Enemy Lines Ch. 07

The sun was high in the sky by the time Nate and Ketri finally came within range of the base Nate had learned to call home over the last couple of weeks. Ketri was in high spirits, singing along to the stereo as their lumbering vehicle sailed across the dunes. It was a beautiful day, without a cloud in the sky or hint of sandstorm on the horizon. As they crested a ridge, Nate caught a glimpse of something far off in the distance. Raising himself higher up in the turret, he dropped the optical snoopers over his helmet's visor and zoomed in. Sure enough, there was something there. A cluster of billowing towers of smoke rising ominously in the still air.

"Ket... You might want to have a look at this..." He called down to her over the local communications frequency as he turned the gun and its suite of sensors towards the smoke. "Check the optics feed from the turret."

"Oh no..." He heard her breath through his earpiece. "That's the same direction as the base..."

"Have you tried hailing them?"

"I'll do that now!"

Nate felt apprehension rising in his gut as Ketri went silent, switching to another frequency.

"Nate... They're not responding. I checked the emergency channel and... There's a message playing on loop. A warning to stay away..." Her voice was shallow and empty.

"What should we do?" He asked, after a pause.

"I... I don't know... The message says to keep away, but what if they need our help? I can't just abandon my friends..." Ketri's voice cracked. "What would you do?"

Nate considered for a moment as the sinking feeling in his chest intensified.

"We should check it out, from a distance at least. The Conglomerate usually launches raids at night, when our... I mean, their, day-for-night and thermals put them at an advantage. If it was an attack, they'll be long gone by now. And there could be survivors..." He finally pronounced.

"Ok... Hold on tight, I'm going to punch it."

Nate swallowed as the truck began to build up speed, not from the acceleration, but from the knowledge that his line about survivors was probably a lie. Within about 20 minutes, they were close enough for Nate to get a better view of the situation. His heart sank into his boots as the scene unfolded before him. Barracks, office buildings and the mess hall had been ripped to shreds by heavy cannon fire and the motor pools had been reduced to smoldering craters by missiles. The fuel dumps were still burning, the source of the smoke towers they had seen earlier. A quick scan with his thermals showed no immediate signs of life, though such signatures could be being obscured by the heat of the fires. Nate heard a wail of dismay as they got close enough for Ketri to see too. Throwing caution to the wind, she floored the accelerator and the truck practically flew towards the site.

They passed through the remains of the gate, guard towers flattened to rubble, and Nate noticed the long streaks of glass gleaming across the ground where the sand had been cooked by the exhaust of orbital shuttle engines. This was the Conglomerate's handiwork, no doubt. Ketri slammed on the brakes and he saw her throw open the door and tumble out into the wreckage-strewn sand. Chasing after her, he hauled himself out the top hatch of the turret and landed next to her in time to help the little Xeno to her feet. She was trembling, lips pulled back in a feral snarl and chest heaving. He wanted to say something, but he was at a loss for words as his mate staggered forward, stumbling and tripping in the sand. As he followed her into the main complex, bodies began to appear. Burned, twisted and broken, the shapes of their former comrades were strewn carelessly across the nightmarish landscape before them. Ketri almost tripped over the charred remains of another Sha'dee, roasted to a crisp by an Overlord's gauntlet flamethrower and fell over, dry-heaving through sobs.

"Nate..." She turned to him, face streaked with tears and voice cracking. "Y-you... This... I-it..."

"It wasn't him."

They both turned to the sound of the quiet but familiar voice.

"Captain!" Ketri shrieked, staggering to her feet and stumbling towards the forlorn figure propped against a crumbling wall.

It was Thoros alright, the greying hair and long, notched ears were unmistakable. He was draped in a tattered longcoat, caked with mud and darker blotches that could only be blood. One of his legs was twisted at an angle that made Nate slightly sick to look at, and his right sleeve was hanging limp, with no hand to be seen at the end of it. But the worst by far was his stomach. The plated vest strapped over the alien's coat had been sliced open and there was a tremendous wound across his belly, obscured by a hand which was presumably the only thing keeping the old man's guts inside of him.

"Ketri... Nate..." Thoros rattled, mustering a painful grin through the broken cigarillo still clenched in his teeth.

He was taken aback. The Captain had addressed him by his first name.

"Could you give me a light... I'd do it myself, but my left arm is a bit... occupied. And I seem to have misplaced my right one..." The Captain choked, struggling to maintain a casual tone.

"Oh no! Oh no oh no oh no!" Ketri whimpered, staring at him. "C-captain! P-please... You need help! We have to get you to the sickbay... we can..."

"That's a good idea, Ensign." Thoros whispered. "You should go look for a first aid kit. There might be one in the armory. They torched everything else..."

"OF COURSE SIR! RIGHT AWAY SIR!" Ketri croaked, snapping to attention then bolting off toward the armory.

Nate approaching the dying man, reaching into his utility belt for a lighter. He knelt down and conjured a flame, allowing the Sha'dee to rekindle his smoke.

"Don't take this the wrong way, sir... But I think you're well past first aid kit territory..." He whispered grimly.

The battered alien tried to muster a chuckle, but only managed to hack up a mouthful of sickly, dark red blood.

"Yes... But it will take Ketri a while to find one. And I don't want her to see this."

"I... I understand." Nate swallowed and looked down.

"I need you to do me two favors, Human boy." Thoros stated, letting a cloud of smoke escape blood-caked nostrils.

"Anything, sir."

"Don't *cough* call me that. First. I need you to take Ketri and get her the hell away from here. The *cough cough* situation has changed. Very nasty people on this planet now. Take her and run, run as fast as you can and don't stop running until you're as far away from this rock as you can get. Don't try to get revenge, these guys are out of your league. Hell. *cough* It's not even the same sport."

"Of course. Should we make a break for rebel space?"

"I don't care where you go, just anywhere but here. Two. *cough* I need to borrow your pistol. Mine is... Well, wherever my arm ended up."

"My... Pistol? Wh..." Nate started to ask, then stopped as he realized what Thoros wanted.

"I'm a very stubborn man, Nate. Bastards may have beaten me, but I'll be damned if I'll give them the satisfaction of killing me. *cough* I go out on no-one's terms but mine. You're a soldier too. You understand."

Nate nodded grimly, and found himself fighting back tears as he handed Thoros the pistol, its weight heavy in his hand. The alien lifted his remaining hand and took the weapon.

"I think I'd like some alone time now. It was a pleasure knowing you. Say goodbye to Ketri for me. I may have scolded her a lot, but she was a good soldier."

Nate nodded, slowly rose to his feet and walked away, leaving the old captain behind. Ketri was running towards him, first aid kit clutched to her chest. She caught the look on his face and his empty holster, and dropped the case, falling to her knees as a single gunshot rang out across the empty desert.

*****

They buried Thoros in the desert outside the base. Nate used a plasma cutter to slice a chunk of destroyed wall into a suitable headstone, long enough to be sunken deep into the sand. As he was retrieving a shovel from the truck, Ketri approached him, holding something in her hands.

"I found this near where he... It's the Captain's freq cutlass. I think he would have wanted you to have it." She said quietly, offering the weapon to him.

It was heavy, a little under 30 inches long with its thick composite blade and bulky electromagnetic sheath on a heavy belt. Nate buckled it across his hip and grasped the hilt, the magnets disengaging as the power transmission plates on his gloves connected with the contacts on the grip. He pulled it out and examined it. The blade was well-balanced and quick to maneuver, though this became more difficult when he pressed the trigger to spin up the freq mechanism. Nate had been trained to handle a freq bayonet, as well as the short gladius-style weapons used by Overlords, but he had never used a proper sword before. While they had been considered obsolete as military weapons for centuries, the rise of heavy power armor combined with the freq blade technology had led to a resurgence of the sword as a last-ditch sidearm for troops facing armor too heavy for their handguns to penetrate.

"You sure he wanted me to have it? You knew him better." Nate asked, looking at Ketri questioningly.

"You can use it. I can't. The freq mechanism effects inertia, makes it hard to control when it's turned on. Sha'dee need years of training to wield a blade like this effectively, but your power armor's strength makes up for lack of technique." She explained.

Nate nodded, and returned the weapon to its sheath. They dug a deep hole and lowered the old Sha'dee's body into it, crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes. After a moment of silence, they filled in the hole and departed.

They salvaged what they could from the remains of the base and loaded up a smaller utility truck. Ketri's massive transport was too conspicuous, and too slow. She had been loathe to leave the vehicle behind, but they had no choice. One of the enemy dropships had put a bunker-buster through the roof of the armory and most of the contents had been destroyed, but they managed to find some ammunition, grenades and a 30mm superposed smart launcher which could be mounted under the barrel of Nate's rifle. Fortunately the commissary had been left mostly intact, and they were able to scrounge up plenty of food and even a couple bottles of liquor from the Officers' mess. The new vehicle was intended for long-range scouting, perfect for their purposes. Food, ammunition and other supplies and tools were loaded into the flatbed, while the rear bench seat was converted into a bed of sorts. There was a simple turret on the roof, with two 15mm rail machineguns mounted together on an unpowered ring with a simple armor shield to protect the gunner. Before they departed, Nate made sure to take a can of spray paint and cover up any rebel markings on the truck.

Sundown was approaching again as they set out, Nate perched in the turret to scan the horizon with his long-range snoopers. They had settled on their target; a small spaceport outside of the current area of operations for the rebellion. It was Conglomerate-occupied, but the forces there would be minimal. The station was far too small and had nothing of real value besides its location near the equator, making it easy for transports to enter and exit the atmosphere. It was just a question of slipping through unnoticed and getting onto a private transport before the garrison even knew they were there. With the utility truck and Nate's armor stripped of markings, and Ketri bundled up in a long coat, hood and sand mask, they could pass for Human colonists or prospectors, at least from a distance.

There was no music this time. Ketri clearly wasn't in the mood and neither was Nate. The events of the day were weighing heavily on him. He hadn't known these people for long, yet he felt more connection to them than he ever had to the various units he'd served with as a mercenary. While he had felt nothing for the men who died in the dropship when he first crashed here, the deaths of Thoros and the others left his emotions raw and his chest feeling empty. More than anything, he just wanted to hold Ketri close and try to forget, but she had been uncharacteristically silent for hours, and he didn't want to bother her. They hurtled across the darkening dunes, kicking up a plume of sand behind them.

-Chap. 7 fin-