De Luce et Tenebris Umbra

Quick Author's Note

Sorry for being so late in updating, a lot of personal issues got in the way, so I made up for it by adding 1k words for every week I missed besides the usual 2k.

{----------} means changes of setting in the present story. (Same Character)

[----------] means changes to memories or different characters.

(=========) means changes of setting in memories

Ghost

“Is that all?”

I was standing by a monitor giving the base commander and the scientist a glare. I had taken off my helmet, but I had left my mask drawn up to my eyes. The amount of information that they had provided us with was staggering, and yet it was all nearly useless to us.

He was shaking slightly and was running a cold sweat, while the scientist was simply glancing around nervously, but at the same time he looked somewhat annoyed from being pulled away from their work.

I sighed and shook my head as I leaned against the wall, rubbing my eyes to ease my nerves and to think. This mission was already going south and we hadn’t even officially started yet.

I glanced back up to catch his second in command staring at me quizzically, but she quickly averted her eyes and started to shuffle through the reports in front her as if trying to find something that we might have missed. A crucial detail, piece, or fragment, something that would have made the time we were using meaningful instead of a waste.

{--------------------------------------------}

After confronting the base commander we began to pour over all of the information that couldn’t be sent, even, over encrypted channels and then some.

By confronting him, I mean that we had all practically materialized out of thin air as he returned from a patrol. If that and recent events hadn’t shaken him up, learning that 2 squads from X-Ray Company had been sent personally to deal with the anomaly had.

Dan had stayed with me to interrogate the scientists and anyone who had been on hand at the time, as Char and Alex sorted through and analyzed all the footage that we could get our hands on for anything that could provide even the barest clue of what we were dealing with.

Meanwhile, Rex and his team had gone to the Point of Interest (or PI) to set up a perimeter around the area to keep anyone from getting near and possibly being pulled in as well. We didn’t need to have more than one civilian nuisance to deal with.

{-----------------------------------------------}

“Is that all?” I repeated.

The base commander gave a shaky affirmative while the scientist only nodded slowly. The second stopped going through her TACPAD and took quick glances between me and Dan before settling her gaze on me. I stared back at her calmly and slightly raised an eyebrow questioningly when I noticed something odd. Her face was familiar…very familiar, but I couldn’t quite place where I had seen her before.

Before I could take the matter further my earpiece crackled and brought my thoughts back to the matter at hand.

“Sir we found something that ‘ah think ya’ll should know about,” radioed Alex.

“Go ahead.”

“It’s going to have to be team only though Ghost.”

I looked at Dan and saw that he was already reaching for his helmet so I turned to the others in the room and motioned that they could leave. As they stood up from their chairs I walked over to the table on one side of the room, picked my helmet, which was resting atop a pile of crates, and started to slip it on when one more thought passed through my mind. Before they passed through the door I stopped them one more time.

“Meet us in the main plaza at 1930 hours.”

The scientist was practically skipping with joy at the prospect of returning to his work, while the Commander simply saluted and marched away to see to the rest of the patrols. His subordinate however hesitated before walking out.

She gazed at me coolly as I secured my helmet, and slightly tilted her head as if trying to contemplate something about me. What it would be; I had no idea, but before she turned away I caught a glimpse of something her eyes.

Disappointment

I walked past her and held the door open as she walked out. I nodded my head slightly as she passed.

“Warrant Officer”

Once outside the door she straightened and saluted before walking away.

“Colonel”

Disappointment… what was she disappointed about? It was something about me, that much I could guess, but what could it be? Was she expecting something more when I took off my helmet? Possibly a bare skull, or a human-machine hybrid?

I shrugged mentally.

We were notorious, both within our allies, and our enemies. We were the Bogeymen who crept in the shadows; sabotage, assassination, capture, rescue.

We were the Daemons who faced down armies of our enemies and slaughtered them. Soldiers, civilians who were trapped by hostile forces. One day they would be on the brink of capture or execution, the next they would wading through fields of the bodies of their enemies. We were to be the very best at what we do, both respected and feared by friend and foe alike.

I closed the door tightly and turned to see Dan tapping the side of his helmet, the indication to check if our comms. were secure. I quickly ran a scan of my equipment and let out two pings to signal that I was green to go, which were quickly followed by three more sets of two.

“Okay Alex, report.”

“Before ‘ah do, did ya’ get anything interesting out a’ the scientist by chance?”

“No nothing…why?”

“Hmm… that’s strange.”

“Wha…”

“Anywho ya’ll better get down here right quick…this is some interesting shit.”

I turned to Dan who simply shrugged in response before asking questions of his own.

“And where, pray tell… are these interesting things you two found?”

This time Char’ decided to answer.

“We’re currently in Wide-Eyes’s lab, tearing through anything and everything in his personal files.”

“…”

“Before you ask, it was my idea and I’m using one of Dan’s worms to get through the firewalls…you should see the type of things this guy kept in his private journals. Paranoid ignorant scholar,” she spat.

Dan and I were already standing outside the labs by the time Char’ finished reading one of his entries. The words, ‘untrustworthy, indiscriminant, thieves, slackers, arrogant, and government thugs,’ kept popping up as she read.

Dan let out a low whistle when she finished reading as we keyed open the doors and began walking to the back were the LSci’s office was located.

“Hey!”, yelled a guard as he rounded the corner.

“No one’s allowed inside ri…”

He froze when he saw us, but then again most things did. Two highly trained soldiers in all black powered armor, plus armed to the teeth with the biggest combat knives he was probably ever going to see. For many…it was the last thing they saw. For this guard…it was his point of interest for a split-second before he snapped to attention.

“Um..I..uh..,” he stammered out before swallowing.

“I apologize, I was not aware that you would be coming to this area sir!”

Dan, who was in the lead, simply nodded at the guard and kept walking.

“Hey Ghost?” he called back to me on a private channel, “You catch that?”

I did. What did he mean by he ‘wasn’t aware’? Hadn’t he already seen Alex and Char’? If not, how’d they get into the office without being spotted?

“Yeah hang on,” I radioed back before switching back to our team channel.

“Hey Alex, did you guys…”

“Sneak past the guard?”

“Yeah”

I could hear him scoff before he replied.

“He’s about as blind and deaf as a Torvish snake a…”

I quickly cut him off, “You use active camo and a stone didn’t you?”

“…”

He didn’t respond so Char’ answered for him, “Yes, yes he did.”

I turned a corner and looked through a window that was placed in the wall. Behind it was a load of technicians working on some kind of equipment, but at the pace that they working at…something didn’t feel quite right.

“Hey Ghost?’

“Yes Char’?”

“If you happen to pass through the hallway where some techies are working on some big complicated thing, don’t worry.”

“What a coincidence I was about to call ‘bout that.”

I tilted my head questioningly even though it was over our comms, it was an odd habit, but it seemed to work during interrogations.

“And why exactly should I not be worried about it?”

“We saw it on the way in, and one of the Wide-Eyes’s files explains it.”

There was a pause in which I assumed that she was reading over the file again. Turning my attention back to the window I found Dan staring through it at the machine, the slight side to side movements of his head let me know that he was getting footage of it to review later.

“So what exactly is this thing?” Dan piped up.

“It’s going to be our only way through the portal and back again.” She replied thoughtfully.

Dan turned to face me and motioned that we should start walking again.

“How so?”

“Well… in order for us to be able to jump through the ‘door’, the EM field needs to be strengthened first before it can be opened. Sorta like the key for an interdimensional lock.”

“So why are they building a new one?”

“Remember in the reports we were sent, they said that some equipment was damaged when the portal snapped shut?”

*Sigh*

“And that was it?”

“Yep”

“So we have to wait ‘till they’re finished?”

I stopped in front of the office’s door and knocked twice before opening it.

Stepping inside I saw that Char’ was leaning over a computer in a corner desk while Alex was standing in front of a wall screen, watching a loop of the incident. Char’ looked up at us and gestured me over to the desk while Dan went over to the TACPAD for the wall and started messing with the clarity of the footage.

“Not really,” she said as she moved over to allow me behind the desk, “They’ve been working on it ever since Command sent them the word.”

She tapped on her helmet and made a flicking motion with her hand sending over the file.

“It should be done by 2000 (twenty-hundred) hours.”

“Here,” she said pointing at the screen, “read this part.”

{-------------------------------------------------}

I read through the file and all the promising characteristics of the machine as written by ‘Nathanial Williams’ our LSci., but as I read further into its characteristics and possible future applications for scientific exploration, I could see the possible military uses as well.

“Oh shit!”

“Oh no”

Our reactions were typical of someone being told that an attack could come and that you’d be helpless to do anything about it.

{--------------------------------------------------}

“If an army had one at their disposal they could easily travel unnoticed and pop up nearly anywhere!”

I slammed my fist into the metal table in the mess hall leaving a deep dent in the 1 ½ in. steel. The base commander and his highest ranking officers were with him on the other side of the table. The current lead scientists working on the project were grouped a few meters away. I had Dan on my left and Rex on my right, as I had sent Char’ and Alex to reinforce the teams around the anomaly.

The base commander was stunned and his subordinates were trying to come up with a contingency plan in case of the technology or plans being stolen. The fact that such a machine was possible was terrifying, but that wasn’t the worst of it!

“Why the hell are we barely finding out about this now!?” I yelled at the scientists.

I was furious that none had seen the implications of creating such a device, and not only that, but they had kept the BC in the dark the whole time, so security around the labs was in a pitiful state.

I vaulted over the table and started walking towards the scientists leaving my helmet on the table. They were backing away quickly but were stopped almost immediately by Dan and Rex. No one made a move to stop us. I grabbed the current top scientist and lifted him off the ground and growled in his face.

“You made a working model of the machine in 24 hours! With only spare parts and written plans!”

I tossed him back and focused on the rest of them.

“They not only have had 36 hours to work on it, but they also have the damn man who created it! And who knows what kind of tech support they got! They could already have a working one up and running!”

“But Nath…”

I rounded on him before he could finish. I had never lost my cool before, not even in a firefight, but knowing that you can’t stop an attack from coming either at you or at civilians that you cannot reach in time is a horrible thing.

“You…” I took a slow breath and closed my eyes trying to slow down. Anger makes you erratic and careless and your rational mind goes out the airlock. I turned around and slowly walked away from them taking a seat at the table.

I looked up at the sci’s and they looked like they were going to faint. Rex’s eyes were wide as dinner plates as were Dan’s, but he was walking towards me. Turning around to see if the others had noticed my little tirade I saw that they were too busy preparing for the worst, some were even running out to scramble all the armor they muster. *Armor = Vehicles *

The only ones that were looking at me were the commander’s second and her assistant, but the assistant’s presence was lost on me as I froze, looking into the fearful eyes of the Warrant Officer. I could see the fear in her eyes, but that wasn’t all, there was something else as well. That had been the point at which I froze, the point at which the whole world around me that disappeared, when time itself had stopped.

I could see now who she was, where I had seen her before and why she had been disappointed. But it was the fear in her eyes that took me back to a time before now. It was the same fear that I had seen 7 years ago in the eyes of a young 18 year old sergeant.

[------------------------------------------]

Planet Demanti, Korbos System

111th Semi-mechanized Infantry Battalion

Ghost

Age: 20

Dropping through the atmosphere of this besieged planet was something that was almost out of a movie I saw when I was a small boy with my parents. If you were to back-track a few years and asked me what I was going to be when I left school, I definitely wouldn’t have said a soldier. Maybe a doctor, or a pilot, an explorer, and if I was going into the military maybe a strategist…but definitely not a foot soldier.

But here I am, in the ‘hold of an Avio, watching the ramp fall as we hit the ground. To say that we had exited in a proper military fashion would be an overstatement. We had lost 1/6 of our birds coming down, that’s 120 soldiers. Men, women, my brothers and my sisters, the people who I would trust and follow to the ends of the universe, as they would with me.

The first thing I did when the ramp fell was start barking orders to my men. We had to get out as quickly as possible and get the Avio’s into cover while our air-cover lasted. At the same time we were to start loading as many civilians as we could, mainly women and children, the old and the sick, but any able-bodied man ages 17-40 who volunteered to help defend the spaceport would be welcomed gratefully.

Once I had finished issuing out primary orders to my men, I quickly jogged over to the makeshift command center in the control tower to get my new orders.

What I walked into was the least of my worries, but what came after would haunt me over the next several days of hard fighting.

(---------------------------------------------------)

“What the hell do you mean the engineers won’t be done in time?! I ordered that those buildings be mined to collapse, and there should be 30 remote detonators on this screen.”

The Commanding Officer of this whole operation was a General A. Leewit, and he was practically famous for his almost insane adherence to plans. If something wasn’t exactly right or ahead of schedule then he would consider it to be unacceptable. Needless to say though, he’d been involved in some of our most successful operations to date, so us grunts let it slide.

“If there should be 30, tell me why the hell are there only 20 that are greenlit?”

Now, I had barely arrived, but just by hearing the end of the conversation, I could tell where it was heading. The only bad part…I was the only actual combat ready soldier in the room, and somebody had to go help the engineers.

‘Please don’t, please don’t, please don’t, plea…’

He turned from his position leaning over the holo-map and faced me, as did the rest of the people in the room.

“Captain!”

*Gulp*

“Yes sir?”

“I want you to select a team of thirty-five men besides yourself and go provide extra support for the engineers.” He turned away from me and started going over the map again.

“Take some of the Pumas an’ get out there quick as you can.”

Ah shit…

“Yes sir!”

(========)

“How’s the situation Corporal?”

The man shivered in the nonexistent cold as he placed the last few charges on one of the main supports of our current building.

“It’s…we’re in a bad way Captain.”

He turned away and began to replace the extra pieces of the charge in his pack.

“Every time we step out into the open we’re hounded by snipers. Those Puma’s you brought us are a godsend…hmph…we should be done in 10 minutes, give or take 1 minute or so.”

I grabbed his shoulder as he began to move away.

“Make it 5.”

“Yes Sir!”

I sighed and began a quick jog over to our next position and I nearly tripped over an oddly placed bush in the middle of a mound of rubble. I didn’t even notice the grayish-white camouflaged barrel until it fired, sending me 3 ft. straight up.

“Ha.ha.ha.ha.”

“Dammit Lieutenant!”

I was breathing hard at the scare and my left ear had a slight ring from the shot.

“You should have seen your face Capt’n!” he laughed as he stood up from his position, the Ghillie Suit and netting molding into a floating pile.

I let out an exasperated puff of air and continued to walk on with the lieutenant right behind me.

“How many are left?”

“Ja’yeers? Hmmm…let me think. There was one right now, two when we got here, one I found sneaking around,” he flipped his knife out of it’s sheathe and replaced it, “And if I’m right then another should be gone in…3…2…1.”

WHIZ…BOOM!

A contrail appeared streaking across the sky above us for a split-second before the side of a nearby mountain disappeared in a flash of light, fire, and tons of flying stone and earth.

“I decided to let the boys in artillery have some fun and marked a couple positions that I found.”

I shook my head and waved him off.

“Go an’ keep at it, I don’t want to get shot in the back on our exfil.”

“On it”

As he jogged away, I moved on to our makeshift forward command center to see who had reported back already. What I found was that most teams were finishing up and several were loading the Puma’s.

I walked up to the top of our CCenter, and looked around at the surrounding area. There was no movement that I could see except for the slight fly sized shapes of dropships in the distance. Landing in areas that our anti-air couldn’t reach, it was only a matter of time before they started their attack.

The only question was, could we finish placing charges before then?

“Captain?”

I turned around and was faced by a young Sergeant who had volunteered for the assignment. She was probably the youngest of us here and was still unsure of herself. Why she had volunteered was a complete mystery to me.

“What’s wrong kid?”

She shuffled her feet and wrung her hands before opening her mouth and closing it again.

“Sir…I was wondering”

She hesitated again and I crossed my arms.

“Sir…um”

“Yes…”

“Um…what exactly are the charges meant to do? I sorta signed on without knowing what I was getting into.”

I mentally slapped myself.

No wonder…but that’s not what she wanted to ask…why the change?

“The charges are meant to cause a domino like collapse of many of the buildings blocking access through and delaying the enemy advance for another few hours. They’ll have to go through it as they can’t go over it since our anti-air has this whole valley covered. This city is in a narrowing of the mountain range causing it to be a near natural chokepoint. We’re to place charges and collapse the buildings when the enemy enters the city to both cause casualties and confusion.”

“Oh”

I sighed, really need to start doing less of that.

“Did you finish your assignment?”

“Huh…oh right…yes sir we did, about 6 minutes ago.”

“Then what are you still doing here? Go get in the Puma’s with the rest of your team and await further order…”

Eeeeeeeeeeee

Shit!

I leaped forwards and tackled her around the waist and down the stairs just as the room we were in detonated.

“Go! Go! Go!”

We were running as fast as we could out the side of the building when I heard the first reports start to filter through my headset.

“We’re under fire!”

“Covering!”

“I’m hit! I’m hit!”

“Medic!”

“Requesting fire support in coordinates 55 Foxtrot Tang…click!”

“Shit! Sniper!”

“Get him! I’ll cover you!”

“Come on stay with me.”

I looked around the area and saw my helmet on a nearby worktable. Quickly slipping it on I turned and saw the sergeant loading her weapon and pulling on her own helmet.

I grabbed her and pointed to the main lot where we had left the Puma’s.

“Get in and start them up! Be ready to move out soon as you’re loaded!”

She struggled against my grasp trying to get past me.

“But I want to be in the fight sir!”

“There’s no time for that,” I continued to yell at her as I heard the screams of my men over the radio, “We need to get out of here as soon as possible! Get the Puma’s ready and wait for me to come back with the rest of them. We need to be out by the time the charges start blowing!”

She stopped struggling and started running towards the lot, so I picked up a nearby shotgun and loaded some rounds before strapping it next to my rifle.

(=====-==)

“Fall Back! Fall Back! Give covering fire as you retreat in squads.”

We were retreating as fast as we could; all of the engineers and our fire-teams were filtering back to what remained of the CCenter and the waiting Puma’s.

Eight of my men lay dead in the streets and five more were wounded, two critically so.

Arriving at a destroyed wall I could see my men jumping into the backs of the Puma’s, covering each other with the mounted guns. The one nearest me was half-empty and they were waving at me to jump in.

Securing myself into the back I saw that the first ones were already leaving and roaring down the road.

The last one to leave was the one that I had left the young sergeant to drive. As she stepped on the throttle and sped away, she glanced at me through the windshield and smiled. I waved back at her to say to hurry up, went me and the men nearest the end of our Puma saw movement to our right. Around me, the men were bringing their weapons to bear as I yelled frantically through the comms.

Her eyes darted to her left, our right, and her face blanched. My men opened fire and my helmet muffled all outside noise to compensate for the gun going off right next to me. She turned the wheel hard and jinxed the tail end of the Puma around, swerving to provide a hard target…but it was too late.

The glowing projectile rocketed out of the side of a building and impacted dead center under the Puma.

BOOM

It was literally blasted off of its wheels, and I watched as it was sheared in half before smashing through the side of a nearby market.

We were leaving the scene quickly and from the looks of it, there would have been no survivors. My blood began to boil and my vision gained a tint of red. Eight more of my men had just been killed and I had been powerless to stop it, but there was nothing that I could now without putting more of my men at risk; revenge would have to wait.

BOOM…SNAP!

Oh no…

I could hear the explosive charges detonating around the city, and the shrieks of metal structural supports as they tried to support the weight of whole buildings without the main bases. We weren’t even halfway out of the city yet.

It’s too soon!

Suddenly the Puma bucked and rocked as the street under us cracked and warped from the shock waves, sending us into an uncontrolled roll. There was nothing I could do as I was flung out the back like a rag doll and smashed through a window, landing in the window display of a shop.

I pushed myself up groaning and trying to regain my bearings as I realized that I wasn’t the only thing groaning. I looked up out of the window that I had just broken through and saw building start to buckle and bend, falling onto each other…just like dominos.

I jumped to my feet and started running, shock and adrenaline drowning out the cries of pain of my battered body. I could hear the crashing behind me as the building that I was just in was caved in by a piece of concrete the size of a light-tank.

I kept on running even though I could hear the sounds of baseball and football sized chunks of concrete and metal falling all around me. There was so much noise and so many things flying around that I barely registered the Van’ Major jumping at me through the side of a building.

I turned to jump out of his way when he suddenly jerked sideways and fell against a wall, and stayed hanging there…a piece of rebar the length of my arm protruding out of his head. His shields had stopped the rod of torn metal from tearing straight through his head and the wall next to him, but instead slowed it down enough that it entered his cranium and imbedded itself in the wall, his body hanging from it like a bird impaled by a arrow.

Then the ground fell out from under me and I realized that I had just ran off the edge of the street and I fell to a drainage ditch below. There was a flood pipe sticking out of the ground at one end, and looking up I could see a building begin its collapse in my direction. I didn’t give it a second thought; I just dived straight into the pipe, slid on top of the mud, and hoped for the best.

The inside was dark and I stared sloshing my way down trying to find the nearest exit. My helmet’s night-vision system wasn’t much help and the headlamps were not working properly, flickering on and off periodically. When they finally shut down for the last time my vision was smothered by the blackness. At first I thought that my helmet had failed…until I felt something shaking my arm, and a cool breeze across my face.

“Hey soldier…wake up!”

(========)

I jerked awake and shook my head, and finding myself in a dimly lit room I automatically reached for my sidearm, but felt a firm arm grab my wrist.

“Calm down mate’. I’m not going to hurt you.”

I looked around and blinked a few time to clear my vision, before landing my eyes on the grizzled old face of a man in ragged clothes.

“Do you want some water? You’ve been out for two days.”

TWO DAYS!?

I slowly nodded yes and watched as he left the room before examining myself.

My helmet was missing and my left sleeve and right pant leg had been rolled up revealing some clean bandages. My combat vest was missing, as were my sidearm and extra ammunition, but my knife was still in place. Before I could come up with a course of action the man returned, canteen in hand.

“Found you in a drainage ditch, covered in slop, and halfway up the side. You were so out it that at first I thought you were dead, good thing I’ve spent my fair share of time in the military as a combat medic.”

He chuckled as he handed me the canteen, before stepping back and sitting in an old fashioned, wooden rocking chair. I slowly sipped the water and took the time to look around the room. It was sparsely furnished and the windows were boarded up and some medical supplies were piled in the corner, right under some pictures of several children and who I assumed to be their parents.

He caught me staring at the pictures and spoke up.

“Those are my children and their grandchildren, right before they left for New Galapagos.”

I turned to look at him. New Galapagos was the scene of where several new species of mammals and reptiles were found. The mammals were huge and quick, but they ran on so little food that it was inconceivable when they were first found.

The reptiles were moderately sized, about the height of my chest, and their skin was almost as tough as the chassis of our Puma’s. The largest of them could get hit by a transport vehicle going 50 miles per hour, and just get up and walk away like nothing had happened, but they would leave the vehicle completely totaled.

Surprising enough nearly all the species were gentle giants, the only aggressive one were so small that they were only considered dangerous in packs, but there had been no reported deaths caused by them.

Besides that…New Galapagos was also the sight of our first contact with the ‘Van. There was no warning, no introduction, no talks held, just a pure heartless massacre.

We learned later when a Special Forces team captured one of their ships, that there are scattered races across our galaxy, and several are human-like. They were hunted for sport by the ‘Van until their numbers dwindled and so they went looking for new prey, us. But that was 4 years ago.

“I’m sorry.”

He shook his head.

“I got over it a long time ago, like the soldier I was.”

He looked out of one of the uncovered windows.

“I been waiting for payback, so when I heard they were coming here I prepared myself.”

He hefted himself up and walked over to a nearby locker pulling several rifles out along with a backpack. He walked back to me and handed me the backpack and the rifles along with some netting and some tape.

“Ever since the town was evacuated and you guys started setting up defenses, I’ve been planting IED’s along the roads, in the sewers, and in the walls of buildings. They’re all designed to go off under a set of circumstances.”

I stared at him.

IED’s? Where the hell did he get the ordinance for that?

He glanced at me and smiled.

“You’d be surprised what kind of contacts an old soldier can dig up for supplies.”

He once again strode away and this time walked to the picture, took it off its hanger, and revealed the compartment behind it.

Reaching inside, he pulled out a metal box and turned to me.

“I’m getting too old for all this Black Ops shit.”

He opened the box to reveal a remote trigger and held it out to me.

“I’m just gonna sit on my front porch and blow the shit out’a anything that moves. I’ll leave the actual timing up to you.”

I slowly took the trigger out of the box and placed in one of the pockets of my new vest.

“Each bomb detonates on its own, the trigger just arms them, and at the same time each bomb appears as a weapon cache marked EXPL. on any nearby allied comms.”

“Thanks.”

I slowly stood up and felt slight tingling in my leg and arm, but I still had full control of my limbs.

“Just gave you some local anesthetic to keep off the pain, mixed with a stim, it just dulls the pain but leaves you with control.”

“Are you sure you want to stay?”

He nodded his face adamant.

“I going to die soon anyway, you know, war wounds, conditions, and old age.”

He picked up one of the rifles and a few clips before moving towards the door.

“Oh an’ one more thing youngster, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Oh it’s …”

He froze and turned around dropping his gun as he did so. His whole demeanor had changed in an instant. The look in his eyes was almost frenzied and his head and hands were twitching almost as if he was having a seizure.

This can’t be good.

(==========)

“The name! He has been waiting for the NAME!” he cried.

“All these years he has been waiting for you!”

I scrambled away from the crazy madman and his continuing hysterics. I was absolutely horrified at his current state, and I gave up all thoughts of trying to reason with him.

“Who?” I yelled back at him.

“Goddammit WHO!”

His eyes glazed over and he started to sway slowly on his feet. A slow smile spread across his face from ear to ear as if he had been waiting for my question all along.

“You will find him soon enough,” he rasped, “Or maybe…he will.. find.. you!”

He finished his tirade of nonsense and almost as if in slow motion, toppled over onto the floor.

“Sh…ing…or…ou,” he mumbled incoherently.

I knelt down next to him and slowly turned him over so that he was face up.

“What are you trying to say old man?”

He took a long rasping breath before giving his last words.

“She’s waiting for you…,” he slowly raised a bony hand to point to a door on the other side of the living room.

Beep…Beep

What the hell?

“They’re coming!”

Oh shit!

The old man slowly rolled over and stood up, rubbing his eyes before looking at me. The crazed look was gone only to be replaced by conviction.

“Keep…her…ssaaafffee…,” he rasped as he reached for the fallen rifle, and started walking towards the front windows, before bashing them open with the butt of his rifle. He turned back to me as he leaned against the wall.

“GO!” he yelled pointing at the door, “I left my truck in the alley. You can use it to get out.”

What just happened?

Who… keep who safe?

I slowly got to my feet and walked over to the door. Opening it I found a room with one door open with a view to the outside and the other with a bloodstained bandage caught in the doorframe. Coming up next to it I pressed my ear to it to try and hear if anything was behind it.

Click…Snap…Thump

I could hear the distinct sound of something heavy like a duffel bag hitting the floor when all sound ceased. I waited nervously as I shifted to one side of the door and crouched low, ready for anything, but I couldn’t afford to wait any longer so I decided to take a risk.

Reaching forward I knocked on the doorframe three times.

Tap…tap…tap…

“Who’s there?”

Wait a sec…I recognize that voice.

“I warn you I’m armed and military trained, so whoever you are.. speak up……please.”

I decided to take a gamble and opened the door slightly.

“Hey.”

“C…captain?”

I opened the door completely and walked in slowly. That’s when I saw her, the sergeant from before, and she was still alive! Looking her over though I could see several bandages poking out through her uniform and a certain stiffness in her left…no wait anatomical position…there we go… right leg.

As soon as I had come completely through the door her eyes lit up like it was Christmas day, or rather…her eye. She had a bandage covering her left eye and wrapped around her forehead with some blood staining it from above her eye.

I was relieved to see that she had survived the attack, but scared at the same time…scared that I wouldn’t be able to get her out of here, but before I could do anything she flung herself at me wrapping me in a tight hug.

“You survived!”

I was stunned at her reaction and lightly tapped her back before she released me blushing.

“I…uh.”

I shook my head and glanced behind her taking in the used bandages and opened medical kit, and as much as I was happy to see her, the ‘Van were still on their way and we had to get a move on.

“Are you okay to walk,” I asked as I leaned over to pick up her bag.

'“No wait…I can do it,” she stopped me and tried to pick it up herself, but quickly stopped when I grabbed her wrist. That’s when I saw the bandages on her arm, as well as seeing that the jacket wasn’t hers.

“You don’t seem to be any shape to do that sergeant,” I said slinging the bag over my shoulder.

“Come on we need to go,” I continued as I positioned myself under her good arm.

“Right”

We slowly walked out of the room and I looked to the waiting old man, still in the main building.

He waved at us before motioning that we should get moving.

“Don’t forget to arm the charges when you’re out of range! Good Luck!”

“You too!”

I shuffled out the door and saw that instead of a truck, there was a stripped down Panther in the alley, the predecessor to the Puma. Helping the sergeant into the passenger side, I walked as quickly as I could to the driver’s side.

(=========)

Once we were a safe distance away, I pulled out the trigger, pulled the old fashioned pin, and activated it. Several dozen lights soon popped up on my HUD just like the old man said.

“What are those?”

I didn’t take my eyes off of the road, and simply settled for a simple answer.

“They’re a few surprises that our friend rigged up for the ‘Van.”

“So why is there one right under his…”

“Yeah…”

“We’ve gotta go back for …”

“NO!”

“…”

“He planned for this, he wants this.”

“Can’t we…”

“No…he deserves the rest.”

“Right now we need to focus on getting to the spaceport and getting out of here.”

Just then the cache under his house disappeared.

…BOOM…

‘Rest in peace old man.’

Slowly on the drive back the tingling in my arm and leg wore off, but the pain didn’t return. Instead I just felt a little fatigued and not even the slightest bit sore.

Weird…

Crackle…

“To any nearby units, the main road to the spaceport is under attack by enemy advance forces, requesting assistance immediately!”

Shit

(========)

“Come on, come on! We need to go sir!”

I stayed at my position next to door and continued to usher people through the doors into the spaceport. The pilot continued to yell at me through our comms., but I didn’t stop. I had an obligation to the people who survived and I wouldn’t let them down.

All of a sudden I felt myself yanked around and face to face with a bloodstained trooper. He gripped my shoulders and pulled me away from the doors.

“Sir we need to get on that bird! It’s the last one out of he…”

BOOM…CRACK

The wall exploded and I felt the trooper release me as we were both sent flying. Chunks of concrete, plexiglas, and plasteel flew past us and a roiling cloud of dust enveloped me as I hit a nearby bench.

I rolled off the bench and crouched on the ground, dazed. My vision was blurry and I had a whooping ringing in my ears like I'd been point blank from a flashbang. I lifted my hand to face but I couldn't see it through the blurred haze before me. I slowly pushed myself off my hands and knees only to collapse and lay motionless with my cheek resting on the cold metal floor.

Wait minute here... Cold? I had my helmet on... How in the hell can I feel the cold?

These thoughts quickly fled my mind as the cold soon turned to a warm wetness. I could smell the scent of metal in the air intermixed with the scent of something burning and the dull pounding in my head.

I heard some odd sounds as the pounding seemed to recede and felt something grip my shoulder and flip me over. I was looking into the angry face of a different trooper as he seemed to be yelling at me.

Strange, I can see his mouth moving but I can't hear anything?

All of a sudden my hearing returned in a tidal wave of sound. The roaring of an Avio's engines, the sharp bangs of friendly and whines of hostile fire.

Then slowly, the frantic voice of my savior filtered through.

"We need to go! Can you walk? We've patched you up the best we can, but we can't stay here any longer!"

In the background I could hear other voices and gunfire. Suddenly the medic lifted me up onto his shoulder and he started moving as quickly as he could towards a landing Avio'. The soldiers who were manning the inner doors ran back towards us in squads, covering each other as they went.

Just as I was seated and the men were running up the gangplank, a group of eight Van Majors rand through the doors, guns drawn.

The men still outside opened fire as they moved up the ramp putting down three of the Majors, one of whom had been arming a grenade which then fell to the ground and killed three more. The remaining two dived in seperated directions, one armed a grenade, and the other raised an anti-vehicle launcher. The men poured fire onto the launcher when a piercing shot rang out and the Grenadier's head exploded into a cloud of purple mist.

His body falling he released the grenade mid-throw and it fell at the feet of the launcher. It incinerated the lower half of his body and his hand pulled the trigger of the launcher as he fell, sending the round flying harmlessly upward to our far right.

As the men were running into the Avio’ and taking their seats, I was looking around for the source of the shot that saved us when I saw a slight reflection on the building to our right. I concentrated all of my focus and just managed to make out a silhouette against the setting sun. He was leaning against a long-barreled rifle and gave me a small wave.

All of a sudden, it felt as if someone had driven a white hot spike of pain into my temple. I gasped and clasped the sides of my head, my eyes squeezing shut from the pain. I saw flashes of light and blurs of color that turned into flashes of landscapes and
cities.

The pain receded as quickly as it had come and I opened my eyes with my chin resting on my chest; that was when I saw how badly I was hit.

My fatigues and armor were cracked and I was missing most of my chest pockets and pouches. My dog tags were hanging out of my shirt and I could see the slight trails of blood as it trickled out from beneath my shirt. Then, a pair of gloved hands appeared holding a combat dressing entered my field of vision and they began to wrap it tightly around my leg.

I looked back up and saw that a core-man was crouched in front me, tending to what he couldn’t while he was under fire. Glancing up over his shoulder I saw that the gangplank was quickly closing and I managed to get one last glimpse of the man on the building.

He was waving as he seemed to dissolve into the smoke and one last image of a faraway place planted itself before my eyes.

There was a city. A city with tall buildings and a beautiful forest beside it, it was vibrant with colors and life, like an ant colony hard at work. Then it slowly shifted like a haze had began to smother the lively picture.

When it cleared again, I saw dark buildings and billowing towers of black smoke. I could hear screams and brief flashes of light within the streets. It as if oil, the blood of the land, was flowing into the great the ocean that surrounds us, tainting it a blackish red with the light of the many blazing fires.

Off, on the apex of a smoky hill, the same silhouette was standing, watching the destruction unfold, weeping at what he couldn’t save, but burning with the bright flame of revenge.

{----------------------------------------------}

“Hey Ghost…you alright mate?”

I shook myself from the memories and looked up to see Dan shaking me. I quickly turned and started looking around the room to see the sergeant, now Warrant Officer, walking out the doors with her assistant not far behind.

“Oi! You awake in there?”

I turned back to Dan and stared at his worried expression, then at my helmet in his hand.

“How long was I…”

He shook his head and pressed the helmet into my hands.

“Only a couple minutes,” he said unclipping his own from his waist and holding it under his arm.

“Don’t worry, I told them you were thinking up a plan for us,” he continued and he gestured towards the door.

I stood up slowly and raised the helmet so I could peer into the visor.

‘Who am I really? Behind the mask.’

Tap…Tap

“Do you have a plan for us Ghost?” Dan asked expectantly before he slipped on his helmet.

“Y…yeah I do…but let’s regroup with the others first.”