The door slammed loudly behind Vance as he sealed the outpost’s entryway. Deep gloom enveloped him, broken only by meager twilight filtering through cracks in the nearby windows. Like the door, they were reinforced by whoever took refuge within the outpost. Though he felt safer inside, he knew no one was left alive within, which meant the building’s defenses had a weakness.
Behind him, the door heaved as a Seque threw its weight against it. The metal latch held strong but Vance was lifted from his feet with each shove. The remaining survivors watched him try to hold the door, shock clear on their features as they remembered injuries, fleeing, and watching comrades die. Those soldiers needed a purpose or they’d be content to sit down in the middle of the floor and wait to die.
“You two.” He looked at the two closest infantry. He didn’t know their names and feared he’d never have time before they joined the rest of their half-eaten friends. “Grab anything you can to reinforce this door. Put your weight against it if you have to, but make sure nothing comes through.”
As they held the door, Vance stepped away with a purpose and angrily approached Yen. Grabbing the edges of his body armor, he slammed Yen against the wall.
“Why’d you do it?” he shouted, his face inches from Yen’s. “Why’d you have to open that disk? You couldn’t keep your gods-be-damned curiosity in check for one mission!”
“What are you…?” Yen stopped when he saw Vance’s determination. His mouth slowly closed but he matched Vance’s stare.
“You couldn’t have left well enough alone, could you?” Vance shouted.
“I think you need to settle down.” The air around Yen wavered slightly as his power built.
Vance noticed and snarled, then began shaking Yen so violently that his determination—and the haze—vanished. “Don’t you dare try to use your powers on me, you bastard!” He shook him again.
A hand closed over Vance’s arm. When he turned, he was face-to-face with Eza.
“Let him go, Sir,” Eza said sternly. “We screwed up. I’ll be the first to admit it, but hurting Yen won’t change our situation.”
“Give it time,” Yen said breathlessly, his head aching from hitting the wall. “Halo will find a way out of here. She never let us down before.”
Vance stared at him, tears filling his eyes as the weight of the loss settled on his shoulders. “She won’t save us this time,” he said quietly. “Captain Young killed her. She died just like we will, because you two opened that disk.”
Yen stared for a moment and then his eyes lowered in shame.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Eza said. “Why would the captain kill Halo?”
“He sold all of us out to the Terrans. Whatever was on that disk, we weren’t meant to see it. Because we did, the captain considers all of us expendable.”
His words hung heavy in the air between them.
“I think it’s time you told me what’s on that disk.” A threat lay under his words.
“Later, Sir,” Eza said.
When Vance glared at him, Eza continued, “If you want to kill us for what we did, I’ll understand. It’s our fault we’re in this mess and you’d be justified to shoot us. The problem is that we’re also two of the only people keeping you alive. Be angry with us all you want, but save it until after we barricade the rest of the building and find a way off this planet.”
Hatred slowly faded from Vance’s eyes. His anger spent, he released Yen and regained his military composure. “Decker, I need you and your men to spread out and search this building. There should be connectors to the outlying buildings in the compound. Make sure all those doors are sealed in case one is breached. Check every possible window to ensure the metal plating is still firmly in place. I don’t know about any of you but I’m tired of being hunted like prey. If we’re going to make a stand here, let’s do it on our own terms.”
“Yes, Sir.” Decker gave orders to the handful of survivors. Infantry soldiers, split into two-man teams, began searching the building.
As Eza walked by, Vance placed a warning hand on his chest. “This is far from done, Eza. When we get out of here, I have every intention of taking up that offer to shoot you.”
Eza looked at Vance’s hand with an expressionless face. Nodding slowly, he brushed the hand aside and joined Yen in searching the building.
Nearly an hour later the sound of hammering and welding filled the outpost’s main building. Having thoroughly searched the structure, they found a storehouse of maintenance equipment, including arc welders and enough tools to fortify the building. Two exterior doors had been pried open though it wasn’t clear whether the former residents of the outpost or the Seques did the damage. Unnoticed by the stalking Seques, the survivors had time to weld shut the doors again and push heavy furniture against the frames for support.
Though reinforcing the building was loud, it did little to block out the howling and scraping of predators outside. The turret guns had long since run out of ammunition and fallen silent, leaving piles of bodies behind. Still, the Seques surrounded the building in waves, their numbers seemingly infinite. They threw themselves against the metal and stone exterior with ferocious blows. Doors and windows shook under the assault but the extra metal plating held.
Where gaps appeared at doors or windows, a survivor quickly slid his weapon barrel through and fired a few rounds into the face of a hungry Seque.
Vance did his best to avoid Yen and Eza. The work required to defend their little outpost occupied much of his time but did little to abate the burning hatred he felt toward his team members. In a moment of curiosity and weakness, they condemned over 100 brave soldiers to death, including Aleiz. The soldiers who died had nothing to do with their mistake but they had paid the ultimate price. His anger toward Yen and Eza, however, was nothing compared to the burning desire for vengeance against Captain Young.
He was still focused on his anger when he stumbled upon the outpost’s control center. The room was cast in darkness, having no windows through which light could enter. His meager flashlight glistened off dormant screens and consoles.
In front of the door, chairs and desks were overturned in a weak attempt at a barricade. The center of the furniture wall was smashed, casting slivers of wood and metal across the floor.
Reaching down, he picked up a discarded shell casing, its exterior dark with dried blood. Smears of blood spread across the floor and splashed against the immobile consoles.
“Looks like they made a final stand here,” Decker said, walking up behind him.
Vance didn’t bother turning. “That’s how it looks. A fat lot of good it did them.”
Together they stared into the dark room. From a distance they heard the pounding of hammers and of Seques. Vance rubbed his trimmed beard, then his eyes, which burned from weariness.
“I wish we knew what they tried when defending themselves,” he said, his voice carrying in the empty room. “For starters, why was there still ammunition left in the turret guns? Were any of them able to evacuate the planet or did they all die here? If they stayed and died, where are the bodies? If we knew what they tried, we wouldn’t have to backtrack and make the same mistakes.”
“We could try firing up one of the consoles,” Decker suggested. “I don’t know what sort of data they stored in here, especially when they were being hunted, but it might give us a chance.”
“Do we have any way to power the computers?” He finally turned to face the Pilgrim.
“The maintenance room has a small generator. I can’t imagine there’s much juice left in it but it might be enough to run a single computer console. It would be slow going to search through all the files without the mainframe running its diagnostic software, but it’s better than nothing.”
Vance allowed a brief moment of hope to seep through his steadily depressing world. “Do it. Get whoever you need to help, but start going through these files. I figure we’ve got only a couple hours before sunrise. By then I want an answer for how we’ll get off this r
ock.”
Standing aside, as soldiers carried the heavy generator into the control center, Vance watched Decker and Yen pull thick cables from under the console table and attach electrodes from the generator. Though they worked quickly, Vance grew impatient and was eager to start searching the computer files.
Stepping away from the console, Decker and Yen wiped sweat, grease, and dust from their faces before shaking hands.
“Does that mean you’re ready?” Vance asked Decker. He and Yen refused to make eye contact.
“Let’s fire it up and find out.” Decker motioned to Yen, who pressed a yellow button on the side of the portable generator.
The old machine coughed a cloud of black smoke onto the floor as its gears sought purchase. The old oil and fuel within struggled to ignite and the generator rattled against the smooth floor. Finally spurting another cloud of noxious black smoke, it hummed and found a rhythm to its operation.
The large view screen glowed, casting the room in pale blue light. The trio squinted against the sudden intrusion of light as the console ran a diagnostic start-up program. Slowly, the screen changed to a steady, blinking prompt.
Yen entered the first line of a search protocol and sat back as the console slowly spat out data. Vance watched the slow system move through the search query.
Tapping Decker’s arm, he gestured the Pilgrim to join him in the hall. Once they were out of earshot, Vance chewed his lower lip.
“What’s bothering you, Sir?” Decker asked.
“The search is going too slow.” He stared over Decker’s shoulder at the monitor in the control room. “At this rate, by the time it finds anything of value it’ll be tomorrow night. The Seques don’t seem like the patient type. I don’t know if they’ll wait that long.”
“I don’t see what other option we have.”
Vance nodded knowingly and reached into the dark pouch firmly affixed to his hip. Unlatching the top, he pulled out a smooth, black sphere just larger than his palm. “A covert operations team never goes on a mission without a contingency plan.”
“Is that…?” Decker’s eyes widened in surprise.
“It’s a thermal nuclear bomb.” Vance’s voice never wavered as he held the device of mass destruction. “If we can’t find a way out, I intend to set it off and take the threat outside with us.”
“Sir,” Decker said, his voice lowering to a harsh whisper, “that thing will level the entire city.”
“And irradiate the countryside for hundreds of miles in all directions. I’m fully aware of its capabilities but I don’t see that we have much choice.”
“What about survivors?”
“What survivors?” Vance replied coarsely. “Take a look around, Decker. We’re the only survivors, at least in any radius the bomb will affect.”
Decker narrowed his eyes before gently placing his hand on the orb. Pushing down softly, he lowered Vance’s hand. “Put that thing away. Give me until tomorrow night. If I can’t find an answer by then, I’ll back you when you use the bomb.”
Vance stared at the brash, young Pilgrim. He wanted Decker to be right and to find an answer hidden somewhere in the computer files on the console, but in his heart he feared that their search was in vain. In the end, he felt certain he’d have to use the bomb.
“You have until tomorrow night—if we survive that long. We’re completely surrounded by Seque. I don’t know how anyone will survive an entire day in this hellhole.”