however, even after he'd been gone for seven years no one she knew of had ever made that claim.

On top of this her father and mother had supposedly moved into the nicer area of the outskirts after they were married, but no one seemed to mention it. The area they moved into wasn't one that was often vacated, and yet her father had procured one of the nicer houses in that area for them. His sudden luck had never been a topic of debate, and yet others who had moved to the area were gossiped about constantly and hounded for details on how they had managed it.

Too much didn't make sense at first, though when she thought about it in light of Ren's belief that her father was a Marine it began to make more sense. Still even if he was right, there was more to it than Ren was letting on. She could grant that her father might have been military; maybe even a Marine, but that didn't explain how Ren would know of her father. If her father was so legendary, then why hadn't she heard about him? She watched the vids that were put out advertising the various branches of the interstellar military, but she'd never heard or seen anything about her father.

If what Ren said was true, then he was holding some information back. He was a bit older than her it was true, so it was possible that he'd heard about her father and been drawn to the Marines because of that. Why would they stop running those recruitment vids though if the man was such a legend? The only thing she could think of was that he had somehow been disgraced, and she couldn't see her father doing something that wrong. That wasn't the man she knew, so then what was Ren hiding...

They paced through the trees, as she found herself lost in thought. They had trudged upstream for nearly half an hour as she was lost in her thoughts, and were nearly at the meadow. There was a break in the cliffs where they formed a ring around an open meadow with a few patches of trees and a lake she'd have to guess was somewhere around half a klick wide and a klick long. A sudden flash of movement banished thoughts of her father's past and Ren from her mind completely. About fifty yards away a deer broke out of the trees and came down to get a drink from the stream.

It was muscle memory at this point for Erillia; she'd drawn, nocked, and fired before her mind even caught up with what she was doing. The twang of the string had barely resounded when she saw the moment of impact. Her instincts were good, and the shot landed right behind the shoulder of the deer about two thirds of the way down the side. She couldn't be sure it would get the heart with that placement, but with the force of a full draw on her bow it definitely would take out both lungs.

As if to confirm her suspicions the deer staggered and fell. Ren started to move forward, but she glared over her shoulder and signaled that they should hold their positions. She knew from experience that rushing to a kill was a good way to make a wounded animal, even one on the point of death, start and run. There was no need for the deer to suffer more than it had to. The seconds crept by as she kept careful count. One minute ticked over into two, and two ticked into three, then four, and five. Finally she glanced back at Ren to see that he was watching and jerked her head to indicate they could move.

The water was cold, and she'd been standing in an awkward position, so she wasn't surprised to feel her legs and back protest as she straightened up and made her way quickly to the kill. She knelt down and retrieved her arrow before she turned to the work bleeding and gutting her kill. It was work she was familiar with, and her hands moved with almost surgical precision. Normally she didn't make a kill this far from where she'd camp, she realized as she stood back for a second. She'd either had to find someway to carry the deer or they'd have to camp here for a night and cook the meat so it could be packed up and carried with them.

If they were going to be out here for a time she'd really prefer to make a couple more kills, but if they camped here that wouldn't be possible right away. The smell of the smoke, and the movement and smell of people would drive the deer out of here in a heartbeat. She was still contemplating when Ren strode past her to the edge of a stream and proceeded to hack down a sapling growing there. It was a hefty young tree about two inches in diameter around nine feet tall. She watched as he quickly lopped the top off to leave a six foot pole before he turned and walked back to the carcass. Dropping his bag off his shoulder he rummaged for a second before coming up with a roll of cord.

"Rule number one of the Marine corp and the wilderness," he said with a smile when he saw her watching him. "Always carry a knife. Rule number two, always carry some cordage. If you have those two things your ability to improvise, survive, and achieve your objective is infinitely improved."

"What's rule number three, always carry a bag?" she joked as she sat down on a rock to pull her socks and shoes on, noticing that Ren had done the same while she was tending to her kill. She looked up to find him staring intently at her, and his gaze sent a shiver through her.

"Rule number three my dear," he said in a soft voice that sounded both menacing and teasing at the same time," is as follows. In order, leave no Marine behind, no target alive, and no woman unsatisfied." She swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in her throat and forced a laugh. He eyed her for a few more seconds and she saw the corners of his mouth twitch up into the start of a smile before he turned back to his task. With deft movements he pulled the deer's legs up and secured them to the pole leaving just enough of it hanging from either end for a person to shoulder.

"I'm assuming you don't want to stay around here, since I figured you don't want to be interrupted too often just to go hunting," he said in answer to her quirked eyebrow then gestured to the trussed up deer. "This makes it easier to carry. If we stop to deal with this here we might as well just go back afterwards. The smell and sound of us working would drive everything you might want to hunt to other areas. I'm assuming that you have someplace we can reach relatively quickly where that kind of thing can be done without driving off all the wild life." She nodded in shock, and he smiled as he stood and shouldered one end of the pole.

"Lead on oh fair maiden," he chuckled, and she shook off her momentary shock. Moving quickly she stooped and scooped some of the entrails into a jar she then sealed and slid it into her pocket. Hoisting her end she was a bit surprised to find that the deer, though close to two hundred pounds when it had been alive, wasn't a significant strain at all to carry this way.

"You'd better be ready to quick march then Marine because we've got a ways to go, and we can't afford to be out in the open with a carcass or it will draw unwanted attention. No need to be quiet now. We won't be shooting anything again today and by tomorrow the deer will have forgotten all about us passing through." The only answer was Ren's chuckle, but as she stepped out he began to whistle. She almost told him to be quiet, but something held her back. Though the whistle was a bit tuneless it seemed familiar as well.

"Ain't no use in looking down. There targets to be found. Keep your eyes up, look around. Else you'll wind up under ground." Erillia sucked in a gasp, but found herself falling into the pace of the cadence almost instantly. Her father had once taught her how to set her pace with a rhythm using those exact words. Her mind whirled as Ren continued the tune, but it kept coming back to one inescapable conclusion. Ren had been right about her father being a Marine, and she needed to know what he was hiding.

They'd crossed half the open meadow before Ren finally ran out of lines, but the cadence had served its purpose. They moved in unison at a brisk clip, and had so fallen into the rhythm that when he stopped singing they still moved at the same pace. The sun was just reaching its peak when they came to the edge of the meadow and tracked along the cliffs toward the lake. Less than half a mile from the lake she suddenly held up her hand and they stopped.

Ren gave her a curious look as she walked over to the cliff and looked up for a second. There was a cave up there with a pulley system designed to bring game or people up to the cave easily. Someone had to climb up first however and throw down the rope. Ren would be able to pull the deer up easier, but unfortunately he didn't know where the cave was. It would take less time if she did it herself and it wouldn't be the first time she'd hauled a deer this hefty up the cliff.

"Wait here," she said turning to him, "I'm going to climb up the cliff a ways. There's a cave up there where I usually camp and we can deal with the meat there. I'll throw down a rope when I get up there, and you tie it off to the deer." He looked skeptical, but nodded in acceptance. She turned to the cliff and started climbing. It wasn't very far, only about twenty or thirty feet in all truth, and she was there in only a few moments.

She hoisted herself onto the ledge and quickly surveyed the cave. Other than a few spider webs it seemed nothing had taken up residence, but she was taking no chances. Plucking an arrow from her quiver she walked slowly into the cave and cleared it carefully. Her suspicions proved true though, not even a bird had taken up residence. She knelt on the ledge and glanced over to see Ren looking expectantly upwards. She grinned and flashed him a thumbs up before quickly feeding the rope that was coiled nearby through the pulley and sending it down the cliff to him.

"Doing ok?" she yelled down as he quickly tied the rope off. He glanced up and grinned as she started to haul the deer up.

"Doing wonderful!" She narrowed her eyes as he started to chuckle. "The view from down here while you climb is absolutely amazing!" He broke down chuckling at that and she scowled. Ok, two could play at that game. She reached out and swung the rope just lightly, but enough to move the deer directly over Ren's head. Then she let the rope slip from her grasp. There was a muffled yell as Ren tried to catch the deer and retain his balance, but ended up being flatted as his foot slipped.

The deer had only been a foot or two over his head. Not enough force to be dangerous, but definitely enough to hurt. His pride wounded more than anything he glared daggers up at her as she broke down laughing and started hauling the deer up the cliff again.

"I see what you mean about the view, it certainly is lovely from up here right now," she shot back at him. He shook his head and climbed to his feet, but carefully stepped back out of range of the deer should she decide on a repeat performance. She chuckled and hauled the rope up, carefully securing it when the deer was high enough to be hoisted onto the ledge. Quickly she swung it in and untied it, dragging it back into the cave so it couldn't accidentally fall over the edge. Then returning she retried the rope to toss it back down for Ren. Before she reached the ledge however a hand suddenly grasped the ledge and a second later Ren's head and shoulders came into view as he hoisted himself up onto the ledge.

"I hope you enjoyed that," he growled softly. "I won't be going easy on you when we spar tonight, and I can guarantee you that's the last time you put me on my back today." She wanted to glower at him, but she had a sinking feeling he was right. She'd not been able to match him before and from what he had said she had a feeling he'd been holding back just a little during that first fight. He'd wanted to test her skills and try and figure out why she was chasing him, not to kill her.

She was grateful for that because if he was half as good as he thought he was she'd be dead right now otherwise. Still the smug attitude and the half smile on his face made her want to punch him and prove him wrong. Instead she turned back to the deer and began skinning it as he looked around the cave.

"Bloody hell Erillia this place is a lot bigger than I figured." He moved into the cave further and gave a startled exclamation. "You have a freaking stove and a smoker in here?" The incredulity in his voice made her smile.

"Yes I do," she said in amusement. "There was some kind of crack in here that let in fresh air; it leads out to the top of the cliff. Dad was able to feed a pipe through it and connect those two so that the smoke is vented out up there. It lets us cook without the risk of the smell driving away game." Ren shook his head as he came back into view.

"That's quite the set up. Lets you cook the meet to preserve it from your kills, and yet keep hunting at the same time." He shook his head in admiration. Not that things were as Erillia believed, but he'd already dropped enough bombshells on her today. There had been no crack to feed the vent through. One look at the pipe had been enough to tell him that.

The Janus self-burrowing air shafts were a common enough tool in the military and in the mining industry, though ones which could extend for the length this one did were rare. A spinning head and micro lasers allowed the device to core its way through just about anything, even the eight foot think titanium support beams and armor that most civilian space ships utilized.

The obvious and supposedly intended use for them was for those who might find themselves in underground tunnels, buried by an avalanche, or in some other fashion end up in a situation where oxygen supply was threatened. The device would allow these people to bore an air shaft and maintain enough air flow to survive until rescue arrived. Then again Janus was named after some ancient mythic deity that supposedly had two faces. The founder of the company thought it was a clever reference, considering that publically Janus industrial supplies was a mining and industrial company, though in truth their products were most often developed as a result of commissions by the military.

Just like the two faces of the company, their tools could generally serve more than one use if one knew how to use them appropriately. They were particular favorites of the Special Forces since most products were designed to look like innocent industrial equipment. This made it much easier to conceal tools and weapons than if an obviously military device were simply converted to try and pass for something innocent. The air shafts were a prime example of that duality.

It wasn't common knowledge, but compact versions were a favored tool among the special operations units for breaching purposes. One could easily bore through an outer airlock door and then drop a small charge through the tube and into the air lock. The resulting explosion would rip apart the airlock and on most craft would result in uncontrollable atmosphere venting. There were a few of the larger ships that could seal off the life support well enough to keep people alive until they got into suits. Those were few and far between however, and even if the crew was able to suit up the shock and panic of the unexpected breach, it was generally enough for them to be subdued before they could offer any resistance.

The longer ones however were generally used to bore completely through a ship or for those who were doing deep tunneling etc. Why the Lt. would have had one that long was a bit of a mystery. It wasn't exactly something one could buy easily and if he'd requisitioned it then it would have had to be for a mission. The long tubes though were almost never used by the Special Forces. They took too long to reach their target and were too obvious. In fact Ren couldn't think of a single application where this would be preferable to two or three of the smaller more compact versions.