A figure dashed out of a doorway moments later, feet kicking up the ash that coated the street, and climbed on top of the patroller. The attacker, dressed in a filter mask and dark, ratty coat, pulled the masks from the patroller’s dead crew, then started fiddling with the weapons locker. I sensed my opening - I needed a mask if I was going to maintain my performance for long. Damned brass hadn’t built one in, and the silicate ash here would shred my lungs before long if I went without.
The figure didn’t look at me as I approached, but with an overhand toss lobbed something. Before my organic reflexes could react, my implants had isolated the object, recognized it as harmless, and muted the adrenal response. Trusting them, I caught the object, and couldn’t hide my surprise - I was holding a filter mask, exactly what I needed.
“Let’s just pretend you weren’t about to do what you had planned, stranger.” The sniper called out in a feminine voice. I knew I looked like a desperate scavenger, dressed in dusty, threadbare clothes. She couldn’t see the hundred-odd pounds of metal and silicon implants I carried. She didn’t know I could fry her at a twenty meters with my coilguns.
I nodded, and donned the mask slowly, warily. I didn’t bother to defend my intentions, it would have been a pointless waste of words.
“You’ve got balls if you watched that and still thought you could take me unarmed.” The woman turned around, gun in hand. “You’d have been dead by now if you’d been here since the bombs.” She surmised. “Where are you coming from, stranger?”
“Out there.” I said vaguely. I wasn’t going to go around blabbing what I was about, not that I knew it myself. All I had was an arrow in my HUD and a distance.
“Right.” The woman stood up on top of the vehicle, and gestured to a yawning doorway. “Come on. Let’s get out of the open. They’ll come looking.”
I let her lead, ostensibly. My implants swept the dim interior by radar while she cleared rooms manually, and I knew we were alone before she was even halfway done.
“We’re all clear.” She finally confirmed. “I’m Nix, by the way.”
“That’s a callsign, not a name.”
“Yep.” Nix inspected her new bundle of masks. “What about you?”
“As you like. Callsign, nickname, whatever.” I said simply.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She stopped her inspection to look at me, hand going to the gun again.
“Not everyone has a name.” I replied. For those in the know, that was code - black ops field men like me had no legal name, no history, nothing. We were interchangeable and, if necessary, expendable. “Others don’t like the names they’re given. Take your pick.”
Nix’s eyes narrowed. “Those are words I did not expect to hear, stranger.” To my surprise, she seemed to recognize my meaning. “What’s still here that’s worth your time?”
“Sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I gave the rote answer, communicating that that information was secret. That I didn’t know myself didn’t even factor in.
“Really?” Nix seemed surprised. “Even for a Captain? Must be serious.”
“Captain?” I prompted.
“Yup.” She nodded. “Or I was one. Of the Guiscard.”
My HUD filled me in on what I needed to know from the ship name. Captain Nicole Exaro, trained as a Marine, decorated, wounded, transfer to navy security, promotions, captaincy, ship lost. MIA, presumed KIA. She matched the records portrait. “You’re captain Exaro?” I asked.
“Yeah. Ten of us made it down here, but I’m the only one left.” She gestured up. I knew there’d been a battle here, hence the bombed-out, ash-coated city.
I nodded, and pointed my hand to follow my HUD arrow. “I need to go that way, four klicks. Beyond that, I can’t say.”
“Good luck with that.” Nix shook her head. “That’d be their command complex. Defensive line’s too strong.”
Before I could reply, my implants screamed in my mind, and I rolled to the side, feeling my coilguns charge and extend from inside my palms. Unbidden, my hands pointed the coils toward the door, just as two Collective foot soldiers whirled around and took aim. There was a bright flash, and the soldiers disintegrated to join the ever-present ash.
I turned toward Nix, and saw that she was grimacing and clutching both hands to a burned spot on her leg. One of the soldiers had apparently gotten a shot off just before he died. I left her side, active-sweeping the building with my radar, but found no more soldiers.
I returned to find Nix matter-of-factly tying a strip of wetted cloth around the burn. I let her finish before speaking. “How bad is it?” I asked.
“Flesh wound.” Nix replied quietly. “I think I can walk. How... what did you do? You moved so fast... no weapons - ”
I held up a hand, coilgun still extended. “Weapons.” I said simply. “Someone will have heard that.” Protocol would usually instruct me to leave her and continue on my own, but she had to know her way around, that made her valuable. I had just been dropped to the surface that morning, and needed intel.
She motioned for me to help her to her feet, and I complied, slinging her arm over my shoulder to help take the weight off the injured leg. She was obviously in pain, but didn’t complain, aside from the occasional hissed breath.
Sweeping ahead with my radar, I helped Nix out of the building, and let her direct our movements. She picked turns seemingly at random, but I noticed we were winding closer to the city center.
I kept the pace steady until we were forced to go to ground when a patrol vehicle trundled around a bend ahead. Luckily, I was able to get us out of sight before any of the turrets turned toward us.
“You saved my life back there.” Nix whispered.
“Sneakier than I expected from Colls.” I changed the subject to something more comfortable than thanks.
“Back when some of the others were still kicking we put the fear of God into them.” Nix smiled wistfully. “They were easier prey when we started off.”
“They don’t worry me.” I could tell by the sound of the vehicle that it was moving away now, rather than toward us.
“I don’t want to think about how many creds went into building you, Stranger.” Nix shook her head.
“I don’t know.” I admitted.
“You guys are a mystery to us.” Nix pointed out. “No past. No name. No prints. Just protocol. Where do you lot come from?”
“You don’t want to know.” I assured her, with a wince. Those were memories I was not prepared to relive, squatting in the ash of a bombed-out ghost town. Or ever. “Let’s get moving.”
We stopped once more, to scavenge some canned goods from a store, before we found somewhere to hole up. As Nix set about opening the cans, I swept the building, confirming we were alone.
Without plates or utensils, the fare became for us cold, slimy finger-food. I didn’t complain - nutrients are nutrients.
“You know, this place really disgusts me.” Nix said vehemently a few moments after the food ran out. “The people here didn’t really even resist. We got in just as the last batches were going out, rounded up and shipped off-planet. Saw maybe six resistance fighters in total, none of them lasted long.”
I shrugged noncommittally. The people of this world were probably expecting the Confederate navy to ride to the rescue, but the Confederacy couldn’t manage a battle strategy that was more than half-assed lately. the Collective had been targeting flag officers, and that was taking its toll. “They aren’t soldiers.” I pointed out. “What could they have done?”
“More than they did, Stranger.” Nix looked away. “When you’ve got your checklist of objectives filled out, they’ll come to get you, right?” Nix said. She was looking for hope, and I knew I couldn’t give it to her.
“Yes, but there will be no passengers.” She should have known this already. “Only as many seats as the mission expects, no more.”
“Can’t you call in and ask? I’m a damn destroyer captain, you think I could get an evac.” Nix’s voice was bitter, understandably so.
“Your personnel file lists that you’re presumed dead.” I told her. “Lost with the ship. And no, I can’t. Hypercomms are against protocol. I don’t have one.” Well, the HUD module would probably signal mission-complete to the brass, but that didn’t help her.
“Screw protocol.” Nix thumped her fist against the floor. “I’m not dying on this godforsaken backwater.”
I sighed, and shook my head. “I can’t do much, even supposing I get back. They won’t think rescuing you is worth another op.”
Nix looked about to lose it, but after several struggling seconds she shook her head and settled back down. “Sorry, Stranger. I know you have limits, but you look so normal it’s hard to think about what all they’ve stuck inside you. I keep looking for... I don’t know. Empathy?”
“You think I don’t empathize?” I asked rhetorically, annoyed. “Nix, every place I go is some ‘godforsaken backwater’ that I have no business dying on.” My building annoyance, which surprised even me, and seemed to tax the hormone regulators in my system. “I chose to be who I am, because someone needs to be. Someone needs to do the dirty work for the Confederacy, I just have the stomach for it.”
My outburst, though muted and delivered in a level tone because of the regulators, seemed to take her by surprise. “I... I didn’t...”
I could feel the regulators keeping my anger from turning into rage. “You didn’t know that under all the hardware, all the mods, I’m still human?” By her expression I could see that she hadn’t. “Well, believe it. But don’t think that gives me any power to haul your ass out of here.” I shrugged and lay down on my side of the room. “Get some sleep. I want to be moving before the sun’s up tomorrow.”
Nix made a sound as if she was going to protest, but merely sighed and shifted into the corner, to sleep sitting up. I watched her with my radar as I was priming it to watch over us, then set about following my own advice.
I woke an hour before dawn, and nudged Nix awake. I helped her limp out of the building and back to the streets.
From a vantage point several floors up a vacant building I considered the situation under the pale light of sunrise. In addition to heavy antipersonnel emplacements and a veritable wall of patrolling soldiers, I picked out at least five elite super-soldiers - poor souls who had almost as much implanted tech as I did. They were hard to kill except at close range, and usually better armed than I was. The only way in I could see was surrender, but I couldn’t do that. They’d blast me as soon as they got a decent scan. But maybe there was another way...
As I watched the cordon, my HUD changed, showing the names and portraits of three people, all Confederate admirals, each had at least three stars. I was apparently rescuing three people who each outranked the director of the whole black ops program.
“What are you thinking?” Nix asked after a short pause, as my eyes wandered away from the window and over to her. She looked younger than her thirty-six years, and that even under all the grime and ash she was quite attractive.
“I think it’s high time you gave yourself up.” I said simply.
I received only a curiously raised eyebrow in response, and filled her in on my idea. She agreed hesitantly. The whole thing was distasteful, but kosher under ops protocol, and I hated the protocols for that, but I had little choice. I had to complete the mission.
I helped Nix get to her feet, and down the stairs to the street. “Give me a count of one-twenty.” I told her, and turned to leave.
“Wait.” Nix didn’t let go of my arm, so I turned back. “What if this doesn’t work?”
I turned back, and in my mind I could not tell if what I was about to do was calculated or motivated by something more human. “Nix, trust me.” I pulled my mask down to rest on my neck, so she could see the expression on my face. “I am not throwing away your life.” With one hand I gently lifted her mask off her face, and she did not resist.
“But your protocols. How can I be sure?” She asked.
I met and held her eyes, then leaned in to kiss her on the lips. I kept it gentle, brief. It had been some years since I’d last kissed a woman, but I found it to be something not easily forgotten. She inhaled deeply, in surprise, but not in alarm. I wished I could have enjoyed the experience as much as she did, but the conditioning and the regulating implants kept the feeling muted.
As I drew away, she nodded. “I’m... I’m sorry, it’s just... What they tell us about you lot...” She said quietly.
“I’ll do what I can for you. But the mission comes first.” Again, I turned, but only halfway. “Goodbye for now, Nix.”
“See you in a few, Stranger.” She replied. As I ran off, I heard her start counting.
Nix stumbled out into the street, hands upraised, barely a block from the cordon. “I surrender! For God’s sake, I’m starving, I give up, don’t shoot!” She called, as dozens of weapons and more swiveled toward her. Three of the super-soldiers nearby stepped out and hauled her back behind the line. There was a brief radio conversation, and then those three escorted Nix back towards the dome. I started creeping closer, extending my coilguns. These new odds were far more to my liking.
The klaxons sounded the moment I hit the weakened cordon, but it didn’t matter. By the time anyone came running, I was inside the defenses, and by the time the cordon closed over the gap I’d blasted in it, I was already inside the dome. I went to ground there, and sure enough the three elites that had escorted Nix came running back. Two headed outside, the third stood guard at the entrance, but he was expecting the threat to come from outside. He didn’t even see me coming.
The guards in front of the facility’s holding cells were line soldiers, not elites, and they died rapidly. I stalked inside, and the HUD again showed me the faces of the three I was tasked with recovering, but it was Nix I found first. She was in the first cell. There was a fresh bruise on her cheek, but otherwise she looked more or less as I’d last seen her.
She was alert, watching the door as I looked in. “That was quick, Stranger.” She said. “Gonna let me out?”
I responded by powering up my augments and winding up to punch the metal door. Nix stepped to the side, and I swung. It fell inwards, and I tried not to show how much that hurt to do.
There were only ten cells, and my targets were the only other prisoners. Giving Nix a beam rifle and telling her to watch the doors, I punched their cell doors down as well. The admirals were emaciated and scarred, but alive. As soon as I had all three, one of my implants I hadn’t noticed made a hypercomm call. My HUD displayed a timer, along with the words ‘blast extraction’ - a phrase I liked to see. I had ninety seconds.
Leaving the three admirals in a cell, I ran back to Nix, and arrived just in time to dodge a withering salvo of energy beams - mostly. I got grazed twice, and felt the regulators suppress most of the pain. An elite and a group of soldiers had Nix pinned down, but there was good news - the extraction killbox was painted for my eyes right around the entrance, and the soldiers were standing in it.
As the seconds ticked down, I traded shots with them from around the corner. It was no use - my coilguns’ batteries were not designed for lasting firefights, and their reinforcements seemed infinite. I had only a few shots left.
As my shots became more infrequent, the soldiers got bolder, led by their grinning elite commander. Nix twice took shots at him, but the beam rifle proved useless against his subcutaneous armor. I knew all we had to do was keep him close to the doors, and the extraction shuttle would take care of him on its way down. He was advancing out of its killbox, though, and there were still fifteen seconds left.
I caught Nix’s eye and gestured that we needed to stall them, hoping she understood. I used one of my last four shots on the elite, and it hurt him enough to make him take a step back. Nix used the momentary disorientation to take a shot at his face, which didn’t have any effect but to momentarily blind him. The other soldiers tried to return fire, but Nix was too quick. They only managed to superheat the wall behind her. I drove them back with another shot. Fourteen. Thirteen. Twelve. We had to draw this out more, I knew.
Nix grabbed a piece of rubble that looked vaguely grenade-like and lobbed it over. “Fire in the hole!” She bluffed. The soldiers backed up but didn’t run. Eleven. Ten. Nine. Eight. The elite seemed to be regaining his senses. “Get them, you fools!” He yelled. I countermanded his order with another coilgun blast. Seven. Six. My heart surged. We were going to make it.
The elite dove forward suddenly, over the desk, and grabbed Nix. I jumped on his back and knocked him over, throwing Nix aside. I remembered the three unarmed admirals behind our meager defenses. “Nix, get them!” I shouted, meaning the admirals. Five. Four.
Nix scrambled to her feet and limped to escort the admirals toward the melee. The soldiers trained their guns on me, but as I was currently choking their elite superior, they didn’t risk firing. Three.
He was faster than I was, and his neck armor made my chokehold rather pointless. I took a supercharged elbow to the chest, which would have killed a normal human. Two.
I tripped the elite, and landed on top of him, left hand around his neck and bashing at his head with my right arm until his hand closed around my fist and forced it to a stop. One.
I watched the tenths of a second tick away on my HUD. “Zero.” I hissed.
The front of the holding area and all the soldiers evaporated in a super-bright haze, and I knew that at the center of the haze would be an extraction shuttle with four seats.
My radar told me as I struggled that Nix was pushing the admirals past my brawl and into three of the four chairs in the craft. As soon as they were secure, she hesitated. “Get in!” I yelled without looking. The elite, recovering from his surprise, managed to get on top of me. I let him think he was winning a moment longer while my coilgun charged up, then released my last shot into his neck. When the flash dazzle cleared from my eyes, the elite’s shoulders were topped by a cauterized stump, and his body was limp.
I extricated myself, stood up, and moved over to the shuttle. The launch controls were keyed to me, and Nix was sitting in my seat. I matter-of-factly reached in to start the launch sequence.
Nix grabbed my hand and pulled me closer, into a deep, urgent, brief kiss. I let her, not because of protocol but because I wanted to, and keyed the launch sequence with my hand as I drew back.
“Goodbye, Nix.” I said simply, and the shuttle’s canopy sealed over her and the admirals. I stepped back and watched it lift up from the ground, accelerating rapidly.
I towards the dome exit, picking a mask off one of the fallen soldiers. In the confusion the shuttle’s explosive entrance and exit invariably caused, I managed to slip the cordon, and retreat into the empty streets. Yes, I’d breached operation protocol by putting Nix in the shuttle, but I suspected the brass would understand. And if they didn’t, then they could go to hell, I knew that she did.
This story written based on a prompt from Klazzform's Short Story Competition on dndonlinegames.com. It was disqualified from the competition due to my inability to make it fall within the word limits set in the contest rules.
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