Chapter 2
Chapter 2
In the wilderness, found by fate.
Martin and Johaun had run to the hasher, passing the trux. It was dead. Its spine had been broken in the midpoint and blood was dripping out of its mouth. Johaun stood outside while Martin searched the interior. He wasn't familiar with hashers, even less familiar with one on its side with all of its supplies scattered. He opened every compartment he could see that wasn't already. The size of the vehicle added to his dilemma. "Martin, I have a question." Johaun said, aiming his head to the inside of the hasher. "What's up Johaun?" "Well. Macanaw does not want to tell Ester what the plan is after we recover the weapon." Martin's chest tightened. He had to inhale consciously before he answered Johaun. "You're going to need to start over Johaun." Martin walked back to the ramp of the hasher to look Johaun in the eyes. "What exactly did you ask him?" "I asked if we're going to be going over our plans after finding the weapon. He then said that because Ester is a ri'ik and they are unpredictable, he would rather move fast and not give Ester time to think too much." "That's Ester though. What about you and me?" "He told me he wants to keep whoever planted it from retrieving it. That's it." "You've got guts, Johaun. You know what we're obligated to do in this situation, right?" Johaun nodded, Martin did as well, and then went back into the hasher. Hashers were large wheeled vehicles with a length of twenty meters, a width of five meters, and stood five meters. In the center, he rotated around while thinking. "It wouldn't be in a place where someone like the Sargent would open out of a habit of getting- Ah!" He snapped his fingers and pointed to the divers' cabin. "I have the package sarge." Martin told Macanaw over the radio. "Good, just hold position. We're bringing Snix over to you two."
Macanaw constantly shifted from sitting on a crate he placed next to Snix to looking out toward the base for distant lights of an evacuation vehicle. "Sarge." Martin said. Macanaw turned to Martin and responded with a grunt. "Johaun told me about your concerns with Ester." Martin said. Macanaw looked across at Johaun briefly. Ester had gone to the dried river trench to relieve himself, so Macanaw had no reason not to talk. He locked his attention on Martin. "What are you thinking?" "I'm on your side. Ester could be a risk, if he knows or doesn't." Macanaw shook his head. Macanaw looked toward Snix, grabbed the crate he was using for sitting, and placed in nearer to Johaun and Martin.
"You're gonna have to trust me on Ester." Macanaw said. "I've been doing this for a long time now. As for what we do after-" Martin interrupts "I know. There's no way to plan for what happens next. We have to play it by ear. At least until it goes bad. Then what do we do? Where do we take it?" "I was hoping you'd been thinking about more than you were thinking about Ester." Martin hoped Macanaw couldn't see him gulp. He was right, though. He wasn't thinking about how he was going to secure the weapon if it all went pear-shaped. It was his profession to know who to call, what the best political outcome would be, and how to achieve it. "Point taken."
A growl came from Johan as he sat up from his reclined position against the hasher. "We are just going along until we have good reasons not to, then?" Macanaw looked over his shoulder toward where he'd been expecting the distant head light of their evac. They were there now. "It's our only option. Unless you can tell me who's coming to pick us up, where they're taking us. Or if anyone is coming at all." He turned his head toward a sound of rustling toward the river. "Ester's a good kid. But he's still a kid. I want him to come out on the other side of this."
The beacon had shifted to a dim, pale blue and Myrn became dark. At night, Myrn's surface wasn't visible anymore. The oceans, lakes, continents and clouds that were above them all turned black. The only thing that had pushed back the darkness were the major populated areas that created speckled blobs of amber light. Johaun was only interested in gazing up at one amber blob, Org Hav. His family was still there. His wife and two cubs. They couldn't travel to Kygerstav until Johaun earned the money. Kygerstav's mandatory years of service were the perfect option for someone like Johaun, an immigrant needing a job to get their life started in a new country. He had his own concerns about the new entanglement with this bio weapon. He didn't want to ruin any chances of earning that money. Either by getting killed or having a blight on his record. But deep down, he loved the rebellious nature of this mishap. Even if that love was buried under years of complicated history in Org Hav.
The lights Macanaw had been tracking, even when they occasionally slipped in to a group of distant city lights, split into two lights. "Evac's getting close. Let's get in a good position just in case I'm wrong. I'm not gonna sugar coat this. There are no standard procedures for any of what comes next. Just follow my lead and I'll get us home." There was no verbal response, no one felt it was necessary. Nor did they rush to hide. They each selected a place that gave them a good perspective on the area while maintaining cover. Macanaw put the I.P's in dark mode, forcing the screens to go black while radio comms were on.
Ester had an idea. He was confident he could get into the code of the I.P's. While he looked for a place to hide, he played through an imaginary scenario of telling Macanaw what he thought he could do to secure their radios. Hunkering down behind a bush, he looked at his I.P and cautiously, using his talon on the screen, he realized it was going to take more time than he had. He decided to at least start by overriding Macanaws authority to control his own I.P. He moved on to work on creating a local isolated- "What was that?" he thought.
Sounds of wheels on dirt grew louder. From Macanaw's position, he saw three pairs of lights roll up to the crash site and they lit up the area. It was a moment of amusement for Macanaw. The bodies, the trux in particular, had to be an abnormal greeting for a team of scientists. The groaning of the back ramp to the evacuation team's hasher lowering was followed by mumbled speech and boots to the ground. First to emerge out of the dark and into the headlights were three troops. Two of them handled a gurney, and the third held an I.V. following behind them was a Myraed male, a Captain by the looks of it. One by one, the team came out of the dark. "They were not scientists." Macanaw thought.
The, what Macanaw labeled medics, placed Snix on the gurney, inserted the I.V and got him on the Hasher as Macanaw approached the Captain. "Sir, thanks for the pickup. We have the package and are ready to hand it over." The team stood behind him. Johaun lifted the bio weapon to his chest, to confirm that they had the weapon. "Very good Sargent. I'm Captain Margath. You can strap it down inside. Feel free to take this time to rest. We have a lot of work to do when we get back to base." The captain spun around, leaving the team standing in the headlights. Johaun and Ester stepped ahead to load into the hasher, leaving Macanaw and Martin behind. The worst-case scenario Macanaw thought could have happened was happening. He took a moment to look at the two escort vehicles on either side of the hasher. They were too small to be manned. But he'd never seen a drone like them before. It didn't look special, probably just a new manufacturer. Armed with some heavy caliber guns. At the end of his inspection, he noticed Martin was looking at him. They nodded at each other and stepped forward.
The captain's hasher was not fitted the same as the standard patrol hasher. The first ten feet had six seats on both sides. Each seat had their own safety harnesses, rifle and side arm rack and a gap under the seat for a rucksack or other gear you didn't need to secure. In the midsection, there were two stations, one on the left and the right. Each had four screens crammed between other monitors and controls, each manned by the two who brought Snix on board and fastened his gurney to the floor. The third "medic" took the driver seat. Macanaw's team placed their weapons on the weapons racks and their bags under the seats, while Johaun placed the bio weapon at his feet. None of them bothered putting the seat harnesses on.
In a fluid motion, the Hasher sped up as the ramp lifted. Macanaw had his head tilted up while he thought about his first move. "No hazmat means someone at some point covered this up." He thought as he peeked out of the corner of his eyes at the captain. "Which side to you fall on?" His thoughts were cut off when Ester leaned to his left to talk to Macanaw. "Sir, is Snix going to be back in action, or is he out for good?" Macanaw kept looking across at Snix and gave a quiet response, "He should be fine." Snix was going to be fine. But Macanaw had all his focus on trying to plan out their first step, and then which one to commit to. Ester stayed looking at Macanaw, calculating his next question. Macanaw could already hear the question. The one he'd been hoping would never have time to emerge. "You're gonna have to trust me, Ester. I just need you to do one thing and only that. Secure our I.P's so no one can get into them and make sure we have the mission briefings and the updates saved. Me and Martin wi-" He looked over to Martin, who appeared to be asleep. But on cue with the pause, he raised a hand and gave a lazy thumbs up.
Macanaw looked back at Ester and continued. "We'll handle everything else. Johaun, be ready in case we need to turn this into a blender, Okay?" Johaun nodded. Ester leaned forward to get Macanaw's attention. "I uh. Already tried to secure my I.P. No luck. I got distracted when they pulled up." "And?" "And my I.P probably got flagged and disciplinary action might be recommended." "Might work in our favor. Alright then, sit tight, Ester." Macanaw looked over to see the Captain in the driver's area talking with the driver and Co-driver. The three individuals who tended to Snix during the extraction were now blankly staring at the screens, facing sideways.
He slowly grabbed his pistol he placed in the weapons rack and took aim at the captain. "Captain, a moment of your time?" Ester harshly whispered at Macanaw, "Wow, wait, what?" Johaun put his hand over Ester's chest to stop him. The Captain turned, finishing a sentence. At first he had a laughing grin, but Macanaw's posture and pistol changed it to a look of shock. "Sargent, I thought... Clearly you have not thought this through." "Let's see if I have. All the bio weapons and projects dealing with bio weaponry were outlawed fifty-three years ago. Eight years ago, the government told us the last weapon had been destroyed and any production or research would cause a quick and decisive trail. And we all know what that looked like in the legislation."
Martin had taken a position behind Macanaw with his own pistol drawn and aimed. "Every one in this Hasher knows a team should have been sent to destroy the weapon where it was found." The Hasher got quieter now that the driver had brought it to a stop. He and the co-driver were now standing behind the Captain watching the exchange. Martin continued. "You all knew what you were retrieving and instead of following protocol..." There was a pause as Macanaw watched the captain's face. Only one expression there. Upper lip raised and his brows down. Contempt. Macanaw started speaking again. "The first words out of your mouth were 'I thought'. What did you think? That we were also conspiring? Is that why-" Macanaw's words were cut off. A gun shot rang inside the Hasher. The Captain's body fell lifeless to the floor. Macanaw saw the Captain reach for a sidearm. But the gunshot wasn't from Macanaw or the captain. It was Martin. He had been contemplating the possible political outcomes of a few actions. It's what he did, what Kygerstav repeatedly contracted him for. Before he could get through the last scenario, the captain made a move for his pistol and Martin countered. The crew of the Hasher all stood up to engage Macanaw and Martin's assault. They didn't get any opportunities. They were shot down within a few seconds, except for one. Macanaw stopped Martin from shooting the last of the "medics". Macanaw knew they would need anyone with even a little knowledge to monitor Snix. "And if Snix doesn't make it?" Martin asked. Macanaw, without hesitation, said, "Then neither will he." Just after Martin fired the last shot, Ester scrambled to unfasten his harness. "I-. We j-" Johaun saw him struggling to get free and reached over to unlatch the rig. "Thanks. We. We just killed everyone?" Ester was at peak stress and this reached Macanaw as a peak waste of time. Macanaw and martin turned to Ester as they holstered their side arms and before Ester could say something, Macanaw thought was dumb he said. "Yes Ester, we shot 'em because they're in on the bomb. Now go get the scumbags I.P and shut it down." Half shocked at being prevented to raise his objection and half afraid of getting shot himself, he followed Macanaws orders.
"Nice shot." Macanaw told Martin as they dragged the Captain's body out of the Hasher, adding it to the pile. "Thanks." Martin never knew how to accept compliments, especially ones that seemed like blatant facts. To him, it felt like congratulating Ester for being able to fly. Macanaw didn't pay any attention to his non-response. "Johaun, you're driving. Ester, we need a centrally located hospital in Fae Drommo. It's going to take an all night drive across the desert and I do not want to get intercepted by Axihm or the dirt bags that gave us this bomb. Martin, after he's got that, you contact a trustworthy..." He laughed then tried to find an accurate label. "Private intelligence corporation you trust with this information and get that ball rolling. Oh, and Ester trash our I.P's." By the time he finished his orders, he and Johaun had sat in the driver and Co-driver seats and got the Hasher moving toward Fae Drommo.
"Sarge, I don't want to get shot, but how are we going to protect a bio weapon from the military right after we've committed treason? Cause we're destroying it, right?" Ester raised his voice to reach the front of the Hasher so Macanaw could hear him. But Macanaw was putting on over the ear headphones in the middle of Ester's question. Easter kept eye contact with the back of Macanaw's head, waiting for a response, but his attention broke when Martin started talking, handing him a set of headphones to put on. "Which has the better outcome? We were ordered to recover a bio weapon someone hid on our Hasher. So we recovered it along with proof via the mission briefing and updates and then arranged for it to be destroyed because, clearly, the chain of command was broken. OR we had a mission to recover a bio weapon... but we returned it to the Kygerstav military and now it's somewhere in Myrn." "Fair point." "Also, the only people who are going to be after us are the people inside the conspiracy. That's why we're giving the info to a third party. That way if we die or grabbed mid route. Well... the information lives on." "What if we die before we contact a third party?" "Sounds like a reason to get to work then."
That pep talk did not console Ester, just had his worry redirected. But gave him a new motivation to map their route to Fae Drommo. "But, Martin. Mili gave us the update. Does that mean? I mean... what does that mean?" "Well, could mean a lot of things. She may have known we'd do what we're doing now. So she sent the mission through. If she didn't and refused to pass the update, the bomb would have been grabbed by that salvage team. Then she'd look REALY suspicious. Hey, she could have made an encrypted emergency call to a branch outside of the patrol divisions of the military. Or worse case. She is one of them." "She didn't sound like someone who would do that." "No, no, she didn't."
It didn't take longer than fifteen minutes for Ester to find a hospital and for Martin to make calls. Half an hour into the drive, Ester spoke up toward the cab of the hasher to update Macanaw. "I could only shut down the hashers' communication back to base. Martin said he needs to make calls, so I reprogrammed it to connect to normal... I mean pub-" "Civilian?" "Yeah. It's not secure. Can't be with this hardware. I think we should just destroy the I.P's for the same reason." Fae Drommo was about two thousand miles away. The trip will take them all night, roughly twenty-four hours. "That's a lot of time to get intercepted." Johaun said, but Martin interrupted. "I'm trying to get into contact with an agent from the Noctice group. Anything could happen, and we could still hit a dead end with these contacts. But so far it seems like a sure thing, you know, until it's suddenly not." Macanaw responded to Martin with a nod, who went back to making his calls and monitoring the traitor.
The team was sitting near the driver's station. Ester couldn't help but continue the conversation. "So how do you think the population will handle that this bio weapon even exists?" Macanaw spoke up. "Well, most people will rightly ask how many more are there? Where did it come from? How did it get in the military's hands? How do we know the team that recovered it, that being us, aren't in on it? If this doesn't escalate the current riots, I'd be surprised." Ester continued his line of questioning. "The other question is who to trust? How do we know who in the higher ranks can be trusted?" Martin interjected. "This is the other reason we are handing it over to Noctice. The stipulation being a public disposal of the bio weapon. Because we can't trust the military." "Are we not going to wonder if we are being chased down? We are a long way from... anywhere." Johauns said. "That's a good thing, Johaun. With nothing out here, if the military is on our side, they're watching us from a T.O.S." Macanaw said. "And if they're not?" Ester asked. "You think the entire military is in on this? Why would they have us, five guys that are not in on it, recover their bomb?" Macanaw said. Ester nodded, signaling he got the point.
"Johaun, you go get some sleep. I'll take over." Martin turned his head after a series of chirps went off in his earpiece. He spun his chair around to the computer he was sitting at. Then turned back to snap his fingers over Esters ear. Ester pulled away from the snap as he faced Martin. Martin waved his index finger from Ester to their "medic" captive. "We've got a response with a Noctice agent. He can meet us somewhere in Fae Drommo. We just need to tell him a time, a place, Sarge." Macanaw paused and turned his head toward the back. "Let's do it. Tell him he's going to need to call in people to secure the hospital. Oh, and inform them we have one wounded. We'll need a medical team at the doors. Give them an ETA, but also that there could be delays based on the nature of this..." Macanaw paused, searching for the right categorization for what was happening. "... objective." Martin nodded and began sending a reply and coordinating all the details about locations and the rout Ester planned.
Five hours in, Macanaw moved over to drive for Johaun, who was going to go get some sleep and had Martin take the co-driver seat. Ester maintained the duty of watching their prisoner. Martin had looked away from a display that was showing radar data to get Macanaw a bottle of water. When he looked back, a white blip was now on the screen. "Sarge. I got a thing here." "A thing?" "You can't expect me to know how to read a radar too." "We've got a problem then." Ester then interjected. "Can we do anything?" "I don't know, can you?" Ester thought for a second, "Not this time."
The next series of decisions Macanaw made were inconsequential, just were a colossal waste of his time. He was considering how he was going to drive the hasher if whatever was coming at them opened fire. He was also looking a head and from the ground to the sky. But if he could see it, he gets looped back to the first thought about ev- "Should I wake up Johaun?" Ester asked. "You think he can blow that thing up? Then, by all means, wake him up." Macanaw was going to continue to mock Ester, but the jostle and the unmistakable sound of a tumbler giving them a low fly by brought the inside of the hasher to peak tension.
"I think it's coming back." Martin said. Nothing else was said. The only noise was the slight whine from the engine and dampened rumbling of the tires moving over the ground. Ester was slammed into one screen. It had to be the prisoner, and he had one hand on Ester's back and the other patting down his side. "Sarge!" The cry from Ester triggered Macanaw to rip his headphones off and leave the driver's seat unattended, without a second thought. Ester was pummeling the traitor with his wings, but his low body mass meant it was just annoying the man but also limiting his field of view. Macanaw reached into the flapping wings, grabbed the traitor and relentlessly beat his face in. Martin only had to give Macanaw a single touch on the shoulder for him to pull back. "We have any medi-gel left?" "yeah, a couple tu-" Ester's breathy answer was stopped by the sound of a gun going off, followed by a high-pitched wail. "You're lucky I need YOU to keep HIM alive!" Macanaw took a moment to holster his weapon. "Ester you alright? Any broken bones?" "Nah I'm fine." Ester tried to sound confident, but Macanaw's rash decision to shoot their hostage in the leg made him uneasy. "Don't give him anything more than medi-gel" If he dies from internal bleeding between now and Fae Dromo... well, at least I'll get something out of it. Sorry, Johaun. You can go back to sleep." Johaun had been sitting upright from his corner, watching. He did not go back to sleep. He couldn't. Not right away.
The hasher had been decelerating without a driver. They decelerate at such a fast rate that none of them were concerned about wrecking or getting stuck. As Ester searched for medi-gel, Martin and Macanaw returned to their seats. Martin's headset was halfway on when he noticed the white dot on the radar was nearly on top of them. "Sarge, It's right on us." "Okay, go get- Nope. Ester." He spins around and points to one station while trying to accelerate the hasher. "At that station, in that drawer, grab that controller." Ester, with a canister of medi-gel in hand, looks to Macanaw's hand that was protruding from the driver's cab. He looked at the prisoner and said, "Looks like if you wanna live you're going to have to fix this yourself." Then runs to the station.
"That controls the two escort drones. How's it work? No idea." While Ester was trying to figure that out, Macanaw and Martin were watching a tumbler slowly pass over them. "Any ideas?" Martin asked. "Yeah, a ton. None of them will change anything." Tumblers are the generic name for a type of aerial vehicle. An evolution of the long used single, top mounted propeller vehicle that could be built in various sizes and configurations. From assault to troop transport, scouting to electronic jamming. Tumblers were propellor less and like hashers the engine was silent, but a tumblers propulsion was not. And the roar was now coming from on top of them, and it was close.
"If you ask me, Sarge. I'd say their not going to take us out." The tension had Martin in a near whisper, even if it was unnecessary. "Macanaw thought it over. "Yeah. Might be right Martin." Even though Macanaw didn't say it, he felt it was a sign from the military that they were watching and was giving him the green light to do what he needed to do. Then Ester had an alert appear on his displays. "Sir, they've taken the drones." "Looks like we don't need those." The drones and the tumbler head east, back toward the nearest air base.
They had continued a sleep rotation Macanaw organized to ensure everyone was awake with Johuan driving as they pulled into Fae Drommo. It was the last three hours before the glow from Fae Drommo was pushing out around the last mountain that they had to go around before they were home safe. The city stretched across the entire view out the front of the Hasher as the black mass of the mountain peeled back. The city was so massive and dense it was near impossible to make out any details aside from the outline of the collective lights in front of the black backdrop. They changed their course to get onto the highway to the city. There was a significant amount of time before they reached the off ramp to the hospital. Even at two in the morning, there was significant congestion on the road and the hasher's width and novelty made it worse.
Johaun had no choice, because of their size, but to slow down to enter the off ramp safely and then proceeded twenty kilometers per-hour under the speed limit. It wasn't until the hospital campus block was in sight that they realized the scale of what was happening. None of them could have come close to imagining the effort being exerted to secure this metropolis' hospital. A block out from the hospital epicenter, every street leading into the campus was blocked and regulated by check points manned by an armored truck with a manned turret, a handful of armed troops and a gatehouse. Despite being told Noctice was handling disposal and security, all the vehicles and uniforms were absent of any logo to confirm if it was true or not.
Macanaw looked back at Snix. He'd forgotten for a split second He was unconscious and in that moment expected him to be doing one of his rituals to increase their luck. "Or whatever that ritual's supposed to do." A memory came to mind. He had been shot and Snix was over him giving the medic covering fire. This time Snix wasn't privately asking for his Djem to inter-vein, He was nearly yelling it. That's how it was most times. With Mac in a mess and Snix pulling him out. "Sarge?" Johauns grumbled whisper drew Macanaw's attention back to the front. There was trux with a large belt fed gun slung over his torso standing in front of the gate. Johaun instinctively turned the headlights off and the cab lights on to show his and Macanaw's faces. The trux had an immediate look of recognition and flipped around to the gate-house and waved for it to be opened. Then turned to the hasher and waved them forward.